Russia to help people leave annexed Ukraine region as Kyiv advances

KYIV, Ukraine: Russia agreed on Thursday to help residents leave a region it has “annexed” in a new sign Kyiv´s counter-offensive is advancing, as a top EU official warned Moscow´s army would be “annihilated” by the West if the Kremlin uses nuclear weapons in the war.

Russia´s decision came a day after Kyiv said it had retaken five settlements in the southern Kherson region. “The government took the decision to organise assistance for the departure of residents of the (Kherson) region,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said.

The Moscow-appointed head of the area in southern Ukraine -- which Russia says it has annexed -- had appealed for Russian intervention. Vladimir Saldo suggested residents “leave to other regions to protect themselves from missile strikes”.

Kherson was being hit by an increasing amount of rockets causing “serious damage”, added Saldo, with civilian infrastructure being targeted. Those departing would go to Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014, and southern Russian regions.

Kyiv, which announced its counter-offensive in the south in August, said it has already recaptured over 400 square kilometres in the Kherson region in under a week. The city of Kherson, which lies near Crimea, was the first major Ukrainian city to fall to Russian forces after the February 24 invasion.

In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell sent a strong message to the Kremlin after President Vladimir Putin´s veiled threats of resorting to nuclear weapons to stem growing battlefield losses.

“Putin is saying he is not bluffing. Well, he cannot afford bluffing, and it has to be clear that the people supporting Ukraine and the European Union and the Member States, and the United States and Nato are not bluffing neither,” Borrell said.

“Any nuclear attack against Ukraine will create an answer, not a nuclear answer but such a powerful answer from the military side that the Russian Army will be annihilated,” Borrell added.

The NATO alliance has stopped short of threatening to use its nuclear arsenal to respond as non-member Ukraine is not covered by its mutual self-defence clause. The United States and Nato have steered clear of intervening militarily in the Ukraine conflict for fear of sparking a catastrophic nuclear conflict with Moscow.

In Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended Turkey´s booming trade ties with Moscow during an in-person meeting with Putin on the sidelines of a summit of regional leaders in Kazakhstan.

But Erdogan did not deliver an offer to mediate negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv -- expected by the Kremlin.

Comments between the leaders made no mention of Ukraine and focussed instead on economic ties. Putin proposed to create a “gas hub” in Turkey as Russia´s supplies to Europe have been disrupted by Ukraine-related sanctions.

Nato member Turkey has sought to retain dialogue with its Western allies as well as Moscow, and has not joined sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday stressed the need to punish all Russian “murderers and torturers” and appealed for more air defence systems to fight Moscow´s renewed offensive.Zelensky told the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that bringing the offenders to book was necessary to ensure lasting peace on the continent.

“We must continue our dialogue in order to hold Russia as the aggressor state and each of the Russian murderers and torturers to account for all crimes in this war, for every manifestation of terror,” he said via video link.