EU council president calls deadly strike ‘cruel and devastating’; fragile ceasefire holds in Oleshky. What we know on day 1,710

European leaders have reacted with outrage to a deadly attack by a Russian drone that slammed into a busy railway platform in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Ukraine had intelligence about more ballistic missile strikes to come. French President Emmanuel Macron stressed the need for “far more than a localised ceasefire”, referencing the current truce in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky. The EU council president, António Costa, who described the Dnipro attacks as “cruel and devastating”, called for greater pressure on Russia after the latest strikes against civilians. “The EU will continue to increase the pressure on Russia and to support Ukraine until a just and lasting peace is achieved,” he added. “We call on all our international partners to do the same.”

Later on Thursday, Russian forces ⁠launched ⁠an attack ​on the ⁠Ukrainian capital ⁠Kyiv ​with ‌ballistic ‌missiles, Mayor Vitali Klitschko ‌said on Telegram, hitting warehouses and ‌triggering a fire. Emergency services were headed to ​the scene on the east side ⁠of the Dnipro ​River, he said.

Describing the Dnipro train station attack – which killed at least 14 people and injured another 14 – as “horrific”, the president of Ukraine insisted “sanctions against Moscow and its war machine must not be eased for as long as this Russian war continues”. Zelenskyy warned also that Ukraine had intelligence about preparations by the Russians of new ballistic missile strikes. “We need the means to take out all this Russian ‌evil. We are expecting relevant decisions,” he said. Another attack on Dnipro hit a student dormitory, setting it ablaze, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said, adding the assaults had cut power to 350,000 households.

The strikes came as Ukraine and Russia kept to a fragile local ceasefire in the ravaged city of Oleshky and prepared to send a humanitarian convoy to the southern Ukrainian city under Russian occupation since 2022 and where residents have faced months of food, water and medicine shortages. Russia’s human ‌rights commissioner Yana Lantratova ‌said on Friday that local residents had until 2 pm local time (1100 ​GMT) on 30 October to evacuate, Russian news agency Interfax reported. Two ​people, ​including one ​sapper, were killed ​while ‌de-mining in ​Oleshky, ​she said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military ⁠has paused its strikes on Russian oil refineries after pressure from US President Donald Trump, ⁠according to a report in the Wall Street ⁠Journal ​on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the operations. Ukrainian units carrying out ⁠long-range strikes were told in mid-October that the campaign against refineries was effectively on hold once ⁠missions already in motion were completed, the Journal reported. The ​unofficial pause is expected ‌to last until ‌after the US midterm elections and potentially deeper into ‌November, the newspaper said.

After the Dnipro attack, Zelenskyy renewed his criticism of a deal struck between Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to ease some US sanctions on Russia allowing Moscow to release diesel on to global markets. “How many such terrorist strikes has Russia carried out against our people since sanctions were lifted on some Russian oligarchs and the energy sector, instead of de-escalating?” he asked.

Late on Thursday, Putin said he supported any steps aimed at restoring relations with ⁠European countries, saying the outbreak of any conflict would leave ⁠a situation with ⁠no ​winners. Commenting on his phone call this week with the leaders of Norway and Finland, Putin told reporters after ‌hosting a summit with African ‌leaders: “And if anyone wants it, let them prepare, but right now they have not achieved their goal – to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. And if things go too far, there will be no winners at all. .”

Keira Callaghan says being prepared should be a public health measure, not a privilege, and Chris Rotheram is experiencing prescription anxiety. Plus five more letters in response to the Be Ready campaign

The Be Ready campaign may offer sensible advice in principle (Every Briton should stockpile water and food supplies, government advises, 22 October), but as a midwife working in Tower Hamlets, one of the poorest boroughs in London, I can see first-hand that its practical recommendations risk excluding precisely those families who are already most vulnerable.

For families living in a single room in a shared house, storing nine litres of water per person alongside three days’ worth of essential supplies may simply be unrealistic. When families are already struggling with the cost of food, heating and everyday necessities, buying additional emergency provisions may also be financially impossible.

No reported incidents in 30 hours in the occupied Ukrainian city. What we know on day 1,709

A local ceasefire in southern Ukraine was holding for a second day, both sides said on Wednesday, as hopes grew that vital aid would be able to reach stranded residents. An estimated 2,000 people remain in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in the Kherson region amid food and medical shortages and reports many people are now starving and eating weeds. The human rights ombudsmen of both Russia and Ukraine said on Wednesday the US-brokered truce – which came into effect early on Tuesday morning – was still holding. “30 hours of the ceasefire in Oleshky have passed without a single incident,” Ukraine’s Dmytro Lubinets said. “No incidents have been recorded in the 30 hours of the ceasefire in Oleshky,” Russia’s Yana Lantratova said in a similarly worded statement. The ceasefire would be guaranteed by “the physical presence of both ombudsmen: Ukrainian and Russian” on the ground, Lubinets’s office said. Route demining was “currently under way”, Lubinets said on social media, describing it as “crucial step toward ensuring the safe delivery of humanitarian aid and enabling civilians who wish to leave the city”.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that since the ceasefire came into force, there had been “no massive attacks” on the regional capital of Kherson, where about 280,000 people lived before Russia’s invasion. “We’re happy even when we have two, three days for these people. You know, some ceasefire is great, you can see them in the streets,” the Ukrainian president told reporters in The Hague. The truce would be a “huge success” if the evacuation of Oleshky’s citizens went ahead as planned, he said.

The timing of the next round of three-way ⁠talks on a settlement of the Ukraine conflict is linked to the conflict in the Middle East, a Kremlin foreign policy aide has said, casting doubt on whether the talks will take place next month as initially proposed. Yuri Ushakov, quoted by Russian news ⁠agencies, said Moscow had not yet proposed a specific date for the talks. “It will ​also depend on the situation ‌on the battlefield and the ‌situation in general. You can see the situation now in the Middle East. It ‌just doesn’t allow us to hold it in the near future. That’s my assumption,” he told journalists on Wednesday. Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he hoped a meeting would take place in Abu Dhabi between 6 and 10 November.

Vladimir Putin praised Elon Musk’s “genius” and said he was in touch with Starlink’s controlling shareholder as Russia develops its own satellite communications for its military to use against Ukraine, reports Dan Sabbagh. The Russian president, speaking at a summit with African leaders in Moscow, was comparing the Earth-orbiting network built by Musk’s SpaceX with Russia’s gradual efforts to build its own Rassvet constellation. “Elon Musk is a genius, a true genius,” the Tass news agency quoted the Russian leader as saying.

The Netherlands will supply Ukraine with €500m ($557m/£418m) ⁠in military support ⁠this ​winter, the Dutch prime minister said. The support ⁠would be used to supply drones and other material to ⁠strengthen Ukraine’s defence, Rob Jetten said ​after meeting Zelenskyy in The Hague. Earlier on ‌Wednesday, the Dutch government announced it would give Kyiv €1.2bn in non-military support in the next three years. Part of the money would be used for funds that supported ⁠Dutch companies willing to invest in the ​rebuilding ​of Ukraine.

Russian authorities have issued permits for ⁠vessels carrying grain for export to leave the Sea of Azov for the first time since 10 July, ⁠when they closed maritime ⁠traffic ​in the area due to Ukrainian drone attacks, Reuters quoted seven industry sources as saying. They said permits to pass ⁠through the Kerch Strait, which links the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, would be issued for the period ⁠to 15 November.

The fine – six times the average monthly salary – will apply to people present at violent protests, even if they don’t personally commit violent acts

Albania has introduced fines of more than $6,000 for demonstrators who participate in a protest that turns violent, even if they don’t personally commit violent acts, as the government tries to clamp down on the gatherings calling for the prime minister’s resignation.

The capital, Tirana, has been racked by months of anti-government protests that in recent days have deteriorated into pitched battles between the security forces and protesters.

The fine – six times the average monthly salary – will apply to people present at violent protests, even if they don’t personally commit violent acts

Albania has introduced fines of more than $6,000 for demonstrators who participate in a protest that turns violent, even if they don’t personally commit violent acts, as the government tries to clamp down on the gatherings calling for the prime minister’s resignation.

The capital, Tirana, has been racked by months of anti-government protests that in recent days have deteriorated into pitched battles between the security forces and protesters.

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Ukrainian president says Kyiv’s battlefield ⁠position strongest ⁠in some ​time. What we know on day 1,708

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukrainian forces are retaking territory through a series of offensives, adding Kyiv’s battlefield ⁠position was the strongest it had been ⁠in some ​time. The Ukrainian president, citing ⁠a report by senior commanders, noted for the first time the “Veles” operation using pipelines in Ukraine’s northeast. He also referred to an air assault operation in ⁠eastern Ukraine and the “Vivaldi” operation further to the north, designed to prevent Russian advances in ​key areas.

The leaders of Finland and Norway phoned Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to urge him to end the war in Ukraine. The call by Finnish president Alexander Stubb and Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere was an attempt to ⁠influence the diplomatic process after US president Donald ⁠Trump stunned allies by agreeing to buy Russian diesel, plunging ties with Ukraine to their lowest point in 18 months.

While a localised ceasefire appears to holding in Ukraine’s south, Russian strikes damaged a university campus and Kyiv’s important Southern Bridge overnight, in what Zelenskyy described as “a serious escalation” against ​Ukrainian logistics. A Ukrainian military source told Reuters that Russia ‌had hit the bridge with four Iskander ​ballistic missiles. Zelenskyy said energy facilities, logistics and infrastructure in ​10 other regions had also been attacked overnight.

Kyiv plans to allocate 1 billion hryvnias ($22 ⁠million) to build water crossings over the River Dnipro that divides ⁠the capital into two ⁠parts, ​the city’s mayor has said, as Russia escalates its attacks on ⁠bridges.

Romanian president Nicusor Dan has called an alleged Russian sabotage plot last month a “grave violation” of the Nato member’s sovereignty and security. Dan’s remarks on Tuesday came a day after the Romanian intelligence service said it identified a Russia-coordinated “sabotage network” linked to a fire in central Brasov County last month, which damaged the premises of several commercial entities. Three foreign nationals – two Belarusians and one Ukrainian, all residing in EU countries – were being investigated in connection with the fire. Romania’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it had summoned Russia’s ambassador in Bucharest. The Russian embassy in Romania said its ambassador rejected the “baseless” accusations.

France has temporarily relocated a maritime patrol aircraft to ⁠Romania to help identify navigation dangers and bolster the protection of critical energy infrastructure ⁠in the Black ⁠Sea. At least eight cargo ships have been hit ⁠near the coast Romania and Bulgaria in the past three weeks, ⁠with about 34 sailors reported dead or missing. Romania’s defence ministry said on Tuesday the purpose is “to identify dangers to navigation and increase the ability to protect critical infrastructure in Romania’s exclusive ⁠economic zone”.

Poland will host a maintenance centre for the US-made Patriot air-defence system. The centre in Poland will be the only one outside the US, deputy defence minister Sobkowiak-Czarnecka said on social media. Poland, a Nato member bordering Ukraine, serves as a major logistics hub for military aid sent by Kyiv’s allies. Patriot interceptor missiles are regarded as among Ukraine’s most important air-defence assets as it seeks to repel escalating Russian missile and drone attacks.

Pope Leo XIV’s chief almsgiver, Monsignor Luis Marín de San Martín, on Tuesday began a three-day visit to Ukraine and was bringing several trucks worth of winter clothes, blankets and food to Kyiv for distribution. Marín de San Martín was planning to visit the capital, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Fastiv, Vatican News said. Leo had called for a ceasefire and the delivery of food and medicine in Oleshky, and the safe and voluntary evacuation of its people during a phone calls with Putin and Zelenskyy.

US military says it carried out an airstrike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in latest attack in region

The US ⁠military ⁠said on ​Tuesday ⁠it killed ⁠five ​people ‌after ‌an airstrike on a ‌suspected drug-trafficking vessel in ​the ⁠eastern Pacific.

Tuesday’s strike was among more than 70 such attacks since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second presidency, according to media tallies. Collectively, they have killed more than 240 people.

Zelenskyy says ballistic missiles hit crowded areas with no military facilities nearby; truce comes amid reports of growing humanitarian crisis. What we know on day 1,707

Russian strikes on Kyiv killed one person and wounded eight, with mayor Vitali Klitschko saying medical facilities and an intensive care unit had been damaged in the late Monday attack. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a ballistic missile attack had struck the grounds of a university campus in the Ukrainian capital. “The missiles hit very crowded areas, and there is not a single military facility nearby. This was a strike directly on the city, on its infrastructure,” he said on social media.

The strikes on Kyiv came hours before a truce in the ravaged Russian-occupied city of Oleshky was due to start, after months of reports that residents faced dire food, water and medicine shortages. The truce, aimed at allowing humanitarian aid into Oleshky, was to begin at 3am local time (0100 GMT). No end date for the truce has been provided. The city in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region has been caught in the crosshairs of fighting between the two sides since 2022, when it was seized by Russian forces. Neither Russia, Ukraine nor the US has said who would monitor the truce, or given details about the humanitarian operation set to accompany it. The Russian defence ministry said on Friday it would halt fire in the “Kherson sector” for the duration of the ceasefire. Ukraine has accused Russia of blocking residents from leaving, a charge Moscow has denied.

Before the latest strikes on Kyiv, Zelenskyy highlighted ​Ukraine was still waiting for US defence secretary Pete Hegseth to sign off on critical missile supplies. “We have been waiting for nearly a month for Mr Hegseth to sign off on missiles for Patriots and NASAMS. I instructed our team to raise this with the ⁠American side once again,” he said on X.

Romania said on Monday that a network “coordinated” from Russia was involved in starting a fire near an arms factory. The fire broke out on 14 September near an arms factory in the central city of Brasov and two Belarusians and a Ukrainian – residents in EU countries – were involved, authorities said. Two of them were “tracked down and remanded in custody in Germany while they were preparing to commit similar offences”, the office for organised crime said. The third is at large in Poland, it added. Russia’s embassy in Bucharest could not immediately be reached for comment but Moscow has repeatedly denied such accusations.

The attack in Brasov is the latest in a string of similar incidents in Europe, with Nato and the EU grappling with what they say is a “hybrid” campaign of sabotage and interference by the Kremlin aimed at undercutting Western support for Kyiv. On Tuesday, Russia’s defence ⁠ministry said ⁠its ​forces ⁠had struck a ⁠vessel ​in ‌the Black ‌Sea that was transporting cargo ‌for the Ukrainian military, according to Russian ​media ​reports. Before Tuesday’s attack, at ​least eight cargo ​ships have been hit off the coast of Nato members Romania and Bulgaria over the past three weeks. Some 34 sailors are reported dead or missing.

A Russian strike has damaged a major bridge spanning the Dnipro River in Kyiv, Klitschko said on Tuesday, following reports of multiple ballistic missiles launched towards the Ukrainian capital. “A strike hit the Southern Bridge. Metro infrastructure on the bridge was also damaged,” the city’s mayor wrote on Telegram. City officials said train services across the bridge had been suspended.

Ukraine’s military has begun using specialised aerial rescue drones to evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield, carrying two stranded troops to safety near the Russian border in the first such operations. The newly developed StarGate drone, a six-rotor aircraft fitted with an enclosed evacuation capsule, was used in two separate missions over the past week, the 475th Separate Assault Regiment, an elite unit, said on Monday. Developed by Ukrainian technology company SkyFall, the drone is intended to reduce rescue times from hours to minutes, reaching hard-to-access combat zones currently served by unmanned ground vehicles.

Readers respond to Polly Toynbee’s article on the possibility of rejoining the EU

With all due respect to Polly Toynbee, why do we assume that we would need another referendum to return to Europe (Shall we have another EU referendum? Maybe – but not yet, 19 October)? The last one didn’t work out too well. Asking the electorate to vote a simple yes or no on such a complex and multifaceted deal was never going to be the right approach; nor will it be to go back in.

Call it what you will – Brejoin, Bre-entry, Brehabilitation – it shouldn’t be an all-or-nothing deal. The one thing that Brexit has given us is the opportunity to cherrypick the elements of a relationship that are of mutual benefit to both parties. How about approaching it on a piecemeal basis, processing it through normal parliamentary procedure? No buses required.
Gary Jones
Wimbledon, London

Amid widespread protests, Muriel E Cockcroft has sympathy for French youth but fears how much steam will be let out at the next convulsion

I’m writing in response to your editorial (The Guardian view on France’s protests: a polarised country is in a perilous political moment, 19 October). While the focus is on Emmanuel Macron, let us not forget the hierarchical structure of French administration, from mayors to MPs to senators to prefects and heads of region. All are part of the government, but few stood up to bring leaky school roofs and missing teachers to national consciousness. I deplore the senseless destruction of shops and state buildings. But I also deplore the fact that students had to protest to be heard. In the many administrative tiers of this highly hierarchical country, no one acted and inertia prevailed.

Centrally, the government is financially challenged but refuses to acknowledge that having a huge deficit, an ageing population and a low retirement age are perhaps connected. Modest attempts to increase the retirement age also provoked violent protests. Financial tools for individual retirement remain complex and restricted. Thus, this sclerotic system presses on until the next crisis.

Ukraine will not discuss limits to its armed forces or enforced neutrality at November meeting, president says. What we know on day 1,706

A trilateral meeting between Kyiv, Washington and Moscow will take place in November aiming to restart stalled Russia-Ukraine peace talks, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. “We are ready to talk. If it’s a territorial issue, it must be addressed at a leadership level. Other issues fall within the remit of the technical groups. All this can therefore be discussed in November,” the Ukrainian president said on Sunday in an interview. Zelenskyy also renewed his push ⁠for a meeting between him and Vladimir Putin, believing that Putin is the only person ​in Russia who can make major decisions to end ​the war.

Zelenskyy says that at the trilateral talks, Ukraine will not discuss limits to its armed forces, or enforced postwar neutrality. Kyiv has long sought entry into Nato despite the reticence of some members.

Meanwhile, US warnings about imminent ⁠Russian ballistic missile strikes, critical to Ukraine’s air defences, have been fully restored, according to Zelenskyy. He told Ukraine’s ⁠TSN television channel that SpaceX’s ​Starshield satellite internet had been working at speeds of up to 420km/h since early on Saturday, after a meeting with the US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo. Starshield was throttled earlier in October amid diplomatic pressure on Kyiv from Washington.

The US has been trying to pressure Ukraine to suspend strikes on Russian oil refineries, which it says push energy prices higher. However, Zelenskyy has repeatedly said Kyiv will only stop the strikes if Moscow stops hitting Ukraine’s power infrastructure, or if the US allows Ukraine to use of Starshield ‌over Russia to detect launch places of its ballistic missiles, or if it supplies Ukraine with Patriot missiles.

Zelenskyy on Sunday said Russia had launched nearly 2,300 drones targeting Ukrainian cities over the past week, renewing his call on western allies to speed up deliveries of interceptors. “This week alone, Russia has launched about 1,600 guided bombs, 48 missiles of various types, including ballistic missiles, and almost 2,300 strike drones at Ukraine,” he wrote in an online post.

Russia’s defence ⁠ministry said on ⁠Sunday ​its drones had struck a ⁠cargo vessel bound for the Black Sea port of ⁠Chornomorsk in an overnight ​attack ‌and another cargo ‌vessel en route to the ‌port of Odesa during the day. The ministry said the vessels were being used to supply the Ukrainian army. Russian ‌forces also hit a logistics centre, a ​distribution centre and a logistics terminal in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv overnight. Reuters could not confirm the reports.

A Ukrainian drone attack overnight on the Russian border city ⁠of Belgorod killed ⁠three people ​and injured 13, local authorities said on Sunday, while ⁠a separate drone strike later in the day killed another person. The overnight attack on Belgorod ​damaged 30 apartment buildings, regional governor ⁠Alexander Shuvayev said.

The presidential election in Bulgaria on Sunday ended inconclusively, with the next head of state to be picked in a runoff. In a surprisingly strong performance, the candidate of the pro-western reformist opposition, Andrey Gyurov, will face the incumbent leftist president, Iliana Yotova. Iotova opposes military aid to Ukraine and favours dialogue with Russia, while Gyurov has often expressed firm support for Kyiv. The vote was held amid security concerns after a series of drone attacks on ships in the Black Sea.

Crimea strikes cause water and power cuts; war game designed to show how Nato countries could be defended amid fears of Russian aggression. What we know on day 1,705

A Ukrainian attack led to water and power cuts in occupied Crimea on Saturday, as a barrage of drones in several regions inside Russia left several dead, according to Russian authorities. Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-installed head of the Crimean peninsula, wrote on Telegram that due to the drone attack on local power grids “restrictions on the supply of electricity and water have been put in place”. He did not specify how many households had been affected in Crimea, which is home to more than 2.5 million people. The peninsula, which was seized from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, is a regular target for Ukrainian attacks.

A separate Ukrainian strike in part of the north-eastern Kharkiv region held by Russia killed at least three people and gravely wounded another on Saturday, the Moscow-backed authorities said.

Drones also rained down inside Russia. The country’s defence ministry said 616 of them had been shot down overnight across more than 20 regions of the country. During the day, drones hit Russia’s south-western Bryansk border region, killing at least three people, regional acting governor Yegor Kovalchuc said on Telegram.

In Ukraine, authorities said that at least five people died in several Russian drone and missile strikes in the country’s east. Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha on Saturday evening said three people were killed and at least 12 wounded when a Russian drone strike hit the town of Synelnykove, setting the fourth floor of a high-rise building on fire. Authorities in Sumy meanwhile said a Russian drone hit a farm, killing a 31-year-old woman and injuring four others.

Thousands of British and French troops have taken part in a military training exercise that included one of Britain’s largest airborne operations in two decades, the UK government said on Sunday. The war game is designed to show how Nato countries could be defended against a modern-day attack and comes during fears about Russian aggression in Europe amid Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

About 2,500 troops were involved in the seven-week exercise, in which 600 British and French paratroopers dropped from four RAF A400M Atlas transport aircraft over Germany. The exercise called Rhino Titan, held at the Sennelager military training centre in Germany, has been testing British troops’ ability against an enemy equipped with drones and electronic warfare. “The threats we face in the 21st century require an updated, modern approach to warfare – and our adaptable armed forces are preparing accordingly,” British defence minister Wes Streeting said in a statement.

Ukraine’s military has a “stable connection to Starlink”, the Ukrainian government said, 10 days after its ability to use the satellite communications system was suddenly restricted. But hours after the announcement, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose company owns Starlink, accused the Ukrainian military of violating ⁠the company’s terms. Neither Musk nor the US government, which operates Starshield using Starlink technology, took responsibility for imposing the curbs.

Bulgarians will vote ​in presidential elections on Sunday as Russia’s war in Ukraine spreads to the waters off Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast. Polls place acting president Iliana ⁠Iotova and ex-caretaker prime minister Andrey Gyurov as leaders in a race of 27 candidates. While the presidency is largely ceremonial, Sunday’s vote has taken ⁠on added significance after a series of drone attacks on merchant ships off Bulgaria’s Black Sea ​coast that likely killed about two-dozen international ‌seafarers.

Tankers part of US-Russia deal that could see 500,000 metric tonnes of fuel supplied to world market this month. What we know on day 1,704

Three tankers carrying Russian diesel are on their ⁠way to North America, Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said ⁠on Friday. In ​a statement quoted by Russian news agencies, Novak said the cargoes were ⁠part of a deal that could see Russian companies supply 500,000 metric tonnes to US and world markets in October. “The first ⁠three fuel tankers are already on their ​way to the eastern ‌coast of ‌the Atlantic Ocean, with significant support from the ‌RDIF (Russian Direct Investment Fund),” Novak said. Under a deal announced this month by US president Donald Trump, Russia agreed ‌to supply diesel to global markets in an effort to lower fuel ​prices in return for Trump temporarily lifting US sanctions on Russian fuel. Reuters reported that the Malta-flagged ⁠medium-sized tanker Agioi Fanendes, loaded with ultra-low sulphur diesel, is expected to arrive in ‌the US on 7 November.

The White House has said that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a ceasefire in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, where a deepening humanitarian crisis has left thousands of civilians struggling to survive. In a statement on Friday, the White House said both sides had agreed to halt all military operations in the city from 27 October to allow humanitarian aid deliveries and preparations for the evacuation of civilians. Residents of the southern Ukrainian city, which has been under Russian occupation since February 2022, have described increasingly desperate conditions amid severe shortages of food, water and electricity. An estimated 2,000 people remain in the city, with some reportedly forced to survive on weeds, boiled grass, bread and meagre rations. Both Russian and Ukrainian officials said all sides were close to agreeing to a ceasefire.

The Oleshky ceasefire comes as the US is trying to organise new talks aimed at ending the war. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US have agreed to technical-level meetings in the first half of November in Abu Dhabi. A US official later said the three ⁠countries may hold their next talks in a couple weeks in Abu Dhabi or Switzerland. Zelenskyy said he hoped a meeting of the countries’ leaders would follow.

The peace efforts follow a rift between Washington and Kyiv in recent weeks and a series of moves by Trump seen as favouring Russia, including limitations being placed on the Starlink communication system that Ukraine uses to protect against incoming attacks. Trump said on Friday that if Ukraine still faced a problem accessing the system, he would straighten it out ​and, if necessary, speak about the matter to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

As the UK government prepares next week for the first budget under Andy Burnham’s leadership, EU leaders have pressed the new prime minister at a summit in Brussels to contribute more to Ukraine’s defence effort. EU officials say Canada and Japan also should do more to support Ukraine.

The UN nuclear watchdog IAEA said ⁠Fiday ​that repairs to key ⁠power infrastructure near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia ⁠nuclear power ​plant ‌had been completed ‌under a ‌temporary ceasefire it brokered. The repairs strengthened the plant’s connection ‌to its sole remaining external power ​line, known as Ferosplavna-1, reducing the ⁠risk of another ​loss of ​off-site ​electricity at ​Europe’s largest ‌nuclear ​power ​station.

US president says Starshield military communications system is back, but declines to comment on whether he spoke to Musk on the matter. What we know on day 1,703

Donald Trump has claimed that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk fully restored Ukraine’s Starlink access, restrictions on which have hampered Ukraine’s attack missions and air defence. However, a senior European official told the Associated Press on Thursday that nothing has changed in the operation of the military-grade Starshield service. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had called Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of ⁠the system. Trump on Thursday appeared to confirm that the service had been down, but claimed it was once again working at optimal speeds. “You know, whether I called or whether somebody else called, doesn’t make any difference,” he said. “I guess the bottom line, he put it back.”

Questions over who ordered interruptions to Starshield – which plunged relations between Kyiv and Washington to a new low – have ignited a blame game within the Trump administration and its allies. Trump has denied being involved in the decision concerning the slowdown, while US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said that decisions regarding Ukraine’s access to Starlink were up to its parent company SpaceX and Musk, not the White House. Musk last week posted to X: “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ⁠on Thursday – before Trump’s latest comments – that Starlink had not ⁠been fully restored.

Russia pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles overnight, after US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin to discuss the resumption of peace talks. Russia’s aerial attacks hit 12 regions of Ukraine, killing at least four people and wounding scores of others, including five children, Zelenskyy said on social media Thursday. Two women, aged 50 and 60, were killed and dozens of other people were wounded in a Russian strike on a market in Lozova, in Ukraine’s northeeastern Kharkiv region, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration. Another person was killed in other strikes on Kharkiv.

Downing Street has rejected the description of Putin as a “humanitarian” made by Witkoff after meeting the Russian president. When asked about the US envoy’s comments, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “We certainly do not recognise that characterisation, and President Putin has killed thousands of people, both innocent Ukrainians and his own Russian people, who he has sent to their deaths on the frontline.” Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha chided Witkoff for flattering Putin, saying on social media the latest “brutal” Russian attacks demonstrate “what Russian ‘humanism’ truly sounds like.”

Nato member Denmark said on Thursday it has agreed to buy its first ⁠long-range precision missiles as ⁠it seeks to bolster its security to deter Russian aggression in Europe, drawing condemnation from Moscow. Defence minister Jeppe Bruus said the new missile systems would boost Denmark’s capabilities and enable strikes “behind enemy lines” ⁠if attacked. “We’re in a serious and deteriorating security situation and that ​is why we are ‌building up the defence ‌and strengthening our combat power,” he said. The Russian embassy in ‌Copenhagen said Denmark’s missile policy aimed at confrontation with Moscow and warned of “inevitable disastrous consequences”.

Romania will accelerate development of surveillance capabilities and equipment to counter mines ⁠and drones in the Black Sea after a series of drone attacks on commercial ships off ⁠its coast, its ⁠top defence council ​said on Thursday. At least seven cargo ships have been hit near the coasts of Nato members ⁠Romania and Bulgaria in the past two weeks, with 30 sailors reported dead or missing.

No ⁠deals should ​be made to buy gas from ⁠Russia as long as Moscow’s war ⁠in Ukraine continues, Finland’s prime ⁠minister Petteri Orpo said in Kyiv on Thursday. The EU banned Russian pipeline gas under short-term contracts ​from 17 June, and will ​apply it to long-term contracts from 1 November next year. Senior Russian political and energy officials meanwhile have urged the EU to reconsider plans to ban imports of ⁠Russian LNG, arguing the bloc’s ⁠low storage levels ​had put Europe in a precarious position. “I ‌hope there is still time to reconsider these decisions,” Leonid Mikhelson, the head of Novatek, Russia’s largest liquefied natural ‌gas producer, told an economic forum in Istanbul on Thursday. “Europe should support its industry, in my view. There is still time.”

US envoy Witkoff presented Putin with proposals drafted by Zelenskyy and European leaders in Oslo earlier this week. What we know on day 1,702

Talks in Oslo made ‘meaningful progress’ toward engaging Russia, a US official said. What we know on day 1,701

US envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday after what a US official called “constructive” talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Norway. The US official said Ukraine brought forward new ideas and proposals to the Oslo talks, which also involved the leaders of Norway and Finland ⁠and European and Nato representatives, and that participants made “meaningful ⁠progress” toward a coordinated approach to engaging Russia.

The official, who ​spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said the talks covered “key elements of a comprehensive peace framework”, including security guarantees for Ukraine, a postwar economic plan and a broader European security architecture. Witkoff would aim to “create a pathway toward direct trilateral and broader multilateral negotiations”, the official said. US president Donald ⁠Trump on Tuesday ⁠called ​on Ukraine to make a deal ⁠to settle the war with Russia. “Ukraine has to ⁠want to settle this ​war,” Trump ‌told reporters.

Zelenskyy travelled to Oslo seeking to repair relations with Washington, which have sunk to new lows. Trump’s recent gestures toward Moscow, including a deal to buy Russian diesel and a waiver of new sanctions, have sparked bipartisan pushback in the US Congress and worry in European capitals. Zelenskyy said he had ​discussed “Article 5-like” security guarantees, referring to the Nato stipulation that an attack on one ally is an attack on all. “I am ‌thankful to the American side that they underlined again that it will ‌be strong,” he said.

Elon Musk last week ordered the slowdown of a military-grade ⁠version of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite service that Ukraine relies on, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing US ⁠officials and people familiar ⁠with the ​matter. Musk, SpaceX and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Ukraine uses the service – known as Starshield – for battlefield communications and drone operations. Restricting the satellite service hampered the country’s attack and air ⁠defence drone missions against Russia.

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth meanwhile insisted Tuesday that the Pentagon had not directed any changes to Starshield, saying: “We haven’t pulled anything back.” “Nothing’s changed from our view. We haven’t made any directives or anything like that,” he said. On Friday, Trump said he did not request any curbs to Starshield. “It wasn’t me. And I don’t think it was Elon,” Trump said. Musk previously said that “any limits on speed or usage” of Starshield systems were “decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.”

Nato said Tuesday it was deploying additional planes, drones and radar systems to the Black Sea after a string of attacks on ships near Romania and Bulgaria in the latest spillover from Russia’s war on Ukraine. “Allies have or will send additional maritime patrol aircraft, radar systems, explosive exploitation teams, intelligence personnel, drones, and more to the Black Sea,” said Col Martin O’Donnell, a Nato spokesperson. “The most important thing we can do, however, is to increase our situational awareness in the region through increased sensors and data sharing,” he added.

The ⁠Russian military ⁠struck ​three cargo vessels in Ukraine’s ⁠port of Reni and two ⁠other cargo vessels en ​route ‌to ‌Odesa, Russia’s defence ‌ministry said on Tuesday. Russian forces also hit two logistics hubs in ‌the Volyn region and in the ​city of Khmelnitskiy, it said, adding that ⁠the vessels and hubs ​were ​all being ​used for ​military ‌purposes. Russia also unleashed another missile and drone blitz of civilian areas in Ukraine on Tuesday, killing at least nine people, officials said.

The Kremlin said Tuesday that work was under way to ease ⁠the humanitarian ⁠situation ​in the Russian-controlled town of Oleshky in southern ⁠where residents have reported a worsening food crisis. Kremlin spokesperson ⁠Dmitry Peskov said ‌Putin had ‌discussed the situation in Oleshky with Trump and told him that Russia’s human rights commissioner was engaged on the issue.

Ukrainian president tells US senators the delayed missiles have already been paid for by European countries, amid growing rift. What we know on day 1,700

Alex Tait on a proposed amendment to the representation of the people bill, and Dr Joseph Mullen on Russian interference in the Brexit referendum

Andy Burnham’s comments about Russian interference in Brexit (Report, 11 October) and the warning by the MI5 chief, Ken McCallum, against exaggerating its impact (Report, 13 October) risk overlooking another serious threat to electoral integrity: disinformation from our own political parties and campaigners.

Foreign interference deserves scrutiny, but misleading factual claims in electoral advertising are unregulated, unlike in commercial advertising. We have four sets of rules to ensure an advert for a packet of sausages is accurate, but none for the most important advertising of all – ads that influence how we vote.