Ukraine’s officials claim to have discovered ‘torture chamber’ used by Russian troops – as it happened

It’s slightly past 11pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:

• Germany has delivered four more Gepard anti-aircraft guns and 65 refrigerators to Ukraine, the German government announced on Wednesday. The 4 additional Gepard units now brings the total number of Gepard units provided by Germany to Ukraine to 24.

• Kremlin sources “are now working to clear [Russian President Vladimir] Putin of any responsibly of the defeat, instead blaming the loss of almost all of occupied Kharkiv Oblast on underinformed military advisors,” according to The Institute of the Study of War. In a statement reported by CNBC, the institute said that “Kremlin officials and state media propagandists are extensively discussing the reasons for the Russian defeat in Kharkiv Oblast, a marked change from their previous pattern of reporting on exaggerated or fabricated Russian successes with limited detail.”

• The prospects for peace in Ukraine are currently “minimal,” the UN secretary-general said on Wednesday after a telephone conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin. “I have the feeling we are still far away from peace. I would be lying if I would say it could happen soon,” Guterres said, adding, “I have no illusion; at the present moment the chances of a peace deal are minimal,” he added, noting that even a ceasefire is “not in sight.”

• Russian president Vladimir Putin still believes he was right to launch an invasion of Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday after a 90-minute-long telephone call with the Russian president. “Sadly, I cannot tell you that the impression has grown that it was a mistake to begin this war,” Scholz said in a press briefing.

Germany has delivered four more Gepard anti-aircraft guns and 65 refrigerators to Ukraine, the German government announced on Wednesday.

The Gepard anti-aircraft self-propelled gun can fire 35 mm shells at a rate of up to 1,000 rounds per minute.

The 4 additional Gepard units now brings the total number of Gepard units provided by Germany to Ukraine to 24.

“Under the 2022 budget process, the funds for the security capacity building initiative were increased to a total of 2 billion euros for the year 2022. The additional funds are to be used primarily to support Ukraine,” the German government said in a statement.

“At the same time, they will be used to finance Germany’s increased mandatory contributions to the European Peace Facility (EPF), which in turn goes towards reimbursing EU member states for costs incurred to them in providing support for Ukraine,” it added.

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Kremlin sources “are now working to clear [Russian President Vladimir] Putin of any responsibly of the defeat, instead blaming the loss of almost all of occupied Kharkiv Oblast on underinformed military advisors,” according to The Institute of the Study of War.

In a statement reported by CNBC, the institute said that “Kremlin officials and state media propagandists are extensively discussing the reasons for the Russian defeat in Kharkiv Oblast, a marked change from their previous pattern of reporting on exaggerated or fabricated Russian successes with limited detail.”

It went on to add that the Kremlin’s acknowledgement of its defeat in Kharkiv is “part of an effort to mitigate and deflect criticism for such a devastating failure away from Russian President Vladimir Putin and onto the Russian Ministry of Defense and the uniformed military command.”

The prospects for peace in Ukraine are currently “minimal,” the UN secretary-general said on Wednesday after a telephone conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Antonio Guterres said he and the Russian president discussed efforts to overcome “obstacles” that remain related to Russia’s food and fertilizer exports, but warned it would be “naive” to believe there has been sufficient progress towards a rapid end to the war in Ukraine.

“I have the feeling we are still far away from peace. I would be lying if I would say it could happen soon,” Guterres said, Agence France-Presse reports.

“I have no illusion; at the present moment the chances of a peace deal are minimal,” he added, noting that even a ceasefire is “not in sight.”

Guterres nevertheless reaffirmed that he was maintaining contact with both sides and expressed hope that “one day it will be possible to go to a higher level of discussion.”

In the meantime talks continue on Russian exports. Guterres said he spoke with Putin earlier Wednesday and that they discussed the exports initiative “and its extension and its possible expansion.”

A two-part agreement - allowing both the flow of Ukraine’s grain exports blocked by the war and Russia’s food and fertilizer exports - was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July and is scheduled to last 120 days.

While some three million tons of grain have been allowed to leave Ukraine, Russia says exports of its own foodstuffs and fertilizer continue to suffer under Western sanctions, which have targeted Moscow for its military assault.

“There are some exports of Russian food and fertilizers but much lower that what is desirable and needed,” Guterres said, adding there is discussion about the possibility of Russian ammonia exports though the Black Sea.

Guterres warned the fertilizer crisis has reached a “dramatic” level, repeating his fears of a global food shortage next year.

Russian president Vladimir Putin still believes he was right to launch an invasion of Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday after a 90-minute-long telephone call with the Russian president.

“Sadly, I cannot tell you that the impression has grown that it was a mistake to begin this war,” Scholz said in a press briefing, Agence France-Presse reports.

“And there was no indication that new attitudes are emerging,” he added at joint press conference with his Georgian counterpart, Irakli Garibashvili.

In the call Tuesday with Putin, Scholz urged the Russian leader to seek a diplomatic solution “based on a ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Russian forces and respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Ukraine.”

The exit of Russian troops from Ukraine was the only way for “peace to have a chance in the region”, Scholz said Wednesday.

While Putin’s positions did not appear to have shifted, the German chancellor said it was necessary to remain in conversation with the Russian leader, saying, “It is right to speak with each other and to say what there is to say on this subject.”

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It is 9pm in Ukraine.

• Eight Russian missiles that struck Kryvyi Rih at about 5pm local time were directed at hydraulic structures, causing enough damage that the water level of the Inhulets river is now rising and posing a serious threat to the city. This aligns with Ukraine’s concerns that Russia will continue to target Ukraine’s infrastructure in retribution for its success in regaining occupied territory. In particular, Kryvyi Rih is the hometown of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

• Speaking of recently regained occupied territory, since 6 September, Ukrainian troops have liberated about 388 settlements, about 8,500 sq km and about 150,000 people. These are updated figures provided by Hanna Maliar, Ukrainian deputy minister of defence, who explained that she is constantly clarifying the figures because the situation is dynamic.

• Meanwhile in these recently liberated territories, authorities are working to restore life back to normalcy, which is a tall order given the devastation the Russian troops left behind. In Balakliia, there is no electricity, no water and only part of the city has gas, said the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. But Ukraine’s national railway was able to run a test train today into a station here today.

• But in the same city of Balakliia, Ukraine’s ministry of defence found what its officials believe to be a “torture chamber” used by Russian troops to hold Ukrainian prisoners. While some Balakliia residents told the Guardian that they had little interaction with the Russian forces, who mostly stayed on edges of the town, and did not experience the scenes of torture and execution seen elsewhere in the country, Serhiy Bolvinov, head of the Kharkiv Region National Police Investigation Department, said that 40 people had been detained during the occupation. One resident told the The BBC that he was held by Russians in the city’s police station for more than 40 days, and was tortured with electrocution.

• Russian troops have returned to Kreminna, a city in the Russian-occupied Luhansk oblast that was “completely empty” yesterday, said Serhiy Hadai, the governor of the Luhansk region, and tore down the Ukrainian flags that local partisans had raised in celebration. Yesterday, a similar situation happened Svatove – Russian troops left, but returned after some time, Hadai said. Russian troops also left Starobilsk, another city in the Luhansk oblast, yesterday, and have so far not returned.

Hanna Maliar, Ukrainian deputy minister of defence, has an updated account of territory regained by Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv region since 6 September:

Since 6 September, Ukrainian troops have liberated about 388 settlements, about 8,500 sq km and about 150,000 people, Maliar said.

“The numbers are constantly being clarified because the process is dynamic,” she explained. “In addition, the liberated territories still need additional security and stabilisation measures in order to safely live there. Therefore, official messages with the figures of discharged settlements are provided with conscious delay and may or may not take into account the stabilisation measures undertaken, and therefore vary.”

She said the front line currently measures at 2,500 km, 1,300 km of which are active combat.

“Yes, we have long waited for this success, but we still have to fight and fight,” Maliar said. “Until a complete victory, we release many more of our people and our lands. We need more time, strength and patience.”

Germany has delivered four more Gepard anti-aircraft vehicles to Ukraine, after receiving criticism that the country was not following through on its commitment to supply Ukraine with weaponry.

Yesterday, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, had harsh words for Germany and German chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Early in the invasion, Scholz had shocked the world by announcing a historic 180-degree policy turn on defence spending and exporting lethal weapons and committing Germany to sending missiles and anti-tank weapons to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression. But six months later, many of those weapons have yet to arrive.

“Disappointing signals from Germany while Ukraine needs Leopards and Marders now – to liberate people and save them from genocide,” Kuleba tweeted. “Not a single rational argument on why these weapons can not be supplied, only abstract fears and excuses. What is Berlin afraid of that Kyiv is not?”

In light of Ukraine’s recent victories in regaining territory, Ukrainian officials have been particularly outspoken on the need for more foreign aid in the form of military weaponry.

The rising water level of the Inhulets river has already swept a bridge away Kryvyi Rih, according to footage over the area. The water is rising because the hydraulic structures that usually keeps the level regular were damaged when they were struck by eight Russian rockets earlier today.

The eight Russian missiles that struck Kryvyi Rih at about 5pm local time were directed at hydraulic structures, and the damage to the structures are now causing the water level of the Inhulets river to rise, posing a serious threat to the city, officials said.

“Today, the Russian troops sent the maximum number of their weapons at hydrotechnical structures,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on Telegram. “The goal is obvious - an attempt to create an emergency situation. It is not important to them whether people will remain without water or whether the city will be in water.”

“This is a terrorist act against our people, against a specific city.”

“They need our panic, in which it will be difficult to make decisions. So don’t panic,” Tymoshenko said. “Services are already eliminating the consequences of the missile strikes, and the military administration is coordinating the work on the spot. The main thing is that there are no victims among the civilian population. We will restore the rest.”

Kryvyi Rih is a populous city in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast in central Ukraine. It is the hometown of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

It appears that today’s missile strikes on Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast were aimed at the city’s waterworks. This attack aligns with Ukraine’s concern that Russia will continue to target the country’s infrastructure in retribution for Ukraine’s continued success in recapturing occupied territories.

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces reported today that Russia forces hit civilian infrastructure of more than 15 settlements in the Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts.

“In total, during the current day, eight rockets, four air strikes and 15 shelling from the enemy’s battalion-fire jet systems were counted,” the general staff posted on Telegram.

A lot of work lies ahead for the newly liberated territories of the Kharkiv oblast – currently in Balakliia, there is no electricity, no water and only part of the city has gas, said the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

“Demining of the most important objects of the city’s critical infrastructure has already started today, to enable other emergency and utility services to work to restore safe and normal living conditions for its residents,” officials said.

In a very sweet moment between mother and son, Vyacheslav Zadorenko, the mayor of the Kharkiv suburb Derhachi, reunites with his mother after her village of Kozacha was liberated following six months of Russian occupation.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said troops have so far liberated 8,000 sq km in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv in a counteroffensive launched in early September.

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Russia missiles strike Kryvyi Rih, a populous city in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast in southeast Ukraine, said Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the military administration of Kryvyi Rih.

“We are all in shelters!” Vilkul posted on Telegram. “Another launch of rockets in our direction.”

Ukraine’s ministry of defence has posted what its officials believe to be a “torture chamber” used by Russian troops to hold Ukrainian prisoners in the recently liberated Balakliia in the Kharkiv oblast.

The cell has the Lord’s Prayer craved into the wall in Ukrainian.

With about 8,000 sq km (3,100 square miles) recaptured so far, authorities have repeatedly warned of the horrors that the Russian troops likely left behind. After liberating the Kyiv region, Ukrainian forces uncovered a number of war crimes, including mass graves and bodies of civilians that bore the signs of torture. They expect to find the same in the Kharkiv region.

Balakliia residents told the Guardian that they had little interaction with the Russian forces, who mostly stayed on edges of the town. Although they lived amid a near information vacuum – with patchy phone signal, no mobile internet or wifi and TV for most of the period – and had to get by without basic utilities and cope with looting by Russian forces and the terror of shelling, they did not experience the scenes of torture and execution seen elsewhere in the country.

But Serhiy Bolvinov, head of the Kharkiv Region National Police Investigation Department, said that 40 people had been detained during the occupation. One resident told the The BBC that he was held by Russians in the city’s police station for more than 40 days, and was tortured with electrocution. The man, identified only as Artem, said he could hear screams of pain and terror coming from other cells.

“They made me hold two wires,” he said.

“There was an electric generator. The faster it went, the higher the voltage. They said, ‘if you let it go, you are finished’. Then they started asking questions. They said I was lying, and they started spinning it even more and the voltage increased.”

Artem told us he was detained because the Russians found a picture of his brother, a soldier, in uniform. Another man from Balakliia was held for 25 days because he had the Ukrainian flag, Artem said.

Ukraine’s national railway ran a test train today into a station in Balakliia in the Kharkiv oblast, less than a week after Ukraine’s dramatic counter-offensive led to the liberation of more than 8,000 sq km of the region, which had been living under Russian occupation for almost the entirety of the invasion.

Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv oblast, said on Telegram that returning “liberated towns and villages to normal life” was a priority at the moment.

“Currently, our main priority is to carry out demining, restore critical infrastructure and provide public services - payment of pensions, social benefits, etc,” he said. “I am sure that normal life will return…very soon.”

Russian troops have returned to Kreminna, a city in the Russian-occupied Luhansk oblast that was “completely empty” yesterday, said Serhiy Hadai, the governor of the Luhansk region, and tore down the Ukrainian flags that local partisans had raised in celebration.

Yesterday, a similar situation happened Svatove – Russian troops left, but returned after some time, Hadai said. Russian troops also left Starobilsk, another city in the Luhansk oblast, yesterday, and have so far not returned.

“We are only waiting for…the (Ukrainian) military,” Hadai said on Telegram.

Like in other parts of the Luhansk oblast, Russian troops have cut off the mobile Internet in Kerminna and other occupied territories “so that people could not transmit information to us,” Hadai said.

Hadai warned that occupied territories were experiencing a shortage of fuel due to the large-scale exodus of Russian occupiers and collaborators.

The Kremlin has given a predictably lukewarm reaction to the draft set of security guarantees published by the Ukrainian President’s office yesterday.

Co-authored by the former Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and Volodomyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, the report said Ukraine’s allies should commit to legally binding large-scale weapons transfers and multi-decade investment in the country’s defences, as an alternative to Kyiv’s long-term aspirations to join Nato.

Today Reuters reports that Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia viewed the document negatively, saying the idea of Ukraine joining Nato was “the main threat to Russia”:

“It once again emphasises the relevance and urgent need for us to ensure our own security and our own national interests.”

Peskov also criticised Kyiv’s use of Western support to guarantee its security, saying Zelenskiy could boost Ukraine’s security by giving in to Russian demands right away.

“The leadership of Ukraine must take actions that eliminate the threat to Russia, and they know perfectly well what those actions must be,” he said.

He did not provide any details.