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Overnight Russia launched 450 drones and 45 missiles to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as Zelensky reiterated his call for sanctions
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Work is under way to prepare proposals for a Russian nuclear test, Moscow has said, in what would be its first test of a nuclear weapon in 35 years.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that Vladimir Putin’s proposals for a nuclear test had been “accepted for implementation and is being worked on”.
The public will be informed of the results, he added according to Russian state news agency Tass.
The order was made in response to Donald Trump’s surprise announcement last week that the US would resume testing. Lavrov said Moscow had received no clarification from Washington regarding the order.
His comments came after Russia attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with 450 drones and 45 missiles overnight, killing seven people across the country.
Three were killed and 12 wounded in an attack on an apartment building in Dnipro, three were killed in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, and one was killed in the northeastern Kharkiv region, prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko said
Energy minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said emergency crews had stabilized the power grid, but warned consumers further power cuts were needed to allow work to proceed after the attacks.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that work is under way on Vladimir Putin’s order to prepare proposals for a possible Russian nuclear test, state news agency Tass reported.
According to Tass, Lavrov said: “Regarding President Vladimir Putin’s instruction at the Security Council meeting on November 5, it has been accepted for implementation and is being worked on. The public will be informed of the results.”
The order was in response to Donald Trump’s surprise announcement last week that the US would resume testing.
Lavrov said Russia had received no clarification from the US regarding Trump’s order.
Russia-US relations have deteriorated sharply in the past few weeks as Trump, frustrated with a lack of progress towards ending the war in Ukraine, has cancelled a planned summit with Putin and imposed sanctions on Russia for the first time since returning to the White House in January.
Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone strike on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Friday, triggering emergency power outages in multiple regions as winter approaches.
“The enemy is massively attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure again. Because of this, emergency power outages have been introduced in a number of regions of Ukraine,” Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk wrote on Facebook, without specifying affected areas. She added, “Despite the enemy’s plans, Ukraine will have light and heat this winter.”
Authorities reported strikes on critical facilities in Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipro, with fires and extensive damage recorded. Recent Russian barrages have knocked out more than half of Ukraine’s gas production and damaged key sites that supply most of the nation’s heating fuel, raising the risk of heating outages for millions of civilians.
Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles in overnight attacks on Ukraine, killing seven people and damaging large energy infrastructure facilities in three regions, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched more than 450 drones and 45 missiles.
Three people were killed and 12 wounded in the city of Dnipro when a drone hit an apartment building.
Three more were killed in southeastern Zaporizhzhia region and one in Kharkiv region farther north, regional officials said. Energy facilities in the Kyiv, Poltava and Kharkiv regions were damaged, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
Energy minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said emergency crews had stabilized the power grid, but warned consumers further power cuts were needed to allow work to proceed after the attacks.
Recently returned from the front lines near Povrosk, eastern Ukraine, world affairs editor Sam Kiley explains that Russian claims that they have encircled Ukrainian forces are bogus.
Russian forces have advanced into the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, Moscow has said, as it hunts for its most significant territorial gain in nearly two years.
Around 100,000 Russian troops are circling Pokrovsk, a city that Russia has been trying to capture for over a year, located in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region that Vladimir Putin has long sought full Russian control over.
Kyiv’s military says it is pushing back forcefully, but battlefield maps show Russian forces are edging forward. A military analyst has warned that Ukraine will soon be forced to make a decision on whether to pull troops from Myrnohrad, a nearby town close to being encircled by Russian forces.
Alex Croft reports:
Russia said it continues to advance in house-by-house fighting in the strategic town of Pokrovsk where the battle with Ukraine has intensified in recent days.
The tiny village of Vovche in eastern Ukraine was captured on Saturday, according to the defence ministry’s Telegram account. Its inhabitants are said to be 13 people, according to census data from 2001.
As fighting intensifies in Pokrovsk, satellite images show the scale of the destruction wrought on the region amid the battle.
The US supports the EU mobilising frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine in order to help end the war, a US source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Friday.
Vladimir Putin has deliberately sidelined his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov amid claims that he torpedoed a summit with Donald Trump, according to a report.
Lavrov was “deliberately absent” from a meeting of Russia’s security council on proposals to resume nuclear testing on Wednesday, a source told Russian outlet Kommersant.
The veteran minister, 75, was also cast aside as head of the Russian delegation for the G20 summit later this month and replaced by Putin’s deputy chief of staff, Maxim Oreshkin.
James C Reynolds reports:
Ukraine’s military units are competing with each other by launching deadly drone attacks to earn points that can be used to buy more weapons.
The video game-style rewards system is proving to be very popular, Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister said, with hundreds of units participating. Launched a year ago, it is now being expanded to reconnaissance, artillery and logistics operations, according to reports.
Bryony Gooch reports:
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