Russia Ukraine War News Live Updates: Russian commander admits situation is ‘tense’ for his forces in Ukraine

Russia-Ukraine War News Live Updates: The new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine made a rare acknowledgement of the pressures they were under from Ukrainian offensives to retake southern and eastern areas that Moscow claims to have annexed just weeks ago. The situation in areas Russia claims to have annexed was “tense”, said Sergei Surovikin, a Russian general appointed this month to take charge of its forces. Russian troops in some areas were under continuous attack, he said.
In other news, nuclear watchdog IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said he expected to return “soon” to Ukraine amid negotiations to establish a security protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power station. The Zaporizhzhia plant is in one of four Ukrainian regions Russia has proclaimed as annexed but only partly occupies, the other three being Kherson, and the eastern border provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russian air strikes have destroyed 30% of Ukraine’s power stations since Oct. 10, causing massive blackouts across the country. The country’s foreign miner said he was proposing a formal cut in diplomatic ties with Iran after a wave of Russian attacks using what Kyiv says are Iranian-made drones.