November 14, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukrainian forces have recaptured 12 settlements in Luhansk since initiating a counteroffensive in September, the top Ukrainian official for the eastern region said Monday.

“The advance is not easy,” said Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional military administration, on national television. “Every meter passed in the Luhansk region is a continuous struggle for the AFU [Armed Forces of Ukraine].”

The Ukrainian military began a slow probe into the Luhansk region in September, after a rapid advance in the neighboring Kharkiv region.

The village of Makiivka was liberated Sunday, according to the military administration, and Ukrainian forces have in recent weeks been pushing towards the road connecting Svatove and Kreminna. For several weeks, they have said that the road is under their "fire control," meaning that the Russian military can only use it with a high risk of coming under fire.

“There is heavy fighting in Luhansk region every day,” Hayday said. “The recently de-occupied settlements are being heavily shelled.”

“The occupiers know exactly where they are firing, as they were knocked out of these settlements a few days ago and they know how many civilians are there and where they are. That is why we are trying to establish evacuation.”

When Russian forces invaded their country in late February, Vladimir Bespalov and Maria Bespalaya feared their long-held dream of starting a family through adoption was over.

Instead, the situation pushed the couple to try to do it sooner, he said. “We were waiting to earn more money, have a better car, buy a house, and build something to give our children first. But when the war started, we thought why not adopt a child now and accomplish these things together as a family.”

That day, the married couple, who were living in eastern Ukraine, posted an appeal on social media.

“We want to adopt any boy or girl, any newborn or child,” it read.

Weeks later that message would reach a volunteer helping those fleeing Mariupol, a southern city that became emblematic of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ruthless campaign to take Ukrainian land, no matter the cost.

Residents were forced underground for weeks while Russian troops pummeled the city with artillery. It is now a virtual wasteland, with nearly every building damaged or destroyed, and an unknown number of dead beneath the rubble.

Among the survivors was 6-year-old Ilya Kostushevich, orphaned and alone. Both his parents were killed in the first week of the war.

His mother was struck down by Russian artillery after she left home to find food for her family, Bespalov and Bespalaya were later to learn from police.

Unaware of his wife’s fate, Ilya’s father went looking for her the next day, only to be killed by shelling from Moscow’s army, too, police said.

Little Ilya has told how he was left at a neighbor’s house, where he sheltered in a cold, dark basement with strangers for weeks.

He got so hungry he started to eat his toys, Bespalaya said.

Read more here.

The Ukrainian military on Monday warned that Russia may be planning to step up attacks on newly liberated parts of the southern Kherson region.

On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned the situation in Kherson "is still very dangerous," adding that the “detention of Russian soldiers and mercenaries who were left behind, and neutralization of saboteurs, are also ongoing.”

In its update Monday, the General staff said the threat from mines "remains high" in liberated parts of Kherson.

“Units of the Defense Forces continue to carry out stabilization measures,” it said.

The warning comes after a family of four, including an 11-year-old child, were injured in an explosion after their car hit a mine in Kherson on Sunday, according to Ukrainian officials.

A family of four people traveling by car was injured in a mine explosion Sunday in an area of the southern Kherson region formerly occupied by Russian troops, according to a top Ukrainian official.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the President’s Office, said an 11-year-old child was among those wounded.

Some context: On Saturday, crowds celebrated the liberation of Kherson city after Ukrainian forces swept into the regional capital and Russian troops retreated to the east. But life remains far from normal, with authorities warning residents to be wary of explosives littering the city, and Russian forces still nearby — just across the strategically important Dnipro River.

The mayor of the southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, says Russian forces have turned the city into a "huge military base" while under their occupation.

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

Fedorov also reported that “civilians are prohibited from approaching the area of ​​the Melitopol airfield.” 

Investigators have uncovered more than 400 cases of alleged Russian war crimes in the Kherson region since the exit of Moscow's forces from the area, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday.

The president added that “detention of Russian soldiers and mercenaries who were left behind, and neutralization of saboteurs, are also ongoing.”

Zelensky warned “the situation in the Kherson region is still very dangerous.”

“First of all, there are mines. Unfortunately, one of our sappers was killed, and four others were injured while clearing mines,” he said.

Zelensky was echoing warnings voiced by a local Ukrainian official earlier Sunday, who told Kherson region residents to beware of encounters with Russian soldiers and to look out for mines or missile strikes from Moscow's military.

The Ukrainian military says it has liberated 179 settlements on the west bank of the Dnipro River in the past week.

Meanwhile, military spokesman Vladyslav Nazarov says the Russians "continue defensive operations and the construction of fortifications on the left (east) bank" of the river.

According to Nazarov, Russians have “14 ships on combat duty and one missile carrier equipped with eight cruise missiles ready for use” stationed in the Black Sea. 

Residents of the newly liberated city of Kherson are almost without water and face shortages of bread and medicines, officials warned, as efforts continued Sunday to remove mines and restore critical infrastructure following the withdrawal of Russian forces.

Crowds celebrated the liberation of Kherson on Saturday after Ukrainian forces swept into the city and Russian troops retreated to the east.

But life remains far from normal, with authorities warning residents to be wary of explosives littering the city, and Russian forces still nearby — just across the strategically important Dnipro River.

This is not the end of the struggle against the Russian occupation in the country, reports CNN's Nic Robertson, who witnessed emotional scenes Saturday in Kherson’s central square as residents hailed their liberation.

Read more here.

US National security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday would not comment on the possibility of any European nations declining to participate in the G20 summit in order to send a message to Russia, saying that was not a move he had heard about directly from his European counterparts. 

Sullivan added that Russian President Vladimir Putin virtually participating in the G20 was a “hypothetical” at this point, so he couldn’t comment on what, if any reaction, US President Joe Biden would have if that were to come to fruition. 

Sullivan said US officials did not have any substantive conversations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the ASEAN summit just attended by Biden in Cambodia.