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Two Russian state news agencies published alerts on Monday saying Moscow was moving troops to “more favorable positions” east of the Dnipro River in Ukraine, only to withdraw the information minutes later. The highly unusual incident suggested disarray in Russia's military establishment and state media over how to report the battlefield situation in southern Ukraine. -snip- In a series of three alerts on Monday, the RIA state news agency said that the command of Russia's Dnepr group of forces had decided to relocate troops to “more favorable positions” east of the Dnipro. It said that, after the regrouping, the Dnepr...

(Free link) The battle for Bakhmut has become a bloodbath for both sides as Russia steps up its attempts to take what used to be a quaint, tree-lined city. Ukrainian defense officials said Moscow is losing around 50 soldiers a day to maintain a slow, bruising advance to reach the city’s easternmost gates. Snip If the Russians break through to take control of Bakhmut, it would open a path to the political and economic centers of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk in the Ukrainian-held portions of the Donbas area, once one of the country’s main industrial regions. Moscow tried to seize the...

Nearly 10 months after his invasion of Ukraine began, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday acknowledged that the conflict is “going to take a while,” as he also warned of the “increasing” threat of nuclear war. Speaking at a meeting of Russia’s Human Rights Council at the Kremlin, Putin said Moscow will fight by “all available means at our disposal,” in what he insists on calling a “special military operation,” but also said he saw no immediate need to mobilize more troops. “With regard to the protracted nature of the special military operation and its results, of course, it’s going...

Russia planned to start the invasion with a "massive missile and airstrike campaign" against Ukrainian military targets, RUSI says, with a list also showing who should be killed, who would be intimidated and who would be targeted as a collaborator. A British defence and security think tank has revealed details of Moscow's pre-invasion plan for Ukraine, based on captured Russian documents apparently signed off by Vladimir Putin. Russia had planned to take over Ukraine over 10 days and annex it by August this year, the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov argued on Thursday that Russia's latest attacks against Ukraine's power grid weren't aimed at the civilian population, urging Kiev to "end the suffering" of its people by accepting Moscow's terms to end the war. Russia's requests for ending the attacks include Ukraine proclaiming political and military neutrality, recognizing Crimea as Russian territory and granting independence to Donetsk and Lugansk.Despite millions of Ukrainians currently without power across the country, Peskov told reporters that Russia's military pays "special attention to avoid striking social targets... As for targets that are directly or indirectly related to military potential, they are...

Russia's leading war hawks rallied behind the humiliating decision for Moscow's forces to retreat from the Ukrainian city of Kherson this month, but the commander who argued in favour of the move is now under growing pressure to prove it was worth it. Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed "General Armageddon" by the Russian media for his reputed ruthlessness, on Nov. 9 recommended Moscow's forces quit Kherson and the west bank of the River Dnipro where they were dangerously exposed. Surovikin, a 56-year-old veteran of wars in Chechnya and Syria who has been decorated by President Vladimir Putin, argued the withdrawal, completed two...

-snip- The propaganda display left Katya, a middle-aged Moscow schoolteacher, who had brought along a group of 11-year-old pupils, with more questions than answers. She said she wondered what all the casualties were for. “No one understands anything,” she said as she left the exhibition hall. “First we came up to Kyiv, and then we left — and how many people were killed? Then we took Kherson, and then we left it again. And how many people were killed?” “Even military men,” she said, referring to veterans of earlier Russian wars in her family, “they know how war works. But...

Unconfirmed reports on social media late on Thursday, November 10, claimed that explosions had occurred near the Antonovsky bridge. Some, again unconfirmed, even suggested that the bridge had been destroyed. Similar explosions were also reported on the left bank of the Dnieper river. Others reported explosions occurring in the area of ​​the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station. Various Telegram channels were posting about these incidents, with Ukrainian channels insisting that it was the Russian military firing at the bridge, while Russian ones claimed it was Ukraine targeting the structure. “It is possible that both sides are firing”, the Politika Strana Telegram...

Russia's decision to pull its forces back from the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson was "positive and important," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said. "Russia's decision regarding Kherson is positive, an important decision," told reporters in the capital Ankara on Thursday before leaving for a summit of Turkic countries in Uzbekistan. Vowing to maintain dialogue with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Erdogan's comments came after Moscow ordered its troops on Wednesday to withdraw from Kherson to the east bank of the Dnieper River. "I don't know whether there will be Russian participation in the G20 or not. We'll have...

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday ordered his troops to withdraw from the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson and take up defensive lines on the opposite bank of the River Dnipro. The announcement marked one of Russia's most significant retreats and a potential turning point in the war, now nearing the end of its ninth month. In televised comments, General Sergei Surovikin, in overall command of the war, said it was no longer possible to keep Kherson city supplied. -snip- The announcement had been anticipated by Russia's influential war bloggers, who described it as a bitter blow. "Apparently we...

Russia to withdraw troops from key Ukrainian city Kherson, the only regional centre they had captured since invasion began.This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

The Russian-installed deputy governor of Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, has been killed, Russian state media say. They quoted the regional governor's press service as saying he died in a car crash. Mr Stremousov, 45, was appointed to his job two months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

President Vladimir Putin has called for the evacuation of civilians from Russian-occupied Kherson, his first acknowledgment that Ukraine’s bid to recapture the city was gaining ground. “The people who live in Kherson need to be taken out of the zone of the most dangerous [combat] operations, because the civilian population shouldn’t suffer,” Putin told a group of volunteers in Red Square on Friday. -snip- In a video posted after Putin’s comments, Kirill Stremousov, the region’s Russia-appointed deputy governor, said a 24-hour curfew was being introduced to “defend the city”. This would “give the military the chance to do their job...

A 24-hour curfew has been imposed in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Kherson, the Russian-installed deputy governor of the region said on Friday, amid what he said was a likely Ukrainian offensive. In video message posted on Telegram, Kirill Stremousov said that the curfew was necessary "in order to defend our city of Kherson" from what he referred to as "terrorist attacks". Stremousov repeated earlier calls for civilians to leave Kherson city, saying that columns of Ukrainian vehicles had been spotted on areas of the frontline and that an attack was possible. Earlier on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said...

The Russian flag hanging in front of the regional administration in Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region has been taken down, pro-Russian Telegram channels said Thursday. “I drove up to the building of the former government of the Kherson region; I confirm that there is no [Russian] flag over it,” pro-Kremlin war correspondent Alexander Kots said on his Telegram channel. The Russian flag is still hanging at nearby buildings, he added. Kherson’s Russian-installed administration has been evacuating tens of thousands of civilians to the left bank of the Dnipro River in the regional capital of the same name amid an advancing Ukrainian...

A Russian-installed occupation official in southern Ukraine said on Thursday Moscow was likely to pull its troops from the west bank of the Dnipro River, signalling a huge retreat that, if confirmed, would be a major turning point in the war. Still, Ukrainian officials and Western analysts remained cautious about signs that Russia was abandoning the area, and there was silence from higher-ups in Moscow over what would amount to one of Russia's most humiliating retreats so far. Kyiv said it was still fighting in the area and was wary that Moscow could be setting a trap by feigning a...