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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Rachel Hall (now); Martin Belam and Samantha Lock (earlier)

Russia-Ukraine war: Putin must lose or he will invade other European countries, Zelenskiy says – as it happened

Ukraine United Nations Vladimir Putin Rafael Grossi Volodymyr Zelenksyy Russia Kyiv Kherson (Geopolitical Entity) Zaporizhzhia Oleksandr Starukh
Ukraine's President Zelenskiy.
Ukraine's president Zelenskiy. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters

Summary of the day

It’s been a comparatively quiet day for news relating to the Ukraine invasion, but there have still been some important developments.

Thank you for following the blog today. We’re closing it for now but will see you again tomorrow.

Updated

Leaders of the European Union, the United Kingdom and Turkey met on Thursday to discuss the security and energy crises resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in a symbolic summit seen as underlining Moscow’s isolation.

The gathering in Prague was the inaugural meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), the brainchild of French president, Emmanuel Macron, and was intended to unite the EU’s 27 member states with 17 other European countries.

The meeting at the ancient Prague Castle was perceived as a grand show of solidarity for a continent grappling with multiple crises - from the security implications of the war in Ukraine to energy shortages and a looming recession.

“This meeting is a way of looking for a new order without Russia,” the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said, adding that Moscow may not always be excluded but for now, President Vladimir Putin’s Russia “does not have a seat”.

Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressing the meeting via video link, urged leaders to turn the new political community into a “European community of peace”.

“Let today be the starting point. The point from which Europe and the entire free world will move to guaranteed peace for all of us. It is possible,” he said, calling on leaders to “direct all possible powers of Europe to end the war” in Ukraine.

Updated

The Guardian’s foreign correspondent Peter Beaumont has penned a dispatch from the Kherson region, shedding light on residents’ experiences of returning to their homes in newly liberated villages.

Unlike the wooded hills of the Donbas, the land here is flat, broad fields sectored by tree lines of acacia and oak, poplars and eucalyptus. They provided meagre cover for the Russian armoured vehicles that can be see burned out in the distance, sometimes several together.

Razor-sharp shrapnel fragments litter the road’s surface. Lines of Russian anti-tank mines, strung together to close access to the road, have been defused and pulled to one side of the carriageway. Everywhere the skeletal remnants of missiles that once carried cluster bombs stand like tree-stumps in the fields.

One meadow is cratered every 20 metres by the dozen or so munitions that flew into it. Beyond that, the road is heavily damaged.

Updated

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, has said it was “obvious” the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant belonged to Ukraine during a visit to Kyiv on Thursday.

In a press conference, Grossi said:

For us it is obvious that since it is a Ukrainian facility, the ownership is Energoatom [the Ukrainian state nuclear agency].

With the safety and the security of the plant – and technical operation – we will continue to be guided by the agreements we have with Ukraine.

We are an international organisation guided by international law and, as you know very well, annexations are not accepted under international law.

Russian president, Vladimir Putin, ordered his government to take over operations at Europe’s largest nuclear power station in southern Ukraine this week.

Shelling has hit the vicinity in recent months, with Ukraine and Russia blaming each other for the attacks that have raised fears of a nuclear disaster.

Updated

US president, Joe Biden, has said he would not rule out meeting with Vladimir Putin during the G20 summit next month in Asia.

“That remains to be seen,” the US leader told reporters when asked if he’d use the G20 gathering in Bali, Indonesia, as an opportunity to talk directly with Putin.

However, travel plans for both men remain unconfirmed and the White House has said that if Putin attends the G20 summit, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, should also participate, even if Ukraine is not a member of the group.

It is unclear whether Putin will attend the summit.

Updated

Liz Truss has said she considers Vladimir Putin to be the shared foe of Europe for threatening democracy and pushing up energy prices, while her French counterpart, President Emmanuel Macron, is a “friend”.

Truss’s comments during the Tory leadership race, when she declined to say whether Mr Macron was a “friend or foe”, were widely criticised.

She told broadcasters in Prague, where she is attending the inaugural summit of the European Political Community and will meet with the French president:

I work very, very closely with President Macron and the French government and what we’re talking about is how the UK and France can work more closely together to build more nuclear power stations and to make sure that both countries have energy security in the future.

We’re both very clear: the foe is Vladimir Putin who has, through his appalling war in Ukraine, threatened freedom and democracy in Europe and pushed up energy prices which we’re now all having to deal with.

Asked if Macron was then a friend, Truss said: “He is a friend.”

Updated

A Russian-installed official in Ukraine has suggested President Vladimir Putin’s defence minister should consider killing himself because of the shame of the defeats in the war in Ukraine, representing an astonishing public insult to Russia’s top brass.

After more than seven months of war in Ukraine, Moscow’s most basic war aims have still not been achieved, while Russian forces have suffered a series of battlefield defeats in recent months, forcing Putin to announce a partial mobilisation.

In a four-minute video message, Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy head of the annexed Kherson region, followed suit, publicly lambasting the “generals and ministers” in Moscow for failing to understand the problems on the front.

Stremousov said:

Indeed, many say: if they were a defence minister who had allowed such a state of affairs, they could, as officers, have shot themselves. But you know the word ‘officer’ is an incomprehensible word for many.

Updated

Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza is being investigated for treason, according to his lawyer.

State-owned news agency RIA has quoted lawyer Vadim Prokhorov as saying a criminal case for treason – which carries a sentence of up to 20 years – had been opened against Kara-Murza in connection with three of his public speeches.

They included an address to the Arizona House of Representatives in which he said Vladimir Putin was bombing Ukrainian homes, hospitals and schools.

Moscow says it does not deliberately target civilians, but thousands have been killed in Ukraine. On Thursday, at least three people died when a Russian missile destroyed an apartment block in the city of Zaporizhzhia.

Updated

EU imposes new sanctions on Russia

The EU has imposed a new round of sanctions on Russia, expanding import and export bans and blacklisting individuals over Moscow’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions.

AFP reports:

The measures, which came into force with their publication in the bloc’s official administrative journal, also pointed the way to an oil price cap on Russian crude transported around the world but only after details are worked out within the G7 group of nations.

The EU regulation said the sanctions were in response to Russia’s “further aggression against Ukraine, the organisation of illegal sham ‘referenda’ in the parts of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions that are currently illegally occupied ... the illegal annexation of those Ukrainian regions ... as well as the mobilisation in the Russian Federation and its repeated threat to use weapons of mass destruction”.

Thirty individuals and seven entities were added to the EU blacklist, including singers Yulia Chicherina and Nikolay Rastorguev, among others deemed pro-war “propaganda” artists.

Other listings were Russia’s electoral commission and its head, proxy Russian officials in the annexed regions, and Russian defence officials and defence-affiliated companies.

The regulation also introduced a “circumvention” list on which individuals or companies helping banned Russian entities get around the EU sanctions would be placed.

It was the eighth packet of sanctions the EU has imposed on Russia since the Kremlin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February.

The last couple of sanction packets have been losing steam compared with earlier ones, as leading Russian trade, energy, banking, military and political sectors have already been hit.

The headline measure in the latest sanctions was meant to be an oil price cap on Russian crude transported around the world.

But the legal text published on Thursday did not set out how that would work, leaving it to future deliberations by the European Commission and EU member states in consultation with the G7. The sanctions include expanding a ban to all Russian cryptocurrency transactions, regardless of amount, and the widening of an existing ban on Russian imports, and broadening a prohibition on weapon sales to include personal arms.

Also, electronic components that can go into Russian weapons, such as transistors, electronic integrated circuits, controllers, and aerial surveillance cameras are banned for sale to Russia.

Additionally, the EU is barring service providers in several sectors from exporting to Russia, including in the fields of legal advice, architecture, engineering and IT consultancy.

Updated

The Guardian’s foreign correspondent, Peter Beaumont, has shared his impressions from a road towards Kherson today, where he has observed what appears to be the remnants of a big fight, including burnt-out Russian armoured vehicles and cluster munitions.

He saw a little farmhouse that had been occupied by three different groups of Russians, which was “smashed to bits and an absolute pigsty”. He could hear Ukrainian artillery far in the distance.

He added:

This doesn’t feel to me like a small straightening of their line and regrouping but a rout.

Updated

US Aid has announced $55m (£49.3m) to repair pipes and infrastructure destroyed by Russian troops, to help keep up to 7 million Ukrainians warm this winter.

Many recently liberated villages no longer have energy supplies, and residents have been forced to cook their meals outside around open fires.

Temperatures are still relatively mild in Ukraine, though they are beginning to fall, and winters are notoriously harsh.

Updated

An article in today’s Bild looks into a surprising story, in which a local dentist in the recently liberated village of Pisky-Radkivski claims that teeth contained in a horror photo posted by Ukraine’s defence ministry stating they came from a torture chamber are in fact those from his cabinet, and had gone missing after his house was looted by Russians.

The dentist, named as Sergey, said:

These teeth look like the ones from my collection that was looted here. I’m the only dentist here. So if they were found here, they must be mine.

Nearby residents reported to me that Russians apparently used this to scare people.

The report adds that although this claim may be untrue, it is certain that torture did take place in the village.

Updated

Zelenskiy tells European leaders Ukraine must win to safeguard the EU

Volodymyr Zelenskiy is speaking at the first meeting of the European Political Community today.

He has told European heads of state that Ukraine must win so that Russia does not “advance on Warsaw or again on Prague”, according to reporting by Agence France-Presse.

Zelenskiy called on Western capitals to supply his army with more weapons “to punish the aggressor”.

Updated

Ukraine’s general staff has reported that the armed forces liberated 93 settlements since 21 September in north-east Ukraine, while the armed forces advanced 55km (34.1 miles) deep into Russian-occupied territory and took control of more than 2,400 sq km.

Updated

Norway’s government will restrict access for Russian fishing vessels to its ports in the latest tightening of security after last week’s discovery of significant leaks from the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

Russian trawlers will from now on only be allowed to visit three ports and must undergo security checks when they do so, Anniken Huitfeldt, the Norwegian foreign minister, told a news conference.

Updated

Many more details need to be worked out within the G7 and the European Union before a price cap for Russian seaborne oil deliveries to third countries could take effect, EU officials have said.

Reuters reports:

The EU agreed this week to the eighth package of sanctions against Russia for waging a war in Ukraine, including an oil cap that would align the bloc with the US and the G7 group of the world’s most industrialised countries, including EU members France, Germany and Italy.

But many details are yet to be agreed including the actual pricing mechanism, said the officials, who spoke under condition of anonymity.

That means the EU’s decision is more of a first step towards putting in place an oil
cap, rather than actually already implementing it.

The officials said:

Discussions on how the pricing will be set are still needed.

They added there was “some time pressure” to figure out the more nuanced approach compared with the EU’s previously agreed blanket ban for European firms on providing insurance and banking services to Russian oil shipments that would otherwise kick in from December.

Updated

Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the UK’s Labour party, has issued the following statement on Liz Truss’s visit to Europe:

I think it’s very important that the opportunity is taken to reassert and re-emphasise the unity of response that we have in relation to [Vladimir] Putin’s aggression and imperialism and I think that’s the single most important thing in relation to the meeting today.

Whatever other issues we have with the government, in the UK, I’ve made it clear there will be no political divide in our support for Ukraine, and standing up against Putin’s imperialism.

Updated

The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has reassured his Ukrainian counterpart that Athens is in lockstep with its EU and Nato allies in strongly condemning Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Using the inaugural meeting of the European Political Community in Prague to hold talks with Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister, Mitsotakis said Greece would never recognise the change in borders, which he insisted was “in flagrant violation of international law”. Instead, he said, Greece saw the regions as an integral part of Ukraine and fully backed today’s EU council decision to impose a new package of economic and individual sanctions against Russia.

Mitsotakis and his centre-right government have said persistently that Greece has elected to be on the “right side of history” by supporting Ukraine after Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion on 24 February. Support has included using the strategic port of Alexandroupolis, in north-east Greece, for the shipment by US armed forces of military material to Ukraine.

What were once traditionally strong ties with fellow Orthodox Moscow have been badly strained in the process. This week, Greece’s anti-money laundering authority confirmed it was also investigating what the Kathimerini newspaper described as the “suspicious transfer” of large funds from Russia to the all-male monastic republic of Mount Athos, where monies had been directed to Moscow-friendly monasteries and monks. Several senior Russian officials have visited the Mount in recent months.

Updated

Reuters has a quick snap that Volodymyr Zelenskiy has asked Ukrainian parliament to approve banker Andriy Pyshnyi as the new chairman of the country’s central bank. Earlier today, the parliament formally accepted the resignation of Kyrylo Shevchenko, who abruptly submitted his resignation on Tuesday, citing health reasons.

Updated

Third death confirmed in Zaporizhzhia

Ukrainian emergency services said that a total of three bodies have been pulled from rubble after a Russian rocket strike destroyed a five-storey apartment block in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.

Other residents are trapped under rubble, the regional governor and emergency services said.

Updated

Russia has submitted preliminary objections to a genocide case against Moscow brought by Ukraine.

The International Court of Justice, which is the UN’s highest court for disputes between states, has tweeted that it had received the objections on 3 October, but these have not been made public.

Parties can file preliminary objections if they believe the court does not have jurisdiction in a case. In a letter to the UN in March, Moscow argued that the ICJ did not have jurisdiction because the genocide convention does not regulate the use of force between states.

The filing signifies a change in Moscow’s attitude to the ICJ case. Russia is now engaging with the court, whereas it has previously skipped hearings and not filed documents directly with the court.

Ukraine filed a case with the ICJ shortly after Russia’s invasion began, saying Moscow’s justification, that it was acting to prevent a genocide in eastern Ukraine, was unfounded.

The next step in the case will be a hearing on the objections against the jurisdiction of the court. No date has been set yet, but it is expected to take place in several months’ time.

Updated

Reuters has a report on the problems that Russians opposed to the war in Ukraine or fearful of being sent to fight have encountered upon fleeing to Kazakhstan.

Worries about money, sudden large increases in housing costs in response to the Russian influx, and scarce jobs are compounded by pressures from family back home – some have even been accused by relatives of betraying their country.

And the scale of the exodus has given rise to concerns from some Kazakhs who see the incoming Russians as a potential economic burden and even a security risk.

Rents have soared in Kazakhstan and other central Asian nations – as well as Georgia, where some landlords have started adding a “no Russians” clause to their rental ads.

The Kazakh government said this week that more than 200,000 Russians had entered the country since Putin’s announcement, and 147,000 had since left.

No data is available on their final destinations, though some are thought to have headed to neighbouring former Soviet republics.

About 77,000 have registered in Kazakhstan’s national ID system, a prerequisite for getting a job or a bank account.

Uzbekistan’s government said on Tuesday it was strengthening border controls, with border guard troops to be involved in vehicle and cargo checks alongside customs officials.

Some Kazakh businesses have publicly announced job offers for those fleeing the Russian draft, but some of those offers explicitly stated they were aimed only at ethnic Kazakhs.

Updated

Reuters has posted a helpful summary of its Ukraine-related reporting from today:

  • Ukraine said its forces have retaken more settlements in Kherson, one of four partially Russian-occupied regions that President Vladimir Putin formally incorporated into Russia in Europe’s biggest annexation since the second world war.

  • A Russian rocket strike destroyed a five-storey apartment block in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing at least one woman and leaving other residents trapped under rubble, the regional governor said.

  • The bodies of two Russian soldiers lay bloating in trees on opposite sides of the road, close to the blasted hulks of the cars and the van in which Ukrainian army officers said the dead men’s unit was retreating into the eastern town of Lyman.

  • Dozens of firefighters doused blazes in a town near Kyiv after multiple strikes caused by what officials said were Iranian-made loitering munitions, often known as “kamikaze drones”.

  • Reuters was not immediately able to verify the battlefield reports.

  • Putin signed laws admitting the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Luhansk People’s Republic, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region into Russia in the biggest expansion of Russian territory in at least half a century.

  • He also said Russia would stabilise the situation in the regions, indirectly acknowledging the challenges it faces to assert its control.

  • Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, accused Russia on Thursday of “nuclear blackmail” over its seizure of the Zaporizhzhia power plant in southern Ukraine.

  • The Kremlin said it was preparing to welcome the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to Moscow soon.

  • Putin said he expected sanctions pressure on the Russian economy to intensify, in televised remarks from a meeting with government officials.

  • The European Union gave its final approval for a new batch of sanctions, the bloc’s executive arm said. They include more limits on trade with Russia in steel and tech products, and an oil price cap for Russian seaborne crude deliveries through European insurers to align the EU with Washington.

  • A crime scene investigation of the damages on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines has strengthened suspicions of “gross sabotage”, Swedish security police.

  • Alexander Novak, the Russian deputy prime minister, said Moscow might cut oil production to offset negative effects from price caps imposed by the west over Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

  • Europe may limp through the cold winter months with the help of brimming natural gas tanks despite a plunge in deliveries from Russia, only to enter a deeper energy crisis next year, the head of the International Energy Agency said.

  • The Kremlin denied reports that 700,000 Russians had fled the country since Moscow announced a mobilisation drive to call up hundreds of thousands to fight in Ukraine.

  • US intelligence agencies believe parts of the Ukrainian government authorised a car bomb attack near Moscow in August that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, the New York Times reported.

Updated

The Opec+ group of leading oil producers decided to reduce output by 2 million barrels per day to stabilise the market, according to a Kremlin spokesperson.

Dmitry Peskov also said that by agreeing to reduce output, Opec+ has confirmed its credentials as an organisation responsible for market stability.

The Saudi-led Opec+ cartel at a Vienna meeting on Wednesday ignored pleas from the White House to keep oil flowing and agreed the cut, its deepest since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Separately, Peskov said that the Kremlin is preparing to welcome the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic energy agency (IAEA), to Moscow soon. The visit is likely to focus on the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, located in southern Ukraine in territory that Russia has proclaimed its own.

He added that he understands there are no plans to invite Moscow to join an investigation into Nord Stream gas leaks. Nevertheless, Russia considers it is impossible to conduct such an investigation without Moscow’s participation.

Updated

Kremlin denies reports of Russians fleeing draft

The Kremlin has denied reports that 700,000 Russians have fled the country since Moscow announced a mobilisation drive that it said would call up hundreds of thousands to fight in Ukraine.

In a briefing with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he did not have exact figures for how many people had left the country since Vladimir Putin’s announcement on 21 September of a “partial mobilisation” that has called members of the general public up to the military.

Updated

During today’s Kremlin briefing, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was asked about Wednesday’s New York Times report, which revealed that United States intelligence agencies believed parts of the Ukrainian government authorised the car bomb attack near Moscow in August that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist.

The report said that US officials feared this was an element of a covert campaign that could widen the conflict.

Peskov’s response was that Russian intelligence had always argued that Ukraine was behind the August killing of Darya Dugina so it was “positive” that the United States appeared to share that assessment.

Kyiv on Thursday rejected the claims it was involved in the attack.

Rachel Hall here taking over the blog – if there’s anything we’ve missed, do drop me a line.

Updated

Summary of the day so far …

  • Russia hit the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia with seven rockets, flattening an apartment building early on Thursday morning. The city’s authorities told Ukraine’s public broadcaster, Suspilne, that at least two had died and at least another five were trapped under the rubble, although later reports revised the death toll down to one. Rescue workers at the scene said they saved a three-year-old girl. Zaporizhzhia’s branch of Suspilne reported more explosions in the city at mid-morning Kyiv time.

  • The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has appeared to admit severe losses in Ukraine, conceding the severity of the Kremlin’s recent military reversals and insisting Russia would “stabilise” the situation in four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – it illegally claimed as its own territory last week. “We are working on the assumption that the situation in the new territories will stabilise,” Putin told Russian teachers during a televised video call on Wednesday.

  • The UN nuclear agency chief is en route to Kyiv to discuss creating a security zone around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, after Putin ordered his government to take it over. “On our way to Kyiv for important meetings,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head, Rafael Grossi, wrote on Twitter, saying the need for a protection zone around the site was “more urgent than ever”. Grossi is also expected to visit Moscow in the coming days to discuss the situation at the plant. The IAEA said it had learned of plans to restart one reactor at the plant, where all six reactors have been shut down for weeks.

  • Ukraine’s forces are pushing their advance in the east and south, forcing Russian troops to retreat under pressure on both fronts. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukraine’s military had made major, rapid advances against Russian forces in the past week, taking back dozens of towns in regions in the south and east that Russia has declared annexed. Military experts say Russia is at its weakest point, partly because of its decision not to mobilise earlier and partly because of massive losses of troops and equipment.

  • Ukraine has extended its area of control in the Kherson region by six to 12 miles, according to its military’s southern command. Zelenskiy confirmed the recapture of the villages of Novovoskresenske, Novohryhorivka and Petropavlivka, saying the settlements were “liberated from the sham referendum and stabilised”, in an address on Wednesday. Kherson region’s Moscow-appointed governor, Kirill Stremousov, said the withdrawal was a tactical “regrouping” to “deliver a retaliatory blow”. The extent of Russia’s retreat remains unclear.

  • Moscow’s forces have left behind smashed towns once under occupation and, in places, mass burial sites and evidence of torture chambers. In Lyman, which was retaken by Ukrainian forces on Sunday, more than 50 graves have been found, some marked with names, others with numbers, the Kyiv-based outlet Hromadske reported on Wednesday.

  • Leaders of 44 European countries on Thursday in Prague will send a clear signal of Russia’s isolation and try to create a new order without Moscow, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said this morning. “The meeting is looking for a new order without Russia,” he told reporters.

  • The UN has warned Russia’s claimed annexation of Ukraine territory will only exacerbate human rights violations. Christian Salazar Volkmann said UN experts had documented “a range of violations of the rights to life, liberty and security” and warned the situation would only worsen as Russia pushes forward with the annexation of some Ukrainian regions.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I am handing over to Rachel Hall. I will be back later on.

Updated

Here is a video clip showing some of the scenes in Zaporizhzhia after today’s attacks.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has urged Nato to “demonstrate that they are not afraid of Russia”. During a video-link interview with the Lowy Institute in Australia on Thursday, Zelenskiy was asked whether he had received any response from Nato, and how quickly he expected the alliance to act on the application.

He said his key message was: “You don’t need to be afraid of anyone.”

Zelenskiy said it was important to build “security guarantees for the whole world so that nobody would have even a thought to become autocratic, and even if you’re autocratic that you shouldn’t have even a single thought that you can conquer the other territories or other nations”.

“For that, you must have to be united. And I think that without Ukraine, Nato is not such a strong alliance, particularly the European continent. I believe for the strength in the east of Europe this is a very important step. We can offer this chance to Nato. We are grateful for their support to Nato. We are giving this opportunity at a very important moment.”

Zelenskiy appealed for his Nato partners to show resolve.

“Not only Ukraine has to demonstrate its strengths to Russia, but the alliance has also to demonstrate that they are not afraid of Russia. It’s a question to Nato. But I know that everyone realises that security guarantees for Ukraine are something that is necessary. And I think we are on that path. We shall definitely take this path. How fast it’s going to be, unfortunately, it depends not only on Ukraine.”

Zelenskiy announced last week that Ukraine was officially applying for membership of Nato, after Vladimir Putin said he was annexing four Ukrainian provinces.

Updated

Maria Zakharova is giving her weekly press briefing for Russia’s foreign ministry. So far she has stated that it would be impossible to investigate the damage to the Nord Stream pipelines without Russian involvement, and accused Denmark of being unwilling to cooperate and said that the west was creating obstacles to the repair work.

She criticised Ukraine’s contribution to the grain export deal, saying it was depriving grain exports to poorer countries, and denied claims that Russia had damaged grain silos or agricultural land, reiterating that the armed forces of the Russian Federation only target military infrastructure.

Updated

Reporter Kateryna Malofieieva is in Zaporizhzhia and has posted to say that rescue work in the Ukrainian city is being interrupted by air-raid sirens that force first responders to shelter.

Updated

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has commented on this morning’s attacks on Zaporizhzhia, saying:

Overnight, seven Russian missiles have hit people sleeping peacefully at their homes in Zaporizhzhia. More have struck during the day. Russians keep deliberately striking civilians to sow fear. Russian terror must be stopped — by force of weapons, sanctions, and full isolation.

Updated

Here are some of the images of the aftermath from today’s attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia by Russian forces.

Rescuers carry an injured local resident at the site of a residential building heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike.
Rescuers carry an injured local resident at the site of a residential building heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike. Photograph: Reuters
Firefighters are among rescue workers at the scene in Zaporizhzhia.
Firefighters are among rescue workers at the scene in Zaporizhzhia. Photograph: AP
Rescue workers clear debris after a strike in Zaporizhzhia.
Rescue workers clear debris after a strike in Zaporizhzhia. Photograph: Marina Moiseyenko/AFP/Getty Images

The UK’s ministry of defence has published this map today of how it assesses the latest territorial situation on the ground.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, has said overnight Russian forces shelled across the front line in multiple locations. He reported that one civilian was wounded and that houses were damaged in several settlements. The claims have not been independently verified. Donetsk is one of the regions that Russia claims to have annexed without fully controlling the territory.

Updated

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said he hopes a vote at the UN general assembly next week condemning Russia’s purported annexation of Ukrainian territory will be “as unanimous as possible”.

Zelenskiy is addressing the Sydney-based Lowy Institute by video link on Thursday. In his opening remarks, Zelenskiy urged Australia to help secure an overwhelming UN vote against Russia’s actions:

“I’m asking Australia to use all of its influence to convince as many countries as possible not to remain neutral and to vote for international law and against a Russian annexation.”

Ukraine’s governor of Zaporizhzhia, Oleksandr Starukh, has issued an update on the strikes in Zaporizhzhia this morning, revising the death toll down to one for now. He writes:

So far it is known about the death of one woman. The death of another person has not been confirmed. Thanks to the doctors, her life was saved. Seven people were injured of varying degrees of severity, they were treated, including one three-year-old child. The rescue operation is still ongoing. The number of victims may vary. The number of victims could have been much higher, but thanks to the timely and professional actions of the Zaporizhzhia state emergency service, 21 victims were already saved.

Russia launches multiple strikes on city of Zaporizhzhia

Russia hit the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia with seven rockets, flattening an apartment building on early on Thursday morning. The city’s authorities told Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne at least two have died and at least another five are trapped under the rubble, although later reports revised the death toll down to one. Rescue workers at the scene said they saved one three-year-old girl.

Zaporizhzhia’s branch of Suspline reported more explosions in the city at mid-morning Kyiv time.

Oleksandr Starukh, Ukraine’s governor of Zaporizhzhia, said on Telegram: “Attention. Another enemy missile attack. Stay in shelters”.

Russia launched two rockets at the central Ukrainian city of Khmelnytsky, but both reportedly missed their targets.

Elsewhere, Russia used what the Ukrainian authorities say are Iranian-supplied kamikaze drones to target the cities of Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Odesa. Ukraine’s military say they managed to shoot down 18 additional drones before they reached Odesa and Mykolaiv.

As the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont reported, the Iranian drones are able to remain airborne for several hours and circle over potential targets, the drones are designed to be flown into enemy troops, armour or buildings, exploding on impact – explaining their description as kamikaze drones.

The city of Zaporizhzhia is the administrative centre of the Zaporizhzhia region which Russia claims to have annexed.

Updated

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled leader of the democratic opposition in Belarus, has commented on today’s strikes on Zaporizhzhia, saying:

The Russian attack on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia is another shameful act of terror against the population of Ukraine. Thousands of innocent adults & children have paid with their lives for Putin and Lukashenko’s war. They lose on the battlefield & take revenge on civilians.

Updated

Zaporizhzhia residents warned of further missiles

Oleksandr Starukh, Ukraine’s governor of Zaporizhzhia, has alerted people to an another attack on Telegram, posting “Attention. Another enemy missile attack. Stay in shelters”.

Updated

If you need a reminder, this animated map posted by Ukraine’s minister of defence Oleksii Reznikov yesterday shows the territory that the Ukrainian armed forces have claimed to recapture during their counteroffensive over the last month.

The BBC’s Paul Adams reports hearing three more loud explosions in Zaporizhzhia in the last few minutes.

Kirill Stremousov, one of the Russian-imposed leaders in the occupied region of Kherson which the Russian Federation has claimed to annex, has been very vocal on Telegram in the last couple of days, attempting to counter any narrative that Ukrainian forces are making any progress in the south. This morning he has, without presenting evidence, again asserted that the defences in Kherson are holding. He said:

The situation in the Kherson region is unchanged. The Kherson region is holding back the onslaught of the Ukronazis who are trying to break into Kherson. We repeat once again that despite the panic that is dispersed in the media, in the Kherson region, the ministry of defence and the Russian Guard stand to the death. The advances of the Ukronazis, fascists, Germans, Americans and other mercenaries have been stopped.

The Russian Federation has signed into law an annexation of the Kherson region, despite not fully controlling it.

Leaders of 44 European countries on Thursday in Prague will send a clear signal of Russia’s isolation and try to create a new order without Moscow, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said this morning.

“The meeting is looking for a new order without Russia,” Reuters reports he told reporters in Prague.

Updated

The Kremlin has published details of the decree that Vladimir Putin signed yesterday to “correct” aspects of the partial mobilisation. Russian state media RIA Novosti reports:

According to the decree, the deferment is granted to those who receive education of the appropriate level for the first time in full-time and part-time (evening) forms of education. Students, graduate students and residents enrolled in state-accredited programmes of secondary and higher professional education also have this right.

In addition, the basis for the postponement will be training in organisations located on the territories of innovative scientific and technological centres, as well as in spiritual educational organisations.

Rescue workers on scene of deadly residential rocket strike in Zaporizhzhia

Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs has confirmed that seven Russian rocket attacks hit the city of Zaporizhzhia overnight. It says that first responders are present, and that “work is ongoing, all relevant services are on site”.

Regional governor, Oleksandr Starukh, earlier said that one woman was confirmed to have died in the attack while another person died in an ambulance. “At least five people are under the rubble of buildings,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday morning.

Images posted by the ministry included pictures of debris on fire, and rescue workers clambering through the rubble of a destroyed high-rise building, which had collapsed on to cars parked in front of it.

Rescuers work at a site of a residential building heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia.
Rescuers work at a site of a residential building heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia. Photograph: Reuters
Image of the aftermath of a strike in Zaporizhzhia issued by Ukraine’s ministry of the interior
The aftermath of a strike in Zaporizhzhia issued by Ukraine’s ministry of the interior. Photograph: Ukraine ministry of the interior / Telegram

Ivan Fedorov, Ukraine’s elected mayor of Melitopol, said on Telegram: “Dozens of people are under the rubble. The number of victims increases every hour. This is how the Russian terrorist hits civilians with its ‘high-precision’ weapons. It hits civilians and infrastructure, because it demonstrates to the whole world its worthlessness on the battlefield.”

The city of Zaporizhzhia is the administrative centre of the Zaporizhzhia oblast, one of the regions of Ukraine that Russia has claimed to annex, despite not controlling all of the territory there.

Updated

Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, has posted a status update to Telegram to report no casualties overnight in his region. However he says that the region was again attacked by Shahed-136 “kamikaze drones”, and that some residential and farm buildings as well as agricultural lands has been damaged. The claims have not been independently verified.

The Russian-imposed authorities in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, occupied Ukrainian territory which the Russian Federation has claimed to annex, have issued casualty figures for the last 24 hours. They claim that six civilians have been wounded and three killed by shelling from Ukrainian armed forces. Additionally they say that 12 houses and five civil infrastructure facilities were damaged. The claims have not been independently verified.

Summary so far

Before I hand you over to my colleague Martin Belam here is a rundown of where things stand as of 9am in Ukraine.

  • Two people have been killed after Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia was allegedly hit by Russian missiles in the early hours of Thursday morning. Regional governor, Oleksandr Starukh, said one woman was confirmed to have died in the attack while another person died in an ambulance. “At least five people are under the rubble of buildings,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday morning. Starukh earlier alleged Russia “fired 7 rockets at high-rise buildings” while rescuers continue to pull people out from under the rubble.

  • The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has appeared to admit severe losses in Ukraine, conceding the severity of the Kremlin’s recent military reversals and insisting Russia would “stabilise” the situation in four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – it illegally claimed as its own territory last week. “We are working on the assumption that the situation in the new territories will stabilise,” Putin told Russian teachers during a televised video call on Wednesday.

  • The UN nuclear agency chief is en route to Kyiv to discuss creating a security zone around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, after Putin ordered his government to take it over. “On our way to Kyiv for important meetings,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi wrote on Twitter, saying the need for a protection zone around the site was “more urgent than ever”. Grossi is also expected to visit Moscow in the coming days to discuss the situation at the plant.

  • Ukraine’s forces are pushing their advance in the east and south, forcing Russian troops to retreat under pressure on both fronts. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s military had made major, rapid advances against Russian forces in the past week, taking back dozens of towns in regions in the south and east that Russia has declared annexed. Military experts say Russia is at its weakest point, partly because of its decision not to mobilise earlier and partly because of massive losses of troops and equipment.

  • Ukraine has extended its area of control in the Kherson region by six to 12 miles, according to its military’s southern command. Zelenskiy confirmed the recapture of the villages of Novovoskresenske, Novohryhorivka and Petropavlivka, saying the settlements were “liberated from the sham referendum and stabilised,” in an address on Wednesday. Kherson region’s Moscow-appointed governor, Kirill Stremousov, said the withdrawal was a tactical “regrouping” to “deliver a retaliatory blow”. The extent of Russia’s retreat remains unclear.

  • Moscow’s forces have left behind smashed towns once under occupation and, in places, mass burial sites and evidence of torture chambers. In Lyman, which was retaken by Ukrainian forces on Sunday, more than 50 graves have been found, some marked with names, others with numbers, the Kyiv-based outlet Hromadske reported on Wednesday.

  • The UN has warned Russia’s claimed annexation of Ukraine territory will only exacerbate human rights violations. Christian Salazar Volkmann, said UN experts had documented “a range of violations of the rights to life, liberty and security” and warned the situation would only worsen as Russia pushes forward with the annexation of some Ukrainian regions.

  • European leaders are set to meet in Prague on Thursday in the face of Russia’s war. Leaders from Ukraine, Britain and Turkey will join their EU counterparts in Prague on Thursday for a summit aimed at bringing the continent together in the face of Russia’s aggression. The gathering has been billed by Brussels as a “platform for political coordination” for the disparate 44 nations attending.

  • Attempts to play down retreats in Ukraine are no longer washing inside Russia with the latest military failures spilling on to local television screens. “Why do we advance metre by metre when they advance village by village?” Olga Skabeyeva, the country’s top state-TV host, asked a Russia-appointed official in Luhansk in a recent broadcast. Pro-war military bloggers and journalists are also criticising the Kremlin and painting a bleak picture of deteriorating Russian morale.

  • Russia is lobbying for a secret ballot instead of a public vote when the 193-member UN General Assembly next week considers whether to condemn Moscow’s move to annex four partially occupied regions in Ukraine.

  • The car bombing that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of prominent Russian political figure Alexander Dugin, was allegedly authorised by elements within the Ukrainian government, according to US intelligence sources who spoke with the New York Times and CNN. The United States took no part in the attack, either by providing intelligence or other assistance, the officials said.

A man rides past a damaged building in the city of Lyman in the Donetsk region, Ukraine.
A man rides past a damaged building in the city of Lyman in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Updated

Attempts to play down retreats in Ukraine are no longer washing inside Russia with the latest military failures spilling on to Russian television screens.

“Why do we advance metre by metre when they advance village by village?” Olga Skabeyeva, the country’s top state-TV host, asked a Russia-appointed official in Luhansk in a recent broadcast.

Pro-war military bloggers and journalists are also criticising the Kremlin and painting a bleak picture of deteriorating Russian morale.

Roman Saponkov, a prominent war correspondent, described his despair over the pullback in Kherson on his Telegram channel:

Friends, I know you’re waiting for me to comment on the situation. But I really don’t know what to say to you. The retreat … is catastrophic.”

Aleksandr Kots, a pro-Kremlin journalist who travels with with the Russian army, added: “We do not have enough people … fatigue has set in … there is no longer any strength left to hold on to the territories won.”

Two killed in Zaporizhzhia missile attack, governor says

Two people have been killed after an alleged Russian missile attack hit Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Regional governor, Oleksandr Starukh, said one woman was confirmed to have died in the attack while another person died in an ambulance.

“At least 5 people are under the rubble of buildings,” Starukh wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday morning.

“Many people were saved. Among them is a three-year-old girl, the child is in foster care. A rescue operation is underway at the scene.”

Starukh earlier alleged Russia “fired 7 rockets at high-rise buildings” while rescuers continue to pull people out from under the rubble.

Bodies of Russian soldiers, shredded uniforms and burned out military vehicles litter parts of Lyman in Ukraine after it was liberated from Russian occupation.

The city in Donetsk became the latest strategically important city Russian occupiers surrendered as the Kremlin faces heavy losses.

The gains by Ukraine come after Russia illegally claimed four territories as its own last week.

Russia wants secret UN vote on move to condemn 'annexations'

Russia is lobbying for a secret ballot instead of a public vote when the 193-member UN General Assembly next week considers whether to condemn Moscow’s move to annex four partially occupied regions in Ukraine.

Ukraine and its allies have denounced the votes in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as illegal and coercive. A western-drafted UN General Assembly resolution would condemn Russia’s “illegal so-called referenda” and the “attempted illegal annexation” of the areas where voting occurred.

Meanwhile, the UN has warned Russia’s claimed annexation of Ukraine territory will only exacerbate human rights violations.

Christian Salazar Volkmann, said UN experts had documented “a range of violations of the rights to life, liberty and security” and warned the situation would only worsen as Russia pushes forward with annexing the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

The referendums have been dismissed as a “sham” by the west. “With the purported annexation... the Russian Federation has taken steps which deepen rather than resolve the conflict, and exacerbate the human rights violations associated with it,” Salazar Volkmann said.

European leaders to meet in face of Russia’s war

Leaders from Ukraine, Britain and Turkey will join their EU counterparts in Prague on Thursday for a summit aimed at bringing the continent together in the face of Russia’s aggression.

The gathering has been billed by Brussels as a “platform for political coordination” for the disparate 44 nations attending.

Those set to meet also include the leaders of Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Georgia, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia and Switzerland.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will connect via video link from Kyiv as his prime minister will stand in for him at the talks, according to AFP.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss is set to tell fellow leaders:

Europe is facing its biggest crisis since the Second World War. And we have faced it together with unity and resolve. We must continue to stand firm - to ensure that Ukraine wins this war, but also to deal with the strategic challenges that it has exposed.”

Despite the rhetoric there are expected to be few concrete results from the summit. EU officials expect to agree to hold a follow-up gathering of the community in six months’ time in a country outside the bloc, with Britain and Moldova both offering to host.

Unconfirmed reports of shelling in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia has damaged or destroyed several residential buildings overnight leaving some residents trapped under rubble, according to the region’s governor.

“As a result of the enemy attacks, fires broke out in the city,” Oleksandr Starukh wrote on the Telegram messaging app early on Thursday morning.

“There are possible casualties. Rescuers are already pulling people out from under the rubble.”

Starukh later alleged Russia “fired 7 rockets at high-rise buildings” and said the number of victims is still being clarified.

Updated

Russian troops leave behind mass burial sites, evidence of torture

As Russian troops have retreated, they have left behind smashed towns once under occupation and, in places, mass burial sites and evidence of torture chambers.

The Guardian’s Isobel Koshiw brings us this dispatch from Kyiv.

In the town of Lyman, which was retaken by Ukrainian forces on Sunday, more than 50 graves have been found, some marked with names, others with numbers, the Kyiv-based outlet Hromadske reported on Wednesday.

The Russians forced Ukrainians they suspected of collaborating to collect bodies and bury them. One boy, who was detained by the Russians and forced to bury bodies, told Hromadske that some of the bodies were left lying on the street for a long time.

A local resident wheels her bicycle after receiving humanitarian aid in the recently liberated town of Lyman, Donetsk region, Ukraine.
A local resident wheels her bicycle after receiving humanitarian aid in the recently liberated town of Lyman, Donetsk region, Ukraine. Photograph: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters

More evidence of tortured and extrajudicial killings has been discovered in Kharkiv region.

Two civilians corpses aged 30-35 were found in a grave in the village of Novoplatonivka, Kharkiv region, according to Ukrainian authorities. The left hand of one man was handcuffed to the right hand of the second man. Investigators said one of the skulls was fractured and the other had suffered a gun shot wound to the head.

Kharkiv prosecutors and police said 250-350 Russian special forces were stationed near the grave. They said their initial suspicion is that the men were killed by Russian special forces.

In Pisky-Radkivskyi, another village in Kharkiv region, Ukraine authorities said they found another torture chamber.

Serhii Bolvinov, chief investigator for Kharkiv region said: “Neighbours constantly heard screams from here. Investigators found a terrible torture chamber in the village.

“Police have been made aware of the torture of burying people alive and the use of a gas mask with a smouldering rag.”

Updated

Russian troops retreat from Ukraine's east and south

Ukraine’s forces are pushing their advance in the east and south, forcing Russian troops to retreat under pressure on both fronts.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s military had made major, rapid advances against Russian forces in the past week, taking back dozens of towns in regions in the south and east that Russia has declared annexed.

Military experts say Russia is at its weakest point, partly because of its decision not to mobilise earlier and partly because of massive losses of troops and equipment.

In the Kherson region, Ukraine has extended its area of control by six to 12 miles, according to its military’s southern command.

Zelenskiy confirmed the recapture of the villages of Novovoskresenske, Novohryhorivka and Petropavlivka, saying the settlements were “liberated from the sham referendum and stabilised” during a Wednesday evening address.

Kherson region’s Moscow-appointed governor, Kirill Stremousov, said Russia’s withdrawal was a tactical “regrouping” to “deliver a retaliatory blow”. The extent of Russia’s retreat remains unclear for now.

Ukraine’s minister of defence, Oleksii Reznikov, said his soldiers “continue moving forward” in its autumn offensive.

“While the ‘Russian parliament’ is intoxicated from the futile attempts at annexation, our soldiers continue moving forward,” he said in a Twitter post on Thursday. “This is the best answer to any and all ‘referenda’, ‘decrees’, ‘treaties’ and pathetic speeches.”

UN nuclear chief heads to Kyiv

The UN nuclear agency chief will shortly arrive in Kyiv to discuss creating a security zone around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, after Putin ordered his government to take it over.

“On our way to Kyiv for important meetings,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi wrote on Twitter, saying the need for a protection zone around the site was “more urgent than ever”.

Putin earlier signed a decree ordering the Russian government to take control of Europe’s largest atomic plant and make it “federal property”.

Grossi is also expected to visit Moscow in the coming days to discuss safety at the plant, Russian state-owned news agency Tass reported.

The IAEA said it had learned of plans to restart one reactor at the plant, where all six reactors have been shut down for weeks.

Putin appears to admit severe losses, vows to 'stabilise' annexed regions

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has appeared to concede the severity of the Kremlin’s recent military reversals in Ukraine, insisting Russia will “stabilise” the situation in the four Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia it illegally claimed as its own territory last week.

Putin told Russian teachers during a televised video call on Wednesday:

We are working on the assumption that the situation in the new territories will stabilise.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears in a video conference outside Moscow on 5 October where he vows to ‘stabilise’ the situation in the four annexed regions of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appears in a video conference outside Moscow on 5 October where he vows to ‘stabilise’ the situation in the four annexed regions of Ukraine. Photograph: SPUTNIK/Reuters

His comments appear to indirectly acknowledge the challenges Moscow faces to assert its control.

When later asked by journalists whether there was a contradiction between Russia’s annexation rhetoric and the reality on the ground, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there was none.

There is no contradiction whatsoever. They will be with Russia forever and they will be returned.”

Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments for the next few hours.

Ukraine’s forces are pushing their advance in the east and south, forcing Russian troops to retreat under pressure on both fronts.

In the Kherson region, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s military has made major advances against Russian forces and recaptured the villages of Novovoskresenske, Novohryhorivka and Petropavlivka during a Wednesday evening address.

The UN nuclear agency chief, Rafael Grossi, will shortly arrive in Kyiv to discuss creating a security zone around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, after Putin ordered his government to take it over.

Here are all the major developments you may have missed:

  • The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has appeared to admit severe losses in Ukraine, conceding the severity of the Kremlin’s recent military reversals and insisting Russia would “stabilise” the situation in four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – it illegally claimed as its own territory last week. “We are working on the assumption that the situation in the new territories will stabilise,” Putin told Russian teachers during a televised video call on Wednesday.

  • The UN nuclear agency chief is en route to Kyiv to discuss creating a security zone around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, after Putin ordered his government to take it over. “On our way to Kyiv for important meetings,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi wrote on Twitter, saying the need for a protection zone around the site was “more urgent than ever”. Grossi is also expected to visit Moscow in the coming days to discuss the situation at the plant. The IAEA said it had learned of plans to restart one reactor at the plant, where all six reactors have been shut down for weeks.

  • Ukraine’s forces are pushing their advance in the east and south, forcing Russian troops to retreat under pressure on both fronts. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s military had made major, rapid advances against Russian forces in the past week, taking back dozens of towns in regions in the south and east that Russia has declared annexed. Military experts say Russia is at its weakest point, partly because of its decision not to mobilise earlier and partly because of massive losses of troops and equipment.

  • Ukraine has extended its area of control in the Kherson region by six to 12 miles, according to its military’s southern command. Zelenskiy confirmed the recapture of the villages of Novovoskresenske, Novohryhorivka and Petropavlivka, saying the settlements were “liberated from the sham referendum and stabilised,” in an address on Wednesday. Kherson region’s Moscow-appointed governor, Kirill Stremousov, said the withdrawal was a tactical “regrouping” to “deliver a retaliatory blow”. The extent of Russia’s retreat remains unclear.

  • Moscow’s forces have left behind smashed towns once under occupation and, in places, mass burial sites and evidence of torture chambers. In Lyman, which was retaken by Ukrainian forces on Sunday, more than 50 graves have been found, some marked with names, others with numbers, the Kyiv-based outlet Hromadske reported on Wednesday.

  • The UN has warned Russia’s claimed annexation of Ukraine territory will only exacerbate human rights violations. Christian Salazar Volkmann, said UN experts had documented “a range of violations of the rights to life, liberty and security” and warned the situation would only worsen as Russia pushes forward with the annexation of some Ukrainian regions.

  • Attempts to play down retreats in Ukraine are no longer washing inside Russia with the latest military failures spilling on to local television screens. “Why do we advance metre by metre when they advance village by village?” Olga Skabeyeva, the country’s top state-TV host, asked a Russia-appointed official in Luhansk in a recent broadcast. Pro-war military bloggers and journalists are also criticising the Kremlin and painting a bleak picture of deteriorating Russian morale. Roman Saponkov, a prominent war correspondent, described his despair over the pullback in Kherson on his Telegram channel: “I really don’t know what to say to you. The retreat … is catastrophic.”

  • Poland says it has asked to have US nuclear weapons based on its territory, amid growing fears that Putin could resort to using nuclear arms in Ukraine. The request from the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, is widely seen as symbolic and appears to be the latest example of nuclear signalling to deter Putin. The White House, however, said it had not received such a request.

  • The car bombing that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of prominent Russian political figure Alexander Dugin, was allegedly authorised by elements within the Ukrainian government, according to US intelligence sources who spoke with the New York Times and CNN. The United States took no part in the attack, either by providing intelligence or other assistance, the officials said.

  • A SpaceX rocket carrying Russian cosmonaut, Anna Kikina, the only female cosmonaut in service, soared into orbit from Florida on Wednesday. The International Space Station crew comprising Kikina, two Americans and a Japanese astronaut flew together in a demonstration of US-Russian teamwork in space despite Ukraine war tensions.

People wait in line for food and medical aide in the town of Lyman in Donetsk region on 5 October.
People wait in line for food and medical aide in the town of Lyman in Donetsk region on 5 October. Photograph: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images
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