Russia launched an air attack on Kyiv early today, Ukraine’s military claimed on the Telegram messaging app. Their air defence units were actively working to repel the assault, it said.
Earlier, an employee at a Russian-controlled nuclear power plant in Ukraine was killed in a car bomb attack. Russia’s Investigative Committee, said the employee, Andrei Korotkiy, had died after a bomb planted under his car went off near his house in the city of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhia plant is located.
Korotkiy worked in the plant’s security department, the Committee said. A criminal case has been opened into his death.
Ukrainian military intelligence published a video of his car exploding and in a statement branded Korotkiy a “war criminal” and collaborator.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine will present its “victory plan” to its allies in Germany next weekend, outlining specific steps for ending the war with Russia. The meeting will take place at the US Ramstein Air Base on 12 October, where Mr Zelensky will meet with US president Joe Biden and other leaders.
Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, a staunch Kremlin hardliner, is also ending his term and returning to Moscow amidst the worst US-Russia relations in decades.
Key Points
Ukraine prepares to present ‘victory plan’ to world leaders
Russia claims gains in the eastern Ukraine
Russia knocked out most infrastructure in Ukraine’s Pokrovsk
No prospect for Ukraine war negotiation ‘anytime soon’, say western officials
Former Nato chief says he regrets not providing Ukraine with support earlier
Russia’s envoy to US concludes term amid bilateral tensions
05:01 , Maroosha Muzaffar
Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, a staunch Kremlin hardliner, is ending his term and returning to Moscow amidst the worst US-Russia relations in decades.
“Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Ivanovich Antonov is concluding his Washington assignment and heading to Moscow,” TASS state news agency cited the foreign ministry as saying.
There was no mention of who would succeed the envoy, known for his military-style negotiation approach. His position on Russia’s war in Ukraine has demonstrated steadfast support for Vladimir Putin’s actions.
“It is obvious to us that the enemy will be defeated and victory will be Russia’s,” Antonov said on Saturday in an unrelated post on the Telegram messaging app, commenting on Russian forces capturing Ukraine’s mining town of Vuhledar.
A roundup of events – 5 October
05:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Here is a roundup of the events that happened on Saturday:
Ukraine will present ‘victory plan’ at Ramstein meeting
Russia takes control of village in eastern Ukraine, reports say
Ukraine downs a Russian warplane
Russian prosecutor seeks 7-year sentence for US man over mercenary charges, IFX reports
Zelensky to present ‘victory plan’ at Ramstein meeting
04:57 , Maroosha Muzaffar
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine will present its “victory plan” to its allies in Germany next weekend, outlining specific steps for ending the war with Russia.
The meeting will take place at the US Ramstein Air Base on 12 October, where Mr Zelensky will meet with US president Joe Biden and other leaders.
“We will present the victory plan, clear, specific steps for a just end to the war,” Mr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
He presented the plan to Mr Biden, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump last week after months of Kyiv teasing ideas on how to end the war.
Russia launches air attack on Kyiv
04:51 , Maroosha Muzaffar
Russia launched an air attack on Kyiv early today, Ukraine’s military claimed on the Telegram messaging app. Their air defence units were actively working to repel the assault, it said.
ICYMI: Employee at Russian-controlled nuclear plant killed by Ukraine in car bomb attack
04:00 , Jabed Ahmed
An employee at a Russian-controlled nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been killed in a car bomb attack.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, said the employee, Andrei Korotkiy, had died after a bomb planted under his car went off near his house in the city of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhia plant is located.
Korotkiy worked in the plant’s security department, the Committee said. A criminal case has been opened into his death.
Ukrainian military intelligence published a video of his car exploding and in a statement branded Korotkiy a “war criminal” and collaborator, accusing him of repressing Ukrainians and of handing Russia a list of the plant’s employees and then pointing out people with pro-Ukrainian views.
“The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine‘s Ministry of Defence reminds people that every war criminal will be fairly punished,” the Ukrainian agency said.
Thousands of Jewish pilgrims come to Ukraine for Rosh Hashana despite official warnings
03:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Thousands of Jewish pilgrims come to Ukraine for Rosh Hashana despite official warnings
British-French cruise missiles fired by Ukraine at Russian troops, reports
02:00 , Jabed Ahmed
A Ukrainian aircraft fired British-French cruise missiles at Russian troops attempting to advance towards a city in Ukraine, Sky news has reported.
A Ukrainian security source shared drone footage with the broadcaster that reportedly shows strikes on Russian troops advancing towards Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces used Storm Shadow/Scalp missiles, gifted by Western nations,” the source said.
The Independent could not confirm the assertions or the drone footage.
Zelensky to present ‘victory plan’ at Ramstein meeting
01:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Ukraine will present its “victory plan” at a regular meeting of its allies at Ramstein in Germany on 12 October, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“We will present the victory plan, clear, specific steps for a just end to the war,” he wrote.
Ukraine, which has been fending off an invasion from much larger neighbour Russia for nearly 1,000 days, has in recent months teased a plan to end the war.
The details have not been made public, but Zelenskiy presented it to US President Joe Biden, as well as both major candidates running in the country’s presidential election, when he visited Washington last month.
The US State Department spokesman said the plan contained “a number of productive steps” which the US would engage with Ukraine on.
Watch: Putin wants to erase Ukraine by stealing our children, Ukrainian tennis pro Svitolina warns
Saturday 5 October 2024 23:59 , Jabed Ahmed
Ukraine downs a Russian warplane and Russia claims gains in the east
Saturday 5 October 2024 23:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Ukraine downs a Russian warplane and Russia claims gains in the east
Full report: Russian prosecutors seek 7 year sentence for US man accused of fighting for Ukraine
Saturday 5 October 2024 22:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Russian prosecutors seek 7-year sentence for US man accused of fighting for Ukraine
Russian offensive to peak in ‘months, if not weeks’
Saturday 5 October 2024 21:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Vladimir Putin’s offensive in eastern Ukraine is likely to culminate in the coming months, a US-based think tank has said.
“Russian forces do not have the available manpower and materiel to continue intensified offensive efforts indefinitely, however, and current Russian offensive operations in eastern Ukraine will likely culminate in the coming months, if not weeks, as Ukrainian officials and ISW have previously assessed,” the Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment.
Ukrainian forces, it said, also face serious operational challenges and constraints, which are providing Russian forces with opportunities to pursue tactically significant gains.
But the current Russian offensive, which was started in autumn last year, has not yielded operationally significant gains for Russian forces and only offered gradual tactical gains in specific sectors of the front, the ISW said.
Ukraine’s “effective defence in depth along the frontline” has caused Russia significant losses and prevent Mr Putin’s troops from making more rapid gains on the battlefield, it said.
Former Nato chief says he regrets not providing Ukraine with support earlier
Saturday 5 October 2024 20:02 , Jabed Ahmed
Former Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg has said he regrets the alliance did not provide military support to Ukraine earlier.
“If there’s anything I in a way regret and see much more clearly now is that we should have provided Ukraine with much more military support much earlier,” he told the Financial Times.
“I think we all have to admit, we should have given them more weapons pre-invasion. And we should have given them more advanced weapons, faster, after the invasion. I take my part of the responsibility.”
Mr Stoltenberg also said Nato had called Putin’s “bluff” after “crossing all those so-called red lines” the Russian President had put up.
Putin has constantly threatened Nato and Ukraine’s Western allies to not interfere with Russia’s invasion, often with nuclear threats.
No prospect for Ukraine war negotiation ‘anytime soon’, say western officials
Saturday 5 October 2024 19:00 , Jabed Ahmed
There is no prospect for negotiation “anytime soon” over the war in Ukraine, western officials have said.
They added that Ukraine was unlikely to reverse recent gains by Russia with “relative stability on the front line” expected.
Russia captured the tactically significant town of Vuhledar on Wednesday, as officials said Moscow would now “seek to exploit opportunities in villages and towns in its vicinity in the coming weeks”.
However, they added that Russia would not be able to “fundamentally capitalise on these gains”.
Western officials said: “We’re not going to suddenly see a breakthrough and a rapid advance of Russia westwards.
“It will just continue to be this slow grind.”
Russia shells southern Ukraine and a Ukraine drone hits a bus
Saturday 5 October 2024 18:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Two people have died in Russian shelling in Ukraine‘s southern Zaporizhzhia region, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said.
Ukraine‘s air force said that Russia had launched three guided missiles and 13 attack drones at Ukraine overnight into Saturday.
It said the missiles were intercepted, three drones were shot down over the Odesa region and 10 others were lost.
Nine people were wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a passenger bus in the city of Horlivka in the partially occupied Donetsk region, the city’s Russian-installed Mayor Ivan Prikhodko said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that air defenses shot down 10 Ukrainian drones overnight in three border regions, including seven over the Belgorod region, two over the Kursk region, and one over the Voronezh region.
Pictured: Ukraine downs Russian war plane
Saturday 5 October 2024 17:01 , Jabed Ahmed
Russia claims gains in the eastern Ukraine
Saturday 5 October 2024 15:59 , Jabed Ahmed
Russia’s Defense Ministry has claimed that it had taken control of the village of Zhelanne Druhe.
If confirmed, the capture would come three days after Ukrainian forces said they were withdrawing from the front-line town of Vuhledar, some 33 kilometers (21 miles) from Zhelanne Druhe, following a hard-fought two-year defense.
Although unlikely to change the course of the war, the loss of Vuhledar is indicative of Kyiv’s worsening position, in part the result of Washington’s refusal to grant Ukraine permission to strike targets deep inside Russian territory and preventing Kyiv from degrading Moscow’s capabilities.
Ukraine downs a Russian warplane
Saturday 5 October 2024 15:01 , Jabed Ahmed
Ukrainian forces have have shot down a Russian fighter plane in Donetsk, local officials have said.
The Russian bomber was shot down near the city of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk province, head of the Kostiantynivka Military Administration Serhiy Horbunov said.
Photos showed showed charred remains of an aircraft after it landed on a house that caught fire.
Mapped: Russian advances in Donetsk
Saturday 5 October 2024 14:14 , Jabed Ahmed
British-French cruise missiles fired by Ukraine at Russian troops, reports
Saturday 5 October 2024 13:30 , Jabed Ahmed
A Ukrainian aircraft fired British-French cruise missiles at Russian troops attempting to advance towards a city in Ukraine, Sky news has reported.
A Ukrainian security source shared drone footage with the broadcaster that reportedly shows strikes on Russian troops advancing towards Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces used Storm Shadow/Scalp missiles, gifted by Western nations,” the source said.
The Independent could not confirm the assertions or the drone footage.
ICYMI: A roundup of yesterday’s events
Saturday 5 October 2024 12:46 , Jabed Ahmed
Here is a roundup of the events that happened yesterday:
Huge Russian fuel depot blaze put out
Firefighters put out a huge blaze at a fuel depot in Russia’s Ural mountains, and a series of drone strikes were reported in areas close to the Ukrainian border, one of which also started a small fire at a fuel depot.
More than 140 clashes on the frontline in past day, Ukraine says
Putins forces conducted 67 airstrikes, including dropping of 135 guided aerial bombs, according to a situation update from the Ukrainian army
Russia knocked out most infrastructure in Ukraine’s Pokrovsk, local official says
Thousands of Jewish pilgrims come to Ukraine for Rosh Hashana despite official warnings
Saturday 5 October 2024 12:01 , Jabed Ahmed
Thousands of Jewish pilgrims come to Ukraine for Rosh Hashana despite official warnings
Russia takes control of village in eastern Ukraine, TASS reports
Saturday 5 October 2024 11:14 , Jabed Ahmed
Russia’s Defence Ministry has said that its forces had taken control of the village of Zhelanne Druhe in Ukraine‘s eastern Donetsk region, the Russian state-run TASS news agency reported.
The Independent could not independently confirm the battlefield report.
Russian prosecutor seeks 7-year sentence for US man over mercenary charges, IFX reports
Saturday 5 October 2024 10:29 , Jabed Ahmed
A Russian prosecutor has called for a seven-year prison sentence for a 72-year-old American man who Russia accuses of working as a mercenary for Ukraine, Interfax news agency reported.
Stephen Hubbard is accused of signing a $1,000 per month contract with a Ukrainian territorial defence unit in the city of Izyum in February 2022. He was captured by Russian forces in April that year, and faces a sentence of seven to 15 years if convicted.
Russia’s RIA news agency reported that Hubbard pleaded guilty to the charges at a hearing in Moscow City Court on Monday. Hubbard’s sister and another relative cast doubt on his reported confession, telling Reuters he held pro-Russian views and was unlikely to have taken up arms at his age.
Hubbard’s trial is being held behind closed doors and the verdict will be announced on 7 October.
Employee at Russian-controlled nuclear plant killed by Ukraine in car bomb attack
Saturday 5 October 2024 10:17 , Jabed Ahmed
An employee at a Russian-controlled nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been killed in a car bomb attack.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, said the employee, Andrei Korotkiy, had died after a bomb planted under his car went off near his house in the city of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhia plant is located.
Korotkiy worked in the plant’s security department, the Committee said. A criminal case has been opened into his death.
Ukrainian military intelligence published a video of his car exploding and in a statement branded Korotkiy a “war criminal” and collaborator, accusing him of repressing Ukrainians and of handing Russia a list of the plant’s employees and then pointing out people with pro-Ukrainian views.
“The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine‘s Ministry of Defence reminds people that every war criminal will be fairly punished,” the Ukrainian agency said.
Romania finds Russian drone fragments near Ukraine border
Saturday 5 October 2024 09:46 , Jabed Ahmed
Romania recovered fragments from a Russian drone from a canal in the Danube Delta near the Ukrainian border, the defence ministry has said.
Romania shares a 650 km (400 mile) border with Ukraine and has had Russian drone fragments stray into its territory repeatedly over the past year.
Romanian territory lies a few hundred metres from Ukrainian Danube River ports, frequent Russian targets.
Ukraine prepares to present ‘victory plan’ to world leaders
Saturday 5 October 2024 08:59 , Tom Watling
We are preparing for the 25th Ramstein meeting on October 12, which will be the first to take place at the leaders’ level.
We will present the Victory Plan—clear, concrete steps towards a just end to the war. The determination of our partners and the strengthening of Ukraine are… pic.twitter.com/NKhFZM2EgX
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 5, 2024
Family mourn death of soldier in east Ukraine
Saturday 5 October 2024 08:27 , Tom Watling
Kremlin prisoner-swap exclusive: How I survived 11 months in Putin’s gulag
Saturday 5 October 2024 08:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Vladimir Kara-Murza: How I survived 11 months of torture in Putin’s gulag
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Saturday 5 October 2024 07:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Russia knocked out most infrastructure in Ukraine’s Pokrovsk, local official says
Saturday 5 October 2024 06:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Russia has knocked out around 80 per cent of critical infrastructure in the town of Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in Ukraine‘s east, as Moscow’s troops inched forward, a local official said.
Serhiy Dobriak, Pokrovsk’s military administration head, said Russian forces were at about 4 miles from the town, which is at an intersection of roads and a railway that makes it an important logistics point for the military and for civilians in the eastern Donetsk region.
Russia forces have focused some of their heaviest assaults in recent weeks on Pokrovsk, which could allow it to consolidate and advance the front line in the region.
“The enemy is leaving us without power, without water, without gas. Prepares us for the winter, so to say,” Dobriak said on national television.
Some 13,050 residents remain in the town and Ukrainian officials are pressing on with an evacuation plan that has been going on for some weeks. Just a month and a half ago, the town hosted more than 48,000 people, he said.
Russia continued to pummel the town on Thursday, launching a total of nine glide bombs and injuring four people in two attacks which damaged infrastructure, Dobriak said.
He said the daily attacks targeted energy facilities and other vital infrastructure. Almost half of Pokrovsk, 10 nearby villages and one smaller town were without power, he said, adding the energy infrastructure was “almost impossible to repair”.
No prospect for Ukraine war negotiation ‘anytime soon’, say western officials
Saturday 5 October 2024 05:00 , Jabed Ahmed
There is no prospect for negotiation “anytime soon” over the war in Ukraine, western officials have said.
They added that Ukraine was unlikely to reverse recent gains by Russia with “relative stability on the front line” expected.
Russia captured the tactically significant town of Vuhledar on Wednesday, as officials said Moscow would now “seek to exploit opportunities in villages and towns in its vicinity in the coming weeks”.
However, they added that Russia would not be able to “fundamentally capitalise on these gains”.
Western officials said: “We’re not going to suddenly see a breakthrough and a rapid advance of Russia westwards.
“It will just continue to be this slow grind.”
Kosovo’s leader says Russia prevailing in Ukraine would threaten 25 years of peace in the Balkans
Saturday 5 October 2024 04:00 , Tom Watling
Kosovo’s leader says Russia prevailing in Ukraine would threaten 25 years of peace in the Balkans
Watch: Russian fighter jet narrowly misses American aircraft off coast of Alaska
Saturday 5 October 2024 03:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Poland to start beefing up northeastern defences by year-end, minister says
Saturday 5 October 2024 02:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Poland will start building the first elements of enhanced defence lines on its borders with Russia and Belarus by the end of 2024, a deputy defence minister has said.
Spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Warsaw laid out plans in May to spend 10 billion zlotys (£1.97 billion) to beef up its northern and eastern borders with fortifications, surveillance, reconnaissance and anti-drone systems by the end of 2028 to deter adversaries or help repel a potential attack.
“In the next three weeks, we will be able to carry out the first tests of the East Shield elements on Polish military training grounds, and this year we will start building the first elements … on the northern and eastern borders,” Cezary Tomczyk told a press conference.
He said the project would be developed in cooperation with Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as well as with British and American forces.
The war in Ukraine has spurred Poland to boost defence spending to 4.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024 and a planned 4.7% in 2025.
Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz was asked at the same event about defence spending beyond 2025, and said the upward trend should be maintained.
A roundup of yesterday’s events
Saturday 5 October 2024 01:00 , Jabed Ahmed
If you are joining now, here is a roundup of the events that happened yesterday:
Huge Russian fuel depot blaze put out
Firefighters put out a huge blaze at a fuel depot in Russia’s Ural mountains, and a series of drone strikes were reported in areas close to the Ukrainian border, one of which also started a small fire at a fuel depot.
More than 140 clashes on the frontline in past day, Ukraine says
Putins forces conducted 67 airstrikes, including dropping of 135 guided aerial bombs, according to a situation update from the Ukrainian army
Russia knocked out most infrastructure in Ukraine’s Pokrovsk, local official says
More than 140 clashes on the frontline in past day, Ukraine says
Friday 4 October 2024 23:59 , Jabed Ahmed
There were 142 clashes on the frontlines in Ukraine, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The General Staff also said Russian forces launched three missile strikes on Ukrainian positions and settlements, using three missiles.
Putins forces conducted 67 airstrikes, including dropping of 135 guided aerial bombs, according to the situation update.
Watch: Putin wants to erase Ukraine by stealing our children, Ukrainian tennis pro Svitolina warns
Friday 4 October 2024 23:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Russian offensive to peak in ‘months, if not weeks’
Friday 4 October 2024 22:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Vladimir Putin’s offensive in eastern Ukraine is likely to culminate in the coming months, a US-based think-tank has assessed.
“Russian forces do not have the available manpower and materiel to continue intensified offensive efforts indefinitely, however, and current Russian offensive operations in eastern Ukraine will likely culminate in the coming months, if not weeks, as Ukrainian officials and ISW have previously assessed,” the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest assessment.
Ukrainian forces, it said, also face serious operational challenges and constraints, which are providing Russian forces with opportunities to pursue tactically significant gains.
But the current Russian offensive, which was started in autumn last year, has not yielded operationally significant gains for Russian forces and only offered gradual tactical gains in specific sectors of the front, the ISW said.
Ukraine’s “effective defence in depth along the frontline” has caused Russia significant losses and prevent Mr Putin’s troops from making more rapid gains on the battlefield, it said.
Russia attacks Ukraine’s critical infrastructure with 19 drones overnight
Friday 4 October 2024 21:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Russia attacked Ukraine’s critical infrastructure with 19 drones overnight, the country’s air force said.
Air defences shot down nine drones with seven more likely impacted by electronic jamming, the Ukrainian air force said on Telegram, without saying what happened to the remaining three.
Ukraine’s troops pull back from key eastern town as Putin’s forces advance
Friday 4 October 2024 20:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Ukraine’s troops pull back from key eastern town as Putin’s forces advance
Full report: Russia launches major drone attack on Ukraine – as new Nato chief visits Kyiv
Friday 4 October 2024 19:00 , Jabed Ahmed
Russia launches major drone attack on Ukraine – as new Nato chief visits Kyiv
Zelensky visits Sumy region bordering Russia’s Kursk region
Friday 4 October 2024 18:30 , Jabed Ahmed
President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had visited the northern Sumy region, from where Ukraine launched a major incursion into the neighbouring Russian Kursk region in August.
“Today I started my trip to the Sumy region with a meeting with our soldiers who are fighting in the Kursk region, defending our border regions and the entire state,” he said on the Telegram messaging platform.
Court in Belarus sentences activists for attempted sabotage of Russian military plane
Friday 4 October 2024 18:00 , Jabed Ahmed
A court in Minsk sentenced a dozen individuals to prison terms of between two and 25 years for helping commit what Belarus has called an “act of terrorism” at a military airfield outside the capital last year.
A group of Belarusian anti-government activists said in February 2023 that they had blown up a sophisticated Russian military surveillance aircraft in a drone attack at the base.
Russia and Belarus dismissed the assertion as fake, with Belarusian state television publishing footage showing what it said was the undamaged Beriev A-50 surveillance craft.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, alleged at the time that Ukrainian security services and the U.S. Central Intelligence agency were behind the operation.
The main defendant, Ukrainian national Nikolai Shvets, was sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison.
Former Nato chief says he regrets not providing Ukraine with support earlier
Friday 4 October 2024 17:33 , Jabed Ahmed
Former Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg has said he regrets the alliance did not provide military support to Ukraine earlier.
“If there’s anything I in a way regret and see much more clearly now is that we should have provided Ukraine with much more military support much earlier,” he told the Financial Times.
“I think we all have to admit, we should have given them more weapons pre-invasion. And we should have given them more advanced weapons, faster, after the invasion. I take my part of the responsibility.”
Mr Stoltenberg also said Nato had called Putin’s “bluff” after “crossing all those so-called red lines” the Russian President had put up.
Putin has constantly threatened Nato and Ukraine’s Western allies to not interfere with Russia’s invasion, often with nuclear threats.
