Kyiv continues to recover from yesterday’s barrage of Russian missile strikes on hydroelectric plants and other critical energy and water infrastructure. Crews were able to restore water and lights to the 270,000 homes in Kyiv today, but Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko warned on Telegram that it might be a while longer before crews will be able to restore full electricity – they must wait for the stabilisation of the energy system. “I ask Kyiv residents to save electricity, especially during peak morning and evening hours,” Klitschko said. “It is very important. Because the deficit in the energy system of Ukraine is significant.”
With Russia continuously targeting Ukraine’s energy and water infrastructure, Ukrainians are looking ahead toward what will likely be a cold and difficult winter and asking for donations of autonomous electricity and heat sources. French President Emmanuel Macron, following a telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said France would help Ukraine get through the winter and would help repair water and energy infrastructure damaged by Russian strikes. France will also help boost Ukraine’s anti-air defences.
One week after Russian authorities relocated 70,000 civilians from the right bank of the Dnipro River to the left bank, Russian authorities are now moving 70,000 civilians from the left bank to be “temporarily resettled deep into the Kherson region, as well as to other regions of the Russian Federation”, said Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-appointed governor of the occupied Kherson oblast which Russia claims to have annexed. It is considered a war crime under the Geneva convention for an occupying force to move civilians from an occupied territory. Saldo said the reason behind the relocation is because of “possible damage to the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, which could cause flooding of the left bank of the Dnipro downstream”.
The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces believe that about 650 Russian soldiers were killed in the country in the last day.
One person was killed and two were injured last night in Bakhmut, while “the shelling of Torskyi and Zarichnyi in the Lymansk community does not stop”, said Donetsk oblast governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. “It is dangerous to stay in Donetsk region,” he warned. “Evacuate in time.”
The state emergency service of Ukraine has confirmed that at least one person has been killed by a Russian strike on Mykolaiv overnight.
Ukraine’s ministry of defence said it has intel that Iran plans on sending a batch of more than 200 combat drones to the Russian federation in early November, even though Iuriy Ihnat, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s air force command, said there has been a marked decrease in Russia’s use of Iranian kamikaze drones in recent days.
A Russian court on Tuesday fined Wikipedia owner Wikimedia Foundation 2m rubles (£28,200 / $32,600) over articles relating to the Ukraine war.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said on Tuesday Russia should be expelled from the Group of 20 major economies and President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to a G20 summit in Bali next month must be revoked.
Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, had urged Hungary and Turkey to swiftly approve the Swedish and Finnish applications for membership. They are the only two remaining Nato members not to have ratified the applications. “All eyes are now on Hungary and Turkey. We are waiting for these countries to ratify our applications. I think it would be important that this would happen preferably sooner than later,” Marin told a joint news conference with other Nordic leaders.
The Turkish defence minister, Hulusi Akar, has told Ukraine’s defence and infrastructure ministers that keeping the Black Sea grain export deal going is “of great importance” and that, as a humanitarian initiative, it should be kept separate from the conflict in Ukraine.
Twelve grain export ships left Ukraine Monday despite Russia’s decision to pull out of the Black Sea grain deal, Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure said. The UN also confirmed the first of 40 planned ship inspections was completed in Istanbul waters.
Putin said Monday’s strikes and the decision to pull out of the Black Sea grain deal were responses to a drone attack on Moscow’s fleet in Crimea that he blamed on Ukraine. Putin told a news conference on Monday that Ukrainian drones had used the same marine corridors that grain ships transited under the UN-brokered deal.
Moscow called ship movements through the Black Sea security corridor “unacceptable”. In a statement, the Russian defence ministry said it wanted “commitments” from Ukraine not to use the Black Sea grain corridor for military purposes, adding “there can be no question of guaranteeing the security of any object” in the area until then.
The UN disputed Moscow’s claim that a civilian cargo ship carrying Ukrainian grain may have been involved in a drone strike against Russia. The UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said no such ships were in the Black Sea’s designated “safe zone” corridor at the time Russia said the attack had taken place.
France is working towards allowing Ukrainian food exports to go through land routes rather than the Black Sea.
Russia dismissed reports that its agents hacked Liz Truss’s phone and gained access to sensitive information.
Norway put its military on a raised level of alert on Monday to enhance its response to the war in Ukraine, though the prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, said no direct threat of invasion was detected from Russia.
Afghan special forces soldiers are being recruited by the Russian military to fight in Ukraine, three former Afghan generals have told the Associated Press. They said the Russians wanted to attract thousands of the former elite Afghan commandos into a “foreign legion” with offers of $1,500 a month and promises of safe havens for themselves and their families.
Also on Monday, the Russian defence ministry said Moscow had completed the partial military mobilisation announced by Putin in September and no further call-up notices would be issued.
A 40% cut in deliveries of Russian natural gas is hitting Moldova’s ability to provide sufficient electricity for its 2.5 million people, the deputy prime minister of the small ex-Soviet state has said.
