Summary
Here is a roundup of the day’s top headlines:
Ukraine said its position on negotiations with Russia had not changed and it was not being asked to negotiate by its allies, after reports by the Washington Post that its main ally and backer, the US, had asked Kyiv to signal that it was open to negotiations amid worry among allies in parts of Europe, Latin American, and Africa about a protracted war. The Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Radio Svoboda that Ukraine would only negotiate with Russia once Russian troops had left all of Ukraine’s territory, including those it occupied in 2014. Podolyak said the US treated Ukraine as an equal and there was no coercion. He said Ukraine was winning and that to sit down at the negotiating table now would therefore be “nonsense”.
The Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said he saw no need at present to evacuate Kyiv or any other cities that were not near the frontlines in the war against Russia. He made his comments at a cabinet meeting following Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy system, and after the mayor of Kyiv told residents to consider everything including a worst-case scenario where the capital lost power and water completely.
The secretary of Ukraine’s security council said on Tuesday the “main condition” for the resumption of negotiations with Russia would be the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Oleksiy Danilov said Ukraine also needed the “guarantee” of modern air defences, aircraft, tanks and long-range missiles.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, claimed his forces were gradually pushing back Russian troops in some parts of the east and south. “We are gradually moving forward,” he said in his latest evening address on Monday. Zelenskiy added that Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region remained the centre of Ukraine’s bloodiest battles, claiming Russians “die by the hundreds every day”.
Ukraine wants the Black Sea grain export deal expanded to include more ports and goods, and hopes a decision to extend the agreement for at least a year will be taken next week, Ukraine’s deputy infrastructure minister said. The deal, which eased a global food crisis by unblocking three major Ukrainian ports during Russia’s invasion, expires on 19 November and briefly appeared to be imperilled last month when Moscow suspended its participation in the deal before rejoining again.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has distracted world governments from efforts to combat climate change, Zelenskiy said in a video message played at the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt on Tuesday. “There can be no effective climate policy without the peace,” he said.
One of the Russian-imposed leaders in the occupied Kherson region of Ukraine, Kirill Stremousov, claimed on Telegram: “The situation in the morning is unchanged along the entire frontline. We do not see any kind of mass offensive. At this stage, everything is unchanged and without difficult moments for our region.”
Russia is stepping up its efforts to build substantial obstacle barriers to slow the advance of Ukrainian forces in key locations it is defending, including around the devastated city of Mariupol, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said. Its intelligence assessment on Tuesday said the Russian military was using two plants in occupied Mariupol to produce large numbers of “dragon’s teeth” – pyramidal concrete blocks designed to slow advancing military vehicles. The production and placement of the blocks in conjunction with razor wire and mines is the latest indication of how Russia’s struggling forces are increasingly attempting to transition to more defensive warfare, not least on the key southern Kherson front on the east bank of the Dnieper River.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will join next week’s G20 summit “if the situation is possible”, his Indonesian counterpart, Joko Widodo, who is hosting the meeting, said on Tuesday, adding that Putin could attend virtually instead. On Monday, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Putin would decide by the end of the week whether he would attend the summit.
Zelenskiy will take part in the G20 summit in Bali next week, most probably attending virtually, his spokesperson told the Suspilne public broadcaster on Tuesday. Previously, the Ukrainian position was that Zelenskiy would not appear if Putin did.
The Italian government is readying a new arms package for Ukraine including air defence systems, a governing coalition official said. Western countries have been delivering more air defence hardware to Ukraine since Zelenskiy last month asked the leaders of the G7 for help to stop Russian missiles fired at Ukrainian cities.
Ukrainians continue to brace for more blackouts after the country’s grid operator told consumers to expect power outages in Kyiv and other regions on Monday and Tuesday as it seeks to reduce the strain on energy infrastructure damaged by Russian missile and drone attacks. Rolling blackouts are becoming increasingly routine after a wave of Russian attacks on power facilities damaged 40% of energy infrastructure since 10 October.
A recruitment office in St Petersburg issued a draft notice to a missing Russian sailor who was onboard the flagship Moskva missile cruiser, which sank in the Black Sea in April. According to a report by the local news website Fontanka, the parents of the sailor, named Mikhail, who was a cook on the Moskva cruiser, received his call-up notice last month. The papers ordered their son to report to the drafting station or face possible prosecution.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Sevastopol in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, said this morning that air defences in the city shot down a Ukrainian drone.
Russia and the US are discussing holding talks on strategic nuclear weapons for the first time since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported, citing at least three sources familiar with the discussions.
The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, will seek Turkey’s approval for his country’s bid to join Nato during talks later on Tuesday in Ankara with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
A further 30 Ukrainian service personnel who were captured on Ukraine’s Zmiinyi (Snake) Island have been released from Russian captivity, according to the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, visited Kyiv on Tuesday, where she met Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov. She also visited the Kyiv Mlyn flour mill, saying on Twitter of the trip: “Ukraine has long been a breadbasket to the world. And today, I had the chance to visit a facility that stores and processes grain in Kyiv. This site has taken on added importance because Russian forces have attacked so many of Ukraine’s other grain facilities.”
Another US volunteer has died in combat in Ukraine, a spokesperson for the country’s International Legion confirmed on Monday, bringing the number of US fighters killed in the war against Russia to at least six. Timothy Griffin, from New York state, had been fighting alongside Ukrainians as part of their counteroffensive on the eastern front when his unit came under attack. The legion’s spokesperson, identified as “Mockingjay” to NBC News, said Griffin was “killed in action”.
Updated
A recruitment office in St Petersburg has issued a draft notice to a missing Russian sailor who was onboard the flagship missile cruiser Moskva, which sank in the Black Sea in April.
According to a report by the local news website Fontanka, the parents of the sailor, named Mikhail, who was a cook on the cruiser, received his call-up notice last month. The papers ordered their son to report to the drafting station or face possible prosecution.
“You may be prosecuted if you do not appear at the indicated time and place without a legitimate reason,” the draft papers read.
Russia’s first draft since the second world war, announced by Vladimir Putin, caused chaos and anger across the country, as news emerged that local authorities were sending draft papers to Russians who had died or who had severe health conditions.
Updated
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has distracted world governments from efforts to combat climate change, said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a video message played at the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt on Tuesday.
“There can be no effective climate policy without the peace,” he said.
Updated
The Italian government is readying a new arms package for Ukraine including air defence systems, a governing coalition official said.
Western nations have been delivering more air defence hardware to Ukraine since president Volodymyr Zelenskiy last month asked the leaders of the G7 nations for help to stop Russian missiles raining down on Ukrainian cities.
The Italian coalition official, who declined to be named, said Rome was ready to provide Ukraine with a variety of air-defence systems, including the medium-range Franco-Italian SAMP/T and Italian Aspide, as well as portable Stinger missiles.
However, it remains unclear how many of these it could offer or when any shipment might be delivered, the official said.
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto spoke by phone on Monday with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and pledged to support Ukraine against Russia’s invasion for “as long as necessary”, a statement said.
Summary of the day so far …
Ukraine said its position on negotiations with Russia had not changed and it is not being asked to negotiate by its allies, after reports by the Washington Post that its main ally and backer, the US, had asked Kyiv to signal that it is open to negotiations amid worry among allies in parts of Europe, Latin American, and Africa about a protracted war. Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podalyak, told Radio Svoboda, that Ukraine will only negotiate with Russia once Russian troops have left all of Ukraine’s territory, including those it occupied in 2014. Podalyak said that the US treats Ukraine as an equal and there is no coercion. He said Ukraine is winning and therefore to sit down at the negotiating table now would be “nonsense”.
The secretary of Ukraine’s security council said on Tuesday the “main condition” for the resumption of negotiations with Russia would be the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Oleksiy Danilov said that Ukraine also needed the “guarantee” of modern air defences, aircraft, tanks and long-range missiles.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has claimed his forces are gradually pushing back Russian troops in some parts of the east and south. “We are gradually moving forward,” he said in his latest Monday evening address. Zelenskiy added that Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region remains the centre of Ukraine’s bloodiest battles, claiming Russians “die by the hundreds every day”.
One of the Russian-imposed leaders in the occupied Kherson region of Ukraine, Kirill Stremousov, has claimed on Telegram: “The situation in the morning is unchanged along the entire frontline. We do not see any kind of mass offensive. At this stage, everything is unchanged and without difficult moments for our region.”
Russia is stepping up its efforts to build substantial obstacle barriers to slow the advance of Ukrainian forces in key locations it is defending, including around the devastated city of Mariupol, the UK Ministry of Defence has said. Its intelligence assessment on Tuesday said the Russian military was using two plants in occupied Mariupol to produce large numbers of “dragon’s teeth” – pyramidal concrete blocks designed to slow advancing military vehicles. The production and placement of the blocks in conjunction with razor wire and mines is the latest indication of how Russia’s struggling forces are increasingly attempting to transition to more defensive warfare, not least on the key southern Kherson front on the east bank of the Dneiper River.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will join next week’s G20 leaders summit “if the situation is possible”, his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo, the meeting’s host said Tuesday, adding that Putin could attend virtually instead. On Monday Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin would decide by the end of the week if he was attending the summit.
Zelenskiy will take part in the G20 summit in Bali next week, most likely attending virtually, his spokesperson told the Suspilne public broadcaster on Tuesday. Previously the Ukrainian position was that Zelenskiy would not appear if Putin did.
Ukrainians continue to brace for more blackouts after the country’s grid operator told consumers to expect power outages in Kyiv and other regions on Monday and Tuesday as it seeks to reduce the strain on energy infrastructure damaged by Russian missile and drone attacks. Rolling blackouts are becoming increasingly routine after a wave of Russian attacks on power facilities damaged 40% of energy infrastructure since 10 October.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Sevastopol in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, said this morning that air defences in the city shot down a Ukrainian drone.
Russia and the US are discussing holding talks on strategic nuclear weapons for the first time since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine, Russian newspaper Kommersant reports, citing at least three sources familiar with the discussions.
Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson will seek Turkey’s approval for his country’s bid to join Nato during talks later Tuesday in Ankara with president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
A further 30 Ukrainian service personnel who were captured from Ukraine’s Zmiinyi (Snake) Island have been released from Russian captivity, according to the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, visited Kyiv Tuesday, where she met Ukraine minister of infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrako. She also visited the KyivMlyn flour mill, saying on Twitter of the trip “Ukraine has long been a breadbasket to the world. And today, I had the chance to visit a facility that stores and processes grain in Kyiv. This site has taken on added importance because Russian forces have attacked so many of Ukraine’s other grain facilities.”
Another US volunteer has died in combat in Ukraine, a spokesperson for the country’s International Legion confirmed on Monday, bringing the number of US fighters killed in the war against Russia to at least six. Timothy Griffin, from New York state, had been fighting alongside Ukrainians as part of their counteroffensive on the eastern front when his unit came under attack. The legion’s spokesperson, identified as “Mockingjay” to NBC News, said Griffin was “killed in action”.
Ukraine wants the Black Sea grain export deal expanded to include more ports and goods, and hopes a decision to extend the agreement for at least a year will be taken next week, Ukraine’s deputy infrastructure minister said.
The deal, which eased a global food crisis by unblocking three major Ukrainian ports during Russia’s invasion, expires on 19 November and briefly appeared imperilled last month when Moscow suspended its participation in the deal before rejoining again.
“[We] are already very late [giving] clear information to the market about the extension [of the agreement],” Yuriy Vaskov, the deputy minister, told Reuters in an interview.
“We hope that no later than next week from our partners Turkey and the UN we will have an understanding and the whole market will also have a clear signal about the further functioning and continuation of the initiative,” he said.
The deal has allowed about 10.5m tonnes of Ukrainian food, mainly grain, to be delivered to foreign markets since it was agreed in July under the mediation of Turkey and the United Nations.
Vaskov said Ukraine had offered an extension of at least one year to Turkey and UN, as well as a broadening of the deal to include the ports of the southern Mykolaiv region, which provided 35% of Ukrainian food exports before Russia’s invasion.
Updated
Ukrainian PM says no need to evacuate Kyiv
Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal said he saw no need at present to evacuate Kyiv or any other cities that are not near the frontlines in the war against Russia.
He made his comments at a cabinet meeting following Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy system, and after the mayor of Kyiv told residents to consider everything including a worst-case scenario where the capital loses power and water completely.
“Right now, the situation is far from [needing to] announce an evacuation,” Shmyhal said. “We must say that to announce the evacuation of any city not near the front lines, especially the capital, would not make any sense at present.”
Updated
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, has visited Kyiv today, where among other things she has met Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrako.
She has also visited the KyivMlyn flour mill, where she met workers and was accompanied by the US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink.
Thomas-Greenfield said on Twitter of the visit: “Ukraine has long been a breadbasket to the world. And today, I had the chance to visit a facility that stores and processes grain in Kyiv. This site has taken on added importance because Russian forces have attacked so many of Ukraine’s other grain facilities.”
Updated
The Russian state-owned RIA Novosti news agency is reporting that Russia’s deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko has said that only Ukraine is holding back the prospect of negotiations. RIA quotes him saying:
There are no preconditions on our part, except for the main condition – for Ukraine to show goodwill.
Rudenko highlighted that Ukraine had passed a law forbidding negotiations, and said: “We have always declared our readiness for such negotiations, which were interrupted through no fault of ours.”
Russia began its latest invasion of Ukraine on 24 February this year, having annexed Crimea in 2014. In September, the Russian Federation declared that it had annexed four regions of Ukraine.
Updated
Another American volunteer has died in combat in Ukraine, a spokesperson for the country’s International Legion confirmed on Monday, bringing the number of US fighters killed in the war against Russia to at least six.
Timothy Griffin, from New York state, had been fighting alongside Ukrainians as part of their counteroffensive on the eastern front when his unit came under attack. The legion’s spokesperson, identified as “Mockingjay” to NBC News, said Griffin was “killed in action”.
“We are in contact with the family and the International Legion, and the armed forces of Ukraine are handling the repatriation process, in coordination with the family, following their wishes and instructions,” the spokesperson said.
Details of Griffin’s Ukrainian volunteer history are scarce, but people with knowledge of his death told NBC he had been fighting in the Kharkiv region.
The US state department said it was “aware of these unconfirmed reports” of an American citizen killed in Ukraine but had no further comment “due to privacy considerations”.
Read more of Edward Helmore’s report here: Another American dies in combat as part of Ukraine’s international legion
Updated
A Ukrainian soldier of a artillery unit fires towards Russian positions outside Bakhmut on 8 November.
Updated
Russia is stepping up its efforts to build substantial obstacle barriers to slow the advance of Ukrainian forces in key locations it is defending, including around the devastated city of Mariupol, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.
Its intelligence assessment on Tuesday said the Russian military was using two plants in occupied Mariupol to produce large numbers of “dragon’s teeth” – pyramidal concrete blocks designed to slow advancing military vehicles.
The production and placement of the blocks in conjunction with razor wire and mines is the latest indication of how Russia’s struggling forces are increasingly attempting to transition to more defensive warfare, not least on the key southern Kherson front on the east bank of the Dneiper River.
“Dragon’s teeth have likely been installed between Mariupol and Nikolske village; and from northern Mariupol to Staryi Krym village. Mariupol forms part of Russia’s ‘land bridge’ from Russia to Crimea, a key logistics line of communication. Dragon’s teeth have additionally been sent for the preparation of defensive fortifications in occupied Zaporizhzhia and Kherson,” the intelligence assessment said.
“This activity suggests Russia is making a significant effort to prepare defences in depth behind their current frontline, likely to forestall any rapid Ukrainian advances in the event of breakthroughs.”
The Institute for the Study of War thinktank also noted the continuing efforts by Russia to improve its defences in the south. “Geolocated satellite imagery from 29 October, 3 November and 4 November shows Russian defensive lines in Kakhovka, 43 miles (70km) east of Kherson city, Hola Prystan, 5 miles south-west of Kherson city, and Ivanivka, 37 miles south-west of Kherson city – all of which lie on the east bank of the Dneiper River,” it said.
Updated
Ukraine doubled down on its tough stance on negotiations with Russia on Tuesday, saying talks could resume only once the Kremlin relinquished all Ukrainian territory, and that Kyiv would fight on even if it was “stabbed in the back” by its allies.
The remarks come days after a US media report that Washington had encouraged Kyiv to signal willingness for talks, and seemed aimed at rebuffing such pressure, at a time when US mid-term elections could test western support for Ukraine.
In an overnight address before he was due to address world leaders at a climate summit, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia must be pushed into “genuine” negotiations, Reuters reported.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine had repeatedly proposed such talks, but “we always received insane Russian responses with new terrorist attacks, shelling or blackmail”.
“Once again – restoration of territorial integrity, respect for the UN charter, compensation for all damages caused by the war, punishment of every war criminal and guarantees that this will not happen again. These are completely understandable conditions.”
Updated
The US national security adviser has said the White House is keeping open the lines of communication with Moscow to avert the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe.
“We have done so when it’s been necessary to clarify potential misunderstandings and try to reduce risk and reduce the possibility of catastrophe like the potential use of nuclear weapons,” Jake Sullivan said on Monday in a discussion at the Economic Club of New York.
A damaged Ukrainian armoured personnel carrier (APC) with flowers placed on it by local people in memory of the Ukrainian soldiers who died at this checkpoint in the recently recaptured territory of the Kupiansk district, Kharkiv region, north-eastern Ukraine.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Ukraine says its position on negotiations with Russia has not changed and it is not being asked to negotiate by its allies, after reports by the Washington Post that its main ally and backer, the US, had asked Kyiv to signal that it is open to negotiations amid concerns among allies in parts of Europe, Latin American, and Africa about a protracted war. The Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podalyak, told Radio Svoboda Ukraine would only negotiate with Russia once Russian troops had left all of Ukraine’s territory, including parts it occupied in 2014. Podalyak said the US treated Ukraine as an equal and there was no coercion. He said Ukraine was winning the war and therefore to sit down at the negotiating table now would be “nonsense”.
The secretary of Ukraine’s security council said on Tuesday the “main condition” for the resumption of negotiations with Russia would be the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Oleksiy Danilov said Ukraine also needed the “guarantee” of modern air defences, aircraft, tanks and long-range missiles.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has claimed his forces are gradually pushing back Russian troops in some parts of the east and south. “We are gradually moving forward,” he said in his Monday evening address. Zelenskiy added that Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region remained the centre of Ukraine’s bloodiest battles, claiming Russians “die by the hundreds every day”.
One of the Russian-imposed leaders in the occupied Kherson region of Ukraine, Kirill Stremousov, has claimed on Telegram: “The situation in the morning is unchanged along the entire frontline. We do not see any kind of mass offensive. At this stage, everything is unchanged and without difficult moments for our region.”
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will join next week’s G20 leaders summit “if the situation is possible”, his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo, the meeting’s host, said on Tuesday, adding that Putin could attend virtually instead. On Monday, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin would decide by the end of the week if he was attending the summit.
Zelenskiy will take part in the G20 summit in Bali next week, most likely attending virtually, his spokesperson told the Suspilne public broadcaster on Tuesday. Previously, the Ukrainian position was that Zelenskiy would not appear if Putin did.
Ukrainians continue to brace for further blackouts after the country’s grid operator told consumers to expect power outages in Kyiv and other regions on Monday and Tuesday as it seeks to reduce the strain on energy infrastructure damaged by Russian missile and drone attacks. Rolling blackouts are becoming increasingly routine after a wave of Russian attacks since 10 October on power facilities damaged 40% of energy infrastructure.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Sevastopol in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, said this morning that air defences in the city shot down a Ukrainian drone.
Russia and the US are discussing holding talks on strategic nuclear weapons for the first time since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reports, citing at least three sources familiar with the discussions.
The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, will seek Turkey’s approval for his country’s bid to join Nato during talks later on Tuesday in Ankara with president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
A further 30 Ukrainian service personnel who were captured from Ukraine’s Zmiinyi (Snake) Island have been released from Russian captivity, according to the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, on Ukraine for now. I am off to cover the US midterm elections live for a couple of hours, but I will be back later on. I am handing you over to Tom Ambrose.
Updated
Zelenskiy aide says Ukraine's president will take part in G20 meeting in Bali
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will take part in the G20 summit in Bali next week, most likely attending virtually, his spokesperson told the Suspilne public broadcaster on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
Zelenskiy had said last week he would not take part if Vladimir Putin attended the summit in Indonesia, which is scheduled to take place on 15-16 November. Serhiy Nykyforov, the spokesperson, did not say whether Zelenskiy had changed his position.
Putin has not yet confirmed if he will attend.
Updated
Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, governor of Sumy region in the north-east of Ukraine, has warned that there will be unscheduled power outages today. He told residents in a message via the Telegram app:
In addition to scheduled hourly power outages, emergency outages are used in the region. Unfortunately, due to the cold weather, electricity consumption is increasing. This leads to an increase in the load on the equipment and a shortage of electricity. There is a threat of accidents, no less difficult than those that happened due to enemy fire. Therefore, additional restrictions are necessary. Please do not forget about the need to consume electricity sparingly.
The state-owned Russian news agency Tass is reporting that the Moldovan minister of infrastructure, Andrei Spinu, has announced on television that Moldova’s government is considering suing the Russian energy giant Gazprom over reduced gas supplies.
Tass reports that on the PRO TV channel Spinu said: “Lawyers are analysing the possibility of imposing sanctions for non-compliance with the contract in the supply of the entire volume. When it becomes clear, we will decide what actions to take and in which direction to move.”
Problems supplying gas to Moldova via Ukraine have left the country with a shortage.
Updated
The secretary of Ukraine’s security council said on Tuesday the “main condition” for the resumption of negotiations with Russia would be the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Reuters reports Oleksiy Danilov said on Twitter that Ukraine also needed the “guarantee” of modern air defences, aircraft, tanks and long-range missiles.
Updated
Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, has posted a video to Telegram in which he denies that there are plans to evacuate the region. He says “They are dispersing a fake in the network that the Mykolaiv region is preparing for evacuation. It does not. Don’t worry and follow the official information.”
Ukraine reiterates it will not negotiate until all Russian troops leave its territory, including Crimea
Ukraine said its position on negotiations with Russia had not changed and it is not being asked to negotiate by its allies, after reports by the Washington Post that its main ally and backer, the US, had asked Kyiv to signal that it is open to negotiations amid worry among allies in parts of Europe, Latin American, and Africa about a protracted war.
On Monday, Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper said Ukraine’s Nato allies reportedly envisage negotiations beginning after Ukraine has retaken the Kherson region, so that Kyiv will start from a point of strength.
The Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podalyak, told Radio Svoboda, that Ukraine will only negotiate with Russia once Russian troops have left all of Ukraine’s territory, including those it occupied in 2014.
Podalyak said the US treats Ukraine as an equal and there is no coercion. He said Ukraine is winning and therefore to sit down at the negotiating table now would be “nonsense”.
“No one is forcing Ukraine into an unprofitable negotiation process, or rather, into accepting Russia’s ultimatum,” said Podalyak.
Podalyak said Russia has only offered Ukraine ultimatums and Ukraine believes that any truce created by these ultimatums will be temporary. He said Russia will simply use a truce to rearm and modernise its army and then “give the same ultimatum”.
For the US, said Podalyak, it is “extremely beneficial” for Ukraine to win the war firstly because it will signal to other authoritarian leaders that if they attack another country, international law will be upheld, and secondly, because the US and its allies have invested too much to let Russia win.
“If Ukraine does not win the war … then … despite the large and powerful financial, economic, military, and advisory assistance from Nato countries, above all the US, Russia won. You understand what will be proven in that case! That Russia’s military … is much better, Russia really has the ‘second army in the world’ (and) Russia can dictate conditions.”
When asked if the newspaper reports were therefore false, Podalyak asserted that the newspaper may be obtaining their information from pro-Russian politicians, though refrained from rejecting the reports as false altogether.
“All these conversations and publications about the fact that someone is forcing to negotiate, to some position and so on, to something else, this is the information program of the Russian Federation.”
Updated
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will join next week’s G20 leaders summit “if the situation is possible”, his Indonesian counterpart and the meeting’s host said today, adding that Putin could attend virtually instead.
Joko Widodo, who is this year’s chair of the bloc of major economies, said that during a phone conversation last week Putin had not ruled out attending the summit in Bali, and would join if possible.
“But if not … maybe he’ll ask to do it virtually,” Reuters reports he told reporters during a visit to Bali. He did not elaborate further.
Yesterday, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin would decide by the end of the week if he was attending the summit. Indonesia has shown no inclination to disinvite the Russian president, but Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said he would not participate in the G20 if Putin attends.
Updated
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Sevastopol in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, said on Telegram this morning that air defences in the city shot down a Ukrainian drone. The claim has not been independently verified.
Updated
In these pictures you can see volunteers yesterday distributing power generators and gifts to residents in Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region.
Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson will seek Turkey’s approval for his country’s bid to join Nato during talks due later today in Ankara with president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Reuters reports that along with Finland, Sweden applied to join Nato in May in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Turkey had objected over security concerns related to the banned Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) and other groups, and over the Nordic states’ arms-export bans.
The three sides signed a memorandum in June that lifted Turkey’s veto and obligated Sweden and Finland to address its remaining concerns.
Erdoğan is set to host Kristersson at the presidential palace this afternoon, with a news conference scheduled for after the meeting.
Updated
One of the Russian-imposed leaders in the occupied Kherson region of Ukraine, Kirill Stremousov, has claimed on Telegram: “The situation in the morning is unchanged along the entire frontline. We do not see any kind of mass offensive. At this stage, everything is unchanged and without difficult moments for our region.”
Stremousov claims that “more than one thousand” Ukrainian forces are massed on the outskirts of the town, but that “despite the numerical superiority of the armed forces of Ukraine, the Russian military are specialists in their field”.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv, has posted a status update to Telegram for the region, warning of scheduled power outages, but saying that there were no air raid warnings overnight.
Electricity consumers in the region have been divided into three groups, and each group can expect a blackout of between three and five hours. He said that specialists at the region’s electricity company – Lvivoblenergo – say that the duration of the outages may be shorter and “the shutdown schedule will not be applied in full”.
The state-owned Russian RIA Novosti news agency is reporting that the Russian-installed authorities in occupied Kherson claim to have arrested nine people they claim are Ukrainian special forces (SBU) who were planning sabotage operations.
Russia’s security forces, the FSB, are quoted as saying:
On the territory of the Kherson region, the activities of the sabotage and reconnaissance group of the SBU , whose tasks included the commission of terrorist acts against high-ranking members of the military-civilian administration of the Kherson region, were exposed and suppressed.
As part of operational measures, more than five kilograms of plastic [explosive], electric detonators, actuators, three grenades ready for use by the Ukrainian military, small arms and ammunition, as well as special reconnaissance equipment were seized from the detainees.
RIA reports that the FSB claims to have discovered and neutralised a car bomb.
Updated
Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, has posted a status update to Telegram of the situation in his region. He listed multiple locations that had been struck by Russian fire over the last 24 hours, but said that despite some damage to buildings, there were no casualties.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London
Russia’s ministry of defence is supporting the introduction of military training in Russian schools, according to local media reports.
Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, wrote to Sergei Mironov, a leader in the Russian parliament, about his support for introducing basic military training (NVP) in schools, Izvestia reports.
The publication quotes Gerasimov as saying 140 hours should be allocated for military training in the last two years of study.
Russia and the US are discussing holding talks on strategic nuclear weapons for the first time since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine, Russian newspaper Kommersant reports, citing at least three sources familiar with the discussions.
Talks between the two sides on strategic stability have been frozen since Russia began its military campaign in Ukraine in February, even as the New Strategic Arms Reduction and Limitation Treaty (Start) on nuclear arms reduction stays in effect. The paper reads:
Kommersant has learned that Russia and the United States are discussing the possibility of holding a meeting of a bilateral consultative commission on the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty in the coming weeks. For the first time, the parties consider the Middle East region as the venue for its holding. There have been no such face-to-face meetings for a year now, and the parties have accumulated questions to each other: from guarantees of the impossibility of the reverse conversion of American bombers and submarine ballistic missile launchers to the resumption of inspections suspended by the Russian Federation.”
The talks may take place in the Middle East, the paper said, adding that Moscow no longer saw Switzerland, the traditional venue, as sufficiently neutral after it imposed sanctions on Russia over Ukraine.
According to sources, the first meeting may be scheduled for the end of November or the beginning of December.
Updated
30 Ukrainian Snake Island PoWs released
A further 30 Ukrainian service personnel who were captured from Ukraine’s Zmiinyi (Snake) Island have been released from Russian captivity, according to the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights.
Dmytro Lubinets confirmed that 30 prisoners of war captured from Snake Island have been released from captivity in a Facebook post on Tuesday evening.
Authorities are continuing to work on releasing the remaining soldiers from captivity, he added.
During an emotional communication, representatives of different agencies told that 30 prisoners of war from Snake Island had already been released from captivity.”
Updated
Russian-installed officials in Kherson continue 'evacuation'
The Moscow-installed head of Ukraine’s occupied region of Kherson has promised a one-off payment of 100,000 roubles (£1,424) for “each evacuated resident” who leaves and resettles in Russia.
Kirill Stremousov made the announcement in a Telegram update on Monday, writing:
Today is the last day of organised evacuation from the right-bank part of the Kherson region.
Most of the residents who did not leave Kherson, only now began to realise the seriousness of the situation and my warnings.
Upon arrival on the left bank, residents of the right-bank part of the Kherson region are picked up by buses and transported to the Crimea, where the people will be met by volunteers and then the evacuees will go to other regions of the Russian Federation.
In other subjects of the Russian Federation, residents of the Kherson region are provided with temporary accommodation points.
Also, each evacuated resident of the Kherson region will be able to receive a one-time payment in the amount of 100,000 rubles and housing certificate.”
Updated
Things are disappearing in the Ukrainian city of Kherson at a rapid rate. Some are physical objects. Russian troops are taking away ambulances, tractors and stolen private cars. Cultural things are going too: archives, and paintings and sculptures from the art and local lore museums. Even the bones of Catherine the Great’s friend and lover, Grigory Potemkin, have been grubbed up from a crypt in St Catherine’s cathedral and spirited away.
Luke Harding reports how Russian soldiers are ferrying this loot across the Dnieper river, to the left bank of the Kherson region. They have also been deporting local citizens under the guise of a humanitarian rescue mission. Others have refused to leave. A round-the-clock curfew has been introduced. Nobody knows how many of Kherson’s 300,000 pre-war inhabitants remain. According to relatives of those still there, the city is mostly empty, its ghostly fate likely to be decided over the next few weeks in a series of bloody battles.
As the Ukrainian army closes in on Kherson, the Russian contingent is effectively surrounded. Russian officials were urging locals to leave and warning of imminent “terrorist” acts from the advancing Ukrainian military. However locals are unconvinced Moscow will abandon the city, which it seized in early March.
Read the full story below:
Ukraine prepares for Kherson 'street fighting'
Ukrainian forces say they anticipate fierce fighting before attempting to push Russian occupying troops out of the southern city of Kherson.
Russia has signalled that its forces may withdraw from the region but locals are unconvinced.
“It’s probably a trick,” Alyona Lapchuk told the Guardian. “The Russians are dressing up as civilians and hiding in houses.” Telegram posts from the region’s villages tell tales of “orcs” (Russian soldiers) occupying private properties.
Lapchuk, who left Kherson in April, said it was more likely Russian troops were preparing for bitter street-to-street fighting over the autumn and winter.
The main directorate of intelligence of the ministry of defence of Ukraine issued a statement on Monday describing “mass looting”
There is mass looting in the settlements of the right bank. In particular, in the Berislav district, the occupiers are methodically looting private homes, shops, and warehouses. The property of the Beryslav substation of the district power grid (machines, equipment, devices, repair materials) was completely looted.”
Ukraine’s military told Reuters that Russian forces, “disguised in civilian clothes, occupy the premises of civilians and strengthen positions inside for conducting street battles.”
Russian forces were also “involved in looting and theft from residents and from infrastructure sites and are taking away equipment, food and vehicles to the Russian Federation,” it said in an update late on Monday.
In recent days, Russia has ordered civilians out of Kherson in anticipation of a Ukrainian assault to recapture the city, which was the first to be seized by Russian forces following their invasion in February.
US confirms communications channels with Kremlin - reports
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has been engaged in confidential talks with senior Russian officials and confirmed that “channels to communicate with the Russian Federation at senior levels” remain open between Washington and Moscow.
Speaking at an event at the Economic Club of New York on Monday, Sullivan said it was “in the interests” of the US and every country affected by the war in Ukraine to maintain contact with the Kremlin.
We have done so when it’s been necessary to clarify potential misunderstandings and try to reduce risk and reduce the possibility of catastrophe like the potential use of nuclear weapons,” he said, according to a BBC report.
However he insisted officials were “clear-eyed about who we are dealing with”, telling attendees the US had “an obligation to pursue accountability” and pledged to work with international partners to “hold the perpetrators of grave and grotesque war crimes in Ukraine responsible for what they have done”.
Russia state media agency Tass reported Sullivan as saying:
We in the Biden administration have the opportunity to engage at senior levels with the Russians to communicate, to reduce risk to convey the consequences of the potential use of nuclear weapons. We have not described the channels that we have done in order to protect those channels and I’m afraid I can’t go further than that today.”
That concludes today's program. Thank you @JakeSullivan46 and @BobHormats for joining us!
— The Economic Club of New York (@EconClubNY) November 7, 2022
__#ECNYSullivan pic.twitter.com/dJIVSditl6
The White House, which has been careful not to make diplomatic moves about Ukraine without Ukrainian involvement, did not deny the talks.
The comments come after the Wall Street Journal reported last week that Sullivan has been holding talks with aides to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, with the aim of reducing the risk that the war in Ukraine could spill over or escalate into a nuclear conflict.
The paper said the senior White House figure had held confidential conversations in recent months with the Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov and Russian security council secretary, Nikolai Patrushev, Sullivan’s counterpart, that were not made public.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre later told reporters:
We reserve the right to speak directly at senior levels about issues of concern to the United States. That has happened over the course of the past few months. Our conversations have focused only on ... risk reduction and the US-Russia relationship.”
A separate source, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said the talks are ongoing.
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.
Ukrainian forces say they anticipate fierce fighting before attempting to push Russian occupying troops out of the southern city of Kherson. Ukraine’s military claimed that Russian forces, “disguised in civilian clothes, occupy the premises of civilians and strengthen positions inside for conducting street battles.”
The BBC reports that White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has been engaged in confidential talks with senior Russian officials and confirmed that “channels to communicate with the Russian Federation at senior levels” remain open between Washington and Moscow, according to multiple reports from a speech he gave in New York on Monday.
For any updates or feedback you wish to share, please feel free to get in touch via email or Twitter.
If you have just joined us, here are all the latest developments:
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has claimed his forces are gradually pushing back Russian troops in some parts of the east and south. “We are gradually moving forward,” he said in his latest Monday evening address. Zelenskiy added that Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region remains the centre of Ukraine’s bloodiest battles, claiming Russians “die by the hundreds every day”.
Ukrainians are bracing for more blackouts after the country’s grid operator told consumers to expect power outages in Kyiv and other regions on Monday as it seeks to reduce the strain on energy infrastructure damaged by Russian missile and drone attacks. Rolling blackouts are becoming increasingly routine after a wave of Russian attacks on power facilities damaged 40% of energy infrastructure since 10 October.
Ukraine received more air defence systems from western allies, defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced on Monday. Included in the military aid are national advanced surface-to-air missile System (Nasams) and Italian aspide air defences. “These weapons will significantly strengthen the Ukrainian army and will make our skies safer,” Reznikov said. “Thank you to our partners – Norway, Spain and the US,” he added.
Ukraine has accused Russian troops of looting and occupying empty homes in the southern city of Kherson to prepare for street fighting in what both sides predict will be one of the war’s most important battles. In recent days, Russia has ordered civilians out of Kherson in anticipation of a Ukrainian assault to recapture the city, the only regional capital Moscow has seized since its invasion in February. Kherson was also cut off from water and electricity supplies on Sunday after an airstrike and damage to the Kakhovka dam, local officials said.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said 50,000 Russian soldiers called up as part of his mobilisation drive were now fighting with combat units in Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported. Putin said 80,000 were “in the zone of the special military operation” – the term Russia uses for its war in Ukraine – and the rest of the almost 320,000 draftees were at training camps in Russia.
However criticism is brewing over the chaotic mobilisation campaign as Russian conscripts say hundreds were killed in an attack. Moscow’s willingness to throw hundreds of ill-prepared conscripts on to the frontline in Ukraine’s east has prompted growing anger in Russia as more coffins return from Ukraine. Last Friday, Putin boasted that Russia had mobilised 318,000 people into its armed forces, citing a high number of “volunteers”.
A senior adviser to Ukraine’s president has said Kyiv had never refused to negotiate with Moscow and that it was ready for talks with Russia’s future leader, but not with Vladimir Putin. “Ukraine has never refused to negotiate. Our negotiating position is known and open,” Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter, saying that Russia should first withdraw its troops from Ukraine. “Is Putin ready? Obviously not. Therefore, we are constructive in our assessment: we will talk with the next leader.”
Zelenskiy made a pitch for closer security ties with Israel on Monday, saying both countries faced similar threats. “I think it is clear to everyone what Ukraine emphasises and the security emphasis of Israel,” he said in his nightly address after a conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu, the winner in last week’s Israeli election. “I believe we can significantly strengthen our states, especially since the threats we have are related.”
An internal rift over the supply of deadly drones to Russia for use in Ukraine has opened up in Iran, with a prominent conservative cleric and newspaper editor saying Russia is the clear aggressor in the war and the supply should stop. Iran has denied it sold drones to Russia despite their use to target power stations and civilian infrastructure, but at the weekend said it had supplied a small number of drones before the war started, an explanation that has been rejected by the US and Ukraine.
North Korea said it has never had arms dealings with Russia and has no plans to do so, its state media reported, after the US claimed it appeared to be supplying Russia with artillery shells for its war in Ukraine. A North Korean defence ministry official called the allegations a rumour and said Pyongyang has “never had ‘arms dealings’ with Russia” and has “no plan to do so in the future,” according to a Reuters report.
