The recently liberated city of Kherson is still under Russian shelling. According to their own statements, Ukrainian investigators discovered four torture chambers set up by the occupiers there. Meanwhile, internal e-mails from the Russian secret service FSB surface, in which employees warn of a civil war. The 270th day of the war at a glance.
Heavy fighting in Donbass
According to Kiev sources, Ukrainian and Russian troops are still fighting in the Donbass industrial area in eastern Ukraine. Russia is concentrating its attacks on the cities of Avdiivka and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian general staff said. Elsewhere, the general staff spoke of an "active defense" of the Russian troops - that's where the Ukrainians are apparently attacking. The places Kupjansk and Lyman as well as Novopavliwka and the front in the Zaporizhia region were mentioned. The Russian troops fought back with tanks, mortars, pipe and rocket artillery. The information provided by the Ukrainian military was initially not independently verifiable.
London: Russia prioritizes defense of Swatowe
After retreating across the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, the Russian forces are concentrating on defending the city of Svatove in the east of the country, according to British estimates. There the Russian troops are now most vulnerable, said the Ministry of Defense in London, citing intelligence findings. "As a major population center in the Luhansk region, the Russian leadership will most likely see maintaining control of Svatove as a political priority," it said.
In addition, Russia continues to target the country's civilian infrastructure. According to local authorities, Russia flew an airstrike on the recently liberated city of Kherson. One person died and three others were injured, said the deputy head of the presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, on Telegram.
Ukraine: Torture chambers discovered in Kherson
After the recapture of Cherson, Ukrainian investigators say they discovered four torture sites used by the Russian occupiers. They identified a total of four buildings in which the "Russian occupiers illegally detained and brutally tortured people," said the general public prosecutor's office in Kyiv. During their eight-month occupation of Cherson, Russian forces set up "pseudo-law enforcement agencies" in previous detention centers and police stations.
Kyiv rules out pause in fighting in winter
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense in Kyiv has contradicted speculation by Western media and military officials that there could be a pause in fighting on the fronts in winter. "Anyone who talks about a possible 'pause in hostilities' because of sub-zero winter temperatures has probably never sunbathed on the southern coast of Crimea in January," the agency said on Twitter.
Russian secret service sees danger of civil war
Circles within the Russian secret service FSB apparently fear a civil war in the country. This is reported by the US magazine "Newsweek", citing internal emails from the authority. A whistleblower with the alias "Wind of Change" sent the emails he wrote himself to exiled human rights activist Vladimir Osechkin, who runs the website Gulagu.net. The emails describe conflicts within the Kremlin. The names of the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov are also mentioned.
According to the leaked FSB emails, "there is no model for a 'simple transfer of power'" in Russia. Therefore, how a violent coup could proceed is described: "In the beginning there could be a random uprising, with only looting and a chaotic skirmish between all participants. The struggle of the security authorities against the structures of Prigozhin - a real war against each other - is bad, but generally unavoidable." Another scenario is also discussed: "Or there will be struggles between the regions over the sharing of resources. Or there will be a scramble between different forces for control of regions or parts of the country (Russia)." Russia could collapse in total chaos, it is said.
Putin's bodyguards are training in case of a coup
Bodyguards of Russian President Vladimir Putin are said to have trained in the center of Moscow to thwart a coup. This is reported by the Russian-language investigative platform The Insider. Accordingly, the training took place on October 26 in Moscow. It was said to be "a planned tactical exercise to neutralize terrorist threats and protect the highest levels of government."
According to the insider, this exercise was just a small part of the special measures to be taken in the event that the FSO, the security service guarding the Russian president and government, is put into a state of war. Apparently the Presidential Guard is preparing its staff for a "massive ideological attack," writes the magazine, which says it has a draft of a secret "plan for moral-psychological support in the transition of the FSO's operational command from peacetime to wartime."
Kremlin promises end of mobilizations
The Kremlin has countered fears among the Russian population that a second wave of reservists may be mobilized for the war against Ukraine. In the Kremlin there are "no discussions about it," said spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to Russian news agencies. According to its own statements, Russia had completed the mobilization of 300,000 reservists for the war in Ukraine at the end of October.
Selenskyj calls for NATO help to protect nuclear power plants
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls on NATO to protect Ukraine's Russian-controlled Zaporizhia nuclear power plant from sabotage. Preventing dangerous incidents in Ukrainian nuclear plants is in the interest of all nations, Zelenskyy said in a video message to the NATO parliamentary assembly in Madrid. More than a dozen explosions occurred around the nuclear power plant on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the attacks.
UN wants to investigate shooting video
International investigations have been announced after the emergence of videos allegedly showing the shooting of surrendering Russian fighters by Ukrainian soldiers. Allegations of the execution of people who no longer took part in combat operations should be "investigated promptly, fully and effectively, and the perpetrators held accountable," said a spokeswoman for the UN human rights office in Geneva.
The videos had appeared on social networks in the past week. They show several Russian soldiers - guarded by Ukrainians - lying on the ground. Then shots are heard. Another shot shows almost a dozen bodies. The pictures are said to have been taken in mid-November when the Ukrainian army recaptured the village of Makiivka in the Luhansk region in the east of the country.
Kyiv argues that the killing of the Russians was an act of self-defense because one of the enemy soldiers, instead of lying down with his comrades, suddenly opened fire. By faking their surrender, the Russian militants themselves committed a war crime, said Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets. The Ukrainians merely returned fire - and thus acted correctly.
East Committee: Russia sanctions are working
According to the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, the Western sanctions against Russia are working. An economic decline of four percent this year does not sound like too much, said the committee's managing director, Michael Harms, on ARD. But there will also be a decline next year. "Russia has already been hit hard," Harms continued.
The country's dependence on technology is the "sharpest sword" one has. It deprives Moscow of any development prospects in the medium term. The majority of German businesses therefore continue to support the sanctions. Even if these "also had a major impact" on the German economy, said Harms.
Germany wants to deliver anti-missile defense system to Poland
After the missile impact in south-eastern Poland in connection with the Russian war in Ukraine, the federal government is now also offering the country the Patriot missile defense system to secure the airspace. "We have offered Poland support in securing the airspace - with our Eurofighters and with Patriot air defense systems," said Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht of the "Rheinische Post" and the "General-anzeiger".
Poland welcomed Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht's offer to help the NATO partner with a Patriot defense system. Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said he was "very satisfied" with this. He wants to propose locating the Patriot system near Poland's border with Ukraine.
Baerbock promises millions in aid to Moldova
At the Moldova Conference in Paris, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock pledged additional aid from the federal government amounting to a good 32 million euros. These funds are to be used, among other things, to strengthen renewable energies, expand municipal infrastructure and deal with refugees, according to the Greens minister's delegation.
"The people in the country are suffering," said French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna shortly before the start of the conference. She pointed out that Moldova could no longer obtain electricity from the neighboring country because of the Russian attacks on the infrastructure in Ukraine. In addition, Russia has severely restricted its gas supplies to Moldova.
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