Russian military bosses talked about nukes…
They have been veto’d by Putin ….
Again….
Grain shipments have not been stopped….
The Ukraine may have had to give up attacking the Russian Black Sea Fleet ships…
Russia is having issues with actions against it away from the front battle lines and has begun to pull assets back to cover….
Winter is coming to the Ukraine….
Here’s what we know:
Moscow announced that it was resuming its participation in an international agreement aimed at helping countries facing acute food shortages.
-
Russia rejoins the grain deal, days after pausing its involvement.
-
The White House accuses North Korea of secretly supplying Russia with artillery shells.
-
As winter approaches, Ukraine braces for the worst.
-
Kyiv says it is preparing 425 shelters in case of a Russian nuclear attack.
-
Russian generals have had discussions about using nuclear weapons in Ukraine, U.S. officials say.
-
Blackouts shroud the Kyiv night in mystery and apprehension….
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
- The resumption of Russia’s participation in the grain initiative comes after Moscow suspended it following an attack on its Black Sea fleet that it blames on Ukraine. Russia said over the weekend that it had halted its participation in the deal for an “indefinite term” as it could not “guarantee the safety of civilian ships.” Kyiv has not taken responsibility for the attack.
- Ukraine is imposing hourly power outages in several regions including Kyiv starting Wednesday in order to reduce the load on its networks after Russian attacks damaged power grids. Ukrenergo, the state electricity transmission company, said in a Wednesday Telegram post that the move is also to “ensure sustainable balancing of the energy system and to avoid repeated accidents” after Russian attacks.
- Kyiv, the capital, will install more than 1,000 heating stations across the city this winter amid the threat of more Russian strikes, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The heating points, powered by generators, will provide necessities including heat, water and electricity to residents in the capital, Klitschko said, noting that the city would be prepared should future Russian attacks sever those supplies.
- “Confrontation between the West and the Russian Federation is intensifying,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told military officials from Russia and Belarus in Moscow Wednesday. Shoigu also repeated the unsupported claim that Ukraine is planning to detonate a “dirty bomb,” which Western officials say is untrue.
- One in five Russian conscripts drafted to fight in Ukraine died before reaching the front lines, the independent Novaya Gazeta Europa reported. Kyiv estimates that some 73,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine, though The Washington Post could not independently verify that number. Russian officials recently claimed that around 6,000 Russian soldiers had died so far in the conflict. U.S. officials have cited heavy Russian losses but estimate about half as many deaths as the Ukrainian figure.
- Attacks by Ukrainian partisans are forcing the Kremlin to divert resources away from the front line and curbing its ability to defend against ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensives, “let alone conduct their own offensive operations,” according to analysts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank. At least 11 Russian occupation officials and prominent collaborators have been killed in partisan attacks, according to the ISW.
- Moscow may have stationed a KILLJOY long-range ballistic missile in Belarus for the first time in an attempt to send a message to the West and draw Minsk further into the war, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Tuesday. Satellite imagery from mid-October shows what appears to be a large canister encased within a protective earth berm at Belarus’s Machulishchy Airfield, the ministry said.
- Russia is targeting critical civilian infrastructure to reduce Ukraine’s military capacity, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday — rebuffing accusations that Moscow may be committing war crimes by trying to sever power and heat sources during the winter period….