Heading towards World War III?

The relocation of civilians from a potential combat zone in Kherson region was announced by Vladimir Saldo, the caretaker governor of the new Russian region of Kherson, on Tuesday.

The move comes amid speculation surrounding a new Ukrainian offensive and warnings about possible attempts by Kiev to destroy the dam of a local hydroelectric power plant, he explained.

“There is an immediate danger of flooding in the territories due to the planned destruction of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric dam and release of water from a cascade of power plants upstream of the Dnepr River,” Saldo said.

The decision comes as the Russian military is reinforcing its positions in the region, Saldo explained. The relocation will help avoid mass civilian casualties from the ongoing hostilities and enable “the Russian troops to perform their duties in defending Kherson Region.”

This decision has been prompted by the creation

www.rt.com/russia/564930-kherson-region-civilians-fighting

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has rebuffed a Ukrainian request for missile defense systems made after Russia recently stepped up missile and drone strikes on the country.

“I want to make it clear that we are not selling weapons to Ukraine,” Gantz told the radio station Kol Chai on Tuesday.

“I am the defense minister, and I am responsible for the export of Israeli weapons,” he stated, adding that the country will continue to only send medical and humanitarian aid to Kiev.

Gantz’s remarks came after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on Tuesday that Kiev would formally request that Israel “immediately” deliver air defense systems to Ukraine and share military technology.

www.rt.com/news/564977-israel-rejects-ukraine-weapons

A claim by House minority leader Kevin McCarthy that Republicans could curb US support for Ukraine if they win the midterm elections on November 8 has caught Kiev by surprise, David Arakhamia, who heads President Vladimir Zelensky’s party in parliament, has revealed.

Earlier this week, McCarthy said that while still being “important,” helping Ukraine in its conflict against Russia couldn’t remain the dominating issue on the agenda in Washington anymore. “I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine. They just won’t do it,” he told Punchbowl News. According to a report by Axios on Wednesday, such a sentiment is shared by many other GOP lawmakers.

“We were shocked to hear these comments of Mr McCarthy, honestly,” Arakhamia said in an interview with the Financial Times on Wednesday.

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The US has been Ukraine’s strongest backer since the outbreak of its conflict with Russia in late February, providing Kiev with weapons, funds and intelligence. Washington has already supplied $16.8 billion in military aid to Zelensky’s government, including sophisticated hardware such as HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, M777 howitzers, and combat drones.

Moscow has criticized those deliveries, saying they only prolong the fighting and increase the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

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The European Union has adopted a new set of sanctions targeting Iranian officials and one entity for allegedly supplying Russia with ‘kamikaze’ drones that have been used against Ukrainian forces in recent weeks. Both Moscow and Tehran have repeatedly denied the allegations.

After three days of talks, the Czech presidency of the EU Council said on Thursday that the new anti-Iran sanctions were approved “in record time.” The measures have now officially come into force after being published in the EU’s Official Journal, the bloc’s legal register for EU regulations.

The sanctions will freeze the assets of three Iranian generals and drone maker Shahed Aviation Industries. The EU claims they are responsible for delivering Shahed-136 suicide drones to Russia, which allegedly rebranded them as Geran-2 (Geranium-2). The bloc says it is also prepared to “extend sanctions to four more Iranian entities that are already featured in a previous sanction list.”

Moscow, meanwhile, has maintained that all weapons used by Russian troops on the battlefield in Ukraine, including the Geran-2 UAVs, are from domestic stockpiles and has repeatedly dismissed accusations from American, European and Ukrainian officials of using Iranian-supplied drones. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that Russia acquired as many as 2,400 of the UAVs.

Tehran has also denied delivering its domestically-produced drones to Russia. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ridiculed the West for now claiming Iran’s drones are “dangerous” when it had previously dismissed the country’s UAV program as a propaganda stunt.

Last month, Ukraine cut diplomatic ties with Iran over the alleged supply of weapons to Russia. Washington, meanwhile, has accused Tehran of violating the terms of the 2015 UN Security Council resolution that imposed an embargo on Iranian arms exports.

www.rt.com/news/565043-eu-iran-drone-sanctions

A Russian Su-27 fighter jet fired a missile near a British Boeing RC-135 reconnaissance plane over international waters in the Black Sea, Defense Minister, Ben Wallace told Parliament on Thursday. According to Wallace, the missile release was accidental and Moscow blamed it on a technical malfunction.

The run-in between the spy plane and the fighter jet occurred on September 29. Following the incident, London temporarily suspended patrols and expressed concerns to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, Wallace noted.

“A reply by the Russian Minister of Defense on the 10th of October, stated that they have conducted an investigation into the circumstances of the incident and stated it was a technical malfunction of the Su-27 fighter,” he revealed, adding that Moscow “acknowledged that the incident took place in international airspace.”

British spy planes are now flying with fighter jet escorts to provide them with better security, the minister noted.

So far, Russia has remained silent on the alleged run-in and has not produced any public statements on the incident.

In 2021, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, the number of reconnaissance flights staged by NATO in the Black Sea Region increased by more than 60% compared to 2020.

The latest encounter involving British aircraft took place last August when a MiG-31BM interceptor chased an RC-135 surveillance plane from Russian airspace over the Barents Sea near the city of Murmansk.

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Air strikes have hit critical infrastructure in central and western Ukraine, as Russia continues to target the country's energy grid.

Sites to the south and west of Kyiv have been struck and power cuts have been reported across the country.

Ukrainian officials say many Russian cruise missiles have been intercepted by air defence systems.

Almost a third of the country's power stations have been destroyed in a wave of air strikes since Monday last week.

On Saturday Ukrainian officials said "critical infrastructure" had been hit in the Cherkasy region, south-east of the capital Kyiv. A huge fire has been reported near the town of Smila.

There have been blackouts in Khmelnytskyi, further west. Air strikes and power disruptions are also being reported from Odesa in the south to Rivne and Lutsk in the north-west.

The Ukrainian energy distribution company said it would limit electricity supply in several regions, including Kyiv.

The government introduced restrictions on the use of power for the first time on Thursday.

Ukraine's air force command said its defence systems had destroyed 18 Russian cruise missiles launched on Saturday morning.

The latest wave of strikes have also wrecked many homes
President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has said Russia is hoping to stop Ukraine's liberation of territories by striking targets behind the front lines. But, he added, the attacks would only lead to an even stronger response.

On Friday Mr Zelensky accused Russia of planting mines at a hydroelectric dam in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, which is under the control of Moscow's forces.

He said that if the Kakhovka hydropower plant was destroyed, hundreds of thousands of people would be in danger of flooding. Russia has denied planning to blow up the dam and said Ukraine was firing missiles at it.

Neither side produced evidence to support their claims.

The dam may provide Russia with one of the few remaining routes across the Dnipro River - also known as Dnieper - in the partially occupied Kherson region.

Russia is evacuating civilians from the areas under its control, in expectation of a Ukrainian offensive to take the city.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63357393