Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the situation in Avdiivka and the nearby town of Maryinka remained “particularly tough. Numerous Russian attacks. But our positions are being held.” Russian forces have made a series of desperate and bloody lunges at the shattered town of Avdiivka, viewed as the gateway to recapturing Russian-held Donetsk and the rest of Donbas, made up of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War has reported that Ukrainian forces in Kherson have crossed from their side of the Dnipro river to take up new positions and pursue Russian forces. The Russians occupy the east bank at Kherson while the west bank remains free and under Ukrainian control, though regularly shelled by the Russians has continued over the weekend. Russia has said that Ukrainian crossing attempts took place.
The six people killed in a Russian missile strike on a postal distribution centre in Kharkiv district on Saturday were all postal workers, aged between 19 and 42. Of the 17 injured, seven are in a serious condition, and said to be “fighting for their lives”.
The attack was condemned by the US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Blink, who wrote on X: “The Kremlin’s disregard for life is for all the world to see.”
Mitch McConnell offered a strong endorsement on Sunday of the Joe Biden White House’s $106bn (£87bn) aid proposal to Israel and Ukraine, saying he and the president were essentially “in the same place” on the issue.
Russian forces shot down three missiles targeting the Crimean peninsula on Sunday, a Russian official said. The peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, is crucial to Russia’s military offensive, both for supplying troops in southern Ukraine and for carrying out missile strikes from the sea, AFP reports.
It is likely that Russia has suffered 150,000-190,000 permanent casualties (killed or permanently wounded) since the Ukraine war began, according to the latest update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence. If the numbers of temporary wounded (those recovered and due to return to the battlefield) are added, that number rises to 240,000-290,000, the MoD said on X.
Russian troops attacked the village of Stanislav in Kherson region overnight on 22 October, damaging over 30 houses, though no casualties were reported.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, is due to visit Tehran on Monday for talks with regional counterparts, his ministry’s spokesperson has confirmed. Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported earlier that the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia had been invited to the talks. Western countries have accused Tehran of supporting Russia’s offensive in Ukraine by providing it with large quantities of drones and other weaponry.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he had spoken with the Emir of Qatar sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to thank Qatar for its humanitarian assistance and mediation in returning home illegally deported Ukrainian children.
Ukraine fears a drone shortage due to China’s move to place restrictions on exports, the BBC reports. The war in Ukraine is the first armed conflict to see such extensive use of drones, which are used by both sides. Many of them are commercially made in China and bought off the shelf, and new supplies are vital because of the large numbers lost in the fighting.
Russia’s Gazprom, looking to compensate for the loss of most of its European markets, will supply extra gas to Hungary and China. Hungary is the only member of the EU whose leader, prime minister Viktor Orbán, has maintained friendly ties to Putin and is seen as the key potential opponent to a decision due in December on whether to open EU accession talks with Ukraine, which would require the unanimous backing of the bloc’s 27 members.
