Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images The Pentagon announced a $400 million military aid package for Ukraine, the 25th such tranche. The capabilities of this package include: • Missiles for HAWK air defense systems • Four Avenger air defense systems and Stinger missiles • Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Missile Systems or HIMARS • 21,000 155 mm artillery rounds • 500 200 mm precision-guided missiles 150 mm rounds, 150 mm mortar rounds • 100 wheeled high-mobility multi-purpose vehicles • 400 grenade launchers • Portable weapons, optics and more than 20 million small arms rounds • Demolition equipment to clear obstacles The United States has committed more than $18 billion in security aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February. — Amanda Macias
Biden to raise concerns about Xi’s relationship with Putin ahead of G-20 summit
The US government has introduced some of its most sweeping export controls aimed at cutting China off from advanced semiconductors. Analysts said the move could hamper China’s domestic chip industry. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images President Joe Biden is expected to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week in a face-to-face meeting. The meeting of the two leaders, the first since Biden assumed the US presidency, will take place ahead of the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia. “I think the president will be honest and direct with President Xi about how we view the situation in Ukraine with Russia’s war of aggression,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters. “This is an issue that the president and President Xi have talked about many times in the past. They talked about it at length in March in their video call and then they talked about it again in July, so it’s part of an ongoing conversation between the two of them added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. — Amanda Macias
Putin to skip G-20 summit, Zelensky to speak via video conference
Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen during the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Summit Plenary on October 14, 2022 in Astana, Kazakhstan. Factor | News Getty Images | Getty Images Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the G20 summit in Bali, an Indonesian government official told reporters, according to reports from the Associated Press and Reuters. “The Indonesian government respects the decision of the Russian government [for President Putin not to attend the summit]which President Putin himself previously explained to President Joko Widodo in a very friendly telephone conversation,” Luhut Pandjaitan, head of support for the G-20 summit, told reporters. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to lead the Russian delegation to the summit. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has yet to leave his war-weary country, is expected to address the summit via video conference. — Amanda Macias
Russia says withdrawal from Kherson has begun as Ukraine makes strong progress
Russia has claimed it has ordered the withdrawal of its troops from the west bank of the Dnieper River in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, while Ukraine remains skeptical of the move, despite already recording a 4-mile advance in the region. Russia’s Defense Ministry issued a military briefing on Thursday that said units of Russian troops were “maneuvering to prepared positions on the left bank of the Dnieper River, in accordance with the approved plan” announced by Moscow’s top military officials on Wednesday. . Ukraine said it was skeptical the withdrawal had actually begun, with one official saying departing Russian troops were laying mines in the city of Kherson in an attempt to turn it into a “city of death” as well as blowing up bridges over the Dnieper River. to slow the advance of Ukrainian forces. Serhiy Khlan, a member of the Kherson regional council, said the Russians were moving their equipment to the left bank of the Dnieper River and that Ukrainian forces were destroying it. Ukraine’s army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said on Telegram on Thursday that Kyiv could not yet confirm whether Russia was indeed withdrawing from the region, but said Ukrainian troops had advanced four miles in the past 24 hours and recaptured 12 settlements. A woman living in a village on the border of Mykolaiv and Kherson regions salutes a Ukrainian military officer on July 25, 2022 in Mykolaiv region, Ukraine. World Pictures Ukraine | News Getty Images | Getty Images As of Oct. 1, Ukrainian forces had advanced 22.6 miles into the Kherson region and recaptured 41 settlements, Zaluzhnyi said on Telegram on Thursday. He attributed Russia’s withdrawal from part of Kherson, announced yesterday, to Ukraine destroying logistics routes and the support system, leaving Russian units with “no choice but to flee”. “At the moment, we cannot confirm or deny the information about the so-called withdrawal of the Russian occupation troops from Kherson. We are continuing the offensive operation according to our plan,” he said. A video posted on Twitter showed a damaged bridge as Ukrainian personnel moved along the Inhulets River (a tributary of the Dnieper) in the Kherson region as they headed south towards the city of Kherson. — Holly Elliott
Putin’s warmongers are stunned by Kherson’s withdrawal
Pro-Putin commentators described the retreat from Kherson as a humiliating defeat for Moscow. Putin supporter and former adviser Sergei Markov likened the withdrawal to a defeat on the scale of the collapse of the Soviet Union, warning that “the political consequences of this massive defeat will be really big.” Meanwhile, pro-Kremlin journalist and politician Andrei Medvedev said on Telegram: “What to say now about Kherson? Yes, I am not happy either, like many of you. Yes, I also thought that there would be a different solution. This it would become a fortified area from the city.” “You can turn the city into a big fortification while you have difficulties with logistics. You can even defend it,” he said, reacting to the announcement by top Russian officials on Wednesday that Russian troops would withdraw from a significant part of the southern region. Ukrainian. Russian President Vladimir Putin watches through binoculars the Tsentr-2019 military exercise in the Donguz region near the city of Orenburg on September 20, 2019. Alexey Nikolsky | Afp | Getty Images The withdrawal was announced shortly after news emerged from the region that Kherson’s deputy governor who had been installed by Russia, Kirill Stremousov, had been killed in a car accident. Medvedev said that both events represented a serious propaganda blow for Russia: “The withdrawal from Kherson, especially against the background of the tragic death of Kirill Stemnusov, is a serious informational blow for us. And now the West and Kyiv will start to relax [it] as an unconditional victory for Ukraine,” he said, adding that people wanted an explanation for the withdrawal. Read more about the story here: Putin supporters shocked by yet another Russian ‘surrender’ in Ukraine
Ukraine attacks Russian troops in Kherson, saying Moscow did not ask for a ‘green corridor’
The impending withdrawal of Russian forces from the west bank of the Dnipro River that divides the Kherson region is already ripe for intensified attacks with Ukraine reporting that it is destroying Russian units in the area. Russia reportedly did not ask the Ukrainian side to create a “green corridor”, or safe route, to withdraw its troops from Kherson, according to a Ukrainian defense official cited by the Ukrinform news agency. Sergey Khlan, a member of the Kherson regional council, said on Facebook on Thursday that the Russians were moving their equipment to the left bank of the Dnipro River and Ukrainian forces were destroying it. Military mobility of the Ukrainian Armed Forces continues towards the Kherson front in Ukraine on November 9, 2022. The Ukrainian military continues to support its units in Kherson as the Russia-Ukraine war continues. Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images Separately, Ukraine’s southern command unit said today that its forces attacked “two strongholds of the Russian occupiers, an enemy equipment column and an ammunition depot” on Thursday as enemy forces build up in the area. “As a result of the attacks, Ukrainian defenders destroyed 125 invaders, three enemy tanks, five units of armored vehicles and an ammunition depot in the Berislav region,” he added. Berislav is on the river from Kherson, on the same west bank of the river – the bank from which the Russian forces are to withdraw. The southern command unit repeated claims that Russia was laying land mines and laying roadblocks, possibly in an attempt to block Ukrainian forces trying to advance and retake the area. Russia’s defense ministry said on Thursday it was preparing to withdraw to the eastern bank of the river. — Holly Elliott
Russians want to leave behind ‘city of death’, says Ukrainian official
A top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Russian forces, which are about to withdraw from the city of Kherson and the west bank of the Dnipro River, are mining and destroying the city. Russia “wants to turn Kherson into a ‘city of death,’” Mikhail Podoliak said on Twitter Thursday, adding that Russia is putting mines in “everything it can,” including apartments and sewers. He said the artillery bombardment on the west bank of the river “plans to reduce the city to rubble.” The comments come after another Ukrainian official said yesterday that Russian forces blew up several…
