Russia’s defense minister held a rare telephone talk with his US counterpart on Friday, after Russian-installed officials said they were turning Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson into a “fortress” as Kyiv’s forces advance.
Few details emerged of the conversation between Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, but both sides confirmed they had discussed Ukraine.
“Topical issues of international security, including the situation in Ukraine, were discussed,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said.
Photo: AP
“Secretary Austin emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid the ongoing war against Ukraine,” a Washington spokesman said.
It was only the second call between the ministers since Moscow invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Austin in May had urged Moscow to implement an “immediate ceasefire.”
At the time, Russia’s invading force had been beaten back from Kyiv, but were making steady gains in the eastern Donbas and Kharkiv regions, and had consolidated their position in the south.
Six months on, however, Ukraine’s forces have pushed back.
Kyiv’s forces in recent weeks — aided by Western weapons — have been advancing along the west bank of the Dnieper River toward the region’s main city, also called Kherson.
Being the first major city to fall to Moscow’s troops, retaking it would be a major prize in Ukraine’s counter-offensive.
Kyiv on Friday said it had retaken 88 towns and villages in the region since launching its offensive to retake Kherson in the late summer, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed the capture of Russian arms by his forces in the region.
Moscow-installed authorities in the region on Friday accused Kyiv’s forces of attacking a bridge being used by civilians.
“Four people were killed,” Russian-installed official Kirill Stremousov wrote on social media. “The city of Kherson, like a fortress, is preparing for its defense.”
Russian investigators said later that two of the dead were journalists, and 13 people had been wounded.
Ukrainian military spokeswoman Nataliya Gumenyuk denied that Kyiv’s forces were responsible, saying they did not target local populations.
Kyiv has denounced the organized movement of Kherson residents to Russia and other Moscow-controlled regions, calling them “deportations” of Ukrainian citizens.
Zelenskiy told European leaders on Thursday that Russian forces had stripped the nearby Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant with the intent of blowing it up.
Its destruction could cause flash-flooding that would affect hundreds of thousands of people, he said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal on Friday called for an international monitoring mission at the dam.
Cutting water supplies to the south could also hit the cooling systems of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, he added.
Both sides have accused the other of repeatedly shelling the facility, endangering operations.
Ukraine’s push in the south comes after a sweeping counter-offensive in the northeast Kharkiv region that has badly impaired Russia’s supply routes and logistics corridors in the eastern Donbas region.
However, Russian forces have continued shelling the region’s largest city, Kharkiv, and the Ukrainian president’s office said six people were wounded Friday when “industrial infrastructure” was hit in the city.
The president’s office also said that Russian forces were shelling sections along the entire front line of Donbas, and that two had been killed in the Donetsk region.
Zelenskiy on Friday accused Russia of “deliberately delaying the passage of ships” exporting grain from Ukrainian ports bound for countries in Africa and Asia.
“Russia is doing everything to ensure that at least hundreds of thousands of these people become forced migrants, who will seek asylum” or “die of hunger,” he said in his nightly video address.
More than 150 ships had been affected, he said, listing Algeria, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia among the countries hit by the delays.
Turkey and the UN in July brokered a landmark deal with Moscow and Kyiv that designated three Black Sea ports for Ukraine to send much-needed grain supplies through a Russian blockade.
Russia said that its own exports have suffered, and contended that most deliveries were arriving within Europe, rather than going to poor countries where grain is most needed.
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