Russia-Ukraine WarZelensky Visits Kherson After Russian Retreat Turns River Into New Front Line

Follow live news updates of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Ukraine and Russia trade fire across the Dnipro River as a new front line takes shape.

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Smoke rises near the badly damaged Antonivsky Bridge in Kherson as Russian and Ukrainian troops exchanged artillery fire on Monday.Credit...Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian and Russian forces traded fire on Monday from across the broad expanse of the Dnipro River that now divides them after Russia’s retreat from the southern city of Kherson, reshaping the battlefield with a victory that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, declared marked “the beginning of the end of the war.”

The Dnipro has become the new front line in southern Ukraine, and officials there warned of continued danger from fighting in regions that have already endured months of Russian occupation.

Through the afternoon, artillery fire picked up in a southern district of the city near the destroyed Antonivsky Bridge over the Dnipro, stoking fears that the Russian Army would retaliate for the loss of the city with a bombardment from its new positions on the eastern bank.

Mortar shells struck near the bridge, sending up puffs of smoke. Near the riverfront, incoming rounds rang out with thunderous, metallic booms. It was not immediately possible to assess what had been hit.

The head of the Kherson regional military administration, Yaroslav Yanushevich, urged the tens of thousands of remaining residents in the city to evacuate while Ukrainian forces worked to clear land mines, hunt down Russian soldiers left behind and restore essential services.

The mines are a significant danger. Four people, including an 11-year-old, were killed when a family driving in the village of Novoraysk, outside the city, ran over a mine, Mr. Yanushevich said. Another mine injured six railway workers who were trying to restore service after lines were damaged. And there were at least four more children reportedly injured by mines across the region, Ukrainian officials said in statements.

The deaths underscored the threats still remaining on the ground, even as Mr. Zelensky made a surprise visit to Kherson, a tangible sign of Ukraine’s soaring morale.

“We are, step by step, coming to all of our country,” Mr. Zelensky said in a short appearance in the city’s main square on Monday, as hundreds of jubilant residents celebrated.

Russian forces continued to fire from across the river on towns and villages newly recaptured by Ukrainian forces, according to the Ukrainian military’s southern command. Two Russian missiles struck the town of Beryslav, which is just north of a critical dam, the military said. It was not immediately known if there were any casualties.

The Ukrainian government is setting up evacuation routes to the cities of Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih, said Iryna Vereshchuk, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister. “We will not have time to restore power supplies enough to heat homes where children, the sick and people with reduced mobility live,” she said. “It will not be a mass evacuation. It will cover those who are sick, the elderly and those left without care of their relatives.”

A senior U.S. military official said on Monday that Russian forces continued to target civilian infrastructure, although the pace of missile and drone strikes appeared to have slowed down some since the end of October.

On the Dnipro’s eastern bank, residents described an increasingly repressive environment as Russian soldiers poured into the area.

“Occupants rob local people and exchange stuff for samogon,” or homemade vodka, said one resident, Tatiana, who communicated via a secure messaging app from Oleshky, a town across the river from Kherson City. “Then they get drunk and even more aggressive. We are so scared here.” She asked that her surname be withheld for security.

Other residents on the eastern bank offered similar accounts of disorder and chaos.

“Russians roam around, identify the empty houses and settle there,” Ivan, 45, wrote in a text message. He lives in Skadovsk, which is south of Kherson city, and asked that his surname not be used out of concern for his safety. “We try to connect with the owners and to arrange for someone local to stay in their place. So that it is not abandoned and Russians don’t take it.”

Throughout the weekend, the Ukrainian military sought to target Russian forces as they tried to regroup after their retreat from Kherson. The Ukrainian air force launched strikes on the east side of the river, with the Ukrainian military saying it had fired on 33 Russian positions.

Andrew E. Kramer and Anna Lukinova contributed reporting.

As Ukraine reclaims Kherson, residents describe beatings and theft by Russian soldiers.

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Tanya Lukashuk described how Vyacheslav Lukashuk, her son, was captured and beaten by Russian forces for one week for writing pro-Ukrainian graffiti in Kherson city.Credit...Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
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A line for water, bread and food in Kherson on Monday, after the retreat of Russian soldiers.Credit...Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
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A makeshift charging station in Kherson city on Monday.Credit...Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

Residents of the newly reclaimed city of Kherson on Monday described months of brutality and mistreatment by Russian forces, including the theft of vehicles, beatings and detention for anyone suspected of opposing the nearly nine-month occupation.

In interviews, they described how the Russians rounded up residents, whether for their political views or because they were suspected of belonging to a partisan underground group.

At an open-air street market selling essentials like painkillers and toilet paper that were missing from shops, many residents offered stories of acquaintances detained, with some saying they’d heard of torture.

Vyacheslav Lukashuk, 27, a lanky handyman, said he had wound up face down on the floor of his living room after about a dozen soldiers burst into his home and beat him. They ended up holding him for seven days.

“All I did was write, ‘Glory to Ukraine’ in spray paint on a bus stop,” he said.

The worst abuse occurred in the first minutes, he said. A soldier slipped a plastic bag over his head and clasped it around his neck to suffocate him, and other soldiers kicked him and beat him with rifle butts, he said.

“They just flew in and started beating me,” Mr. Lukashuk said. “I said goodbye to my life at that moment.”

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Mr. Lukashuk in Kherson on Monday. He said he had wound up face down on the floor of his living room after about a dozen soldiers burst into his home and beat himCredit...Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

After he was taken to a jail, Mr. Lukashuk said, other detainees told him they were tortured with electrical shocks, and he could hear screams in the evenings. Mr. Lukashuk said that he was not tortured during his detainment, but that he did confess and apologize for the pro-Ukrainian graffiti — a confession that was posted online along with those of other residents who admitted to pro-Ukrainian activities or views, in an apparent effort to shame or humiliate them.

Mykhail Tkachov, a dealer at a lot that sold new cars and traded used vehicles, said Russian forces had claimed to be there for the residents’ protection but frequently stole from them, particularly targeting vehicles.

Mr. Tkachov said he and his colleagues had scattered an inventory of almost 200 cars across courtyards and street parking places around the city in the first days after the Russian Army arrived. But the Russians detained one of the dealers, and he revealed the locations and handed over the keys.

“People lived like shadows,” afraid to make their presence known, Mr. Tkachov said, while the Russian soldiers made themselves at home.

“I saw eight of them sitting in a cafe right on this street,” he said. “They drove up in civilian cars without license plates, obviously stolen from somebody.”

Serhiy Karasenko, selling home-pickled cauliflower, cabbage and tomatoes at a market stall, said Russian soldiers made off with his car last week, just before fleeing the city. He now carries his wares to the market by taxi. His car, he said, is “gone. I won’t see it again.”

Mr. Tkachov said some people’s cars were stolen at Russian checkpoints. Soldiers took them, ostensibly after finding problems with the Ukrainian registration documents, like a car not registered to the driver. The company-owned car of a friend, he said, was confiscated.

“It’s a business car,” Mr. Tkachov said the man told the soldiers. But he said the soldiers responded, “It’s our business now,” and took the car.

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Zelensky visits a recently recaptured city as Ukrainian forces work to restore services.

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“This war took the best heroes of our country,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said during an unannounced visit to the newly recaptured city of Kherson.CreditCredit...Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

KHERSON, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine made an unannounced visit to the newly freed city of Kherson on Monday, reveling in perhaps the most significant success by his country’s forces since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February.

“This is the beginning of the end of the war,” he said to a crowd of hundreds of people, some wrapped in Ukrainian flags.

The president’s visit to Kherson just days after it was retaken was a tangible sign of Ukraine’s soaring morale and its growing boldness in the nearly nine-month war. Kherson, a vital Black Sea port and a gateway to Crimea, was the first major city to fall to Russian forces after the start of the invasion on Feb. 24. Russia’s decision to withdraw was a major blow to the Kremlin and its ambition to conquer all of southern Ukraine.

At the same time, there were palpable reminders that the conflict was continuing. While he was talking, explosions — possibly Ukrainian forces deactivating mines — echoed in the distance. And Russian forces remained nearby, across the Dnipro River, within striking distance, another reminder of the immediate threat to the civilian population.

Mr. Zelensky was surrounded by dozens of soldiers and police officers carrying rifles, underscoring the daring nature of the visit.

The crowd of several hundred people cheered and shouted “glory to Ukraine.”

The Ukrainian president wore a hooded parka and cargo pants and looked a bit bleary-eyed but defiant. He spoke in front of the Kherson regional administration building, where only a few days ago the tricolors of the Russian flag flew above its imposing facade, and vowed to restore all of the land occupied by Russia to Ukraine.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Mr. Zelensky’s office, posted a video on Twitter of the Ukrainian flag being raised above the city.

Russia captured the Kherson region early in the conflict in March. Last week, the Kremlin ordered the withdrawal of its forces as Ukraine’s military bore down on the city, and later took control. Ukrainian troops arrived in triumph, receiving a hero’s welcome from a population that had lived through months of Russian occupation.

Since September, Ukraine has recaptured territory in the northeast of the country, as well as in the south.

Mr. Zelensky stayed for only about 10 minutes. After he left, the crowd remained.

A satellite dish had been set up in the square, and scores of people continued to try to reach loved ones.

Alina Samofalova, 26, who works at a human resources agency in Kherson and was wearing a yellow and blue flag over her shoulders, came to the main square Monday morning unaware that Mr. Zelensky was on his way.

“I am so excited he came,” said Ms. Samofalova, whose nails were painted yellow. “When the orcs were here, it was a gray mood like a black-and-white movie,” she said, using a common insult to refer to Russian soldiers.

“Now, it is like the sun is shining over the city.”

There is no power, heat, running water or internet, and Ukrainian officials have asked people to leave the city while it is made safe and essential services are restored.

Ms. Samofalova said she came to the square because it had such good energy. The fact that Mr. Zelensky would risk his own safety, she said, sent an important message to the people.

“When the government and president come to hear our problems,” she said, “they seem close to the people.”

Marc Santora, Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Oleksandra Mykolyshyn contributed reporting.

The Pentagon will pay Lockheed Martin more than $520 million to replace guided rockets sent to Ukraine.

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A M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launching a salvo during exercises in Morocco in June.Credit...Fadel Senna/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has awarded more than $520 million in contracts to replace thousands of guided artillery rockets it has sent to Ukraine since June 1, according to a statement emailed to reporters on Monday morning.

The contracts, awarded to the defense contractor Lockheed Martin from Oct. 21 to Nov. 2, are for the purchase of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System munitions — guided artillery rockets fired by mobile launchers called HIMARS — that have been credited with destroying scores of Russia’s command centers as well as its ammunition and supply depots in Ukraine. The munitions are usually called Gimmlers, after the abbreviation GMLRS.

“These awards demonstrate the significant impact GMLRS are having on the battlefield as a vital combat capability,” William A. LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top acquisitions official, said in the statement.

The number of rockets that will be purchased is unclear. A spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a spokesman for the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space, which led the contracting process, was not immediately able to provide an answer.

According to government budget documents, the average purchase price of a single GMLRS rocket has varied between roughly $100,000 and $130,000 each since 2012. Using that figure, the contracts would account for approximately 4,000 replacement rockets.

The GMLRS rockets carry warheads with 200 pounds of explosives, using satellite guidance to strike in a range of about 52 miles — the longest reach of any weapon the United States has sent Ukraine to date. The Defense Department has said it has provided 16 HIMARS launchers to Ukraine thus far and has also given Kyiv the funds to purchase 18 more, though those will take years to be manufactured and delivered.

In June, a spokeswoman for the company told The New York Times that Lockheed had made more than 60,000 GMLRS rockets since the program began more than 20 years ago, and that it has sold them to a number of countries, including Bahrain, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Poland, Romania, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

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The C.I.A. director meets with his Russian counterpart to warn against the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

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William J. Burns, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, in July.Credit...Samuel Corum/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

William J. Burns, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, met with his Russian counterpart in Turkey on Monday to warn Russia against the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, a White House spokesman said.

The talks in Ankara — the highest level face-to-face meetings between senior Russian and American officials since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February — were seen as part of the administration’s efforts to step up its communications with senior officials in Russia, which has made numerous veiled threats about using a nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

The National Security Council said the meeting was not in any way to negotiate or to discuss any settlement of the war in Ukraine. Ukraine was briefed in advance on the trip, the spokesman said.

President Biden has insisted that Ukraine, and not the United States, will dictate if and when negotiations commence to end the war. But a disagreement has emerged at the highest levels of the U.S. government over whether to press Ukraine to seek a diplomatic end to the war with Russia, with America’s top general, Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urging in closed-door meetings that Ukraine should negotiate to cement its recent gains.

In a post on the messaging app Telegram on Monday, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny, the commander of the Ukrainian military, said he had spoken to General Milley and reiterated the country’s position on possible negotiations: Russia must withdraw before any talks are possible.

“The Ukrainian military will not accept any negotiations, agreements or compromise decisions,” he wrote.

U.S. and European leaders see their goal for now as keeping the war contained to Ukraine and deterring President Vladimir V. Putin from using a tactical nuclear weapon or another weapon of mass destruction in the conflict. Mr. Putin has denied that Moscow is preparing to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, but senior American officials say that senior Russian military leaders have recently discussed the possibility of using a tactical nuclear weapon in the country.

Kommersant, a Russian business daily newspaper, reported on Monday that the Russian delegation in Ankara was headed by Sergei Naryshkin, the head of the country’s foreign intelligence service.

The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, confirmed to Tass, a Russian state news service, that a meeting had taken place. The meeting had been initiated by the United States, he said, but he would not disclose the topics discussed. A C.I.A. spokeswoman declined to comment; the agency never comments on the director’s travel.

Russian and Ukrainian officials have made separate public comments in recent weeks about potential peace negotiations, more than six months after their last known direct talks fell apart. But U.S. officials have said that they do not believe talks will begin soon and that both sides, for now, think that continued fighting will strengthen their eventual negotiating positions.

The National Security Council said that Mr. Burns had planned in the meeting raise the matter of Americans detained in Russia. The Biden administration has been trying to negotiate a prisoner swap with Russia to bring home the W.N.B.A. star Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.

Ms. Griner has been detained in Russia since February after she flew into an airport near Moscow with a small amount of hashish oil in her luggage. She was sentenced in August to nine years in prison. Mr. Whelan was sentenced to a 16-year prison term on espionage charges by a Moscow court in 2020.

In August, American and Russian officials said they would use a special channel set up by Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin at their meeting in Geneva last year to negotiate over Ms. Griner and Mr. Whelan. U.S. officials have declined to divulge details of that channel. The Biden administration has offered to release Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the United States, for the freedom of the two Americans.

Mr. Burns has previously been dispatched to interact with Russian officials over Ukraine. Before Mr. Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, Mr. Burns flew to Moscow in November 2021 to tell Russian officials that the United States knew of the Russian plans and would forcefully respond to any invasion. Mr. Burns spoke by video to Mr. Putin, who was in Sochi at the time.

Julian E. Barnes and Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting.

The U.S. imposes a new round of sanctions targeting Russia’s military supply chain and a wealthy gold magnate.

The U.S. State and Treasury Departments announced a fresh round of sanctions on Monday related to the war in Ukraine, taking aim at “Kremlin-linked elites” and Russia’s military supply chain.

The new measures — against 14 individuals and 28 entities — add to the sweeping economic penalties the United States and its allies have imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As of October, the U.S. government had issued about 1,500 new sanctions and amended 750 others since President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the invasion in February, according to the State Department.

“Today’s actions demonstrate Treasury’s steadfast commitment to targeting people around the world aiding Putin’s war effort and the crony elites who bankroll his regime,” the Treasury secretary, Janet L. Yellen, said in a statement.

So far, however, the sanctions have not been as devastating as Western officials hoped. Russia’s oil and gas exports have boomed this year, fueled by increased demand from China and India. And with oil prices high, Russia is on track to earn more this year than last from oil sales.

The targets of the sanctions announced on Monday include the Russian company Milandr, a microelectronics manufacturer involved with military research and development. Three companies tied to Milandr — based in Armenia, Taiwan and Switzerland — were also blacklisted, as were senior executives of the corporation. The foreign spinoffs have been used as front companies to “conduct Milandr’s business with foreign partners” and carry out financial transfers, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

“The United States will continue to disrupt Russia’s military supply chains and impose high costs on President Putin’s enablers, as well as all those who support Russia’s brutality against its neighbor,” Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in a statement.

The sanctions also targeted Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian gold magnate and politician, along with his immediate family, associates and affiliated companies. Mr. Kerimov was sanctioned by the United States in 2018 and his $300 million mega yacht was seized in Fiji in May. Those targets include four French real estate companies belonging to one of his daughters

as well as Alexander-Walter Studhalter, a Swiss national who has

“allegedly laundered significant amounts of money on Kerimov’s behalf,” the Treasury Department said.

The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on two Swiss companies holding assets benefiting Andrey Guryev, “a known close associate” of Mr. Putin, adding to sanctions the it levied against him in August. Mr. Guryev owns Witanhurst, a 25-bedroom mansion and grounds said to be the second-biggest residential property in London after Buckingham Palace.

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Reports of atrocities in Kherson follow similar accusations in other reclaimed areas of Ukraine.

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A damaged vehicle near the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Sunday.Credit...Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Sunday that the authorities had discovered evidence of atrocities in Kherson similar to what has been found in other areas reclaimed from Russian forces.

In his nightly address, Mr. Zelensky said that Ukrainian investigators had already documented more than 400 potential Russian war crimes in parts of the Kherson region that Ukrainian forces have retaken.

“The bodies of both civilians and military personnel are being found,” Mr. Zelensky said. “In the Kherson region, the Russian army left behind the same atrocities as in other regions of our country.” He did not elaborate or provide further details.

Yevhen Yenin, a deputy minister in Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Ministry, said torture chambers were discovered “in the premises of police departments” in Kherson, the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported. Mr. Yenin said that these were “customary” to find in areas that had been occupied by Russian forces.

Russia captured Kherson, a symbolic and strategic prize for President Vladimir V. Putin, at the start of the war, and immediately moved to cut the city off from the world. Ukrainian officials and allies had feared that once the city was recaptured, they would discover the same signs of destruction that Russia left behind in other towns and cities.

Since Russian forces withdrew from the city days ago, a bitter blow to Mr. Putin, Ukrainian soldiers have been working to secure it and assess the damage.

Even though basic services were disrupted in Kherson, the city was spared the destruction that cities such as Mariupol had suffered. But in other parts of the region, whole villages were razed in months of brutal combat.

About 40 miles north of Kherson, in the city of Snihurivka, the authorities are investigating multiple reports of people being detained, tortured and forcibly deported, according to a local official, Ivan Kukhta. The Russians operated a torture chamber in the district police station, he added, and another in the basement of a local restaurant.

“People called us and said that the screams of people being tortured were very loud,” he said. “People who lived there in high-rise buildings had to move in with relatives on other streets, so as not to hear the screams.”

The accusations cast a renewed spotlight on Russian humanitarian violations and potential war crimes.

A United Nations-appointed panel of independent legal experts issued a report in September that concluded that war crimes had been committed in the conflict. The report added more chilling accusations to the list of crimes widely reported by Ukrainian and international investigators investigating the executions of civilians in Bucha, a suburb of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and a mass burial site found near the town of Izium.

Citing neutrality, the Swiss refuse to allow ammunition exports to Ukraine.

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The Gepard, a German-made antiaircraft gun.Credit...Pool photo by Morris Macmatzen

BRUSSELS — Switzerland, citing its history of neutrality, has again refused to allow the export of ammunition to Ukraine for a German-made antiaircraft gun that is proving successful at taking down the cruise missiles and cheap Iranian-made drones used there by Russian forces.

Germany has provided Ukraine with 30 of the armored guns, known as Gepards, which are mobile and run on tank treads. Germany no longer uses Gepards, and the 35-millimeter ammunition they require is scarce. But Switzerland made ammunition for the Gepard, and Berlin and Kyiv have asked Switzerland to allow Germany to send the 12,400 rounds it possesses of that ammunition to Ukraine. Switzerland has refused to grant permission.

In a response this month to another request made by the German defense minister, Christine Lambrecht, the Swiss government said: “Under the principle of equal treatment in neutrality law, Switzerland cannot agree to a request for the transfer of war matériel of Swiss origin to Ukraine as long as the latter is involved in an international armed conflict.”

The response repeated a Swiss position taken in June, but the appearance on the battlefield since then of cheap Iranian-made self-destructing drones used by Russia to attack Ukraine’s electricity and heating infrastructure as winter sets in has made the situation more urgent.

The head of the Swiss department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, Guy Parmelin, said in the response that “Switzerland is resolutely committed to peace and security, but always in strict compliance with the law of neutrality and in keeping with its humanitarian tradition.” To that end, he said this month, Switzerland “adopted a Winter Aid Action Plan to support the people of Ukraine” of some $106 million, “in addition to its existing humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and the region.”

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Switzerland has parted with past practice and adopted European Union sanctions intended to punish Russia. But Switzerland requires countries that buy Swiss arms to seek permission to re-export them. According to Swiss law, exports of war material must be refused if the country of destination is involved in an international armed conflict.

This year, the Swiss also rejected a Danish request to authorize the re-export of armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.

Last week, in an opinion piece in the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Pavlo Klimkin, a former Ukrainian foreign minister, and Boris Ruge, the vice chairman of the Munich Security Conference, argued that providing the ammunition “would not determine the outcome of the war, but it would save lives, in Ukraine and beyond.”

If Germany could reconsider its own policies on arms supplies in light of Russia’s war, they argued, so could Switzerland.

“At the end of the day, this is about making a choice between traditional neutrality and solidarity with Ukraine,” they wrote. “Switzerland should decide in line with its values and long-term interests.”

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Kherson residents say the Russification attempts ‘just didn’t work.’

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A Ukrainian tearing down a billboard with the slogan “We are together with Russia” in Kherson, Ukraine, on Sunday.Credit...Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

KHERSON, Ukraine — Iryna Dyagileva’s daughter attended a school where the curriculum included memorizing the Russian national anthem.

But teachers ignored it, instead quietly greeting students in the morning with a salute: “Glory to Ukraine!”

The occupation authorities asked Olha Malyarchuk, a clerk at a taxi company, to settle bills in rubles. But she kept paying in the Ukrainian currency, hryvnia.

“It just didn’t work,” she said of Russian propaganda, beamed into homes through televisions and plastered on billboards for the nine months of Russia’s occupation of Kherson. On Sunday, she was walking in a park, waving a small Ukrainian flag.

One roadside billboard proclaimed in bold text, “We are together with Russia!” But a teenager who offered only his first name, Oleksandr, had shimmied up the supporting pole on Sunday and was tearing the sign to pieces. Asked how he felt, he said, “free.”

The Ukrainian army has reclaimed hundreds of villages in towns in three major counteroffensives, north of Kyiv, in the northeastern Kharkiv region and now in the southern Kherson region.

But the city of Kherson stands out: it was the focus of a major Russian campaign to assimilate the citizenry and stamp out of the Ukrainian identity. Judging by his assertions that Ukrainians and Russians are one nation, it was a goal President Vladimir V. Putin had harbored for all of Ukraine, had his military been more successful.

After Russian forces captured Kherson in the early days of the war, Ukrainian national songs were banned in the city. Speaking Ukrainian could lead to arrest. Schools adopted a Russian curriculum, and young students were to be told that they were Russians, not Ukrainians.

In the first hours and days after the city’s recapture by the Ukrainian army, signs have emerged suggesting that the Russian attempt was a largely futile effort, at least among those who remained in the city.

Many pro-Russian residents had evacuated as Ukraine’s army advance on the city, and the Kremlin-installed authorities had encouraged residents to leave. Many local government officials had collaborated with the Russians.

Serhiy Bloshko, a construction worker, had lived at the homes of friends through the nine-month occupation, fearful he’d be arrested for joining anti-occupation protests in March that broke out soon after the Russian army arrived. Soldiers indeed went to his home, he said. Not finding him, they made off with his television and refrigerator, he said.

“They repressed the pro-Ukrainian population,” he said while waiting in a line for water on Sunday afternoon. Friends had been detained and vanished, he said. Of the cultural assimilation effort, he said, “what happened here was ethnic cleansing.”

The entry into his city of the two armies, one in February and the other last week, was telling, he said.

“When our soldiers drove in, their machine guns were pointed up, into the air,” Mr. Bloshko said. “When the Russians drove in, their guns were pointed at the people. That explains everything. And they said they were our liberators.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry denies a report that Lavrov was hospitalized in Bali.

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Russia's foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, arriving in Bali, Indonesia, on Sunday.Credit...Pool photo by Sonny Tumbelaka

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei V. Lavrov, on Monday denied that he had been hospitalized following reports that he had experienced a health problem ahead of the high-profile Group of 20 summit of global leaders in Indonesia.

The Associated Press, citing multiple Indonesian government and medical officials, had reported that Mr. Lavrov “had been taken to the hospital after suffering a health problem following his arrival” on the island. Bali’s governor, I Wayan Koster, said that Mr. Lavrov had visited a hospital only for a “check” and that he was “healthy.”

A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said on the Telegram messaging app that the reports by news outlets of any health problem were “fake.” She did not specify whether Mr. Lavrov had seen a doctor in the hospital in Indonesia.

Ms. Zakharova also posted a video statement showing Mr. Lavrov sitting at a table, flipping though papers. The New York Times could not immediately verify when and where the video was recorded.

The Russian state news agency Tass reported that Mr. Lavrov told its reporter that he was preparing for the G20 summit.

“I’m at the hotel. I’m reading materials for tomorrow’s summit,” Mr. Lavrov said, according to Tass.

Mr. Lavrov is representing Russia at the G20 meeting in place of President Vladimir V. Putin, who decided not to attend. Europe and the United States are considering imposing more sanctions and further isolating Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine.

Muktita Suhartono and Sui-Lee Wee contributed reporting.

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Criticism of Russia’s military from the country’s war hawks hits a new high.

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Aleksandr Dugin in Moscow in August.Credit...Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Criticism by Russia’s pro-war faction of the country’s military’s performance in Ukraine has reached its most strident level yet in the aftermath of the withdrawal from the southern city of Kherson. By Sunday, the drumbeat of denunciations broke the taboo against singling out President Vladimir V. Putin himself and Russia’s very system of government.

Aleksandr Dugin, the right-wing ideologue whose concept of the Kremlin exerting control over a mythical “Russian World” helped to inspire the war in the first place, wrote an online post stressing that the main job of an autocratic ruler is to protect the people and the lands under his control. “The authorities in Russia cannot surrender anything else,” Mr. Dugin wrote. “The limit has been reached.”

Other social media posts questioned the authenticity of a September referendum in Kherson when the population allegedly voted overwhelmingly to become part of Russia — in sharp contrast to the jubilant crowds that have greeted Ukrainian soldiers since they started entering the city on Friday.

Some analysts suggested that the flow of criticism indicated Mr. Putin had failed to distance himself from the repeated setbacks in the war, but that the volume had yet to constitute a real liability.

“Matters are definitely getting worse for Putin, but it is hard to know the extent because he has crossed so many lines and has still been able to keep control of his inner circle and those who matter,” said Maxim Trudolyubov, a political analyst and former newspaper editor now living in exile. “So far they have been successful in doing damage control.”

‘Don’t cry, my sweetheart,’ a grandmother says in a first video call with her family.

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CreditCredit...Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

Residents of Kherson were cut off from the wider world under Russian occupation, and retreating Russian soldiers severed communication lines, emptied grocery stores and closed pharmacies.

On Sunday, Ukrainians in the city were relieved to be free from Russian control — and to have the opportunity to contact their loved ones on the outside.

Lubov Peshkova, 49, right, cried as she looked at her grandchildren while speaking with her daughter by video call. Ms. Peshkova’s daughter, Danya, lives in Denmark.

“Don’t cry, my sweetheart,” Ms. Peshkova said through tears. “Everything is OK.”

A large group of residents gathered nearby, a common occurrence wherever there is a Starlink satellite signal and internet connection. The Starlink internet service, which works with satellites orbiting in space to provide online access, has become a digital lifeline for both Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.

Ukrainian officials have said they are working to restore the damaged infrastructure.

“We are restoring communication, internet, television,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in his nightly address on Sunday. “We are doing everything to restore normal technical capabilities for electricity and water supply as soon as possible.”

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Winter will be a major factor in the war in Ukraine, officials say.

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Ukrainian soldiers preparing for an operation in a bunker in Bakhmut, Ukraine. Both sides could use a slow winter to retrain troops.Credit...Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Senior Biden administration officials say Russia’s military operations in Ukraine will remain stalled well into next year, as recent Ukrainian advances upset Moscow’s hopes to seize more territory in areas that President Vladimir V. Putin has tried to portray as historically part of Russia.

While the officials say that Moscow is likely to continue to attack Ukrainian troops, bases, infrastructure and the electrical grid, the coming winter is expected to bring a slowdown in military advances on both sides.

A winter pause could last as long as six months. Rain and soft ground in late November will slow the movements of both militaries. Then, as temperatures fall and the ground freezes, it will be easier for tanks and trucks to move. But the possibility of heavy snows and even colder weather could make it difficult for the poorly equipped Russian army to mount any new offensive.

“You’re already seeing the sloppy weather in Ukraine slow things down a little bit,” Colin H. Kahl, the under secretary of defense for policy, told reporters this past week. “It’s getting really muddy, which makes it hard to do large-scale offensives.”

With a weather-enforced pause in major military movements, the war will enter a new phase.

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