Ukraine says it has shot down 60 of over 70 missiles launched after explosions at two Russian airbases – as it happened

No reports of missile impacts in Kyiv but two killed in Zaporizhzhia and Odesa hit hard after Russian strike follows blasts at Russian airfields. This blog is now closed

The Chinese foreign ministry has said it will continue energy cooperation with Russia after the G7, EU and Australia imposed a price cap on Russian oil exports.

China, which said it would continue on the basis if respect and mutual benefit, has increased its purchases of Russia’s Urals oil blends this year, reports Reuters, citing Russia’s RIA news agency.

I am more responsible than I am brave … I just hate to let people down.

I just want to catch a carp in the Dnipro River.

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Explosions rock two Russian airbases far from Ukraine frontline

Russia confirms blasts at military facilities as Kyiv finds way to target long-range bombers

Explosions have rocked two Russian airbases far from the frontlines as Kyiv appeared to launch a pre-emptive strike on bombers that the Kremlin has used to try to cripple the Ukrainian electrical grid.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed the attacks on Monday, claiming two of its warplanes had been damaged when it intercepted two Ukrainian drones. For Kyiv the strike represented an unprecedented operation deep inside Russia to disrupt the Kremlin strategy of provoking a humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine on the verge of winter.

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Kit and morale may prove decisive as Ukraine war enters winter phase

With temperatures expected to plummet to -20C or lower, Russian troops could be most vulnerable

Winter has arrived. Temperatures in the frontline Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, under remorseless attack from the Russians, plunged to -11C (12.2F) this weekend, and at no point got above freezing. Gradually the mud and rain of late autumn will give way to snow and cold of -20C or worse. Yet both sides have their reasons to carry on fighting.

The weather is a neutral party to the near-10-month war, but in winter it inevitably acts as a constraint. Simple operations take far longer to conduct in the cold, cover from foliage is reduced or eliminated, white camouflage is required when snow has arrived and more rations are needed because soldiers consume more calories.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: public support in Russia for military campaign ‘falling significantly’, says UK

British ministry of defence says it obtained official confidential survey that shows only 25% of Russians want war to go on

The British MoD has released photographs of Ukrainian recruits training in the UK being issued with their kit for their return to Ukraine.

The British Ministry of Defence, in its latest intelligence estimate, has pointed to new signs from an independent Russian media outlet that public support in Russia for the military campaign was “falling significantly”.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 284 of the invasion

UK says support within Russia for military action is waning; US intelligence chief says Putin ‘more informed’ about reality of challenges on the ground

The British ministry of defence, in its latest intelligence estimate, pointed to new signs from an independent Russian media outlet that public support in Russia for the military campaign was “falling significantly”.

The US expects “reduced tempo” in fighting to continue over winter months, the top US intelligence chief Avril Haines has said.

Haines , speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California, also alluded to past allegations by some that advisers to the Russian president Vladimir Putin could be shielding him from bad news – for Russia – about war developments, and said he “is becoming more informed of the challenges that the military faces in Russia”.

Russia will not sell oil that is subject to a western price cap even if it has to cut production, Russian deputy prime minister, Alexander Novak, said on Sunday. The G7 and Australia agreed to the price cap on Friday.

OPEC+ has agreed to stick to its oil output targets at a meeting on Sunday. OPEC+, which comprises the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, angered the US and other western nations in October when it agreed to cut output by 2m barrels a day (bpd), about 2% of world demand, from November until the end of 2023.

A draft resolution is circulating at the United Nations in New York for a Nuremberg-style tribunal to hold the Russian leadership accountable for crimes of aggression in Ukraine.

More than 500 Ukrainian localities remained without power on Sunday following weeks of Russian airstrikes on the electric grid, an interior ministry official said.

Ukraine is imposing sanctions on 10 senior clerics linked to a pro-Moscow church on the grounds they agreed to work with Russian occupation authorities or justified Moscow’s invasion, the security service said.

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Russian war crimes draft resolution being circulated at the UN

US opposition may be softening after lobbying by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy

A draft resolution is circulating at the United Nations in New York for a Nuremberg-style tribunal to hold the Russian leadership accountable for crimes of aggression in Ukraine amid signs that US opposition to the proposal may be softening in the face of lobbying by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Beth Van Schaack, the US ambassador for global criminal justice, said this week: “It’s something that President Zelenskiy cares deeply about. This is something Ukraine wants, and I think that’s going to carry a lot of weight. The question is, will they have the votes at the general assembly?”

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Vladimir Putin better informed now about Ukraine war, says US

Russian president not as insulated from bad news as earlier in campaign, claims intelligence chief

The head of US intelligence has said Vladimir Putin has “become better informed” about the difficulties facing his invading forces in Ukraine, as the Kremlin suggested the Russian president could visit the occupied Donbas region at a future unspecified date.

Speaking at a defence forum late on Saturday, Avril Haines, the US director of national intelligence, indicated Putin was no longer as insulated from bad news about the conditions facing his invasion of Ukraine as he was earlier in the campaign.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Kyiv says ‘sick’ packages sent to its embassies following letter bomb in Madrid – as it happened

Ukraine’s foreign minister says 17 diplomatic missions have now received suspicious packages

More details have been published about attacks on Ukraine on Friday, in an update from the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces.

They said Russia continues to shell civilian infrastructure and is trying to go on the offensive in Avdiivka and Bakhmut.

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Russian army ‘came knocking’ to recruit son of slain spy Alexander Litvinenko

The poisoned agent’s son Anatoly tells of the visit to his Moscow flat, as ITV prepares to screen a drama about the killing of his father, played by David Tennant

Anatoly Litvinenko: How the Kremlin tried to conscript me

The Moscow home of the son of Alexander Litvinenko, the defector killed with polonium-210 in London in 2006, has been visited by recruiting officers from the Russian army hoping to sign him up.

Anatoly Litvinenko, 28, has revealed that he was called up for military service in Ukraine a few weeks ago by soldiers who seemed unaware of his tragic history with Vladimir Putin’s regime.

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G7 countries and Australia to cap price of seaborne Russian oil

Critics including Ukraine say cap of $60 per barrel is still above market value and will not hurt Russia’s war coffers

G7 countries and Australia have agreed to cap the price of Russian seaborne oil, with the aim of reducing Moscow’s income and limiting its ability to finance its war in Ukraine.

But critics, including Ukraine, say the cap of $60 a barrel is still higher than the current market price for Russian crude oil and is unlikely to affect the Kremlin’s war coffers.

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EU states agree $60 a barrel cap on Russian oil after Polish green light

Poland, which was pushing for low cap, says deal will keep it at least 5% below market rate

European Union member states have agreed to put a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian oil after Poland, which was holding out, gave the green light to the deal.

In an effort to reduce the Kremlin’s income from fossil fuels, the EU has agreed to limit the amount that can be paid for seaborne oil to curtail Moscow’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine.

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Russia’s vicious tactics in Ukraine serve only to further expose its weakness

Moscow had hoped to easily capture Ukraine – having totally failed, it has resorted to simply destroying it

The Kremlin thought it would sweep across Ukraine and take Kyiv in a matter of days.

Now, more than nine months into its disastrous war with Ukraine, the new Russian strategy of targeting the infrastructure that brings light, heat and water into millions of Ukrainian homes has revealed Russia’s own weakness and its desperation in the face of a defiant Ukrainian resistance.

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BP shares in Kremlin oil firm are ‘blood money’, says Zelenskiy adviser

British oil giant had said it would ‘exit Russia’ but still owns nearly 20% of state-controlled fossil fuel firm Rosneft

The chief economic adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called on BP to exit Russia entirely after the fossil fuel firm was offered a £580m dividend by the oil giant Rosneft.

Oleg Ustenko has written to BP’s chief executive, Bernard Looney, to demand the British company cuts ties with the state-controlled Russian firm nine months after announcing its intention to leave the country.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia ‘pulls back forces from towns opposite Kherson’ – as it happened

Statement gave only limited details and made no mention of any Ukrainian forces having crossed the Dnipro

A bridge is seen collapsed over a river near Lyman city, Ukraine.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov also accused Nato of trying to drag India into what he called an anti-Russian and anti-Chinese alliance at a time when he said the West was attempting to squeeze out Russian influence.

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New York and Singapore top the list of world’s most expensive cities in 2022

Sydney sneaks into Top 10 as rising energy prices send inflation soaring globally, Economist Intelligence Unit survey finds

New York was the world’s most expensive metropolis in 2022, sharing the unwanted title with Singapore, as soaring energy prices doubled the inflation rate across the major global cities, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual survey.

Last year’s leader Tel Aviv dropped to third, while Sydney snuck into the Top 10 and Moscow and St Petersberg in Russia scaled the rankings by as much as 88 places as sanctions and buoyant oil prices propelled prices higher, the EIU’s Worldwide Cost of Living report found.

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