Closing summary
Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says Volodymyr Zelenskiy has promised him that Ukraine will not attack Europe’s biggest nuclear plant as part of its counteroffensive against Russia.
Russia has missed out on a bid to return to the UN’s top human rights body, with Albania and Bulgaria winning more votes at the general assembly, Reuters reports.
Russian forces have been closing in on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, which has been hit by intense shelling since the morning, officials said.
Extensive damage to an undersea gas pipeline and communications cable connecting Finland and Estonia “could not have occurred by accident” and appears to be the result of a “deliberate … external act”, Finnish authorities have said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for steps to ensure Russia does not turn the Black Sea into a “dead zone” for shipping after Moscow quit a deal allowing safe Ukrainian grain exports. On his first trip to Romania since Russia’s invasion, Zelenskiy said after talks with his counterpart, Klaus Iohannis, that he had heard “good news” on artillery and air defence supplies from the Nato and EU member state.
Ukraine reportedly said on Tuesday that it was holding two senior defence ministry officials on suspicion of embezzling $7m (£5.7m) earmarked for buying bulletproof vests.
A Russian court has dismissed a complaint by the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich against the extension of his pre-trial detention, more than six months after his arrest on spying charges. Judge Yuri Pasyunin at Moscow city court ruled to “keep the detention without changes” until 30 November, an Agence-France Presse reporter at the court said.
The National Police of Ukraine has documented nearly 100,000 war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, according to the head of the body. Speaking to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Ivan Vyhovsky said the evidence being gathered would form the basis of future attempts to prosecute the perpetrators.
Russia is unlikely to launch an additional mobilisation drive before the presidential election next year, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said. In its daily intelligence update, the MoD said Vladimir Putin would “almost certainly” run for re-election in the vote, scheduled to take place on 17 March.
Vladimir Putin discussed trade and security with Mali’s leader on Tuesday in their third phone conversation in less than two months, the Kremlin said.
The frequency of Putin’s contacts with Mali’s interim president Assimi Goita underlines Moscow’s strong interest in building its influence in the Sahel region of west Africa where it is cultivating strong security ties at the expense of France and the US.
The two leaders discussed their “mutual commitment to further strengthening trade and economic ties, security cooperation and the fight against terrorism”, the Kremlin said in a statement.
Mali is one of six African countries to which Putin promised to supply free grain at a summit in Russia in July.
A senior Russian official accused the US of deploying unmatched efforts to ensure Russia remained out of the human rights council (see earlier post at 16:50 for more details on the vote).
“The United States campaigned for Albania,” Maria Zabolotskaya, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, was quoted as saying by RIA news agency.
“Such a campaign directly aimed against us is unprecedented,” she added.
Amid some signs of supposed Ukraine war “fatigue”, some diplomats earlier said Russia had a reasonable chance of getting voted back on to the council, according to Reuters.
“It was not even that close in the end,” said Richard Gowan, the UN director of the International Crisis Group.
“I think western diplomats may have been overstating the risk of a Russian win to keep UN members on their toes.”
China and Cuba were also among the winners of Tuesday’s vote. The next three-year term begins on 1 January.
Updated
Bulgarian police have arrested 12 people accused of illegally exporting dual-use goods to Russia that can be used by the Russian military in the war in Ukraine.
The Associated Press reports:
The interior ministry chief secretary, Zhivko Kotsev, told reporters on Tuesday the suspects included citizens of Bulgaria, Russia and Belarus.
The operation to arrest the suspects was carried out by several agencies after the state agency for national security received information about the illegal transfer of goods with possible dual use, the agency head, Plamen Tonchev, said.
Such exports to Russia are banned under EU sanctions imposed on Russia after it launched its war in Ukraine.
“An international network has been revealed for the illegal supply of dual-use goods with civilian and military applications from European countries to the Russian Federation,” Tonchev said.
He added that the shipments were not intended for the regular Russian army, but for the special forces fighting in Ukraine, like the Wagner group and the Akhmat paramilitary unit.
Commenting on Russia’s failure to regain a seat on the human rights council (see earlier post at 16:50), Louis Charbonneau, of international NGO Human Rights Watch, said:
UN member states sent a strong signal to Russia’s leadership that a government responsible for countless war crimes and crimes against humanity doesn’t belong on the human rights council.
Albanian ambassador Ferit Hoxha, whose country received 123 votes, had said earlier that the UN general assembly “has an important choice” to “demonstrate that it is not ready to take an arsonist for a firefighter.”
It comes just days after a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian village of Hroza was reported to have killed more than 50 people.
Updated
Zelenskiy pledged not to attack nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia, says IAEA chief
Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says Volodymyr Zelenskiy has promised him that Ukraine will not attack Europe’s biggest nuclear plant as part of its counteroffensive against Russia.
In an interview with the Guardian, the nuclear watchdog chief said he was most concerned about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant becoming engulfed in fighting between the two sides, but insisted he had obtained a commitment from the Ukrainian president.
“President Zelenskiy has personally assured me that they will not directly bomb or shell it,” Grossi said, although he added that Zelenskiy had told him “all other options are on the table” in terms of taking it back.
That means Ukraine would comply with the first of the five new nuclear safety principles – “do not attack a nuclear power plant” – initially outlined by Grossi at the UN security council at the end of May to avert “a catastrophic accident”.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station was captured by Russia in March 2022, the first time any reactor has been captured in war, prompting fears of a fresh incident in the same country where an explosion at Chornobyl spread radioactivity across Europe in 1986.
Grossi said the danger was that “anything can happen at any time” given the prevailing military situation. “I’m often asked, is [the power station] safe now? No. It’s in the middle of a war zone with a counteroffensive,” he said.
You can read the full story here:
Russian bid to return to UN rights body fails after vote
Russia has missed out on a bid to return to the UN’s top human rights body, with Albania and Bulgaria winning more votes at the general assembly, Reuters reports.
Russia won 83 votes, while Albania received 123 and Bulgaria got 160 in a secret ballot.
The election is seen as a crucial test of western efforts to keep Moscow diplomatically isolated over its invasion of Ukraine, for which it was ousted from the Geneva-based human rights council 18 months ago.
Russia’s suspension last year made it the first permanent member of the UN security council to have its membership revoked from any UN body.
Updated
Ukrainian frontline town of Avdiivka under 'severe artillery attack', says police officer
Russian forces have been closing in on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, which has been hit by intense shelling since the morning, officials said.
A local police officer, Pavlo Diachenko, told AFP that Avdiivka, now home to fewer than 2,000 people, was undergoing a “severe artillery attack”.
Avdiivka lies less than six miles from the Russian-controlled stronghold of Donetsk and has long been a target for Moscow’s forces.
Ukraine has managed to cling on to the frontline town, despite constant strikes that have forced much of its civilian population to flee.
“For over a year, there has been the danger that (Avdiivka) can be occupied, but now the situation has worsened rapidly,” Vitaliy Barabash, head of the town’s administration, said.
Russian troops launched an artillery attack in the morning and were firing incessantly, he said. These claims are yet to be independently verified.
Updated
Poland’s two highest-ranking military officers have resigned days before a crucial election and amid the war in neighbouring Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the armed forces operational commander, Lt Gen Tomasz Piotrowski, and the chief of staff, General Rajmund Andrzejczak, submitted their resignations, spokespeople for the respective services confirmed to Reuters.
National Security Bureau chief Jacek Siewiera said the president had accepted their resignations and new commanders would be appointed later in the day. No reason was given for the departures.
“(It is) a complete disgrace for Minister Blaszczak, who has long crossed over the line into using the Polish army in a partisan way,” Tomasz Siemoniak, a former defence minister from the opposition Civic Platform, wrote on X.
“This is a Law and Justice party (PiS) disaster in the defence sector at a time of great threats to Poland,” he said.
Rattled by Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, Poland has increased military spending to about 4% of national output this year and has also moved soldiers to its border with Belarus, a close ally of Moscow.
With a closely contested election in Poland on 15 October, some experts have said the pace of military spending and the domestic debate around it were being driven in part by campaigning.
Russians who leave the country and support Ukraine should be sent to a far eastern region known for its Stalin-era Gulag prison camps if they ever return home, the speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower house, the state Duma, said.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February, and its subsequent mobilisation campaign, prompted at least several hundred thousand Russians to leave their homeland.
Vyachelav Volodin, the speaker of the Duma, told lawmakers on Tuesday that those who had left Russia and rejoiced at Ukrainian drone and missile attacks on their country should know that they were no longer welcome in their homeland.
Volodin said:
Those who left the country and committed despicable acts, rejoicing at the shots fired on the territory of the Russian Federation, wishing victory to the bloody Nazi Kyiv regime, should realise that no one is waiting for them here.
But if they do come back, then Magadan will be provided for them.
For Russians, Magadan is synonymous with the gulag – a series of forced labour camps where Russians were used as slave labour under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Air force Gen Charles Q. Brown, who took over as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last month, arrived in Brussels on Tuesday for a monthly meeting of global support for Ukraine, known as the Ukraine Contact Group.
He will be joined by the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, later this evening, Reuters reports.
The general faces the daunting task of assuring allies that the US remains committed to supporting Ukraine, even though the House of Representatives, which holds the key to future aid, is without a leader.
The situation has been further complicated by the weekend’s escalation of violence in the Middle East.
Joe Biden’s administration has repeatedly stressed its support for Ukraine and will announce a new weapons package for Kyiv while military leaders are in Brussels.
“Over the next few days I’ll be having meetings to reassure our partners,” Brown said.
“I recognise that what is going on in the US, on the hill. [Allies] will have questions and concerns,” he added.
Updated
Vladimir Putin hosted Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, in the Kremlin on Tuesday, praising cooperation between their countries at the OPEC+ group of top oil producers.
Putin told Sudani at the start of their first ever meeting:
We coordinate work within the framework of OPEC+ and do this very successfully with the aim of stabilizing the situation on world markets.
Overall, we succeed in this, and I hope we will continue to work with you in the future.
Finland: Nato ready to assist investigation into pipeline damaged by 'external activity'
Here is a press release from the office of the president of Finland, Sauli Niinistö:
The damage to the underwater infrastructure has been taken seriously and its causes have been investigated since Sunday. The political leadership has been closely informed of the situation.
It is likely that the damage to both the gas pipeline and the data cable is caused by external activity. What specifically caused the damage is not yet known.
The investigation will continue in cooperation between Finland and Estonia. We are also in constant contact with our allies and partners. I discussed with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg today. Nato is ready to assist with the investigation.
Finland’s level of preparedness is good. These events have no impact on our security of supply.
Finland joined Nato in April 2023, having applied after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Updated
Reuters has a quick snap that the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said it is sharing information over the damage to underwater infrastructure between Estonia and Finland, and stands ready to support the allies concerned.
Updated
Leonid Pasechnik, Russian-installed head of the chiefly unrecognised Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), which the Russian Federation claims to have annexed, has issued a status update on the Telegram messaging service.
In it, he claims that in the last week the Russian military has foiled at least 32 attempts by Ukrainian armed forces to take territory in Luhansk region. He claims that “during 26 attempts to cross the airspace of the LPR, the enemy lost 34 drones”.
He said: “The complex actions of our motorised riflemen, reconnaissance officers, artillerymen, the competent work of air defence units, electronic warfare and UAV service specialists made it possible to pin down the Ukrainian armed forces’ offensive along the entire frontline.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Just a little more here on the damage to a gas pipeline connecting Finland and Estonia. Finland’s public service broadcaster Yle reports that the government is to hold a press conference at 5.30pm local time (3.30pm BST). It says the authorities have located the damaged point, and that there is also damage to a communications cable between the two nations, both of which are Nato members and border Russia.
Updated
Here are some images released of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy with his Romanian counterpart, Klaus Werner Iohannis, and their delegations in Bucharest.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Tuesday he had “good news” on artillery and air defence supplies after talks with his Romanian counterpart, Klaus Iohannis, in Bucharest, but gave no details.
Speaking to reporters in the Romanian capital, he said:
My main accent today was air defence. And I’m glad that Ukraine was heard by the Romanian side.
Zelenskiy also said everything possible should be done to prevent Russia turning part of the Black Sea or the Danube region into what he described as a maritime “dead zone”.
Russia has pulled out of a deal that guaranteed safe shipments of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea, and has been attacking Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube River.
Two Ukrainian defence ministry officials held on suspicion of embezzlement
Ukraine said on Tuesday that it was holding two senior defence ministry officials on suspicion of embezzling $7m (£5.7m) earmarked for buying bulletproof vests, AFP reports.
The announcements came as Volodymyr Zelenskiy intensifies his anti-corruption drive, firing officials accused of graft in a bid to reassure western allies sending wartime aid.
The state bureau of investigation said the two officials, which it did not name, ordered “low-quality body armour” from abroad.
“This led not only to the loss of 250m hryvnia of budget funds, but also to the undermining of the country’s defence capability and a threat to the lives and health of army personnel,” it said, adding that both were in custody.
In August, Zelenskiy dismissed officials responsible for military conscription in every region of the country, citing corruption allegations that he said could amount to treason.
Updated
Investigators believe a subsea gas pipeline connecting Finland and Estonia may have been deliberately damaged, Finnish daily Iltalehti reported on Tuesday, citing Finnish security sources.
Swedish public radio separately reported that the pipeline had been damaged and that the damage did not occur naturally, citing Finnish government sources, according to Reuters.
Updated
Uefa has abandoned plans to reinstate Russian U17 teams into next year’s youth European Championships.
Last month, European football’s governing body announced it was exploring how to reintegrate the Russian youth team into the international setup, having suspended all Russian teams from Uefa competitions following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Now the organisation says that finding a way to reintegrate Russia’s U17 side has proved too logistically difficult.
“No technical solution to allow Russian teams to play could be found,” a Uefa spokesperson said, who added that the “agenda point was withdrawn”.
Uefa had argued that boys and girls should not be punished for the actions of adults.
But about a dozen national associations, including the English Football Association, publicly expressed their opposition to playing against Russia if drawn against them at either the men’s competition in Cyprus or the women’s in Sweden next year.
Updated
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will visit Beijing on 16-18 October and hold talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, Russia’s Tass state news agency cited foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova as saying on Tuesday.
China and Russia announced a “no-limits” partnership shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
China has largely abstained on UN general assembly votes – adopted with overwhelming support among the 193-member body – that demanded Russia stop fighting and immediately and unconditionally withdraw all its troops from Ukraine.
Updated
Russia will resume nuclear tests only if the US does it first, says deputy foreign minister
Russia will move to revoke the ratification of a global nuclear test ban to put itself on par with the US, but will resume nuclear tests only if Washington does it first, a senior Russian diplomat has said.
The deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told reporters that Moscow would rescind the ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty to “mirror” the action by the US, the Associated Press reports.
He added that if the US conducted a nuclear test “we will be forced to mirror that as well”.
Last week, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said Moscow could consider rescinding its decision in 2000 to ratify the bill.
The US signed the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty in 1996 but the Senate did not ratify it. Successive US administrations, however, have observed a moratorium on testing nuclear weapons.
The speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower house, the state Duma, has indicated that lawmakers could move to rescind ratification of the nuclear test ban.
The chamber’s agenda-setting council on Monday gave the foreign affairs committee 10 days to prepare the issue for the house to consider.
Updated
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has posted on X to say he has started talks with his Romanian counterpart, Klaus Iohannis, in Bucharest.
Strengthening defence cooperation, working on Black Sea security and forging closer economic ties were topics on the agenda, he wrote.
“Ukraine-Romania partnership is a factor of stability for Europe and beyond,” Zelenskiy said.
The trip is Zelenskiy’s first to the Nato and EU member country since Russia invaded Ukraine last February.
The full-scale Russian invasion has involved frequent reports of airstrikes on Ukrainian grain and port infrastructure, including along the Romanian border.
About 85,000 Ukrainian refugees are registered in Romania, under the EU’s temporary protection scheme.
Updated
A pro-Russia Japanese politician left his opposition party on Tuesday after facing criticism for making a surprise visit to Moscow and declaring his support for Russia to win the war in Ukraine.
Muneo Suzuki, a former parliamentary vice-minister of foreign affairs, submitted a letter of resignation to the centre-right opposition Japan Innovation party, the its secretary-general, Fumitake Fujita, said.
The party had been taking steps to expel him over the trip but Suzuki told leaders that he wished to leave of his own accord, Fujita said.
“The party decided to accept his wish,” Fujita told a press conference, without elaborating further.
Suzuki will continue to serve as a member of parliament, with his current term due to end in 2025, Agence France-Presse reports.
He visited Russia for a five-day trip from 1 October to meet various Russian officials, including the deputy foreign minister, Andrey Rudenko. During the visit, he told Russian media he believed Moscow would be victorious.
It was the first known visit by a Japanese lawmaker to Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine last year.
Japan has sided with its allies the US, the EU and others in imposing sanctions on Moscow over the invasion, and urges its citizens not to visit Russia.
Updated
Russia upholds detention of US reporter Evan Gershkovich
A Russian court has dismissed a complaint by the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich against the extension of his pre-trial detention, more than six months after his arrest on spying charges.
Judge Yuri Pasyunin at Moscow city court ruled to “keep the detention without changes” until 30 November, an Agence-France Presse reporter at the court said.
Gershkovich, 31, is the first American journalist to be held in Russia on spying charges since the end of the cold war. He was detained in the Urals city of Ekaterinburg while on a reporting trip at the end of March.
Russia’s FSB security service has claimed he was collecting state secrets about the country’s military-industrial complex. Gershkovich and the Wall Street Journal have denied the charges.
Updated
Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian MP and the leader of the liberal Golos party, has said the Kremlin is “actively working to destabilise the Middle East”, with Moscow attempting to undermine “world unity”.
kremlin is actively working to destabilize the Middle East. They are looking for new source of pain and suffering to undermine world unity. We cannot let it happen.
— Kira Rudik (@kiraincongress) October 10, 2023
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
The National Police of Ukraine has documented nearly 100,000 war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, according to the head of the body. Speaking to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Ivan Vyhovsky said the evidence being gathered would form the basis of future attempts to prosecute the perpetrators.
Russia is unlikely to launch an additional mobilisation drive before the presidential election next year, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said. In its daily intelligence update, the MoD said Vladimir Putin would “almost certainly” run for re-election in the vote, scheduled to take place on 17 March.
President Zelenskiy has said he has travelled to Bucharest for talks with his Romanian counterpart, Klaus Iohannis. Ukraine’s president said the two would discuss security cooperation, measures to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences and relationships with other partners.
There have been 450 Russian casualties in the past day, bringing the total number since the start of the war to 283,080, according to the Ukrainian defence ministry.
Russia will seek to return to the UN human rights council on Tuesday, just days after a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian village of Hroza killed more than 50 people. Moscow was suspended from the Geneva-based body after it invaded Ukraine last year but will be considered in a vote by the general assembly for a new seat for the 2024-26 term.
Updated
Ukrainian authorities investigating almost 100,000 war crimes
The National Police of Ukraine has documented nearly 100,000 war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, according to the head of the body.
Speaking to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Ivan Vyhovsky said the evidence being gathered would form the basis of future attempts to prosecute the perpetrators.
“Materials on rocket attacks, crimes committed by the Russian military in deoccupied territories – violence, torture, rape,” he said. “In the overwhelming majority [of cases] we document, investigate, and transfer to the SBU [Ukraine’s security services], because this is their jurisdiction.”
Vyhovsky said his force had so far gathered evidence of 96,500 war crimes.
“The crimes committed by the Russian Federation, in particular the shelling of our critical infrastructure, are genocide of the Ukrainian nation,” he said. “We are moving towards documenting all these facts in order to recognise the crimes of the Russian Federation as genocide in the international court.”
Updated
Russia is unlikely to launch any additional mobilisation drive before the presidential election next year, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said.
In its daily intelligence update, the MoD said Vladimir Putin would “almost certainly” run for re-election in the vote, scheduled to take place on 17 March.
It said his campaign would probably focus on themes intended to “justify the state’s actions and Putin’s consolidation of power” but “seek to minimise unpopular policy moves”.
It added: “It is therefore highly unlikely that any further mobilisation wave will be implemented before the March 2024 presidential election.”
Russian presidents are allowed to serve for a maximum of two consecutive six-year terms. But in 2021 Putin signed into law a bill that reset the clock on his time in office, meaning he could stand for a further two terms and potentially remain president until at least 2036.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 10 October 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 10, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/GL5Eu6UYEO
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/TecMeOut2i
Updated
Three civilians have been injured in a Russian strike on the north-eastern village of Velikiy Burluk, the head of Kharkiv region has said.
Writing on Telegram, Oleg Sinegubov said the strike occurred on Tuesday morning and that two 45-year-old women and a 34-year-old man had been injured.
He added that all three were receiving medical treatment and emergency services were working at the scene.
Updated
Who decides who joins the UN human rights council?
Russia hopes to be re-elected to the UN human rights council, from which it was expelled after the invasion of Ukraine, at a vote of the UN general assembly today.
The council has 47 seats distributed geographically, with 13 going to Africa, 13 to Asia-Pacific states, eight to Latin America and the Caribbean, seven to western European and other states, and six to eastern Europe.
Members serve for three years and a maximum of two consecutive terms. Today’s vote will decide which countries will make up the council in the period 2024-26.
The UN says when deciding how to cast their vote, members of the general assembly consider “the candidate states’ contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights, as well as their voluntary pledges and commitments in this regard”.
Members are elected by a secret ballot, meaning many will view the vote as a test of Russia’s claim that it has the support of a silent majority of developing countries.
Updated
Zelenskiy visiting Romania
President Zelenskiy has said he has travelled to Bucharest for talks with his Romanian counterpart, Klaus Iohannis.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Zelenskiy said the two would discuss security cooperation, measures to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences and relationships with other partners.
“Ukraine is grateful for Romania’s support, which strengthens our state, as well as its constructive solidarity, which enables our nations to be security donors for the world, notably in food security,” he said.
“Romania is a friend who came to our help on our darkest day and whose support gets stronger with time. I am certain this visit will be beneficial for both of our nations.”
In the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine, more than 4.5 million people fled across the border to Romania. Of those, more than 220,000 have remained there and been granted refugee or temporary protection status, according to UN figures.
Speaking in May, Iohannis said his country’s support for Ukraine would not be “limited in time or otherwise”.
He added: “This support, this help, will be there as long as needed – which will take quite a while.”
I arrived in Bucharest, Romania, for talks with @KlausIohannis and to strengthen our good-neighborly relations.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 10, 2023
Ukraine is grateful for Romania’s support, which strengthens our state, as well as its constructive solidarity, which enables our nations to be security donors for the…
Updated
Russia’s ambassador to the UN has claimed that “neo-Nazis” and men of military age were at the wake for a Ukrainian soldier that was hit by a missile strike on Thursday.
The strike hit a cafe in the village of Hroza, killing 52 people, including women, children, and in some cases whole families. The death toll amounted to 15% of the village’s population.
Speaking at a meeting of the UN security council called by Ukraine on Monday, Vassily Nebenzia said the soldier was “a high-ranking Ukrainian nationalist” and that the wake had “a lot of neo-Nazi accomplices attending”.
He added that “if the Kyiv regime concentrates soldiers in a given place they become a legitimate target for strikes”.
Russia has repeatedly sought to justify its invasion of Ukraine by saying the country needs to be “denazified”. At least one paramilitary regiment fighting Russian forces in Ukraine – the Azov Battalion – is known to have origins on the far-right. However, claims neo-Nazis have broader influence within the Ukrainian government or military have been widely discredited.
Updated
“Barentsburg welcomes you” read the white letters in Russian above the dock. From the moment visitors step off the boat, there is little doubt who is at least symbolically in charge of this small town of a few hundred in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.
Russian flags fly from buildings. The local pub, the Red Bear, charges punters in roubles. A bust of Lenin looks out across the fjord, behind it a monument declaring: “Our goal is communism!”
Yet this is not Russia, but Norway. The mining town may have been owned by the Soviet Union (and subsequently, Russia) since 1932, but it is located on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, which is resolutely Norwegian.
Until recently, the mostly Russian and Ukrainian residents of Barentsburg have had remarkably warm relations with their predominantly Norwegian Arctic neighbours along the coast in the settlement of Longyearbyen.
But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the two communities have found themselves on the edge of the west’s last remaining interaction point with Russia. And the mood has turned decidedly icy.
Read Miranda Bryant’s full story here:
Russian casualties rise by 450, says Ukraine
There have been 450 Russian casualties in the past day, bringing the total number since the start of the war to 283,080, according to the Ukrainian defence ministry.
In its daily update, the ministry said Russian forces had also lost six tanks and three armoured combat vehicles, bringing the total lost to 4,829 and 9,129 respectively.
The update was accompanied by a quote from the American women’s and civil rights campaigner Susan B Anthony that read: “Independence is happiness.”
"Independence is happiness."
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) October 10, 2023
Susan B. Anthony
The combat losses of the enemy from February 24, 2022 to October 10, 2023: pic.twitter.com/haeP9BcqIG
Updated
Russia hopes to trigger a war in the Middle East in order to “undermine world unity” and help “destroy freedom in Europe”, President Zelenskiy has said.
It comes after Israel ramped up airstrikes in the Gaza Strip and cut off water, food and power supplies, after attacks by Hamas militants at the weekend left hundreds dead.
Russia has longstanding diplomatic ties with Israel but has become increasingly reliant on supplies from Iran, a big backer of Hamas, for its operations in Ukraine. The conflict comes at a time when the west is struggling to provide enough ammunition and money to supply Ukraine’s war effort.
Speaking in his nightly address, Zelenskiy said the situation was of “fundamental importance for us, not only for Ukraine but also for the entire Europe”.
He added: “According to the available information – a very clear one – Russia is interested in triggering a war in the Middle East, so that a new source of pain and suffering could undermine world unity, increase discord and contradictions, and thus help Russia destroy freedom in Europe.
“We see Russian propagandists gloating. We see Moscow’s Iranian friends openly supporting those who attacked Israel.
“And all of this is a much greater threat than the world currently perceives. The world wars of the past started with local aggressions.
“We are preparing appropriate steps. And most importantly, we are defending the need for maximum unity in the world.
“Every state in the world must now choose how it will defend international law. Defend! Not stand aside when terror tries to take over, and when another region of the world may collapse before our eyes.”
Updated
Russia seeks return to UN human rights council
Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Russia will seek to return to the UN human rights council on Tuesday, just days after a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian village of Hroza killed more than 50 people.
Moscow was booted from the Geneva-based body after it invaded Ukraine last year but will be considered in a vote by the general assembly for a new seat for the 2024-26 term.
The vote will take place by secret ballot, testing Russia’s contention that it has private support in developing countries weary of the west’s billions of dollars in support to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has accused Moscow of wanting to trigger war in the Middle East to undermine world unity and “thus help Russia destroy freedom in Europe”.
In other developments:
The US army said Congress needed to approve additional funding quickly to ensure the Pentagon’s munitions production and acquisition plans can meet the needs of Israel and Ukraine simultaneously. The army secretary, Christine Wormuth, made the comments as the US House of Representatives is in effect paralysed as Republicans work to select a new speaker.
At the White House, John Kirby, the spokesperson for the national security council, emphasised that the US government had existing funding to support Israel for the time being. “If we need – and it’s an ‘if’, but – if we need to go back to Capitol Hill for additional funding support for Israel, we will absolutely do that,” Kirby said. “We are a large enough, big enough, economically viable and vibrant enough country to be able to support both [Israel and Ukraine].”
Zelenskiy said it was in Russia’s interests to stoke war in the Middle East “to create a new source of pain and suffering that would weaken global unity, create divisions and help Russia in undermining freedom in Europe”. In his nightly video address, he added that Russian propagandists were “gloating” at developments.
Grieving families have begun burying their loved ones in the eastern Ukraine village of Hroza, which was targeted by Russian missiles in an attack that killed more than 50 people last week. About 30 graves have been dug for burial at the cemetery in the small village, which now numbers about 330 inhabitants, down from 500 when the conflict began.
The top UN trade official, Rebeca Grynspan, met Russian officials in Moscow on Monday for talks aimed at enabling the “unimpeded access” to global markets for grain and fertiliser from Russia and Ukraine, a UN spokesperson said.
Zelenskiy will visit neighbouring Romania on Tuesday, his first trip to the Nato member country since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Romanian presidency has said.
Russian lawmakers have been given 10 days to study the possibility of revoking Moscow’s ratification of a treaty banning nuclear tests, the state Duma, the lower house of parliament, said in a statement. The chamber’s international affairs committee will need to conclude its work by 18 October, the statement said.
Zelenskiy has replaced the commander of Ukraine’s Territorial Defence Forces, which have played an important role in helping defend the country since Russia’s invasion. A presidential order published on Monday announced the appointment of Maj Gen Anatoliy Barhylevych as the new commander.
The UN rights office warned that there is no system to return Ukrainian children taken to Russia since Moscow’s invasion of the country last year, and that some of those who did come back had reported mistreatment. Ukrainian authorities say they have identified and verified almost 20,000 children who have been taken to Russia during the war.
Zelenskiy has appealed at the Nato parliamentary assembly for the international rule of law to unite and deal with terrorism, comparing the attack by what he called a “terrorist organisation” on Israel with the similar tactics used by Russia, which he said was a “terrorist state”.
Ukraine’s parliament registered a draft law on Monday that would allow a ban on activities of the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The church has been accused by Kyiv of undermining Ukraine’s unity and collaborating with Russia following Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, charges that it denies.
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