Ukrainian soldiers search for explosives at a liberated area of the northern Kherson region in southern Ukraine, October 25, 2022 (Hannibal Hanschke/EPA-EFE)

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Tuesday’s Coverage: Russia’s “Dirty Bomb” Disinformation Falls Apart

Source: CNN

UPDATE 1626 GMT:

The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on Russian individuals and entities involved in malign operations in Moldova.

The individuals include oligarchs “widely recognized for capturing and corrupting Moldova’s political and economic institutions and those acting as instruments of Russia’s global influence campaign”.

Former Moldovan MP Vladimir Plahotniuc is cited for manipulation of “key sectors of Moldova’s government, including the law enforcement, electoral, and judicial sectors”.

UPDATE 1618 GMT:

Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has explained the challenge for the counter-offensive in the Kherson region because of wet weather and the terrain.

Reznikov noted that “the counter-offensive campaign in the Kherson direction is more difficult” than the rapid Ukrainian advance in September “in the Kharkiv direction” in the northeast.

First of all, the south of Ukraine is an agricultural region, and we have a lot of irrigation and water supply channels, and the Russians use them like trenches. It’s more convenient for them.

The second reason is weather conditions. This is the rainy season, and it’s very difficult to use fighting carrier vehicles with wheels.

UPDATE 1132 GMT:

Iryna Matviyishyn of the Kyiv Independent explains why it’s important to use the right language in reporting Russia’s movement of Ukrainians out of Kherson city in the south of the country:

What Russia and its proxies call an evacuation is in fact a forced relocation or deportation to other occupied areas…or to Russia.

UPDATE 0736 GMT:

Today’s propaganda line from the Kremlin is that Vladimir Putin’s invasion is necessary for the “desatanization” of Ukraine.

Aleksey Pavlov, the Assistant Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, put out the message with the claim that Ukrainians have embraced “hundreds of sects”, including the “Church of Satan”, which have abandoned Orthodox values.

UPDATE 0637 GMT:

Former Russian diplomat Boris Bondarev has warned that Vladimir Putin will not end his invasion to save lives because he “understands that if he loses the war in Ukraine, he is finished”.

Bondarev told the UK’s Sky News:

You should not have any doubts about this. Putin will donate 10 or 20 million Russians just to win this war, just to kill all Ukrainians, because it’s a matter of principle. For him, it is a matter of political survival.

Bondarev was an advisor to the Russian Mission to the UN in Geneva. He resigned on May 23 after 20 years of diplomatic service, writing that he “had never been so ashamed of his country as on February 24” when Putin launched his invasion.

UPDATE 0631 GMT:

Mercedes-Benz is selling its plant in Russia.

The complex in Esipovo near Moscow is being taken over by Russia’s Avtodom. Details will be announced on Wednesday.

Mercedes-Benz retains an option to reclaim the plant within a certain period of time. Renault and Nissan also included that provision when they withdrew from Russia earlier this year, each selling their holdings for the nominal sum of one euro.

Spanish fashion retailer Inditex, the owner of the Zara chain, is also departing Russia.

The fashion giant said on Tuesday that it has reached an “initial agreement” to sell its stores to the UAE-based Daher group, with an option for collaboration in a franchise agreement if “new circumstances allow the return of the Group’s brands to this market”.

Inditex shut its 502 stores and stopped online sales in Russia in March. The country was one of the company’s largest markets after Spain, accounting for 10% of sales.

UPDATE 0622 GMT:

A Russian missile strike has killed two people, including a pregnant woman, in Dnipro in central Ukraine.

Four people were injured, said Governor Valentyn Reznichenko.

UPDATE 0614 GMT:

UK military intelligence notes at least six sabotage operations against Russian railway infrastructure since June.

On Monday, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, near the borders with Belarus and Ukraine, said an explosive device damaged “the main rail link between Russia and southern Belarus” near the village of Novozybkovo.

The Russian anti-war group “Stop the Wagons” claimed responsibility.

The UK analysts link the operation by Belarusian resistance groups who have tried to disrupt rail traffic, and thus Russian military movements, since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian leadership will be increasingly concerned that even a small group of citizens has been sufficiently opposed to the conflict to resort to physical sabotage.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: A senior advisor to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Oleksiy Arestovych, says Russian forces are digging in for the “heaviest of battles” in the occupied Kherson region in the south of the country.

A Ukrainian counter-offensive from late August has taken part of the area, the first seized by Russia in its February 24 invasion, and is closing on Kherson city. Moscow and Russian proxy officials have ordered the removal of 60,000 residents, taking them from the west bank to the eask bank of the Dnipro River.

However, Arestovych cautioned in an online video:

With Kherson everything is clear. The Russians are replenishing, strengthening their grouping there.

It means that nobody is preparing to withdraw. On the contrary, the heaviest of battles is going to take place for Kherson.