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1:45pm: Ukraine says four ‘torture’ sites found in Kherson

has identified four locations where tortured detainees in Kherson before Moscow withdrew troops from the southern Ukrainian city, according to the country’s office of the general prosecutor.

Prosecutors said officials had inspected “four premises” where Russian troops “illegally detained people and brutally tortured them”.

Russian forces set up “pseudo-law enforcement agencies” in Kherson detention centres as well as in a police station, it said in a statement.

Parts of rubber truncheons, a wooden bat, an incandescent lamp and “a device with which the occupiers tortured civilians with electricity” were found, prosecutors said.

1:05pm: Ukraine evacuates civilians from Kherson, Mykolaiv

Ukrainian authorities have started evacuating civilians from the recently-liberated areas of the Kherson region and the neighbouring province of Mykolaiv, fearing that damage to the infrastructure is too severe for people to endure the upcoming winter, officials said Monday.

Residents of the two southern regions, regularly shelled in the past months by Russian forces, have been advised to move to safer areas in the central and and western parts of the country, said Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

The government will provide “transportation, accommodation, medical care”, she said.

12:05pm: Zelensky promises victory on ‘Day of Dignity and Freedom’

President marked Ukraine’s annual Day of Dignity and Freedom on Monday by celebrating the sacrifices made by Ukrainian people since Russia’s invasion and saying his country would endure and prevail.

In a video address to the nation, Zelensky hailed the contributions made by Ukrainians – from soldiers, firefighters and medics to teachers giving online lessons, villagers cooking for the military, tailors sewing uniforms and farmers ploughing their fields despite the risk.

12:02pm: Germany discusses air policing with Poland after stray missile crash

Germany discussed air policing with Warsaw in addition to the Patriot missile defence system following last week’s stray missile crashed in Poland, said a German defence ministry spokesperson.

Earlier Monday, Poland said it would propose deploying additional Patriot missile launchers near its border with Ukraine, following an offer from Germany, Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Twitter.

“During today’s conversation with the German side, I will propose that the system be stationed at the border with Ukraine,” he wrote on Twitter.

Germany has offered Warsaw the Patriot missile defence system to help it to secure its airspace after a stray missile crashed in Poland last week, Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht told a newspaper on Sunday.

The German government had already said it would offer its neighbour further help in air policing with German Eurofighters after the incident, which initially raised fears that the war in Ukraine could spill across the border.

11:12am: Kremlin vows to ‘find and punish’ those responsible for soldiers’ ‘murder’

The Kremlin has said it would bring to justice people responsible for the “murder” of Russian soldiers in Ukraine after footage surfaced online and spurred mutual war crime allegations from Kyiv and Moscow.

The footage which appeared on social media last week showed the bodies of Russian servicemen killed after surrendering to Kyiv’s troops, Moscow has said.

Ukraine has denied that its forces had killed prisoners of war, saying the soldiers were shot following a false surrender.

“Without a doubt, Russia will itself search for those who committed this crime. They must be found and punished,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Russia “will do everything within the framework of international mechanisms to draw attention to this crime”, he added.

7:12am: ‘Playing with fire’ UN chief warns Russia and Ukraine

As Russia and Ukraine traded blame over the weekend’s shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has warned that whoever fired artillery at the plant was “playing with fire”.

A team of IAEA inspectors is set to visit the plant on Monday to assess the damage.

Grossi has denounced the “targeted” strikes in a released Sunday night. “The news from our team yesterday and this morning is extremely disturbing,” he said. “Explosions occurred at the site of this major nuclear power plant, which is completely unacceptable … Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediately,” he added.

“As I have said many times before, you’re playing with fire!”

There were more than a dozen blasts over the weekend near the site, said the IAEA statement.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)