Russia’s former leader responds to statements by UK defence secretary, who said UK is in talks to move training to Ukraine

• What we know on day 585 of the invasion

Vladimir Putin declared that yesterday was “Reunification Day” in commemoration of commemorating Russia’s illegal annexation of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts, Celebrations drew crowds of people to Red Square in Moscow this weekend, but in the occupied regions where residents say they were forced under threats of violence to vote in the sham referendums making their homes part of the Russian Federation?

In the Luhansk oblast, a car rally in honour of the reunification brought in just 11 cars.

UK intelligence says Andrei Troshev’s meeting with the Russian president will not be viewed positively by Wagner fighters. This blog is now closed

Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced today the creation of the Defence Industries Alliance at Kyiv’s first Defence Industries Forum.

“Right now, the most powerful military-industrial complexes are being determined, as are their priorities and the global standard of defence. All of this is being determined in Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram.

Russian attack hits Ukrainian infrastructure in west; Putin reaffirms referendums in illegally annexed regions

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An infrastructure site was hit in a Russian attack early on Saturday in the western Ukrainian region of Vinnitsya, the regional governor said. Serhiy Borzov’s comments on Telegram came after reports of drones operating in the area. Ukrainian officials sometimes use the “infrastructure” term to refer to facilities involved in power generation or other industries.

Vladimir Putin said residents of Russian-held regions in Ukraine expressed their desire to be part of Russia in recent local elections, reaffirming referendums last year that western countries denounced as illegal. In a video address released early on Saturday on the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s announcement it was annexing four parts of Ukraine, the Russian president said the choice to join Russia was reinforced by this month’s local elections that returned officials supporting Russia’s annexation. Western countries dismissed the outcomes as meaningless, underpinned by mass coercion of voters. Flag-waving Russians gathered for a concert in Red Square on Friday as the Kremlin held celebrations to mark the annexations.

The UK government has imposed an asset freeze and travel bans on Russian officials in the annexed Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Crimea as part of its broader sanctions against Russia.

Seven European Union countries have ordered ammunition under a landmark EU procurement scheme to get urgently needed artillery shells to Ukraine and replenish depleted western stocks, according to the EU agency in charge.

Vladimir Putin has signed a decree setting out the routine autumn conscription campaign, calling up 130,000 citizens for statutory military service, a document posted on the government website showed. Separately, Putin reportedly met Andrei Troshev, formerly a top Wagner mercenary commander, to discuss how voluntary fighting units are used in the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Friday.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz and the leaders of five Central Asian nations on Friday pledged to cooperate closely on sanctions in a carefully worded statement that did not pinpoint Russia. The gathering of Scholz and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan in Berlin was the first of its kind in an EU country.

Top US general Mark Milley was to retire on Friday after a four-year tenure as chair of the US joint chiefs of staff. Milley’s tenure included providing military assistance to Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

A Russian blogger who criticised highway patrol officers was jailed for eight-and-a-half years on Friday after a court alleged he posted “fake news” about Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. Alexander Nozdrinov, 38, ran a small YouTube channel where he posted videos of highway patrol officers from his home region of Krasnodar allegedly breaking the law. He was detained in March 2022 after investigators accused him of posting a photo of destroyed buildings on social media with the caption: “Ukrainian cities after the arrival of liberators”.

Norway says it will start barring Russian-registered passenger cars from entering the country starting next week, in a move that mirrors sanctions already imposed by the European Union against Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

“Very difficult questions” would need to be answered before the EU could start membership talks with Ukraine, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has said.

Romania is moving air defences closer to its Danube villages across the river from Ukraine, where Russian drones have been attacking grain facilities, and is adding more military observation posts and patrols to the area, two senior defence sources told Reuters.

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The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said on Friday that “very difficult questions” would need to be answered before the EU could start membership talks with Ukraine.

EU countries are due to decide in December whether to allow Ukraine to begin accession negotiations, which would require the unanimous backing of all 27 members. Diplomats have said Hungary may be an obstacle.

Comment from Ukraine’s president comes after Jens Stoltenberg’s trip to Kyiv

Suspilne reports, citing the regional authority, that one person has been injured and hospitalised by a Russian attack on Antonivka near Kherson.

British defence secretary Grant Shapps discussed how to bolster Ukraine’s air defences during talks in an unannounced visit to Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president’s office said on Thursday.

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Germany has welcomed a decision by Switzerland to open the way to sell back some of its German-made Leopard II tanks to help rebuild stocks depleted by aid to Ukraine.

Germany had asked Switzerland in February to sell back some of the 96 Leopard II tanks it has in storage to manufacturer Rheinmetall, Reuters reports.

Viktor Sokolov shown in footage released by defence ministry, day after Ukraine said he had been killed in missile strike

• What we know on day 580 of the invasion

Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has rather sarcastically castigated US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller for deflecting a question about the appearance of a Ukrainian veteran of a Nazi unit in the Canadian parliament. Miller had said that he was attending the UN on Friday.

Zakharova has posted to her Telegram channel to say:

Everyone was at the UN on Friday, Matthew. And everyone saw how nazism triumphed in Canada. The UN has a lot of problems, but the internet works great there.

Russia again strikes at Ukraine’s port and grain infrastructure; border crossing with Romania closed following drone attack

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Ukraine says 34 officers were killed including Black Sea fleet admiral Viktor Sokolov in its missile strike on Sevastapol last week

• What we know on day 579 of the invasion

An air alert has been declared in Mykolaiv.

Tass reports that the Russian ministry of defence has reported that it destroyed Ukrainian drones that were over the north-western part of the Black Sea near occupied Crimea, as well as over the Kursk and Bryansk regions. It claims to have shot down eight aircraft-type drones in total.

Ukrainian military says attack that apparently killed Viktor Sokolov was timed to coincide with meeting of naval officials

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Ukraine has claimed it killed Adm Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, along with 33 other officers, in one of Kyiv’s boldest attacks yet on the occupied peninsula of Crimea.

The Ukrainian military said Friday’s attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol was timed to coincide with a meeting of naval officials.

Russian forces repelled near Bakhmut after counterattacks on two villages recently retaken by Ukraine; air raid alerts in all Ukrainian regions.

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Air raid alerts were sounding in all Ukrainian regions on Sunday evening. The alerts were called at 12.30am local time on Sunday with the air force warning of incoming missile and drone strikes. Explosions were record in Kyiv Rih, and Odesa.

Two people were killed on Sunday after Russian shelling struck the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson. The region’s governor said at least eight people were also injured in the attack as Ukrainian armed forces responded to Russian advances in the east and south.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces says its fighters had repelled Russian attacks on two villages near Bakhmut. Russian forces had “tried to restore lost positions near Klishchiivka … but were unsuccessful.”

The mayor of Russia’s Kursk had to cancel the Kursk City Day fireworks celebration after a Ukrainian drone struck an administrative building, damaging the roof. There have been more reports of explosions.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy handed awards to two Polish volunteers during a stopover in Poland on Saturday but did not meet any officials amid strained relations between Kyiv and Warsaw over grain imports.

An imprisoned Russian opposition figure has been transferred to a maximum security prison in Siberia, where he was placed in a tiny “punishment cell”, his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov said.

Russia’s suspension of petrol exports will probably limit already tight supplies in the global market and have the biggest impact on countries that depend on Russian fuel supplies, the UK Ministry of Defence has said. In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said Russians had probably faced localised petrol and diesel shortages in recent weeks.

Pope Francis has said the weapons industry is a key driver of the “martyrdom” of Ukraine’s people in the war with Russia, saying countries should not “play games” by promising weapons and then withholding them as this would only continue their misery. The Associated Press reports that the pontiff appeared to refer to Poland’s recent announcement that it was no longer sending arms to Ukraine when reporters asked him about the war as he was returning to Rome from a visit to Marseille, France.

The Russian-installed head of the Donetsk oblast has imposed a curfew banning the presence of civilians on streets and in public places from 11pm until 4am from Mondays to Fridays, Reuters reported. Denis Pushilin published a decree on Sunday that forbade assemblies, rallies and demonstrations, in addition to other mass events, in the Russian-controlled parts of the Donetsk oblast – unless they were permitted by the local operational headquarters for military threat response.

The European Commission has sent another €1.5bn in macro-financial assistance to Ukraine. The commission has pledged a total of €18bn to Ukraine – the country has already received €12bn. The funds go towards keeping essential public services running, such as hospitals, schools and housing for relocated citizens, as well as paying wages and pensions.

Civilians forbidden from being on streets and public places from 11pm until 4am, with mass events banned

• What we know on day 578 of the invasion

Volodymyr Zelenskiy met top US financiers – including Mike Bloomberg – during his visit to the US. According to Reuters, they discussed investment and the reconstruction of Ukraine during this meeting.

A Ukrainian drone has struck an administrative building in Russia’s Kursk oblast, the regional governor Roman Starovoit said on Telegram – on Kursk City Day.