NOVEMBER 3 (Portal) – Russian attacks have been reported in large areas of Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said, with heavy shelling and rocket attacks in numerous regions damaging infrastructure, including power supplies to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
STRUGGLE
* Europe’s largest nuclear power plant was again disconnected from the grid after Russian shelling damaged remaining high-voltage lines, leaving only diesel generators, Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom said.
* Russia ordered civilians to evacuate an area along the east bank of the Dnipro River in Ukraine’s Kherson province, an extension of an evacuation order that Kyiv said amounts to forced depopulation of occupied territories.
* The streets and boulevards of the Russian-controlled port of Kherson are virtually deserted. Many shops and businesses are closed. Evacuations have increased as Ukrainian forces advanced north and east of the strategically important city.
GRAIN DEAL
* The Russian delegation resumed work at the Joint Coordination Center (JCC), which runs the Black Sea grain transactions in Istanbul, and participated in ship inspections on Thursday, the UN secretariat at the center said. Russia said Wednesday it would resume participation in a deal to unblock vital grain exports from Ukraine after suspending it over the weekend, and said it had received guarantees from Ukraine that it would not use the Black Sea Grain Corridor for military purposes operations against Russia.
* Ukraine said it has not made any commitments to Russia beyond the terms of the Black Sea Grains Initiative agreed in July in a bid to persuade Moscow to resume its participation in the deal.
* Moscow called on the United Nations to help fulfill parts of the deal aimed at facilitating Russia’s food and fertilizer exports.
DIPLOMACY
* Russia has subpoenaed the British ambassador over Moscow’s allegation that British naval personnel were involved in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.
* The foreign ministers of the G7 group of rich democracies will discuss how further support for Ukraine can best be coordinated at their further meeting in Germany.
* G20 summit host Indonesia is waiting to see if Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend, the Indonesian foreign minister said, adding that preparations for the meeting were particularly strained by differences over Ukraine.
QUOTE
“The entire front line is under constant fire 24/7,” Donetsk region governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told Ukrainian television.
“In Avdiivka, in Maryinka, in Krasnohorivka there is practically not a single apartment that has not been damaged. Selydove, even closer to the front, was hit directly this week. The enemy’s artillery attack tactics strategy is to destroy these cities and then erase them from the face of the earth. Nothing else works for them.”
Compiled by Angus MacSwan and Lincoln Feast; Edited by Gerry Doyle and Simon Cameron-Moore
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