Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 272 of the invasion
Ukraine evacuates civilians from Kherson; repeated shelling of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Ukraine is to evacuate civilians from recently liberated areas of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions. Residents of the two southern regions have been advised to move to safer areas in the central and western parts of the country, amid fears that the damage to infrastructure caused by the war is too severe for people to endure the winter.
The Kremlin said it was concerned by what it claimed to be Ukrainian shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian control. Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister, countered that the shelling of the Zaporizhzhia plant was a Russian tactic aiming to disrupt power supplies and “freeze Ukrainians to death”. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, appealed to Nato members to guarantee the protection of his country’s nuclear power plants from “Russian sabotage”.
The UN nuclear watchdog was to conduct an assessment of the Zaporizhzhia plant on Monday. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the forces behind its shelling were “playing with fire” and such attacks risked a major disaster.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Ukraine’s health system is “facing its darkest days in the war so far”. WHO regional director for Europe, Dr Hans Henri P Kluge, called for a “humanitarian health corridor” to be created to all areas of Ukraine newly recaptured by Kyiv, as well as those occupied by Russian forces.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general office has said its officials have identified four locations where Russian forces tortured detainees in Kherson city. It said Russian forces “set up pseudo-law enforcement agencies” in pre-trial detention centres and a police station before troops withdrew from the southern Ukrainian city.
Russian troops have been accused of burning bodies at a landfill on the edge of Kherson during their occupation. Residents and workers at the site told the Guardian they saw Russian open trucks arriving to the site carrying black bags that were then set on fire, filling the air with a large cloud of smoke and a stench of burning flesh.
The Kremlin said it would bring to justice those responsible for the alleged execution of Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine. Russia has accused Ukrainian soldiers of executing more than 10 Russian prisoners of war, citing a video circulating on Russian social media. Ukraine denies the claims.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there were no plans to call up more Russian soldiers to fight in Ukraine through a second round of mobilisation.
Russian forces launched almost 400 strikes on Sunday in Ukraine’s east as part of a campaign of artillery fire, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. “The fiercest battles, as before, are in the Donetsk region. Although there were fewer attacks today due to worsening weather, the amount of Russian shelling unfortunately remains extremely high.”
Russian forces are constructing defensive positions partially staffed by poorly trained mobilised reservists around the Svatove sector in the Luhansk region in north-eastern Ukraine, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. With Russia’s south-western frontline now more readily defendable along the east bank of the Dnieper River, the Svatove sector is likely a more vulnerable operational flank of the Russian force, the latest British intelligence report reads.
Forty-five countries and institutions will meet in Paris on Monday to pledge millions of euros of aid for Moldova, as fears mount that it could be further destabilised by the conflict in Ukraine. Moldova, which lies between Ukraine and Romania, has felt the effects of rising food and energy prices as well thousands of refugees arriving in the country of about 2.5 million people.
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