Closing summary
The US has announced additional security assistance for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion valued at $150m (£124m), the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Pentagon said.
Russia has criticised Ukrainian-backed peace talks set to be held in Malta this weekend, warning any discussions without its participation would be counterproductive, AFP reported.
Ukraine said it planned to evacuate hundreds of children from communities near the north-eastern city of Kupiansk.
Sabotage of the Baltic connector gas pipeline and undersea internet cables between Finland and Estonia cannot be ruled out, Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, said.
Slovakia’s new populist prime minister, Robert Fico, said his three-party coalition government was ending military aid to its eastern neighbour Ukraine, fulfilling one of his central campaign pledges. He said he had spoken to the head of the European Commission about his government’s move at a meeting before the bloc’s summit in Brussels.
Ukraine has suspended the use of its new Black Sea grain corridor due to what it sees as military risks, the Kyiv-based Barva Invest consultancy has said.
In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) reiterated some of the points western nations have been trying to claim about North Korea delivering arms to Russia for use in Ukraine. The MoD wrote: “Despite Russia’s official rejection of recent reports, it is almost certain that North Korean munitions have now reached ammunition depots in western Russia. These depots support Russian military operations in Ukraine.”
South Korea, Japan and the US have strongly condemned the supply of arms and military equipment by North Korea to Russia, saying they have confirmed “several” deliveries.
Updated
Slovakia’s new populist prime minister, Robert Fico, has said that he has “informed” the EU’s executive of his decision to stop military aid to Ukraine, the first such western reversal of backing for Kyiv.
AFP reports:
On Thursday, Fico said he had spoken to the head of the European Commission about his government’s move at a meeting before the bloc’s summit in Brussels.
In a Facebook post, Fico said Ursula von der Leyen respected “the sovereign right of member countries to support Ukraine militarily or not, and she appreciated our position on humanitarian aid”.
Earlier on Thursday, Fico told MPs that the country would “no longer supply weapons to Ukraine”, but would still supply humanitarian aid to its neighbour.
“I will support zero military aid to Ukraine … An immediate halt to military operations is the best solution we have for Ukraine. The EU should change from an arms supplier to a peacemaker,” he added.
Updated
Israel has called on Russia to expel a visiting Hamas delegation, saying their invitation to Moscow was “deplorable”, Reuters reports.
In a statement, the Israeli foreign ministry said:
Hamas is a terrorist organisation worse than Isis. The hands of senior Hamas figures are covered with the blood of more than 1,400 Israelis who were slaughtered, murdered, executed and burned, and they are responsible for the abduction of more than 220 Israelis, including babies, children, women and the elderly.
Updated
The official account for Ukraine’s ministry of Defence has said Denmark’s 13th package of military aid for Ukraine includes tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery ammunition and drones (see earlier post at 16.05).
Updated
US announces additional security assistance and funding for Ukraine
The US has announced additional security assistance for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion valued at $150m (£124m), the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Pentagon said.
The latest US assistance includes additional munitions for national advanced surface-to-air missile systems, stinger anti-aircraft missiles, and additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The assistance also included Javelin anti-armour systems, more than 2 million rounds of small arms ammunition and cold-weather gear, Reuters reports.
The U.S. is announcing a new tranche of arms and equipment for Ukraine today that will help them sustain progress on the battlefield and build further momentum.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) October 26, 2023
Some Republicans have become increasingly hostile in recent months to continuing White House requests for Ukraine funding.
Updated
Russia formally charges detained Russian-American journalist
Russia has formally charged a detained US-Russian journalist with failing to register as a “foreign agent”, AFP reports.
Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty’s (RFE-RL) Tatar-Bashkir service, is the second US reporter to be detained in Russia this year after the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges in March.
Rights groups say Kurmasheva’s arrest is the first time Russian authorities have pressed criminal charges of this kind against a journalist.
RFE/RL said in a statement that Russia’s investigative committee had formally charged Kurmasheva on Thursday, after her arrest in the central city of Kazan last week.
The charges carry up to five years in prison. Kurmasheva is now being held in pre-trial detention until at least 5 December.
Kurmasheva, who lives in Prague with her husband and two children, had both her Russian and US passports confiscated during a trip to Russia in June.
Authorities initially said she had failed to notify them of her US citizenship and fined her. She was arrested on the new charges last week while waiting for her passports to be returned.
Under Russia’s criminal code, any Russian citizens that engage in what authorities call the “targeted collection” of information that could harm Russia’s national security have to register as a “foreign agent”.
Critics say the law is so sweepingly broad that it effectively gives Russian law enforcement the power to arrest journalists at will. RFE/RL has called for her immediate release.
Gulnoza Said, the Committee to Protect Journalist’s Europe and Central Asia programme coordinator, has previously said:
CPJ is deeply concerned by the detention of US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva on spurious criminal charges and calls on Russian authorities to release her immediately and drop all charges against her.
Journalism is not a crime and Kurmasheva’s detention is yet more proof that Russia is determined to stifle independent reporting.
Updated
Russia criticises Kyiv-backed peace talks in Malta
Russia has criticised Ukrainian-backed peace talks set to be held in Malta this weekend, warning any discussions without its participation would be counterproductive, AFP reports.
The talks, which Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy hopes will drum up support for his own peace plan, come after similar gatherings in Jeddah and Copenhagen earlier this year.
“Obviously such gatherings have absolutely no perspective, they are simply counterproductive,” foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters.
She added the upcoming meeting had “nothing to do with the search for a peaceful resolution” and criticised Malta for hosting what she called a “blatantly anti-Russian event”.
Zelenskiy has been promoting his own ten-point peace plan, which calls for Russia to withdraw all its troops from Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders, including Russian-controlled territories.
Russia – which claimed to annex the four Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia last September – has rejected any settlement that would involve giving up land.
Updated
Dossiers of evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine have been presented to German federal prosecutors at the start of a campaign to use the principle of universal jurisdiction to bring war criminals to justice.
The cases were filed on Thursday morning by the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), representing 16 survivors and the families of victims in three separate war crimes cases: an indiscriminate missile attack on a coastal resort near Odesa that killed 22 people; the execution of four men in occupied territory in the Kharkiv region in spring and summer last year; and a series of executions and acts of torture and sexual violence committed outside Kyiv in March 2022.
The first cases have been brought to Berlin because the German judicial system has been at the forefront of prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity under the principle of universal jurisdiction, by which some abuses are deemed to be so serious that the duty to investigate and prosecute goes far beyond the territory on which the crimes were committed.
You can read the full story here:
Denmark will donate military equipment to Ukraine worth 3.7bn Danish crowns (£431m), the Danish defence ministry has said.
Denmark and the Netherlands were the first two countries to commit to donating F-16 jets to Ukraine.
Updated
Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said he held “productive” talks with France’s armed forces minister, Sébastien Lecornu, earlier, with artillery and air defence systems being among the topics discussed.
Held productive talks with a Minister of the Armed Forces of France @SebLecornu.
— Rustem Umerov (@rustem_umerov) October 26, 2023
Discussed the priority needs: artillery and air defense systems. We must be fully prepared for this winter to protect our people, cities, and infrastructure.
Grateful to Minister Lecornu for his…
Ukraine to evacuate children from towns near Kupiansk, ministry says
Ukraine said it planned to evacuate hundreds of children from communities near the north-eastern city of Kupiansk, it has been reported.
Kyiv’s forces recaptured Kupiansk and the surrounding areas of Kharkiv region in September 2022, but Moscow has since pushed back in an attempt to move the frontline west ahead of the winter.
“The Kharkiv regional military administration is planning to announce the forced evacuation of children from 10 settlements in Kharkiv region,” Kyiv’s reintegration ministry said.
It said 275 children would be evacuated from 10 localities in and around Kupiansk, which lies less than five miles from the frontline, AFP reports.
Ukrainian authorities had already announced evacuation orders for some settlements near Kupiansk in August, but fighting there has since intensified.
Updated
In a move which is likely to provoke a lot of reaction in Ukraine, the Russian foreign ministry has announced that a delegation from Hamas is currently visiting Moscow.
The state emergency service of Ukraine has posted to social media about the repeated damage to buildings in Kherson region, but also states that its service personnel volunteer to help repair damage when not working on emergencies. It states that in the last 24 hours they have boarded up 52 windows damaged by the conflict.
❗️Херсонщина щодня потерпає від ворожих атак
— DSNS.GOV.UA (@SESU_UA) October 26, 2023
Рятувальники допомагають населенню ремонтувати вікна та лагодити дахи будівель, що постраждали в результаті ворожих обстрілів.
Лише протягом минулої доби надзвичайникам вдалось зашити фанерними щитами 52 вікна в житлових будинках. pic.twitter.com/fLXDgIN58y
Russian lawmakers backed a record increase in military spending to fund Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in a first reading of the bill Thursday.
AFP reports defence spending will account for almost a third of all state outlays in 2024, up 68% to 10.8tn rubles ($115bn/£95bn/€109bn).
At more than 6% of the country’s GDP, military spending will hit its highest share of the economy since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Before the vote, the finance minister, Anton Siluanov, told lawmakers the proposed budget was “aimed at today’s main task - ensuring our victory.”
Some lawmakers echoed Soviet-era second world war slogans in their endorsements of the increase, with lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, who heads the Duma’s foreign affairs committee, quoting a 1940s wartime message “Everything for the front, everything for victory.”
The Kremlin has previously said such a significant spending increase was essential in the face of western support for Kyiv. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has spoken before of the “hybrid warfare” the Kremlin claims is being waged on Russia.
Lawmakers voted 320-80 in favour of passing the budget, which will pass through two more readings in Russia’s lower chamber, before going to the upper house for approval and then to Putin for signing.
The budget also includes funds for the “integration of new regions” - a reference to financial support for four Ukrainian regions that the Russian Federation claimed to annex last year.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires:
Russia is “massively” recruiting Cuban mercenaries to fight in Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent has cited the National Resistance Center as having said.
They are allegedly involved in fighting around Bakhmut and Kupiansk.
In September, the Cuban government said young Cuban men had enlisted in the Kremlin’s military in recent months as mercenaries and victims in alleged human trafficking schemes.
In initial reports, Cuban authorities said they were working to “neutralise and dismantle” the network, which they said operated both on Cuban soil and in Russia.
Cuba has denied any involvement in the war in Ukraine and its authorities say those fighting for hire as mercenaries or involved in trafficking could face long prison sentences or even the death penalty.
Russia sent up a MIG-31 fighter jet on Thursday to escort a Norwegian Poseidon patrol plane over the Barents Sea, state news agency RIA quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying.
There was no violation of the air border by the Norwegian patrol plane, the ministry said, according to Reuters.
It was the latest of a series of recent incidents in which Russia sent fighter planes to intercept US, Norwegian or British military aircraft that it says came close to entering Russian airspace.
The incidents come at a time of high tension between Russia and Nato, which is arming Ukraine to defend against Russia’s invasion.
The Russian defence ministry has been recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine, apparently taking over from the Wagner mercenary group which was the first to adopt the practice last year, BBC News reports.
Such army units are commonly known as Storm-Z, the letter Z being one of the symbols of Vladimir Putin’s so-called “special military operation” against Ukraine. It is also the first letter of the Russian word “zek”, or “inmate”.
The name Storm-Z is unofficial and can be applied to a range of Russian army units active in different parts of Ukraine.
Similarly to Wagner’s prisoner units, Storm-Z detachments are reportedly often treated as an expendable force thrown into battle – with little consideration for the lives of their servicemen.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said he has spoken with Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, with the two leaders agreeing to “maintain European unity and provide Ukraine with further long-term macro-financial aid”.
I spoke with @Statsmin Mette Frederiksen to thank Denmark for its support and Mykolayiv’s recovery.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 26, 2023
We agreed on the need to maintain European unity and provide Ukraine with further long-term macrofinancial aid.
On the #PeaceFormula, I thanked Denmark for sending its… pic.twitter.com/Vhe7dBQ8KE
Updated
EU leaders are determined to send a message to the world that their support for Ukraine remains as solid as ever as it enters a second winter of war is not.
Speaking to reporters ahead of an EU summit, the Estonian prime minister said she had many discussions with other leaders about the threat of fatigue.
Kaja Kallas said:
One said how can we say ‘we are tired’ when we are not the ones actually fighting the war. The Ukrainians are and they not tired.
So it is embarrassing to say we are tired. Another leader said that ‘we are able to deal with different crises at the same time as we have shown before. It doesn’t mean our attention is going way.
Sabotage of pipeline between Finland and Estonia can't be ruled out, says PM
Sabotage of the Baltic connector gas pipeline and undersea internet cables between Finland and Estonia cannot be ruled out, Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, has said, renewing focus on security in country’s close to Ukraine.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of an EU summit in Brussels she said they are treating the damage caused earlier this month “with the utmost seriousness”.
Kallas said:
The investigation is ongoing. There were two ships that are that were in this place at this time when the damage was caused.
One is Chinese origin and the other one is of Russian origin. The Finnish authorities have found the anchor of the Chinese ship but it is not entirely clear whether it was forced by this anchor so the investigation is ongoing.
“I will not rule out anything,” she added.
She said it hoped it was not sabotage but that the Finnish and Estonian authorities were now checking all infrastructure. Nato vessels have also been moved to the Gulf of Finland joining patrols by Finnish and Estonians.
“There are a lot of eyes right now on the sea and under the sea,” she said.
Estonia and others are watching for the investigation results closely with heightened concern that undersea internet cables linking EU member states and those linking the EU to the US are vulnerable to attack.
Finland’s central criminal police (KRP) said on Tuesday that the anchor, weighing six tonnes and missing one of its prongs, had been lifted from the seabed using a navy crane. Deep drag marks were found on both sides of the fractured pipeline.
Updated
Lisa O’Carroll, the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent, reports on the summit of leaders of the EU’s 27 members in Brussels on Thursday.
In an effort to put Ukraine back at the top of the agenda, EU leaders will spend most of the afternoon talking about the war as it enters its second winter, with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, joining part of the discussion by video link.
Diplomats said they were determined to “send a strong message to the world” that Ukraine remains front and centre in EU policy and they “will not lose sight” of the need to defeat Russia and will support Ukraine “for as long as it takes”.
You can read the full story here:
Updated
A senior Ukrainian official has said the election of Mike Johnson, a US Republican who has been an opponent to Ukraine aid, as speaker of the House of Representatives, would not affect Washington’s assistance for Kyiv.
Johnson, who was named House speaker on Wednesday, told reporters he supported further aid to Ukraine “with conditions”.
He said he wanted accountability and clear objectives from the White House, Reuters reports.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, said Johnson’s election was good for Ukraine because it ended a three-week leadership vacuum in the House.
Danilov said in televised comments:
I’m more than sure that cooperation will continue, assistance will continue.
The statement made by the speaker that they would like to check the assistance they provide this is a completely natural thing. We’re happy to provide all information about the aid, there are no secrets.
Joe Biden asked Congress last week to pass a $106bn funding package which included billions of dollars in assistance for Ukraine.
Updated
Slovakia halts military aid to Ukraine
Slovakia’s new populist prime minister, Robert Fico, has said his three-party coalition government was ending military aid to its eastern neighbour Ukraine, fulfilling one of his central campaign pledges.
Fico told MPs on Thursday before heading to a summit of EU leaders in Brussels that Slovakia would “no longer supply weapons to Ukraine”, but would continue to send humanitarian aid to its war-torn neighbour.
“I will support zero military aid to Ukraine … An immediate halt to military operations is the best solution we have for Ukraine. The EU should change from an arms supplier to a peacemaker,” the new prime minister added.
He also said he would “not vote for any sanctions against Russia unless we see analyses of their impact on Slovakia. If there are to be such sanctions that will harm us, like most sanctions have, I can see no reason to support them.”
The country had previously been a staunch supporter of Kyiv since Russia’s invasion February last year, donating ammunition and weaponry its fleet of Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets, and opening its borders for refugees fleeing the war.
The previous caretaker government suspended military aid earlier this month after Fico’s Smer-SD party won a 30 September election on a pledge to halt further supplies, oppose sanctions on Moscow and block Ukraine’s potential Nato membership.
Fico, who was forced to resign in 2018 amid huge popular protests after the murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancee, was formally sworn in on Wednesday as Slovakia’s prime minister, his fourth stint in the office.
Analysts expect the country to move closer to the nationalist policies of Hungary, whose illiberal leader, Viktor Orbán, Fico has said he admires – although many question how far he will follow through on his campaign rhetoric.
Smer finished first in last month’s ballot with 23% of the vote and formed a coalition with Hlas, a more moderate breakaway party led by Fico’s former deputy Peter Pellegrini, and the ultra-nationalist, pro-Russian Slovak National party (SNS).
Updated
The Kremlin on Thursday said it hoped to receive more “information” from Armenia after the Armenian prime minister said he saw “no advantage” in continuing to host Russian military bases on its territory.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, said his country was looking to “diversify our relationship in the security spheres”, because Moscow had failed to live up to its commitments as a security guarantor when Azerbaijan retook the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Ties between Russia and Armenia had been badly damaged by the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine and Azerbaijan’s recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Thursday that it was “not good for Russia and Armenia to communicate through newspapers, especially the Wall Street Journal.”
Russia, with a military base in Armenia, has long been its security guarantor, including managing tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh, but as Azerbaijan launched its offensive on the mountainous breakaway region, Moscow made clear its troops had no intention of intervening.
Distracted by the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Kremlin has been losing its grip on its traditional sphere of influence.
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
Ukraine has suspended the use of its new Black Sea grain corridor due to what it sees as military risks, the Kyiv-based Barva Invest consultancy has said.
In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has reiterated some of the points western nations have been trying to claim about North Korea delivering arms to Russia for use in Ukraine. The MoD wrote: “Despite Russia’s official rejection of recent reports, it is almost certain that North Korean munitions have now reached ammunition depots in western Russia. These depots support Russian military operations in Ukraine.”
South Korea, Japan and the US have strongly condemned the supply of arms and military equipment by North Korea to Russia, saying they have confirmed “several” deliveries.
Ukraine has claimed it is continuing to fend off attempts by Russian forces to encircle Avdiivka in Donetsk oblast. A spokesperson for the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine, Andriy Kovaliov, was quoted as saying: “In the Avdiivka direction, the enemy does not stop trying to encircle Avdiivka, actively uses aviation, but our soldiers are firmly holding the defence and inflicting significant losses on the enemy.”
In his regular daily press briefing, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia planned to build close ties with North Korea in all areas.
Asked about accusations by the US, Japan and South Korea that North Korea has shipped arms and military equipment to Russia, Reuters reports he said there were many such reports and they were baseless and lacked specifics.
He also said that he did not believe the election of a new House speaker in Congress in the US would affect the situation in Ukraine.
Updated
Ukraine has suspended the use of its new Black Sea grain corridor due to what it sees as military risks, the Kyiv-based Barva Invest consultancy has said.
“We would like to inform you of a temporary suspension of vessel traffic to and from (the ports). The current ban is in force on October 26, but it is possible that it will be extended,” the consultancy said on the Telegram messaging app, the Reuters news agency reported.
Ukrainian officials were not immediately available for comment.
Reuters has spoken to Nataliia Shadryna, who runs a bakery in the capital Kyiv, about the prospect for winter, with Russia widely expected to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure again.
“We are a nation that adapts easily,” she said. “We survived last year and are preparing for this one. When I ask my employees if they are scared, they say ‘no’.”
Shadryna’s bakery, Good Bread From Good People, a non-profit organisation which feeds people living in war-ravaged parts of Ukraine, relies on a generator donated earlier this year by supporters in Norway.
“Its capacity is even bigger than what we need, but it really helped us out of trouble,” she said of the hulking, crane-loaded device.
Despite the preparations, the prospect of more airstrikes still looms large over Shadryna’s staff, including the logistics manager, Ivan Zinchenko.
“What scares me most is the uncertainty of what’s going to happen,” he said.
Updated
Interfax in Russia reports that a court in Rostov-on-Don has sentenced a man to 17 years in a maximum security colony for “preparing a terrorist attack and attempting to join the ranks of the armed forces of Ukraine”.
Updated
UK MoD claims North Korea on course to be 'significant' arms supplier to Russia
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has issued its intelligence breifing about Ukraine for the day, and it reiterates some of the points western nations have been trying to claim about North Korea delivering arms to Russia for use in Ukraine. It writes:
Despite Russia’s official rejection of recent reports, it is almost certain that North Korean munitions have now reached ammunition depots in western Russia. These depots support Russian military operations in Ukraine.
If North Korea sustains the recent scale and pace of military-related shipments (more than 1,000 containers over the last several weeks), it will be on course to become one of Russia’s most significant foreign arms suppliers, alongside Iran and Belarus.
It is currently unclear what Russia has agreed to provide North Korea in return. It is unlikely the full package has been finalised; it was highly likely one of the primary discussion topics during recent senior level Russian visits to North Korea.
It will likely include a mixture of financial compensation, other economic support, the provision of military technology, and cooperation on other high technology areas, such as space.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 26 October 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 26, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/XtDEBWEdcc
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/lVCkzVawFK
Ukraine claims it continues to fend off Russian attempts to encircle Avdiivka
Ukraine claims it continues to fend off attempts by Russian forces to encircle Avdiivka in Donetsk oblast.
The state news agency Ukrinform quotes a spokesperson for the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine Andriy Kovaliov saying on Ukrainian television:
In the Avdiivka direction, the enemy does not stop trying to encircle Avdiivka, actively uses aviation, but our soldiers are firmly holding the defence and inflicting significant losses on the enemy.
Donetsk is one of four regons of Ukraine which the Russian Federation claimed to have annexed late last year.
The spokesperson claimed that in the last 24 hours Ukraine’s air force had launched seven strikes on enemy manpower clusters. He claimed that missiles hit three enemy ammunition depots, six artillery units and one air defence radar station. He also stated that offensive operations have continued in the Melitopol sector, which he said had weakened the enemy along the entire frontline there.
Earlier, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, posted a video on social media showing what purported to be footage of successful Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian targets. He said:
“Our drone strikes on military targets. Thank you, warriors, for your accuracy! Keep it up!”
Tavria direction. Our drone strikes on military targets. Thank you, warriors, for your accuracy! Keep it up!
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 26, 2023
🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦@United24media pic.twitter.com/HdsIbYYfuq
Updated
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg has welcomed Moldova’s prime minister Dorin Recean to Nato HQ in Brussels, telling him Nato pledged continued assistance.
In remarks made before the media, Stoltenberg said:
Moscow continues to apply pressure on Moldova, including energy blackmail and disinformation, with the aim of destabilising your society, undermining your democracy.
But Moldova has responded with resolve condemning Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine and strengthening your resilience and security at home.
Nato fully supports Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and call on Russia to withdraw its forces from your territory. You can count on our continued assistance earlier this year.
Stoltenberg said at the Vilnius summit in July that Nato had agreed to “continue stepping up our practical and political cooperation”, and suggested that this would help Moldova on its path to EU membership.
Recean said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had “triggered even bigger efforts for us, together with our friends, to develop the resilience of our society, the resilience of our institutions, and also our defence capabilities.”
He said that Moldova was keen to participate in Nato exercises that would “consolidate our capabilities and interoperability”.
Updated
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg is due to make a media appearance this morning in Brussels alongside the prime minister of Moldova, Dorin Recean.
Moldova borders Ukraine, and its breakaway region Transnistria is sandwiched between Ukraine and the rest of Moldova, and has Russian troops stationed in it.
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that an 83-year-old woman was injured as a result of shelling in the village of Podoly in Kharkiv oblast. A house was destroyed and three more were damaged. Additionally a man was injured as a result of the morning shelling of Kizomys in the Kherson region. The claims have not been independently verified.
This is Martin Belam with the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
An EU leaders’ summit in Brussels today will be their first in-person meeting since the 7 October assault on Israel by Hamas terrorists, which prompted Israel to bombard and blockade Hamas-run Gaza.
Charles Michel, president of the European Council of EU leaders, wrote in an invitation letter to the summit: “These developments require our immediate attention, without distracting us from our continued support to Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will address the summit by video link and support for Kyiv will have first place in the summit declaration. The EU and its member countries have provided billions of euros in assistance to Ukraine since Russian forces invaded in February last year.
But some officials and diplomats have voiced fears that Ukraine may struggle to maintain the same political attention and resources from the west, particularly the US, due to the new crisis in the Middle East.
The summit will not be able to sign off on multi-year plans for €50bn in financial aid and up €20bn euros for military aid for Ukraine, as they are part of a broader budget battle that officials hope to conclude by year’s end. Leaders will instead have their first debate on that budget package, which diplomats expect to be contentious.
Anger at ‘confirmed’ supply of North Korean weapons to Putin
South Korea, Japan and the US have strongly condemned the supply of arms and military equipment by North Korea to Russia, saying they have confirmed “several” deliveries.
The Reuters news agency’s bureau in Seoul reports that Russia and North Korea have denied the transfer of arms for use in Russia’s war against Ukraine amid reports that Washington and researchers said showed movement of vessels carrying containers likely with weapons between the two countries’ ports.
While it was not possible to confirm the contents of the shipments, reports said containers from the North were later seen delivered to a Russian munitions storage facility near the border with Ukraine.
“The Republic of Korea, United States, and Japan strongly condemn the provision of military equipment and munitions by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the Russian Federation for use against the government and people of Ukraine,” the statement said.
“Such weapons deliveries, several of which we now confirm have been completed, will significantly increase the human toll of Russia’s war of aggression,” the statement issued by the foreign ministers of the three countries said.
North Korea is seeking military assistance from Russia to advance its own military capabilities in return for its arms support for Moscow, the statement said.
“We are monitoring closely for any materials that Russia provides to the DPRK in support of Pyongyang’s military objectives,” it said, adding any arms transaction with North Korea violated multiple UN security council resolutions that Moscow itself voted for.
North Korea and Russia pledged closer military cooperation when their leaders met in September in Russia’s far east. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, met the North Korean ruler, Kim Jong-un, a few days ago and discussed implementing the agreements made at the summit.
Opening summary …
Hello, welcome to our live updates as we mark 610 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Here is a recap covering the last 24 hours or so.
The governments of the US, South Korea and Tokyo have condemned what they say are multiple confirmed shipments of North Korean arms for Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine.
European Union leaders meet on Thursday to grapple with the conflict between Israel and Hamas while also aiming to show continuing support for Ukraine in its war against Russia’s invasion.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine is preparing for renewed Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure ahead of the second winter of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of the country – and that the country is ready to counterattack if targeted. “We are preparing for terrorist attacks on our energy infrastructure,” Zelenskiy said. “This year we will not only defend ourselves, but also respond.”
Russia claims it has tested its ability to deliver a retaliatory nuclear strike in an exercise involving the launch of missiles by land, sea and air. News of the exercise was delivered on Russian state TV by the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu.
The exercise followed Russia’s parliament completing the passing of a law that withdraws Moscow’s ratification of the global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests. Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council, approved the law by 156 votes to zero earlier today after the lower house, the Duma, had also passed it unanimously. Russia says it is revoking its withdrawal of the treaty only to bring itself in line with the US, which signed but never ratified the same document.
Russia’s military claimed on Wednesday that its air defence forces had shot down two long-range US-made ATACM missiles fired by Ukraine at Russian targets in what state media said was the first downing of its kind. Russia’s defence ministry reported the interception in one of its regular updates on the war in Ukraine, something Moscow still calls “a special military operation.” It did not provide further details. The Reuters news agency was unable to independently verify Moscow’s claim and there was no immediate comment from Kyiv or Washington.
A drone attack by Russia near Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant temporarily cut power to some off-site radiation monitoring stations, the International Atomic Energy Agency said. “This incident again underlines the extremely precarious nuclear safety situation in Ukraine,” said the IAEA’s director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi.
In his nightly address, Zelenskiy accused Russia of targeting the power plant. “It is most likely that the target for these drones was the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power station. The shockwave from the explosion shattered windows, including on the nuclear power station’s premises,” he said.
The attack involved 11 Shahed drones and injured 16 people according to local authorities. Power lines were also damaged, with two towns close to the nuclear power plant, Netishyn and Slavuta, facing power cuts. Ukraine’s air force said it stopped all the drones that were launched.
Russian forces are disregarding heavy losses and pressing on with a drive to capture the eastern city of Avdiivka, Ukrainian officials have claimed. “The enemy is trying to move forward and then we beat them back,” Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern groups of forces, said on national TV. Russia has focused on the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk since failing in its initial drive on the capital Kyiv after mounting its invasion in February 2022.
Ukraine said it was aiming to increase domestic manufacture of its own drones, producing tens of thousands every month by the end of the year. Kyiv has relied heavily on foreign-made drones in the war so far, but is looking to ramp up its output despite the challenge posed by Russia’s invasion.
