Closing summary
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spoken about the situation in Israel, drawing parallels with the war in Ukraine by stating that “Israel’s right to self-defence is unquestionable”. He noted that his government had set up an operational headquarters to aid any Ukrainians in Israel. Officials have estimated that about 15,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to Israel.
A United Russia party official in the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson oblast was killed in a car explosion on Saturday, the Russian-installed regional governor said. Vladimir Malov, executive secretary of the town branch of Russia’s governing United Russia party, died in hospital, Vladimir Saldo said in a post on his Telegram channel. Saldo called the explosion a “terrorist attack”, meaning he was putting the blame on Ukraine Kyiv has not claimed responsibility.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former leader, called today for a civil war in the US, as he said a civil war would be the only thing that could stop “America’s manic passion for sparking conflicts everywhere on the planet”.
Train traffic between North Korea and Russia has dramatically increased after the recent following summit between leaders Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, indicating a “likely” transfer of arms, according to a new report by Washington-based analysts. High-resolution satellite imagery reveals at least 70 freight cars at North Korea’s border Tumangang rail facility, the Beyond Parallel group said on Friday, a number described as “unprecedented”.
A man was killed in the morning shelling of the village of Urazovo in Russia’s Belgorod oblast, the regional governor said. Vyacheslav Gladkov said the attack came from Ukrainian forces, but the Guardian could not independently verify those claims. Ukraine typically does not claim responsibility for strikes on Russia. A utility building, a storage facility and one social facility were destroyed in the attack, and 14 private households were damaged, Gladkov said.
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organisations in Vienna, posted on X yesterday that Russia is planning to revoke ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation. “The aim is to be on equal footing with the US, who signed the treaty but didn’t ratify it,” he said. “Revocation doesn’t mean the intention to resume nuclear tests.” The US warned that Russia revoking its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation will endanger “the global norm” against nuclear test blasts.
One woman was killed and two more people injured in the Russian shelling of the village of Bilenke in the Zaporizhzhia oblast this morning, the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration said on Telegram. A private house and outbuildings were damaged in the attack, said Yuriy Malashko.
A 10-year-old boy and his grandmother have been killed and more than 20 people wounded after a Russian missile attack on an apartment block in Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials have said. Rescuers found the boy’s body under debris after the strike on the north-eastern city’s densely populated downtown area early on Friday. Two Iskander missiles hit the flats in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called another act of “Russian terror”.
The death toll from a Russian missile strike on Hroza village in Kharkiv province the previous day rose to 52 on Friday after another victim died overnight in hospital, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said. A missile slammed into a cafe and grocery store in the village on Thursday as people gathered to mourn a fallen Ukrainian soldier. Separately, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said people from every family in Hroza had been affected by the attack.
Russian forces launched an overnight missile strike on Ukraine’s southern Odesa oblast, damaging port infrastructure, the regional governor said early on Saturday.Four people were wounded in the strike, which hit a boarding house and a portside grain facility, said Oleh Kiper. Debris from the rockets and the blast wave caused a fire in the garage cooperative and damaged several apartment buildings.
Updated
The past few days have been filled with death and destruction in Ukraine. The village of Bilenke in the Zaporizhzhia oblast was hit hard on Saturday morning in Russian shelling that killed at least one woman and caused widespread destruction. People in Hroza in Kharkiv oblast are in mourning after a missile strike killed at least 10% of the small village of 500 residents.
Here are some images of the aftermath.
Updated
Russian official killed in car explosion in Kherson oblast
A United Russia party official in the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka in Kherson oblast was killed in a car explosion on Saturday, the Moscow-installed regional governor said.
Vladimir Malov, the executive secretary of the town branch of Russia’s governing United Russia party, died in hospital, Vladimir Saldo said in a post on his Telegram channel.
Saldo called the explosion a “terrorist attack”, meaning he was putting the blame on Ukraine. Kyiv has not claimed responsibility.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spoken about the situation in Israel, drawing parallels to the war in Ukraine by stating that “Israel’s right to self-defence is unquestionable”.
“Terror should have no place in the world, because it is always a crime, not just against a specific country or this terror’s victims, but against humanity in general and our entire world,” he said. “Anyone who resorts to terror commits a crime against the world. Whoever finances terror is committing a crime against the world. The world must stand united and in solidarity so that terror does not attempt to break or subjugate life anywhere and at any moment.”
He noted that his government had set up an operational headquarters to aid any Ukrainians in Israel. Officials have estimated that about 15,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to Israel.
Horrible news from Israel. My condolences go out to everyone who lost relatives or close ones in the terrorist attack. We have faith that order will be restored and terrorists will be defeated.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 7, 2023
Terror should have no place in the world, because it is always a crime, not just…
Updated
Russian forces shelled two communities in the Sumy oblast overnight, the Sumy regional military administration said on social media.
The shelling in the Krasnopillia community came from fired mortars and while the shelling in the Druzhba community was carried out by an anti-aircraft missile system.
Updated
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former leader, called today for a civil war in the US, as he said a civil war would be the only thing that could stop “America’s manic passion for sparking conflicts everywhere on the planet”.
Medvedev wrote on Telegram:
The outbreak of fighting between Hamas and Israel on the 50th anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur War is an event that could have been expected. This is what Washington and its allies had to do. The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been going on for decades. And the US is a key player there.
But instead of actively working on a Palestinian-Israeli settlement, these idiots got in on us and are helping the neo-Nazis with all their might, pushing two close nations into conflict.
What can stop America’s manic passion for sparking conflicts everywhere on the planet?
Apparently, only a civil war in the United States.
Two people were injured in a Russian rocket attack on the village of Peresichne in the Kharkiv oblast, said Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration.
A 66-year-old man and a 64-year-old woman required medical attention when the rocket hit between two two-story apartment buildings, damaging the roofs and facades of the homes, breaking glass and sparking a fire.
Summary of the day so far
Train traffic between North Korea and Russia has dramatically increased after the recent following summit between leaders Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, indicating a “likely” transfer of arms, according to a new report by Washington-based analysts. High-resolution satellite imagery reveals at least 70 freight cars at North Korea’s border Tumangang rail facility, the Beyond Parallel group said on Friday, a number described as “unprecedented”.
A man was killed in the morning shelling of the village of Urazovo in Russia’s Belgorod oblast, the regional governor said. Vyacheslav Gladkov said the attack came from Ukrainian forces, but the Guardian could not independently verify those claims. Ukraine typically does not claim responsibility for strikes on Russia. A utility building, a storage facility and one social facility were destroyed in the attack, and 14 private households were damaged, Gladkov said.
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organisations in Vienna, posted on X yesterday that Russia is planning to revoke ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation. “The aim is to be on equal footing with the US, who signed the treaty but didn’t ratify it,” he said. “Revocation doesn’t mean the intention to resume nuclear tests.” The US warned that Russia revoking its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation will endanger “the global norm” against nuclear test blasts.
One woman was killed and two more people injured in the Russian shelling of the village of Bilenke in the Zaporizhzhia oblast this morning, the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration said on Telegram. A private house and outbuildings were damaged in the attack, said Yuriy Malashko.
Eight settlements in the Donetsk oblast were cut off from power yesterday due to shelling, Ukraine’s ministry of energy said on Telegram. Some residents in the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson and Chernihiv oblasts also remain without electricity.
A 10-year-old boy and his grandmother have been killed and more than 20 people wounded after a Russian missile attack on an apartment block in Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials have said. Rescuers found the boy’s body under debris after the strike on the north-eastern city’s densely populated downtown area early on Friday. Two Iskander missiles hit the flats in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called another act of “Russian terror”.
The death toll from a Russian missile strike on Hroza village in Kharkiv province the previous day rose to 52 on Friday after another victim died overnight in hospital, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said. A missile slammed into a cafe and grocery store in the village on Thursday as people gathered to mourn a fallen Ukrainian soldier. Separately, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said people from every family in Hroza had been affected by the attack.
Russian forces launched an overnight missile strike on Ukraine’s southern Odesa oblast, damaging port infrastructure, the regional governor said early on Saturday.Four people were wounded in the strike, which hit a boarding house and a portside grain facility, said Oleh Kiper. Debris from the rockets and the blast wave caused a fire in the garage cooperative and damaged several apartment buildings.
Moldova’s pro-European president, Maia Sandu, said Russia’s Wagner paramilitary force was the main force behind an attempt to foment a coup against her. She told the Financial Times in an interview published on Friday that Wagner’s late leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was behind the bid to overthrow her and that Moscow remained engaged in attempts to destabilise the country, located between Ukraine and EU member Romania, notably by funnelling money into Moldova to bribe voters in next month’s local elections.
European leaders rallied around Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the face of US jitters over defence funding. The gathering at the European political community (EPC) summit in Granada, Spain, gave leaders including the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, a chance to restate their commitment to Ukraine after political turbulence in the US and Europe raised questions about continued support.
Updated
The US warned that Russia revoking its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation will endanger “the global norm” against nuclear test blasts.
Though Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organisations in Vienna, said revocation did not equate to the intention to resume tests, Vladimir Putin made several references to nuclear weapons this week, saying he was “not ready to say now whether we really need or don’t need to conduct tests”.
“We are disturbed by the comments of ambassador Ulyanov in Vienna today,” a US State Department spokesperson said in a statement. “A move like this by any state party needlessly endangers the global norm against nuclear explosive testing.”
Read more here:
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming in from Ukraine via news agency wires:
Recruits of the Russian Volunteer Corps attend military exercises, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, on an outskirt of Kyiv, Ukraine October 6, 2023. Photograph: Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters
One woman killed in Russia shelling of Zaporizhzhia oblast
One woman was killed and two more people injured in the Russian shelling of the village of Bilenke in the Zaporizhzhia oblast this morning, the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration said on Telegram.
A private house and outbuildings were damaged in the attack, said Yuriy Malashko.
In the past day Russian forces launched 113 attacks on 20 towns and villages in the oblast, Malashko said, with 102 artillery shells hitting the territory of Mahdalynivka, Orikhov, Huliaipole, Zaliznychne, Temyrivka and other front-line settlements.
Two Orikhov residents – men aged 35 and 82 - were wounded.
Russian forces also carried out four anti-aircraft missile attacks
The occupiers carried out 4 anti-aircraft missile attacks on Novodanylivka, Robotyny, and Mala Tokmachka and five unmanned drone 5 attacks on Biloghirya and Mali Shcherbaky, as well as airstrikes on Mala Tokmachka and Novodanylivka.
There were 17 reports of destroyed residential buildings and infrastructure facilities.
Updated
Russia to revoke ratification of nuclear test ban treaty
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organisations in Vienna, posted on X yesterday that Russia is planning to revoke ratification of the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty.
“The aim is to be on equal footing with the US, who signed the treaty but didn’t ratify it,” he said. “Revocation doesn’t mean the intention to resume nuclear tests.”
Russia ratified the treaty in 2000.
#Russia plans to revoke ratification (which took place in the year 2000) of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (#CTBT). The aim is to be on equal footing with the #US who signed the Treaty, but didn’t ratify it. Revocation doesn’t mean the intention to resume nuclear tests
— Mikhail Ulyanov (@Amb_Ulyanov) October 6, 2023
Updated
Eight settlements in Donetsk oblast lose power due to shelling
Eight settlements in the Donetsk oblast were cut off from power yesterday due to shelling, Ukraine’s ministry of energy said on Telegram.
Some residents in the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson and Chernihiv oblasts also remain without electricity.
In total, 6,000 consumers, many in the Donetsk oblast, had their power restored yesterday.
Meanwhile in the Kherson oblast, 2,000 consumers remain without power after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed in June, which flooded the area, destroying homes and farmland. Repair work here has been slowed by shelling.
Two killed in Russia rocket strike on Kharkiv city
Two people were killed and 30 people injured in a Russian rocket strike on a central part of the city of Kharkiv, the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said in their morning briefing.
The attack damaged 61 apartments, 17 private homes and 10 objects of social housing.
Beyond the Kharkiv attack, Russian forces launched three missiles and 67 air strikes, and fired 46 times from jet-fire systems yesterday, the general staff said.
More than 120 settlements in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts came under artillery fire.
According to the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces, Russian forces lost 610 personnel yesterday.
A Russian missile hit a cafe yesterday during a wake service in the Hroza village in the Kharkiv oblast. The attack killed at least 52 people, including a six-year-old boy.
About 10% of the village’s population of 500 were killed in this attack, one of the deadliest to hit Ukraine in recent months.
Updated
One person killed in shelling of Russia's Belgorod oblast
A man was killed in the morning shelling of the village of Urazovo in Russia’s Belgorod oblast, the regional governor said.
Vyacheslav Gladkov said the attack came from Ukrainian forces, but the Guardian could not independently verify those claims. Ukraine typically does not claim responsibility for strikes on Russia.
A utility building, a storage facility and one social facility were destroyed in the attack, and 14 private households were damaged, Gladkov said.
The Belgorod oblast is located just over the Ukrainian border and has sustained a number of attacks in recent weeks.
Yesterday, the villages of Verigovka, Poros and Pervomaisky came under mortar fire, as did the Shebekino checkpoint, Gladkov said. Two artillery shells were fired at the village of Zhuravlevka, while a grenade launcher fired on the outskirts of Stary village. A fragmentation munition was dropped from an unmanned drone on the outskirts of the Plotvyanka village. There were no casualties reported from any of these attacks.
Updated
Russian forces launched an overnight missile strike on Ukraine’s southern Odesa oblast, damaging port infrastructure, the regional governor said early on Saturday.
Four people were wounded in the strike, which hit a boarding house and a portside grain facility, said Oleh Kiper. Debris from the rockets and the blast wave caused a fire in the garage cooperative and damaged several apartment buildings.
The strike involved supersonic Onyx missiles fired from Russian-occupied Crimea, according to Ukraine’s military. Russian forces have been carrying out regular strikes on port infrastructure in recent weeks, making it difficult for Ukraine, an agricultural hub of Europe, to export its products.
Russian air defence took down a Ukrainian drone near Moscow early on Saturday, Russian state-owned news agency Tass is reporting.
The attack was repelled over the Istra district northwest of the capital, and appeared to be an attempt by Ukraine to attack Russian facilities, TASS reported, citing Russia’s defence ministry.
The attack appeared to cause no damage or injuries, according to the Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin.
The attack took place as flight operations resumed at Moscow’s Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo airports after being suspended, TASS said.
Updated
More on train traffic dramatically increasing between Russia and North Korea, from Agence France-Presse:
High-resolution satellite imagery revealed at least 70 freight cars at North Korea’s border Tumangang Rail Facility, a number described as “unprecedented” even when compared to pre-Covid levels, said Washington-based analysts Beyond Parallel,
Over the past five years, no more than 20 cars had been seen in the railyard.
The uptick in activity “likely indicates North Korea’s supply of arms and munitions to Russia”, the report said, while adding that tarps covering the shipping containers made it impossible to “conclusively identify” their contents.
Yesterday, CBS News cited an unnamed US official as saying North Korea had begun transferring artillery to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine. The US has previously accused North Korea of supplying shells to Russia’s Wagner Group.
Last month’s meeting between Putin and Kim sparked concerns among Kyiv’s western allies over a potential arms deal – North Korea is a mass producer of conventional weaponry and is known to be sitting on large stocks of Soviet-era war material, albeit in unknown condition. While Russia said no agreements were signed during Kim’s visit, Putin said he saw “possibilities” for military cooperation.
With Moscow’s forces firing an estimated 60,000 rounds a day, analysts have suggested that Russia’s production of shells could fall short of its need on the battlefield. That analysis comes even after Russia has ramped up production of shells this year to a forecast 2.5 million.
The White House has said any arms exports from North Korea to Russia “would directly violate multiple UN Security Council resolutions, including resolutions that Russia itself voted to adopt”.
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. This is Vivian Ho with a rundown on the latest.
Train traffic between North Korea and Russia has dramatically increased after the recent following summit between leaders Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin, indicating a “likely” transfer of arms, according to a new report by Washington-based analysts.
High-resolution satellite imagery reveals at least 70 freight cars at North Korea’s border Tumangang rail facility, the Beyond Parallel group said on Friday, a number described as “unprecedented”.
Russian forces , meanwhile, carried out an overnight missile strike on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, damaging port infrastructure, Ukrainian authorities said early on Saturday. Four people were wounded.
More on those stories shortly. In other news:
A 10-year-old boy and his grandmother have been killed and more than 20 people wounded after a Russian missile attack on an apartment block in Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials have said. Rescuers found the boy’s body under debris after the strike on the north-eastern city’s densely populated downtown area early on Friday. Two Iskander missiles hit the flats in what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called another act of “Russian terror”.
The death toll from a Russian missile strike on Hroza village in Kharkiv province the previous day rose to 52 on Friday after another victim died overnight in hospital, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said. A missile slammed into a cafe and grocery store in the village on Thursday as people gathered to mourn a fallen Ukrainian soldier. Separately, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said people from every family in Hroza had been affected by the attack.
Russia’s envoy to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation has said that Moscow will revoke its ratification of the pact, a move that Washington denounced as endangering “the global norm” against nuclear test blasts. Friday’s announcement by Mikhail Ulyanov added new fuel to tensions between Russia and the US over Moscow’s war in Ukraine and arms control disputes between the world’s largest nuclear powers.
Moldova’s pro-European president, Maia Sandu, said Russia’s Wagner paramilitary force was the main force behind an attempt to foment a coup against her. She told the Financial Times in an interview published on Friday that Wagner’s late leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was behind the bid to overthrow her and that Moscow remained engaged in attempts to destabilise the country, located between Ukraine and EU member Romania, notably by funnelling money into Moldova to bribe voters in next month’s local elections.
European leaders rallied around Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the face of US jitters over defence funding. The gathering at the European political community (EPC) summit in Granada, Spain, gave leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Olaf Scholz and British prime minister Rishi Sunak a chance to restate their commitment to Ukraine after political turbulence in the US and Europe raised questions about continued support.
Russia is seeking re-election to the UN’s top human rights body next week in what is seen as a crucial test of western efforts to keep Moscow diplomatically isolated over its invasion of Ukraine. Some diplomats are reported to have said Russia has a reasonable chance of getting voted back on to the UN Human Rights Council in Tuesday’s secret ballot, 18 months after it was ousted in a US-led drive.
The US said on Friday it was expelling two Russian diplomats – a retaliatory step after Moscow kicked out two American diplomats last month.
Sweden will send Ukraine a new military support package worth 2.2bn crowns ($199m), consisting mainly of ammunition and spare parts to earlier donated systems, Swedish defence minister Pål Jonson said on Friday.
