Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments from the day:
The six people killed in a Russian missile strike on a postal distribution centre in Kharkiv district on Saturday were all postal workers, aged between 19 and 42. Of the 17 injured, seven are in a serious condition, and said to be “fighting for their lives”.
The attack was condemned by the US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Blink, who wrote on X: “The Kremlin’s disregard for life is for all the world to see.”
Mitch McConnell offered a strong endorsement on Sunday of the Joe Biden White House’s $106bn (£87bn) aid proposal to Israel and Ukraine, saying he and the president were essentially “in the same place” on the issue.
Russian forces shot down three missiles targeting the Crimean peninsula on Sunday, a Russian official said. The peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, is crucial to Russia’s military offensive, both for supplying troops in southern Ukraine and for carrying out missile strikes from the sea, AFP reports.
It is likely that Russia has suffered 150,000-190,000 permanent casualties (killed or permanently wounded) since the Ukraine war began, according to the latest update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence. If the numbers of temporary wounded (those recovered and due to return to the battlefield) are added, that number rises to 240,000-290,000, the MoD said on X.
Russian forces claim to have foiled several attempts by Ukrainian units to cross the Dnipro River in the southern region of Kherson over the past day. Russia’s defence ministry has said that what it calls Ukrainian “sabotage and reconnaissance” teams were stopped while trying to cross the river near the villages of Pridniprovske, Tiahynka and Krynky.
Russian forces shelled the town of Kupiansk in Kharkiv region at about 7am on Sunday, hitting residential buildings and injuring three people, the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said on Telegram. Russian troops attacked the village of Stanislav in Kherson region overnight on Oct. 22, damaging over 30 houses, though no casualties were reported.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will visit Tehran on Monday for talks with regional counterparts, his ministry’s spokesperson has confirmed. Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported earlier that the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia had been invited to the talks. Western countries have accused Tehran of supporting Russia’s offensive in Ukraine by providing it with large quantities of drones and other weaponry.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has spoken with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to thank Qatar for its humanitarian assistance and mediation in returning home illegally deported Ukrainian children, he said on X.
Ukraine fears a drone shortage due to China’s move to place restrictions on exports, the BBC reports. The war in Ukraine is the first armed conflict to see such extensive use of drones, which are used by both sides. Many of them are commercially made in China and bought off the shelf, and new supplies are vital because of the large numbers lost in the fighting.
Russia’s Gazprom, looking to compensate for the loss of most of its European markets, will supply extra gas to Hungary and China. Hungary is the only member of the EU whose leader, prime minister Viktor Orbán, has maintained friendly ties to Putin and is seen as the key potential opponent to a decision due in December on whether to open EU accession talks with Ukraine, which would require the unanimous backing of the bloc’s 27 members.
The British army’s Royal Engineers have trained Ukrainian civilian engineers on how to defend their energy sector from Russian attacks this winter, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.
We’ll be closing this liveblog shortly. Thanks so much for joining us.
Our Israel-Hamas blog is still live:
Mitch McConnell offered a strong endorsement on Sunday of the Joe Biden White House’s $106bn (£87bn) aid proposal to Israel and Ukraine, saying he and the president were essentially “in the same place” on the issue.
McConnell, the powerful Republican leader in the Senate, also rebuffed some of his GOP colleagues in the Senate who have called for a package separating assistance for the two countries, saying it would be “a mistake” during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation.
The Republican leader offered significant backing to the White House’s $106bn request, including $14bn in assistance to Israel, $60bn in aid to Ukraine and another $14bn to improve security on the US Mexico border. An additional $10bn would be allocated to humanitarian relief as well as an additional $7bn to the Indio-Pacific region.
Nine Republican senators wrote a letter to McConnell on Thursday saying that Ukraine and Israel aid should not be paired together. “These are two separate conflicts and it would be wrong to leverage support of aid to Israel in an attempt to get additional aid for Ukraine across the finish line,” the group wrote.
McConnell rejected that view on Sunday.
He said during the interview:
I view it as all interconnected. If you look at the Ukraine assistance, let’s – let’s talk about where the money is really going. A significant portion of it’s being spent in the United States in 38 different states, replacing the weapons that we sent to Ukraine with more modern weapons. So we’re rebuilding our industrial base.
No Americans are getting killed in Ukraine. We’re rebuilding our industrial base. The Ukrainians are destroying the army of one of our biggest rivals. I have a hard time finding anything wrong with that. I think it’s wonderful that they’re defending themselves.
Read the full story here:
Here’s the full story on the Russian missile strike on the Kharkiv postal centre from my colleague Ashifa Kassam:
Six people have been killed and 16 injured after Russian missiles struck a postal distribution centre in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region, local officials have said.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, shared a video on Saturday night showing what appeared to be a heavily damaged warehouse surrounded by rubble and red trucks with the words Nova Poshta written in Ukrainian.
Zelenskiy said:
Russian missiles hit the Nova Poshta centre, an ordinary civilian object. We need to respond to Russian terror every day with results on the frontline. And, even more so, we need to strengthen global unity in order to fight against this terror.
The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said those killed and injured were all employees of the private Ukrainian postal and courier service Nova Poshta.
He said:
This is strictly a civilian site.
The Russians have inflicted more terror on Kharkiv’s peaceful population.
Seven of the injured were in serious condition, he said.
He said:
The victims, aged between 19 and 42, received shrapnel wounds and blast injuries. Doctors are fighting for their lives.
The ministry of internal affairs confirmed the death toll and said 16 people had been injured, up from initial reports of 14.
In a statement, Nova Poshta said the air-raid siren had sounded moments before the attack, leaving employees with no time to reach shelter. Sunday would be a day of mourning for the company, it added.
Sergiy Nozhka, an employee at Nova Poshta, told the news agency AFP that a rocket “flew into the neighbouring depot, but at ours too – the windows and shutters flew out”. He added: “This is not the first time.”
Russia has not yet commented on the strike.
According to the regional prosecutor’s office, Russian forces in the Belgorod region north of Kharkiv fired S-300 missiles, two of which hit the warehouse.
“Debris analysis continues at the site in order to establish the exact number of injured and dead,” its spokesperson Dmytro Chubenko told Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster.
Read the full story here:
Russian forces shot down three missiles targeting the Crimean peninsula on Sunday, a Russian official said.
The peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, is crucial to Russia’s military offensive, both for supplying troops in southern Ukraine and for carrying out missile strikes from the sea, AFP reports.
It is a regular target for Kyiv, and attacks on military installations there have intensified as Ukraine vows to recapture the peninsula.
“Three enemy missiles heading toward Crimea were downed” in the Kherson region, the Moscow-installed official in the zone, Vladimir Saldo, said on Telegram.
Ukraine launched an unprecedented missile strike on the naval headquarters on the peninsula last month.
Moscow said one Russian serviceman was missing after the attack, which heavily damaged the building, while Kyiv claimed that the strike killed more than 30 officers.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming out of Ukraine:
Updated
Afternoon summary
Key developments so far today:
The six people killed in a Russian missile strike on a postal distribution centre in Kharkiv district on Saturday were all postal workers, aged between 19 and 42. Of the 17 injured, seven are in a serious condition, and said to be “fighting for their lives”.
The attack was condemned by the US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Blink, who wrote on X: “The Kremlin’s disregard for life is for all the world to see.”
It is likely that Russia has suffered 150,000-190,000 permanent casualties (killed or permanently wounded) since the Ukraine war began, according to the latest update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence. If the numbers of temporary wounded (those recovered and due to return to the battlefield) are added, that number rises to 240,000-290,000, the MoD said on X.
Russian forces claim to have foiled several attempts by Ukrainian units to cross the Dnipro River in the southern region of Kherson over the past day. Russia’s defence ministry has said that what it calls Ukrainian “sabotage and reconnaissance” teams were stopped while trying to cross the river near the villages of Pridniprovske, Tiahynka and Krynky.
Russian forces shelled the town of Kupiansk in Kharkiv region at about 7am on Sunday, hitting residential buildings and injuring three people, the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said on Telegram. Russian troops attacked the village of Stanislav in Kherson region overnight on Oct. 22, damaging over 30 houses, though no casualties were reported.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will visit Tehran on Monday for talks with regional counterparts, his ministry’s spokesperson has confirmed. Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported earlier that the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia had been invited to the talks. Western countries have accused Tehran of supporting Russia’s offensive in Ukraine by providing it with large quantities of drones and other weaponry.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has spoken with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to thank Qatar for its humanitarian assistance and mediation in returning home illegally deported Ukrainian children, he said on X.
Ukraine fears a drone shortage due to China’s move to place restrictions on exports, the BBC reports. The war in Ukraine is the first armed conflict to see such extensive use of drones, which are used by both sides. Many of them are commercially made in China and bought off the shelf, and new supplies are vital because of the large numbers lost in the fighting.
Russia’s Gazprom, looking to compensate for the loss of most of its European markets, will supply extra gas to Hungary and China. Hungary is the only member of the EU whose leader, prime minister Viktor Orbán, has maintained friendly ties to Putin and is seen as the key potential opponent to a decision due in December on whether to open EU accession talks with Ukraine, which would require the unanimous backing of the bloc’s 27 members.
The British army’s Royal Engineers have trained Ukrainian civilian engineers on how to defend their energy sector from Russian attacks this winter, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.
Updated
Six people killed in missile attack on Kharkiv postal depot were all workers, says regional governor
The six people killed in the Kharkiv missile attack were all workers at the Nova Poshta depot, located in the village of Korotych on the outskirts of Kharkiv city, the regional governor, Oleg Sinegubov, said.
“The victims, aged between 19 and 42, received shrapnel wounds and blast injuries,” he said, AFP reports.
Of the injured being treated in hospital, seven were in a serious condition, Sinegubov said, adding that “Doctors are fighting for their lives.”
The regional prosecutor’s office later updated the number of injured to 17.
Sergiy Nozhka, who works for Nova Poshta, described the condition of some his colleagues as “mild to moderate severity”, adding that “there are some people in a very serious condition”.
He said that a rocket “flew into the neighbouring depot, but at ours too – the windows and shutters flew out. This is not the first time.”
According to the prosecutor’s office, Russian forces in the Belgorod region north of Kharkiv fired S-300 missiles, two of which hit the warehouse.
“Debris analysis continues at the site in order to establish the exact number of injured and dead,” office spokesperson Dmytro Chubenko told Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne.
Separate Russian attacks on villages near the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut killed at least two people on Sunday, officials said.
(via AFP agency)
Updated
Russian troops attacked the village of Stanislav in the Kherson region overnight, damaging over 30 houses, the local governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram.
The attack also damaged a lyceum, shops, a church and a communal enterprise, as well as hitting a power line and a gas pipeline, the Kyiv Independent reports. No casualties have been reported.
At about 10.30am, Russian troops also fired four guided aerial bombs at a settlement near the city of Kherson, Prokudin reported, but he did not provide further details and said there were no casualties.
Updated
Russia’s Gazprom will supply extra gas to Hungary through the coming winter and will also provide China with an additional 600 million cubic metres this year on top of contractual obligations, Tass news agency quoted its boss, Alexei Miller, as saying.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, met the leaders of both countries during a trip to China last week and Miller was among the business chiefs who accompanied him on the trip.
Gazprom is looking to compensate for the loss of most of its markets in Europe since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, largely due to explosions that severely damaged its Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea last year. Investigations have yet to establish who was responsible.
Hungary is the only member of the EU whose leader, prime minister Viktor Orbán, has maintained friendly ties to Putin since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It is also a member of Nato.
Hungary is seen as the key potential opponent to a decision due in December on whether to open EU accession talks with Ukraine, which would require the unanimous backing of the bloc’s 27 members.
(via Reuters)
Updated
Some of the latest pictures of the devastation caused by the Russian missile attack on the postal depot in Kharkiv region on Saturday night.
Updated
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, has condemned the Russian missile attack on Kharkiv in which six people died.
The attack on a postal depot took place overnight on Sunday, with 16 people said to have been injured, seven of them said to be in a critical condition, according to earlier reports.
Again overnight horrific images of Russian violence against civilians in Ukraine – a missile attack on a postal office in Kharkiv killed 6 people and seriously injured more. The Kremlin’s disregard for life is for all the world to see. The United States stands with Ukraine to…
— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) October 22, 2023
Updated
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has spoken with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to thank Qatar for its humanitarian assistance and mediation in returning home illegally deported Ukrainian children, he said on X.
I spoke with @TamimBinHamad to thank Qatar for its humanitarian assistance and major mediation role in returning home the illegally deported and forcibly transferred Ukrainian children.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 22, 2023
Ukraine is determined to keep working together to return our children home.
We also…
Updated
Russian forces claim to have foiled several attempts by Ukrainian units to cross the Dnipro River in the southern region of Kherson over the past day.
Russia’s defence ministry has said that what it calls Ukrainian “sabotage and reconnaissance” teams were stopped while trying to cross the river near the villages of Pridniprovske, Tiahynka and Krynky.
Russia also said it had destroyed Ukrainian personnel, water-crossing equipment and vehicles near the village of Stanislav. Moscow’s assertion could not be independently verified, Reuters reports.
The Institute for the Study of War, a US research group, said on Friday that Ukrainian forces appeared to have broken through on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson.
Ukraine recaptured parts of the region late last year after months of Russian occupation. But Russian forces who left the region’s biggest city – also named Kherson – retreated only as far as the other side of the Dnipro and have continued to shell the city from there.
Updated
Russian foreign minister to visit Tehran on Monday
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will visit Tehran on Monday for talks with regional counterparts, his ministry’s spokesperson has confirmed.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported earlier that the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia had been invited to the talks.
“We confirm Lavrov’s planned talks in Tehran on Monday,” Maria Zakharova told the TASS and RIA news agencies.
The talks come amid tensions over the Middle East and unresolved disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which launched a lightning offensive against Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh last month.
Since launching its assault in Ukraine last year, Russia has turned to Iran for military support and economic partnership as both countries face a range of western sanctions.
Western countries have accused Tehran of supporting Russia’s offensive in Ukraine by providing it with large quantities of drones and other weaponry.
(via AFP agency)
Updated
Russian forces shell town of Kupiansk, Kharkiv, says regional governor
Russian forces shelled the town of Kupiansk in Kharkiv region at about 7 on Sunday, hitting residential buildings and injuring three people, the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said on Telegram.
Among those injured were two teenagers aged 15 and 17 and a 63-year-old woman.
Syniehubov said all three were admitted to hospital after the attack. The woman and the 15-year-old were reportedly in a critical condition.
Ukrainian forces had shot down three Shahed kamikaze drones and one guided Kh-59 cruise missile that Russia launched against Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force reported.
The drones were launched from Chauda in occupied Crimea, while a Russian Su-34 aircraft fired the guided missile from the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia oblast, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Apart from Shahed drones, Russia also attacked Ukraine with two unidentified drones launched from the northern direction, as well as fired eight S-300 missiles from Belgorod oblast and occupied Donetsk oblast, the air force said.
The report does not specify where the targets not downed by the Ukrainian forces hit.
Updated
Ukraine fears a drone shortage due to China’s move to place restrictions on exports, the BBC reports.
The war in Ukraine is the first armed conflict to see such extensive use of drones, which are used by both sides. Many of them are commercially made in China and bought off the shelf, and new supplies are vital because of the large numbers lost in the fighting.
According to the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), a London-based thinktank, Ukraine is losing about 10,000 drones a month.
But there are indications of a reduction in the number of Chinese drones and parts available to both Ukraine and Russia, BBC Monitoring reports.
The Chinese restrictions imposed on 1 September apply to longer-range drones weighing more than 4kg, as well as drone-related equipment such as some cameras and radio modules.
Chinese producers must now apply for export licences and provide end-user certificates, and the government in Beijing – which has not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – says commercial Chinese drones must not be used for military purposes, the BBC reported.
Ukrainian volunteers and soldiers say the latest Chinese restrictions have so far had minimal impact on the availability of drones, especially the ubiquitous lightweight Mavics made by the Chinese company DJI. However, they say that the supply of parts has been affected, and they also fear that the situation may worsen in the future.
Updated
Ukrainian ground forces are reportedly engaged in efforts to secure the village of Krynky, 30km north-east of Kherson and 2km from the Dnipro River, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported in its latest update, citing BBC Russia.
If successful, the control of this settlement would provide forward units with a strategic foothold to initiate a broader offensive strategy, with the goal of dividing Russian forces and disrupting their supply routes, the Kyiv Independent reported.
Updated
British army's Royal Engineers train Ukrainian civil engineers in defending energy sector, says UK MoD
The British army’s Royal Engineers have trained Ukrainian civilian engineers on how to defend their energy sector from Russian attacks this winter, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.
Damage and destruction of critical national infrastructure (CNI) by Russian missile and drone attacks has represented one of the greatest threats to the lives and safety of Ukrainian civilians since the invasion.
The two-week training package was developed after a request from Ukraine.
The UK defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said the training was “essential” to protect Ukrainian civilians as winter approaches.
The Royal Engineers’ specialist reservists who work within the UK CNI sector employed their professional experience to deliver elements of the training at a UK gasworks, a military airstrip and a port facility, the MoD said.
Updated
It is likely that Russia has suffered 150,000-190,000 permanent casualties (killed or permanently wounded) since the Ukraine war began, according to the latest intelligence update from the UK’s defence intelligence.
If the numbers of temporary wounded (those recovered and due to return to the battlefield) are added, that number rises to 240,000-290,000, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest update posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Recent Russian assaults in Avdiivka have contributed to 90% increase in Russian casualties recorded by the Ukrainian MoD, it said. Moscow’s drive to capture the town of Avdiivka was met by fierce resistance on Saturday, Ukraine’s military have said.
Since February 2022, Russia has significantly increased its force footprint by intensifying recruitment, which allows it to better conduct costly assaults, according to UK defence intelligence.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 22 October 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 22, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/weRQDP6Fwr
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/9eCmqEJw8k
Updated
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to our live blog with regular updates on events in Ukraine throughout the day. Here’s what we know so far today.
Ukraine’s air defence systems destroyed six Russia-launched attack drones and a cruise missile overnight, Ukraine’s air force said on Sunday, adding that in total Russia launched nine cruise missiles on Ukraine.
The number of wounded in a Russian missile strike on a postal distribution centre in Kharkiv district on Saturday, in which at least six people died, is now put at 16, rising overnight from 14. Of those, seven were “fighting for their lives”, the governor Oleh Synehubov said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy shared a video on Saturday night showing what appeared to be a heavily damaged warehouse surrounded by rubble and a container with the logo of Ukrainian postal operator Nova Poshta. He said it was a civilian facility and urged Ukraine’s allies to unite in the “fight against terror”.
Zelenskiy, talked to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday. During the call, Zelenskiy said the two discussed Ukraine’s peace formula, food security, and the situation in the Middle East. Turkey will take part in peace talks next week to discuss ways to end the Ukraine conflict, Zelenskiy said.
Moscow’s drive to capture the town of Avdiivka encountered fierce resistance on Saturday, Ukraine’s military said. “The enemy is becoming more active, but is incurring heavy losses,” Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s troops in the south, said on Telegram. Russia’s defence ministry, in its evening report, made no mention of Avdiivka, but reported strikes on areas outside Bakhmut, a town seized by Moscow’s forces in May after months of battles. Both towns are in the eastern Donetsk region.
Russia struck areas of eastern and southern Ukraine with artillery and missiles on Friday and Saturday, killing at least three people and injuring others, officials said. The fatal attacks were in Nikopol, Kryvyi Rih and Kherson region.
A UN investigation has found further evidence that Russian forces committed “indiscriminate attacks” and war crimes in Ukraine, including rape and the deportation of children to Russia. “The collected evidence further shows that Russian authorities have committed the war crimes of wilful killing, torture, rape and other sexual violence, and the deportation of children to the Russian Federation,” a UN commission of inquiry on Ukraine said in a report submitted to the UN general assembly. Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and has said Ukrainian allegations of war crimes are concocted.
Three more children have been rescued from Russia and brought back to Ukraine, the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Germany will reportedly provide an additional €200m (£175m) to Ukraine to support the country’s restoration of its education and healthcare systems, its drinking water supplies, and the reconstruction of its cities.
I’m Caroline Davies and will be posting updates throughout the day. You can get in touch on caroline.davies@theguardian.com
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