Ukraine-Russia war: Kherson braces for battle; Erdogan to speak with Putin, Zelensky

Russia has issued an evacuation order for a large area of Ukraine along the eastern bank of the Dnipro River. According to Kyiv, this order amounts to the forcible depopulation of an occupied territory.

On Tuesday, Russian-installed officials announced that they had expanded that order to include a 15 km (9 km) buffer zone along the east bank as well.

Earlier Russia issued an order for citizens to leave a region on the west bank of the river that it controls and where Ukrainian forces were advancing to take the city of Kherson.

It has been several months since the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been raging on and scores of civilians have lost their lives in the conflict. As the war drags on, the use of drones in the conflict is only increasing. Watch this video to find out how Starlink is offering Ukrainian soldiers an edge over Russian troops.

On Tuesday, a Russian court fined the proprietor of Wikipedia two million roubles (around $32,600) for articles about Moscow's offensive on its neighbour Ukraine.

The company claimed that it was fined by the Tagansky District Court of Moscow for refusing to delete two entries about the nation's military incursion in Ukraine.

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Russia ordered civilians to leave a swath of Ukraine along the eastern bank of the Dnipro River. It  is a major extension of an evacuation order, but Kyiv says it amounts to the forced depopulation of occupied territory. 

Previously, Russia ordered civilians out of a pocket it controls on the west bank of the river. Russian-installed officials said on Tuesday they were now extending that order to a 15-km (9-mile) buffer zone along the east bank too. 

Vladimir Saldo, Russian-installed head of occupied Kherson province, said in a video message: "Due to the possibility of the use of prohibited methods of war by the Ukrainian regime, as well as information that Kyiv is preparing a massive missile strike on the Kakhovka hydroelectric station, there is an immediate danger of the Kherson region being flooded." 

"The decision (to expand the evacuation zone) will make it possible to create a layered defence in order to repel Ukrainian attacks and protect civilians," he said.

The streets of the Russian-held port of Kherson in southern Ukraine were virtually empty on Monday (October 31) as Ukrainian forces closed in.

Many shops and businesses have been shuttered and, at a jetty on the banks of the Dnipro River, a handful of people board a ferry to leave.

With Ukrainian forces advancing to the north and east of the strategic city, Russian-installed officials there have evacuated tens of thousands of civilians in recent weeks.

The Russian forces fired four missiles at Ukraine's southern city of Mykolaiv around midnight, Mykolaiv Governor Vitali Kim said on Telegram. One person was killed, several buildings were destroyed, and a number of houses sustained damage, Kim said.

Three grain-loaded cargo ships left Ukrainian ports on Tuesday, according to the centre overseeing the implementation of a deal brokered by Turkey and the UN. 

The Kremlin on Tuesday accused the United Kingdom of "directing and coordinating" explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

"Our intelligence services have data indicating that British military specialists were directing and coordinating the attack," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

"There is evidence that Britain is involved in sabotage, in a terrorist attack on vital energy infrastructure, not Russian, but international." 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will speak with Russian and Ukrainian counterparts regarding the grain export deal.

"Our President will speak with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky in the coming days," Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters. "We believe we will overcome this ... (the grain deal) benefits everyone."

Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich said that Monday's bombardment on Kyiv was "one of the most massive shellings of our territory by the army of the Russian Federation".