Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

Belarus’ announcement of a new Belarus-Russia Group of Forces on its territory with as many as 15,000 Russian troops and 70,000 Belarussian troops may be an exaggeration used to distract, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence update.

“On 15 October 2022, the Belarussian authorities released a video claiming to show the arrival of Russian troops in Belarus. However, to date it is unlikely that Russia has actually deployed a significant number of extra troops into Belarus,” the ministry wrote in a Twitter post.

“Russia is unlikely to be able to generate combat-ready formations of the claimed size: its forces are committed in Ukraine. The Belarussian military highly likely maintains minimal capability to undertake complex operations,” it said.

The announcement, it claimed, “is likely an attempt to demonstrate Russian-Belarussian solidarity and to convince Ukraine to divert forces to guard the northern border.”

— Natasha Turak

A Russian court ordered the arrest of Marina Ovsyannikova, the TV reporter working for state news outlet Channel One Russia who made a high-profile criticism of the war on live television in March.

After spending years working for the country’s state news outlets, Ovsyannikova later said she felt “ashamed of working for Kremlin propaganda.” The act that prompted her initial house arrest was when she held up a poster during a live on-air nightly broadcast that read, in a mix of Russian and English, “No war” and “Stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, you are being lied to. Russians against war.”

“With regard to Ovsyannikova, the court ordered her held in custody for one month and 29 days, imposed from the moment the accused is extradited to the Russian Federation or from the moment of her arrest in the Russian Federation,” court officials said, according to local news agency Interfax.

Ovsyannikova was already under house arrest, but her lawyer said she has fled the country.

The Kremlin announced a law shortly after it began its invasion of Ukraine that outlawed any spreading of “false information” about the war, which it calls its “special military operation,” with penalties of up to 15 years in prison.

— Natasha Turak

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is warning that Russia may attack a hydroelectric dam in Kherson, where a growing Ukrainian counteroffensive is taking place.

Zelenskyy alleged that Russian forces have planted mines at the dam, which would threaten the entire canal network that stretches some 250 miles (402 km).

“Russia is preparing (to attack) the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plan,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address. “According to our information, the aggregates and dam of the Kakhovka HPP were mined by Russian terrorists.”

He warned that this would create “a catastrophe on a grand scale,” and added, “With this terrorist attack, they can destroy, among other things… supplying water from the Dnipro River to Crimea. In the event of the destruction of the Kakhovka HPP dam, the North Crimean canal will simply disappear.”

Russian forces have occupied the region in the country’s south since the early months of the war and Moscow illegally annexed the territory in early October, but its forces are now ordering civilians to evacuate as renewed conflict draws nearer.

— Natasha Turak

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on continued coordination to address the urgent security and humanitarian crises in Ukraine.

“Secretary Blinken and Secretary-General Guterres emphasized the importance of safeguarding UN principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, especially in light of Russia’s illegal attempted annexation of Ukraine’s territory,” according to a State Department readout of the call.

— Amanda Macias

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defese Minister Sergei Shoigu meet soldiers during a visit at a military training center of the Western Military District for mobilized reservists, outside the town of Ryazan.

— Mikhail Klimentyev | AFP | Getty Images