Russia-Ukraine war – live: Putin says there’s no need for more ‘massive strikes’

Ukraine has retaken more than 600 settlements from Russian forces in the past month, its ministry for reintegration of the temporary occupied territories said.

These also include 75 settlements from the recently annexed Kherson region which serves as a highly strategic region in the south of the besieged country and claimed by Russia.

Around 502 settlements have been freed and retaken by Ukrainian soldiers in Kharkiv which lies in the northeast Ukraine and was heavily battered in the Russian invasion. However, Ukrainian troops advanced deeper into the Russian lines last month.

A total of 43 settlements have been recaptured in the Donetsk region and seven in the Luhansk region, the ministry said.

"The area of liberated Ukrainian territories has increased significantly," the ministry said in a statement.

Russia has told residents of illegally annexed Kherson to evacuate as Ukrainian troops approach, raising fears the region could become the new frontline in Vladimir Putin’s war.

Moscow-installed governor Vladimir Saldo told Kherson’s civilians to take their children and flee in a video statement on Telegram on Thursday.

“Every day, the cities of Kherson region are subjected to missile attacks,” Mr Saldo said. “As such, the leadership of Kherson administration has decided to provide Kherson families with the option to travel to other regions of the Russian Federation to rest and study.”

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX has told the Pentagon it can no longer continue to fund the Starlink satellite internet terminals, asking that the service providing a vital source of communication for Ukraine’s military will now have to be paid for by the US, CNN has learnt.

The spacecraft engineering firm has donated around 20,000 Starlink satellite units to Ukraine as the besieged country lost cellular phone and internet networks in the Russian invasion since February.

According to a report by CNN, SpaceX’s director of government has told the Pentagon in a letter in September that they “are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time.”

Additionally, SpaceX owner and billionaire Elon Musk has said that the operation has cost it “$80m & will exceed $100m by end of year.”

SpaceX claims that the transfer of its charitable services to the war-hit country would cost the US more than $120m for the rest of the year and could cost close to $400m for the next 12 months.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia is dispatching mobilised men to the war’s frontlines and expects them to be a cannon fodder surviving the war for at least few weeks.

“Now Russia is sending thousands of its mobilised men to the front. They have no significant military training, but their command does not need it at all,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address.

He added: “They expect that the mobilised Russians will be able to survive in the war for at least a few weeks, then they will die, and then new ones will be sent to the front.”

“But during this time, such use by Russian generals of their people as “cannon fodder” makes it possible to create additional pressure on our defenders,” the war-time president said.

Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February this year, the UK and its western allies have provided Kyiv with a huge quantity of military hardware to help with the defensive effort.

Here is an overview of some of the key equipment dispatched from Britain to the frontline so far, which has included 6,900 anti-tank missiles, five air defence systems, 120 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,360 anti-structure munitions, 4.5 tonnes of plastic explosives and 400,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, according to the Ministry of Defence.

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The British defence ministry has claimed tactical advances by pro-Russian forces towards the centre of the town of Bakhmut in Donetsk oblast in the last three days.

“Elements of 2nd Army Corps, the pro-Russia militia of the Luhansk region, likely advanced into the villages of Opytine and Ivangrad to the south of the town,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update on the Ukraine war.

It added that there are few, if any, other settlements seized by regular Russian or separatist forces since early July.

“However, forces led by the private military company Wagner Group have achieved some localised gains in the Donbas: Wagner likely remains heavily involved in the Bakhmut fighting,” the British MoD said.

According to the defence ministry, Russia likely looks at seizing Bakhmut as a “preliminary to advancing on the Kramatorsk-Sloviansk urban area which is the most significant population centre of Donetsk oblast held by Ukraine.”

Russia continues to prosecute offensive operations in central Donbas and is, very slowly, making progress, the ministry added.

“However, its overall operational design is undermined by the Ukrainian pressure against its northern and southern flanks, and by severe shortages of munitions and manpower,” it said.

What appears to be a string of recent setbacks for Russia in Ukraine has fuelled speculation about whether Vladimir Putin can survive as country’s leader.

And even if he can, for how long. Not all autocrats lose power after a failed military campaign – Saddam Hussein survived even after Iraq’s disastrous war with Iran – but sooner or later many do, as their authority is so entwined with their nation’s battlefield prowess.

But, the fiercest public criticism of the war in Russia is coming not from the liberal left, but from the nationalist right, writes Mary Dejevsky in Voices.

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Train operations came to a halt in the early hours of Friday near Novyi Oskol, a town in Russia’s Belgorod region that borders Ukraine, when the remains of a missile fell near the railway, according to Reuters.

According to Vyacheslav Gladkov, on the Telegram messaging app, anti-craft defences shot down missiles near Novyi Oskol, a town of about 18,000 people which lies about 90 kilometres (56 miles) to the north of the border with Ukraine.

“Power lines are damaged. Trains are temporarily suspended,” Mr Gladkov said, before adding that there were no casualties.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports. There also apparently no immediate reaction from Kyiv.

Russia said they will give free accommodation to residents of Ukraine’s partially occupied Kherson region who want to evacuate in the face of continuing and sustained Ukrainian military gains along the southern front.

Russian deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin made the announcement after the Russia-backed leader of Kherson - one of four Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Moscow last month - asked the Moscow to organise an evacuation from four cities in the region.

In a video posted online, Vladimir Saldo said: “Cities of the Kherson region - Kherson and Nova Kakhovka, Hola Prystan and Chornobaivka - are subject to daily missile strikes.

“These missile strikes cause serious damage, first and foremost to the residents. Among targets missiles hit are hotels, residential buildings, markets - [places] where there are lots of civilians.”

Mr Saldo said a decision has been made to evacuate Kherson residents to the Russian regions of Rostov, Krasnodar and Stavropol.

They will also be evacuated to the annexed region of Crimea.

“I would like to ask you to help organise this process,” he said. “We, residents of the Kherson region, of course know that Russia doesn’t abandon their own, and Russia always offers a hand.”

Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet will no longer be provided to Ukrainians for free, and has apparently asked the Pentagon to pay for it.

The news comes days after Ukrainian ambassador Andrij Melnyk shot back at the multibillionaire’s proposal that the Russian invasion of Ukraine could be ended by, among other things, formally allowing Russia to annex Crimea.

Mr Musk has said he is “just following [the] recommendation” of the Ukrainian ambassador.

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