Russia announces evacuation of civilians from Ukraine’s major city

General Sergei Surovikin, in charge of operations in Ukraine for the past 10 days, said the army was preparing to evacuate civilians from the city of Kherson.

Kherson is one of four regions of Ukraine that Moscow recently claimed to have annexed.

It was the first major Ukrainian city to fall to Russian forces after the Kremlin launched its offensive on 24 February.

But Ukrainian forces launched a counter-offensive in the south at the end of the summer and are moving rapidly closer to the city.

“The Russian army will above all ensure the safe evacuation of the population”, Surovikin told state television Rossiya 24, describing the situation as “very difficult”.

He said the attacks targeting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure “pose a direct threat to the lives of residents”.

The Russian military commander also acknowledged that the situation in Ukraine was “tense” for its troops, who have suffered major setbacks in the east and south.

“The situation in the area of ​​special military operations can be described as tense,” Surovikin said.

“The enemy is not giving up its efforts to strike Russian military bases,” he said.

Russian forces earlier on Tuesday claimed to have withdrawn territory from Ukrainian troops in the eastern Kharkiv region.

It was Moscow’s first announcement of annexation of a village since it was almost completely ousted from the region last month.

‘Serious across the country’

Ukraine warned on Tuesday about an emerging “critical” risk to its power grid by President Volodymyr Zelensky after repeated Russian bombings destroyed a third of the country’s power facilities as of winter.

Russian attacks rocked energy facilities in Kyiv and urban centers across the country, causing blackouts and disrupting water supplies, a day after a swarm of suicide drones bombed the capital.

“The situation across the country is now critical. It is necessary for the whole country to prepare for power, water and heating outages,” Kyrillo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, told Ukrainian television.

Strikes hit Kyiv in the early hours of TuesdayKharkiv to the east, Mykolaiv to the south and the central regions of Dnipro and Zhytomyr, where officials said hospitals were running on backup generators.

Drones also bombed Kyiv on Monday – the second in a row – leaving five people dead, officials said, in what has been described as an attack of desperation after a battlefield defeat for the presidency.

Kyiv on Tuesday accused the Red Cross of “inaction” on its prisoners held by Russia, saying the lack of visits to detained soldiers and civilians meant they were vulnerable to torture.

Hospital on back-up power

Several towns and cities in the Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, and parts of the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine had no electricity, while power was restored in the southern city of Mykolaiv after an overnight strike.

“Now the city is cut off from electricity and water supply. Hospitals are working on backup power,” Zhytomyr mayor Sergei Sukhomlin said in a statement online.

National emergency services said after a 10-day strike at energy facilities, about 1,162 towns and villages in nine regions were left without electricity and more than 70 people were killed and 290 were injured.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said three people had been killed in Tuesday’s strike.

The Kremlin denies the use of Iran’s drones

Tehran said on Tuesday it was open to talks with Kyiv to clear “unfounded” claims that Iran is providing Russia with weapons and drones used in the war against Ukraine.

Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Moscow of using Iranian-made drones in recent attacks.

Following a wave of kamikaze drone strikes against Kyiv on Monday, Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba said Ukraine should break diplomatic ties with Iran, citing the “death” and “destruction” caused by the drones.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it had no information that its military was using Iranian drones in Ukraine.

“Russian technology is being used,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, citing other questions from the Defense Ministry.

However, the Defense Ministry confirmed the attack on power plants in the last 24 hours, saying it used long-range and precision weapons.

Western officials said it was “increasingly clear that Russia is pursuing a deliberate strategy of trying to destroy heating, electrical networks” and that Iranian drones were playing an “increasingly important role” in the conflict.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow could reduce its diplomatic presence in Western countries, blaming relations with Europe and the United States as well as the need for Russia to build ties elsewhere.

On Tuesday, Russian investigators said early signs suggest a technical fault was the reason a military plane crashed into a residential building near Ukraine.

Investigators said they are questioning the pilots of the Sukhoi Su-34, which managed to eject from the plane before it crashed into a nine-storey building on Monday evening, which engulfed it in flames.

This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed.