Summary
It’s nearly 11:30pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
Iran announced Sunday that it will supply Russia with 40 turbines to help its gas industry amid western sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, local media reported. Iran’s “industrial successes are not limited to the fields of missiles and drones”, Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company’s CEO, Reza Noushadi, was quoted as saying by Shana, the oil ministry’s news agency.
Ukraine and the US on Sunday denounced suggestions from Russia that Ukraine was preparing to use a “dirty bomb” as dangerous lies. “If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this,” president Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address. A statement from the US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson on Sunday echoed Ukraine’s words, saying: “We reject reports of Minister Shoigu’s transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory.”
Ukraine’s special operations forces said that Iranian drone instructors have been spotted in Belarus, the Kyiv Independent reports. According to special operations forces, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are training Russian forces in Belarus and coordinating the launches of Iranian-made drones.
One person was killed by a homemade bomb in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Sunday, according to the Russia-installed authorities in the region of the same name, Agence France-Presse reports. “An improvised explosive device, attached to a street pole and detonated remotely, killed a civilian from Kherson,” local pro-Russian official Kirill Stremousov wrote on social media, adding that a passerby had been wounded.
Russia told people in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson to flee for their lives on Sunday as more residents joined an exodus to escape an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive. In a video message, the Russian education minister, Sergei Kravtsov, said: “The situation today is difficult. It’s vital to save your lives … It won’t be for long. You will definitely return.”
Following talks between the UK and Russia, the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, rebutted claims made by the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, that Ukraine, facilitated by western counties including UK, was planning to escalate the conflict. “The defence secretary refuted these claims and cautioned that such allegations should not be used as a pretext for greater escalation,” the UK Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service said on Sunday it had detained two officials of the Ukrainian aircraft engine maker Motor Sich on suspicion of working with Russia. SBU “detained the president of industrial giant Motor Sich. He is suspected of working with the Russian Federation,” it said in a statement. It added that it had also detained the company’s department head for foreign economic activities but did not name them.
Updated
Iran announced Sunday that it will supply Russia with 40 turbines to help its gas industry amid western sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, local media reported.
Iran’s “industrial successes are not limited to the fields of missiles and drones”, Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company’s CEO, Reza Noushadi, was quoted as saying by Shana, the oil ministry’s news agency.
“Currently, 85 percent of the facilities and equipment needed by the gas industry are built inside the country, and based on this capability, a contract has recently been signed to export 40 Iranian-made turbines to Russia,” he added.
Noushadi did not specify when the contract was signed, and when the turbines are due to be delivered.
After the imposition of economic sanctions over the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine, Russia reduced or halted supplies to different European nations, causing energy prices to soar.
The Kremlin insists sanctions have prevented the proper maintenance of Russian gas infrastructure and, in particular, blocked the return of a Siemens turbine that had been undergoing repairs in Canada.
“Give us a turbine, we will turn Nord Stream on tomorrow,” Russian president Vladimir Putin said at the Vladivostok forum in September, referring to a vital gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.
Western countries have accused Russia of using gas supplies as a weapon.
Noushadi said the US sanctions on Russia are aimed at excluding Moscow from the gas market.
“In recent years, the United States of America has widely set up LNG production plants, and recently, with the all-out embargo on Russia and then the explosion in the Nord Stream gas pipeline, it effectively eliminated one of its biggest competitors in gas exports,” he noted.
Russia and Iran hold some of the world’s largest gas reserves, and are both under strict US sanctions.
Updated
Ukraine and the US on Sunday denounced suggestions from Russia that Ukraine was preparing to use a “dirty bomb” as dangerous lies.
In conversations with his British, French and Turkish counterparts on Sunday, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu conveyed “concerns about possible provocations by Ukraine with the use of a ‘dirty bomb’,” Moscow said.
Russia did not mention the alleged “dirty bomb” allegation in its statement after Shoigu’s call with Pentagon head Lloyd Austin.
“If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this,” president Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address, Agence France-Presse reports.
“I believe that now the world should react as harshly as possible.”
Earlier Sunday, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, denounced Moscow’s claims as “absurd” and “dangerous”.
“Russians often accuse others of what they plan themselves,” he added.
A statement from US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson on Sunday echoed Ukraine’s words, saying:
“We reject reports of Minister Shoigu’s transparently false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory.
“The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation.”
Updated
Ukraine’s special operations forces said that Iranian drone instructors have been spotted in Belarus, the Kyiv Independent reports.
According to special operations forces, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are training Russian forces in Belarus and coordinating the launches of Iranian-made drones.
According to information from Belarusian partisans, these instructors coordinated Shahed-136 drone strikes on infrastructure facilities in Kyiv Oblast, as well as on northern and western regions of Ukraine.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) October 23, 2022
Updated
One person was killed by a homemade bomb in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Sunday, according to the Russia-installed authorities in the region of the same name, Agence France-Presse reports.
“An improvised explosive device, attached to a street pole and detonated remotely, killed a civilian from Kherson,” local pro-Russian official Kirill Stremousov wrote on social media, adding that a passerby had been wounded.
Faced with an advancing counteroffensive by Ukrainian troops, the pro-Kremlin authorities in Kherson region, which Moscow claims to have annexed, are moving residents of the city to Russian-controlled areas on the left bank of the Dnieper River.
On Saturday they told residents to “immediately” leave the city - the only regional capital to have been captured by Russian forces - citing a “tense situation on the front ... an increased danger of mass shelling ... and attacks.”
Stremousov described Sunday’s explosion as a “terrorist act” and blamed in on Ukraine.
“We strongly recommend that all residents of Kherson leave the right bank part of the region,” he said.
Russia tells Kherson residents to flee for their lives
Russia told people in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson to flee for their lives on Sunday as more residents joined an exodus to escape an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.
In a video message, the Russian education minister, Sergei Kravtsov, said:
“The situation today is difficult. It’s vital to save your lives … It won’t be for long. You will definitely return.”
Russia’s proxies in the southern region are trying to evacuate up to 60,000 people who live on the western bank of the Dnieper River.
Moscow-backed authorities reported a shortage of vessels to ferry people across the river at one point on Sunday, due to a “sharp increase in the number of people wishing to leave the city”.
The Kherson region sits to the north of the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. It is a key gateway for Russian military supplies.
About 25,000 people have been evacuated since Tuesday, the Interfax news agency cited the Russian-installed deputy head of the region, Kirill Stremousov, as saying.
Despite the warnings, officials insisted any relocation would be temporary if it was from territory Russia had officially proclaimed its own after its “referendums” – which were decried as sham, coercive votes by Kyiv and the west.
“We are not going to give up Kherson,” Stremousov said.
Updated
UK's Ben Wallace dismisses Russia's claims Ukraine plans to escalate conflict
Following talks between the UK and Russia, the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, refuted claims made by the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, that Ukraine, facilitated by western counties including UK, was planning to escalate the conflict.
“The defence secretary refuted these claims and cautioned that such allegations should not be used as a pretext for greater escalation,” the UK Ministry of Defence said in a statement, Reuters reports.
During the earlier call, Shoigu told Wallace that Russia was concerned Kyiv could be preparing to use a “dirty bomb” in Ukraine – a claim he also made in calls with the French and Turkish defence ministers earlier on Sunday.
Russia has published no evidence to support the claim.
Updated
Russian missiles smashed into a suburb of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine early on Sunday, devastating two apartment blocks, but nobody was killed because most residents had already moved away after a similar attack in the vicinity six months ago.
Reuters reports:
“All of the people who had small children decided to leave immediately” after the April attack, said Svitlana, 46, as she salvaged belongings from her glass-and-plaster strewn apartment.
“The pensioners had also decided to leave.”
Her neighbour, Oleksii Begun, 35, said only about 15 to 20 flats in their 119-unit, 10-storey building were currently occupied after a Russian cluster munition hit a private home nearby in April, killing one person.
“It’s a horror,” he said, surveying the devastation wrought by Sunday’s attacks.
The explosions in the Karabelnyi district of Mykolaiv, a ship-building centre at the confluence of the Southern Buh and Dnipro rivers, continued a weeks-long Russian aerial offensive that has targeted civilian infrastructure, especially energy facilities, just weeks before the onset of winter.
The first projectile struck at 1.35 am on Sunday, Begun said, ploughing into the roof of the five-floor apartment house opposite his block. It blasted a hole in the top two stories, smashed windows in both buildings and showered rubble across the courtyard separating the two.
The second missile followed about eight minutes later, obliterating a playground and a small store inside the courtyard, he said, spewing a tornado of bricks and twisted metal and hurling several cars 30 metres into his building.
Mykolaiv regional officials identified the missiles as S-300s, anti-aircraft weapons that Russian forces have been firing at ground targets.
Updated
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, spoke with his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, on Sunday in their second telephone call in three days, the defence ministry said in a statement.
Moscow provided no further information on the outcome of the call or any specific areas of discussion.
The pair previously spoke on Friday for the first time since May. Earlier on Sunday, Shoigu held calls with the British, French and Turkish defence ministers.
Updated
Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service said on Sunday it had detained two officials of the Ukrainian aircraft engine maker Motor Sich on suspicion of working with Russia, Agence France-Presse reports.
SBU “detained the president of industrial giant Motor Sich. He is suspected of working with the Russian Federation,” it said in a statement. It added that it had also detained the company’s department head for foreign economic activities but did not name them.
According to the SBU, their detention is part of a criminal investigation into “the illegal supply by Motor Sich of military goods for Russian attack aircraft”.
The pair are being held on suspicion of “collaborative activity” and “assistance to the aggressor state”.
The SBU said the management of the company’s plant in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region – part of which is controlled by Russian forces – “acted in collusion” with the Russian state-owned defence conglomerate Rostec.
“The suspects established transnational channel for the illegal supply of wholesale batches of Ukrainian aircraft engines to the aggressor country,” the SBU said, specifying that Russia used them to produce and repair attack helicopters.
These models of helicopter were used “en masse” during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the SBU.
Motor Sich makes engines for helicopters and aircraft, as well as industrial turbines. Up until 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea, Russia was the company’s largest client.
Updated
Summary
If you’re just joining us, here’s a round-up of all the day’s news from Ukraine so far.
President Zelenskiy has said that power has been partially restored in parts of Ukraine after heaving shelling targeted key energy infrastructure on Saturday.
Scheduled power cuts have been introduced in the capital, Kyiv, as part of efforts to ration energy usage.
Two people have been killed in Russian strikes in Donetsk, and the bodies of a further four people have been discovered in areas of the region previously occupied by Russian forces.
UK intelligence suggests that Russia is constructing new lines of defence in the Luhansk region that are likely to deter any rapid Ukrainian counteroffensives.
Russia appears to be preparing to destroy a dam on the Dnipro River as part of “delaying actions” intended to slow Ukrainian advances, according to the US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War.
One Russian milblogger has described the situation for Russian troops in the southern region of Kherson as “dire”.
The number of Russian troops killed since the start of the war stands at 67,470, according to the Ukrainian armed forces.
A Russian fighter plane has crashed into a residential building in the Siberian city of Irkutsk, killing its two pilots
The G7 has condemned Russia’s kidnapping of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant leadership and called for the return of control of the facility to Ukraine.
The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has held calls with his British, French and Turkish counterparts, the Russian defence ministry has said.
Ukrainian ports are operating at only 25-30% capacity despite a deal reached in July because of “deliberate delays” by Russia, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has sent a congratulatory message to Xi Jinping after he secured a third term as Chinese leader.
Updated
Russian defence minister holds calls with British and other counterparts, says ministry
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu held a phone call on Sunday with his British counterpart, Ben Wallace, the Russian defence ministry has said. It added that Shoigu also spoke with his French and Turkish counterparts, Sebastien Lecornu and Hulusi Akar.
The ministry said that, in all three calls, Shoigu claimed to be concerned about the possibility that Ukraine planned to use a so-called dirty bomb in the conflict.
A dirty bomb is a conventional explosive laced with radioactive material that is disseminated when the bomb explodes.
Russia has provided no evidence of any intention by Ukraine to deploy such a weapon.
An earlier readout of the call with the French defence minister, again provided by the Russian defence ministry, said Shoigu had warned that the war in Ukraine has a “steady tendency towards further, uncontrolled escalation”.
Updated
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has renewed a call for countries around the world to ban the Russian state broadcaster RT.
The appeal was prompted by a clip, shared widely on social media, in which the channel’s director of broadcasting, Anton Krasovsky, is seen inciting a number of violent crimes against Ukrainians.
“Governments which still have not banned RT must watch this excerpt,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter. “This is what you side with if you allow RT to operate in your countries. Aggressive genocide incitement (we will put this person on trial for it), which has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Ban RT worldwide!”
Numerous commentators have argued that misinformation and propaganda of the sort routinely shared on RT forms a central part of Russia’s war effort, and so should not be covered by freedom of the press.
Governments which still have not banned RT must watch this excerpt. This is what you side with if you allow RT to operate in your countries. Aggressive genocide incitement (we will put this person on trial for it), which has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Ban RT worldwide! https://t.co/xJC371rqyg
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) October 23, 2022
Updated
The occupied city of Energodar is on the brink of a “humanitarian disaster” because of a lack of energy and water supply, its mayor has said.
Dmytro Orlov said “constant enemy shelling [has destroyed] civilian infrastructure and power grids”, the Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda reports.
“The city remains without electricity and without water supply. Gas has not been available in most parts of the city for almost six months,” he said.
Energodar lies in the Zaporizhia region on the southern bank of the Dnipro River, which marks the border between Ukrainian and Russian-controlled territory.
Orlov added that Energodar had a centralised heating system that had not been working since the spring.
“There are currently no prospects for starting heating. The city is in danger of not starting the heating season at all,” he said.
Much of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been targeted in recent weeks by Russian strikes and concerns raised that parts of the country could be left without heating over the winter.
Updated
Ports operating at quarter capacity because of 'deliberate delays', says Ukraine
Ukraine’s ports are operating at only 25-30% capacity because of “deliberate delays” by Russia, according to the Ukrainian ministry of infrastructure.
Grain and other agricultural products have been allowed to leave Ukrainian ports since a deal brokered between the UN, Ukraine, Russian, and Turkey in July. Negotiations to extend the deal beyond a November deadline are ongoing.
In a post on Facebook announcing the departure of seven ships on Sunday, the ministry said: “Russia is deliberately delaying the full implementation of the grain initiative.
“The ports have been operating at only 25-30% of their capacity in recent days.”
Updated
Situation for Russian troops in Kherson 'dire', says milblogger
More now from the latest assessment of the conflict by US-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War.
The assessment includes a quote from one Russian milblogger – a blogger serving in the military – describing the situation for Russian troops in the Kherson region as “dire”.
Russia has withdrawn its troops from the west of the region and told residents in Kherson city to leave ahead of an expected counteroffensive by Ukraine.
The milblogger says it has proved “virtually impossible” to evacuate troops from the first line of defence, adding that the only questions left are how to complete that final withdrawal and how to explain it to people in Russia.
Pictures appear to show the aftermath of that fighter plane crash in the Russian city of Irkutsk.
The images, posted to Twitter by the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda, show thick smoke rising from a cluster of houses in a residential neighbourhood. Another shows flames engulfing a building.
The Guardian has not been able to independently verify the pictures.
— Ukrainska Pravda in English (@pravda_eng) October 23, 2022
Updated
A Russian fighter plane has crashed into a residential building in the Siberian city of Irkutsk, the regional governor has said.
Posting to Telegram on Sunday, Igor Kobzev said the plane hit a two-storey house and that its two pilots had both been killed. He added that there had been no other casualties.
Footage included in the post showed emergency workers moving among the wreckage and working to put out fires at the site.
It is the second such incident in six days, Reuters reports. Last Monday, at least 15 people were killed after a fighter plane hit an apartment block in the southern city of Yeysk, near the Ukrainian border.
Updated
Scheduled power cuts introduced in Kyiv
The operator of Kyiv’s energy grid has announced a series of “stabilisation” power cuts following Russian strikes on key infrastructure on Saturday.
More than a million households were left without electricity after strikes on energy facilities across Ukraine.
In a statement on its website, energy company DTEK said the national energy operator, Ukrenegro, had introduced the cuts in the capital to “avoid accidents”.
The blackouts began at 11.13am local time (09.30am BST), with households in Kyiv divided into three groups that will be “disconnected for a certain period of time”, DTEK said.
It added that the blackouts should last “no more than four hours” but may be longer “due to the scale of damage to the power supply system”.
President Zelenskiy has called on people across the country to be mindful of their energy use and to limit their use of appliances that require a lot of power.
Russia is attempting to cut off telecommunications in Kherson in order to stop opposition figures within the city sending information to the Ukrainian armed forces, Ukraine’s government has said.
It comes amid the withdrawal of Russian troops from the west of the Kherson region ahead of an expected counteroffensive by Ukraine to recapture the city.
According to a report by the government-run Centre for National Resistance, Russia has begun dismantling communication equipment at the local television centre.
“In the future, the Russians plan to leave the city completely without communication, television, and radio broadcasting,” it said.
“In this way, the Russians are trying to informationally isolate Kherson in order not to allow the [underground resistance] to transmit information to the armed forces of Ukraine during counteroffensive actions.”
Updated
As the realisation dawns that Russia’s president will stop at nothing, EU leaders are wondering what he may do next to undermine support for Ukraine – and weaken their governments. Putin is losing on the battlefield and despite his nuclear threats, they plainly fears a head-on conflict with Nato he knows he could lose.
Thinking ahead, it’s logical – and prudent – to assume a desperate, heedless Putin will increasingly turn to hybrid attacks in Europe.
Very little is off-limits. Norway, now Europe’s biggest gas supplier, knows its oil and gas installations have become prime targets. Finland plans to fence parts of its border with Russia, fearing an influx of spies and saboteurs.
France worries transatlantic internet cables, essential for western security and communications, are in Putin’s sights. Britain, playing catch-up, has announced its first “multi-role ocean surveillance ship” will be operational in 2023.
These threats are adding to the already considerable political and social strains imposed on Europe by the Ukraine conflict.
Read Simon Tisdall’s piece here:
Updated
Russia appears to be preparing to destroy a dam on the Dnipro River as part of “delaying actions” intended to slow Ukrainian advances, according to a US thinktank.
It comes amid the withdrawal of Russian troops from the west of the Kherson region ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive intended to recapture Kherson city.
In its latest assessment of the conflict, the Institute for the Study of War said Russia was “likely preparing” to destroy the dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in order to flood the Dnipro River and delay Ukrainian forces.
The dam is located near the southern port city of Nova Kakhovka, where authorities announced on Saturday they were lowering the level of the reservoir behind the dam in order to minimise damage should it be destroyed, but claimed it was the Ukrainians who were planning an attack.
The institute said Ukraine had nothing to gain from destroying the dam and every interest in maintaining the energy supply in areas it expects to liberate, adding that the move appeared to be an attempt by Russia to “moderate” the flooding.
Updated
Footage shows a violinist performing for people gathered in a shelter amid yesterday’s blackouts.
The video, posted to Twitter by the Ukrainian defence ministry, shows dozens of people sat around and holding up torches as the man plays.
The ministry said the footage was shot in the western region of Rivne.
A bomb shelter in Rivne. As a result of russian missile attacks, part of the city remains without electricity and water. pic.twitter.com/nMEeNCCraj
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) October 22, 2022
Updated
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has congratulated the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, on securing a third term in office.
Xi was reconfirmed as general secretary of the ruling Chinese Communist party on Sunday, ending a precedent that presidents should serve for only two terms.
According to a statement posted on the Kremlin’s website, Putin told Xi in a message: “The results of the 20th congress of the Chinese Communist party fully confirmed your high political authority and the unity of the party you head.
“I am certain that the resolutions of the congress will help successfully implement the grand social and economic tasks facing China, and will assist in strengthening the country’s position on the international arena.
“It would be a pleasure for me to carry on our constructive dialogue and close joint work to develop the relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic alliance between our two states.”
The two leaders signed a “no limits” partnership agreement in February, three weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Since then, China has taken a careful line, criticising Western sanctions against Russia but stopping short of endorsing or assisting in the military campaign.
Updated
Two civilians have been killed in Russian strikes on the eastern region of Donetsk, according to the local governor.
Posting on Telegram on Sunday, Pavlo Kyrylenko said the deaths had occurred in the villages of Klishchiivka and Torskyi.
He added that authorities had also discovered the bodies of four people killed while the area was under Russian occupation.
“Every war criminal will be punished!” he wrote.
Power partially restored, says Zelenskiy
Power has been restored to some areas where it was cut off by Russian attacks on energy infrastructure on Saturday, President Zelenskiy has said.
More than a dozen missiles hit facilities across Ukraine over the course of the day, causing widespread blackouts.
Speaking in his nightly address, Zelenskiy said electricity supplies had been partly restored in the southern region of Odesa and the western regions of Khmelnytsky and Rivne.
“There are positive reports from other regions as well,” he said. “But in many cities, in many districts, recovery work is still ongoing. We are trying to return power to people as soon as possible.”
He urged residents to be careful in their use of electricity and to limit their use of any appliances that use a lot of power.
“The stability of the power industry of our entire state depends on each city and district of Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.
“Even if the enemy can leave us temporarily without power, it will still never succeed in leaving us without the desire to make things right, to mend and return them to normal.”
Updated
In case you missed it, Russia yesterday launched what President Zelenskiy described as a “massive attack” on Ukraine, hitting key energy infrastructure and causing widespread power outages.
Authorities said more than a dozen missiles struck sites across the country and left more than a million households without electricity.
“These are vile strikes on critical objects,” Zelenskiy said on Saturday. “The world can and must stop this terror.”
Read the full story here:
Number of Russians killed stands at 67,470, says Ukraine
The total number of Russian troops killed since the start of the invasion stands at 67,470, according to Ukraine.
The latest update from the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said the death toll had risen by approximately 400 in the last 24 hours.
It also said a further five tanks and two helicopters had been destroyed, bringing the totals to 2,584 and 245 respectively.
Загальні бойові втрати противника з 24.02 по 23.10 орієнтовно склали / The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02 to 23.10 were approximately pic.twitter.com/TPRTRwllHX
— Генеральний штаб ЗСУ (@GeneralStaffUA) October 23, 2022
Updated
The International Ski Federation has agreed to maintain a ban on athletes from Russia and Belarus from all competition in light of the invasion of Ukraine.
The FSI said on Saturday after meeting for the opening event of the alpine ski calendar:
The FIS council decided, with due regard to the integrity of FIS competitions and for the safety of all participants, and in line with IOC recommendations, to continue its policy to not allow Russian and Belarusian teams and athletes to participate in all FIS competition.
Agence France-Presse also reported that the FIS ban means Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be able to compete in alpine skiing, nordic skiing, freestyle and snowboard. They are already suspended by the International Biathlon Union.
Their absence will be of little significance for alpine skiing, but Russia is a powerhouse in cross-country skiing, having won a third of all medals available at the last Winter Olympic Games in Beijing in February.
Updated
Russian defence project 'likely to deter' rapid Ukrainian advance in Luhansk, says UK MoD
A new project suggests Russia is making a big effort to fortify its defences in the occupied Luhansk region and would be “likely to deter any rapid Ukrainian counteroffensives”, the UK Ministry of Defence says.
Its latest intelligence update said Wagner Group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed online this week that his engineering team was constructing an extensive fortified line of defences in Luhansk.
Imagery showed a section of newly constructed anti-tank defences and trench systems south-east of Kreminna in the oblast in Ukraine’s east, the ministry tweeted.
If the plans are as extensive as Prigozhin claims, the works likely aim to integrate the Siversky Donetsk river into the defensive zone, partially following the 2015 line of control.
The project suggests Russia is making a significant effort to prepare defences in depth behind the current frontline, likely to deter any rapid Ukrainian counteroffensives.
Prigozhin is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 23 October 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 23, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/zmOYBPFXFn
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/L0bV87iWiz
Updated
As she was driven by her son out of Dudchany – a small village in the north-east of the Kherson region – a few days ago, Rosaliya Kovalchuk, 72, glimpsed something from the back seat that will haunt her forever.
“Hanging from the branches of a tree were guts from a man’s belly,” Kovalchuk said, pausing as she sought to collect her emotions.
A military car had been blown up. I think he was Russian, from the boots and the uniform.
Dudchany, one of the stepping stones down the Dnieper river to Kherson city, the regional capital 123km (77 miles) to the south-west, is at the centre of fierce fighting that the west says could be pivotal in the outcome of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Daniel Boffey in Kherson oblast has the full story:
Spain says it will send 14 fighter jets to Bulgaria and Romania to bolster Nato’s eastern flank as the defence alliance strengthens its deterrence capacity following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Madrid would send six Eurofighter jets and 130 soldiers to Bulgaria between mid-November and early December to train local forces, Agence France-Presse reported the Spanish defence ministry as saying in a statement on Saturday.
A further deployment would see eight F18M fighter jets and 130 air force personnel sent to Romania between December and March 2023 as part of Nato’s “reaction and deterrence” strategy, the ministry added.
A long-range aerial surveillance radar has also been deployed in Romania since 17 October and could remain until late June 2023, the statement said.
Spain would also increase its air force’s missions forming part of an “aerial shield”.
The country has already sent 12 fighter jets to eastern Nato members Bulgaria, Lithuania and Estonia since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
G7 condemns Russia's 'kidnapping' of nuclear plant leaders
The Group of Seven industrialised nations condemned Russia’s kidnapping of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant leadership and called for the immediate return of full control of the facility to Ukraine.
“We condemn Russia’s repeated kidnapping of Ukrainian ZNPP [Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant] leadership and staff,” Reuters reported the G7 nonproliferation directors general as saying in a statement on Saturday.
We urge Russia to immediately return full control of the ZNPP to its rightful sovereign owner, Ukraine.
Russian forces captured the nuclear plant – Europe’s largest – in early March.
On Wednesday, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy agency accused Russia of detaining two senior employees at the plant.
Energoatom said Russian forces on Monday “kidnapped” the head of information technology, Oleg Kostyukov, and the plant’s assistant general director, Oleg Osheka, and “took them to an unknown destination”, Agence France-Presse reported.
Energoatom had called on International Atomic Energy Agency chief, Rafael Grossi, “to make every effort” to secure their release.
The agency announced that another plant official, Valeriy Martyniuk, had been released.
Updated
Summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Adam Fulton and here’s a quick run through the latest news to bring you up to speed as it approaches 9.15am in Kyiv.
Russian-installed authorities have ordered all residents of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson to leave “immediately” ahead of an expected advance by Ukrainian troops waging a counteroffensive to recapture it. The regional pro-Kremlin administration called on civilians to use boat crossings over a major river to move deeper into Russian-held territory, citing a tense situation on the front and the threat of shelling and alleged “terror attacks” by Kyiv, Associated Press reported. On Friday, Ukrainian forces bombarded Russian positions across the region, targeting resupply routes.
More than a dozen Russian missiles pounded energy facilities and other infrastructure across Ukraine on Saturday, the Ukrainian air force said, with strikes causing blackouts in parts of different regions. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the Russian attacks had struck on a “very wide” scale, Reuters reported. He pledged that his military would improve on an already good record of downing missiles with help from its partners.
Russian military forces targeted energy facilities in western Ukraine, the country’s power grid operator said on Saturday. Ukrenergo said on Telegram that the “scale of damage is comparable or may exceed the consequences of the attack on October 10-12”. It said repair crews were starting to repair the facilities after the rocket attack, but that restrictions were in place as they tried to restore the electricity supply.
Hundreds of thousands of people in central and western Ukraine have woken up to power outages and periodic bursts of gunfire, as Ukrainian air defence tried to shoot down drones and incoming missiles. Kira Rudik, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, said 1.5 million people were without electricity after Russian strikes against power stations on Saturday.
Ukraine’s prime minister said that Russia has plunged Ukraine into a humanitarian catastrophe by attacking its energy infrastructure. Denys Shmyhal told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine that Russia wanted to condemn Ukraine to “a cold winter when many people could literally freeze to death”.
Ukrainian forces have pushed Russians out of the Charivne and Chkalove settlements in the Kherson region, the Ukrainian forces’ general staff said on Saturday.
Iran’s foreign ministry has strongly condemned a call by France, Germany and Britain for the UN to investigate accusations that Russia has used “kamikaze” drones from Iran to attack Ukraine. Kyiv says Russia has used Iranian-made Shahed-136 attack drones. If true, the allegations would mark a breach of UN security council resolution 2231.
