Ukraine War: Heavy fighting in Donbass – Russia attacks with missiles and drones

Created: 02/11/2022, 22:20

By: Lukas Zigo, Tim Vincent Dicke, Nail Akkoyun, Stefan Krieger, Jan Oeftger

The Russian Foreign Ministry comments on a possible nuclear war.

North Korea is probably delivering weapons: the news ticker.

• Darkness in the capital:

  power supply cut in Kiev

• Situation in Kherson unclear:

  Deceptive evacuation probably completed

• Editor's note:

  You can read all the news and developments in the Ukraine war in our news ticker.

  Some of the information from Russia and Ukraine comes from the warring parties in the Ukraine conflict and can therefore not be directly verified independently.

+++ 10:15 p.m .:

According to the Ukrainian army, there is intense fighting around the cities of Bakhmut and Soledar in the Donbass.

"Dozens of attacks in one day" were repulsed, said Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar on Ukrainian television in the evening.

According to the Ukrainian general staff, the Russian army is continuing rocket and drone attacks on infrastructure in several regions of the country.

According to the authorities, for example, five women and two men from the civilian population were injured in the Kharkiv area.

The fighting in the Ukraine war continues.

(File photo) © Dave Clark/AFP

+++ 9:00 p.m .:

The Ukrainian government around President Selenskyj assumes a total of around 7,000 missing people.

This is an estimate, said Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar, according to the

news agency .

Hanna Maljar called on the population not to publish any personal information about missing relatives on the Internet - especially not when it comes to Ukrainian soldiers.

"The enemy is using this information," she warned.

Relatives should contact the coordination centers set up for this purpose, Maljar continued.

The Ukraine War in Pictures - Destruction, Resistance and Hope

View photo gallery

News about the Ukraine war: power supply cut off in Kyiv

+++ 8:00 p.m .:

The authorities in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev have cut off the power supply.

This had become necessary to avert major damage to the power grid, Ukrainian authorities said.

Before that, consumption had increased.

In the last few days, Russia has deliberately attacked the energy infrastructure.

People in Ukraine are called upon to use electricity sparingly.

People use flashlights in Kyiv.

© Genya Savilov / AFP

News on the Ukraine war: Deceptive evacuation of Kherson probably completed

+++ 7:00 p.m .:

The Gauleiter of the Cherson region announced in a statement on Telegram that traffic across the Dnieper river would be stopped.

This is in connection with the "completion of the evacuation measures", he explained.

More than a week ago, Russian troops had called on civilians in the illegally annexed city of Cherson to flee.

This was justified with an impending attack by Ukrainian troops.

Doubts about Russia's intentions are now growing.

It's all just "preparation and a propaganda ploy," Igor Romanenko, a former deputy chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces General Staff, also told

.

In fact, Vladimir Putin would move more units into the area, fortify the positions there and possibly even prepare a counterattack.

also read

Ukraine repels "dozens of attacks" in Donbass - partisans put pressure on Putin's military

Putin henchman Medvedev shows Russia's nuclear strike logic

In Kyiv, too, people seem to be aware of the matter.

“Your best trained troops are there.

nobody left

We see that and that's why we don't believe them," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an interview with the Italian newspaper

on Thursday .

A Ukrainian soldier checks trenches dug by Russian soldiers in the Kherson region.

© Leo Correa / AP / dpa

+++ 6 p.m .:

The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused the West of provocations.

These are related to weapons of mass destruction, it said in a statement.

Russia stands by the joint declaration with the other nuclear powers - USA, China, Great Britain and France - in January to avoid a nuclear war and an arms race.

However, the ministry did not become more specific.

What was meant was possibly the warnings from Western governments of a possible use of nuclear weapons by Russia in the Ukraine war.

And not without reason: President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly threatened such an attack.

As a condition for this he called an attack on Russian territory.

+++ 5:00 p.m .:

In view of Russian airstrikes with rockets, drones and cruise missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the air defense situation with the military leadership.

The president stressed the need to quickly build an effective air defense system, the presidential office said on Wednesday.

However, successes in air defense were also noted, such as the shooting down of several combat drones the night before.

In addition to the situation at the front, the reconstruction of the energy infrastructure destroyed by Russia was also discussed.

News about the Ukraine war: North Korea is said to secretly deliver artillery shells to Russia

+++ 16:20:

The US government accuses North Korea of ​​secretly supporting Russia in the Ukraine war with military equipment.

North Korea is trying to cover up deliveries of artillery shells via other countries such as the Middle East, National Security Council communications director John Kirby said on Wednesday.

"We will continue to monitor whether the deliveries actually arrive."

It is a "considerable number".

However, the US government does not assume that these deliveries could influence the course of the war, Kirby continued.

The deliveries not only show how willing North Korea is to support Russia.

It is also a sign of Russia's shortage of military equipment, Kirby said.

"I've discussed in the past that there were indications that the Russians would reach out to North Korea," he said.

News about the Ukraine war: Russia starts the next evacuation

+++ 2.55 p.m .:

As reported by

, Russian armed forces are preparing new defensive positions on the east bank of the Dnieper in Kherson and are urging the local civilian population to leave the area.

Kirill Stremousov, Russia's appointed deputy chief of the Kherson military administration, confirmed Wednesday that the "evacuation of civilians" -- a measure Ukrainian officials describe as "expulsion" -- has been expanded.

"No one is talking about forced evacuation," Stremousov stressed in a video on Telegram.

"But we advise you to listen to the military." The military further said that Ukrainian troops had made no progress on the defense lines near Kherson.

Ukraine War News: Hospital damaged in Russian attack on Donetsk

+++ 1:15 p.m .:

As a tweet from Emine Dzheppar, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine, shows, a hospital in Toretsk in the Donetsk region was apparently badly damaged.

Dzheppar said the hospital's maternity ward and surgery, among other things, were damaged by artillery.

She added that residential and administrative buildings were also said to have been the target of the Russian attack.

Ukraine war news: Sumy region under fire from Russian shells and mortars

+++ 12.40 p.m .:

Russian forces are said to have fired more than 100 grenades and mortars on the Sumy region in the last 24 hours.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, published a relevant report on Telegram, the internet portal

.

“The Russian Federation shelled the Sumy region.

Over the past day, more than 100 MLRS, artillery and mortar hits were registered,” Tymoshenko wrote.

According to him, two private residential buildings and power lines were damaged by the shelling.

In addition, one person was injured.

Ukraine War: Kharkiv still mined

+++ 11.30 a.m .:

Oleh Synyehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, which borders both Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, announced in a status update on Telegram that this morning in the city of Vovchansk five people were hit by Russian fire were injured.

He also warned residents of mines: "Once again, we urge you to be vigilant and careful.

Don't ignore the warning signs.

Mine danger also persists in Kharkiv Oblast” after it was reported that a 37-year-old farm worker in the region was injured by a mine.

Ukraine War: Kyiv prepares for new Russian attacks

+++ 10.50 a.m .:

The authorities in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev are preparing more than 1000 heating points across the city in the event that the district heating system is rendered inoperable by ongoing Russian attacks.

This was announced by Mayor Vitali Klitschko on Wednesday (November 2nd).

Missile and drone strikes have damaged 40 percent of Ukraine's energy infrastructure and have already briefly left large parts of Kiev without power and water, leading to power rationing.

Klitschko wrote on the short message service Telegram that the city authorities are considering various scenarios due to rocket attacks.

"The worst would be if there was no electricity, no water and no district heating at all," he said.

"In this case, we are preparing over 1,000 heating points in our city."

Ukraine War: Alleged act of sabotage in Crimea foiled

+++ 10.15 a.m .:

Russian security forces in Crimea are said to have thwarted a plan to sabotage the region’s energy supply.

This is reported by the Russian state

.

She quotes Russian security forces as saying: “The Federal Security Service prevented an act of sabotage planned by the Ukrainian special services at an energy infrastructure facility in the Republic of Crimea.

A Ukrainian citizen born in 1978 who was recruited by the SBU [Ukrainian Security Service] was arrested.”

As Tass reports, three high-explosive devices, instructions for their use and a map of the location of power poles in one of the regions of Crimea were confiscated from the Ukrainian.

Ukraine war: Putin sends nuclear-capable missiles to Belarus

+++ 8.55 a.m .:

According to a new British intelligence report, Russia has stationed new missiles in Belarus.

This is seen as a "desperate attempt" to intimidate the West.

According to the British Ministry of Defence, the satellite images transmitted by the British secret service show two MiG-31K FOXHOUND interceptors stationed at the Belarusian airfield Makhulishchi on October 17.

Near the jets is a large canister that the Department of Defense estimates is likely intended for the AS-24 KILLJOY air-launched ballistic missile.

The KILLJOY missiles are launched from a high-speed aircraft to hit their targets.

The missiles, also known as Kinzhal or "Dagger" missiles, can carry conventional or nuclear warheads and fly at hypersonic speeds, said to be more than five times the speed of sound, according to Russian sources.

War in Ukraine: Russia is making slow progress

+++ 8:25 a.m .:

According to British intelligence services, the Russian troops are making extremely slow progress in their attacks in Ukraine.

The Ministry of Defense in London referred on Wednesday to statements by the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to which his units advanced 100 to 200 meters a day.

Prigozhin did say that this is normal in modern warfare.

However, the British Ministry emphasized that Russian military doctrine provides for advances of 30 kilometers per day.

For comparison, the agency said: "In February, Russian forces planned a 1,000-kilometer advance through Ukraine within a month.

In September, Ukrainian units made advances of more than 20 kilometers per day.”

News on the Ukraine war: USA warns against Iranian arms deliveries to Russia

Update from Wednesday, November 2, 7:20 a.m .:

The United States has also warned of the danger of Iranian arms deliveries to Russia.

John Kirby, spokesman for the United States National Security Council, said on Tuesday (November 1): "We remain concerned about the possibility that Iran could supply Russia with surface-to-surface missiles.

We haven't seen that confirmed yet, but that's a concern we have."

According to western states, Iran had already delivered drones to Russia.

Kirby condemned this.

In this way, Iran is helping "to kill innocent Ukrainians".

"This is a regime in Tehran that is openly and willingly complicit in the murder of innocent Ukrainian people on Ukrainian soil." Iran denies the drone deliveries.

Ukraine War: Russia uses roof of Zaporizhia NPP for air defense

+++ 10:20 p.m .:

As the Ukrainian

reports, Russian forces have installed electronic warfare devices on the roof of the fifth power plant block in the occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.

According to the Ukraine Intelligence Directorate, this is intended to combat aerial reconnaissance.

According to the intelligence service, it is also planned to block the Ukrainian passes for the power plant personnel.

The Russian troops are said to have told the emergency services that they have until November 2 to decide whether to sign the contract with the Russian state nuclear power plant operator Rosatom or not, according to the directorate.

Other employees of the plant are said to have been given a deadline of December 1st.

Ukraine war: Ukraine without effective defense against Iranian missiles

+++ 6.55 p.m .:

The Ukrainian Air Force declared on Tuesday (November 1st, 2022) that it had no effective protection against the types of ballistic missiles delivered by Iran to Russia.

Yuriy Ihnat, spokesman for Ukraine's Air Force Command, said the range of the delivered missiles, one up to 300 km and the other up to 700 km, will allow Russia to strike anywhere in Ukraine.

"There is a high probability that they will be delivered to the north via Ukraine (at the border) from where they threaten the whole of Ukraine," Ihnat told a news conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

When asked if the Ukrainian armed forces were prepared to defend themselves against this type of Iranian ballistic missiles, Ihnat replied that they would take "every measure and means of protection against these missiles" that they could. 

However, Ihnat warned: “Currently we have no effective defense against these missiles.

It is theoretically possible to shoot them down, but it is very difficult to do so with the means we currently have."

"We have no air defenses, no anti-missile defenses," he added.

Ukraine war: Macron promises Ukraine more aid and air defenses

+++ 5.45 p.m .: According to the

, French President Emmanuel Macron said

after a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that France would help Ukraine get through the winter.

He also offered to help repair water and power infrastructure damaged by Russian attacks.

France will also help strengthen Ukraine's air defenses.

War in Ukraine: Russia suddenly vacates another area

+++ 17.10 p.m .:

The Russian occupying forces are now also clearing a strip on the south bank of civilians in the Ukrainian region of Cherson after the north bank of the river Dnipro.

The action will be completed in three days at the most, said head of administration Vladimir Saldo on Russian television.

It is about a 15-kilometer-wide strip on the southern bank.

Saldo did not provide any information on the number of civilians in the area.

The Russian army expects a major Ukrainian attack on its bridgehead north of the Dnipro, especially on the regional capital of Kherson.

Since mid-October, people have been taken from there deeper into Russian-controlled areas, and Ukraine speaks of its citizens being abducted.

Russia has declared the Kherson region annexed.

Ukraine war: Russia recruits elite soldiers from Afghanistan

+++ 3.30 p.m .:

Elite Afghan soldiers, who used to fight alongside the United States against the radical Islamic Taliban, are being recruited by Russia for the Ukraine war.

This is reported by the

news agency .

Three former Afghan generals said Moscow would offer fighters $1,500 a month if they took part in the fighting.

According to the report, these are soldiers who fled to Iran after US troops withdrew.

There they are threatened with deportation to their home country – and with it an execution by the Taliban.

"They don't want to fight but they have no choice," one of the generals, Abdul Raof Arghandiwal, told the

.

"They ask me, 'Give me a solution.

What should we do?

If we go back to Afghanistan, the Taliban will kill us.'” According to Arghandiwal, the notorious mercenary group Gruppe Wagner is carrying out the recruitment attempts.

News about the Ukraine war: Japan warns Russia against using nuclear weapons

+++ 1:45 p.m .:

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has warned Russia against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Corresponding signals from Russia are "very worrying," he said in Tokyo after a conversation with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The history of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 77 years ago should not be neglected.

"If Russia were to use nuclear weapons, it would be a hostile act against all of humanity." The international community would never condone this.

Steinmeier thanked Kishida for Japan's "clear stance" on Russia's war of aggression.

"Like us, Japan condemned this brutal war in Ukraine, which violated international law, and expressed its solidarity with the young democracy in Ukraine."

"The consequences are felt globally." Steinmeier named the economic difficulties as well as food shortages and high energy prices.

News about the Ukraine war: "Affront" against Putin - "Wagner" boss surprisingly praises Selenskyj

Update from Tuesday, November 1, 11:30 a.m .:

Is Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin becoming more and more of a problem for Russian President Vladimir Putin?

The founder of the notorious mercenary group "Wagner" is increasingly making idiosyncratic statements about the Ukraine war - and seems to be striving for greater power.

Statements he made about the Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelenskyy could now cause tension.

In an interview with a well-known Russian journalist, Prigozhin praised the Ukrainian president.

"Zelensky may be the president of a country now hostile to the Russian Federation, but he is still a tough, pragmatic and likeable guy," said the oligarch known as "Putin's cook."

German news channel

's Russia correspondent , Rainer Munz, commented that the interview was as follows: it was an "affront" to Putin.

"On the other hand, it somehow seems like an invitation from Prigozhin to negotiate with Zelenskyy," the journalist summarized.

News about the Ukraine war: Russia plans new "spoilsport" strategy - secret service concerned

First report from Tuesday, November 1, 9:30 a.m.:

Kiev – Apparently, Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin is planning a new Belarus strategy: According to British secret services, Russia wants to increasingly present the neighboring country to the West as an ally in its war against Ukraine.

According to a report by the Ministry of Defense in London, Moscow is said to have stationed two MiG-31 interceptors and a large container protected by an earth wall at an airfield there.

The Ministry published a satellite image.

The stationing is probably related to Russian AS-24 Killjoy hypersonic missiles (“spoilsports”).

According to NATO, these missiles can hardly be intercepted with conventional air or missile defense systems - hence the nickname.

According to the British, Moscow has been using such missiles since 2018.

So far, however, none have been stationed in Belarus.

In view of a range of around 2000 kilometers, this probably does not bring any strategic advantage in the Ukraine war, but should rather send a signal to the West.

News on the Ukraine war: Russia accuses Great Britain of disinformation

The British Ministry of Defense has published daily information on the course of the war since the start of the Russian war of aggression at the end of February, citing intelligence information.

With this, London wants to counter the Russian portrayal of events and keep allies in line.

Moscow speaks of a disinformation campaign.

(tvd/nak/skr/jo/lz with dpa/AFP)