Kyiv, Ukraine
Reuters
Ukraine accused Russia on Monday of looting empty homes in the southern city of Kherson and occupying them with troops in civilian clothes to prepare for street fighting in what both sides predict will be one of the war’s most important battles.
In recent days, Russia has ordered civilians out of Kherson in anticipation of a Ukrainian assault to recapture the city, the only regional capital Moscow has seized since its invasion in February.
People walk on a dark street, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the old town of Kyiv, Ukraine, on 6th November. PICTURE: Reuters/Murad Sezer
Kherson, with a prewar population of nearly 300,000, has been left cold and dark after power and water were cut to the surrounding area over the past 48 hours, both sides said.
Russian-installed officials blamed Ukrainian “sabotage” and said they were working to restore electricity. Ukrainian officials said the Russians had dismantled 1.5 km of power lines, and electricity probably would not return until Ukrainian forces recapture the area.
Kyiv has described the evacuation of the area as a forced deportation, a war crime. Moscow says it is sending residents away for safety.
About 100 disabled children were moved from a medical facility in Dnipriany in Kherson region to the Moscow region, Ukraine’s military said. Patients from an elderly persons’ home in Kakhovka were also being moved and Russian forces are taking over those facilities, it said.
Kherson lies in the only pocket of Russian-held territory on the west bank of the Dnipro River that bisects Ukraine. Recapturing it has been the main focus of Ukraine’s counter-offensive in the south, which has accelerated since the start of October.
The situation inside Kherson could not be independently confirmed. Ukrainian forces on the nearby frontline have told Reuters they expect a bitter fight against Russian troops determined to exact a blood price before being forced out.
Ukraine’s military said Russian forces, “disguised in civilian clothes, occupy the premises of civilians and strengthen positions inside for conducting street battles.”
UKRAINE SEIZES STAKES IN STRATEGIC COMPANIES UNDER WARTIME LAWS
Ukraine said on Monday it had invoked wartime laws to take control of stakes in a top engine-maker and four other strategic companies from some of the country’s richest men.
It was the first time the government had used martial law for such a move since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the move was needed to help meet the defence sector’s urgent needs during the war.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, accompanied by Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov and Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov, speaks during a news briefing, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 7th November. PICTURE: Reuters/Murad Sezer
It was also the government’s most dramatic intervention of the war into big business, touching companies linked to tycoons whose political power Zelenskiy’s team has long sought to curb.
The decision was taken at a meeting of top security officials chaired by Zelenskiy on Saturday and went into force on Sunday, placing the privately held stakes under the control of the Defence Ministry, three top officials said.
The companies included engine maker Motor Sich, energy companies Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta, vehicle maker AvtoKrAZ and transformer maker Zaporizhtransformator.
“Such steps, which are necessary for our country in conditions of war, are carried out in accordance with current laws and will help meet the urgent needs of our defence sector,” Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“In these difficult times, we must direct all our forces to liberate our land and people, support the Ukrainian army.”
None of the five companies offered any immediate comment.
The companies are partially owned by the state and are associated with powerful businessmen including billionaires Ihor Kolomoisky and Kostiantyn Zhevaho, as well as businessman Vyacheslav Bohuslayev, who was detained in October on suspicion of collaborating with Russia.
The decision was announced at a joint news conference given by Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, an unusually high-profile panel that signalled the sensitivity of the move.
“This is not nationalisation…this is a direct taking-over of assets during wartime. These are totally different legal forms,” Reznikov said.
Danilov added: “At the end of the military state [martial law]…the assets can be returned to their owners or appropriately compensated at their value.”
The officials did not elaborate on the size of the stakes that had been taken over.
Asked if other companies’ shares could be taken over, Reznikov declined to comment after the news conference.
At the news conference, Danilov answered: “It depends how much influence they have on the state of our country”.
– MAX HUNDER, TOM BALMFORTH, PAVEL POLITYUK and DAN PELESCHUK/Reuters
Russian forces were “involved in looting and theft from residents and from infrastructure sites and are taking away equipment, food and vehicles to the Russian Federation,” it said in an update late Monday.
Reuters was seeking comment from Russian authorities on the Ukrainian allegations. Moscow denies abusing civilians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Donetsk region in the east remained the “epicentre” of fighting, with hundreds of Russians being killed every day.
The towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka are the focal points of the heaviest fighting in Donetsk region.
“They call people meat”
On the diplomatic front, both the White House and Kremlin declined to comment on a Wall Street Journal report that US national security adviser Jake Sullivan has held talks with aides to President Vladimir Putin, aiming to reduce the risk of the war escalating.
The war has inflicted major damage on the global economy and raised fears of nuclear conflict.
“We reserve the right to speak directly at senior levels about issues of concern to the United States,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said later, adding those conversations have focused “only on risk reduction.”
The United States’ support for Ukraine will be “unflinching and unwavering” regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s congressional elections, she added.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine was ready to negotiate an end to the war with a future Russian leader but not Putin, after a Washington Post report that the United States had urged Kyiv to signal a readiness for peace talks to ensure it retains Western support.
“Ukraine has never refused to negotiate. Our negotiating position is known and open,” Podolyak said on Twitter, adding that Russia should first withdraw forces from Ukraine. “Is Putin ready? Obviously not.”
Russia lost all of the territory it captured in northern Ukraine in the weeks after the invasion, and in recent months has faced major setbacks in the east and south.
Putin has responded to the losses by calling up hundreds of thousands of reservists and announcing the annexation of occupied lands. He said on Monday 50,000 newly recruited reservists were already fighting in combat units.
But as more and more troops get sent to the front and casualties mount with few fresh signs of gains, there has been increasing disquiet within Russia over the conduct of the war.
Russia’s defence ministry took the rare step on Monday of denying that an elite unit had suffered catastrophic losses in a pointless assault, after Russian military bloggers posted an open letter from surviving members of the Pacific Fleet’s 155th marine brigade.
In the letter, addressed to Oleg Kozhemyako, governor of the unit’s Pacific coast base home region, the marines said that over just four days their unit had lost 300 men killed, wounded or missing, and half of their equipment.
They blamed generals seeking medals and bonuses, who “call people meat.”
– With reporting by Reuters bureaux
