October 5, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Kyiv's forces continue to press forward with territorial gains in the south and east of the country, including in the regions Russia claims it is annexing.

Here's how the state of control looks right now:

The Russian military lacks the manpower necessary to hold off a further Ukrainian advance into the Luhansk region, a correspondent embedded with the Russian military in the occupied city of Svatove said on Tuesday evening.

“The Russian troops do not have enough manpower to stop the enemy attacks,” Alexander Kots, for Russian pro-government tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda said in a video posted to Telegram. “The recent Russian losses are directly connected to that. It’s a very difficult period of time on the front line at the moment.”

He said that “we expect a serious fighting here very soon,” and that “it remains to be seen if it could stop the enemy advances.”

Kots confirmed that Russian forces were trying to fortify their defense at the line connecting the occupied cities of Kreminna and Svatova. Yuriy Podolyaka, a pro-Russian military blogger said on Monday that Russian troops had withdrawn to the Zherebets River, which runs just west of Kreminna and Svatova.

“The enemy is concentrating its forces to attack Svatove from two directions,” Kots said on Tuesday. “The enemy artillery is reaching and working over the Kreminna-Svatove road and its sabotage and reconnaissance groups can operate there. This area is being fortified by the Russian troops who dig trenches and place land mines.”

He said that Ukrainian forces are “on the high and enjoying a numeric advantage.”

“They don’t have problems with the intelligence data or high precision weapons which they are constantly using. We are just waiting for our reserves to become fighting fit and join the battle.”

Moscow refrained from giving a concrete answer when asked how the borders of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions should be defined under the Kremlin's newly-signed claimed illegal annexations.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said "certain territories there are still to be returned," following rapid advances by Ukrainian forces in the south. 

When asked by CNN how he would interpret the language of the laws signed by Putin earlier Wednesday, which refers to the borders of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions as "the territory which existed on the day of its adoption in the Russian Federation," Peskov said: "I will leave this question unanswered."

When asked by CNN if he can provide any comment at all for better understanding, Peskov said: "You should read the decree, there is a legal wording there. On the whole, of course, we are talking about the territory in which the military-civilian administration operated at the time of its adoption (as part of the Russian Federation)."

When asked again by CNN if this should to be read as the territory captured by Russian troops as of September 30, Peskov said: "(You should stick to) what is written in the decree. But I repeat once again: Certain territories there are still to be returned, and we continue to consult with those populations that will express a desire to live with Russia."

Asked one more time by CNN whether any additional laws would be required to include those areas into the Russian Federation, or whether they would automatically be included as part of the regions under the signed laws, if and when they are “returned," Peskov said: "For now, I have nothing to add."

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law the documents on the illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions on Wednesday, completing the last step of the annexation process, based on the Russian legal system. The annexation is illegal under international law. 

Putin's move comes as Ukrainian forces continue to press forward with territorial gains in the south and east, including in the regions Russia claims it is annexing.

The "de-occupation" of Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region "has begun," according to a regional official.

“Several settlements have already been liberated from the Russian army, from the Russian occupiers,” Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk region's Ukrainian military administration, said on national television Wednesday.

“All those soldiers realize that a counterattack is just inevitable, they are being defeated.”

After regaining the key eastern city of Lyman, in the Donetsk region, over the weekend, Ukrainian forces have continued their counteroffensive, pushing into the Luhansk region, pro-Russian officials and propagandists said on Monday. 

Russia controls nearly all of Ukraine’s Luhansk region. Ukrainian forces liberated the Luhansk village of Bilohorivka at the end of September.

Hayday urged residents who fled their homes earlier this year not to try to return. 

“I’d like to appeal to everyone,” he said. “First, do not get ahead of yourselves, do not rush to bring stuff and come back. We will let you know when and where exactly you can return. Because it is necessary that the Armed Forces of Ukraine move the front line further, and only then it will be possible to enter certain settlements. The territory must be demined.”

He also urged residents in occupied areas of Luhansk to try to evacuate away from the front line, or to stay in shelters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday met with his top military and security staff, and considered plans for “further liberation of Ukrainian territories,” according to the president's office.

“Those present heard information from the intelligence, the headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the commanders of the operational directions about the situation at the front and the latest actions of the enemy,” the readout of the meeting read.

“They also discussed the issue of stabilizing the situation in the newly de-occupied areas. Plans regarding further liberation of Ukrainian territories were also considered.”

The participants also “focused on the issue of countering new types of weapons used by the Russian army.”

Among those present were Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhny, and Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate Kyrylo Budanov.

Ukrainian forces are making gains in the east as well as in the south, where they are piercing through Moscow's defenses in the Kherson region.

Earlier Wednesday, Zelensky said that in the Kherson region the towns of Liubymivka, Khreshchenivka, Zolota Balka, Biliaiivka, Ukraiinka, Velyka, Mala Oleksandrivka and Davydiv Brid had all been liberated, “and this is not a complete list.”

Kherson is one of the four regions in Ukraine that Russia has announced it is annexing, in violation of international law.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law measures that claim to annex four Ukrainian regions, in violation of international law.

Ukrainian forces have gained ground in the south, pushing even further toward the Russian-occupied city of Kherson.

Here are the latest developments:

Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who held up an anti-war poster on Russian state TV, has confirmed that she has left her court-ordered house arrest.

“I consider myself absolutely not guilty and because of our country's refusal to execute its own laws, I refuse as of 30 September 2022 to observe my pre-trial restriction in a form of a house arrest and I free myself from all that,” Ovsyannikova said in a statement on her Telegram channel. 

A court in August placed her under house arrest until October 9, charging her with disseminating false information about the Russian Armed Forces, TASS reported.

Ovsyannikova, a former employee of Russia Channel One, interrupted a broadcast in March holding up a sign that read: "NO WAR. Stop the war. Do not believe propaganda they tell you lies here.”

At the time, Ovsyannikova told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that many Russian journalists see a disconnect between reality and what is presented on the country’s television channels, saying "it was simply impossible to stay silent.”

“Dear law enforcers, please put this type of bracelet on Putin as it’s he who should be isolated from society and not me. Putin should be put on trial for the genocide against the people of Ukraine and mass murder of Russia’s male population," Ovsyannikova said in a separate video on Telegram on Wednesday while pointing to a monitoring bracelet on her ankle.

Russia’s military leadership has “no idea about the number of victims among the civilian population” in Ukraine," Ovsyannikova added.

“Мaybe some judge's, prosecutor's or investigator's conscience will wake up and they will stop calling the children who died in Ukraine fakes,” she said. “And they will stop prosecuting me for telling the truth.”

“I've spent almost two months under house arrest," she continued, adding that the whole time investigators have been referring to the words of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his spokesperson Major-General Igor Konashenkov, "trying to pretend that not a single child died during the war in Ukraine.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has designated "acting heads" of four illegally annexed Ukrainian regions, according to Russian state news agency TASS. 

The four newly appointed leaders will govern until official heads for the regions are elected in accordance with Russian law, TASS reported Wednesday. 

All four acting heads are the same officials who led the regions under Russian occupation before Putin signed into law the annexation documents, which are in violation of international law. 

Denis Pushilin became acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Leonid Pasechnik is now acting head of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), according to TASS. Yevgeny Balitsky will be the acting governor in the Zaporizhzhia region, and Vladimir Saldo is now the acting governor in the Kherson region.

The four officials signed the so-called treaties on the accession of the four respective regions into Russia on September 30 during a ceremony in the Kremlin.

European Union member states have agreed on a fresh round of sanctions against Russia, according to the Czech Presidency of the EU Council.

“Ambassadors reached a political agreement on new sanctions against Russia -- a strong EU response to Putin's illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories,” the Czech Presidency tweeted Wednesday.

The eighth package of sanctions against Russia -- which was proposed by the European Commission last week -- will include an oil price cap, among other measures.

The package will include prohibition of maritime transport of Russian oil to third countries above the oil price cap, an extended import ban on goods and a ban on providing IT, engineering and legal services to Russian entities, the presidency added.

It will also include new criteria for sanctions circumvention.

“Ambassadors have been working hard on this. Last night they were working, and the committee continued this morning," the bloc's top diplomat Josep Borrell said at the EU Parliament earlier Wednesday.

The package is expected to be published later today.

The agreement follows a proposal from the European Commission last week, ahead of Moscow's illegal annexation of four regions in Ukraine.

Other Western allies have also leveled new sanctions against Russia in the wake of Putin's announcement.

The White House announced it was imposing "swift and severe costs" on Russia on Friday, including sanctions against the head of Russia's central bank, Elvira Nabiullina, a figure the Biden administration said is key to the country's economy.

The UK has unveiled new bans on exports of goods and services to Russia. On Tuesday, it also added Sergei Vladimirovich Yeliseyev, the deputy prime minister of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and the head of Moscow-backed authorities in Kherson, to its list of sanctioned individuals.