Summary
The time in Kyiv is 9pm. Here is a summary of the day’s headlines:
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, monitored drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces involving multiple practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles on Wednesday. The defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, reported to Putin that the exercise was intended to simulate a “massive nuclear strike” by Russia in retaliation for a nuclear attack on the country.
About 1,000 bodies – including civilians and children – have been exhumed in the recently liberated territories of the Kharkiv oblast, media reports say. This includes the 447 bodies found at the mass burial site in Izium.
Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russian forces in the southern Kherson region is proving more difficult than it was in the northeast because of wet weather and the terrain, Ukraine’s defence minister said. Kyiv’s forces are piling pressure on Russian troops in the strategically important Kherson region occupied by Moscow since the start of its invasion, threatening president Vladimir Putin with another big battlefield setback, Reuters reported.
The United Nations’ aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said on Wednesday that he was “relatively optimistic” that a UN-brokered deal that allowed Ukraine Black Sea grain exports would be extended beyond mid-November. Griffiths travelled to Moscow with senior UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan earlier this month for discussions with Russian officials on the deal, which also aims to facilitate exports of Russian grain and fertiliser to global markets.
Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Wednesday he did not believe Russia’s president Vladimir Putin would use nuclear weapons. Putin has warned repeatedly that Russia has the right to defend itself using any weapons in its arsenal, which includes the world’s largest nuclear stockpile.
About 70,000 civilians have been relocated from the right bank of the Dnipro river to the left bank in the Kherson oblast, the Russian-appointed governor of the region told Russian media.
Ukraine’s government is advising refugees living abroad not to return until the spring amid mounting fears over whether the country’s damaged energy infrastructure can cope with demand this winter. The energy crisis comes as officials in Kyiv warned that the coming winter may herald the heaviest fighting of the war, around the southern city of Kherson where Russian forces have been digging in.
Up to 70 Australian defence force personnel will be deployed to the UK to train Ukrainian troops in the latest increase in the country’s support for Kyiv. The Australian government announced the decision late on Wednesday while emphasising that the ADF members would not be entering Ukrainian territory.
The Kremlin also said assets in the four Ukrainian regions that Russia claimed it had annexed last month may in future be transferred to Russian companies. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was obvious that “abandoned assets” could not be left inactive, and the government would deal with the issue.
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, held a phone call with his Indian and Chinese counterparts and raised Russia’s concerns about the possible use of a “dirty bomb” by Ukraine, Shoigu’s ministry said. It followed a series of calls Shoigu has held since Sunday on the same topic with Nato defence ministers.
The only way to facilitate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is helping Kyiv to defend itself militarily, the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, told parliament. “Peace can be achieved by supporting Ukraine ... it is the only chance we have for the two sides to negotiate,” Meloni told the Senate ahead of a confidence vote on her newly appointed rightist government.
EU regulators are considering extending easier state-aid rules that allow governments to support businesses affected by the war in Ukraine to the end of 2023, and with bigger amounts permitted, the competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, said. The more flexible rules were introduced in March and subsequently revised in July.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Ukraine live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Updated
Putin watches practice launches by Russia's nuclear forces
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, monitored drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces involving multiple practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles on Wednesday.
Defence minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that the exercise was intended to simulate a “massive nuclear strike” by Russia in retaliation for a nuclear attack on the country, the Associated Press reported.
It followed Putin’s warning about his readiness to use “all means available” to fend off attacks on Russia’s territory in a clear reference to the country’s nuclear arsenals.
During the Russian drills, a Yars land-based intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from the northern Plesetsk launch site. A Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea also launched a Sineva ICBM at the Kura firing range on the far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, and Tu-95 strategic fired cruise missiles at practice targets.
The Kremlin said in a statement that all tasks set for the exercise were fulfilled and all the missiles that were test-fired reached their designated targets.
Updated
