Ukraine’s repeated attacks on Russian energy sites are already a well-documented strategy, but the head of its security service has now revealed the scale of its claimed strikes. Meanwhile, Russia has fired a missile it developed in secret, according to a report. Follow the latest below.
Friday 31 October 2025 14:59, UK
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Thank you for following our reporting on the war in Ukraine.
These are today’s main developments:
The head of Ukraine’s security service has said the Ukrainian military destroyed one of Russia’s intermediate-range Oreshnik missiles in the summer of 2023.
Vasyl Maliuk told reporters the operation was carried out jointly by his organisation, by military intelligence and by foreign intelligence, and was “100% successful”.
Ukrainian intelligence officials said Russia has produced three Oreshniks this year and plans to double annual production to six.
Russia first used the Oreshnik against Ukraine in November 2024, targeting a defence enterprise in Dnipro, more than a year after Kyiv’s apparent destruction of one of the weapons.
“We can say briefly and concisely that one of the three Oreshniks was successfully destroyed on their (Russian) territory at Kapustin Yar,” Maliuk said during a briefing chaired by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The meeting was also attended by Ukraine’s foreign minister, the head of foreign intelligence and other officials.
Maliuk did not say how the operation was conducted.
Zelenskyy said 25 companies were involved in Oreshnik production and urged Ukraine’s Western partners to impose sanctions on them.
Vladimir Putin has said the Oreshnik is impossible to intercept and has destructive power comparable to a nuclear weapon.
Western experts have disputed those assertions.
Putin said in June that Russia was increasing production but gave no further details.
Poland has said its jets have intercepted a Russian reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea for the third time this week.
The Polish army said the aircraft did not violate Polish airspace.
However, it said the plane had no filed flight plan and its transponders were turned off.
“This is already the third such situation this week, confirming the increasing activity of Russian aviation in the Baltic region,” the Polish army said.
In September, three Russian military jets violated Estonia’s airspace for 12 minutes.
That happened days after more than 20 Russian drones had entered Polish airspace.
Since then, countries on NATO’s eastern flank have been on high alert.
Here are the latest battlefield maps showing the territory held by both Ukraine and Russia.
During 2025, Russian forces have slowly expanded the territory they control, mostly in the east of Ukraine and have kept up their near-nightly barrage of air strikes on Kyiv and other cities.
Scroll through to view different parts of the frontline, including the situation in key regions such as Luhansk, Donetsk and Belgorod.
Ukraine’s central bank has said its current account deficit more than doubled to $24.9bn (£19bn) in the first nine months of this year.
It was $12bn (£8.9bn) in the same period last year.
According to a statement, the current account deficit was $3.2bn (£2.4bn) in September, compared with a deficit of $2.4bn (£1.8bn) in the same month of 2024.
Export bans on Ukrainian food products imposed by Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are unjustified, the European Commission has said.
That is because an updated EU-Ukraine free trade agreement is now in force, it added.
A spokesperson said the commission plans to talk to the three countries with a “view to getting them to remove those bans”.
The updated agreement began yesterday.
Ukraine’s security service has said the military struck 20 Russian energy facilities in September and October.
The head of the SBU also said 160 Russian oil and energy facilities had been successfully targeted in 2025.
Vasyl Maliuk told reporters the strikes will continue and are intended to reduce Russia’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine.
As we report in the article below, Ukraine has been repeatedly attacking Russian oil refineries, intensifying the strain on both the country’s military operation and its wider economy.
Vladimir Putin appears unwilling to accept any of Donald Trump’s proposals – such as an unconditional ceasefire or freezing the frontline of the war.
As we have been reporting, according to the Financial Times, planned talks between the two men in Budapest were called off because Russia was apparently demanding territorial concessions, a steep reduction in Ukraine’s armed forces, and guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO.
Those demands appear to have been too much for the White House.
Richard Betts, emeritus professor of war and peace studies at Columbia University, said his “logical guess” is that Putin is hoping to “manipulate and neutralise Trump”.
He also told the Kyiv Independent that Putin’s main aim is to reach his objectives against Ukraine, “which he thinks Russia may achieve with continued military effort”.
If that is the case, Putin may “accept more American pressure if he fails to control Trump”, Betts added.
Watch: Putin called Trump’s sanctions an ‘unfriendly act’ this month
Russia’s defence ministry says its forces have captured the village of Novooleksandrivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Sky News is unable to independently verify that claim.
The Kremlin has dismissed a report about the cancellation of talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Budapest.
As we reported in our post at 7.03am, according to the Financial Times, the decision to cancel the meeting was taken after what’s described as a tense call between the US and Russia’s “top diplomats”.
Russia was apparently demanding territorial concessions, a steep reduction in Ukraine’s armed forces, and guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO.
The Kremlin said that only official statements from Russia’s foreign ministry and the US state department should be followed – not media reports.
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