Russia’s defense minister said 82,000 conscripts had already been sent UkraineIt represented what the West called a desperate attempt to stop a counterattack by Kevin with poorly trained troops.
Sergei Shoigu told the president. Vladimir PutinAnother 218,000 are training in the camps, and although the figures cited cannot be verified, the controversial “partial mobilization” has ended.
The meeting between the two was broadcast on Russian state television, with Shoigu telling Putin: “The task you set (gathering) 300,000 people is complete. No further action is planned.
After Ukraine won a series of victories in the northwest near Kharkiv, it prompted some Russians to protest and an emergency draft began in September. Others escape Country. Dozens of conscripts were killed after being thrown to the front to protect more experienced troops in the rear.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Friday that Russia was seeking to consolidate existing gains after eight months of hard-fought warfare.
But despite critical analysis, as autumn turns to winter, there are signs that Russia’s use of conscripts has slowed Ukraine’s progress in the east and south of the country.
Serhii Haidai, the Ukrainian governor of the eastern Luhansk region, said in a television interview that “the advance of Ukrainian troops is not going as fast as we would like” because Russia was able to recover and dig in its reserves.
Thousands of conscripts were stationed in places like Pakmut, where they were quickly killed or wounded after being thrown into battle against dug-in Ukrainians, Haidai said. “The average ‘stack life’ of mobilized personnel is about two weeks,” the governor added.
Ukraine’s civil servants said Friday that 1,000 Russian conscripts had been sent across the Dnipro River to reinforce Kherson, proving the Kremlin is unwilling to give up the city without some sort of fight. The troops will be billeted in the houses of the residents who have left the war.
A week earlier, Russia appeared to fear losing the city and moved its commanding officers to the east bank of the river. Evacuation of citizensAn exercise that Ukraine has said amounts to forced deportation.
Ukraine recaptured a string of villages near Kherson in early October, but Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov warned earlier this week that autumn rains had “slowed us down a bit” and that progress had become gradual.
Locals say the terrain is particularly difficult between the Ukrainian city of Mykolayiv and Kherson, as the flat land is cut by large irrigation canals, some of which are drained but easily fortified in both.
Western military experts have long predicted a slowdown in fighting in November as heavy rain clogs the ground and makes it difficult for armored vehicles to maneuver on the roads. The battle was not to be resumed until the depth of winter, when the ground was frozen.
The Russian-appointed governor of Kherson said earlier this week that the tomb and remains of Prince Grigory Potemkin, first minister and lover of 18th-century ruler Catherine the Great, had been taken from a cathedral in Kherson and moved deep into the occupied territory.
“We have moved the remains of His Serene Highness Prince Potemkin from St. Catherine’s Church to the left bank,” Volodymyr Zalto said, east of the Dnipro River, according to Russian state news agency.
Another Russian official said the evacuation of civilians from Kherson had been completed. “Work has been completed to organize residents leaving the left bank of the Dnieper to safe areas in Russia,” Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, said late Thursday after a visit to the region.
Ukraine’s air force says it has shot down more than 300 Iranian Shahed-136 ‘kamikaze’ drones so far, although the country believes Russia bought 2,400 of that number from Tehran.
In October, Russia used hard-to-detect drones to help target Ukraine’s power plants and energy grid. Power outages aimed at disrupting power supply are now commonplace in many major cities of the country.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said the city’s power grid was operating in “emergency mode” as electricity supplies had halved compared to pre-war levels. Four hours of blackout It has been announced in and around the capital city.
Oleg Syniehubov, the governor of Kharkiv region, announced in a telegram that the daily one-hour blackouts will begin on Monday, including in the regional capital, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Ukraine’s president’s office said at least four civilians had been killed and 10 wounded in recent Russian attacks, with heavy shelling damaging dozens of residential buildings and power lines near the southern city of Nikopol.
