Repeated barrages have disrupted electricity and water supplies across Ukraine, AFP reports, but the Kremlin has blamed civilian suffering on Kiev’s refusal to negotiate rather than Russian attacks. AFP journalists in several Ukrainian cities said the latest attack coincided with the first snow of the season, after officials in Kyiv warned of “difficult” days ahead. “Right now, more than 10 million Ukrainians are without power,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday, adding that the regions of Odesa, Vinnytsia, Sumy and Kiev were the hardest hit. The strikes on Ukraine’s power grid follow a series of battlefield setbacks for Russia, including last week’s retreat from Kherson. Important events Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I will bring you the latest developments as they happen. As the first snow of winter fell in Kyiv, authorities said they were working to restore power nationwide after Russia earlier this week launched what Ukraine said was the heaviest bombardment of civilian infrastructure of the war that began in late February when Russia invaded its neighbor. About 10 million people were left without power, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video clip late Thursday. Authorities in some places ordered mandatory blackouts, he said. A UN agency has said a serious humanitarian crisis is looming, with millions facing “persistent power outages” as Ukraine’s typically long, cold winter begins. More on that soon. In the meantime, here’s the key recent news:
Russia launched another wave of rocket, drone and missile strikes across Ukraine on Thursday morning. The latest strikes mark the sixth mass attack since early October, which Ukrainian authorities say is aimed at destroying the country’s energy system. The first snow of the winter fell in Kyiv as authorities said they were working to restore power nationwide after Russia earlier this week launched what Ukraine said was the heaviest bombardment of civilian infrastructure of the war. The Donetsk region has seen the heaviest fighting of the war so far. Russian forces were bolstered by troops withdrawn from the southern city of Kherson, which Ukraine recaptured last week. Russian forces fired artillery into the towns of Bakhmut and near Solendar, among others, the Ukrainian military said. About 10 million people were left without power, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video clip late Thursday. Authorities in some places had ordered mandatory blackouts, he said. A deal brokered by the UN and Turkey in July aimed at reducing global food shortages was extended by four months on Thursday, although Russia said its own demands had not yet been fully met. Strikes on critical infrastructure in Odesa and Dnipro were confirmed by the presidential administration and regional leaders. Three people were injured in the Odesa region, while 14 others were injured in the strike in the city of Dnipro, according to its mayor, Boris Filatov. Two people were killed in an overnight rocket attack in the southeastern region of Zaporizhia, local officials said. Three were wounded in an attack in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, they added. Investigators in retaken territory in the region discovered 63 bodies bearing signs of torture after Russian forces withdrew, Ukraine’s interior minister was quoted as saying. Russia denies that its troops target civilians or that they have committed atrocities. Mass graves have been found in other places previously occupied by Russian troops, including some with civilian corpses showing signs of torture. The UK Ministry of Defense said the barrage of missiles that hit Ukraine on Tuesday was possibly the largest number of strikes carried out by Russia in one day since the first week of its invasion. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the US “has seen nothing so far that contradicts” Poland’s preliminary assessment that Ukrainian air defenses were responsible for Tuesday’s missile incident. US President Joe Biden disputed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s comment that the missiles that fell on Poland on Tuesday were not of Ukrainian origin, saying that is not what the evidence suggests. The Kremlin said it could not imagine engaging in “public” negotiations with Ukraine. In a call with reporters, spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Kyiv of changing its position on possible Russia-Ukraine peace talks, adding that the war would continue regardless of the drop in temperatures. Ukrainian forces control about 1% of the territory in the eastern region of Luhansk, according to the Russian-installed head of the region. The Moscow-backed administrator, Leonid Pasechnik, was quoted as saying that Ukraine controlled the village of Belogorovka and two other settlements in the area. A member of Russia’s armed forces who took part in the invasion of Ukraine has sought political asylum after landing in Madrid, the Guardian has learned. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he believed neither Russia nor the US planned to use nuclear weapons. Erdogan’s comments came after US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns and Sergei Naryskin, head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence agency, met this week in Ankara in what was the first known high-level, face-to-face meeting US-Russia contact. since the war began in February. A Dutch court has found three men guilty of killing 298 people on board flight MH17, which was shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile while flying over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
