Summary
The time in Kyiv is 9pm. Here is a brief round-up of the day’s top stories:
Vladimir Putin has said that he directly ordered his defence minister to make a series of calls to top Nato commanders this week over the potential detonation of a “dirty bomb” in Ukraine. Russia has escalated its rhetoric in recent weeks by claiming without evidence that Ukraine was preparing to detonate a low-yield radioactive device on its own territory, leading Kyiv and other western observers to consider that Putin may be preparing a “false flag” attack of its own.
In a speech near Moscow, Putin claimed once again that Russia knew “about an incident with a so-called ‘dirty bomb’ being prepared”, and that Russia knew “where, generally, it was being prepared”. Once again he gave no evidence of the alleged plot, which included the possibility of the device being loaded on to a Tochka-U or other tactical missile, detonated and then “blamed on Russia”.
In his remarks he also criticised former UK leader Liz Truss for saying she was “ready to do it” regarding the need for a prime minister to be ready to use nuclear weapons. “Well, let’s say she blurted out there – the girl seems to be a little out of her mind,” said Putin. “How can you say such things in public?” He also blamed Washington for failing to distance itself from Truss’ remarks.
Putin used the speech as a platform to rail against western countries and their supposed “hegemony”, saying the world faced the “most dangerous” decade since the second world war. “We are standing at a historical frontier: Ahead is probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and, at the same time, important decade since the end of World War Two.”
A new timetable of scheduled blackouts will be introduced in Kyiv and the surrounding area over the coming days, after Iranian drones caused more damage to energy infrastructure in Kyiv region last night, the city’s administration said. The new timetable is designed to prevent uncontrolled blackouts and will be stricter and longer than those recently announced by Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state energy company. Residents in Kyiv apartment buildings have started leaving small packages of snacks in lifts to be used in case people get stuck during a blackout.
Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine’s occupied region of Zaporizhzhia ordered phone checks on local residents on Thursday, announcing the implementation of military censorship under Russian president Vladimir Putin’s martial law decree. “From today in the Zaporizhzhia region, law enforcement officers have begun a selective preventing check of the mobile phones of citizens,” the Moscow-appointed official Vladimir Rogov said.
Moscow has said that provisions of the Black Sea grain deal to ease Russian agricultural and fertiliser exports were not being met, and that it was yet to make a decision on whether the agreement should be extended. A foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, told reporters that the west had not taken sufficient steps to ease sanctions on Russia’s logistics, payments and insurance industries to facilitate Russia’s exports.
The prospect of bitter urban fighting for Kherson, the largest city under Russian control, has come closer as Ukraine’s forces have drawn ever closer in their campaign in the south that has seen Russian forces driven back. With Russian-installed authorities encouraging residents to flee to the east bank of the Dnieper River, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said there was no sign Russian forces were preparing to abandon the city.
The United States has not seen anything to indicate that Russia’s ongoing annual ‘Grom’ exercises of its nuclear forces may be a cover for a real deployment, US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday. “We haven’t seen anything to cause us to believe, at this point, that is some kind of cover activity,” Austin told reporters.
An oil depot in the Russian-occupied city of Shakhtarsk, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk, was engulfed in flames overnight on Wednesday. The city’s Russian-installed mayor, Alexander Shatov, claimed the fire was caused by Ukrainian shelling of the railway station.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Ukraine live blog for today. Thanks for following.
Russian journalist and Putin’s rumoured goddaughter flees to Lithuania
The Russian journalist and TV personality Ksenia Sobchak – the daughter of Vladimir Putin’s one-time boss – has fled to Lithuania, intelligence services in Vilnius said, after police in Moscow raided one of her homes.
A well-known media figure in Russia, Sobchak first became famous as a reality show presenter before embarking on a career in journalism. She also ran for the Russian presidency in 2018, a move her critics said was a publicity stunt intended to help the Kremlin create the impression of competitive elections.
She is the daughter of the former mayor of St Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak, whom Putin has previously described as his mentor. She is rumoured to be Putin’s goddaughter, and though that is unconfirmed her longstanding family connection to the Russian president has been a source of mistrust among sections of the opposition.
Russian media said Sobchak had fled Russia on Tuesday night, crossing the Belarus-Lithuania border after tricking the Russian authorities by buying plane tickets from Moscow to Dubai via Istanbul.
Meanwhile, the United States has not seen anything to indicate that Russia’s ongoing annual ‘Grom’ exercises of its nuclear forces may be a cover for a real deployment, US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday.
“We haven’t seen anything to cause us to believe, at this point, that is some kind of cover activity,” Austin told reporters.
Putin said he had not yet decided whether to attend next month’s G20 summit in Indonesia.
The Russian leader added that if he does not go to the summit, scheduled for 15th-16th November, he would send a high-level Russian delegation in his place.
He also said that that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman deserved respect and that Russia was set on boosting relations with Saudi Arabia.
The United States’ has criticised Prince Mohammed and the OPEC+ oil alliance for agreeing to cut oil production, a move seen as a boost to Russia’s attempts to protect its economy in the face of Western sanctions.
Putin criticised France for publishing contents of a phone call he had with President Emmanuel Macron days before Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February.
Putin said the release showed that his conversations with the French leader were being listened in on.
He also called Western claims that Russia was behind explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines “crazy” in a speech on Thursday.
Danish police have said powerful explosions caused ruptures to the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 undersea pipelines, potentially putting them permanently out of use.
Putin previously said the West blew up the pipelines, while European leaders have accused Russia of sabotage.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the Russian economy had passed the “peak” of economic turmoil related to western sanctions.
In a speech in Moscow, Putin said western attempts to “collapse” the Russian economy had failed, and that the Russian economy had adapted to the new economic reality.
The west imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia’s economy after Putin launched what he calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Updated
Putin said that Russia’s military doctrine permitted the country to use nuclear weapons only in defence, rejecting claims that Russia was considering using them in Ukraine.
Putin also said Russia was ready to restart talks with the US on nuclear arms control, but had had no response from Washington on Moscow’s proposals for talks on “strategic stability.”
He also hailed Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a “strong leader” who always defended Turkey’s interests. Putin said Erdoğan was not always an “easy partner” to deal with, but that Turkey was always “reliable” and had a desire to reach agreements.
Erdogan has played a vital role as a go-between for Kyiv and Moscow since the start of the conflict, brokering the Black Sea grain deal and assisting in a number of prisoner exchanges – the only diplomatic breakthroughs to date in the eight-month conflict, Reuters reported.
Updated
Putin said that Russia had never talked about using nuclear weapons and asserted that Kyiv has the technology to create and potentially detonate a “dirty bomb” in Ukraine.
Putin said the west, including Britain’s Liz Truss, had engaged in “nuclear blackmail” against Russia and rejected claims that Russian forces were attacking the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – located in territory controlled by Russia in southern Ukraine.
Updated
The eastern Donbas region would “not have survived” on its own had Russia not intervened militarily in Ukraine, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has claimed.
Putin last month announced that Russia was formally incorporating four regions of eastern and southern Ukraine after staging what he called “referendums” in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Kyiv and the west said they would not recognise the attempted annexation, which they cast as part of an illegal Russian land grab.
Putin also said that events in Ukraine in 2014 – when street protests ousted Ukraine’s pro-Russia president from office – had led directly to today’s conflict.
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Putin said he constantly thought of Russian soldiers who had fallen in Ukraine, but said Moscow had no choice but to launch what Moscow calls its “special military operation.”
Putin said that the costs of the conflict – including to the Russian economy – were unavoidable and that Russia was strengthening its sovereignty.
He went on to say that the world faced its most dangerous decade since the end of the second world war.
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Putin said the west rejected Russia’s attempts to build good relations with the US and Nato because it was set on making Russia vulnerable.
Moscow had wanted to “be friends” with the west and Nato, but would not accept attempts by the US, EU and the UK to hold Russia down, he claimed.
He added that he believed the US had discredited the international financial system by using the US dollar as a weapon.
Putin said he believed moves by other countries to reduce the reliance of the US dollar in their international trade would accelerate.
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Putin also accused the west of using economic sanctions and “colour revolutions” against rivals as it could not compete fairly with the rising economic and political might of Asia.
He said Russia does not seek hegemony but instead “reserves the right to develop”.
Meanwhile, The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent, Andrew Roth, highlighted on Twitter the fact that this speech appears to be a pitch to the rest of the world.
So far this speech coming off heavily as an appeal to Asia, Africa, the Middle East. ‘We’re the majority, West is the minority.’ Has barely mentioned war in Ukraine.
— Andrew Roth (@Andrew__Roth) October 27, 2022
Updated
Putin has so far avoided mentioning Russia’s invasion of its neighbour Ukraine in much detail, instead focusing on criticising the west.
He accuses the west of “throwing aside all rules” when confronted with competition from Asia and that it still looks upon others as “second-rate people”.
“Western elites have no right to enforce others to follow their path,” he says. “No one can dictate to our people how we should build our society.”
He adds that Russia does not consider itself an enemy of the west but says:
Russia will never put up with what the west tells it to do.
Updated
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is reeling off his usual rambling rhetoric in this speech, blaming the “so-called west” for escalating events in Ukraine.
He said:
The west … has taken several steps towards escalation and they are always trying to escalate. There’s nothing new there.
They’re fuelling the war in the Ukraine, organising politicians around Taiwan, destabilising the world food and energy markets.
As far as the last one is concerned, it is not deliberate, [I] don’t doubt that. It was due to a number of systemic errors committed by the western authorities I’ve just mentioned.
He accused the west of playing a “dangerous” game and said:
Dominion of the world is precisely what the west has decided to stake in this game. But this game is a dangerous, dirty and bloody one.
It contests the sovereignty of peoples and nations, their identity and uniqueness and has no regard whatsoever for the interests of other countries.
He claimed humanity had two options – either continue to “accumulate all of the problems that is certain to crush all of us” or nations could work together “to find solutions”.
Updated
Vladimir Putin giving speech on foreign policy
Vladimir Putin has arrived on stage and is giving the opening remarks of his annual speech at the meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club thinktank.
Stay tuned throughout the afternoon for any news lines from the event.
Updated
The European Union is moving to tighten laws governing the trade and transport of guns to help keep illicit firearms out of the hands of criminal gangs amid concerns that the war in Ukraine could increase the spread of illegal weapons, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, estimates that about 35m illicit weapons are in the hands of civilians across the 27-nation bloc, the AP says. Around 630,000 firearms are listed as stolen in the EU’s security and border database.
The commission’s crackdown would involve clearer, common procedures for the import, export and transit of firearms and ammunitions. An electronic licensing system would be set up for import and export applications to replace the slower paper-based systems most countries have.
Stricter standards would be imposed on the manufacture of alarm and signal weapons, which fire such things as blanks or teargas, according to the report. Such arms were converted by extremists and used in the bloody 2015 Paris attacks and the killing of staff at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
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Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine’s occupied region of Zaporizhzhia ordered phone checks on local residents on Thursday, announcing the implementation of military censorship under Russian president Vladimir Putin’s martial law decree.
“From today in the Zaporizhzhia region, law enforcement officers have begun a selective preventing check of the mobile phones of citizens,” the Moscow-appointed official Vladimir Rogov said.
He said those subscribed to “propaganda resources of the terrorist Kyiv regime” would receive a warning, before being fined.
He also warned that there would be “criminal liability” for “malicious violations of a law on the activities of foreign agent”.
While Rogov said the new regulations were tied to military censorship, Russian occupation forces have also been targeting the phones of residents in areas under their control to search for those it believes may be linked to Ukrainian partisans and special forces operating in the country’s south.
Earlier this year reports emerged on social media and elsewhere of Russian forces checking phones and online content to try and identify partisans or those sympathetic to partisans, with some residents suggesting they were looking both for evidence of sympathies on phones and also those with phones that were suspiciously clean.
Updated
Kyiv to face stricter and longer power outages after drone strikes
A new timetable of scheduled blackouts will be introduced in Kyiv and the surrounding area over the coming days, after Iranian drones caused more damage to energy infrastructure in Kyiv region last night, the city’s administration said.
The new timetable is designed to prevent uncontrolled blackouts and will be stricter and longer than those recently announced by Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state energy company.
Residents in Kyiv apartment buildings have started leaving small packages of snacks in lifts to be used in case people get stuck during a blackout.
In Kyiv, volunteers are leaving emergency kits in elevators in case of power outages. (Label is in Ukrainian & Russian)
— Nolan Peterson (@nolanwpeterson) October 25, 2022
“In case you are stuck in the elevator this kit is for you:
-Warm blanket, so you stay warm
⁃a flashlight so you can see
⁃Water for you not to dehydrate…” pic.twitter.com/3hkVYrE0Kx
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Putin set to make speech at Russian thinktank this afternoon
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is due to make a speech at a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club today.
The club is a thinktank with close links to the Kremlin, generally considered to be part of Moscow’s propaganda machine.
The Russian president appears to be running late for his annual speech but you will be able to follow along here once he starts.
Updated
Moscow has said that provisions of the Black Sea grain deal to ease Russian agricultural and fertiliser exports were not being met, and that it was yet to make a decision on whether the agreement should be extended.
A foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, told reporters that the west had not taken sufficient steps to ease sanctions on Russia’s logistics, payments and insurance industries to facilitate Russia’s exports.
The deal, struck in July for 120 days, is set to expire in the second half of November, Reuters reported.
Updated
The Kyiv region, including the capital city itself, faces a 30% deficit in its capacity to generate the power it needs following Russian strikes overnight targeting energy infrastructure, the regional governor said.
“Last night the enemy damaged the facilities of the energy infrastructure of our region. A number of critical facilities have been disabled,” Oleksiy Kuleba said in a video clip on the Telegram messaging app.
Separately, the Kyiv region’s military administration said the region must “prepare for emergency power outages for an indefinite period” because of the Russian strikes, Reuters reported.
Four lion cubs and a black leopard cub from war-torn Ukraine have found safety in a Polish zoo, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said, after surviving drone attacks and bombing in the first few months of their lives.
The cubs were transferred to animal rescue organisations in Kyiv and Odessa after a crackdown on the exotic pet trade in Ukraine, and are now in Poznan zoo in western Poland awaiting onward travel, the Reuters news agency reports. It quoted Meredith Whitney, the IFAW’s wildlife rescue program manager, as saying:
An estimated 200 lions live in private homes (in Ukraine) and as the war rages on, they face increasingly grim outcomes.
IFAW said it had partnered with a sanctuary in the United States and one in Europe to care for the cubs, who were bred in captivity and cannot be released into the wild.
The Wildcat Sanctuary (TWS) in the United States will take care of the lion cubs. Tammy Thies, the founder of the sanctuary, said:
We were thrilled to be able to offer these cubs a beautiful, one acre habitat together and hope to welcome them home soon.
Police in the eastern German state of Saxony are appealing for witnesses after four young Ukrainian females were racially abused and physically assaulted by a group of German teenagers.
The dispute between the two groups took place last Friday evening in the Saxon town of Hoyerswerda but were only reported this week. Two Ukrainian girls, aged 15 and 16, sustained light injuries, police said.
A week ago, a shelter housing Ukrainian refugees in north-eastern Germany had gone up in flames, in what authorities presume to be an arson attack.
An oil depot in the Russian-occupied city of Shakhtarsk, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk, was engulfed in flames overnight on Wednesday.
The city’s Russian-installed mayor, Alexander Shatov, claimed the fire was caused by Ukrainian shelling of the railway station.
Russian state news agency reports said 12 fuel reservoirs near the station were damaged by the fire.
No casualties have been reported so far.
Germany’s government has questioned Russian claims that a part of the damaged Nord Stream pipeline infrastructure remains capable of carrying gas following the as-yet-unexplained sabotage attack on 26 September.
Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom claimed recently that one of the four pipes that make up Nord Stream 1 and 2 – pipe B of Nord Stream 2 – is still intact and could transport gas in the future.
In response to a formal parliamentary query by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, however, the German government said:
It is likely that the act of sabotage with strong explosions had negative effects on both pipelines, and they are currently no longer technically available.
Separate teams in Germany, Sweden and Denmark are investigating the destroyed section of the pipeline in the Baltic Sea with a view to understanding the methods of the sabotage.
Updated
Ukraine prepares for possible future attack launched from Belarus
Ukraine has boosted its forces in the northern region near Belarus to counter any possible renewed Russian attack across the border, the deputy chief of Kyiv’s general staff, Oleksii Hromov, has said:
At the current time the creation of a strike force [in Belarus] is not observable. [But] there are and will be threats. We are reacting, we have already increased our troops in the northern direction.
Belarus is Russia’s main ally in the conflict and has allowed Russian forces to use its territory as a springboard to attack Ukraine.
Updated
We reported earlier on the Russian threat to commercial satellites. Here’s a little more detail. Last year, Moscow launched an anti-satellite missile to destroy one of its own satellites, thereby demonstrating its offensive space capability.
Konstantin Vorontsov, the deputy director of the foreign ministry’s department for non-proliferation and arms control, told the United Nations the United States and its allies were trying to use space to enforce western dominance. Reading from notes, he said the use of western satellites to aid the Ukrainian war effort was “an extremely dangerous trend” and told the United Nations First Committee:
Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike.
He claimed the west’s use of such satellites to support Ukraine was “provocative”.
We are talking about the involvement of components of civilian space infrastructure, including commercial, by the United States and its allies in armed conflicts.
Vorontsov did not mention any specific satellite companies, though Elon Musk said earlier this month that his rocket company SpaceX would continue to fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, citing the need for “good deeds”.
Updated
Russian forces struck the power grid in central regions of Ukraine overnight and further electricity supply restrictions are possible, the Reuters news agency quotes the grid operator Ukrenergo as saying.
Russia has stepped up its strikes on crucial Ukrainian infrastructure including the power grid in recent weeks, leaving millions without electricity or heating for lengthy periods of time as winter approaches.
Commercial satellites from the United States and its allies could become legitimate targets for Moscow if they became involved in the war in Ukraine, a senior Russian foreign ministry official has threatened.
According to the Russian news agency Tass, Konstantin Vorontsov, the deputy director of the foreign ministry’s department for non-proliferation and arms control, said:
Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike. We are talking about the involvement of components of civilian space infrastructure, including commercial, by the United States and its allies in armed conflicts.
Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine has killed tens of thousands, undermined the post-Covid global economic recovery and triggered the gravest confrontation with the west since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
Updated
Estonia has called on the UK’s new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, to commit to raising defence spending amid the war in Ukraine.
Sunak has not matched a pledge by his predecessor Liz Truss to boost defence spending from 2% to 3% of GDP by 2030, having previously described such targets as “arbitrary”. Asked in a BBC interview if Nato countries should aim to spend 3% of GDP on defence, the Estonian foreign minister Urmas Reinsalu said: “Absolutely.”
He also said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a “gamechanger”, adding:
Autocrats are investing in weapons. They believe in (the) power of arms. To defend our values – the rules-based order – we need also to invest in the weapons.
Updated
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has claimed Ukrainian forces have downed almost 250 Russian helicopters throughout the course of the war.
Zelenskiy made the claim in his latest national address on Wednesday night:
The total number of downed Russian helicopters is already approaching 250.
The Russian occupiers have already lost as much equipment – aircraft and other – as most of the world’s armies simply do not have and will never have in service.
Russia will not be able to recover these losses. I thank all our fighters for such a gradual and irreversible demilitarisation of the enemy.”
Moscow’s announcement earlier this week that its city mayor would coordinate the “development of security measures” in Russia’s regions will likely lead to greater involvement of regional officials and a closer interlinking of regional governors into Russia’s national security system, according to the latest British intelligence report.
It is a further measure to organise society and the greater involvement of regional officials is likely designed to deflect public criticism away from the national leadership as Russia’s war against Ukraine continues to be under pressure, the UK Ministry of Defence report reads.
However, it will “likely make it more difficult for the Kremlin to insulate Russian society from the effects of the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine,” according to the ministry.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 27 October 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 27, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/PNwzvPXnTE
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/OZfoBTEdyJ
An oil depot in the Russian-occupied city of Shakhtarsk, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region is reportedly on fire, according to local media reports.
The Moscow-appointed city administrative head, Vitaly Khotsenko, told Russian state news agency Tass that 12 fuel reservoirs were damaged near the railway station as a result of shelling by Ukrainian troops.
The city’s mayor, Alexander Shatov, claimed Ukrainian troops shelled the Shakhtarsk railway station causing the fire, according to the outlet.
An oil depot in occupied #Shakhtarsk, #Donetsk region caught fire. pic.twitter.com/GV3CXR2vep
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 27, 2022
Updated
Ukraine prepares for bitter urban fighting for Kherson
The prospect of bitter urban fighting for Kherson, the largest city under Russian control, has come closer as Ukraine’s forces have drawn ever closer in their campaign in the south that has seen Russian forces driven back.
With Russian-installed authorities encouraging residents to flee to the east bank of the Dnieper River, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said there was no sign Russian forces were preparing to abandon the city.
Arestovych said in an online video late on Tuesday:
With Kherson everything is clear. The Russians are replenishing, strengthening their grouping there.
It means that nobody is preparing to withdraw. On the contrary, the heaviest of battles is going to take place for Kherson.”
Before-and-after satellite imagery to track Ukraine cultural damage
The United Nations is using before-and-after satellite imagery to systematically monitor the cultural destruction inflicted on Ukraine by Russia’s war, announcing it will launch its tracking platform publicly within weeks.
The platform, to be launched by the UN’s culture agency Unesco, will assess the impact on Ukraine’s architecture, art, historic buildings and other cultural heritage.
An initial list found damage to 207 cultural sites since the Russian invasion began eight months ago, including 88 religious sites, 15 museums, 76 buildings of historical and or artistic interest, 18 monuments and 10 libraries.
Kyiv region and Zaporizhzhia struck – reports
Russian forces reportedly struck the Kyiv region overnight, according to local media reports and regional officials.
The Kyiv regional governor, Oleksiy Kuleba, did not disclose the location of the attack but said that rescue workers were onsite. Posting an update via the Telegram messaging app, he wrote:
The Russians terrorise the Kyiv region at night. We have several arrivals in one of the communities of the region.
Rescuers and all emergency services are on the scene. The elimination of the fire and the consequences of the impact is ongoing.”
The Kyiv city state administration issued air raid alerts around midnight on Wednesday, urging residents to seek shelter.
Russian forces also reportedly hit the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia in what is believed to be another overnight attack.
The acting mayor of Zaporizhzhia, Anatoly Kurtev, reported that Russian forces struck the city as well as its surrounding area, causing a fire.
Updated
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next few hours.
Russian forces reportedly struck the Kyiv region and the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, according to local media reports and regional officials.
Ukrainian troops are poised to battle for the strategic southern Kherson region, which Russia appears to be reinforcing with more troops and supplies.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, hinted that there would be good news from the front but he gave no details in his latest national address.
If you have just joined us, here are all the latest developments:
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is said to have monitored drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces involving multiple launches of ballistic and cruise missiles. 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. The drills were seen as a continuation of Moscow’s unfounded dirty bomb claims.
The prospect of bitter urban fighting for Kherson came closer as Russian-installed authorities told residents to move to the east bank of the Dnieper River. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said there was no sign Russian forces were preparing to abandon the city.
Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russian forces in Kherson was proving more difficult than it was in the north-east because of wet weather and the terrain, Ukraine’s defence minister said.
About 70,000 civilians had left their homes in Kherson province in the space of a week, a Moscow-installed official, Vladimir Saldo, told a regional TV channel.
Ukraine is advising refugees living abroad not to return until the spring amid mounting fears over whether the country’s damaged energy infrastructure can handle winter. With a third of the country’s energy sector compromised, 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.”
About 1,000 bodies – including civilians and children – have been exhumed in the recently liberated Kharkiv region, media reports say. This includes the 447 bodies found at the mass burial site in Izium.
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, said he did not believe Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, would use nuclear weapons. Putin has said 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 defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, held a phone call with his Indian and Chinese counterparts and raised Russia’s purported concerns about the possible use of a “dirty bomb” by Ukraine, Shoigu’s ministry said. It followed calls between Shoigu and Nato defence ministers on the topic. There is no evidence to support Russia’s “dirty bomb” claim.
The UN culture agency, Unesco, has said it is using before-and-after satellite imagery to monitor the cultural destruction inflicted by Russia’s war in Ukraine, and would make its tracking platform public soon. Unesco said it had verified damage to 207 cultural sites including religious sites, museums, buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, monuments and libraries.
The United Nations’ aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said he was “relatively optimistic” that a UN-brokered deal allowing Black Sea grain exports from Ukraine would be extended beyond mid-November. Griffiths travelled to Moscow with senior UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan this month for discussions with Russian officials on the deal, which also aims to facilitate exports of Russian grain and fertiliser to global markets.
The remains of a US citizen killed in fighting in Ukraine were released to Ukrainian authorities and would soon be returned to the person’s family, a US state department spokesperson said.
The European Union could introduce a gas price cap this winter to limit price spikes if countries give Brussels a mandate to propose the measure.
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, has said. The more flexible rules were introduced in March and revised in July.
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