Closing summary
Fighting in Avdiivka on the eastern frontline entered a fifth day as Russia continued to deploy new forces in an attempt to surround the city, according to Vitaliy Barabash, the head of its military administration.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea near the southern resort city of Sochi on Saturday morning. The city’s mayor, Alexei Kopaigorodskyi, said there had been no casualties or damage and that the situation was under control.
A top Ukraine general said fighting in the north-east had “significantly worsened” as daily Russian attacks continued.
Protesters gathered outside city hall in Odesa again to speak out against the misuse of budget funds and pay tribute to Ukrainian soldiers killed or injured in the war.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) is highly likely to have reinforced its defensive and reactive posture since suffering a series of strikes in August and September, the UK Ministry of Defence said. In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said the BSF has relocated many of its prestige assets – including cruise missile-capable ships and submarines – from Sevastopol to operating and basing areas further east, such as Novorossiysk.
Russia has detained three lawyers of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and raided their homes, aides said, a step that comes as pressure on the Kremlin’s critics increases. The move was an attempt to “completely isolate Navalny”, his ally Ivan Zhdanov said on social media.
Updated
The acting regional governor of Donetsk, Ihor Moroz said on Saturday that Russian shelling of civilian settlements had wounded 22 civilians over the past 24 hours, 21 in Pokrovsk and one in Avdiivka.
Moroz posted the update on Telegram, according to Al Jazeera.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming from Ukraine.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) is highly likely to have reinforced its defensive and reactive posture since suffering a series of strikes in August and September, the UK Ministry of Defence says.
In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said the BSF has relocated many of its prestige assets – including cruise missile-capable ships and submarines – from Sevastopol to operating and basing areas further east, such as Novorossiysk.
“Since July 2022, Ukraine has gained the initiative in the northwest Black Sea, forcing the powerful BSF to defend itself from uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), uncrewed air vehicles (UAVs) and missile attacks as well as special operations.
“With notable and embarrassing exceptions, however, the BSF has mostly continued to train, maintain and defend itself whilst launching cruise missiles into Ukraine. It can almost certainly continue to do so from the eastern Black Sea.
“Despite the BSF’s largely intact capabilities, there is only a realistic possibility of it using its conventional superiority in firepower to seize the initiative in the Western Black Sea.
“The risk of further military losses and the dire political consequences of Russian naval forces overtly attacking merchant shipping would highly likely outweigh any gain from attempting to enforce a blockade of Ukrainian-bound trade.”
Updated
Protesters have gathered outside city hall in Odesa to speak out against the misuse of budget funds and pay tribute to Ukrainian soldiers killed or injured in the war.
It’s the latest in a series of rallies that have taken place over the last month in the area. According to those protesting, all budget funds should be allocated to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, instead of towards repairing buildings or purchasing Christmas trees.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments from the day so far:
Fighting in Avdiivka on the eastern frontline enters a fifth day, as Russia continues to deploy new forces in an attempt to surround the city, according to Vitaliy Barabash, the head of its military administration.
Russia’s defence ministry says its forces shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea near the southern resort city of Sochi on Saturday morning. The city’s mayor, Alexei Kopaigorodskyi, said there had been no casualties or damage and that the situation was under control.
A top Ukraine general said fighting in the north-east had “significantly worsened” as daily Russian attacks continued.
Russia has detained three lawyers of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and raided their homes, aides said, a step that comes as pressure on the Kremlin’s critics increases. The move was an attempt to “completely isolate Navalny”, his ally Ivan Zhdanov said on social media.
The US has claimed North Korea delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia for the war in Ukraine. The White House national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, said the US believed Kim Jong-un was seeking sophisticated Russian weapon technologies in return for munitions to boost North Korea’s nuclear programme.
Vladimir Putin dismissed the idea that Russia damaged a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia and suggested such claims were made up to divert attention from what he said was a western attack on Nord Stream.
EU leaders meeting later in October will demand “decisive progress” on using Russian assets frozen by sanctions to help Ukraine, according to their draft statement.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, while visiting the Black Sea port of Odesa on Friday, vowed to improve Ukraine’s air defences and to increase the security of a “humanitarian corridor” for grain exports.
Updated
Fighting in Avdiivka on eastern frontline enters fifth day
Kyiv has reported “heated” fighting and non-stop assaults by Russian forces as their attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka continues into its fifth day.
Speaking on Ukranian television, Vitaliy Barabash, the head of the city’s military administration, said: “For the fifth day already, the enemy has not stopped either assaulting or shelling positions around the city.
“It is very heated, very heated.”
According to AFP, Barabash also said Moscow was deploying more forces to the area in an attempt to surround the city.
“There is certainly no silence there at all,” he said. “Shooting battles continue, both from the north and from the south of the city.”
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said Kyiv is holding its ground in Avdiivka, but Moscow says it has improved its positions there.
Around 1,600 civilians remain in the city, compared with its pre-war population of around 31,000.
About 50 miles west of Avdiivka in the village of Bagatyr, an 11-year-old boy has been killed in a Russian attack, according to Ukrainian police.
A statement said the boy’s 31-year-old mother and younger brother were wounded and taken to hospital after the attack, which damaged about 20 homes, a church and a school.
Updated
As the topic of funding for Ukraine continues to cause controversy in the US Congress, some experts say the spread of anti-Ukraine sentiment through the Republican party’s base and beyond may have devastating outcomes.
You can find further analysis from Joan E Greve in Washington here:
Updated
Top Ukraine general says fighting in north-east has ‘significantly worsened’
Fighting along the northern section of Ukraine’s eastern front has significantly worsened in recent days, with dozens of daily assaults by Russian forces, the commander of Kyiv’s ground forces has said.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was visiting troops in the area, said Russian forces had regrouped after suffering losses and were attacking around the village of Makiivka and towards the city of Kupiansk, according to a report by Reuters.
“The main objective of the enemy is the defeat of a grouping of our troops, the encirclement of Kupiansk and to reach the Oskil River,” he said in comments carried by an official military platform.
He also said that despite the Russian attacks, Ukrainian troops had been ready and were holding their ground.
Updated
In case you missed it, our correspondent Luke Harding visited Hroza, a village in the north-east of Ukraine, to attend a funeral for four of the victims of last week’s Russian missile strike on a cafe.
He wrote: “The funerals were for four members of the same family: Anatoliy Kozyr, his daughter Olha, son Ihor and grandson Ivan. Ivan was eight. They were killed last week when Russia hit the cafe where they were sitting with an Iskander missile. Fifty-nine people died. Six were wounded. It was one of the worst episodes in Moscow’s bloody war. According to Kyiv’s SBU intelligence agency, it was also a story of treason and betrayal.”
You can read the full story here:
Russia’s defence ministry says its forces shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea near the southern resort city of Sochi on Saturday morning.
According to AFP, the Russian army said it had thwarted a “terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime” when its air defences destroyed two drones at around 7.10am.
Russian media reported there were disruptions at the time of the attack, but the city’s mayor, Alexei Kopaigorodskyi, said there had been no casualties or damage. He said the airport was working normally and that he “the situation was under control”.
Russia reported a large fire at a fuel depot near Sochi’s airport last month, and some influential media channels posited that it had been caused by a Ukrainian drone.
Updated
While visiting the Black Sea port of Odesa on Friday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, met cadets and instructors at the city’s military and maritime academies, as well as soldiers in a local military hospital.
Zelenskiy wrote on X: “It was a great opportunity to speak with our acting and future warriors. The Ukrainian army has a unique experience and will be a worthy Nato army.”
Updated
In case you missed our story earlier, Russian authorities have detained three lawyers representing the imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny after searching their homes, his allies have said.
The move was an attempt to “completely isolate Navalny”, his associate Ivan Zhdanov said on social media. Navalny has been in prison since January 2021, serving a 19-year sentence.
Zhdanov said the raids targeting Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser are part of a criminal case on charges of participating in an extremist group. All three were detained after the search, apparently as suspects in the case, Navalny’s team said on Telegram. They later appeared in court and were ordered into pre-trial detention pending investigation and trial.
You can read the full story here:
Updated
Russian attacks are a 'new offensive'
Back to that Russian attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka that is now continuing into its fourth day.
Russia’s representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, has gone as far as saying the intensified battles in the east signified a new stage in its campaign and it means the Ukrainian counteroffensive is over.
“Russian troops have, for several days now, switched over to active combat action practically throughout the entire frontline,” Nebenzia told a session of the UN security council.
“The so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive can therefore be considered finished.”
But in Washington, the national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, agreed the Russian action amounted to a “new offensive” – showing that Russia was in no way ready to give up its campaign – but said was confident the Ukrainian military would beat back Russian forces.
A military analyst, Serhiy Zgurets, writing on the Espreso TV website, said Avdiivka had withstood Russian attacks in 2014, when Russian-financed separatists had seized large chunks of Ukrainian territory. The area had since been fortified.
“All Russian attacks have resulted in significant losses for them,” he wrote.
In Avdiivka, Vitaliy Barabash, the head of the city’s military administration, told Ukrainian national television: “The fighting has been going on for four consecutive days.
“They have substantial reserves of personnel and equipment. Avdiivka is completely ablaze. They shoot, using everything they have. The hospital is again under fire, as are administrative buildings and our volunteer centre.”
Russia has focused its campaign along the 1,000km front on the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in June has made some progress in both the east, near Bakhmut, and in the south, where Kyiv hopes to sever a land bridge joining Russian positions in the south and east.
But the gains have not yet matched rapid gains made by advances last year in the north-east and south.
Updated
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Russian forces attacked the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka for the fourth day in a row on Friday, with both Moscow and Washington deeming the intensified fighting a new offensive in Russia’s 19-month-old invasion of its neighbour.
In attacks elsewhere in Ukraine, a Russian missile strike killed one person in the city of Pokrovsk, also in the east, while a drone attack in the south killed a woman and seriously injured her husband.
In Avdiivka, known for its large coking plant in Ukraine’s Donbas industrial heartland, officials said the Russian assaults had left the already gutted city in flames.
“Avdiivka is completely ablaze. They shoot, using everything they have. The hospital is again under fire, as are administrative buildings and our volunteer centre,” Vitaliy Barabash, the head of the city’s military administration, told Ukrainian national television.
Both Moscow and Washington have called the fighting in Avdiivka a new Russian offensive.
In other key developments:
Russia has detained three lawyers of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and raided their homes, aides said, a step that comes amid increasing pressure on the Kremlin’s critics. The move was an attempt to “completely isolate Navalny”, his ally Ivan Zhdanov said on social media.
The US has claimed North Korea delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia for the war in Ukraine. The White House national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, said the US believed Kim Jong-un was seeking sophisticated Russian weapon technologies in return for munitions to boost North Korea’s nuclear programme.
Fighting on the eastern frontline, in Avdiivka, entered a fourth day as Russia seeks to regain the initiative in its biggest offensive in months. Ukraine’s top military command said that it had repelled more than 20 attacks over the past day around the town, while there were claims Ukrainian reservists were being sent in to shore up defences after initial Russian breakthroughs.
Vladimir Putin dismissed the idea that Russia damaged a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia and suggested such claims were made up to divert attention from what he said was a western attack on Nord Stream.
EU leaders meeting later in October will demand “decisive progress” on using Russian assets frozen by sanctions to help Ukraine, according to their draft statement.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, while visiting the Black Sea port of Odesa on Friday, vowed to improve Ukraine’s air defences and to increase the security of a “humanitarian corridor” for grain exports.
Former Olympic champions Yelena Isinbayeva and Shamil Tarpischev – Russia’s two International Olympic Committee members – have no contractual links to the country’s military and have not supported the invasion of Ukraine, the IOC president, Thomas Bach, said.
No final communique is expected to be released at the end of the International Monetary Fund’s meetings in Marrakech because of a disagreement on how to refer to Russia’s war in Ukraine, a European official said on Friday.
Updated
