Russia’s biggest offensive in months is failing, says Ukrainian commander; at least six people killed in Russian strikes

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The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will visit North Korea on a two-day visit on 18-19 October. The Russian foreign ministry announced the news on its website.

Russia launched five missiles and 12 kamikaze drones at Ukraine in an overnight attack, Ukraine’s air force said early on Monday, with officials reporting further artillery and airstrikes. Ukraine’s air force said the missiles, of which it shot down two, targeted northern and eastern regions, while the drones, of which 11 were downed, were launched in several directions with a particular focus on western Ukraine.

A top Ukrainian commander has said Russia’s biggest offensive in months on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka is failing, adding that Kyiv’s own attempts to advance in the south were proving “difficult”. Russia has continued to deploy new forces in an attempt to surround the city, according to Vitaliy Barabash, the head of its military administration. Both Moscow and Washington have described the surge in violence around Avdiivka as a new Russian offensive.

At least six people have been killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine in the past 24 hours, local officials reported on Sunday. Two people were killed and three more injured in the Kherson area after more than 100 shells bombarded the region over the weekend, the local governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on social media, according to AP.

The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday that a new weapons package for Israel and Ukraine would be significantly more than $2bn. In an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, Sullivan said Joe Biden would have extensive talks with the US Congress this week on the need for the package to be approved.

Russian forces had improved their positions along almost the entire line of contact in Ukraine, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Sunday. Reuters reported that in a video posted to social media by the Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin, Putin said: “What is happening now along the entire length of the [line of] contact is called an active defence.”

Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked troops in areas where fighting was “particularly hot”. In his regular address, he said: “I thank everyone who is holding their positions and destroying Russian troops”, citing Avdiivka, Maryinka and other key locations in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine was working to evacuate nearly 260 of its citizens from Gaza and to fly other Ukrainians out of Israel, Zelenskiy said on Sunday. Ukraine’s embassy in Israel said on social media on Saturday that 207 Ukrainian citizens, including 63 children, were evacuated from Tel Aviv to Romania on Saturday and that another flight would take 155 people to Romania on Sunday.

Russian forces are attacking eastern city of Avdiivka with ‘everything they have’, says head of its military administration; Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanks troops for holding the line

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Fierce 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. Shelling was so fierce that emergency crews were unable to recover the dead from wrecked buildings, Barabash said. Both Russia and the United States have described the upsurge in violence around Avdiivka as a new Russian offensive. “They are striking with everything they have. Bouts of shooting, artillery, multiple rocket launchers, mortars and a lot of aircraft,” Barabash told national television. He said 1,620 residents remained in Avdiivka, a town with a large coking plant and a pre-war population of 32,000.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked troops in areas where fighting was “particularly hot”. In his regular address he said: “I thank everyone who is holding their positions and destroying Russian troops”, citing Avdiivka, Maryinka and other key locations in the Donetsk region.

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 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.

Fighting on the eastern front is ‘a new Russian offensive’

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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.

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Russian forces have continued to pummel the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka from the ground and air on Friday, the fourth day of intense fighting in the biggest offensive by Russian forces in months, Reuters reports.

Ukraine said its forces were holding their ground but Vitaliy Barabash, the head of Avdiivka’s military administration, said the town was under constant attack from air, artillery and large numbers of troops.

The battles have been going on for four days now. Fierce and really non-stop … They are firing from everything they have available.

It was a very hot night in Avdiivka. There were several airstrikes on the city itself … the attacks do not stop day or night.