Photo: EPA

Saturday’s Coverage: Red Cross — Russia Blocks Us From Seeing Ukrainian POWs

Source: CNN

UPDATE 1656 GMT:

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has noted how Ukraine has maintained energy stability despite up to 130 Russian missile and drone attacks from last Monday to Wednesday.

Shmyhal said the efforts of maintenance workers, restoring electricity to about 4,000 settlements, and voluntary reduction of consumption by 10% had helped avert outages.

He summarized, “The aggressor sought to intimidate Ukrainians and paralyse the state’s energy industry. He did not achieve his goal.”

UPDATE 1354 GMT:

Russian attacks have killed 10 civilians and injured 14 in the past 24 hours.

Seven civilians were killed in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, two in Kharkiv in the northeast, and one in Zaporizhzhia.

UPDATE 1325 GMT:

Four civilians have been injured by Ukrainian shelling of the city administration building in Russian-controlled Donetsk (see 0751 GMT).

Three members of a family were injured in shelling of the Russian city of Belgorod, near the Ukraine border, said Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. Russian State outlet RIA Novosti said there were at least 16 explosions on Sunday.

UPDATE 1241 GMT:

Russian strikes have destroyed two schools in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine.

Governor Oleksandr Starukh said private homes were also levelled.

There were no casualties.

UPDATE 1232 GMT:

Russian soldiers killed Ukrainian conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko after he declined participation in a concert “intended by the occupiers to demonstrate the so-called ‘improvement of peaceful life’” in the occupied Kherson region, according to Ukraine’s Culture Ministry.

The Russians wanted to feature the Gileya chamber orchestra, conducted by Kerpatenko, in the concert on October 1.

Kerpatenko was also the principal conductor of Kherson’s Mykola Kulish Music and Drama Theatre. He posted defiant messages on his Facebook page until May, more than two months after the start of the occupation.

UPDATE 0751 GMT:

Ukrainian forces have struck the main administration building in Donetsk city in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine.

The Russian proxy “mayor”, Alexei Kulemzin, said the Ukrainians fired three rockets from a US-supplied HIMARS medium-range system. He said two civilians were wounded.

UPDATE 0740 GMT:

Pointing to forced deportation of Ukrainian children, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin has said “several thousand” from the occupied Kherson region are “already in other regions of Russia, resting in rest homes and children’s camps”.

The statement is the latest from Russian officials about the adoption or placing in camps of Ukrainian children taken from their parents.

UPDATE 0728 GMT:

Elon Musk has withdrawn his threat to cut Starlink satellite service to Ukraine.

Musk said last week that the US Defense Department would have to take over the cost of $400 million per year.

But he put out an ill-tempered tweet on Saturday:

UPDATE 0719 GMT:

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has lied that “the Islamic republic of Iran has not and will not provide any weapon to be used in the war in Ukraine”.

Amir-Abdollahian made the statement in a phone call with the European Union’s Josep Borrell, trying to cover up Iran’s delivery of hundreds of “kamikaze drones” to Russia.

The Russians are using the Shahed-136 drones both on the battlefield and in attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure. They have caused damage, but about 60% are being shot down by air defenses.

Claims are circulating on Ukrainian and Russian Telegram channels that Russia has purchased Iranian Arash-2 drones, which are purportedly faster and more destructive than the Shahed-136s.

In a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, EU foreign ministers will consider sanctions on Tehran over the drones.

US intelligence agencies assess that Iran is preparing a first shipment of Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar short-range ballistic missiles for the Russians.

The Fateh-110 missile has a range of 300 km (186 miles) and the Zolfaghar 700 km (434 miles).

UPDATE 0714 GMT:

In a renewed travel alert on Saturday, China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry called on all Chinese citizens in Ukraine to leave immediately due to the “serious security situation”.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: In a sign of domestic turmoil over Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, at least 11 Russian troops were killed on Saturday by two fellow recruits.

Another 15 soldiers were injured during shooting practice, about 10 am, at the military training ground in the Belgorod region near the Ukraine border.

The Russian Defense Ministry portrayed the attackers, who were shot and killed, as “terrorists” from a former Soviet republic.

Oleksiy Arestovych, a senior advisor to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the killings occurred amid an argument about religion.

Arestovych said the attackers were from Tajikistan, which is predominantly Muslim.

Putin’s “partial mobilization”, announced on September 21, has fed chaos and discontent with the mass round-up of men. Many seized for service were supposedly exempt. Some are well over the maximum age, others seriously ill.

EA on International Media: Facing Defeat, Putin Fires Missiles on Ukraine’s Civilians

Putin declared at a press conference in Kazakhstan on Friday that 16,000 newly-mobilized men are on the Ukraine frontline and 222,000 called up.

However, he faces anger over the poor conditions and consequent risk.

Men are having to buy their own protective equipment. They complain about a lack of command, basic supplies, and food.

Local reports indicate than more than 20 men have already been killed on the battlefield. Others have committed suicide to avoid the call-ups.

In a video address to Putin on Saturday, mothers of mobilised men from Bryansk — a city less than 100 miles from the border — demanded the return of their sons from the “farce” of mobilization.