Heading towards World War III?

Russia is sending more troops into the key southern city of Kherson and may be preparing to defend it, Ukraine's spy chief has said.

Ukraine had previously suggested some Russian units might be leaving.

Russia took Kherson in the early days of the war, but has recently come under pressure as Ukrainian troops advance along the Dnipro River.

Russian authorities in the city have ordered thousands of civilians to evacuate.

Kyrylo Budanov, the Ukrainian intelligence chief, dismissed this as an "information operation", telling the Ukrayinska Pravda website Moscow was "trying to create the illusion that everything is lost".

The Russian military is sending in more troops and preparing the streets for defence, he said, adding that the removal of citizens is a pretence to save face in case the city falls to Ukraine.

This is a departure from Kyiv's earlier comments that the invading forces were leaving the city. "They are not preparing to exit now," he said.

The BBC has not verified the precise movements of either sides' troops on the ground. The suggestion that Russian troops are digging in raises the possibility of a fierce fight in the coming weeks.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63377946

Russia is about to greatly enhance its military arsenal, the country’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev, said on Monday, adding that output of tanks, high-precision missiles, drones, and artillery pieces is growing “multifold.”

He made the statement after inspecting the production lines of Russia’s leading arms manufacturer, the Uralvagonzavod tank plant.

Medvedev, who is currently the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, posted a video on Telegram showing him touring the production halls of the plant together with a delegation of government officials. The video also featured dozens of modern T-72B3 and T-90M battle tanks under construction at the facility, including ones that appeared to be in the final assembly stage.

The official said he has repeatedly seen claims by Western analysts “that Russia will soon run out of military equipment and weapons.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” he wrote. “The production of weapons and special equipment is increasing multifold in all directions: from tanks and guns to high-precision missiles and drones. Wait!” Medvedev added.

Last week, President Vladimir Putin established a special Coordination Council tasked with meeting the demands of the Russian military operation in Ukraine. The council is expected to streamline the efforts of the federal and regional authorities to provide troops with equipment and military hardware, as well as logistical support. The president is expected to join a meeting of the council on Tuesday via video link.

Russia is currently locked in a prolonged conflict with Ukraine, which largely relies on military aid from the US and its allies in Europe and elsewhere. In mid-September, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg admitted to CNN that the bloc’s members had significantly depleted their own weapons stockpiles by supplying arms to Ukraine and called for a boost to arms production.

Western nations, the US and Germany in particular, have also been hesitant to supply Kiev with heavy armor, such as battle tanks, despite repeated requests by the Ukrainian government.

www.rt.com/russia/565267-medvedev-russia-increase-production-weapons

Dutch MEP Marcel de Graaff has publicly quit Identity and Democracy, the right-wing parliamentary group that last week handed him a three-month suspension due to his “outrageous” comments against Western involvement in Ukraine on social media, he announced on Monday, denouncing the group’s “attempt to silence me about NATO/Ukraine.”

“There is no room for a different opinion in the ID group,” de Graaff lamented in a press release posted to Twitter. “Members are now forced to follow the position of the parties ruling in their own countries. They have sacrificed their principles for power, but I am not prepared to do that.”

“I am in favor of de-escalating the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and I distance myself from the extremely belligerent position of the ID group,” he said. “We are waging a war that is not ours and our citizens are paying the price.”

De Graaff suggested like-minded MEPs form a group with him based on common points like “ending sanctions and de-escalating the Ukrainian conflict, respect for the autonomy and identity of the EU members states, and no vaccination coercion.” He claimed that while there are others in ID that feel similarly to him, they do not speak up out of “fear that the dominant parties in the group will sanction them.” Those parties include Italy’s La Lega and France’s Rassemblement National, both of which have been inching toward the mainstream Western position on Ukraine.

The FVD (Forum for Democracy) member’s tweets regularly skewer fellow EU nations and the US. In his infamous “Go Putin!” post, he takes the bloc and its overseas ally to task for their alleged role in building a “communist world dictatorship where citizens are digitally controlled.” The rest of the world, he wrote, is cheering for the demise of the US empire.

De Graaff has also accused the US of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines, and NATO of plotting a nuclear first strike.

www.rt.com/news/565276-dutch-mep-degraaff-quits-ukraine

US officials have dismissed the idea of direct talks with Moscow without Kiev’s involvement, after a group of 30 House Democrats wrote a letter urging President Joe Biden to pursue a diplomatic end to the conflict in Ukraine.

“We’ve been very clear: Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday, adding that “this is a decision that President [Vladimir] Zelensky is going to have to make when it comes to any type of conversation with Russia, any type of negotiation.”

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby similarly stated on Monday that the Ukrainians must be part of any future negotiations.

“We’re not going to have conversations with the Russian leadership without the Ukrainians being represented,” Kirby said, as cited by the Washington Post. “Mr. Zelensky gets to determine – because it’s his country – what success looks like and when to negotiate.”

www.rt.com/news/565278-white-house-russia-ukraine-talks

A group of left-wing Democrats in the US Congress has withdrawn a letter that called for a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine.

The Progressive Caucus said the message was being misconstrued as aligned with a growing reluctance in the Republican party to keep sending aid to Kyiv.

Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal said it was drafted "months ago" and that staff released it without it being "vetted".

The memo sparked intra-party backlash before US midterm elections next month.

The letter to the White House was made public on Monday and was signed in June by 30 of President Joe Biden's fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives.

Its call for the US to negotiate directly with Russia was seen as undermining the Biden administration, which has repeatedly said Moscow is not interested in diplomacy.

White House officials said in response that diplomacy is only possible when all sides are prepared to negotiate, and that is not currently the case.

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63394664

The US may send decades-old missiles that its own military no longer uses to Ukraine to provide air defense against Russian missiles, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing two anonymous officials.

The MIM-23 Hawk missile system was introduced in 1960, though it has since been upgraded several times. According to Reuters, Washington may send a few of them to Kiev to see if the stockpile is in good shape after spending years in storage.

The transfer would be done under the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) and could be announced as soon as this week, sources told the news agency.

The HAWK system is a mobile mid-range anti-aircraft weapon with some anti-missile capability, manufactured by US arms giant Raytheon. The Army replaced it with the more advanced MIM-104 Patriot system in the 1990s. The Marine Corps, the last American operator, phased them out in the early 2000s in favor of man-portable FIM-92 Stinger missiles.

Reuters said the HAWKs would be “an upgrade to the Stinger missile systems” which Ukraine received in large numbers from its Western sponsors even before Russia sent troops into the neighboring state. The longer-range Patriot system remains off the table for Ukraine, according to the sources.

The US government previously announced its intention to supply National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) to bolster Ukrainian air defense. NASAMS is a Norwegian system that uses Raytheon-made interceptors and replaced the Norwegian version of HAWK missiles in the 1990s.

www.rt.com/news/565289-hawk-missile-system-ukraine

Romanian Defence Minister Vasile Dincu resigned on Monday citing differences with President Klaus Iohannis over the war in Ukraine.

Speaking in a recent television interview, Dincu said the only path to ending the war lay through negotiations with Russia.

Iohannis responded that the official position of Romania and the European Union was that it was up to Ukraine to decide whether and when to negotiate.

Dincu posted his resignation on Facebook, referring to the "impossibility of cooperation with the Romanian president, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces."

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