November 10, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

US President Joe Biden said he’s hopeful that with the midterm election over, Russian President Vladimir Putin will be more willing to discuss the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was recently transferred to a Russian penal colony to serve the remainder of a nine-year drug smuggling sentence that was upheld in late October. 

The President said the US has had discussions with Russia — but is hoping that with the election over, "there is a willingness to negotiate more specifically with us."

Asked if he could explain some of the alternative ways forward the administration had previously referred to and how Russia had responded to them, Biden answered, “I can but I won’t.” 

The UK government said Wednesday that a British man lost his life in Ukraine.

The UK foreign office in a statement said it was "supporting the family of a British national who has lost his life in Ukraine," but did not reveal the person's name.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) added that it was in touch with "the local authorities in connection with his death." 

In June, former British Army soldier Jordan Gatley was shot and killed while fighting in Ukraine's Severodonetsk, CNN reported at the time. 

British aid worker Paul Urey died in the annexed Donetsk region of Ukraine earlier this year after the Russian invasion started, CNN reported.

One of the most senior Russian-appointed officials in occupied Ukrainian territory has been killed, Russian officials and state news agencies said Wednesday.

The Russian-appointed deputy head of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, Kirill Stremousov, died in a road accident, the press secretary of the head of the region said, according to Russian news agency TASS.

Also on Wednesday, Russia ordered a retreat from the west bank of the Dnipro River across the Kherson region, a dramatic setback for Moscow in the face of recent Ukrainian advances.

Stremousov was killed in an accident on the highway between Kherson and Armyansk in Crimea, the Russian state media company Vesti (VGTRK) reported, citing the region’s health minister. Stremousov was 45 years old, according to Vesti.

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Russia has ordered a retreat from the key southern city of Kherson, the only regional capital it has captured since February’s invasion, in a dramatic strategic setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In the face of Ukrainian advances in the region, Russian troops across the Kherson region will withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro River, an area that includes Kherson city, Russian state media reported Wednesday.

The order came at a meeting in Moscow between Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, as Ukrainian forces approach the city from two directions.

The Russian withdrawal would represent the most significant military moment in the war since Ukrainian forces swept through the northern Kharkiv region in September.

Ukrainian officials have however remained skeptical that Russian forces had left the west bank altogether.

Ukraine “is liberating territories based on intelligence data, not staged TV statements,” Podolyak added.

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