Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy to visit Romania on Tuesday in first trip since Russian invasion – as it happened

Ukrainian president’s visit to neighbouring Nato member country will be first visit since Russia invaded Ukraine

Russia has claimed to have thwarted five attacks by Ukrainian armed forces, according to a report from Tass. It writes that the media officer for Russia’s central group of troops, who are positioned in occupied Luhansk, claimed Russia had repelled the attacks near Lyman and Torske, killing 50 members of Ukrainian armed forces in the process. The claims have not been independently verified.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appealed at the Nato parliamentary assembly for the international rule of law to unite and deal with terrorism, comparing the attack by what he called a “terrorist organisation” on Israel with the similar tactics used by Russia, which he said was a “terrorist state”.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukraine expects ‘record number’ of Russian drone attacks this winter

Spokesman for air force says country has already seen more than 500 Iranian-designed Shahed drones in September alone

Four people including a nine-year-old girl have been injured in a rocket strike on Konstantinivka on Sunday morning, according to the acting governor of Donetsk.

A 27-year-old woman and her nine-month-old baby are among those wounded in a Russian attack on the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, according to its governor, Oleksandr Prokudin. The woman and the infant were hospitalised with moderate wounds, he said, adding that a 33-year-old Red Cross medic was also wounded. Several houses and gas pipelines were damaged in the attack.

UN and local investigators are searching for answers in the village of Hroza in Kharkiv following one of the deadliest air strikes of the war. The strike on Thursday turned the sole cafe and store in the village to rubble and killed nearly 52 people gathered for a dead soldier’s wake, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other top officials in Kyiv. Only six people in the cafe survived.

Ukraine’s armed forces report that about 580 Russian troops have been killed during fighting over the last day. Posting its latest overnight summary of casualties, the Ukrainian military claims Russia has suffered 282,280 losses since the start of the war on 24 February last year.The figures have not been independently verified and are still being updated.

Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, says that current violence between Hamas and Israel is useful for Russia in diverting the world’s attention and works in their favour. Duda argued in an interview with private broadcaster Polsat News on Sunday that conflict in the Middle East distracts international scrutiny away from Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and may result in new migration pressures on Europe.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spoken about the situation in Israel, drawing parallels with the war in Ukraine by stating that “Israel’s right to self-defence is unquestionable”. He said his government had set up an operational headquarters to aid any Ukrainians in Israel. Officials have estimated that about 15,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to Israel. While having sent tons of humanitarian aid, Netanyahu has consistently refused to supply weapons to Kyiv.

A United Russia party official in the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson oblast was killed in a car explosion on Saturday, the Russian-installed regional governor said. Vladimir Malov, executive secretary of the town branch of Russia’s governing United Russia party, died in hospital, Vladimir Saldo said in a post on his Telegram channel. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former leader, has called for a civil war in the US, as he said a civil war would be the only thing that could stop “America’s manic passion for sparking conflicts everywhere on the planet”.

Train traffic between North Korea and Russia has dramatically increased after the recent summit between leaders Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, indicating a “likely” transfer of arms, according to a new report by Washington-based analysts. High-resolution satellite imagery reveals at least 70 freight cars at North Korea’s border Tumangang rail facility, the Beyond Parallel group said on Friday, a number described as “unprecedented”.

Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, says that current violence between Hamas and Israel is useful for Russia in diverting the world’s attention and works in their favour, Reuters reports.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 592 of the invasion

Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Israel has ‘unquestionable’ right to defence, draws parallels with the war in Ukraine

Four people including a nine-year-old girl have been injured in a rocket strike on Konstantinivka on Sunday morning, according to the acting governor of Donetsk.

A 27-year-old woman and her nine-month-old baby are among those wounded in a Russian attack on the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, according to its governor, Oleksandr Prokudin. The woman and the infant were hospitalised with moderate wounds, he said, adding that a 33-year-old Red Cross medic was also wounded. Several houses and gas pipelines were damaged in the attack.

UN and local investigators are searching for answers in the village of Hroza in Kharkiv following one of the deadliest air strikes of the war. The strike on Thursday turned the sole cafe and store in the village to rubble and killed nearly 52 people gathered for a dead soldier’s wake, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other top officials in Kyiv. Only six people in the cafe survived.

Ukraine’s armed forces report that about 580 Russian troops have been killed during fighting over the last day. Posting its latest overnight summary of casualties, the Ukrainian military claims Russia has suffered 282,280 losses since the start of the war on 24 February last year.The figures have not been independently verified and are still being updated.

Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, says that current violence between Hamas and Israel is useful for Russia in diverting the world’s attention and works in their favour. Duda argued in an interview with private broadcaster Polsat News on Sunday that conflict in the Middle East distracts international scrutiny away from Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and may result in new migration pressures on Europe.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spoken about the situation in Israel, drawing parallels with the war in Ukraine by stating that “Israel’s right to self-defence is unquestionable”. He said his government had set up an operational headquarters to aid any Ukrainians in Israel. Officials have estimated that about 15,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to Israel. While having sent tons of humanitarian aid, Netanyahu has consistently refused to supply weapons to Kyiv.

A United Russia party official in the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson oblast was killed in a car explosion on Saturday, the Russian-installed regional governor said. Vladimir Malov, executive secretary of the town branch of Russia’s governing United Russia party, died in hospital, Vladimir Saldo said in a post on his Telegram channel. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former leader, has called for a civil war in the US, as he said a civil war would be the only thing that could stop “America’s manic passion for sparking conflicts everywhere on the planet”.

Train traffic between North Korea and Russia has dramatically increased after the recent summit between leaders Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, indicating a “likely” transfer of arms, according to a new report by Washington-based analysts. High-resolution satellite imagery reveals at least 70 freight cars at North Korea’s border Tumangang rail facility, the Beyond Parallel group said on Friday, a number described as “unprecedented”.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russian border region of Belgorod attacked, local governor says – as it happened

This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage here

One woman was killed and two more people injured in the Russian shelling of the village of Bilenke in the Zaporizhzhia oblast this morning, the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration said on Telegram.

A private house and outbuildings were damaged in the attack, said Yuriy Malashko.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 591 of the invasion

Boy and his grandmother killed in Russian missile attack on block of flats in Kharkiv, hours after strike in regional village of Hroza that left 52 dead

A 10-year-old boy and his grandmother have been killed and more than 20 people wounded after a Russian missile attack on an apartment block in Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials have said. Rescuers found the boy’s body under debris after the strike on the north-eastern city’s densely populated downtown area early on Friday. Two Iskander missiles hit the flats in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called another act of “Russian terror”.

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on Hroza village in Kharkiv province the previous day rose to 52 on Friday after another victim died overnight in hospital, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said. A missile slammed into a cafe and grocery store in the village on Thursday as people gathered to mourn a fallen Ukrainian soldier. Separately, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said people from every family in Hroza had been affected by the attack.

Russian airstrikes also damaged grain and port infrastructure in the Odesa region in southern Ukraine early on Friday, Ukrainian officials said.

The head of an international watchdog on nuclear tests has raised concern about Russian intentions after remarks by President Vladimir Putin, who said Moscow could withdraw its ratification of a global ban on testing. “It would be concerning and deeply unfortunate if any state signatory were to reconsider its ratification of the CTBT,” Robert Floyd, the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, said.

Moldova’s pro-European president, Maia Sandu, said Russia’s Wagner paramilitary force was the main force behind an attempt to foment a coup against her. She told the Financial Times in an interview published on Friday that Wagner’s late leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was behind the bid to overthrow her and that Moscow remained engaged in attempts to destabilise the country, located between Ukraine and EU member Romania, notably by funnelling money into Moldova to bribe voters in next month’s local elections.

European leaders rallied around the Ukrainian president in the face of US jitters over defence funding. The gathering at the European political community (EPC) summit in Granada, Spain, gave leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Olaf Scholz and British prime minister Rishi Sunak a chance to restate their commitment to Ukraine after political turbulence in the US and Europe raised questions about continued support.

Russia is seeking re-election to the UN’s top human rights body next week in what is seen as a crucial test of western efforts to keep Moscow diplomatically isolated over its invasion of Ukraine. Some diplomats are reported to have said Russia has a reasonable chance of getting voted back on to the UN Human Rights Council in Tuesday’s secret ballot, 18 months after it was ousted in a US-led drive.

The US said on Friday it was expelling two Russian diplomats – a retaliatory step after Moscow kicked out two American diplomats last month.

Sweden will send Ukraine a new military support package worth 2.2bn crowns ($199m), consisting mainly of ammunition and spare parts to earlier donated systems, Swedish defence minister Pål Jonson said on Friday.

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Russia will revoke ratification of nuclear test ban treaty, envoy says

US condemns announcement by Mikhail Ulyanov, saying it ‘needlessly endangers the global norm’ against nuclear testing

A senior Russian diplomat has said that Moscow will revoke its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), in a move Washington denounced as jeopardising the “global norm” against nuclear test blasts.

Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian representative to the international nuclear agencies in Vienna, was speaking after Vladimir Putin suggested Moscow might resuming testing for the first time in 33 years, signalling another downward turn in relations between the world’s two biggest nuclear powers

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UK government pressed for answers on Sheikh Mansour and Russians

  • Ukrainian activist urges government to investigate City owner
  • ‘Many oligarchs appear to have found home for wealth in UAE’

The UK government has been asked to reveal what steps it has taken to investigate whether Manchester City’s owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, assisted wealthy Russians on whom it has imposed sanctions in moving their assets to the United Arab Emirates.

Lawyers acting on behalf of a Ukrainian activist – who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from Russia – have written to the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, to ask whether investigations have been carried out to determine whether Mansour, the UAE’s deputy prime minister, should be identified as a “designated person” subject to financial sanctions under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.

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EU summit statement adopted without migration paragraph – as it happened

EU’s 27 leaders have adopted statement at Granada but planned section on migration has been left out, senior EU diplomat confirms

The Irish leader, Leo Varadkar, said in Granada this morning that the EU should accelerate its enlargement process.

I’m very ambitious about enlargement. I think some countries, particularly some of the countries in the Balkans, have been asked to wait too long. I think we should speed it up. But I also think we need to be honest and realistic with people about how long it takes. You have to meet certain standards to join the European Union.

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Russia-Ukraine war: death toll rises to 52 after attack on Kharkiv village; boy, 10, and grandmother killed in new attack – as it happened

US and European leaders accuse Russia over attack on cafe and grocery store in Hroza that killed dozens; further airstrikes in Kharkiv kill two and injure 28

The office for the UN high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) on Friday deployed a field team to investigate the Russian attack on the Ukrainian village of Hroza that left at least 52 people dead.

“The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, who saw for himself the horrific impact of such strikes, is profoundly shocked and condemns these killings,” OHCHR spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell told reporters in Geneva.

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Russia condemned over ‘horrifying’ strike on Ukraine village that killed more than 50

White House blames Moscow for killing dozens of innocent people, while British PM speaks of ‘depravity’ of Russian forces

The White House has condemned the attack on a cafe and grocery store in Ukraine’s Hroza village that killed 51 people, as “horrifying”, while British prime minister Rishi Sunak said the strike “demonstrated the depths of depravity Russian forces are willing to sink to”, according to a Downing Street spokesperson.

In a briefing before the death toll rose, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Let’s stop and think about what we’re seeing: 49 innocent people who were killed by a Russian airstrike while they were shopping for food at a supermarket. That’s what they were doing.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 590 of the invasion

At least 51 killed in missile strike during village wake service; European leaders rally around Zelenskiy amid US funding uncertainty

At least 51 people including a six-year-old boy were killed during a missile attack on a cafe during a wake service in a village of Hroza in the Kharkiv region on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said. According to preliminary findings, Russian targeted the cafe with an Iskander ballistic missile, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, Ihor Klymenko, said.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, accused Russia of “genocidal aggression” after the attack. He described it as “a demonstrably brutal Russian crime – a rocket attack on an ordinary grocery store, a completely deliberate act of terrorism”, later saying it was “no blind strike”.

European leaders rallied around the Ukrainian president in the face of US jitters over defence funding. The gathering at the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Granada, Spain, gave leaders including the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, a chance to restate their commitment to Ukraine after political turbulence in the US and Europe raised questions about continued support.

Germany will “do everything possible” so that Ukraine can protect itself from Russian missiles, foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said Thursday after Moscow’s latest deadly strike in Ukraine. “More than 50 people dead in Hrosa,” she posted on X, formerly Twitter. “As long as bombs hail on supermarkets and cafes, we do everything for Ukraine to protect itself from Putin’s missile terror.”

The Biden administration is considering using a US State Department grant program to send additional military aid to Ukraine, Politico reported on Thursday citing two US officials with knowledge of the discussions.

Slovakia will not send more military aid to Ukraine for now, prime minister Ľudovít Ódor said. Instead, the decision will be delayed until a new government is formed following last week’s election, which saw a victory for Robert Fico, a populist, pro-Russian three-time former prime minister who campaigned on a promise to end military aid to Ukraine.

The US president, Joe Biden, wants to give a “major” speech on support for Ukraine, the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, without specifying when that would happen. She described the Hroza missile attack as “horrifying”.

Vladimir Putin ramped up his nuclear rhetoric, saying his country had successfully tested the nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable Burevestnik strategic cruise missile, as he suggested Russia could resume nuclear testing for the first time in more than three decades.

Putin also suggested that the plane crash that killed Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in August was caused by hand grenades detonating inside the aircraft, not by a missile attack. “Fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of those killed in the crash. There was no external impact on the plane – this is already an established fact,” he said.

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Vladimir Putin escalates nuclear rhetoric with threat to resume testing

Russian president uses speech to highlight new missile capabilities and says he may abandon test ban treaty

Vladimir Putin has ramped up his nuclear rhetoric, saying his country had successfully tested the nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable Burevestnik strategic cruise missile, as he suggested Russia could resume nuclear testing for the first time in more than three decades.

The Russian president said in a speech on Thursday at the annual Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi that Russia had also almost completed work on its nuclear-capable Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile system, which is capable of carrying at least 10 nuclear warheads on each missile.

“In the event of an attack on Russia, no one has any chance of survival,” he said, adding that he was “not sure if we need to carry out nuclear tests or not”.

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Zelenskiy says deadly village missile attack was ‘no blind strike’ – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. You can read the latest Ukraine coverage here.

Two people were killed in Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office said on Thursday.

Andriy Yermak, the president’s chief of staff, said on Telegram that one of the dead was a utility worker who trimmed trees.

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Biden ‘worried’ that turmoil in Washington could disrupt US aid to Ukraine

President speaks after the ousting of House speaker Kevin McCarthy, but German Chancellor remains ‘very convinced’ US will continue to support Kyiv

US president Joe Biden admitted Wednesday he was worried that political turmoil in Washington could threaten US aid to Ukraine, urging Republicans to stop their infighting and back “critically important” assistance for Kyiv.

Biden said that he would soon be giving a major speech on the need to support Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion after the chaos in Washington alarmed US allies.

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US supplies Ukraine with a million rounds of ammunition seized from Iran

Justice department claimed ownership of the ordnance on the grounds that they were being smuggled to Yemeni Houthi forces, breaching a UN embargo

The United States has supplied Ukraine with more than a million rounds of Iranian ammunition confiscated in the Gulf late last year.

The transfer of the ordnance followed a civil forfeiture case pursued by the justice department to gain ownership on the grounds that the bullets were seized as they were being smuggled to Yemeni Houthi forces in violation of a UN arms embargo.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: British PM urges west to equip Ukraine to ‘finish the job’; Ukrainian journalist reported missing

Rishi Sunak urges allies to arm Ukraine in party conference speech; Victoria Roshchyna has not been heard from since 3 August, says International Women’s Media Foundation

A Russian court has sentenced the former state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who burst into a news broadcast with a placard that read “Stop the war” and “They’re lying to you”, to eight and half years in jail in absentia on Wednesday.

Ovsyannikova was found guilty of “spreading knowingly false information about the Russian armed forces”, according to a statement posted by the court on Telegram.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 588 of the invasion

Ukrainian drones attack three Russian regions overnight, Moscow says; UK PM calls on west to help Ukraine ‘finish the job’

Dozens of Ukrainian drones attacked three Russian regions overnight, according to the Russian ministry of defence, which claimed to have shot down 31 unmanned aircrafts. However, there are reports that a drone struck a Russian air defence system in the Belgorod oblast.

The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, urged western allies to continue supporting and arming Ukraine so it can “finish the job” against Russia. His comments come as US aid to Ukraine remains uncertain after the ousting of Kevin McCarthy as House speaker. Before yesterday’s vote, McCarthy had avoided government shutdown by pushing to pass a US government funding bill that excluded support for Kyiv, leaving Joe Biden to rely on the Republican speaker for a separate deal. Yesterday, Admiral Rob Bauer, Nato’s most senior military official, warned that western military powers are running out of ammunition to give to Ukraine. “The bottom of the barrel is now visible,” Bauer said.

Ukraine’s navy said on Wednesday that 12 more vessels were ready to enter a Black Sea shipping corridor on their way towards Ukrainian ports, and that 10 other vessels were ready to depart from the country’s ports. Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk made his remarks as Ukraine tries to defy a de facto Russian blockade on Ukrainian exports via the Black Sea after Moscow pulled out of a deal in July that had allowed Kyiv to safely export grain.

A Russian court has sentenced in absentia the former state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who burst into a news broadcast with a placard that read “Stop the war” and “They’re lying to you” to eight and half years in jail on Wednesday. Ovsyannikova was found guilty of “spreading knowingly false information about the Russian armed forces”, according to a statement posted by the court on Telegram. Ovsyannikova, 45, fled Russia with her daughter for an unspecified European country a year ago after escaping from house arrest, according to her lawyer, saying she had no case to answer.

Ukrainian police recorded 15 Russian war crimes in relation to strikes on several locations in Kherson oblast. One strike in a residential quarter of Antonivka killed a 54-year-old man and injured seven other local residents, aged from 27 to 77, were injured. Russian forces then shelled Antonivka again in the evening, wounding a 61-year-old man.

Ukraine increased its road shipments of agricultural goods in September, according to Spike Brokers, a commercial agent broker on the grain and oil market of Ukraine. In September, 514,000 metric tons of agricultural goods were exported by lorries, while in August, 506,000 tons were exported. The increase is still down from the year before, which saw 639,000 tons in September 2022.

A fire broke out at the Rusal-owned Krasnoyarsk Aluminium Smelter early on Wednesday, Russia’s Tass state news agency reports, citing local emergency ministry officials. “At 08.57am (1.57am GMT) a fire was reported on the territory of the KrAZ (Krasnoyarsk Aluminium Smelter),” the agency cited the officials as saying. “A transformer caught fire on an area of 50 sq metres (538 sq ft).” It was not immediately known what caused the fire. Rusal is the largest aluminium producer outside China.

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Western allies say they are running out of ammo to donate; Ukraine advancing in south, says General – as it happened

UK and Nato says suppliers must ramp up production; General Oleksander Tarnavskyi says Russian forces sustaining losses in south. This live blog is closed

Veterinary and sanitary controls of Ukrainian agricultural cargo bound for the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda will in the next two days be transferred from the Polish-Ukrainian border directly to Klaipeda under a deal reached by Kyiv, Warsaw and Vilnius, the Ukrainian farm ministry said on Tuesday.

A ministry statement quoted agriculture minister Mykola Solsky as saying the move was aimed at speeding up transit.

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Kharkiv to build Ukraine’s first underground school to protect children

Children in frontline city are currently taught in the underground metro system amid threats from Russia’s missile attacks

Ukraine’s eastern metropolis of Kharkiv will build the country’s first fully underground school to shield pupils from Russia’s frequent bomb and missile attacks, the city’s mayor has said.

“Such a shelter will enable thousands of Kharkiv children to continue their safe face-to-face education even during missile threats,” Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

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