November 4, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Russia has mobilized an additional 18,000 soldiers above its goal of 300,000 to fight in Ukraine from the general male population, President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

Since issuing a decree near the end of September to bolster Moscow’s forces, 318,000 men have been mobilized in Russia, and 49,000 of them are already in the combat zone fighting, according to Putin. He credited an “inflow of volunteers” who stepped up to fight.  

"We already have 318,000. Why 318,000? Because the volunteers are coming. The number of volunteers is not decreasing," Putin told reporters and volunteers outside of the Kremlin walls.

Last week, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that the mobilization goal of 300,000 recruits has been reached and that the mobilization draft has been completed. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that civilians in the Ukrainian region of Kherson should be evacuated from conflict zones.

"Those who live in Kherson should be removed from the zone of the most dangerous actions, because the civilian population should not suffer,” Putin told a meeting at the Kremlin, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Ukrainian forces are undertaking an offensive on several fronts in Kherson, and Russian-backed officials in the region have told civilians to leave areas on both sides of the Dnieper river, amid signs that Russian forces are trying to improve their defenses in several areas.

About half a million homes in Kyiv were left without power Friday as Moscow intensifies attacks targeting critical civilian infrastructure, sparking fears of a bleak winter in Ukraine.

Here are the latest developments:

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called on Chinese President Xi Jinping to help stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. 

"Russia must immediately stop the attacks, under which the civilian population is suffering daily, and withdraw from Ukraine," Scholz said.

Scholz said he and Xi also discussed nuclear warnings from the Kremlin.

"President Xi and I agree that nuclear threats are not acceptable and dangerous. By using nuclear weapons, Russia would be crossing a line that the international community has drawn together," Scholz said.

The Russian headquarters in Melitopol in southern Ukraine were attacked and destroyed on Thursday, according to the city's mayor.

Melitopol has been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of the invasion.

"The enemy headquarters was destroyed yesterday, where the FSB special forces personnel were located; there are killed and wounded," Ivan Fedorov said in a briefing.

"There was a barracks and equipment. It was one of the hardest targets in terms of reaching it, in terms of the air defense and the location."

It has been extremely difficult for civilians to leave the city, Fedorov added.

"Today 150 to 200 people per day leave through Vasylivka (the only available route from occupied territory to Ukrainian-held areas) compared to 1,000 people as it was."

"To leave Melitopol you need to submit an application, which is considered within a month term. There is a leaving route through Crimea, which takes 3 to 5 days."

Some children are being taken from occupied areas to Crimea and parts of Russia, Fedorov claimed. He said some 300 children had been removed so far.

A shortage of medicines, high prices in pharmacies and unemployment meant that life had become difficult for civilians in the city, according to Fedorov.

"Lots of Melitopol residents are jobless so they are trying to leave."

Civilians in Ukraine are "getting more and more fearful" as Moscow escalates attacks on critical infrastructure, leaving many residents without power.

"We are seeing people actually getting more and more fearful about what an increasingly dark and cold winter might mean," CNN's Christiane Amanpour told Don Lemon on "CNN This Morning" from Kyiv.

The Kremlin's nationwide assault on energy facilities disrupted electricity in almost half a million homes in the capital on Friday, according to the city's mayor.

“450,000 consumers, that is households in Kyiv, are out of power this morning. It is one and a half times more than the recent days,” Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. 

“Stabilization outages are applied due to overloading of the central unit of the country’s energy system. I urge all city residents to save electricity as much as possible because the situation remains difficult.”

The recent strikes came amid an expanding partnership between Iran and Russia in recent months, which has included Tehran dispatching drones and other equipment to Moscow for use in its war in Ukraine.

"If that continues at pace, it's going to be very, very hard for the people here," Amanpour said of the collaboration between both countries.

Some context: Ukraine has been facing a wide Russian assault on critical infrastructure and power sources since early October.

This week alone, attacks on infrastructure in the regions of Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia have left millions without electricity and water intermittently. About 4.5 million Ukrainian consumers were dealing with power outages as of Thursday evening, according to President Volodymr Zelensky.

Iran is seeking Russia's help to bolster its nuclear program, US intelligence officials believe, as Tehran looks for a backup plan should a lasting nuclear deal with world powers fail to materialize. 

The intelligence suggests that Iran has been asking Russia for help acquiring additional nuclear materials and with nuclear fuel fabrication, sources briefed on the matter said. The fuel could help Iran power its nuclear reactors and could potentially further shorten Iran's so-called "breakout time" to create a nuclear weapon.  

Experts emphasized to CNN, however, that the nuclear proliferation risk varies depending on which reactor the fuel is used for. And it is also not clear whether Russia has agreed to help — the Kremlin has long been outwardly opposed to Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. 

But the Iranian proposal has come amid an expanding partnership between Iran and Russia that in recent months has included Iran sending drones and other equipment to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine, and Moscow potentially advising Tehran on how to suppress a protest movement sweeping Iran, US officials said. 

Iran has said its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes and that it formally halted its weapons program, but US officials have stated that Iran's uranium enrichment activities have gone far beyond the parameters of the 2015 nuclear deal and that the amount of time it would take for Iran to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon has shortened to just months. 

In June, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned lawmakers that Iran's nuclear "program is galloping forward ... The longer this goes on, the more the breakout time gets down ... it's now down, by public reports, to a few months at best. And if this continues, it will get down to a matter of weeks."

The Biden administration is watching any new areas of cooperation between Iran and Russia with concern. Any covert Russian assistance to Iran that could boost Iranian efforts to produce a nuclear weapon would also mark a significant shift in Russian policy, given Russia's membership of the P5+1 group of countries that have been part of the negotiations to stymie Iran's nuclear program. 

"As we have said, the JCPOA is not on the agenda," National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson told CNN, referring to the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. "We have been working with partners to expose the growing ties between Iran and Russia — and hold them accountable. We will be firm in countering any cooperation that would be counter to our non-proliferation goals."

The Iranian Mission to the UN and the Russian Foreign Ministry did not return requests for comment. 

Correction: An earlier version of this story has been updated to clarify the description of Iran’s nuclear program. 

Read the full story here.

Russian forces and "collaborators" have begun a census in the southeastern city of Enerhodar, according to Ukrainian authorities.

For the second day running, Russian forces "along with collaborators with the so-called police are doing the door-to-door tours and intercepting people in the courtyards," said Dmytro Orlov, the displaced mayor of Enerhodar.

"This was reported by local residents who had to participate in the ‘census.'"

"In many cases the census ends up with a rummage and browsing through the apps of mobile phones. Please be aware!" he added.

Before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, the population of Enerhodar was about 50,000. The city has been under Russian occupation since early March.

It is adjacent to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which was disconnected from Ukraine's power grid due to shelling from Moscow earlier this week as the Kremlin ramped up strikes targeting critical energy infrastructure.

Russian bombardments some 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the plant had disabled two high voltage transmission lines, according to state nuclear energy company Energoatom.

The plant had gone to "full black-out mode. All 20 diesel generators started operating," Energoatom said.

"Power units 5 and 6 are being transferred to a cold shutdown mode," it added. The other four units were already shut down.

The plant is run by Ukrainian technicians but is under the control of the Russian state nuclear energy operator Rusatom.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday that power had been cut late Wednesday evening and was "now receiving back-up power from its emergency diesel generators, further underlining the extremely precarious nuclear safety and security situation at the facility."

“Despite the best efforts of the plant’s courageous staff to stabilize the external power situation in recent weeks, the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant has again lost all access to off-site electricity," Grossi said.

"For now, it receives the power it needs from the on-site diesel generators. But this is clearly not a sustainable way to operate a major nuclear facility. Measures are needed to prevent a nuclear accident at the site. The establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone is urgently needed."

Russian forces have stepped up attacks in the east of Ukraine using multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), especially in the Donetsk region, according to the Ukrainian military.

On Thursday, Lt. Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, told NATO Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the alliance's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, that "the enemy tripled the intensity of hostilities on certain areas of the front" with up to 80 daily attacks.

But Zaluzhnyi said Ukrainian troops were holding their defensive lines.

He also said he and Cavoli had "discussed the problem of Russian missile attacks and the employment of attack drones."

Artillery fire: The General Staff said recently liberated parts of the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions had come under artillery and mortar fire, and the front lines around the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk had also been active.

There had also been artillery and mortar fire against more than 25 settlements along the front lines in the south, the General Staff said. 

It said the Ukrainian air force had been active Thursday and had "inflicted 21 strikes against the enemy."

"Up to 20 areas of concentration of troops and equipment were hit," the General Staff said.

Alleged looting: The General Staff added there was "an increased movement of trucks and cars with looted property on the roads of Kherson region." It said "significant robberies" are taking place in Beryslav and nearby settlements," including from power grid maintenance enterprises.