Russia Ukraine war live: Kyiv’s troops face ‘hell fire’ after crossing key river

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes Russia is stockpiling missiles to attack Ukraine’s energy system, as it did last year.

Speaking at the German-Ukrainian Municipal Partnerships Conference, he urged for further assistance as Ukraine approaches its second winter of full-scale war.

One person has been killed and a further seven people have been injured in a Russian missile strike on Wednesday morning, the Ukrainian regional governor said.

Governor Yuriy Malashko said Russia fired three missiles at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia earlier and hit a civilian facility.

He added that houses, cars and outhouses near the strike sites were damaged by a blast wave and debris in an attack that lasted about half an hour.

“As of this moment, we know of one person killed and seven injured, including women,” Mr Malashko said on Telegram messenger.

Moscow denies targeting civilians.

The latest pictures from Ukraine show residents of Selydove – a town in eastern Ukraine – in the aftermath of Russian bombing.

At least one person was killed in the shelling overnight.

President Vladimir Putin is expected to announce his presidential candidacy before the end of 2023, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said.

Russia is set to hold elections in March 2024, with sources telling Reuters that Putin is expected to run and stay in power until at least 2023.

In their latest defence intelligence update, the UK said Putin is “likely to announce his candidacy before the end of 2023”.

Russian forces are likely trying to regain the theatre-level initiative un Ukraine, according to a war-monitoring think tank.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Putin’s army will attempt this by conducting several simultaneous offensive operations in eastern Ukraine.

A theatre in warfare is an area in which important military events occur or are in progress

The ISW says it remains unclear if Russian forces will be able to fully regain the initiative as Ukrainian forces maintain pressure on critical areas of the front.

Several Ukrainian officials noted that the situation along the frontline is complex but that Ukrainian forces maintain control of the battlespace.

The Russian military has pinned down Ukrainian forces who crossed onto the eastern bank of the River Dnipro in southern Ukraine and is raining “Hell fire” on them, Vladimir Saldo, a Russian-installed official, said on Wednesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had secured a foothold on the east bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region.

Ukraine‘s shipments of food by road decreased 2.7% in the first 13 days of November due to difficulties on the Polish border caused by a drivers’ strike, brokers said on Wednesday.

Spike Brokers, which regularly tracks and publishes export statistics in Ukraine, said on the Telegram messaging app that 220,000 metric tons of agricultural goods were exported by truck from Nov. 1-13, versus 226,000 tons in same period in October.

“The passage of vehicles through customs checkpoints on the border with Poland decreased to 4,000 tons of cargo per day, compared to the peak of 7,500 tons per day a month earlier,” Spike Brokers said.

Polish truckers last week blocked roads to three border crossings with Ukraine to protest against what they see as government inaction over a loss of business to foreign competitors since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday Kyiv and Warsaw again failed to reach an agreement to stop the protest.

Pope Francis on Wednesday called on the faithful to pray regularly for peace in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan and all other war-torn places.

“Let us pray, brothers and sisters, for peace, in a special way for martyred Ukraine, it is suffering a lot. And then the Holy Land, Palestine and Israel, and let’s not forget Sudan,” Francis said during his weekly audience in St Peter’s Square.

“Let us think (about) all places where there is war, there are many wars. Let us pray for peace, every day someone should take some time to pray for peace,” he added.

The Vatican has offered to mediate in both the Russian-Ukrainian and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, but its efforts have so far not proved successful.

Ukraine’s forces in the south have “gained a foothold” on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in a significant step for Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russia, according to president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff.

The Dnipro River in the Kherson region has been one of the key battlegrounds of the conflict, with Russia crossing from the eastern bank to seize Kherson city in the early days of Mr Putin’s invasion only to abandon the regional capital late last year.

Though they lost ground in the area and retreated back across the river, Russia has maintained a consistent troop presence on the eastern bank, hemming in the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

“Against all odds, Ukraine’s Defence Forces have gained a foothold on the left (east) bank of the Dnipro,” said Mr Yermak.

“Step by step, they are demilitarising Crimea. We have covered 70 per cent of the distance. And our counteroffensive is developing,” he told the Hudson Institute think-tank in the US in remarks posted on Mr Zelensky’s website.

At least one person was killed in an overnight Russian missile strike that hit an apartment building in eastern Ukraine, authorities said on Wednesday.

Five others, including a child, were rescued but at least one person is believed to be trapped under the rubble, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on the Telegram messaging app.

The attack on the town of Selydove, northwest of the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, heavily damaged a four-storey building, Klymenko said.

Rescuers early on Wednesday were clearing the rubble and warned residents against approaching the building, which appeared to have been obliterated by the impact.