This blog is now closed. You can find our latest coverage of the war in Ukraine here.
Estonia’s Defence Minister, Hanno Pevkur, also said that Western sanctions had especially hurt Russia’s production of airplanes and maintenance of helicopters by depriving the country of key components.
“When we can find new ways on how to impact Russia with the sanctions, for sure we need to do that,” Pevkur said.
Pevkur, who met US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, warned that Russia still had the capacity to conduct attacks, including on NATO members such as Estonia.
However, he played down the possibility of a nuclear strike, an option threatened by Russian President Vladimir Putin as he proclaimed the annexation of Ukrainian territory.
Russia has already “put the fear onto Ukraine” with its conventional attacks, Pevkur said.
“I don’t see any positive, additional added value to Russia” of a nuclear strike, he said.
“The only thing - what can happen is that they would lose their silent supporters like China or some others because of that.”
Estonia defence minister says Russia will need two to four years to rebuild military
Russia will likely need two to four years to rebuild its military to the strength before the Ukraine war, Estonia’s defence minister said Tuesday, urging continued pressure to keep Moscow in check.
On a visit to Washington, Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur predicted a long war and urged the West to stand with Ukrainians until they achieve victory for “the free world”, AFP reports.
As Russia turns to suspected Iranian kamikaze drones to attack Ukraine, Pevkur said he has heard accounts that Moscow’s arsenal has been so drained that it is using its S-300 air defence system as ordinary missiles and that Russian shells have exploded in the air because they are too old.
“What more or less the consensus is is that it takes two to four years for Russia to restore some capabilities or even the same capabilities they had” before the war, he told a roundtable with State Department and Pentagon correspondents.
Updated
Russian foreign minister says Moscow sees no need for diplomatic presence in the west
Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Thursday that Russia no longer sees a need to maintain a diplomatic presence in the west, The Daily Beast reports.
“There is neither point nor desire to maintain the previous presence in Western states. Our people work there in conditions that can hardly be called human,” Lavrov said, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
“Most importantly, there’s no work to do since Europe decided to shut off from us and sever any economic cooperation. You can’t force love,” Lavrov added.
Updated
In case you’re just joining us, Russia announced the evacuation of civilians from a key southern Ukrainian city on Tuesday as it acknowledged the situation for its troops on the ground in Ukraine was “tense” in the face of a counter-offensive.
General Sergey Surovikin, who has been in charge of operations in Ukraine for the past 10 days, said the army was preparing to evacuate civilians from the city of Kherson.
Kherson is one of the four regions in Ukraine that Moscow recently claimed to have annexed.
It was the first major Ukrainian city to fall to Russian forces after the Kremlin launched its invasion on 24 February.
But Ukrainian forces mounted a counter-offensive in the south towards the end of the summer and have been pushing increasingly closer to the city.
“The Russian army will above all ensure the safe evacuation of the population” of Kherson, Surovikin told state television Rossiya 24, describing the situation as “very difficult”:
Summary
Here is a summary of the key developments over the last few hours:
The new commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine made a rare acknowledgment of the pressures they are under from Ukrainian offensives, as Russia stepped up a pre-winter campaign to hit energy infrastructure. The situation in areas Russia claims to have annexed was “tense,” said Sergei Surovikin, a Russian general named this month to take charge of its forces. Russian troops in some areas were under continuous attack, he said.
The Russian-appointed governor of Kherson announced the evacuation of four towns in the region.
Russian air strikes have destroyed 30% of Ukraine’s power stations since 10 October, causing massive blackouts across the country, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Russian strikes hit a power plant in Kyiv, killing three people, as well as energy infrastructure in Kharkiv in the east and Dnipro in the south. A man sheltering in an apartment building in the southern port city Mykolaiv was also killed and the northern Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr was without water or electricity.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said he was proposing a formal cut in diplomatic ties with Tehran after a wave of Russian attacks using what Kyiv says are Iranian-made drones. Iran has denied supplying drones and Russia has denied using them. But senior Iranian officials and diplomats told Reuters that Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface to surface missiles as well as drones.
Nato said Ukraine would receive anti-drone defence systems in coming days.
Russia’s Duma has indefinitely stopped broadcasting live plenary sessions to protect information from “our enemy”, a leading lawmaker said.
Zelenskiy urged his troops to take more prisoners, saying this would make it easier to secure the release of soldiers being held by Russia.
The west should listen carefully when President Vladimir Putin talks about using nuclear weapons but should remember that it is more useful for him to threaten their use than to go ahead, the head of Norway’s armed forces told Reuters.
Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company accused Russia of “kidnapping” two senior staff at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine
Updated
US president Joe Biden is expected to announce Wednesday that he is releasing more oil from the US strategic reserve as part of a response to recent production cuts announced by nations in OPEC+.
The announcement marks the continuation of an about face by Biden, the Associated Press reports, who has tried to move the US past fossil fuels, to identify additional sources of energy to satisfy US and global supply as a result of disruptions from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and production cuts announced by the Saudi Arabia-led oil cartel.
The strategic reserves are at their lowest levels since 1984 after Biden in March announced the release of 180 million barrels over six months.
The White House has responded to the prospective loss of 2 million barrels a day – 2% of global supply – by saying that Saudi Arabia sided with Russian president Vladimir Putin and threatening consequences for OPEC+’s decision.
Updated
Hi, my name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be taking you through the latest developments in Ukraine for the next while. If you have any questions, or see any news you think we may have missed, you can let me know on Twitter here.
Ukraine accuses Russia of 'kidnapping' two nuclear plant workers
Ukraine’s state nuclear energy agency has accused Russia of detaining two senior employees at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, AFP reports.
Energoatom said Russian forces on Monday “kidnapped” the head of information technology Oleg Kostyukov and the plant’s assistant general director Oleg Osheka and “took them to an unknown destination”.
Energoatom called on International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi “to make every effort” to secure their release.
Russian troops captured the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant at the beginning of March.
The IAEA, which has experts at the nuclear site, announced that Valeriy Martyniuk had been released.
Grossi welcomed his release while expressing “deep concern” at the two new detentions at the nuclear plant.
“This is another concerning development that I sincerely hope will be resolved swiftly,” he said.
The IAEA statement said Grossi was continuing consultations on securing a “nuclear safety and security protection zone” around the site.
Updated
The new commander of Moscow’s army in Ukraine has announced that civilians were being “resettled” from the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, describing the military situation as “tense”, write Dan Sabbagh and Pjotr Sauer.
“The enemy continually attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” Sergei Surovikin said in his first televised interview since being appointed earlier this month, adding that the situation was particularly difficult around the occupied southern city of Kherson.
Surovikin’s statements on Tuesday come amid Ukraine’s fierce counter-assault in Kherson, a region in the south of Ukraine that Moscow claimed to have annexed last month after staging a sham referendum.
Updated
Iran has sent trainers to occupied Ukraine to help Russians overcome problems with the fleet of drones that they purchased from Tehran, current and former US officials briefed on the classified intelligence told the New York Times.
According to the newspaper, Iranian trainers are operating from a Russian military base in Crimea where many of the drones have been based since being delivered from Iran.
Updated
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Moscow’s widespread use of Iranian-made drones in recent attacks on his country was a symbol of the Kremlin’s “military and political bankruptcy”.
“The very fact of Russia’s appeal to Iran for such assistance is the Kremlin’s recognition of its military and political bankruptcy,” Zelenskiy said in his daily address.
But, he added “strategically, it will not help them anyway”.
“It only further proves to the world that Russia is on the path of defeat and is trying to draw someone else into its accomplices in terror,” Zelenskiy said.
He didn’t commit to a proposal from his foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, on Tuesday that Kyiv cut diplomatic ties with Iran, AFP reports.
“We will definitely ensure an appropriate international reaction to this,” Zelenskiy said, referring to the use of the drones.
Kyiv and its western allies have accused Moscow of using Iranian-made drones in attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks. The Kremlin said on Tuesday it had no knowledge of its army using such weapons.
Tehran said it was ready for talks with Kyiv to clarify the “baseless” claims that Iran is providing Russia with the drones.
Updated
The United States, Britain and France plan to raise the issue of Iranian weapons transfers to Russia during a closed-door UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, diplomats told Reuters.
Updated
Kyiv accused the Red Cross of “inaction” over Ukrainian prisoners held by Russia, saying a lack of visits to detained soldiers and civilians meant they were vulnerable to being tortured.
“Unfortunately, at each exchange, we see that the International Committee of the Red Cross’s inaction has led to our prisoners of war and civilian hostages being tortured daily by hunger, by electrocution,” Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said in a presidential statement.
He said the organisation was not fulfilling its mandate to visit military and civilian prisoners in conflict zones.
Kyiv has repeatedly asked for an ICRC team to visit.
The presidency’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said: “Ukraine expects and demands from the ICRC the appropriate determination to gain access to Ukrainian prisoners in Olenivka”.
“We do not see that the ICRC is working to protect our prisoners,” Yermak said.
The ICRC told AFP that it shared Kyiv’s frustration.
“We know that behind it there’s the anguish of families at not knowing the fate of their loved ones,” a spokesman said.
“We reiterate that we will never stop demanding access to all prisoners of war until we can see them several times where they are held,” he added.
Updated
The Republican leader in the House of Representatives has said that Congress would not “write a blank cheque to Ukraine” if his party wins next month’s midterm elections, stoking fears in Kyiv that the flow of military equipment could be cut off.
However, another senior Republican said he thought the Ukrainians should “get what they need”, including longer-range missiles than those the Biden administration has so far been prepared to supply. Analysts say the mixed messages reflect an internal debate between traditional national security conservatives and the Trumpist wing of the party, where pro-Russian sentiment is much stronger.
Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, told the Punchbowl News website on Tuesday: “I think people are going to be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank cheque to Ukraine.”
Updated
Iranian drones “are playing an increasingly significant role” in Russia’s strategy of destroying infrastructure, a western official told the AP:
An Associated Press photographer caught one of the Iranian drones on camera on Monday, its triangle-shaped wing and pointed warhead clearly visible, though the Kremlin refused to confirm their use.
In the past week alone, more than 100 self-destructing Iranian-made drones have slammed into power plants, sewage treatment plants, residential buildings, bridges and other targets in urban areas, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said.
A western official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence, said Russia is pursuing a strategy of “attempting to destroy Ukraine’s electricity network” with long-range strikes that are causing civilian casualties rather than degrading its military.
The official said the Iranian drones “are playing an increasingly significant role, although we can see that Ukraine is effectively neutralising many of them before they hit their targets.”
Updated
The US will take “practical, aggressive” steps to undermine Iran’s sale of drones and missiles to Russia, US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a daily press briefing.
He called the alliance between Russia and Iran a “profound threat.”
Live now! @StateDeputySpox briefs reporters from the State Department, also streaming on YouTube at https://t.co/iJKh3SR3Z4. https://t.co/x911AOicUm
— Department of State (@StateDept) October 18, 2022
Updated
“The Russian army will above all ensure the safe evacuation of the population” of Kherson, general Sergey Surovikin told state television Rossiya 24, AFP reports.
Moscow has claimed to annex the region, one of four it has done so recently in Ukraine, and the city of Kherson was the first major urban centre to fall to Russian forces back in February
Vladimir Saldo, the Kremlin-appointed official overseeing the area, has said that those removed from Kherson would be sent to Crimea, a peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Updated
Citizens being 'evacuated' in Kherson as commander of Russian forces says situation in Ukraine 'tense'
The new commander of the Russian army in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, said on Tuesday that civilians were being “resettled” from the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, describing the military situation in Ukraine as “tense.”
“The enemy continually attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” Surovikin said in his first televised interview since his appointment last week, adding that the situation was particularly difficult around the occupied southern city of Kherson.
“Further actions regarding Kherson will depend on the developing military and tactical situation, which is not easy, and difficult decisions cannot be ruled out,” he said.
Surovikin’s statements come amid Ukraine’s ongoing counter-assault against Russia in which Kyiv has recaptured 450 square miles of land since late August.
Shortly after Surovikin’s statements, the Russian-installed head of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said that some civilians were being “evacuated” in anticipation of a “large-scale offensive.”
Updated
Summary
Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged his troops to take more prisoners hours after Ukraine and Russia carried out one of the biggest prisoner swaps so far, exchanging 218 detainees.
A fresh wave of explosions hit several cities across Ukraine with energy facilities among the critical infrastructure targeted. Zelenskiy claimed since October 10, Russian strikes have “destroyed” a third of power stations causing nationwide blackouts.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, appealed to residents to try and conserve electricity. He advised households to stock up on drinking water as the strikes had also affected the city’s water supply.
Two people were killed and another wounded following an attack on an energy facility in the city. Kyiv’s prosecutor’s office announced it had opened an investigation into a possible “violation of the laws and customs of war”.
The UK’s defence secretary Ben Wallace hastily cancelled an appearance before the Commons defence committee for an urgent trip to Washington DC. There he met his counterpart at the Pentagon to discuss recent developments in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said it had “no information” on whether Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones were used in large-scale attacks on Ukrainian cities this week.
Western officials shared concern Iran may extend its help to Russia beyond the supply of hundreds of drones to more sophisticated surface to surface missiles.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has no plans to end military mobilisation in Russia as the target of 300,000 has not yet been reached. While some regions including the capital had completed the process others had a way to go.
The UK’s foreign secretary James Cleverly described the latest strikes in Ukraine as “desperate acts” from a man “losing a war”. He too flew to the US to discuss a response to Russia’s aggression.
Ukraine received €2bn in financial assistance from the European Union, the first tranche of a €5bn package of support. The aid will be used to “cover urgent budgetary expenses, in particular for the social and humanitarian spheres”, prime minister Denys Shmyhal said.
The bodies of five children were exhumed in the city of Lyman, which had been until recently occupied by Russian forces. The three girls and two boys – all who had died from shrapnel wounds – were between the aged of one and 14.
Ukraine’s foreign minister announced he will submit a proposal to Zelenskiy to cut diplomatic ties with Iran as he called on EU foreign ministers to impose sanctions on Iran for helping Russia “carry out terror against Ukrainians”.
Germany’s interior minister sacked the country’s cybersecurity chief, following allegations he had turned a blind eye to a firm with links to Russian security circles. Arne Schönbohm, the president of the German Federal Office for Information Security, was released from his duties with immediate effect.
More than 400 infrastructure targets across Ukraine were damaged in Putin-orchestrated attacks. Russian strikes have hit 408 targets – 45 of them energy stations and more than 180 civilian buildings – since 10 October.
The death toll from a military jet crash in the Russian town of Yeysk rose to 15, including three children. The SU-34 figher bomber crashed into a nine-storey residential building on Monday evening, with Russia’s investigative committee putting the collision down to a “technical malfunction”.
A United Nations commission found Russian forces were responsible for the “vast majority” of human rights violations in the beginning of its war in Ukraine. Abuses were also committed by Ukrainian troops during this time, including cases of people who were out of action being shot, tortured or wounded.
Nato will deliver air defence systems to Ukraine in the coming weeks to help the country defend itself against Russian drone attacks.
The UK’s prime minister Liz Truss spoke to French president Emmanuel Macron about the recent attacks orchestrated by Russia, and their coordinated response.
Updated
Prime minister Liz Truss has spoken to French president Emmanuel Macron about the latest situation in Ukraine.
Downing Street confirmed the pair held a telephone call this afternoon about the recent attacks orchestrated by Russia, and their coordinated response.
“The leaders discussed their deep concern at Russia’s recent barbaric attacks on civilian areas in Ukraine,” a No 10 spokesperson said.
“They agreed the UK and France will continue to work closely together with allies to support Ukraine and coordinate our response to Russian aggression.
“The prime minister and President Macron also welcomed the recent opportunity to meet in person at the leaders’ summit in Prague, and looked forward to continuing to deepen bilateral cooperation.”
Updated
Nato will deliver air defence systems to Ukraine to help the country defend itself against Russian drone attacks.
Ukraine said it has faced a barrage of targeted attacks over the past week, with president Volodymyr Zelenskiy claiming 30% of power stations had been destroyed.
“The most important thing we can do is deliver on what allies have promised, to step up and deliver even more air defence systems,” Nato’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said.
“Nato will in the coming days deliver counter-drone systems to counter the specific threat of drones, including those from Iran. No nation should support the illegal war of Russia against Ukraine.”
Updated
A United Nations commission has found Russian forces were responsible for the “vast majority” of human-rights violations in the beginning of its war in Ukraine.
Soldiers indiscriminately shelled areas they were trying to capture and attacked fleeing civilians in acts that could be considered war crimes, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said.
Its report looked at events in the four northern provinces of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy from Russia’s invasion on February 24 until March.
Abuses were also committed by Ukrainian troops during this time, including cases of people who were out of action being shot, tortured or wounded.
“Russian armed forces are responsible for the vast majority of the violations identified, including war crimes. Ukrainian forces have also committed international humanitarian law violations in some cases, including two incidents that qualify as war crimes,” the UN human rights council summarised.
Updated
The death toll from a military jet crash in the Russian town of Yeysk has risen to 14, including three children, and dozens more are injured.
The SU-34 figher-bomber crashed into a nine-storey residential building on Monday evening, with Russia’s investigative committee putting the collision down to a “technical malfunction”.
It has launched a criminal inquiry into possible violations of flight rules, and investigators are questioning the pilots who managed to parachute out of the plane before it made impact with the building.
Airfield staff are also being talked to, while fuel samples and the flight recorder box are being seized.
President Putin has expressed his “deep condolences to those families who lost their loved ones” in the disaster.
Updated
More than 1,000 villages and towns without power, Kyiv says
Russian strikes have left more than 1,100 villages and towns in Ukraine without power after targeting energy facilities across the country, Kyiv has said.
Vladimir Putin’s troops have launched around 190 attacks using missiles, kamikaze drones, and artillery in 16 regions including the capital, Ukraine’s emergency services said.
More than 70 people have been killed and 240 more injured in the assaults.
“For now, 1,162 settlements in Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovogod, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Lugansk, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions remain cut off from electricity,” spokesperson Oleksandr Khorunzhyi told a briefing.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Nearly a third of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed by Russian drone and missile attacks in the past eight days, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, as his office warned of a “critical” power situation nationwide. Zelenskiy accused Russia of engaging in “terrorist attacks” affecting a significant proportion of the country’s critical infrastructure and wreaking havoc on electricity and other utility supplies.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the presidential office, said energy infrastructure and power supply were targeted overnight in an eastern district of Kyiv, where two people were killed, and in the cities of Dnipro and Zhytomyr.
Two “objects of critical infrastructure” were damaged in Kyiv, said the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, and electricity and water supply in “many houses” in west Kyiv was “partially limited”. The mayor appealed to residents to conserve electricity, and said houses experiencing reduced water pressure should use water as “economically as possible”.
All of Zhytomyr was without electricity and water after a double missile strike on an energy facility, said the mayor, Serhiy Sukhomlyn. Hospitals were running on backup power, he said.
Klitschko said a fifth person, an elderly woman, had been found dead after a wave of drone attacks in the centre of Kyiv on Monday morning. She died after a residential building was hit.
Russia has been targeting Ukraine with a mixture of missiles and, more recently, Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones, rebranded as Geran-2 by the attackers. Iran denies supplying the drones to Russia, while the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said he did not have any information about their origin. “Russian equipment with Russian names is being used,” Peskov said.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has announced he is submitting a proposal to the president’s office to cut diplomatic ties with Iran.
The German ambassador to the UK, Miguel Berger, has called for sanctions against Iran over the allegations the country has supplied weaponry to Russia, a claim Tehran denies.
Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, has sacked the country’s cybersecurity chief, following allegations he had turned a blind eye to a firm with with links to Russian security circles. Arne Schönbohm, the president of the German Federal Office for Information Security, was released from his duties with immediate effect.
A preliminary investigation of damages on the two Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Danish part of the Baltic Sea show that the leaks were caused by “powerful explosions”, Copenhagen police said in a statement.
Greece’s foreign ministry has warned citizens to stay away from Ukraine and appealed to those who are still in the country to leave immediately.
In a statement issued within hours of the latest wave of Russian air attacks, it “strongly discouraged” any travel to Ukraine describing the unfolding security situation as “volatile and precarious”.
“At the same time Greek citizens currently in Ukraine are advised to leave the country immediately,” the foreign ministry said.
“Greek citizens who have not already left the country, are also advised to immediately register their contact details with the Greek embassy in Kyiv.”
The travel advisory was issued as the country’s foreign affairs minister, Nikos Dendias, announced he would be holding talks in Kyiv with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, and other senior officials.
In a separate statement, which stopped short of stipulating the trip’s timing because of safety reasons, the foreign ministry said: “This will be the minister’s third visit to Ukraine since the Russian invasion, as he has already visited Odesa, a city inextricably linked to Hellenism, twice.”
The Greek politician, it said, was expected to reiterate the message that Greece “supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states and condemns revisionism, wherever it comes from”.
Ukraine has for centuries been home to a large ethnic Greek community. Much of the 200,000-strong minority is concentrated in Black Sea cities such as Odessa although before the war as many as 150,000 ethnic Greeks were thought to live in the besieged city of Mariupol alone.
Updated
More than 400 infrastructure targets across Ukraine have been damaged in Putin-orchestrated attacks since last week, a senior Ukrainian official has said.
Oleskii Chernyshov, minister for communities and territories development, said Russian strikes have struck 408 targets – 45 of them energy stations and more than 180 civilian buildings – since 10 October.
Ukrainians would not be cowed by the attacks, he added, and would instead be strengthened by the “terrorist actions”.
Updated
Reuters says two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats have told it that Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface to surface missiles, in addition to more drones.
The report claims that a deal was agreed on 6 October when Iran’s first vice president Mohammad Mokhber, two senior officials from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and an official from the supreme national security council visited Moscow for talks with Russia about the delivery of the weapons.
“The Russians had asked for more drones and those Iranian ballistic missiles with improved accuracy, particularly the Fateh and Zolfaghar missiles family,” said one of the Iranian diplomats, who was briefed about the trip.
Iran’s official position has been to deny that it is supplying any drones to Russia. Earlier today the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that Moscow had “no information” about the use of Iranian-manufactured drones in Ukraine.
Updated
German cybersecurity chief sacked following reports of Russia ties
Philip Oltermann reports from Berlin for the Guardian:
Germany’s interior minister has sacked the country’s cybersecurity chief, following allegations he had turned a blind eye to a firm with with links to Russian security circles.
Arne Schönbohm, the president of the German Federal Office for Information Security, was released from his duties with immediate effect on Tuesday, the news magazine Der Spiegel reported citing security circles.
A spokesperson for interior minister Nancy Faeser confirmed that Schönbohm would be barred from his office, after “necessary public trust in the neutrality and impartiality of his leadership as president of the most important German cybersecurity agency has been damaged”.
Schönbom, who has since 2016 been in charge of the agencies overseeing the government’s computer and communication security, has come under scrutiny after his links to a Russian company in a previous job were highlighted by Jan Böhmermann, a German comedian, in a late-night satire show.
You can read more of Philip Oltermann’s report from Berlin here: German cybersecurity chief sacked following reports of Russia ties
Russia’s Duma has stopped broadcasting live plenary sessions indefinitely to protect information from “our enemy”, a leading lawmaker said on Tuesday as parliament’s lower house debated topics related to the war in Ukraine.
“Those questions that require sensitive discussion in a narrow professional circle should not be the property of our enemy,” Vladimir Vasilyev, head of the dominant United Russia faction, told the military news channel Zvezda TV.
Reuters reports the move meant there was no live broadcast on the Duma website or social media of Tuesday’s session, where deputies were due to consider a report from deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin on the process of moving civilians to Russia from the Russian-occupied Kherson region of Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces are waging a counter-offensive.
In a separate development, Interfax has reported in Russia that Google has blocked the Russian Federation Council’s YouTube accounts, which had about 200,000 subscribers and contained some 20,000 videos.
Russian telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor demanded that Google immediately restore the accounts.
Updated
Dan Sabbagh in Kyiv and Patrick Wintour bring us this latest round-up of today’s developments in the war on Ukraine:
Nearly a third of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed by Russian drone and missile attacks in the past eight days, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, as more energy and water sites were hit across the country overnight.
Ukraine’s president accused Russia of engaging in “terrorist attacks” affecting a significant proportion of the country’s critical infrastructure and wreaking havoc on electricity and other utility supplies.
The bombing is often inaccurate and civilians have been killed in residential buildings in Kyiv and other major cities.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the presidential office, said energy infrastructure and power supply were targeted overnight in an eastern district of Kyiv, where two people were killed, and in the cities of Dnipro and Zhytomyr.
Two “objects of critical infrastructure” were damaged in Kyiv, said the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, and electricity and water supply in “many houses” in west Kyiv was “partially limited”.
All of Zhytomyr was without electricity and water after a double missile strike on an energy facility, said the mayor, Serhiy Sukhomlyn. Hospitals were running on backup power, he said.
Ukraine had long feared that Russia would target its utility networks. The latest waves of strikes demonstrate that key infrastructure remains vulnerable to Russian attack from the air.
Russia said on Tuesday that its forces were maintaining strikes against military and energy infrastructure targets, and that it had used what it described as high-precision long-range air and sea-based weapons.
The targets were “military command and energy infrastructure of Ukraine, as well as arsenals with ammunition and foreign-made weapons,” it said. “All assigned objects were hit,” it added.
Read more of Dan Sabbagh and Patrick Wintour’s report here:
Ukraine says 30% of its power plants destroyed in last eight days
Ukraine foreign ministry to submit proposal to cut diplomatic ties with Iran
Ukraine’s foreign minister has announced he is submitting a proposal to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to cut diplomatic ties with Iran.
Amid claims Iran had supplied weapons to Russia, Dmytro Kuleba insisted it bore full responsibility for destruction across Ukraine.
Kyiv would send an official note to Israel calling for immediate air defence supplies and cooperation, he said.
Kuleba has also called on foreign ministers in the European Union to impose sanctions on Iran for helping Russia “carry out terror against Ukrainians”.
Updated
A new air defence package for Ukraine is being prepared in the wake of what western officials describe as an Iranian-aided effort by Russia to destroy Ukraine’s entire national electricity network.
Both the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, and the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, are flying to Washington for a separate round of meetings to discuss how to respond to Iran’s intervention in the battlefield, including whether to raise the issue at the UN, impose new sanctions, and even cut off talks on the Iran nuclear deal.
Western officials also said they were concerned at the possibility that Iran may extend its help to Russia beyond the supply of hundreds of drones to more sophisticated surface to surface missiles.
“Iranian UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) are playing an increasingly significant role although we can see that Ukraine is effectively neutralising many of them before they hit their targets,” one official said.
“They do fly quite slowly though so they are much more susceptible to being shot down by small arms and other systems. The tactics have been used en masse in the hope some get through.”
Iran has denied it has supplied drones to Russia but western officials reject this saying a considerable amount of work had been done looking at fragments of downed vehicles, which found they came originally from an Iranian arsenal.
Updated
Bodies of five children who died from shrapnel wounds exhumed in Lyman
The bodies of five children have been exhumed in the city of Lyman, which had been until recently occupied by Russian forces.
Ukraine’s ministry of defence said the three girls and two boys – all whom had died from shrapnel wounds – were between the aged of one and 14.
At least 425 children had been killed by Russia since the start of the war, it added.
Vladimir Putin’s troops withdrew from Lyman a day after the Russian president announced the annexation of Donetsk at the beginning of October.
Updated
Ukraine has received €2bn in financial assistance from the European Union, the first tranche of a €5bn package of support.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, both thanked the bloc for the aid given in the wake of Russia’s invasion.
“The additional financial resource will help to cover urgent budgetary expenses, in particular for the social and humanitarian spheres,” Shmyhal said.
🇺🇦 received the next tranche of macro-fin aid from 🇪🇺 - €2 billion. Grateful to 🇪🇺 & President @vonderleyen for support. We count on ASAP implementation of the full program - €9 billion. This is a crucial contribution to 🇺🇦 financial stability & our victory #EmbraceUkraine
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 18, 2022
Updated
Two people have been killed and another wounded following missile strikes on an energy facility in Kyiv.
Russia targeted a thermal power station, causing explosions, fires and power cuts.
Kyiv’s city prosecutor’s office confirmed the fatalities and announced it had opened an investigation into a possible “violation of the laws and customs of war”.
Power stations in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv and south-eastern city of Dnipro were also targeted in separate strikes.
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The UK’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has described Russia’s recent attacks in Ukraine as “desperate acts” by Vladimir Putin.
The “cowardly” strikes have followed a string of failures from the Russian president, he said.
“Putin failed to capture Ukrainian towns and cities with tanks, now he tries cowardly drone attacks,” Cleverly said.
“These are desperate acts of a man losing a war on the battlefield. It’s why we sent air defence missiles.
“He won’t break the Ukrainians or our resolve to stand with them.”
The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, is travelling to the US to discuss the situation in Ukraine with his counterparts at the Pentagon.
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Vladimir Putin has no plans to end military mobilisation in Russia as the target of 300,000 has not yet been reached.
While some regions had completed the process – including in the capital, Moscow, where draft offices had been closed – others had a way to go.
“For the moment, there is no presidential decree [on ending mobilisation],” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. “The process of partial mobilisation is ending and has been finished in some regions.”
The president announced the nationwide military drive on September 21, and last week said he aimed to end the recruitment push “within about two weeks”.
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Summary of the day so far …
Russian forces carried out new airstrikes on Ukrainian energy facilities on Tuesday, causing several explosions in an area of northern Kyiv where there is a thermal power station. Dnipro, Mykolaiv and Zhytomyr were also targets.
City mayor Vitali Klitschko said today’s attack was on “critical infrastructure” in northern Kyiv, and urged resident to conserve electricity and stockpile drinking water.
Serhiy Sukhomlyn, mayor of Zhytomyr said “the city has no light or water at the moment. Hospitals are on back-up power.”
In Mykolaiv, a Russian missile struck an apartment building. The missile completely destroyed one wing of the building in the downtown area, leaving a massive crater. A fire crew pulled the dead body of a man from the rubble, a witness said.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said: “Since 10 October, 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country”. Describing the Russian strikes on power supplies as “another kind of Russian terrorist attacks”, Zelenskiy said there was “no space left for negotiations with Putin’s regime”.
The death toll from yesterday’s attack on a central district of Kyiv has risen to five. Klitschko said the body of another resident – an elderly woman – had been pulled from the rubble of a building destroyed in an explosion.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Moscow has “no information” on whether Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones were used in large-scale attacks on Ukrainian cities this week.
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, said on “Tuesday at around 8.30am, the enemy launched eight rockets at Kharkiv from the Russian city of Belgorod” but there were no casualties.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, said a man has been injured after Ukrainian forces shelled a railway station within Russia.
UK defence secretary Ben Wallace has hastily cancelled an early afternoon appearance before the Commons defence committee for an urgent trip to Washington DC, prompting speculation as to the purpose of the sudden visit.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Zaina Alibhai will be with you shortly.
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Reuters is carrying a quick snap that the Kyiv prosecutor’s office has said that two people have been killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, this morning.
More details soon …
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Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said this morning that the Kremlin has “no information” on whether Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones were used in large-scale attacks on Ukrainian cities this week.
Reuters reports Peskov made the comments during his regular daily press briefing. Leaders in Ukraine have accused Russia of using the Iranian Shahed-136 drones. Yesterday, Kyiv’s mayor said that five of 28 drones deployed against the city caused explosions. Five people were killed as the result of an explosion at a residential building in the centre of the city.
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Dan Sabbagh, the Guardian’s defence and security editor, has more on Ben Wallace:
Ben Wallace has hastily cancelled an early afternoon appearance before the Commons defence committee for an urgent trip to Washington DC, prompting speculation as to the purpose of the sudden visit.
James Heappey, a deputy defence minister, said “my boss Ben Wallace is in Washington this morning” in an interview in Sky News and offered a cryptic explanation of his presence there.
The junior minister told Sky News that Wallace was going “to have the sort of conversations that … beyond belief really, the fact we are at a time when these sort of conversations are necessary”.
Immediately prior, Heappey had said that the MoD was doing “a good job keeping our nation safe at a time of incredible global insecurity” although it was unclear what he may been referring to.
A day earlier, questions had been raised after a beleaguered Liz Truss had failed to appear in the Commons to handle an urgent question about the conduct of her government. Penny Mordaunt, deputising, had told MPs she had a “genuine reason” for not being present and she “is not under a desk” – but the reason was not explained and it is not clear if it is related to Wallace’s trip.
Wallace had been due to take questions on a range of issues, including political engagement with the US administration on military operations, the W93 nuclear missile and US protectionism and export controls. It had been cancelled “due to witness availability” a committee spokeswoman said.
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The British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, is in the process of making a visit to Washington. The Sky News security and defence editor Deborah Haynes has described it as “hastily arranged”. She tweets that a defence source has informed her “The defence secretary is in Washington DC to discuss shared security concerns, including Ukraine. He will be visiting his counterpart at the Pentagon and senior figures at the White House.”
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The death toll from yesterday’s “kamikaze” drone attack on a central district of Kyiv has risen to five, according to the latest information from the city mayor, Vitali Klitschko.
He has posted to Telegram to say that the body of another dead resident – an elderly woman – has been pulled from the rubble. He says search and rescue operations continue at the location, where yesterday the dead included a young couple who were expecting a child.
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Zelenskiy: 30% of Ukraine's power stations destroyed since 10 October
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said on Twitter that “since 10 October, 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country”.
Describing the Russian strikes on power supplies as “another kind of Russian terrorist attacks”, Zelenskiy said there was “no space left for negotiations with Putin’s regime”.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilian infrastructure. Some areas of Kyiv are without electricity and water.
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Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has appealed to residents to try to conserve electricity today and stock up on drinking water after Russian strikes on the city. He posted to Telegram to confirm that some areas of the capital have been left without power. He wrote:
In Kyiv, as a result of rocket attacks by Russian barbarians, two objects of critical infrastructure were damaged. Currently, the provision of electricity and water supply services is partially limited in many houses on the left bank of the capital. In some houses, a decrease in pressure in the water supply network, a change in the colour and transparency of the water is possible.
I appeal to all Kyiv residents to save electricity as much as possible. Do not turn on powerful electrical appliances – air conditioners, electric kettles, microwave ovens, etc. In homes where the water supply has already been temporarily stopped, residents are asked to find the nearest pump station or vending machine for drinking water, and stock up on water.
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Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, has posted to Telegram to say that a man has been injured after Ukrainian forces shelled a railway station within Russia. He states that “the movement of trains is temporarily suspended”. The claims have not been independently verified.
Video and photographs uploaded to social media yesterday showed a residential building engulfed in flames in Yeysk after a military plane crashed in Russia. Here is our video report.
The German ambassador to the UK, Miguel Berger, has called for sanctions against Iran over the allegations the country has supplied weaponry to Russia, a claim Tehran denies. He has tweeted:
Iran should be punished with further sanctions for helping Russia to terrorise civilians in Ukraine with their kamikaze drones. Worrying reports that Iran might also sell missiles to Russia.
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The state-owned Russian RIA Novosti news agency is reporting that three children were among the 13 people who died after a military plane crashed in Yeysk. The Su-34 fighter-bomber hit a residential building.
RIA also reports that investigators believe a “technical malfunction of the aircraft” to be the main factor in the crash.
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A preliminary investigation of damages on the two Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Danish part of the Baltic Sea show that the leaks were caused by “powerful explosions”, Copenhagen police said in a statement on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
Yaroslav Trofimov, chief foreign affairs correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, offered this quick analysis of today’s strikes, tweeting: “Another day of Russian missile strikes on electric infrastructure in Kyiv and around Ukraine. Unable to win in the battlefield, Russia is trying to eke out a victory by making Ukrainian civilians freeze in darkness.”
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Russian strikes again hit critical infrastructure in cities across Ukraine
Russian forces carried out new air strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities on Tuesday, causing several explosions in an area of northern Kyiv where there is a thermal power station.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office, said there had been three Russian strikes on an unspecified energy facility. City mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack was on “critical infrastructure” in northern Kyiv, where Reuters witnesses saw thick smoke rising into the sky.
Neither official said whether the thermal power station had been hit. They also gave no casualty details.
Tymoshenko said two airstrikes hit an energy facility in the south-eastern city of Dnipro, causing “serious damage”, presidential aide Kyrylo Tymoshenko wrote on Telegram.
“There is a fire raging and serious destruction,” regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said of the strike on Dnipro.
An airstrike left the northern city of Zhytomyr without water and electricity supplies, its mayor said, and a Reuters witness said a Russian missile struck an apartment building in the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv.
The missile completely destroyed one wing of the building in the downtown area, leaving a large crater.
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The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in occupied eastern Ukraine has issued an update on Telegram in which it claims that 34 housing construction and seven civil infrastructure facilities were damaged and three people were killed and another 14 civilians were injured as a result of shelling by Ukrainian armed forces on areas that the DPR claims to control.
Donetsk is one of four occupied regions of Ukraine that Russia has claimed to annex.
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Serhiy Sukhomlyn, mayor of Zhytomyr, has posted to Facebook to say that “the morning began with arrivals across Zhytomyr. The city has no light or water at the moment. Hospitals are on back-up power”.
The mayor said that “information about the victims and damage will be provided later”.
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Maria Avdeeva, a Ukrainian journalist, has described events today as a “massive attack on energy infrastructure facilities this morning”, saying that Kyiv, Dnipro and Zhytomyr have been struck, accompanied by an image that purports to show the aftermath of an attack in Dnipro.
Massive attack on energy infrastructure facilities this morning. Kyiv - three strikes on an energy supply facility in Desnyansky district. Dnipro, 2 strikes at energy infrastructure facility. “Serious damage”. Zhytomyr - no electricity and water supply. Ph from Dnipro. pic.twitter.com/aGGU8laDPX
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) October 18, 2022
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Here is a selection of some of the images that are coming through from Mykolaiv, the scene of Russian strikes this morning.
Other images sent to us over the newswires, which are too graphic to use, show the body of at least one victim on the ground at the scene.
Ukraine’s president has responded to this morning’s Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities. Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted to Telegram to say:
Ukraine is under fire by the occupiers. They continue to do what they do best – terrorise and kill civilians. In Mykolaiv, the enemy destroyed a residential building with S-300 missiles. A person died. There was also a strike at the flower market, the chestnut park. I wonder what the Russian terrorists were fighting against at these absolutely peaceful facilities?
The terrorist state will not change anything for itself with such actions. It will only confirm its destructive and murderous essence, for which it will certainly be held to account.
Explosions reported in Kyiv – mayor
Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, has posted to Telegram to report “explosions again in Kyiv in the morning”.
He said that the target was an object of critical infrastructure in the Desnianskyi district.
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James Heappey, minister for the armed forces in the UK, has been interviewed on Sky News in the UK. While there has been considerable focus on domestic policies and the future of beleaguered UK prime minister Liz Truss, he had this to say about Ukraine and British defence spending:
There are some very hard choices to make. And we have to be very clear on why we are doing what we’re doing in Ukraine. Why it is so important to be supporting the Ukrainian armed forces. Why it is so important to be investing in our own defence forces at the moment.
And that is because the cost of not doing those things is that we will be living in a Europe, in a world, whereby it has been shown that if you are willing to be belligerent, and use force to threaten the sovereignty of another country, you can succeed.
That if the international community loses patience, that if you get your way, what that does is set the trajectory for the rest of this century, whereby we will be having to spend a lot more on our defence and security and where our economy will be profoundly impacted by that insecurity.
So this is about investing now in the Ukrainians, so that they can do the right thing, in order to draw a line underneath Putin’s aggression, to show that a rules-based international system still applies in this century.
Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv, has provided an update on Telegram, saying that “today at around 8.30 am, the enemy launched eight rockets at Kharkiv from the Russian city of Belgorod” but there were no casualties.
He reported that in the last 24 hours there were three elderly people injured in the region from shelling, and that “the state emergency service defused 1,428 explosive objects during the day”.
He also said “during the past day, the Russian occupiers from tanks, mortars, barrel and jet artillery shelled the settlements located near the contact line”.
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There are as yet unconfirmed reports that there has been a strike at electrical infrastructure in the Zhytomyr region. Video being shared on social media purports to show smoke rising into the sky in the area, and residents report that electricity is off. The Zhytomyr region is to the west of Kyiv.
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That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleague Martin Belam will take you through the latest for the next few hours.
Strikes reported in several Ukrainian cities
A fresh wave of explosions is being reported in several cities across Ukraine, a day after Russia launched drone strikes on multiple cities in Ukraine.
It is shortly before 9am Kyiv time, and strikes have been reported by authorities in Kryvyi Ri, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv.
In Mykolaiv, the attack has totally destroyed one wing of an apartment building. At least one man died in the attack, according to a witness who spoke to Reuters.
In Dnipro, strikes targeted energy infrastructure, causing “serious damage” according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office.
There were few details about the attacks on Kryvyi Ri and Kharkiv, but we will have more on the situations in these cities soon.
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Russian missile hits apartment building in Mykolaiv
A Russian missile struck an apartment building in the southern Ukrainian port city Mykolaiv, in one of three explosions heard there in the early hours of Tuesday, a Reuters witness said.
The missile completely destroyed one wing of the building in the downtown area, leaving a massive crater. A fire crew pulled the dead body of a man from the rubble, the witness said.
Strikes on energy infrastructure in Dnipro
Russian strikes on Dnipro have hit energy infrastructure causing “serious damage”, Deputy Head of President’s Office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, has just said on Telegram.
Explosions in Kharkiv
The head of the Kharkiv regional military administration has announced that Russia is launching strikes on the city of Kharkiv, as well as the region. He has ordered residents to remain in shelters, saying:
“Attention, residents of Kharkiv and the region: the Russian occupiers are striking. Stay in shelters!”
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The US warned on Monday it would take action against companies and nations working with Iran’s drone programme after Russia used the imports for deadly kamikaze strikes in Kyiv, AFP reports.
“Anyone doing business with Iran that could have any link to UAVs or ballistic missile developments or the flow of arms from Iran to Russia should be very careful and do their due diligence – the US will not hesitate to use sanctions or take actions against perpetrators,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.
“Russia deepening an alliance with Iran is something the whole world – especially those in the region and across the world, frankly – should be seeing as a profound threat,” he said.
Ukrainian officials said that the strikes killed four people in Kyiv – including a couple expecting a baby – and knocked out electricity to hundreds of towns and villages as the country prepares for winter.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the drone strikes showed the need to provide “everything possible” to Ukraine as its forces gain ground against Russian invaders ahead of winter.
The Russians are “attacking critical infrastructure like power plants, hospitals, the things that people need in their daily lives that are not military targets,” Blinken told reporters at Stanford University in California.
“It is a sign of increased desperation by Russia, but it’s also a sign of the levels that they will stoop to and that we’ve seen repeatedly when it comes to targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure,” Blinken said.
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Explosions in Kryvyi Ri
The head of Kryvyi Rih’s military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, has just posted on Telegram confirming an explosion in the city – Zelenskiy’s home town – on Tuesday morning. He said:
Around 06:30 in the morning, the occupation-terrorist forces struck the northern part of Kryvyi Rih. As for the consequences of the explosions, I will not comment on the situation yet.
The anxiety continues. Repeated attacks are possible - you are in shelters during an air alert.
Earlier on Tuesday morning, he issued an air raid alert and announced that missiles were incoming.
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Kyiv’s statues – sandbagged by the city authorities for protection – are one of only a few reminders, along with an 11pm curfew and the regular wailing of air raid sirens, that this bustling city is at war. Boxed up, muffled, veiled and hidden, they also give Kyiv a strange new look – as if the sculptures have been replaced by contemporary artworks:
Blinken: the post-Cold War world has come to an end
Speaking to the press at Stanford University on Monday, Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said that the war in Ukraine had brought the “post-Cold War world to an end”. Blinken went on to say that what would come to define competition between world powers now was technology:
We are at an inflection point. The post-Cold War world has come to an end, and there is an intense competition underway to shape what comes next. And at the heart of that competition is technology. Technology will in many ways retool our economies. It will reform our militaries. It will reshape the lives of people across the planet. And so it’s profoundly a source of national strength.
Asked about Russia’s use of Iranian drones, he said that it was a “sign of increased desperation”:
We’re seeing these drones, as you said. What are they doing? They’re attacking civilians. They’re attacking critical infrastructure like power plants, hospitals, the things that people need in their daily lives that are not military targets. And it is a sign of increased desperation by Russia, but it’s also a sign of the levels that they will stoop to and that we’ve seen repeatedly when it comes to targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. We want to make sure we’re doing everything possible to help Ukrainians defend themselves against this aggression, even as they’re pushing the Russians back from territory that Russia seized.
Zelenskiy urges troops to take more prisoners
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday urged his troops to take more prisoners, saying this would make it easier to secure the release of soldiers being held by Russia, Reuters reports.
Zelenskiy made his remarks hours after the two sides carried out one of the biggest prisoner swaps so far, exchanging a total of 218 detainees, including 108 Ukrainian women.
“I thank everyone involved in this success, and I also thank all those who replenish our exchange fund, who ensure the capture of enemies,” he said in an evening address.
“The more Russian prisoners we have, the sooner we will be able to free our heroes.
Every Ukrainian soldier, every front-line commander should remember this.”
Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy chief of staff, said there were 12 civilians among the freed women.
“It was the first completely female exchange,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app, adding that 37 of the women had been captured after Russian forces took the giant Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol in May.
One of the women, medic Viktoria Obidina, said that up until the last moment the group had no idea they would be exchanged. Obidina had been with her young daughter when Mariupol fell but the two then became separated.
“I will go to see my daughter. I want to see her so bad,” she told reporters.
Separately, Ukraine’s interior ministry said some of the women had been in jail since 2019 after being detained by pro-Moscow authorities in eastern regions. Earlier, the Russian-appointed head of one of the regions said Kyiv was freeing 80 civilian sailors and 30 military personnel.
Russian plane crash death toll rises to 13
The death toll from a Russian military jet that crashed into a residential building shortly after taking off near the border with has reportedly climbed to at least 13 people, according to Russian news agency Interfax, which cited a senior official.
Video and photographs uploaded to social media on Monday showed a residential building engulfed in flames in Yeysk, a port and resort town in Russia located just south of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol across the Sea of Azov.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be taking you through the latest for the next few hours.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday urged his troops to take more prisoners, saying this would make it easier to secure the release of soldiers being held by Russia.
Meanwhile the death toll from a Russian military jet that crashed into a residential building shortly after taking off near the border with has reportedly climbed to at least 13 people, according to Russian news agency Interfax, which cited a senior official.
Moscow stepped up attacks across Ukraine on Monday, killing four people and cutting off power in a series of kamikaze drone strikes in the capital. Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmygal, said Russia launched five strikes in Kyiv, as well as attacks against energy facilities in Sumy and the central Dnipropetrovsk regions, knocking out electricity to hundreds of towns and villages.
Ukraine announced that more than 100 prisoners have been swapped with Russia in what it said was the first all-female exchange with Moscow after nearly eight months of war. “The more Russian prisoners we have, the sooner we will be able to free our heroes. Every Ukrainian soldier, every frontline commander should remember this,” Zelensky said.
In the south, Ukrainian troops have been pushing closer and closer to the large city of Kherson, just north of Crimea. Kherson is one of four regions in Ukraine that Moscow recently claimed to have annexed.
Ukraine’s foreign minister called on the European Union to sanction Iran for providing Russia with kamikaze drones that killed at least four civilians in Kyiv on Monday.
Iran said again on Monday that it had not provided Russia with drones to use in Ukraine. “The published news about Iran providing Russia with drones has political ambitions and it is circulated by western sources. We have not provided weaponry to any side of the countries at war,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said. The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc would look for “concrete evidence” about the participation of Iran in Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The European Union has agreed to create a mission to train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers. It will also provide a further €500m to help buy weapons. An EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday approved the two-year training mission, which will involve different EU forces providing basic and specialist instruction to Ukrainian soldiers, in Poland and Germany. Officials hope the mission, which is expected to cost €107m, will be up and running by mid November.
Israeli officials refused to comment on comments from Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president, that Tel Aviv is preparing to supply military aid to Ukraine. In a Telegram message on Monday, Medvedev, currently deputy chair of Russia’s security council, warned Israel against arming Kyiv, calling it a “a reckless move” that would “destroy relations between our countries”. Israel has tried to maintain a neutral stance, as it relies on Russia to facilitate its operations against Iranian-linked actors in Syria.
Marina Ovsyannikova, the former Russian state TV journalist who staged an on-air protest against the war in March, has fled the country, according to her lawyer.
