Russia-Ukraine war live news: many Russian reservists ‘likely’ buying their own body armour, says UK | Ukraine

The Associated Press has reported on the role of Ukraine’s minesweepers, which you can read here:

Beside an abandoned Russian military camp in eastern Ukraine, the body of a man lay decomposing in the grass – a civilian who had fallen victim to a tripwire land mine set by retreating Russian forces.

Nearby, a group of Ukrainian minesweepers with the country’s territorial defense forces worked to clear the area of dozens of other deadly mines and unexploded ordnance – a push to restore a semblance of safety to the cities, towns and countryside in a region that spent months under Russian occupation.

The deminers, part of the 113th Kharkiv Defense Brigade of Ukraine’s territorial defense forces, walked deep into fallow agricultural lands on Thursday along a muddy road between fields of dead sunflowers overgrown with high weeds.

Two soldiers, each with a metal detector in hand, slowly advanced up the road, scanning the ground and waiting for the devices to give a signal. When one detector emitted a high tone, a soldier knelt to inspect the mud and grass, probing it with a metal rod to see what might be buried just below the surface.

The detector’s hit could indicate a spent shell casing, a piece of rusting iron or a discarded aluminum can. Or, it could be an active land mine.

Oleksii Dokuchaev, the commander of the minesweeper brigade based in the eastern Kharkiv region, said that hundreds of mines have already been discharged in the area around the village of Hrakove where they were working, but that the danger of mines across Ukraine will persist for years to come.

“One year of war equals 10 years of demining,” Dokuchaev said. “Even now we are still finding munitions from World War II, and in this war they’re being planted left and right.”

Russian forces hastily fled the Kharkiv region in early September after a rapid counteroffensive by Ukraine’s military retook hundreds of square miles of territory following months of Russian occupation.
While many settlements in the region have finally achieved some measure of safety after fierce battles reduced many of them to rubble, Russian land mines remain an ever-present threat in both urban and rural environments.

Small red signs bearing a white skull and crossbones line many of the roads in the Kharkiv region, warning of the danger of mines just off the pavement. Yet sometimes, desperation drives local residents into the minefields.

The local man whose body lay near the abandoned Russian camp was likely searching for food left behind by the invading soldiers, Dokuchaev said, an additional danger posed by the hunger experienced by many in Ukraine’s devastated regions.

The use of the kind of tripwire land mines which killed him is prohibited under the 1997 Ottawa Treaty – of which Russia is not a signatory – which regulates the use of anti-personnel land mines, he said.

“There are rules of war. The Ottawa Convention says that it’s forbidden to place mines or any other munitions with tripwires. But Russians ignore it,” he said.

Here is a roundup of what we know on day 234 of the invasion.

The United States has warned it can impose sanctions on people, countries and companies that provide ammunition to Russia or support its military-industrial complex, as Washington seeks to increase pressure on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

Reuters reported that the US deputy Treasury secretary, Wally Adeyemo, told a meeting of officials from 32 countries to discuss sanctions on Russia that the department would issue guidance on Friday making clear that Washington was “willing and able” to impose such a crackdown.

The first such gathering on sanctions on Russia included officials from countries in the European Union, Canada and South Korea.

International Monetary Fund member countries issued a near-unanimous call for Russia to end its war in Ukraine, the IMF’s steering committee chair said on Friday, calling the conflict the single biggest factor fueling inflation and slowing the global economy.

But Reuters also reported that Nadia Calvino, Spain’s economy minister, told a news conference that Russia had again blocked consensus on issuing a joint communique during a meeting of the international monetary and financial committee.

Calvino said the call for an end to the war was stronger than at IMF and World Bank meetings in April as the conflict causes food and energy insecurity, rising prices and financial stability risks.

The IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said:

It is very clear for just on a human level, practical level, objective level: stop the war. Stop the war. This is the most straightforward way to get the world economy in better shape. Stop the war.

Georgieva’s sentiments were echoed by the US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, who said at a separate news conference that in thinking about economic responses, “it’s obvious what the most important is, and everyone agrees Russia should stop its war on Ukraine”.

Russia’s opposition to such calls forced the IMF steering committee to issue a chair’s statement, Calvino said, adding that it reflected strong agreement on many economic issues.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine was “stronger than ever” and would emerge victorious in its war with Russia, as Ukraine marked its first Defenders Day since Moscow invaded.

The Ukrainian president said in a video address to mark the public holiday on Friday:

On October 14 we express our gratitude … gratitude to everyone who fought for Ukraine in the past, and to everyone who is fighting for it now; to all who won then, and to everyone who will definitely win now.

Agence France-Presse also quoted Zelenskiy as saying in respect of western aid:

The world is with us, more than ever. This makes us stronger than ever in history.

The president’s address came as Vladimir Putin said Moscow was “doing everything right” in its war in Ukraine, despite defeats in which Kyiv’s forces have been clawing back territory in the east and south.

Vladimir Putin has said Moscow is “doing everything right” in its war in Ukraine despite a string of embarrassing defeats.

The Russian president’s comments on Friday came hours after Kremlin-installed officials in the southern region of Kherson urged residents to leave after Kyiv said its forces were advancing on the region’s main city of Kherson, Agence France-Presse reported.

Moscow also hinted at the extent of the damage dealt to the Crimea bridge connecting to Russia following an explosion last weekend, saying it could take many months to complete repairs.

Putin said after a summit in the Kazakhstan capital:

What is happening today is not pleasant. But all the same [if Russia hadn’t attacked in February] we would have been in the same situation, only the conditions would have been worse for us. So we’re doing everything right.

He acknowledged, however, that Russia’s ex-Soviet allies were “worried”.

Many Russian reservists ‘likely’ buying own body armour, says UK MoD

Summary