Some 4.5 million Ukrainians, more than 10% of the pre-war population, were temporarily without power on Thursday evening due to Russian attacks, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address. Kyiv earlier on Thursday condemned the "mass forced relocation" of its citizens living in regions occupied by Russia. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris local time (GMT+1).
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10:02pm: Zelensky says 4.5 million Ukrainians are temporarily without power
Some 4.5 million Ukrainians, more than 10% of the pre-war population, were temporarily without power on Thursday evening due to Russian attacks, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address.
Zelensky said Kyiv as well as 10 other regions were affected. He urged local authorities to save power, saying this was not the time for bright shop windows or signs.
9:53pm: FRANCE 24 trails a Ukrainian tank unit
Ukrainian tank units stationed about 25km from the city of Kherson, which has been under Russian control for roughly eight months, have fought several battles in recent months. FRANCE 24's Jonathan Walsh and Amar Al Hameedawi followed one team and their unit commander to their firing position for this report.
9:10pm: Ukraine's Zelensky expects to "open new page in cooperation" with Israel
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday for winning the Israeli election and said he expected to "open a new page in cooperation" with the new government.
"Ukraine and Israel share common values and challenges, which now require effective cooperation," Zelensky tweeted, but gave no details. Ukraine has repeatedly asked Israel to supply air defense systems.
9:02pm: Kyiv slams 'mass forced relocations' from occupied areas
Kyiv on Thursday condemned the "mass forced relocation" of its citizens living in regions occupied by Russia.
"The Russian occupation administration began mass forced relocation of residents of the left-bank of the Kherson region... to the temporarily occupied Crimea or to Russia," the Ukrainian foreign ministry said in a statement. "Similar deportations are also being carried out by Russia in the Zaporizhzhia, Lugansk and Donetsk regions, as well as in Crimea."
6:47pm: Time to finalise Sweden's and Finland's entry intoto NATO, says Stoltenberg
Sweden and Finland have delivered on the demands Turkey has set for their accession to NATO and the time has come to welcome them to the alliance, NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.
"It's time to welcome Finland and Sweden as full members of NATO," Stoltenberg said at a news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Istanbul.
"In these dangerous times it is even more important to finalise their accession, to prevent any misunderstanding or miscalculation in Moscow."
6:22pm: Ukraine able to to retake Kherson from Russia, says Pentagon chief
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday that he believes Ukrainian forces can retake Kherson from Russian forces, in perhaps his most optimistic comments on the pivotal campaign to date.
"On the issue of whether the Ukrainians can take the remaining territory on the west side of the Dnipro river and (in) Kherson, I certainly believe that they have the capability to do that," Austin said during a press conference with his South Korean counterpart
6:14pm: World must stand with Kyiv as Putin counts on 'General Winter', EU says
International partners must continue to support Ukraine as the country prepares to keep up its fight against Russia's invasion during the upcoming winter months, the European Union's top diplomat said on Thursday.
"The winter is coming. Putin is waiting for the 'General Winter' to come and support the Russian army," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned on the sidelines of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in the western German town of Muenster.
"Now, more than ever, we have to support Ukraine, the Ukrainian people. They are fighting, defending their country, and we have the moral duty to support them," he added.
5:45pm: Ukraine will not attend G20 summit if Putin does, says Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday his country would not participate in the upcoming G20 summit in Indonesia if Russian President Vladimir Putin also attends.
"If the leader of the Russian Federation was to take part in it, Ukraine would not be participating," Zelensky told a press conference with Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou in Kyiv. Putin is yet to say if he will attend.
3:21pm: IAEA says no sign of 'dirty bomb' work at sites inspected in Ukraine
The UN nuclear watchdog said on Thursday it had found no sign of undeclared nuclear activity at three sites in Ukraine it had inspected at Kyiv's request in response to Russian allegations that work was being done on a "dirty bomb".
"Our technical and scientific evaluation of the results we have so far did not show any sign of undeclared nuclear activities and materials at these three locations," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement, adding that environmental samples taken would be analysed.
2:45pm: Russia says Ukraine released 107 captured soldiers
Russia's defence ministry said on Thursday that Ukraine had released 107 Russian service personnel in the latest exchange of prisoners of war between Kyiv and Moscow.
In a statement, the ministry said the soldiers would be taken to Moscow for medical treatment.
Earlier, the Russian-installed head of the Russian-held part of Ukraine's Donetsk region said Russia would also free 107 captured Ukrainian service personnel.
2:35pm: UN chief pushes Russia, Ukraine to extend Black Sea grain deal
Ukraine has exported 10 million tonnes of grain and other foodstuffs since the UN and Turkey brokered a July deal to resume shipments stalled by Russia's war, UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Thursday as he pushed Russia and Ukraine to extend the pact.
"I appeal to all parties to concentrate efforts in two areas. First, renewal and full implementation of the Black Sea Initiative. Second, removing the remaining obstacles to the exports of Russian food and fertilizer," he told reporters.
1:59pm: Switzerland rejects Germany’s appeal to allow it to export Swiss-made ammunition to Ukraine
Switzerland has again rejected an appeal from Germany to allow it to re-export Swiss-made ammunition to Ukraine, the government said on Thursday.
"Under the principle of equal treatment in neutrality law, Switzerland cannot agree to a request for the transfer of war materiel of Swiss origin to Ukraine as long as the latter is involved in an international armed conflict," the government said.
1:54pm: Microsoft pledges to extend financial backing for Kyiv through 2023
US tech giant Microsoft pledged Thursday to extend its backing for Kyiv's “extraordinary" wartime innovation through the end of next year.
Microsoft's financial commitment of more than $400 million enables Kyiv to continue using the Microsoft cloud and its public data centres across Europe, the company’s president, Brad Smith, announced at the annual Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
Cloud technology offers resilience and security for Ukraine operations, Smith said, after Russia targeted Ukrainian data centres with air strikes when it invaded more than eight months ago.
Ukraine and Russia are engaged in “a technology war”, according to Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister and minister of digital transformation.
Fedorov, who appeared with Smith at a news conference, pointed to the Delta real-time battle management system developed by Ukraine. The situational awareness platform integrates information about enemy forces from various sensors and sources, including artificial intelligence and drones, on a digital map.
1:00pm: Moscow-backed separatist leader says prisoner swap with Kyiv to take place
A Moscow-backed separatist leader in eastern Ukraine said a prisoner swap was planned with Kyiv on Thursday that will free 107 Russian and pro-Russian soldiers.
"Today we are returning 107 of our fighters from Ukrainian dungeons," Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin said on Telegram, adding that 65 of those were from eastern Ukraine's Moscow-backed separatist territories. "We will give back the same amount of prisoners to Ukraine."
11:57am: UN delegation confirms resumption of Black Sea grain traffic and ship inspections
The UN delegation at the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul, charged with overseeing the international deal on the export of Ukrainian grain, confirmed Thursday the resumption of traffic and ship inspections with the Russian delegation.
11:16am: Missile attacks hit energy infrastructure in two regions, Ukraine’s grid operator says
Russian missile attacks hit energy infrastructure in the Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk late on Wednesday, further complicating the work of the energy system, Ukraine's grid operator Ukrenergo said on Thursday.
The regions of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk are both steelmaking hubs. Russian strikes have damaged about 40 percent of Ukraine's energy infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
11:10am: Kremlin says it has not committed to staying in grain deal beyond mid-November
The Kremlin said on Thursday it had not committed to staying in the Black Sea grain deal, which has freed Ukraine's grain shipments from a Russian blockade of its Black Sea ports, beyond its current expiry date of November 19.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russia still needed to assess whether the deal was working before deciding whether to extend its participation.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had earlier Thursday urged the United Nations to step up efforts to ensure Western countries ease restrictions that Moscow says hinder its own agricultural and fertilizer exports, which also formed part of the deal.
10:46am: Lavrov calls on UN to fulfil parts of grain deal intended to ease Russian exports
Moscow on Thursday urged the United Nations, which sponsored a deal to free Ukraine's grain shipments from a Russian blockade of its Black Sea ports, to help fulfil the parts of the deal intended to ease Russia's food and fertilizer exports.
Russia on Wednesday resumed its participation in the initiative after a four-day suspension, relieving pressure on food prices and easing fears of a renewed global food crisis.
The arrangement is due to expire on November 19. Moscow has made clear it does not believe enough has been done to ensure that it can export its own huge food and fertilizer output despite the barrage of Western sanctions imposed in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
"We still do not see any results regarding a second aspect: the removal of obstacles to the export of Russian fertilizers and grain," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference in Amman, Jordan.
"We have once again called on the United Nations Secretary General to ensure that he fulfils the obligations he agreed to through his own initiative," Lavrov added. He said the situation needed to be resolved "in the very near future".
Russian agricultural exports do not fall explicitly under sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and others, but Moscow says they are badly hindered by the restrictions imposed on its financial, logistics and insurance sectors.
The grain export initiative – brokered by Turkey and the United Nations – was agreed in July for 120 days, and Moscow has not explicitly committed to extending it.
Russia had suspended its participation over an attack on its Crimean naval port of Sevastopol, but returned to the deal on Wednesday having secured little in return and promising that, even if it withdrew again, it would not impede shipments from Ukraine to Turkey.
10:36am: Russia summons UK ambassador over claims related to drone attack in Black Sea
Russia summoned the UK ambassador on Thursday over Moscow’s claim that British navy personnel were involved in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.
Ambassador Deborah Bronnert arrived at the foreign ministry shortly after 1030am local time (0730 GMT) as a small crowd chanted anti-British slogans and held up placards reading "Britain is a terrorist state".
The UK says the claims related to the attack are false.
Bronnert was inside the ministry for around 30 minutes, a Reuters journalist at the scene said. There was no immediate statement from either Russia or the UK on the details of what was discussed.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday the ambassador was to be summoned over a drone attack on Saturday.
After the drone attack, Russia temporarily suspended participation in a UN-brokered Black Sea grain export deal, which it has since rejoined.
8:40am: Several grain ships leave Ukraine’s ports, Turkey says
Six grain ships left Ukraine's ports on Thursday, a day after Russia rejoined a deal to allow exports through the Black Sea, Turkey's defence minister said.
"After the resumption of the grain initiative, six ships left Ukrainian ports," Defence Minister Hulusi Akar was quoted as saying by the official Anadolu news agency.
Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry put at seven the number of ships that left the ports on Thursday.
8:28am: Ukrainian troops more than 25 kilometres from Russian-occupied Kherson city
Ukrainian troops are more than 25 kilometres away, at their closest point, from the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, which they are trying to retake. That distance is from a northwesterly direction in between Kherson and Mykolaiv, a neighbouring city Moscow's forces did not capture.
"But then if you're looking at a more northeasterly direction, along the Dnipro River, the Ukrainian forces are 100 kilometres away at the furthest point, and most of the front line is still considerably more then 50 kilometres away from Kherson city," FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg reports.
"That's where there's fighting going on in Kherson region," Cragg reports.
7:14am: Ukraine’s Energoatom says Zaporizhzhia plant disconnected from grid after shelling
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzia nuclear plant has been disconnected from the power grid after Russian shelling damaged the remaining high voltage lines, leaving it with just diesel generators, Ukraine’s nuclear energy company Energoatom said on Thursday.
The power plant has 15 days' worth of fuel to run the generators, Energoatom said. Blocks 5 and 6 at the plant are being switched into cold state, it said.
4:10am: Russia resumes participation in grain deal
Russia's defence ministry justified the resumption by saying it had received guarantees from Ukraine that it would not use the Black Sea grain corridor for military operations against Russia.
"The Russian Federation considers that the guarantees received at the moment appear sufficient, and resumes the implementation of the agreement," the ministry said in a statement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was important to stand up to "crazy Russian aggression that destabilises international trade".
"After eight months of Russia's so-called special operation, the Kremlin is demanding security guarantees from Ukraine," Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
"This is truly a remarkable statement. It shows just what a failure the Russian aggression has been and just how strong we all are when we maintain our unity."
10:16pm, November 2: Zelensky says grain deal resumption important for 'whole world'
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky Wednesday hailed "a significant diplomatic result for our country and the whole world" after Russia rejoined a deal to allow Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea.
"Implementation of the grain export initiative continues," he said in his daily evening address, after successful efforts to revive the agreement were struck between Kyiv and Moscow in July.
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP, REUTERS)
