Nov 9 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his forces would not yield “a single centimetre” in battles for control of eastern Donetsk region while Russian-installed officials described Ukrainian forces moving into one southern town with tanks.
FIGHTING, CONFLICT
* The focal points of the conflict in the industrial region of Donetsk are around the towns of Bakhmut, Soledar and Avdiivka, the theatre of the heaviest fighting in the country since Russian forces invaded their neighbour in late February.
* On Tuesday night, a Ukrainian military statement accused Russian troops of continuing to loot and destroy infrastructure in the southern city of Kherson, where a showdown has been looming for weeks in the only regional capital Russia has captured intact since its invasion.
* Russian artillery hit more than 30 settlements in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, and in Zaporizhzhia region the Russian-installed authorities were forcing residents to accept Russian passports after seizing their Ukrainian documents, the statement said.
* A Russian-installed mayor in the town of Snihurivka east of the southern city of Mykolaiv was cited by Russia’s RIA news agency as saying on Tuesday that residents had seen Ukrainian tanks and that fierce fighting was going on.
Reuters was not able to verify the Ukrainian reports.
* Ukraine has received its first delivery of NASAMS and Apside air defence systems, its defence minister said.
* Putin said 50,000 Russian soldiers called up as part of his mobilisation drive were now fighting with combat units in Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported.
DIPLOMACY
* Ukraine doubled down on its tough stance on negotiations with Russia, saying they could only resume once the Kremlin relinquishes all Ukrainian territory and that Kyiv would fight on even if it is “stabbed in the back” by its allies.
* The main condition for the resumption of negotiations with Russia would be the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, said the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov.
* A senior presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Ukraine had never refused to negotiate with Russia and was ready for talks with its future leader but not with Vladimir Putin. His comments followed a Washington Post report saying the Biden administration was privately encouraging Ukrainian leaders to signal an openness to negotiate.
QUOTES
“The activity of the occupiers remains at an extremely high level – dozens of attacks every day…We will not yield a single centimetre of our land,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
Compiled by Michael Perry; Editing by Lincoln Feast.
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