Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin tells Kherson civilians to leave amid ‘most dangerous action’ in annexed region, reports say

Peter Beaumont

Vladimir Putin has warned that civilians still living in the Ukrainian province of Kherson, which Russia declared it had annexed in September, must be “evacuated” from the conflict zone, amid suggestions that Russian forces may be preparing to abandon the west bank of the Dnipro river.

The Russian president made the comments during a meeting with pro-Kremlin activists, underlining mounting speculation that Russia would attempt to hold the city of Kherson itself, the largest urban area under Russian occupation, at any cost.

“Now, of course, those who live in Kherson should be removed from the zone of the most dangerous actions, because the civilian population should not suffer,” he said.

You can read Peter Beaumont’s full report here:

Luke Harding

Luke Harding has interviewed Melinda Simmons, the UK’s current ambassador in Ukraine.

“This week Moscow accused the UK of masterminding a raid on the occupied Crimean port of Sevastopol, in which three Russian naval boats were damaged, and blowing up the NordSteam gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. Simmons says she does not spend time thinking about “nonsense”, even if the idea of the UK as an all-powerful bogeyman is a little bit “flattering”.

Why did Putin invade? Simmons says he set out his reasons in a “jaw-dropping” essay last year in which he argued Ukraine was not a country. “It was his manifesto for taking back what he thought had been wrongly given away,” she says.”

You can read the full interview below:

Vladimir Putin said on Friday that civilians in the Ukrainian region of Kherson must be removed from the conflict zone, state-owned news agency RIA reported.

Russia illegally annexed the region from Ukraine in September and Ukrainian forces have since launched a counteroffensive to take back control.

Quoting a meeting Putin had with pro-Kremlin activists, RIA reports the Russian president said: “Now, of course, those who live in Kherson should be removed from the zone of the most dangerous actions, because the civilian population should not suffer”.

Russian-installed officials in Kherson region have pleaded for civilians to leave the region’s west, where Ukrainian forces have retaken ground in recent weeks.

On Thursday, Kherson’s Russian-appointed deputy governor Kirill Stremousov issued several video appeals for civilians to leave the part of the province on the west bank of the Dnipro river.

He said that Russian forces would likelygive up the west bank of the Dnipro to Ukraine.

Isobel Koshiw

Ukraine’s state postal service has issued a commemorative wartime stamp dedicated to the strike on the Crimean Bridge last month, which sparked celebrations across the country.

Its release has been timed to coincide with Russia’s Unity Day on 4 November.

The Crimean Bridge was built to connect Russia to the territory it illegally annexed in 2014, and symbolised the country’s eternal control over the peninsula and its regional impunity. President Vladimir Putin was there to open it.

For Ukrainians, the bridge was a reminder of Russia’s occupation and their inability to act against Russia, then widely considered the world’s third most powerful army.

Designed by the Ukrainian artist Yuriy Shapoval, the stamp shows the bridge behind clouds of dark grey smoke. In the forefront is the famous scene from the Titanic, where Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet stand on the bow of the ship a reference to Russia’s claims that the bridge was unsinkable.

Read more of Isobel Koshiw’s report here:

• G7 foreign ministers have agreed on the need for a coordination mechanism to help Ukraine repair, restore and defend its critical energy and water infrastructure, a senior US state department official has said.

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday that he had agreed with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that grain sent under the Black Sea export deal should go to poor African countries for free. “In my phone call with Vladimir Putin, he said ‘Let’s send this grain to countries such as Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan for free’ – and we agreed,” Erdogan said in a speech to businesspeople in Istanbul.

• German chancellor Olaf Scholz is visiting China, and while there has urged Putin to extend the Black Sea grain deal when it expires on 19 November.

• Dmitry Medvedev, long-term ally of Vladimir Putin, current deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, and previously both president and prime minister of Russia, has issued a broadside this morning claiming that Russia’s war has “a sacred purpose” and that “the goal is to stop the supreme ruler of hell, no matter what name he uses – Satan, Lucifer or Iblis.”

• The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has said 450,000 residents in the Ukrainian capital are without electricity on Friday morning. “This is one and a half times more than in previous days,” he said, adding the power system is overloaded.

• The UN nuclear watchdog, said on Thursday, it had found no sign of undeclared nuclear activity at three sites in Ukraine that it inspected at Kyiv’s request, in response to Russian allegations that work was being done on a “dirty bomb”. “Our technical and scientific evaluation of the results we have so far did not show any sign of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at these three locations,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement, adding that environmental samples taken would be analysed.

• In southern Ukraine, a Russian-installed occupation official said on Wednesday that Moscow was likely to pull its troops from the west bank of the Dnipro River, signalling a huge retreat that, if confirmed, could be a major turning point in the war. “Most likely our units, our soldiers, will leave for the left [eastern] bank,” said Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy civilian administrator of the Kherson region, in an interview with Solovyov Live, a pro-Kremlin online media outlet.

• Ukraine said it was wary that Moscow could be setting a trap by feigning a pull-out from the Kherson region and maintained its forces were still fighting in the area. Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, said it could be a Russian trap. “This could be a manifestation of a particular provocation, in order to create the impression that the settlements are abandoned, that it is safe to enter them, while they are preparing for street battles,” she said in televised comments.

• Due to low morale and reluctance to fight, Russian forces have probably started deploying units threatening to shoot their own retreating soldiers, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. An intelligence report released early this morning described these Russian units as “barrier troops” or “blocking units” used to compel offensives.

• Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv, has said that yesterday in Izium a 69-year-old man was blown up by a mine and hospitalised with moderate injuries. In a message on Telegram, he said that in the last day Ukrainian forces had neutralised “471 explosive objects” in the region.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, this week. I will be back on Monday.