Zelensky tells Russians to run for their lives from Ukraine offensive in south
- In his nightly address, Volodymyr Zelensky said ‘if the occupiers want to survive, it is time for the Russian military to flee. Go home’
- Ukrainian troops started several offensives in the south, including in the Kherson region which lies north of the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula
Ukraine reported heavy fighting as it started an offensive in the region around Kherson, a river port that was one of the first cities to fall to Russian forces at the start of the war.
Artillery hit Russian positions around the Kherson region, according to the Ukrainian military’s southern command, which said a counteroffensive began on Monday along several points on the front. Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed the attacks in a statement, and said the push “failed miserably.”
The US Department of Defence said there was an increase in fighting around Kherson, without labelling it a counteroffensive. A US National Security Council spokesman called for a “controlled shutdown” of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is near the clashes and has come under shelling.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Russian soldiers to flee for their lives after his forces launched an offensive to retake southern Ukraine, but Moscow said it had repulsed the attack and inflicted heavy losses on Kyiv’s troops.
Ukraine said on Monday its ground forces had gone on the offensive in the south for the first time after a long period of striking Russian supply lines, in particular bridges across the strategically-important River Dnipro, and ammunition dumps.
“If they want to survive, it’s time for the Russian military to run away. Go home,” Zelensky said in a late night address.
“Ukraine is taking back its own [land],” he said, adding that he would not disclose Kyiv’s battle plans.
Ukraine to hit Dnipro crossings
Ukraine’s army will destroy all alternative crossings over the Dnipro river attempted by Russian troops, military spokeswoman Natalia Humenyuk said. The Russian army is not able to move resources from the east bank to the west bank of the Dnipro near Kherson after Ukrainian attacks destroyed transport links and made all bridges unusable.
“The main goal is the de-occupation” of the Kherson region, she said. “Powerful resistance in the Kherson region is yet more proof that Kherson is Ukraine,” Humenyuk added, saying that a “powerful” push to rid the area of Russian occupiers would happen in the near future.
“Battles are ongoing now,” she said.
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Ukraine-backed forces possibly behind strikes in Russian-annexed territory
Ukrainian soldiers are trying to disperse Russian means and logistics when they attack both Crimea and Kherson in parallel, Belgian Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder said in an interview.
“There’s a logic,” Dedonder said on the sidelines of a gathering of EU defence ministers in Prague.
Dedonder said Ukrainian forces have been resisting well and regaining territory if they lose it, meaning the front line has been “pretty stable” recently. She said she expected that to remain the case for some time as a harsh winter will make any major advances more complicated.
EU close to tightening rules on Russian visas
European Union countries appear to be moving toward an agreement on tightening the visa regime for Russian citizens, according to Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, who is hosting his counterparts from the bloc in Prague.
“I am sensing positive signals that key players are on board,” Lipavsky said when asked about his proposal to suspend the visa-facilitation agreements with Russia. Foreign ministers are due to discuss visas and the invasion of Ukraine on Wednesday morning.
Such a move would mean that Russians travelling to the EU will have to pay more and face additional bureaucracy to obtain short-term visas.
Russia replacing dollar with Chinese yuan
The yuan is becoming the preferred vehicle for Russia’s government and companies to overcome their isolation from Western capital markets.
Trading volumes in overnight yuan-rouble swaps on the Moscow Exchange doubled last week, reaching a record on Friday and outstripping the dollar-rouble pair. A flood of liquidity in the Chinese currency is sweeping across Russia’s banking system, allowing borrowers to ramp up yuan-bond issuance and switch away from dollar-based settlements, said Dmitry Polevoy, an economist at Locko-Invest
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Nuclear plant focus
Russia is deliberately shelling corridors that the International Atomic Energy Agency could use to reach the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukraine’s president, said on Twitter.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi and a team of inspectors “set off” for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, to ensure the facility’s safety, the agency said in a tweet.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned over the weekend that the situation at the plant remains dangerous, even after two power units were reconnected to the grid following a power failure.
The US believes that shutting down Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is the “safest and least risky option,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, amid renewed reports of shelling around the facility.
The plant’s reactors were taken offline briefly last week after fires broke out around the plant, which is now under Russian control. Both sides accuse the other of launching dangerous attacks nearby.
The nuclear plant is a major source of Ukraine’s energy although Russia may be trying to shift its output to its own grid.
Additional reporting by Reuters
