Hell is about to freeze over: Ukrainian war will get bloodier, with higher death rate through winter

The Ukraine war is about to get bloodier as winter makes it harder to save the lives of soldiers wounded on the battlefield, Western officials have warned.

Combat will likely reduce as the weather gets colder but both sides have the ability to keep fighting and no ceasefire is expected, the officials added.

Ukraine and Russia are both talking publicly about renewed peace negotiations but officials said neither side is 'losing badly enough' for the war to end any time soon.

While there is a lack of proper winter equipment among Russian forces, they are better equipped now than when they began fighting in February. 

But morale is expected to remain low among Russian soldiers as Western officials believe they have not improved their winter gear as much as the Kremlin would have hoped. 

Winter will present 'unique challenges' for both Russian and Ukrainian soldier due to the changes to daylight hours, temperature and weather, the officials said.

They added that winter will mean that the 'golden hour' window in which to save a critically wounded soldier is reduced by approximately half. This will make the risk of contact with the enemy much greater.  

The Ukraine war is about to get bloodier as winter makes it harder to save the lives of soldiers wounded on the battlefield, Western officials have warned. Pictured: Ukrainian soliders fire at Russian positions from an anti-aircraft gun in Kharkiv region on November 11 

Combat will likely reduce as the weather gets colder but both sides have the ability to keep fighting and no ceasefire is expected, the officials added. Pictured: A Ukrainian soldier fires a mortar at Russian positions in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on November 10

A self-propelled artillery vehicle fires near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on November 10

Additionally, the 'golden hour' window in which to save a critically wounded soldier is reduced by approximately half, making the risk of contact with the enemy much greater. 

Meanwhile, the officials added that 20,000 Russian troops evacuated from Kherson and travelled over the Dnipro River. 

The officials expected that up to half of these soldiers will be relocated to the city of Bakhmut to fight against Ukrainian forces there. 

They added that Russia has built more defences in the Luhansk region - including crocodile teeth tank traps, trenches and barbed wire - meaning this could become a significant area of fighting during the winter months.

The officials described Russian defences as 'old fashioned and static, but fit for purpose'.

The UK's Ministry of Defence said in its daily intelligence briefing yesterday that fighting at night will be reduced during the winter months because night vision capability is a 'precious commodity'.

Temperatures in Ukraine will drop to below zero degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) from December to February and soldiers without winter clothing are 'highly likely' to suffer from 'non-freezing cold injuries', officials said.

Meanwhile, Russia rained missiles on cities across Ukraine today in a a salvo of strikes that follow its humiliating withdrawal from Kherson, even as signs grew that its retreating forces were pulling even further back from the Dnipro River in the south.

But morale is expected to remain low among Russian soldiers as Western officials believe they have not improved their winter gear as much as the Kremlin would have hoped. Pictured: Vladimir Putin today 

At least three Russian missiles hit the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Tuesday, with mayor Vitali Klitschko saying they all struck residential buildings

Firefighters work to put out a fire in a residential building hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv

Air raid sirens blared and explosions rang out in nearly a dozen major cities after one of the biggest volleys of missiles so far, following a pattern in recent weeks of Moscow lashing out far from the front after battlefield losses.

In the capital Kyiv, flames poured out of a five-storey apartment block, one of two residential buildings the authorities said had been struck there. Reuters journalists who reached the scene saw residents huddled by the smouldering ruin. The mayor said one person was confirmed killed and half the capital left without power.

Other strikes or explosions were reported in cities from Lviv and Zhytomyr in the west to Kryvy Rih in the south and Kharkiv in the east. Regional officials reported some of the attacks had knocked out electricity supplies.

The widespread attacks came four days after Russian troops abandoned Kherson city in the south, the only regional capital Moscow had captured since its invasion, six weeks after President Vladimir Putin declared it an eternal part of Russia.

Russia had said last week its troops would occupy positions that were easier to defend on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River. 

But video images filmed in the town of Oleshky, across a collapsed bridge from Kherson, appeared to show Russian forces had abandoned their bunkers there too.

Further east, Russian-installed administrators said they were pulling out civil servants from the region's second biggest city, Nova Kakhovka, located on the river bank next to a huge, strategic dam.

Natalya Humenyuk, a Ukrainian military spokesperson, said Moscow appeared to be repositioning its artillery 15-20 km (10-15 miles) further from the river, to protect its guns from Ukrainian counterstrikes.

'There is a certain activity of enemy troops on the left bank of the Dnipro in terms of moving 15-20 km away from the bank,' she said. 

Russia had artillery still capable of striking Kherson from those new positions, but 'we also have something to answer with', she said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Kherson following their victory there 

A day after visiting Kherson to celebrate the victory there, President Volodymyr Zelensky told world leaders there would be no let-up in Ukraine's military campaign to drive Russian troops out of his country.

'We will not allow Russia to wait it out, build up its forces, and then start a new series of terror and global destabilisation,' he said in an address by video link to a summit of the G20 big economies in Indonesia.

'I am convinced now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped.'

Tuesday's air strikes follow a pattern Russia has maintained since mid-October of launching long-range missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities after battlefield setbacks. Moscow has said it is attacking energy infrastructure. Kyiv says such strikes only stiffen its citizens' resolve.

'Russia responds to Zelenskiy's powerful speech at G20 with a new missile attack. Does anyone seriously think that the Kremlin really wants peace? It wants obedience. But at the end of the day, terrorists always lose,' Zelenskiy's chief of staff Andriy Yermak tweeted.

Before pulling out of Kherson last week, Russia had said it was moving its forces across the Dnipro to better defend territory including the approaches to the strategic Crimea peninsula, which Russia has held since 2014.

But in video filmed in Oleshky, across the river from Kherson on the main highway two hours' drive to Crimea, there was no sign of any Russian presence.

A driver raced down the deserted main road for miles at high speed without encountering a single Russian checkpoint or flag. Several bunkers set up along the road appeared to have been abandoned. The location of the video was confirmed by Reuters based on visible landmarks.

In Nova Kakhovka, the Russian-installed administration said on Tuesday civil servants had left to escape shelling, 'and were relocated to safe areas in the region'.

There were no confirmed reports that Ukrainian troops had crossed the river to pursue the Russians. But some analysts said Ukraine might attempt to press its advantage on the battlefield, rather than take a so-called 'operational pause' following the advances of recent days.

'Ukraine has the initiative and momentum and is dictating to the Russians where and when the next fight will be,' said Philip Ingram, a former senior British military intelligence officer.

The war was a central focus of the G20 summit on the Indonesian island of Bali, where Western leaders denounced Moscow. Russia is a member and Ukraine is not, but Russian President Vladimir Putin stayed home.

Speaking to the summit, Zelenskiy described a peace proposal in which Russia would withdraw all its forces, free all prisoners and reaffirm Ukraine's territorial integrity, all longstanding demands.

He proposed indefinitely extending a programme to safeguard Ukrainian grain exports to help feed poor countries, expanding it to the port of Mykolaiv, newly beyond reach of Russian guns after the Kherson advance.

Western countries pushed for a summit declaration that would condemn the war, despite Russia's opposition and a lack of unanimity. 

Diplomats circulated a 16-page draft that said: 'Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy.'

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russia's delegation head in Putin's absence, accused the West of trying to politicise the declaration.