The Russian occupiers are continuing the forced evacuation of the civilian population from Kherson region by bus. 70,000 have so far been taken out of the region, personal transportation is prohibited. According to Ukrainian analysts the newly mobilized soldiers who have been dispatched to the front will be installed in the empty homes of the civilians so they can survive the winter and to stop them from fleeing in a Ukrainian counteroffensive towards Kherson.

Iran plans to send more combat drones and new ballistic missile systems to Russia for use in Ukraine, likely further strengthening Russia’s reliance on Iranian-made weapon systems, the Institute for the Study of War writes.

The leaders of the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary group answerable to Vladimir Putin, now have as much political influence in the Kremlin as the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, Russian dissident and former political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky has told a British parliamentary group, The Guardian writes. Wagner Group’s popularity in Russia had surged in recent months since it was able to argue that its existence acted as an alternative to wider mobilisation, Khodorkovsky said. “They are engaged in terrorism and killing”, he said, adding the UK and other countries had been too slow to proscribe the group as such despite its clear “terrorist” activity in Africa. He claimed 700,000 people had left Russia after the mobilisation and said this represented “a serious blow to Putin’s defence industry and for the economy of Russia”, potentially a more significant blow to Russia’s economy than any normal sanctions imposed by the west. Khodorkovsky urged the UK to take in many of these Russian exiles saying: “These people are the most active and educated people.”

Meanwhile the legal firm McCue Jury and Partners has requested to give evidence before Britain’s Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry on ‘The Wagner Group and beyond: proxy Private Military Companies’. “This case is initially limited to a small group of claimants and will be funded through crowdfunding. Depending on the extent of the funds the victims can raise to support their action (and its broader civil society lawfare campaign), it could turn into a billion-pound reparations claim once the full mass of potential claimants are joined. The case could then expand beyond Prigozhin and Wagner to include the likes of Putin himself, as well as his kleptocratic cronies who have supported his illegal war. This lawfare claim has the potential to frustrate Prigozhin, Wagner, and Putin’s war machine and provide much-needed reparations-style compensation for those who have suffered so much,” McCue Jury and Partners say.

Turkish-flagged ships will continue to export Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea after Russia withdrew from the UN-sponsored grain deal, Turkey’s Minister of Defence Hulusi Akar told his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in a telephone conversation, msb.gov.tr reports.