Summary
The time in Kyiv is 9pm. Here is a summary of the day’s headlines:
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, monitored drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces involving multiple practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles on Wednesday. The defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, reported to Putin that the exercise was intended to simulate a “massive nuclear strike” by Russia in retaliation for a nuclear attack on the country.
About 1,000 bodies – including civilians and children – have been exhumed in the recently liberated territories of the Kharkiv oblast, media reports say. This includes the 447 bodies found at the mass burial site in Izium.
Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russian forces in the southern Kherson region is proving more difficult than it was in the northeast because of wet weather and the terrain, Ukraine’s defence minister said. Kyiv’s forces are piling pressure on Russian troops in the strategically important Kherson region occupied by Moscow since the start of its invasion, threatening president Vladimir Putin with another big battlefield setback, Reuters reported.
The United Nations’ aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said on Wednesday that he was “relatively optimistic” that a UN-brokered deal that allowed Ukraine Black Sea grain exports would be extended beyond mid-November. Griffiths travelled to Moscow with senior UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan earlier this month for discussions with Russian officials on the deal, which also aims to facilitate exports of Russian grain and fertiliser to global markets.
Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Wednesday he did not believe Russia’s president Vladimir Putin would use nuclear weapons. Putin has warned repeatedly that Russia has the right to defend itself using any weapons in its arsenal, which includes the world’s largest nuclear stockpile.
About 70,000 civilians have been relocated from the right bank of the Dnipro river to the left bank in the Kherson oblast, the Russian-appointed governor of the region told Russian media.
Ukraine’s government is advising refugees living abroad not to return until the spring amid mounting fears over whether the country’s damaged energy infrastructure can cope with demand this winter. The energy crisis comes as officials in Kyiv warned that the coming winter may herald the heaviest fighting of the war, around the southern city of Kherson where Russian forces have been digging in.
Up to 70 Australian defence force personnel will be deployed to the UK to train Ukrainian troops in the latest increase in the country’s support for Kyiv. The Australian government announced the decision late on Wednesday while emphasising that the ADF members would not be entering Ukrainian territory.
The Kremlin also said assets in the four Ukrainian regions that Russia claimed it had annexed last month may in future be transferred to Russian companies. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was obvious that “abandoned assets” could not be left inactive, and the government would deal with the issue.
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, held a phone call with his Indian and Chinese counterparts and raised Russia’s concerns about the possible use of a “dirty bomb” by Ukraine, Shoigu’s ministry said. It followed a series of calls Shoigu has held since Sunday on the same topic with Nato defence ministers.
The only way to facilitate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is helping Kyiv to defend itself militarily, the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, told parliament. “Peace can be achieved by supporting Ukraine ... it is the only chance we have for the two sides to negotiate,” Meloni told the Senate ahead of a confidence vote on her newly appointed rightist government.
EU regulators are considering extending easier state-aid rules that allow governments to support businesses affected by the war in Ukraine to the end of 2023, and with bigger amounts permitted, the competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, said. The more flexible rules were introduced in March and subsequently revised in July.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Ukraine live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Updated
Putin watches practice launches by Russia's nuclear forces
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, monitored drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces involving multiple practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles on Wednesday.
Defence minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that the exercise was intended to simulate a “massive nuclear strike” by Russia in retaliation for a nuclear attack on the country, the Associated Press reported.
It followed Putin’s warning about his readiness to use “all means available” to fend off attacks on Russia’s territory in a clear reference to the country’s nuclear arsenals.
During the Russian drills, a Yars land-based intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from the northern Plesetsk launch site. A Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea also launched a Sineva ICBM at the Kura firing range on the far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, and Tu-95 strategic fired cruise missiles at practice targets.
The Kremlin said in a statement that all tasks set for the exercise were fulfilled and all the missiles that were test-fired reached their designated targets.
Updated
The only way to facilitate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is helping Kyiv to defend itself militarily, the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, told parliament.
“Peace can be achieved by supporting Ukraine ... it is the only chance we have for the two sides to negotiate,” Meloni told the Senate ahead of a confidence vote on her newly appointed rightist government.
Meloni has repeatedly pledged support to Kyiv, while her coalition allies Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini have been much more ambivalent on the issue due to their historic ties with Putin, Reuters reported.
Meloni said that while the arms Italy supplies to Ukraine are not decisive for the outcome of the war, they are vital for Italy to maintain its international credibility.
Updated
Key event
EU regulators are considering extending easier state-aid rules that allow governments to support businesses affected by the war in Ukraine to the end of 2023, and with bigger amounts permitted, competition chief Margrethe Vestager said.
The more flexible rules were introduced in March and subsequently revised in July.
The European Commission is seeking feedback from EU countries on the level of public guarantees they can provide to energy companies to cover the financial collateral for their trading activities in order to offset high market prices and volatility.
Governments are also asked how the rules can be made more flexible to allow them to provide faster and more effective support to companies hit with high energy bills.
“One of the things we are consulting on is a prolongation for a full year until 31 December 2023. We are also consulting on larger aid amounts,” Vestager told a European Parliament hearing.
She said the commission has to date given the green light to several billion euros of state aid.
“Based on the rules we have already, we have taken 114 decisions that is as of 17 October and we have been approving 133 national measures notified by 25 member states. The budgets that we have been approving are around €455bn,” Vestager said.
She said the commission may broaden the scope of the kind of businesses eligible for state aid.
Updated
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on individuals and entities involved in what it described as Russia’s malign influence operations in Moldova as well as systemic corruption in the small eastern European country.
The people who have had sanctions placed on them, a mix of Russian and Moldovan officials, include oligarchs “widely recognised for capturing and corrupting Moldova’s political and economic institutions and those acting as instruments of Russia’s global influence campaign”, the US Treasury Department said in a statement.
The designations also include former Moldovan parliament member Vladimir Plahotniuc, who has manipulated “key sectors of Moldova’s government, including the law enforcement, electoral and judicial sectors”, the statement said.
There was no immediate comment from Russia or Moldova, Reuters reported.
Updated
The United Nations’ aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Wednesday that he was “relatively optimistic” that a UN-brokered deal that allowed Ukraine Black Sea grain exports would be extended beyond mid-November.
Griffiths travelled to Moscow with senior UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan earlier this month for discussions with Russian officials on the deal, which also aims to facilitate exports of Russian grain and fertiliser to global markets.
Updated
Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russian forces in the southern Kherson region is proving more difficult than it was in the northeast because of wet weather and the terrain, Ukraine’s defence minister said.
Kyiv’s forces are piling pressure on Russian troops in the strategically important Kherson region occupied by Moscow since the start of its invasion, threatening president Vladimir Putin with another big battlefield setback, Reuters reported.
“First of all, the south of Ukraine is an agricultural region, and we have a lot of irrigation and water supply channels, and the Russians use them like trenches,” defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov told a news conference. “It’s more convenient for them.”
“The second reason is weather conditions. This is the rainy season, and it’s very difficult to use fighting carrier vehicles with wheels,” he said, adding that this reduced the options for Ukraine’s armed forces.
“The counter-offensive campaign in the Kherson direction is more difficult than in the Kharkiv direction,” he added.
Updated
Russia won't use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, says Russian envoy to UK
Russia will not use nuclear weapons in its invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin’s ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin has said in an interview with CNN.
The US network’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour tweeted a video previewing an interview with Kelin, which is due to air later today.
The ambassador’s comments come on a day when Russia is conducting military nuclear training drills, she adds.
"Russia is not going to use nukes," the Kremlin's Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin tells me in an exclusive interview, on a day when Russia is conducting military nuclear training drills. Airs tonight at 7p CET on @cnni and later on @pbs pic.twitter.com/RDeSTOI3fQ
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) October 26, 2022
Updated
Ukraine defence minister says he doesn't believe Putin will use nuclear weapons
Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Wednesday he did not believe Russia’s president Vladimir Putin would use nuclear weapons.
Putin has warned repeatedly that Russia has the right to defend itself using any weapons in its arsenal, which includes the world’s largest nuclear stockpile.
Russia’s setbacks in the war in Ukraine have heightened Western concerns that Putin might use a tactical nuclear weapon, Reuters reported.
“My personal opinion is that Putin won’t use nukes,” Reznikov told a news briefing when asked about the issue.
1,000 bodies exhumed in recently liberated territories in Ukraine
About 1,000 bodies – including civilians and children – have been exhumed in the recently liberated territories of the Kharkiv oblast, media reports say.
This includes the 447 bodies found at the mass burial site in Izium.
⚡️ About 1,000 bodies exhumed in recently liberated territories.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) October 26, 2022
The bodies of civilians – including children – have been exhumed alongside the remains of military personnel, according to Ukraine's Reintegration Ministry.
The number includes the 447 bodies found at a mass burial site in liberated Izium, Kharkiv Oblast.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) October 26, 2022
The ministry didn't specify the names of other settlements where Ukrainian authorities exhumed the bodies.
Updated
About 70,000 civilians have been relocated from the right bank of the Dnipro river to the left bank in the Kherson oblast, the Russian-appointed governor of the region told Russian media.
With the strategic southern region of the partially Russian-occupied Kherson believed to be the location of the next “heaviest of battles”, Russian authorities have been relocating residents, some just over the Dnipro river, others to southern Russia.
The Russian-backed government are calling this an evacuation and say it’s for the civilians’ own safety as the Ukrainian armed forces move closer. Some Ukrainian officials believe the Russians are moving civilians as a way to fake-out Ukrainian forces. But no matter the reason, forcibly moving any citizen in an occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Convention.
Zelensky advisor Oleksiy Arestovych says that Russia is replenishing its forces in Kherson and the heaviest battles await
— Samuel Ramani (@SamRamani2) October 26, 2022
Arestovych's comments build on the view that Russia's evacuations from Kherson were a feint
Updated
The European Union urged the bloc’s defence ministers on Wednesday to coordinate purchases of weapons, to obtain better terms from suppliers as they seek to replenish supplies depleted by shipments to Ukraine.
Western countries have been rushing to restock weapons and ammunition after shipping huge quantities to Kyiv, requiring industry to ramp up to meet the surging demand, Reuters reported.
“It is urgent to restore the readiness of our European armed forces and replenish depleted stocks,” Stijn Mols, the head of the EU diplomatic service’s security and defence division, told a European Parliament committee.
EU defence ministers next meet on 15 November, and Mols said he hoped they would present concrete proposals for coordinated arms purchases.
European countries need air and missile defence, anti-tank and artillery systems and drones, Mols said. Brussels hopes for around 5-7 “emblematic projects” to coordinate purchases by member countries in areas such as ammunition.
Defence purchases in the EU are rarely carried out jointly, with countries eager to support their domestic industries.
Updated
Ukraine refugees told not to return yet as energy crisis looms
Ukraine’s government is advising refugees living abroad not to return until the spring amid mounting fears over whether the country’s damaged energy infrastructure can cope with demand this winter.
The energy crisis comes as officials in Kyiv warned that the coming winter may herald the heaviest fighting of the war, around the southern city of Kherson where Russian forces have been digging in.
With a third of the country’s energy sector compromised by recent Russian missile and drone attacks Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned: “The networks will not cope.”
“You see what Russia is doing. We need to survive the winter,” she added.
The warning was delivered after a period in which, polling suggested, more Ukrainians had expressed their desire to return home.
Vereshchuk said that although she would like Ukrainians to return in the spring, it was important to refrain from returning for now because “the situation will only get worse. If it is possible, stay abroad for the time being”.
With no evidence of a letup in the fighting in the country’s east and south, where Ukraine has made recent gains in Russian-occupied areas, many fear the coming winter could be challenging.
Ukrainians have already been asked to be sparing in their use of electricity to balance the country’s struggling electricity grid.
Up to 70 Australian defence force personnel will be deployed to the UK to train Ukrainian troops in the latest increase in the country’s support for Kyiv.
The Australian government announced the decision late on Wednesday while emphasising that the ADF members would not be entering Ukrainian territory.
It also said it would provide Ukraine with 30 more Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles, bringing to 90 the total number promised since Russia’s invasion.
The government has been signalling for months that Australia might join other countries in training Ukrainian troops as part of longer term assistance, but has not confirmed the details until now.
It says up to 70 ADF members will fly to the UK in January to join Operation Interflex, a mission that also involves personnel from other countries including New Zealand, Canada, Sweden and Finland. Ukrainian troops, including new recruits, have been travelling to the UK for training under this programme.
Updated
A police officer secures a damaged gas station after a missile strike in Dnipro.
Updated
The Kremlin also said assets in the four Ukrainian regions that Russia claimed it had annexed last month may in future be transferred to Russian companies.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was obvious that “abandoned assets” could not be left inactive, and the government would deal with the issue.
Ukraine, its western allies and an overwhelming majority of countries at the UN general assembly have condemned Russia’s declared annexation of the four regions as illegal, Reuters reported.
Updated
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, held a phone call with his Indian and Chinese counterparts and raised Russia’s concerns about the possible use of a “dirty bomb” by Ukraine, Shoigu’s ministry said.
It followed a series of calls Shoigu has held since Sunday on the same topic with Nato defence ministers.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow wanted to prompt an active response from the international community, Reuters reported.
India’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, reportedly told Shoigu that nuclear weapons should not be used by any side in the war, according to an Indian government statement.
“The prospect of the usage of nuclear or radiological weapons goes against the basic tenets of humanity,” Singh told Shoigu while reiterating the need for an early resolution to the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.
Ukraine and its Western allies have rejected Russia’s allegation that Kyiv is preparing to use a radioactive “dirty bomb” and voiced concern that Moscow is using that as pretext for a further escalation in the war.
Updated
Today so far
Over the past day, Russian forces have launched five rockets, 30 air strikes and more than 100 multiple-launch rocket system attacks on more than 40 settlements all around Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian general staff of the armed forces. Russian forces have continued their sustained offence on the strategically placed towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Ukraine’s industrial heartland of Donbas, killing one civilian yesterday in Bakhmut. However, Ukrainian authorities believe that Russian forces are digging in for the “heaviest of battles” in the strategic southern region of Kherson. Russian authorities spent yesterday relocating civilians in the region, blaming the oncoming onslaught of the Ukrainian armed forces for why they had to leave.
A Russian missile attack killed two people in Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth-largest city. One of those who died was a pregnant woman. The office of the prosecutor general of Ukraine has launched a pre-trial investigation into the attack.
Vladimir Putin entered the invasion of Ukraine with the term “denazification” – now his security council is pivoting to the term “desatanisation”. Aleksey Pavlov, assistant secretary of the security council of the Russian Federation, is now claiming there were “hundreds of sects” in Ukraine where citizens have abandoned Orthodox values. Those who live in Ukraine can attest to that statement as being patently false.
The armed forces of Ukraine are estimating that about 480 Russian soldiers were killed yesterday alone, bringing the total to 68,900 personnel lost so far in the invasion of Ukraine.
The Nobel Foundation has made the decision to not invite the Russian and Belarusian ambassadors to its storied prize ceremony this year, even though the foundation typically extends an invitation to all ambassadors stationed in Sweden. “In view of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the Foundation has chosen not to invite the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus to the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm,” the foundation said in statement. The foundation jointly awarded this year’s peace prize to the Centre for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian human rights organisation, in conjunction with Memorial, a Russian human rights group outlawed by the Kremlin, and the veteran Belarussian activist Ales Bialiatski, who is being held in prison without trial in his native country.
Russia is purportedly recruiting members of Afghanistan’s highly respected national army commando corps to fight in Ukraine, Foreign Policy is reporting. These are the commandos that were trained by US navy seals and British armed forces. About 20,000 to 30,000 of the volunteer commandos were left behind when the US left Afghanistan in Taliban control in August 2021.
Updated
The office of the prosecutor general of Ukraine has launched a pre-trial investigation into a Russian missile attack on Dnipro that killed two people, the office said in a statement today. One of those killed was a pregnant woman.
“As a result of the enemy attack (yesterday), two townspeople were killed, four more wounded were hospitalised,” the statement reads. “A gas station, car wash, tire repair shop, cars were damaged.”
Updated
With the strategic southern region of the partially Russian-occupied Kherson believed to be the location of the next “heaviest of battles”, Russian authorities spent yesterday relocating residents, some just over the Dnipro river, others to southern Russia.
Here’s a video from Kyiv Independent on why calling this an evacuation of civilians is wrong:
On Oct. 18, Moscow's proxies in occupied Kherson announced an organized relocation of Ukrainians to the Dnipro River’s east bank, away from the city. Many media, even some in Ukraine, called it an evacuation.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) October 24, 2022
The Kyiv Independent explains why it’s a dangerously wrong label. pic.twitter.com/w9C7CciO6f
Updated
Mercedes-Benz has become the latest company to leave Russia.
#Mercedes-Benz is leaving #Russia and selling its plant.
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 26, 2022
The company has become the third major automaker to announce its departure from Russia. pic.twitter.com/G1z6TsN7hF
Report: Russia is recruiting Afghan commandos to fight in Ukraine
Russia is purportedly recruiting members of Afghanistan’s national army commando corps to fight in Ukraine, Foreign Policy is reporting.
These are the commandos that were trained by US navy seals and British armed forces. About 20,000 to 30,000 of the volunteer commandos were left behind when the US left Afghanistan in Taliban control in August 2021.
According to FP, only a few hundred senior officers were evacuated before the republic collapsed. While thousands escaped to neighbouring countries as the Taliban hunted and executed collaborators with the collapsed government, many more remain in Afghanistan, in hiding.
The US spent $90bn building the Afghan national defence and security forces.
Oleksandra Matviichuk is the Ukrainian lawyer who heads the Centre for Civil Liberties, a human rights organisation, which this month jointly won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize in conjunction with Memorial, a Russian human rights group outlawed by the Kremlin, and the veteran Belarussian activist Ales Bialiatski, who is being held in prison without trial in his native country.
Matviichuk’s organisation has meticulously documented more than 21,000 examples of war crimes committed by occupying Russian forces since 2014, including many from after the invasion in February. She spoke in depth with the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh in Kyiv on the need to hold Russia accountable for its actions as soon as possible.
“Because we have a huge material collected – 21,000 episodes of war crimes – we can be very clear that Russia used war crimes as a method of warfare,” she says – and that Russia has sought to subject Ukraine to a “psychological experiment” through “the immense pain of the civilian population”.
Read more here:
Russian and Belarus ambassadors not invited to Nobel Prize award ceremony
The Nobel Foundation typically extends an invitation to its storied prize ceremony to ambassadors stationed in Sweden each year. This year, however, the foundation made the decision to exclude the Russian and Belarusian ambassadors, according to a statement issued by the foundation yesterday.
“In view of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Foundation has chosen not to invite the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus to the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm,” the statement reads.
This year’s ceremony will take place 10 December. The foundation jointly awarded this year’s peace prize to the Centre for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian human rights organisation, in conjunction with Memorial, a Russian human rights group outlawed by the Kremlin, and the veteran Belarussian activist Ales Bialiatski, who is being held in prison without trial in his native country.
Updated
The armed forces of Ukraine are estimating that about 480 Russian soldiers were killed yesterday alone.
These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of Oct. 26, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/aamw1Lh7iN
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) October 26, 2022
Vladimir Putin justified the invasion of Ukraine with claims of the need to “denazify” the country. Yesterday, Russia’s security council pivoted from “denazification” to “desatanisation”, with Aleksey Pavlov, assistant secretary of the security council of the Russian Federation, claiming there were “hundreds of sects” in Ukraine where citizens have abandoned Orthodox values.
Meanwhile in Russia: since Putin's phony "denazification" never made any sense, now Russia's Security Council is absurdly calling for the "desatanization" of Ukraine. How embarrassing. pic.twitter.com/hxlLCAEBdD
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) October 25, 2022
A quick thread on why the narrative of “desatanisation” is false:
🧵Absurd narrative shift in Russia – "denazification" seems to be replaced with "desatanization". Assistant secretary of Russia's Security Council said #Ukraine has hundreds of religious sects which grew in power after 2014 and try to abolish ideals of Abrahamic religions.
— Anastasiia Lapatina (@lapatina_) October 26, 2022
In reality: roughly 70% of Ukrainians are religious, 60% consider themselves Orthodox, 10% are Greek Catholics, 1,5 % are Protestants, 8,5% are "just Christian" without affiliation, roughly 20% are not religious. (2021, Razumkov Center)
— Anastasiia Lapatina (@lapatina_) October 26, 2022
Half of faithful Ukrainians say they attend religious services and meetings.
— Anastasiia Lapatina (@lapatina_) October 26, 2022
And don't forget about Jews and Muslims, whose numbers are hard to estimate, but it's in hundreds of thousands each.
They couldn't find the Nazis in Ukraine, so they are now looking for Satan himself. Who's next?
— Anastasiia Lapatina (@lapatina_) October 26, 2022
Updated
Over the past day, Russian forces have launched five rockets, 30 air strikes and more than 100 multiple-launch rocket system attacks on more than 40 settlements all around Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian general staff of the armed forces.
“Violating the norms of international humanitarian law, the laws and customs of war, (the enemy) continues to strike critical infrastructure and the homes of the civilian population,” the Ukrainian general staff wrote in its morning update.
Updated
Russian forces have continued their sustained offence on the strategically placed towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Ukraine’s industrial heartland of Donbas, killing one civilian yesterday in Bakhmut, Donetsk oblast governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram.
“Russians will be responsible for all crimes on our land,” Kyrylenko wrote.
Updated
A Russian missile attack killed two people in Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth-largest city. One of those who died was a pregnant woman. Three people were injured.
“We fight terrorists every day...
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) October 26, 2022
Another missile attack took place today. As a result, two people were killed in Dnipro. Including a pregnant woman. Three victims were hospitalized.
We will never forgive. Retaliation will be fair and inevitable” - @ZelenskyyUa pic.twitter.com/FRNaglCmOf
Updated
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleague Vivian Ho will take you through the news for the next few hours.
In case you missed this last night: Russia has stepped up its nuclear propaganda and delivered a letter to the United Nations claiming that Ukraine is preparing to detonate a “dirty bomb” on its territory, an allegation dismissed by Kyiv, western governments and weapons experts as absurd and an attempt at distraction or pretext for Moscow’s own escalation.
The letter was addressed to the UN secretary general and the Gabonese ambassador, who holds the rotating presidency of the security council, and follows calls by Russia’s defence minister to foreign ministers in recent days making similar unfounded allegations.
At the same time, Russia circulated a 310-page document in the security council, repeating earlier debunked claims that Ukraine and its western backers had been working on a bioweapon.
Updated
Sluggish US wheat exports and competitive prices for Russian and Ukrainian supplies have loomed over wheat markets, Reuters reports, offsetting worries that a United Nations-backed shipping corridor from Ukraine may not be extended beyond November.
Ukraine‘s exports of agricultural products could rise more than 8% in October from last month, the Ukrainian Agrarian Council said on Tuesday.
Ukraine is keeping its forecast of the winter wheat sowing area for the 2023 harvest unchanged at 3.8m hectares despite a delay caused by unfavourable weather, deputy agriculture minister Taras Vysotskiy told Reuters on Tuesday.
Updated
Oleksandra Matviichuk has a point she wants to make. The Ukrainian lawyer heads the Centre for Civil Liberties, a human rights organisation that this month jointly won the Nobel peace prize. And she wants to use her platform to call for international action against Russian human rights violations now.
The body she heads has patiently documented more than 21,000 examples of war crimes committed by occupying Russian forces since 2014, including many from after the invasion in February. But, speaking quietly and with controlled emotion, she complains: “I haven’t any legal instrument to stop the Russian atrocities” – no immediate way of bringing perpetrators to court.
The criminality appears vast when listed. “After the large-scale invasion, we every day documented different kinds of war crimes, like intentional shelling of residential buildings, churches, hospitals, schools, the shelling of evacuation corridors,” Matviichuk says. “We received requests for help from people in the occupied territories because they were abducted, tortured; we recorded sexual violence, extrajudicial killings.”
Staff from the Centre for Civil Liberties were among those who travelled through Irpin, Bucha and towns and villages north-west of Kyiv after Russia abandoned its attempt to seize the city in March. “I will remind you,” she says, that bodies were found lying uncollected in the streets, or dumped in mass graves. “And what was Putin’s response? He provided medals to the army unit that was staying in Bucha.”
Russia, as governed now, shows a “genocidal character,” she argues. At first she admits the sheer emotional difficulty of taking in the trauma of individual cases, particularly understandable when her organisation deals with so many:
The UK Ministry of Defence said in its latest update that there have been at least six incidences of sabotage against Russian railway infrastructure since June, with the latest occurring days ago when “an explosive device had damaged the railway near the village of Novozybkovo, approximately 15km from the Russia-Belarus border.”
“The line is the main rail link between Russia and southern Belarus,” the Ministry said.
The Russian anti-war group ‘Stop the Wagons’ claimed responsibility for the attack on the main line between Russia and southern Belarus.
“This is part of a wider trend of dissident attacks against railways in both Russian and Belarus. The Russian authorities have previously clamped down on STW’s online presence,” it said.
“The Russian leadership will be increasingly concerned that even a small group of citizens has been sufficiently opposed to the conflict to resort to physical sabotage.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 26 October 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 26, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/sjWLyEfmxf
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/Ct2pdrwjTp
Biden and Sunak reaffirm commitment to Ukraine
The US president, Joe Biden, and Britain’s new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, agreed during talks on Tuesday to work together to support Ukraine and stand up to China, the White House said.
They spoke for the first time a few hours after Sunak became Britain’s third prime minister this year, inheriting an economic crisis after the resignation of Liz Truss whose tenure lasted 49 days.
Only in recent days has Biden appeared to publicly criticise Truss’s doomed economic strategy, in a rare intervention by the US president. Relations between the two countries have also been somewhat strained in recent years amid ongoing tensions over post-Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland. The White House holds concerns over the impact on peace in the region.
Biden and Sunak reaffirmed the “special relationship” between the US and Britain, and said they would work together to advance global security and prosperity, the White House said in a summary of the conversation.
“The leaders agreed on the importance of working together to support Ukraine and hold Russia accountable for its aggression,” the statement said of the war triggered by the Russian invasion:
In Mykolaiv region north and west of Kherson city, artillery duels continued throughout Tuesday, according to a post from the frontline on Rybar, a pro-Russian channel on Telegram.
In Ishchenka district north of Kherson, Ukrainian forces tried to consolidate their positions, but were forced back to earlier lines, the post said. It said the Ukrainian military was preparing for an advance along the entire length of the frontline.
A Reuters reporter in a remote hamlet near part of the Kherson frontline said residents hoped Russian forces would soon withdraw.
“You fall asleep at night and you don’t know if you will wake up,” said Mikola Nizinets, 39, referring to Russian shelling.
With no power or gas and little food or potable water in the area, many residents have fled, abandoning cattle to roam among expended munitions poking from the soil.
Zelenskiy adviser warns of 'heaviest of batles' ahead in Kherson
Russian forces are digging in for the “heaviest of battles” in the strategic southern region of Kherson, a senior Ukrainian official said, as the Kremlin prepares to defend the largest city under its control from Ukraine‘s counter-offensive.
Russian forces in the region have been driven back in recent weeks and risk being trapped against the west bank of the Dnipro river, where the provincial capital of Kherson has been in Russian hands since the early days of the invasion of Ukraine eight months ago.
Russian-installed authorities are evacuating residents to the east bank, but Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said there was no sign that Russian forces were preparing to abandon the city.
“With Kherson everything is clear. The Russians are replenishing, strengthening their grouping there,” Arestovych said in an online video late on Tuesday.
“It means that nobody is preparing to withdraw. On the contrary, the heaviest of battles is going to take place for Kherson.”
Of the four provinces Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed to have annexed in September, Kherson is arguably the most strategically important. It controls both the only land route to the Crimea peninsula Russia seized in 2014 and the mouth of the Dnipro, the vast river that bisects Ukraine.
Yuri Sobolevsky, a member of the ousted pro-Ukrainian Kherson regional council, said the Russia-installed authorities were putting increasing pressure on Kherson residents to leave.
“Search and filtration procedures are intensifying as are searches of cars and homes,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Updated
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be taking you through the latest for the next while.
Russian forces are digging in for the “heaviest of battles” in the strategic southern region of Kherson, a senior Ukrainian official said late on Tuesday, as the Kremlin prepares to defend the largest city under its control from Ukraine’s counter-offensive.
Russian forces in the region have been driven back in recent weeks and risk being trapped against the west bank of the Dnipro river. The provincial capital of Kherson has been in Russian hands since the early days of the invasion of Ukraine eight months ago.
Russian-installed authorities are removing residents to the east bank, but Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said there was no sign that Russian forces were preparing to abandon the city.
“With Kherson everything is clear. The Russians are replenishing, strengthening their grouping there,” Arestovych said in an online video late on Tuesday.
More on this and other developments shortly. In the meantime, here is the summary of recent news:
Donetsk oblast was hit hard in the past day, with at least 15 Russian strikes killing seven civilians and injuring three more. The Ukrainian national police said the strikes also destroyed 19 residential buildings and one power line.
Further south, a car explosion near the office of Russian propaganda channel ZaTV in Russian-occupied Melitopol injured at least five people, including company employees, authorities said. While investigators were still looking into the blast, Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official, reportedly told Russian state media the explosion came from an “improvised explosive device”.
Russia took its claims that Ukraine is preparing to use a “dirty bomb” on its own territory to the UN security council, an assertion dismissed by western and Ukrainian officials as misinformation and a pretext for intensifying the war.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog would soon inspect two Ukrainian sites at Kyiv’s request, adding that it feared Moscow’s “dirty bomb” allegations were preparation for a “false-flag” operation.
The US congressional Progressive Caucus withdrew a letter to the White House urging a negotiated settlement with Russia, its chair, Pramila Jayapal, confirmed.
Vladimir Putin said Russia needed to speed up decision-making in the military campaign in Ukraine.
Moscow was generally supportive of the idea of creating a secure zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to international institutions in Vienna, told the Tass news agency.
Russia has notified the US of plans to carry out annual exercises of its nuclear forces, the US government said, adding that it lowered the risk of miscalculation at a time of “reckless” Russian nuclear rhetoric.
Britain’s incoming prime minister, Rishi Sunak, promised Zelenskiy that the UK’s support for Ukraine would be steadfast and “as strong as ever” under his premiership.
A Russian court dismissed WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner’s appeal against a nine-year sentence for possessing and smuggling vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. Griner’s lawyer said she hoped she could be released in a prisoner exchange with the US.
The US is considering sending older Hawk air defence equipment from storage to Ukraine, two US officials told Reuters.
Zelenskiy and the European hosts of a donor conference laid out a vision of a future Ukraine as a European Union member and major exporter of green energy to the continent.
The European Commission urged EU countries and companies to donate more money and equipment to support the energy sector in Ukraine, over a third of which has been destroyed by Russian missile and drone strikes.
Ukraine’s external financing needs will be around $3bn a month through 2023 in a best case scenario, but could rise as high as $5bn, said the IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva.
Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has said Russian assets and those of Russian oligarchs amount to a “huge pot of gold” that should be used for Ukraine’s reconstruction. “We must make sure that the offender pays for reconstruction. Russia should pay Ukraine war damages, war reparations.”
Police rescued an eight-year-old boy whose parents were killed in Russian shell strikes in Bakhmut, it was reported. Iuliia Mendel, a former spokesperson for Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the boy’s mother was seven months pregnant when she died “in the street” along with his father.
Refugees who fled in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should stay abroad this winter due to blackouts created by Moscow’s bombardment of energy infrastructure, a Ukrainian minister has said.
