October 6, 2020 Russia-Ukraine news

The head of Russia’s State Duma Defense Committee demanded officials report the truth about developments on the battlefield in Ukraine, telling a journalist that senior figures need to "stop lying."

“First of all, we need to stop lying. We brought this up many times before… But somehow it's apparently not getting through to individual senior figures," Col. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov said in an interview with Vladimir Solovyov, which was posted on Solovyov's Telegram channel on Wednesday.

"The reports from the Ministry of Defense do not change in substance. They say they destroyed 300 rockets, killed Nazis and so on. But people know. Our people are not stupid. But they don’t want to even tell part of the truth. This can lead to a loss of credibility,” he continued, using Russian President Vladimir Putin's false accusations of Nazism to justify his war in Ukraine.

Valuyki is in the region of Belgorod in western Russian, near the border with Ukraine. 

CNN's Lauren Said-Moorhouse and Mick Krever contributed previous reporting to this post.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov welcomed news reports in the United States that the US intelligence community suspected Ukrainian officials were behind the bombing that killed activist Darya Dugina near Moscow in August.

CNN reported Wednesday that the US intelligence community believed that the car bombing that killed Dugina, daughter of prominent Russian nationalist Alexander Dugin, was authorized by elements within the Ukrainian government.

The US was not aware of the plan beforehand, according to the sources who spoke with CNN, and it is still unclear who exactly the US believes signed off on the assassination. It is also not clear whether the US intelligence community believes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was aware of the plot or authorized it.

The intelligence finding was first reported by The New York Times.

Peskov added that he hoped US was not trying to distance itself from any future crimes allegedly planned by Kyiv.

“We really want to believe that this is not an attempt by American colleagues, having obtained some information, to relieve themselves of responsibility from the preparation of future terrorist acts by the Kyiv state,” Peskov said during the daily Kremlin call with reporters. 

“If this is not a fake, then it is indeed positive that American intelligence agreed with this,” Peskov said.

More background: Ukrainian government officials did not immediately respond to CNN's requests for comment. They have previously denied any Ukrainian involvement in the murder. 

“Quite promptly, those responsible were established, and who the customers were is clear enough,” he said. 

The Russian security service, the FSB, published the name of the alleged assailant within two days of the assassination, saying that she was working on behalf of Ukrainian special services. By then, she had left Russia via Estonia by car, according to the FSB. She has not been seen since. 

Russian-backed authorities are beginning "to forcibly nationalize local enterprises and property and transfer them to the so-called local administrations," Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister, Hanna Maliar, said on Telegram on Thursday.

Maliar also alleged that educational institutions in Zaporizhzhia region had received an order that required teachers to promote the "Russian world" and explain the need for a referendum to the local population.

CNN is unable to independently verify these claims.

Ukrainian intelligence indicates that Russian authorities are having multiple problems with the "partial mobilization" order announced last month, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said.

Maliar said on Telegram that according to the Ukrainian defense intelligence, "a significant number of men of military age fled abroad to evade mobilization or are trying to pay not to be drafted. Some people resorted to self-mutilation, faked illnesses and were even ready to receive a certificate of unfitness from psychiatric departments of hospitals."

Recruits were often buying equipment at their own expense and the training of conscripts was "carried out in a very short time — or they were immediately sent from the military commissariats to the area of hostilities," Maliar added, also claiming that "Russian command is massively burning the bodies of dead [soldiers], including those recently mobilized, to conceal real losses."

The Russian-appointed deputy leader of occupied Kherson in southern Ukraine said that "gaps” on the battlefield in the region are down to “incompetent commanders."

“There is no need to somehow cast a shadow over the entire Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation because of some — I do not say traitors — but incompetent commanders who did not bother, and were not accountable, for the processes and gaps that exist today,” Kirill Stremousov said in a four-minute video posted to the Telegram messaging app on Thursday.  

Stremousov contrasted what he called a “small number” of “corrupt marauders and other miscellaneous riffraff” in Russia’s Defense Ministry with “heroes” on the frontline. 

“All those who gave their lives, who stand to the end, are heroes,” he said. “I know them personally, because I am at the forefront.”

What Kyiv is saying: Ukraine claimed on Thursday that it had liberated more than 400 square kilometers (155 square miles) in the Kherson region in an unspecified timeframe. 

Stremousov denied this, saying in the caption to his video that Russian troops were “holding back the onslaught” and Ukraine’s advances “had been stopped.” 

The Kherson region in southern Ukraine is partially occupied by Russia but the Ukrainian Armed Forces have made significant gains in the past week. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the communities of Novovoskresenske, Novohryhorivka and Petropavlivka had been liberated, suggesting that Ukrainian forces are making progress through the largely rural hinterland of Kherson.

The head of the United Nations’s nuclear watchdog is set to arrive in Kyiv Thursday to discuss creating a protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the facility a federal asset.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will hold “talks aimed at agreeing and implementing a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the ZNPP (Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant) as soon as possible," according to an IAEA press release. Grossi will also visit Russia, it added.

“The need for a Nuclear Safety and Security Protection Zone (NSSPZ) around ‪#Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is now more urgent than ever," he tweeted Wednesday alongside photos from his journey to the Ukrainian capital.

Separately, there are plans to restart one of the six reactors at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which "are currently cold in shutdown," according to the IAEA news release.

Senior Ukrainian operating staff told IAEA experts at the complex that arrangements are underway to start the reactor at a lower level of power to create steam and heat necessary for the plant.

"It will take some time to complete all preparations, including those related to necessary systems and equipment, before reactor operations can resume," the press release said.

Some background: Grossi's trip to Kyiv comes amid heated confrontation over the status of the plant, after Putin signed a decree on Wednesday that puts Zaporizhzhia nuclear power under Russian state control.

Just as Putin was signing the decree, the Ukrainian state nuclear operator, Energoatom, said its president would assume the duties of the plant's director general -- which has led the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to intervene.

The plant in the southeastern Ukrainian region is the largest in Europe and has been held by Russian forces for more than seven months, but is operated by its Ukrainian staff.

The Kremlin's annexation of Zaporizhzhia and three other Ukrainian regions has been widely condemned by the international community as "a sham" and is illegal under international law.

Moscow does not have full control of the land it claims to have annexed, holding just under three-quarters of Zaporizhzhia.

Kremlin does not have the “exact numbers” of people who have fled Russia’s partial mobilization, a spokesperson said on Thursday.

Dmitry Peskov was asked about a Forbes Russia report – unconfirmed by CNN – that cited sources close to the Kremlin as saying 700,000 Russians had left the country since President Vladimir Putin announced a mobilization drive on Sept. 21.

“I do not have exact numbers, but they are far from 700,000,” Peskov said during his daily call with journalists.

The Swedish Security Police confirmed “detonations” were the source of damage to both Nord Stream pipelines, after concluding their crime scene investigation into gas leaks that were discovered more than a week ago.

Detonations had caused “extensive damage” to the pipelines in the Swedish economic zone, the Security Police said on Thursday, adding that their investigation had strengthened “suspicions of gross sabotage.”

News of the leaks sparked furore among several European leaders, who said sabotage appeared to be the likely cause. At the time President Joe Biden called the leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines a “deliberate act of sabotage," though he stopped short of directly accusing Moscow for the leaks.

Russia, which built the network, did not rule it out.

Why this matters: Both pipelines have been flashpoints in an escalating energy war between European capitals and Moscow that has pummeled major Western economies, sent gas prices soaring and sparked a hunt for alternative energy supplies.

According to the Swedish police “certain seizures” had also been made as part of the investigation and were now being reviewed and analysed.

A continuing investigation would also show whether “someone can be served with suspicion and later prosecuted” the police statement said. 

Following the conclusion of the investigation, the cordons around the scene were lifted, the Swedish Prosecutor’s Office confirmed in a statement.

CNN's Chris Liakos, Allie Malloy and Maegan Vazquez contributed reporting to this post.

A series of fatal Russian missile attacks have hit residential blocks in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, following Moscow's claimed annexation of the wider Zaporizhzhia region.

The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog is set to arrive in Kyiv Thursday to discuss creating a protection zone around the nearby power plant, after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the Zaporizhzhia facility a Russian federal asset.

Here are the latest developments: