Swedish minister said the damage to a telecommunications cable earlier in October was through external ‘tampering’

• What we know on day 607 of the Russia-Ukraine war

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said Vladimir Putin’s Russia “is the most heinous evil the world has witnessed since WWII” and that the Russian president and other “Russian perpetrators must face justice for their crimes”.

Posting on X, he cited Forbes Ukraine as reporting that Russia has spent around $167bn (£137bn) on its full-scale war against Ukraine between February 2022 and August 2023.

We are deeply disappointed by the outcome of today’s hearing. We call for Alsu’s immediate release so she can be reunited with her family.

Strike on distribution centre in Kharkiv on Saturday left people ‘fighting for their lives’, said regional governor. This blog is now closed

• Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 606 of the invasion

The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, has condemned the Russian missile attack on Kharkiv in which six people died.

The attack on a postal depot took place overnight on Sunday, with 16 people said to have been injured, seven of them said to be in a critical condition, according to earlier reports.

Statement on mines comes from general staff of the armed forces, which says more than 135,000 explosive devices neutralised since the beginning of the war

Three more children have been rescued from Russia and brought back to Ukraine, the Ukrainian’s parliament commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Kyiv has said about 20,000 children have been taken from Ukraine to Russia or Russian-held territory without the consent of family or guardians. It calls this a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.

Russian forces have committed ‘indiscriminate attacks’ and war crimes in Ukraine, says UN committee of inquiry

• What we know on day 604 of the invasion

Russian forces launched 12 missiles, 60 airstrikes and 53 shellings yesterday, and engaged Ukrainian troops in 90 combat engagements, the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said in its morning briefing.

Russian forces also deployed the wing rocket Iskander-K at a civilian object in Mykolaiv and launched Iranian kamikaze Shahed drones across southern Ukraine, most of which were destroyed by anti-aircraft defence.

Ukraine starts using Atacms missiles from US, with Russian-held airfield targeted; $14bn damage toll from destruction of Kakhovka dam

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has confirmed that Kyiv used US-provided long-range army tactical missile systems (Atacms) missiles. “Today, special thanks to the United States. Our agreements with President Biden are being implemented. Very accurately – Atacms missiles proved themselves,” he said. This marks the first officially confirmed use in Ukraine of Atacms, which can fly up to 190 miles.

Ukrainian forces struck airfields in Russian-held territory in eastern and southern Ukraine overnight, destroying helicopters, knocking out an air defence missile launcher and damaging runways, Kyiv’s military said. The military said its forces had carried out “well-aimed strikes on enemy airfields” near the eastern city of Luhansk and the southern city of Berdiansk. Atacms are thought to have been used.

A telecommunication cable connecting Sweden and Estonia has been damaged, Sweden’s civil defence minister has said. Carl-Oskar Bohlin said it appeared to have occurred at the same time as a subsea gas pipeline and a telecom cable connecting Finland and Estonia were damaged on 8 October.

China’s president, Xi Jinping, welcomed his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to Beijing, which is to host representatives of 130 countries for a forum on Xi’s belt and road initiative.

The lower house of the Russian parliament has reportedly given preliminary approval to a bill revoking the ratification of a global nuclear test ban treaty.

The destruction of the Kakhovka dam in south-eastern Ukraine in June caused $14bn worth of damage and losses, according to a report by the Ukrainian government and the UN.

Grant Shapps, the UK defence secretary, is due to visit the US on Tuesday for urgent talks over conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.

Canada is targeting nine individuals and six TV stations in new sanctions against Russian collaborators in Moldova. Those targeted are associated with influential oligarchs, such as Vladimir Plahotniuc and Ilan Mironovich Shor, while the TV stations promote and disseminate Russian disinformation, the Canadian foreign ministry said.

US, South Korean and Japanese officials have met in Jakarta to discuss North Korea’s engagement with Russia, including arms transfers violating UN security council resolutions.

A convoy of British ambulances has arrived in Lviv in western Ukraine and will be delivered to hospitals on the frontline. Five vehicles donated by the charity Medical Life Lines Ukraine are being sent to the southern city of Kherson – which is under intense Russian attack – as well as the towns of Kupiansk and Vorozhba in the war-torn north-east of the country. Since last year’s full-scale invasion the group has donated 43 vehicles.

Ukrainian military used US-supplied longer-range army tactical missile systems to strike nine Russian helicopters in eastern Ukraine

• What we know on day 601 of the invasion

Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved revoking the ratification of the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty in the first of three readings on Tuesday.

The vote was passed by 412 votes to zero, with no abstentions. Vyacheslav Volodin said Russia was revoking the treaty because of the irresponsible attitude of the US to global security, Reuters reports.

Russia testing defences around Kupiansk-Lyman as its Avdiivka offensive wanes, says Ukraine; Moscow admits reliance on China for drones

Russia hopes to break through Ukrainian defences in the Kupiansk-Lyman sector of the frontline in north-eastern Ukraine, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces said on Monday according to Reuters. Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi was shown in video footage telling soldiers the situation on the north-eastern frontline had “significantly escalated” and the Russian military wanted “revenge” by retaking territory it once occupied.

A days-long attempt by Russian forces to storm a strategically important city in eastern Ukraine appeared to be waning, Kyiv officials said. Ukrainian forces repelled 15 Russian attacks from four directions on Avdiivka over the previous 24 hours, the Ukrainian general staff said on Monday.

Russia’s drones are mostly sourced from China and Moscow will spend more than $618m on a new national project to make them itself, Russia’s finance minister, Anton Siluanov, has said. “The task is that 41% of all drones by 2025 should have the label ‘Made in Russia’. Today, drones are mainly from the People’s Republic of China.”

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, will meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Beijing for talks on Wednesday, the Kremlin has confirmed. It will be the Russian president’s first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the international criminal court issued a warrant for him in March over the deportation of children from Ukraine. Russia’s top diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, arrived in Beijing on Monday.

Ukraine has called for Russia to be excluded from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), warning the body faces a “slow death” if Moscow remained a member. The OSCE was founded to ease tensions between east and west during the cold war, and helps its members coordinate on issues like human rights and arms control.

Moscow can expect more diplomatic pressure from the 57-nation OSCE, according to the chief diplomat of North Macedonia, which holds that body’s rotating presidency. Its foreign minister, Bujar Osmani, on Monday urged Russia to cease its attacks on Ukraine and withdraw its forces.

The US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said support for Ukraine remained a “top priority” for the US and Europe, reaffirming the Biden administration’s commitment to support Kyiv “for as long as it takes”. Yellen told reporters that Joe Biden would submit a supplemental funding request for Ukraine and Israel “as soon as we have a functional House of Representatives”.