Ukraine: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday that his country requires residents of the eastern Donetsk region, the scene of fierce fighting with Russia, to leave. Zelensky also urged hundreds of thousands of people living in war zones in the larger Donbass region, which includes both Donetsk and the neighboring Luhansk region, to go on a late night televised address.
He said those leaving the area would get compensation. "The more people who leave the Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill," he said. Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Irina Vereshchuk, was quoted by domestic media outlets as saying that evacuation was necessary before winter began as natural gas supplies to the region were destroyed.
In the areas of the Donbass where fighting was fierce, Zelensky claimed that hundreds of thousands of people continued to reside. The president said that although many people "refuse to leave," it must be done. "Talk to those who are still present in the Donbass war zones, if you have the chance. Please explain to them that it is necessary to leave.
The Kherson region, which is the center of Kyiv's counter-offensive in that region of the country and a vital link in Moscow's supply lines, was one of the battlefields in the south on Friday, according to the Ukrainian military, which reported earlier on Saturday. That more than 100 Russian soldiers were killed and seven tanks were destroyed.
The Army's Southern Command reported that rail traffic across the Dnipro River to Kherson was halted, potentially cutting off supplies to Russian forces west of the river from occupied Crimea and to the east. The Ukrainian military claimed that Russian forces had "partially succeeded" in establishing control over the Semihyrya settlement by storming from three directions south of the city of Bakhmut, which Russia has identified as a major target in Donetsk.
The army evening report said of the Russian army, "They established themselves in the periphery of the settlement. Since Moscow invaded its neighbor on February 24, the Russian military, one of Ukraine's most steadfast allies, has been finding it difficult to keep pace, according to UK defense and intelligence officials.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has seriously damaged three Dnipro bridges with long-range missile systems supplied by the West, cutting off Kherson and, in the opinion of British defense officials, on the west bank of the river. The 49th Army of Russia has been made extremely weak.
The pro-Ukraine governor of the Kherson region, Dmitry Butry, claimed that fighting was still going on in several areas of the region and that Berislav District, which lies immediately northwest of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Plant, was particularly hard hit.
A missile attack or blast killed dozens of Ukrainian POWs early Friday in the frontline town of Olenivka, a Moscow-backed separatist-occupied frontline town in eastern Donetsk, with both Ukraine and Russia retaliated.
Russia's Defense Ministry released a list of 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war killed and 73 wounded in what was claimed to have been attacked by Ukrainian forces using a US-made high mobility artillery rocket system on Saturday was gone (HIMARS). According to ministry spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov, all political, criminal and moral responsibility rests with Zelensky, "his criminal regime, and the Washingtons who support him".
According to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russian artillery targeted the prison to hide the mistreatment of those held there, who denied any wrongdoing. Russia has committed a war crime, according to Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba, who on Friday called for international condemnation.
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Russia claims to have invited UN and Red Cross experts to look into prisoner deaths