Closing summary
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has confirmed that Kyiv did use US-provided long-range army tactical missile systems (ATACMS) missiles. “Today, special thanks to the United States. Our agreements with President Biden are being implemented. Very accurately – ATACMS missiles proved themselves,” he said.
This marks the first officially confirmed usage of the ATACMS, that can fly up to 190 miles, in Ukraine.China’s president, Xi Jinping, welcomed his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to Beijing, which is to host representatives of 130 countries for a forum on Xi’s vast trade and infrastructure project, the belt and road initiative.
A telecommunication cable connecting Sweden and Estonia has been damaged, Sweden’s civil defence minister has said. Carl-Oskar Bohlin said the incident appeared to have occurred at the same time as a subsea gas pipeline and a telecom cable connecting Finland and Estonia were damaged on 8 October.
Ukrainian forces struck airfields in Russian-held territory in eastern and southern Ukraine overnight, destroying helicopters, knocking out an air defence missile launcher and damaging runways, Kyiv’s military said. The military said its forces had carried out “well-aimed strikes on enemy airfields” near the eastern city of Luhansk and the southern city of Berdiansk.
The lower house of the Russian parliament has reportedly given preliminary approval to a bill revoking the ratification of a global nuclear test ban treaty.
Updated
Zelenskiy confirms Kyiv used US-provided ATACMS missiles
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has confirmed that Kyiv did use US-provided long-range army tactical missile systems (ATACMS) missiles (see earlier post at 15.20).
“Today, special thanks to the United States. Our agreements with President Biden are being implemented. Very accurately – ATACMS missiles proved themselves,” he said in his nightly address.
This marks the first officially confirmed usage of the ATACMS in Ukraine. Kyiv has repeatedly asked the US for ATACMS.
Fired from a mobile launcher, the missiles can hit targets up to 190 miles (300km) away, allowing Ukrainian forces to strike far beyond the front lines.
Potential targets include command headquarters, weapons depots and supply networks, including railways.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Ukrainian military said they hit two airfields used by Russia in the Moscow-occupied cities of Luhansk and Berdiansk.
Updated
Vladimir Putin has rejected comments made by Joe Biden, saying in an interview in Beijing that Moscow’s interests could not be suppressed, and that US politicians should learn to respect others, according to Reuters.
Putin was responding to comments made by Biden in an interview with CBS News, where he said:
Imagine what happens if we, in fact, unite all of Europe and Putin is finally put down where he cannot cause the kind of trouble he’s been causing.
In a brief interview aired on state television during a summit in the Chinese capital, Putin said:
This is not about me personally. This is about the interests of the country. And it is impossible to suppress the interests of Russia. They have to be taken into account.
Putin said that both Biden and the wider American political elite needed to learn to “respect” Russia.
He added: “This applies not only to President Biden, but also to the US political elites as a whole. You must learn to respect others, and then there will be no need to suppress anyone.”
Updated
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southeastern Ukraine in June caused $14bn worth of damage and losses, according to a report by the Ukrainian government and the UN.
Ukraine accused Russia of blowing up the dam, which crosses the Dnipro river, flooding the surrounding area with landmine-contaminated water and leaving areas upstream without water supply. Moscow has denied responsibility.
“The stark figures speak for themselves. The destruction of the Kakhovka dam has resulted in a staggering loss and damage,” Christophoros Politis, the UN development programme’s deputy resident representative in Ukraine, said.
The preliminary figures put the damage and losses at $13.79bn, taking into account the environmental toll, the loss of power generation, irrigation for farming and housing as well as other factors, AFP reports.
The Associated Press has some more information on the damaged undersea telecommunications cable between Sweden and Estonia (see earlier post at 16.19).
Estonia’s economy ministry said the disruption in the Swedish-owned cable was in Estonian territory, about 30 miles off the island of Hiiumaa in northern Estonia, the Baltic News Service said. Service was restored within a few days, the agency added.
Sweden’s defence minister, Pål Jonson, said his country’s police, military and coast guard were in contact with Estonian counterparts regarding the matter. He said there also was heightened vigilance in the Baltic Sea.
“We see the issue of security for our critical infrastructure as a high priority, and take the current situation seriously,” Jonson told reporters.
Grant Shapps, the UK’s defence secretary, will visit the US for urgent talks over conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
The Ministry of Defence said the aim of the talks was to help prevent further destabilisation and to enable humanitarian support.
In a statement, Shapps said:
At this crucial time for global security, I*m in Washington DC for urgent talks with our partner and friend on our ongoing work to prevent escalation in the Middle East, and our vital support to Ukraine.
Updated
Reuters has more information on reports that Ukrainian forces struck airfields in Russian-held territory in eastern and southern Ukraine overnight.
The military said its forces had carried out “well-aimed strikes on enemy airfields” near the eastern city of Luhansk and the southern city of Berdiansk but gave few details.
It did not comment on media reports that Kyiv had used US-provided ATACMS long-range missiles for the first time in the attacks.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, made no direct mention of the overnight attacks but said after meeting military chiefs:
Thanks also to those who powerfully destroy the logistics and bases of the occupiers on our land.
There are results. I thank some of our partners: effective weapons, as we agreed.
Telecoms cable between Sweden and Estonia damaged, Sweden says
A telecommunication cable connecting Sweden and Estonia has been damaged, Sweden’s civil defence minister has said.
Carl-Oskar Bohlin said the incident appeared to have occurred at the same time as a subsea gas pipeline and a telecom cable connecting Finland and Estonia were damaged on 8 October.
Helsinki has said it cannot exclude the possibility that a “state actor” was behind that damage, amid what its national security intelligence service called “significantly deteriorated” relations with Russia.
Vladimir Putin has dismissed any suggestion that Russia was behind the incident as “rubbish”.
Updated
Xi Jinping welcomes Vladimir Putin to Beijing
China’s president, Xi Jinping, welcomed his “dear friend” Vladimir Putin to Beijing, which is to host representatives of 130 countries for a forum on Xi’s vast trade and infrastructure project, the belt and road initiative.
At an official banquet, Xi delivered a toast in which he alluded to recent geopolitical conflicts, but added that “the historical (trend) of peace” was “unstoppable”, AFP reports.
State news agency Xinhua quoted Xi as saying:
Although the world today is not peaceful, downward pressure on the global economy is increasing, and global development faces a great deal of challenges, we firmly believe that the historical trends of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual wins are unstoppable.
Putin is due to hold in-depth talks with Xi on the sidelines of the forum on Wednesday, the Kremlin said. The two leaders have greeted each other as “dear friend” in the past.
Updated
Ukraine uses secretly shipped US missiles to launch strike on Russian targets – reports
The Ukrainian military used US-supplied longer-range missiles to strike nine Russian helicopters in eastern Ukraine, after Washington secretly shipped the weapons in recent weeks, Politico reports.
Politico reports:
The delivery and use on the battlefield, confirmed by two people familiar with the move, marks a major ramp up of the administration’s defence of Ukraine, for the first time providing Kyiv’s forces with the ability to strike Russian targets far behind the frontlines.
President Joe Biden had been hesitant to deliver the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, for fear of escalating the conflict.
The transfer indicates the administration’s calculus has changed after a slow-moving Ukrainian counteroffensive.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian military’s communication department said on Telegram that it “made well-aimed strikes on enemy airfields and helicopters near the temporarily occupied Luhansk and Berdiansk.”
The ATACMS models that were provided have a range of about 100 miles, the Wall Street Journal reports. It marked the first time the US-provided weapons have been used in the war in Ukraine.
Updated
Canada said on Tuesday it was targeting nine individuals and six TV stations in new sanctions against Russian collaborators in Moldova.
The targeted individuals are associated with influential oligarchs, such as Vladimir Plahotniuc and Ilan Mironovich Shor, while the TV stations promote and disseminate disinformation to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Canadian foreign ministry said in a statement, Reuters reports.
Mélanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, said:
Today, we are sending a clear message to malign individuals and entities in Moldova that supporting … [the] invasion of Ukraine will not go unpunished.
Updated
US, South Korean and Japanese officials met on Tuesday to discuss North Korea’s engagement with Russia, including arms transfers that the three allied nations said violated UN security council resolutions, the US state department said.
The three representatives, at a meeting in Jakarta, also “noted their concerns about reports of forced repatriations of North Koreans” from China, the department said, Reuters reports.
Updated
Sweden’s defence minister, Pål Jonson, will hold a press conference today on “a new development regarding critical infrastructure in the ocean with links to Sweden”, the ministry of defence has said.
Updated
Key event
Ukraine’s forces made successful overnight strikes on Russian airfields and equipment near the cities of Luhansk and Berdiansk in territory controlled by Russian forces, Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday.
“The armed forces of Ukraine made well-aimed strikes on enemy airfields and helicopters near the temporarily occupied Luhansk and Berdiansk,” the Ukrainian military’s communication department said on Telegram.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in parts of the Zaporizhzhia region controlled by Moscow in Ukraine’s south-east, said, however, that the strikes on Berdiansk were not successful.
“According to preliminary information, our air defence system successfully intercepted enemy rockets,” Rogov said on Telegram. “Information about victims and possible damage is being clarified.” None of these claims have been independently verified.
Updated
The leader of Poland’s liberal Civic Coalition has called on the president to make a quick decision on appointing a government.
“I am making a passionate appeal to the president, people are waiting for the first decisions, so we are asking the president for energetic and quick decisions,” Donald Tusk, a former prime minister and European Council president, said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Sunday’s poll gave the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has ruled Poland for the past eight years, the most votes but no viable path to a parliamentary majority.
PiS increased nationalist rhetoric in its campaign and even entered a row with its war-stricken neighbour, Ukraine, despite huge Polish solidarity to help Kyiv in the face of the Russian invasion.
Whoever wins, Poland’s strong support for Ukraine is thought to be unlikely to change.
Updated
World leaders are gathering in Beijing for China’s belt and road initiative forum, the third such event since the trademark global development drive was launched by China’s president, Xi Jinping, a decade ago.
Here are some pictures of the summit – which is expected to host representatives from more than 130 countries – on its first day:
Updated
Vladimir Putin faces no real competition in the run-up to next year’s election, his spokesperson has said, adding that there could be “no rivals” to the longtime leader.
Putin has led Russia since the turn of the century, winning four presidential elections in a system where political opposition has become virtually nonexistent.
“We have repeatedly said that President Putin is undoubtedly the number one politician (and) statesman in our country,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told Russian news agencies, according to Agence France-Presse.
“In my personal opinion … he has no rivals at the moment and cannot have any in the Russian Federation,” Peskov, who is accompanying Putin on his trip to China, added.
Putin has not yet officially announced whether he will run in the forthcoming presidential election, expected in March 2024, but has said he will comment by the end of the year.
Presidential elections in Russia are officially set by parliament and held every six years. The term of office was lengthened from four years previously.
There may be a second round if no candidate is able to secure more than 50% of the vote – but this has never happened, as Putin has been pronounced victor by wide margins.
Rights groups say national elections in Russia have largely become a rubber stamp for Putin and the ruling party.
Updated
Reuters has more information on Russia’s parliament taking the first steps towards revoking the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty (see earlier post at 11.42).
Parliament’s lower house, the State Duma, voted by 412 to zero, with no abstentions, to approve the withdrawal of the ratification in the first of three readings.
While Russia is revoking ratification, it has said it will remain a signatory to the CTBT and continue to supply data to the global monitoring system which alerts the world to any nuclear test.
But the parliament speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, a member of Vladimir Putin’s security council, said Russia may go further and would keep the US guessing about its intentions.
He said:
Our vote is a response to the state department. And what we will do next – whether we remain a party to the treaty or not, we will not tell them.
We must think about global security, the safety of our citizens and act in their interests.
Russia’s move was a wake-up call for Washington after the “rudeness” of its failure to ratify the CTBT for the past 23 years, Volodin said.
Updated
A Russian court fined Zoom Video Communications $1.18m for operating in Russia without opening a local office, the RIA news agency reported.
Moscow has clashed with foreign technology companies over content, censorship and data, with the dispute having intensified after Russia launched its full-scale invasion into Ukraine in February 2022.
Updated
Russian parliament moves to rescind ratification of nuclear test ban treaty
The lower house of the Russian parliament has given preliminary approval to a bill revoking the ratification of a global nuclear test ban treaty, the Associated Press reports.
The State Duma voted unanimously to rescind the ratification of the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty (CTBT), in the first of three required readings. The final vote is scheduled for later this week.
The CTBT, adopted in 1996, bans all nuclear explosions anywhere in the world, although it has never fully entered into force.
There are widespread concerns that Russia could move to resume nuclear tests to try to discourage the west from continuing to offer military support to Ukraine.
The US signed the CTBT in 1996 but the Senate did not ratify the treaty. Successive US administrations, however, have observed a moratorium on testing nuclear weapons.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said last week Moscow would resume nuclear tests only if Washington did so first.
Speaking in Sochi this month, Vladimir Putin made several references to nuclear weapons.
He said he was “not ready to say now whether we really need or don’t need to conduct tests”, adding: “As a rule, experts say, with a new weapon – you need to make sure that the special warhead will work without failures.”
Updated
Thousands of Ukrainians who fled to the UK after the Russian invasion are at risk of homelessness if ministers go ahead with plans to end funding for a scheme set up to help them, parliament’s spending watchdog has said.
Funding and sponsorship arrangements for more than 130,000 people helped under the Homes for Ukraine scheme are due to end in March. Many of these people face losing their homes when this funding dries up, according to an investigation by the National Audit Office.
“As more sponsorship arrangements come to an end, the risk of homelessness is likely to increase,” its report says.
You can read the full story here:
Updated
The jailed Russian politician Alexei Navalny condemned the arrest of three of his lawyers as he stood trial in the prison where he was being held, Russian media at the hearing said on Tuesday.
Lawyers Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Lipster – who have defended Navalny – were detained last week, Agence France-Presse reports.
Navalny said:
Of course these are outrageous and illegal acts.
He said the lawyers were “persecuted for their professional activity”.
Nobody is allowed to see me. I am completely isolated from information
He said it was part of an intensifying campaign to further isolate him and that he saw it as a sign that his team was acting “correctly” in the face of “these disgusting authorities.”
Navalny said the lawyers were targeted for their “professional activity” and that it was part of a campaign to further isolate him since he had his sentence extended to 19 years this summer.
The three lawyers were remanded in pre-trial detention until at least 13 December.
A convoy of British ambulances has arrived in Lviv in western Ukraine and will be delivered to hospitals on the frontline.
Five vehicles donated by the charity Medical Life Lines Ukraine are being sent to the southern city of Kherson – which is under intense Russian attack – as well as the towns of Kupiansk and Vorozhba in the war-torn north-east of the country. Since last year’s full-scale invasion the group has donated 43 vehicles. More than £400,000 has been raised.
The five ambulances were handed over to Ukraine’s health ministry.
Volunteer drivers who set off from south-west London brought medical supplies, including mobility aids and vitamins.
The ministry has previously asked for children’s dressing up clothes and dog food, given to rescue dogs searching for people buried in collapsed buildings.
“We are doing this because we can,” the group’s leader Daniel Whitehead told the Guardian on Tuesday.
“Ordinary people can do things that make a difference to the lives of people in Ukraine who desperately need help. Ukrainians are suffering. It’s a moral duty.”
Drivers raise £7,000 each towards the cost of buying an ambulance. Two of the models were 4-x4s, which can cope with muddy backroads.
Volunteers came from the UK, France and the US, Whitehead said, adding: “We’ve been amazed by the level of support.”
Updated
The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, said on Tuesday that Washington had asked Moscow via the UN to not revoke its ratification of the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty.
President Vladimir Putin, who earlier this month suggested that Russia revoked ratification of the 1996 treaty because the US had not ratified it, said he was not ready to say whether or not Russia would resume nuclear testing, Reuters reports.
Updated
Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved revoking the ratification of the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty in the first of three readings on Tuesday.
The vote was passed by 412 votes to zero, with no abstentions. Vyacheslav Volodin said Russia was revoking the treaty because of the irresponsible attitude of the US to global security, Reuters reports.
Updated
Hungary had never wanted to oppose Russia and sought to forge close ties, the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, in comments broadcast via a translator on Russian state television.
Orbán told the Russian president that Hungary was trying to salvage bilateral relations amid wider international tensions, as the two leaders met in China before the start of an international belt and road initiative forum, Reuters reports.
Updated
Vladimir Putin held talks in China on Tuesday with the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
According to Reuters, Putin told Orbán in a televised meeting:
Despite the fact that in today’s geopolitical conditions the opportunities for maintaining contacts and developing relations are very limited, nevertheless it can only cause satisfaction that our relations with many European countries are maintained and developed. One of these countries is Hungary.
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry on Tuesday said two Tu-95 strategic bombers had carried out a seven-hour flight over the Sea of Japan, accompanied by Su-35 fighter jets, the RIA news agency reported.
According to Reuters, the flight was carried out in strict accordance with international airspace rules, RIA cited a lieutenant general as saying.
The Kremlin on Tuesday rejected western claims that North Korea was supplying weapons to Russia, the Tass news agency cited Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying.
The White House on Friday said North Korea recently provided Russia with a shipment of weapons, calling it a troubling development and raising concerns about the expanded military relationship between the two countries.
The British prime minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson last month said Britain was urging the DPRK to cease arms negotiations with Russia, Reuters reports.
Updated
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping may discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during their meeting in Beijing this week, Russia’s Ria news agency quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
Russia is revoking ratification of the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty because the irresponsible attitude of the US to global security, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament said on Tuesday.
The Russian parliament will debate revoking the ratification later on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
Updated
Russian assault on Avdiivka reported to be weakening
A days-long attempt by Russian forces to storm a strategically important city in eastern Ukraine appears to be running out of steam, Kyiv officials said on Monday.
Ukrainian forces repelled 15 Russian attacks from four directions on Avdiivka over the previous 24 hours, the Ukrainian general staff said. That compared with up to 60 attacks a day in the middle of last week, according to Vitalii Barabash, the head of the city administration. The slackening suggests the Russian effort to capture Avdiivka has “deflated”, Barabash said.
A Washington-based thinktank broadly concurred with that assessment. “Russian forces continued offensive operations aimed at encircling Avdiivka … but have yet to make further gains amid a likely decreasing tempo of Russian operations in the area,” the Institute for the Study of War said in analysis published late on Sunday.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, told a UN security council meeting last Friday that the ramped-up attacks in the east amounted to a new stage in Moscow’s campaign in Ukraine.
With the looming onset of wintry conditions that will limit military operations, both sides have been seeking battlefield breakthroughs that could invigorate their efforts and raise morale.
Ukrainian officials have said their troops are holding out against fierce Russian efforts to wrest control of Avdiivka, a heavily fortified city.
Avdiivka lies in the northern suburbs of the city of Donetsk, in a region of the same name that Russian forces partially occupy. Avdiivka’s location grants Ukrainian forces artillery advantages over the city and could serve as a springboard for them to liberate Donetsk.
Updated
Putin arrives in Beijing for Belt and Road forum
Russian president Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on Tuesday to meet Chinese president Xi Jinping, in only his second known trip abroad since The Hague-based international criminal court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him in March.
Putin was greeted at the airport by the Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao.
The visit marks Putin’s first official trip outside the former Soviet Union this year, after visiting Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, earlier this month.
The forum centres on the belt and road initiative, a grand plan launched by Xi a decade ago that he hopes would build global infrastructure and energy networks connecting Asia with Africa and Europe through overland and maritime routes. Putin has praised the initiative, saying it is a platform for international cooperation, where “no one imposes anything on others”.
Updated
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to our continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Kyiv officials have said that a days-long attempt by Russian forces to storm a strategically important city in eastern Ukraine appears to be running out of steam. Ukrainian forces repelled 15 Russian attacks from four directions on Avdiivka over the previous 24 hours, the Ukrainian general staff said.
Elsewhere, Russian president Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on Tuesday to attend the Belt and Road forum. It will be the Russian president’s first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the international criminal court issued a warrant for him in March over the deportation of children from Ukraine.
More on both of those stories shortly, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main news.
Russia hopes to break through Ukrainian defences in the Kupiansk-Lyman sector of the frontline in north-eastern Ukraine, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces said on Monday, according to Reuters. Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi was shown in video footage telling soldiers the situation on the north-eastern frontline had “significantly escalated” and the Russian military wanted “revenge” by retaking territory it once occupied.
Russia’s drones are mostly sourced from China and Moscow will spend more than $618m on a new national project to make them itself, Russia’s finance minister, Anton Siluanov, has said. “The task is that 41% of all drones by 2025 should have the label ‘Made in Russia’. Today, drones are mainly from the People’s Republic of China.”
Ukraine has called for Russia to be excluded from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), warning the body faces a “slow death” if Moscow remained a member. The OSCE was founded to ease tensions between east and west during the cold war, and helps its members coordinate on issues such as human rights and arms control.
Moscow can expect more diplomatic pressure from the 57-nation OSCE, according to the chief diplomat of North Macedonia, which holds that body’s rotating presidency. Its foreign minister, Bujar Osmani, on Monday urged Russia to cease its attacks on Ukraine and withdraw its forces.
The US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said support for Ukraine remained a “top priority” for the US and Europe, reaffirming the Biden administration’s commitment to support Kyiv “for as long as it takes”. Yellen told reporters that Joe Biden would submit a supplemental funding request for Ukraine and Israel “as soon as we have a functional House of Representatives”.
Updated
