Ukraine president says there were 8,000 air strikes; air force spokesman says Ukraine has shot down hundreds of Iranian-made drones
Russia has probably bolstered its troops with “mobilised reservists” west of the Dnieper River, the UK’s ministry of defence has said.
The region encompasses most of Kherson, a strategically important Russian-held city braced for a counter-offensive from Ukrainian troops.
Continue reading...Supplier tells people living in and around city that blackouts could last ‘a lot longer’ than previously planned
• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates
Ukrainians living in and around Kyiv have been told of a “sharp deterioration” in the region’s electricity supply after a fresh wave of Russian strikes aimed at sapping public morale as the country’s cold winter approaches.
A local energy supplier, Yasno, warned that existing blackouts could last a lot longer than a previously planned schedule of four-hour outages and that the capital already faced an electricity deficit of about 30% or more.
Continue reading...Russian president addresses Valdai discussion club; Ukrainian capital to face more power outages after energy supplies hit
Russian forces struck the power grid in central regions of Ukraine overnight and further electricity supply restrictions are possible, the Reuters news agency quotes the grid operator Ukrenergo as saying.
Russia has stepped up its strikes on crucial Ukrainian infrastructure including the power grid in recent weeks, leaving millions without electricity or heating for lengthy periods of time as winter approaches.
Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike. We are talking about the involvement of components of civilian space infrastructure, including commercial, by the United States and its allies in armed conflicts.
Continue reading...Government tells citizens to wait until spring, amid warning damaged networks ‘will not cope’ as fighting continues
Ukraine’s government is advising refugees living abroad not to return until the spring amid mounting fears over whether the country’s damaged energy infrastructure can cope with demand this winter.
The energy crisis comes as officials in Kyiv warned that the coming winter may herald the heaviest fighting of the war, around the southern city of Kherson where Russian forces have been digging in.
Continue reading...Investigators believe man posing as academic at University of Tromsø, in sensitive far north, was using false identity
Norway’s domestic security agency has arrested a man claiming to be a Brazilian academic whom it suspects of being a Russian spy.
“We have requested that a Brazilian researcher at the University of Tromsø be expelled from Norway because we believe he represents a threat to fundamental national interests,” the police security service (PST) deputy chief, Hedvig Moe, told the public broadcaster NRK.
Continue reading...Ukraine foreign minister says experts from UN nuclear watchdog will soon arrive in Ukraine and receive full access.
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Continue reading...Kyiv’s allies dismiss allegation it could use such a weapon on its own soil as scientifically absurd and a distraction effort
Russia has stepped up its nuclear propaganda and delivered a letter to the United Nations claiming that Ukraine is preparing to detonate a “dirty bomb” on its territory, an allegation dismissed by Kyiv, western governments and weapons experts as absurd and an attempt at distraction or pretext for Moscow’s own escalation.
The letter was addressed to the UN secretary general and the Gabonese ambassador, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the security council, and follows calls by Russia’s defence minister to foreign ministers in recent days making similar unfounded allegations.
Continue reading...Vyacheslav Boguslaev allegedly said he ‘completely understands’ why factory was bombed by Russia
Alleged recordings of the head of a major Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer accused of aiding the Russian military – saying he “completely understands” why a Russian missile was fired at his factory – have been released by Kyiv’s security services after his arrest at the weekend.
Vyacheslav Boguslaev, the president of Motor Sich, has been charged with treason after a raid at the weekend on his home in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. The manufacturing heavyweight is suspected of selling engines – before and after the invasion – for Russian attack helicopters that have been used extensively against Ukrainian troops.
Continue reading...Russian strikes in Donetsk kill seven civilians; car explodes near office of Kremlin propaganda channel; German president arrives in Kyiv
Continue reading...US basketball star Brittney Griner “does not expect miracles” at her appeal hearing on on Tuesday against a nine-year Russian jail term on drug charges, her lawyers said in a statement.
The Olympic champion was arrested in February at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. She was sentenced in August to nine years in a penal colony on charges of possessing and smuggling drugs.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Guardian hears of ordeal in first major interview given by any of the women freed in last week’s prisoner swap
It was like something from the cold war. After five months in the most notorious jail in occupied Ukraine, Alina Panina, 25, had found herself, without explanation, at the foot of a bridge over a river in no man’s land with 107 fellow female Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Behind Panina lay Russian-occupied territory and her experiences of the siege of Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks, the subsequent surrender and then captivity in Olenivka prison in Donetsk. There she was witness to the aftermath of an explosion that killed 53 male prisoners, a blast said by Kyiv to have been engineered by Moscow to silence the victims of torture.
Continue reading...US says Russia keeping lines of communication open after meeting between defense secretary Lloyd Austin and Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu. This live blog is now closed
Some recent images to come through our newswires today show the situation currently unfolding in Ukraine.
Ukraine is facing more power outages after Russian strikes continue to target energy facilities.
We should consume electricity very consciously. Please remember to limit the use of unnecessary and energy-consuming appliances,” he said in his latest national address on Sunday night.
It is necessary to be really frugal with energy consumption in public space.”
Continue reading...Antony Blinken joins Ukraine and UK in dismissing Moscow’s claim, saying the world will ‘see through’ any attempt to escalate conflict
The US has rejected as “transparently false” Russia’s evidence-free claim that Ukraine is preparing to use a “dirty bomb” on its own territory as part of an escalation of Vladimir Putin’s war.
Secretary of state Antony Blinken told his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, on Sunday “the world would see through any attempt by Russia to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation”, and vowed to continue supporting Kyiv for as long as necessary.
Continue reading...Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, makes calls with UK, US, French and Turkish counterparts on Sunday
Two civilians have been killed in Russian strikes on the eastern region of Donetsk, according to the local governor.
Posting on Telegram on Sunday, Pavlo Kyrylenko said the deaths had occurred in the villages of Klishchiivka and Torskyi.
Continue reading...Incident is second such fatal crash in Russian residential area in six days involving a Sukhoi jet
A Russian warplane has crashed into a residential building in the Siberian city of Irkutsk, killing both crew members – the second such fatal incident in a Russian residential area in six days involving a Sukhoi fighter plane.
The crashes appear to reflect the growing strain that the fighting in Ukraine has put on the Russian air force. The Irkutsk governor, Igor Kobzev, said the Su-30 fighter jet came down on a private, two-storey building housing two families. There were no casualties on the ground.
Continue reading...Russian attacks on energy plants across Ukraine left more than a million households without electricity, officials said on Saturday
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had launched a “massive attack” on Ukraine, with some strikes reported on energy infrastructure that resulted in power outages across the country.
More than a dozen Russian missiles pounded energy facilities and other infrastructure across Ukraine on Saturday, the Ukrainian air force said, with strikes causing blackouts in parts of different regions.
Continue reading...Blackouts across Ukraine after Russian missile attacks on energy facilities and other infrastructure
Russian-installed authorities have ordered all residents of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson to leave “immediately” ahead of an expected advance by Ukrainian troops waging a counteroffensive to recapture it. The regional pro-Kremlin administration called on civilians to use boat crossings over a major river to move deeper into Russian-held territory, citing a tense situation on the front and the threat of shelling and alleged “terror attacks” by Kyiv, Associated Press reported. On Friday, Ukrainian forces bombarded Russian positions across the region, targeting resupply routes.
More than a dozen Russian missiles pounded energy facilities and other infrastructure across Ukraine on Saturday, the Ukrainian air force said, with strikes causing blackouts in parts of different regions. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the Russian attacks had struck on a “very wide” scale, Reuters reported. He pledged that his military would improve on an already good record of downing missiles with help from its partners.
Russian military forces targeted energy facilities in western Ukraine, the country’s power grid operator said on Saturday. Ukrenergo said on Telegram that the “scale of damage is comparable or may exceed the consequences of the attack on October 10-12”. It said repair crews were starting to repair the facilities after the rocket attack, but that restrictions were in place as they tried to restore the electricity supply.
Hundreds of thousands of people in central and western Ukraine have woken up to power outages and periodic bursts of gunfire, as Ukrainian air defence tried to shoot down drones and incoming missiles. Kira Rudik, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, said 1.5 million people were without electricity after Russian strikes against power stations on Saturday.
Ukraine’s prime minister said that Russia has plunged Ukraine into a humanitarian catastrophe by attacking its energy infrastructure. Denys Shmyhal told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine that Russia wanted to condemn Ukraine to “a cold winter when many people could literally freeze to death”.
Ukrainian forces have pushed Russians out of the Charivne and Chkalove settlements in the Kherson region, the Ukrainian forces’ general staff said on Saturday.
Iran’s foreign ministry has strongly condemned a call by France, Germany and Britain for the UN to investigate accusations that Russia has used drones from Iran to attack Ukraine. Ukraine says Russia has used Iranian-made Shahed-136 attack drones. If true, the allegations would mark a breach of UN security council resolution 2231.
Continue reading...Move comes ahead of expected advance by Ukrainian troops to recapture the city
Russian-installed authorities ordered all residents of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson to leave “immediately” ahead of an expected advance by Ukrainian troops waging a counteroffensive to recapture one of the first urban areas Russia took after invading the country.
In a post on the Telegram messaging service, the regional pro-Kremlin administration called on civilians to use boat crossings over a major river to move deeper into Russian-held territory, citing a tense situation on the front and the threat of shelling and alleged “terror attacks” by Kyiv.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president says most missiles fired overnight were shot down; over 1 million people without electricity after attacks on power stations
Iran has strongly condemned a call by France, Germany and Britain for the United Nations to probe accusations that Russia has used Iranian-origin drones to attack Ukraine, its foreign ministry said.
Reuters reports that ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said Friday’s call by the so-called E-3 group of countries was “false and baseless” and that it was “strongly rejected and condemned”.
The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in its pursuit to protect its national interest and to secure the rights of the noble Iranian people, reserves the right to respond to any irresponsible action.
It will not hesitate to defend the interests of the Iranian people,” he said, without elaborating.
Currently, restrictions on energy supply have been forcibly applied in Kyiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya and Kirovohrad regions.
Continue reading...Flight victims’ relatives say it would be a ‘miracle’ if former separatist leader finally faced justice
Piet Ploeg felt a glimmer of hope that justice would, at last, be served when he read the news that the prominent Russian nationalist Igor Girkin may be returning to the battlefield in Ukraine.
Ploeg’s brother, sister-in-law and nephew were killed alongside 295 other passengers and crew when the plane they boarded in Amsterdam on 17 July 2014 was shot down over Ukraine’s separatist-held territory of Donetsk by what international investigators believe was a Russian-made surface-to-air missile.
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