In the event of a possible withdrawal from Cherson, the Russian army will have to rely on wobbly bridges. Significant power supply restrictions are imminent in Ukraine from Thursday. Citizens are encouraged to save electricity. The Ukraine war here in the ticker.
9 p.m.: Almost eight months after the start of the war in Ukraine, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin had himself filmed shooting with a sniper rifle at a military training area for the first time.
Russian state television showed on Thursday how the commander-in-chief fired the Dragunov-type weapon while lying under a camouflage net. He then spoke to soldiers in the Ryazan area, about 200 kilometers south-east of Moscow. Together with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin also demonstratively checked the equipment of the fighters in front of the camera.
The visit came amid criticism of poor preparation of Russian soldiers for the war in Ukraine. For example, the wives of recruits complain that their husbands are sent to the front with almost no equipment. For example, soldiers would have to buy backpacks, medicines, thermal underwear and socks themselves.
Defense Minister Shoigu was seen at Putin’s side for the first time in a while. His absence from the public had fueled speculation about a loss of power.
Shoigu informed Putin in Ryazan, among other things, about the training for soldiers who had been drafted into the army after partial mobilization, it said. Each soldier uses at least 600 rounds of ammunition and throws five hand grenades while preparing for war, the Defense Ministry said in Moscow.
1:18 p.m .: In new attacks on Ukraine, the Russian military claims to have fired again on the energy infrastructure and army positions. The power plants had been attacked from the air with high-precision weapons, said the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, on Thursday in Moscow. Ukraine has been complaining about increased shelling from the Russian side in the war for days. According to the government in Kyiv, around 40 percent of the energy infrastructure has now been damaged by missiles and drones.
“All targeted objects were hit,” Konashenkov said in a report on the situation in the war. There were attacks in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Cherson regions. Many people in Ukraine are without electricity because of the Russian attacks on power plants, among other things. The government in Kyiv had called for electricity savings.
According to Konashenkov’s military report, Ukrainian forces continued to advance in the Kherson region, which was largely controlled by Russian troops. The Ukrainian military suffered heavy blows during Russian tank attacks, and the units in Kiev subsequently disbanded, the Russian officer claimed. The Russian positions would be held. Information from the war zones is difficult to verify.
10:06 a.m .: According to British military experts, the Russian leadership is considering a major withdrawal of its troops from the area around the Ukrainian city of Cherson west of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine. That emerges from the daily intelligence update of the Ministry of Defense in London on Thursday.
However, such a project is made more difficult by the fact that all permanent bridges over the one-kilometer-wide river are badly damaged, the message said. Russia would most likely have to rely heavily on a temporary barge bridge recently completed near Kherson and military pontoon ferries, British experts say.
Thursday, October 20, 3:30 a.m.: According to Netblocks, an internet surveillance group, internet connectivity in several Ukrainian cities is limited due to massive power outages. According to a tweet from Netblocks, connectivity in Kyiv fell to 81 percent of normal levels. The hardest-hit cities were Bucha, Irpin and Brovary, where internet access was below 70 percent of its normal level.
The power outages are a consequence of Russia’s massive attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and are timed.
9:36 p.m .: The Russian attacks on Ukraine have apparently hit the country’s energy infrastructure sensitively. As a result, starting tomorrow, Thursday (October 20), electricity consumption is to be severely restricted, reports the “Kyiv Independent”, citing statements by the deputy head of the Presidential Office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko. Accordingly, there could now be regular power outages if consumption were not resolutely throttled.
4:27 p.m.: Ukrainian forces have already shot down over 220 Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drones. “Since the first launch of an Iranian Kamikaze Shahed-136 drone on the territory of Ukraine by October 19, the air defense defenses of the Ukrainian Air Force and other components of the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed 223 drones of this type,” the press service quoted “Ukrainska Pravda” as saying of the Urcain Air Force.
October 19, 2:50 p.m.: Ukraine has reported more Russian missile attacks on central regions of the country. The authorities said that the Vinnytsia area was shot at on Wednesday afternoon. There were initially no details about the damage or casualties.
Explosion noises could also be heard in Kyiv, as reported by a dpa reporter in the capital. According to the regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba, the Ukrainian air defense was active. Ukrainian forces reported that Russia fired rockets and combat drones at Kyiv from the territory of its ally Belarus. Information from the war zones is difficult to verify.
Two Russian missiles are said to have been intercepted in the Chernihiv region north of Kyiv. In the meantime, there was again an air alert across the country.
For about a week and a half, Russia has again been bombarding the neighboring country with rockets and drones. Almost eight months after the start of the war, Moscow says it is primarily targeting the Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Residential houses were also hit several times. According to information from Kyiv, more than 70 people have already died as a result of the latest wave of attacks.
11:35 p.m.: Other personnel at the Russian-occupied Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia have been arrested. This was reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on Tuesday evening. A deputy manager of the nuclear power plant and two other employees were recently arrested. While the manager has been released, the others are not yet free, it said.
The head of the plant had previously been temporarily detained by the Russian side. He was released in early October.
Several IAEA experts are constantly in the nuclear power plant to monitor the situation in Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. They reported on Tuesday that the last remaining main power line for cooling the fuel rods was cut for the third time in ten days, but was restored on Monday.
3:33 p.m .: According to Ukrainian information, the ongoing Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy supply facilities have meant that more than 1,100 places in the country are without electricity. This was announced by the presidential office in Kyiv in the afternoon. President Zelenskyy had previously said that the attacks destroyed 30 percent of all electricity plants within a week.
You can read more reports on the Ukraine conflict on the following pages.
