Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu

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Sunday’s Coverage: Russians Order Residents to Withdraw from Kherson City

Source: CNN

UPDATE 1345 GMT:

Russia has been caught out compounding its lie over a Ukrainian “dirty bomb”.

The head of Russia’s nuclear, chemical, and biological forces gave a presentation that Moscow has “readied all forces and capabilities to fulfil tasks in conditions of radioactive contamination”.

But the very first slide he used was not from Ukraine. It is from Syria several years ago — and it’s not even from an actual nuclear facility but from an Assad regime disinformation film.

UPDATE 1254 GMT:

In a further counter to Russia’s disinformation about a Ukrainian “dirty bomb”, Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has invited the International Atomic Energy Agency to examine nuclear facilities:

UPDATE 1125 GMT:

The head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate says Russia is emptying Kherson city of residents and infrastructure but is preparing a defense against the Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Kyrylo Budanov said:

They are taking out cash, [internet] servers, the so-called occupation authorities….All the non-walking, seriously injured are being taken out, they are trying to discharge those who can walk as soon as possible from hospitals. They conduct this crazy information campaign that “we care about people “ and so on. They create the illusion that everything is gone.

At the same time, on the contrary, they bring new military units there and prepare the streets of the city for defense.

Budanov noted Russia’s concern that Ukraine’s advance might reclaim the Nova Kakhovka Dam, upstream on the Dnipro River from Kherson.

They understand that if we take at least control over the Kakhovka dam, which is the only transport artery that is fully functioning now, they will have to make a decision very quickly. Either very, very quickly leave the city and get out, or they risk ending up in the same situation that our units in Mariupol [the besieged port city seized by Russia in May] found themselves in earlier.

Budanov said Russia’s destruction of the dam would only slow Ukrainian troops by about two weeks, while flooding Russian-occupied territory and depriving the Russians of a vital water canal for the Crimea peninsula which it seized in 2014.

UPDATE 1010 GMT:

The latest Russian attacks across the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine have killed six civilians and injured five.

UPDATE 0757 GMT:

The director of broadcaster at Russian State outlet RT has been suspended after he called for violence and war crimes against Ukrainian civilians.

Krasovsky said in a broadcast last week that Ukrainian children who saw Russians as occupiers during the Soviet era should have been drowned.

He also said Ukrainian grandmothers should be grateful if they are raped by Russian troops, that any resisting Ukrainians should be shot, and that Ukraine should not exist.

RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said Krasovsky was suspended because of his “disgusting” comments, insisting no one at the channel shares his views.

On Sunday, Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on remaining countries to bar RT, which is already blocked by the European Union and the UK.

Krasovsky now says he was “really embarrassed” after getting “carried away”: “Well, it happens. You’re on air, you get carried away, and you can’t stop. I ask for the forgiveness of everyone who was stunned by this.”

UPDATE 0734 GMT:

With Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu’s declaration of an Ukrainian “dirty bomb” falling flat, Russian officials are trying another disinformation line.

Moscow’s “Interdepartmental Coordination Center for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine” proclaimed that Ukrainian “mercenaries” will fire artillery on a “crowding point” of civilians on Monday.

The shelling will supposedly be on the city of Volchansk in the Kharkiv Region in northeast Ukraine.

UPDATE 0707 GMT:

The Ukraine Defense Ministry says almost 70% of Iran’s Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones have been downed by air defenses during Russian attacks.

The Ministry’s head of intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov said 222 of 330 Shahed-136s were shot down.

The Ukraine military claims Russia has ordered about 1,700 drones, delivered in batches of 300 at a time.

UPDATE 0638 GMT:

Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry says Russia is undermining July’s deal allowing ships to move grain from Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea.

Russia is deliberately blocking the full realization of the Grain Initiative. As a result, these ports in the last few days are working only at 25-30% of their capacity.

The Ministry said seven vessels sailed from ports on Sunday carrying grain for Asia and Europe.

Russian officials are threatening to block extension of the deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey, when it expires on November 19.

UN spokeswoman Ismini Palla said on Sunday:

The United Nations convenes the parties daily and has urged full and good faith participation in the Initiative and the need for additional urgent measures to be taken so the supply chain does not get disrupted and the Initiative continues to deliver more and much needed food to the world.

She confirmed there are currently “over 150 vessels waiting around Istanbul to move, and these delays have the potential to cause disruptions to the supply chain and port operations”.

UPDATE 0623 GMT:

Iran says it will supply Russia with 40 turbines to help Moscow’s gas industry.

Tehran has stepped up assistance to Russia as Vladimir Putin’s invasion runs into trouble, notably through the supply of hundreds — possibly thousands — of “kamikaze” and surveillance drones.

Iranian officials have repeatedly lied that they did not transfer weapons.

However, in announcing the supply of turbines, the CEO of the Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company’s CEO, Reza Noushadi, implicitly referred to the military aid. He said Iran’s “industrial successes are not limited to the fields of missiles and drones”.

US intelligence agencies assess — and Iranian officials have privately acknowledged — that Tehran is preparing to supply surface-to-surface missiles to the Russians.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Facing the defeat of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Minister has pushed a blatant lie in calls with US, French, British, and Turkish counterparts.

Sergey Shoygu made the unfounded claim that Ukrainian forces are preparing to use a “dirty bomb”, an explosive with radioactive material, in the conversations with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin — his second in three days — and the other ministers.

The UK and US quickly rebuffed the deception. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace “refuted these [Russian] claims and cautioned that such allegations should not be used as a pretext for greater escalation”.

The US National Security Council said, “The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation.”

Opening a peace conference in Rome, French President Emmanuel Macron did not refer specifically to the call. However, he said it is up to Ukraine to decide the time and terms of a settlement with Russia, since this “can’t be the consecration of the law of the strongest”.

On Sunday night, the US, UK, and France confirmed their common position in a joint statement:

Our countries made clear that we all reject Russia’s transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory. The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation. We further reject any pretext for escalation by Russia.

The Foreign Ministers also discussed their shared determination to continue supporting Ukraine and the Ukrainian people with security, economic, and humanitarian assistance in the face of President Putin’s brutal war of aggression.

In his nightly address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy noted Russia’s “nuclear blackmail” at the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and its use of “phosphorus munitions” and “banned anti-personnel mines against civilian infrastructure”.

He explained, “If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this.”

Russia’s Imminent Defeat in Kherson

Shoygu made the calls as Ukraine’s counter-offensive, bolstered by US and European military assistance, liberated more territory in the Kherson region in the south of the country.

Signs that Russian forces may withdraw from the west of the region, including Kherson city, continued on Sunday.

Russia’s Education Minister reinforced the Saturday command of Russian proxy officials for residents to flee and take “documents, money, valuables and clothes” due to “the tense situation on the front”.

Sergey Kravtsov said in a video message, “The situation today is difficult. It’s vital to save your lives….It won’t be for long. You will definitely return.”

The proxy authorities in Kherson, the first region seized by Russia in the February 24 invasion, said about 25,000 people have been moved since Tuesday. The officials have said 60,000 residents will be transferred across the Dnipro River.