Ukrainian government needs ‘new energy’, says Zelenskiy after reshuffle – as it happened

Volodymyr Zelenskiy says reshuffle linked to ‘strengthening our state’ after foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and others step down. This live blog is closed

The mayor of Lviv shared a photo of a mother and her three daughters who were killed in Russia’s attack today.

Norway has contributed funding for buying drones and strengthening Ukrainian air defence.

Continue reading...

Russian attack in Ukrainian city of Poltava kills at least 50 people

Volodymyr Zelenskiy says more than 206 people injured as unconfirmed reports say strike targeted military ceremony

Ukraine has experienced one of the deadliest attacks of the war after a Russian missile strike on the central city of Poltava hit a military training institute and a nearby hospital, killing at least 51 people and injuring more than 200 others.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a video address that, according to preliminary information, two ballistic missiles had “partially destroyed” one of the buildings of the Poltava Military Institute of Communications, leaving people under the rubble.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war: Ukrainian foreign minister urges its partners for permission for long-range strikes into Russia – as it happened

Dmytro Kuleba calls on Kyiv’s Asian partners to consider increasing military aid to Ukraine after Moscow stages missile attack on Kyiv

Russian forces are fighting in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Selydove and Ukrainsk, pro-Russian bloggers said on Monday, as Moscow’s forces try to smash through part of Ukraine’s defensive line.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the purported Russian advance, Reuters reported.

Continue reading...

Ukrainian drone attacks hit power stations and refineries in Russia

Russia plays down overnight strikes as its forces make incremental gains in Donbas and launch missiles at Kharkiv

Ukraine has carried out one of its biggest ever drone attacks on Russia, with videos showing a series of explosions and fires at power stations and refineries including in Moscow.

Russia’s defence ministry played down the overnight strikes. It said it had intercepted and destroyed 158 unmanned enemy aerial vehicles. These were shot down over 15 regions, it claimed.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war: five killed after Russia targets Chasiv Yar in Donetsk – now closed

Official says strike hit a house and a high-rise building, killing five young men

The US has decided against a proposal to deploy American contractors to Ukraine to maintain Western military equipment, including F-16 fighter jets.

A Wall Street Journal report carried by Euromaiden stated that the Biden administration elected not to send contractors due to safety concerns, after Ukraine lost the first F-16 fighter jet it received from Western allies earlier this month.

Continue reading...

Zelenskiy fires head of air force after fatal crash of donated F-16 fighter jet

Mykola Oleshchuk’s dismissal thought to be linked to death of pilot and loss of plane newly delivered to Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has fired the head of Ukraine’s air force a day after it emerged that a recently delivered F-16 jet had crashed earlier this week, killing the pilot.

“I have decided to replace the commander of the air forces … I am eternally grateful to all our military pilots,” Zelenskiy said in his evening video address on Friday, without giving a reason for the dismissal of Mykola Oleshchuk.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war: Putin regime ‘threatening world with nuclear catastrophe,’ says Ukraine – as it happened

IAEA has urged both sides to refrain from fighting around nuclear plants

Russia said Thursday that it took two more east Ukrainian villages - in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions - as its forces continue their advance deeper into the country.

The defence ministry said Russian forces captured the village of Mykolaivka, around 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, as well as the settlement of Stelmakhivka in the neighbouring Lugansk region.

Continue reading...

Ukraine prepares for winter power cuts after Russian attacks on energy sector

Kyiv calling for more air defence support as repairs resume after latest strikes, with fears more could be catastrophic

Ukrainian authorities are scrambling to assess the damage caused by one of the biggest Russian airstrikes of the war earlier this week, which targeted energy infrastructure across the country, further crippling a sector targeted by Moscow multiple times in the spring.

While much of Ukraine is still experiencing the tail end of a very hot summer, this week’s strikes have brought into focus concerns about the hard colder months that lie ahead. “This winter is going to be tough, that’s for sure,” said Nataliia Shapoval, head of the Kyiv School of Economics Institute.

Continue reading...

Ukraine says it has captured nearly 600 Russian soldiers during Kursk incursion

Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi also claims 100 settlements have been seized as forces try to repel Russian counterattack

Ukraine has captured 594 Russian soldiers during its three-week military operation in the Kursk region and has seized 100 settlements inside Russia, Kyiv’s commander-in-chief said on Tuesday.

Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi said Moscow had redeployed 30,000 troops to the border region and they were trying to counterattack and to encircle Ukrainian forces but these attempts were being repelled.

Continue reading...

‘I just feel pain’: Pokrovsk packs up as Russian invaders close in

Lives are being bundled into bags after Ukrainian officials gave people in the city two weeks to leave

Library books are piled in the street, waiting to be removed in a truck. Two men across the road take down a supermarket sign. The modern grocery store shut a couple of weeks ago. Half a mile away an evacuation train waits to depart. People crowd on to the platform and outside the station, preparing to flee.

Pokrovsk, a mining city in eastern Ukraine, is packing up fast. The Russians are 7 miles (11km) away, already close enough for the city to be struck, after a remorseless advance that has taken the invaders close to a place that had been considered safe. Fearing the worst, Ukrainian officials have given people two weeks to leave.

Continue reading...

Russia targets energy sector in huge missile and drone attack on Ukraine

Attack of 127 missiles and 109 drones is ‘one of the biggest’ of the war, Zelenskiy says, causing power and water outages

A huge missile and drone attack launched by Russia across Ukrainian territory has left at least seven people dead, including four children, officials have said.

Power cuts and water outages were reported in numerous parts of the country including in some districts of the capital, Kyiv, as a result of the strikes, which targeted mainly civilian energy infrastructure.

Continue reading...

British man on Reuters staff killed in strike on hotel in east Ukraine

Ryan Evans, a safety adviser and former soldier, was staying at the Hotel Sapphire in Kramatorsk when it was hit by Russian missile

A British man working for the Reuters news agency has been killed in a strike on a hotel in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, the news agency has said.

Ryan Evans, who was working as a safety adviser for the agency, was killed after a missile struck the Hotel Sapphire on Saturday where he was staying as part of a six-person team.

Continue reading...

Starmer pledges UK support to Ukraine amid anniversary of independence

PM sends message of solidarity as Ukrainians celebrate anniversary of exit from USSR

Keir Starmer has told Ukrainians that the UK will back them “today and always” as Kyiv marks 33 years since it declared independence from the Soviet Union.

The prime minister described his message to frontline fighters and people who have sought refuge in Britain as “crystal clear” as community groups, councils and parishes around the UK plan to mark the anniversary on Saturday.

Continue reading...

Modi tells Zelenskiy he is ready to work ‘as a friend’ to bring about peace deal

Indian PM says he respects and supports ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity’ of Ukraine during historic visit

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, made a historic visit to Kyiv on Friday and told Volodymyr Zelenskiy he was ready to work “as a friend” to bring about a peace deal that would end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Modi said he respected and supported Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”. “It is our highest priority,” he said, adding that he had told Vladimir Putin during their meeting in July that “problems cannot be resolved on the battlefield”. The war could only end through “dialogue and diplomacy”, he stressed.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy says India supports Ukraine’s sovereignty with ‘history made’ in meeting with Modi – as it happened

Indian PM calls on Ukraine and Russia to open dialogue as soon as possible to find way out of conflict

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser in the Ukrainian president’s office, has told Reuters that Narendra Modi’s visit to Kyiv is significant because New Delhi “really has a certain influence” over Moscow.

“It’s extremely important for us to effectively build relations with such countries, to explain to them what the correct end to the war is - and that it is also in their interests,” he said.

Continue reading...

Ukraine strikes airfield near Volgograd as Russia presses forward in Donetsk

Marinovka airbase becomes latest target of Kyiv’s ambitious long-range drone campaign

Ukraine has carried out a night-time drone attack on a Kremlin military airfield near the city of Volgograd and announced the capture of another village in Russia’s Kursk region, as Russian forces pressed on with their advance in the Donetsk region.

Volgograd’s governor, Andrei Bocharov, said the strike took place at about 3am. Local people reported a series of explosions. Several hours later, ammunition continued to detonate as a vast carpet of black smoke engulfed the area.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war: large drone attack on Moscow as Kursk incursion continues – as it happened

Mayor says no damage or casualties reported as 11 drones are downed

Ukraine’s parliament voted on Wednesday to ratify the Rome Statute, a senior lawmaker said, paving the way for Kyiv to join the International Criminal Court.

In a Telegram post, Yaroslav Zhelezniak said 281 deputies had voted for the measure, a key requirement for Ukraine to eventually join the European Union.

Continue reading...

Fierce fighting in Russia as Ukrainian forces attempt to seize more territory

Pontoon bridge across Seym River blown up as Ukrainian army reportedly captures another village in Kursk region

Fierce fighting has continued inside Russia as Ukrainian troops tried to seize more territory and used kamikaze drones to blow up a Russian pontoon bridge across a strategic river crossing.

Satellite images showed that the temporary bridge on Tuesday had disappeared and there were large puffs of grey smoke. Russian forces built the pontoon between the villages of Zvannoe and Glushkovo after Ukrainian missiles destroyed three bridges across the Seym River.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war live: civilians flee Pokrovsk as Russia’s army bears down on key eastern Ukraine city

Russian forces advancing so fast families are under orders to leave nearby towns and villages

Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday passed a bill that paves the way for a ban of the Russia-linked minority Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), lawmakers said.

The legislation prohibits the Russian Orthodox Church on Ukrainian territory and envisages a ban, to be approved by a court decision, on religious organisations “affiliated” with it.

Continue reading...

Three bridges over Seym River in Russia now destroyed by Ukraine

Last major crossing on this part of front in Kursk region hit overnight as Ukraine aims to expand ‘buffer zone’

Ukraine has destroyed a third bridge over the Seym River in the Kursk region, as part of an apparent attempt to expand what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has described as a military “buffer zone” inside Russia.

According to Russian officials, the bridge in the village of Karyzh was damaged overnight by targeted Ukrainian “shelling”. It was the last major crossing on this part of the front, following the destruction on Friday and Saturday of two bridges further east over the same river.

Continue reading...