ANNEXATION

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday night that his military had taken back dozens of towns in regions in the south and east that Russia has declared annexed.

Reuters could not independently verify his statements.

“This week alone, since the Russian pseudo-referendum, dozens of population centers have been liberated. These are in Kherson, Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions all together,” Zelensky said.

Moscow moved ahead with its annexation plan after holding what it called referendums over several days from September 23 – votes that were denounced by Kyiv and Western governments as illegal and coercive.

The European Union agreed a new package of sanctions on Wednesday to punish Russia for the annexation plan. The measures include more restrictions in trade with Russia in steel and tech products, and an oil price cap for Russian seaborne crude deliveries through European insurers to align the bloc with Washington.

Zelensky earlier met Ukraine’s top military officials to discuss their next steps, including to counter new types of weapons used by Russia, a probable reference

to Iranian-made drones.

The Ukrainian air force said 12 drones had attacked from the south overnight, six of which had been shot down.

ENERGY, NUCLEAR WRANGLES

Moscow, which has cut gas supplies to Europe blaming Western sanctions and technical difficulties, has started withdrawing gas from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany, which never entered into service due to East-West tensions, and redirecting it to Russia, Denmark said.

Gazprom had filled the pipeline, one string of which was unscathed despite mysterious underwater explosions last month which damaged the other string, in case it ever became operational. Gazprom said a day earlier it planned to empty the string of gas to check its integrity.

In a tussle for control over Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s biggest, the head of Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company said he was taking charge of it and urged workers not to sign any documents with its Russian occupiers.

Energoatom chief Petro Kotin made his comments in a video address posted on the Telegram messaging app after Russia said it planned to supervise the plant’s operations.

The dispute erupted after Russian forces briefly

detained the Ukrainian who had been in charge of the plant, where Ukrainian staff are still working. The UN nuclear watchdog said he had been released but would not return to his job.

On the battlefield, Russian forces who have been forced to retreat in recent days have dug in at new positions where they hope to halt the Ukrainian advance, Ukrainian and Russian officials have said.

Russian defense ministry maps presented on Tuesday also appeared to show rapid withdrawals of Russian forces from areas in eastern and southern Ukraine where they have been under severe pressure from the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

In the east, Ukrainian forces have been expanding an offensive after capturing the main Russian bastion in the north of Donetsk, the town of Lyman.

The southern Operational Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) said that in some areas of the front line, Ukraine had extended the area held by up to 20 km.

Russian forces were destroying their reserves of ammunition and trying to destroy bridges and crossings in order to slow the Ukrainian advance, the UAF said in its daily report.

In Kherson, withdrawing Russian forces were planting mines on “infrastructure facilities” and in homes, it said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces were holding positions in Kherson region and “repelling attacks by superior enemy forces.”

Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the eastern Luhansk region, told Ukrainian TV that there was heavy fighting there.

“This is not a military parade. It’s war, and unfortunately our guys are also being killed,” Gaidai said. •