Russian Forces Repel Ukrainian Advances
Ukraine: Russian forces ‘repel’ Ukrainian advances
- Russia’s defence ministry says its forces repelled efforts by Ukrainian troops to advance in the Donetsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, inflicting what it described as significant losses against the enemy.
- The ministry also claims Russian forces destroyed three US-made M777 howitzers in Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region.
- Ukrainian forces shelling damaged the administration building in the city of Donetsk, the capital of the Donetsk region, the Russian-backed administration has said. There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine to the attack.
- Gunmen have opened fire at a Russian military training ground in Belgorod near the Ukraine border, killing at least 11 people and wounding 15 others.
The live blog is now closed, thank you for joining us. Here are the updates for Sunday, October 16:
EU leaders to explore gas price cap options
European Union leaders meeting at the end of this week plan to explore a range of options for gas price caps, which have divided them for weeks, according to a draft of conclusions for the summit seen by the Reuters news agency.
The EU’s 27 countries have been deadlocked for weeks over whether and how to cap gas prices as part of their efforts to tame soaring energy prices. Europe is heading into a winter of falling Russian gas supplies, a cost of living crisis and a possible recession.
Gas prices have soared as Russia slashed flows to Europe after it invaded Ukraine and Western sanctions were imposed on it. Most EU countries have called for a gas price cap although they disagree on its design.
Some countries – including Germany, Europe’s biggest gas market – remain opposed. They argue that capping prices could cause demand for gas to rise or leave countries struggling to attract supply from global markets.
The bloc’s executive body, the European Commission, is due to propose energy measures to tackle the crisis on Tuesday, ahead of the leaders summit on Thursday and Friday.
Rebuilding Kherson: Ukrainians return to pick up the pieces
The Ukrainian military has retaken control of dozens of southern villages, but it says Russian forces are pushing back against its counteroffensive.
Despite the fighting, Ukrainian civilians have begun returning to their destroyed homes.
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford met some of them in Arkhanhelske in the Kherson region.
Russia sends first of 9,000 soldiers to Belarus for new joint force
Russia says it has sent its first soldiers to Belarus as part of a new joint force aimed at protecting the border with Ukraine.
“The first trains carrying Russian soldiers … have arrived in Belarus,” the Russian state news agency Tass quoted a defence ministry spokesperson in Minsk as saying.
Russia has been using Belarus as a deployment area for its invasion of Ukraine and has also been launching air strikes on Ukrainian targets from there.
Russia says sticking to war aims despite NATO support for Ukraine
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says Russia is sticking to its military goals in Ukraine despite Western support for the country.
NATO is already a “de facto” part of the conflict, but this will not influence Russia’s goals, Peskov told Interfax news agency.
The German government and other NATO states say they are not party to the war. Aid to Ukraine is seen as support for the right of self-defence of the country striving to join the EU and NATO.
Ukraine can retake Crimea by next summer: Ex-US commander
Ben Hodges, the former commanding general of the United States Army Europe, says he believes a liberation of the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula is possible by summer next year.
“When I look at the situation, I see that the situation of the Russians is getting worse with every week,” Hodges told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “They say war is a test of will and logistics – and on both counts Ukraine is far superior.”
“The Russians have to lose [the war]; otherwise, they’ll try again in two or three years,” he said.
In Hodges’s view, the Russian leadership’s “one hope” is that the West will waver in its support for Ukraine.
Rockets strike mayor’s office in separatist-controlled Donetsk
Rockets have struck the mayor’s office in a key Ukrainian city controlled by Russian-backed separatists, The Associated Press news agency reports.
The building in Donetsk was seriously damaged. Plumes of smoke swirled around the structure, which had rows of blown-out windows and a partially collapsed roof. Cars nearby were burned-out.
There were no immediate reports of casualties. Kyiv didn’t immediately claim responsibility or comment on the attack.
Kremlin-backed separatist authorities have previously accused Ukraine of numerous strikes on infrastructure and residential targets in occupied regions, often using US-supplied, long-range HIMARS rockets.
No civilians killed in attack at Russian military base: Local authority
No civilians have been killed in the attack at a military base in Russia’s Belgorod region, but many soldiers were killed or wounded, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
“A terrible event happened on our territory, on the territory of one of the military units,” Gladkov said in a video post on the Telegram messaging app.
“Many soldiers were killed and wounded … There are no residents of the Belgorod region among the wounded and killed.”
Gladkov did not say how many soldiers were killed.
The state RIA news agency cited the defence ministry as saying that 11 people were killed and 15 others wounded. It added that the two assailants, reportedly two nationals from a former Soviet republic, had been shot dead.
Belarus says it will host less than 9,000 Russian soldiers
The defence ministry of Belarus says less than 9,000 Russian soldiers would be stationed in the country as part of a “regional grouping” of forces to protect its borders.
“The first troop trains with Russian servicemen who are part of the (regional grouping) began to arrive in Belarus,” Valeriy Revenko, head of the defence ministry’s international military cooperation department, wrote on Twitter.
“The relocation will take several days … The total number will be a little less than 9,000 people.”
More information would be provided at a briefing for military attachés, he added.
Revenko’s comment comes after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said last week that his troops would deploy with Russian forces near the Ukrainian border, citing what he said were threats from Ukraine and the West.
Russia targets towns, villages across Ukraine
In the 24 hours to Sunday morning, Russian forces targeted more than 30 towns and villages across Ukraine, launching five missiles and 23 air raids and up to 60 rocket attacks, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces has said.
In response, Ukraine’s air forces carried out 32 raids, hitting 24 Russian targets.
Fighting has been particularly intense this weekend in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, and the strategically important Kherson province in the south, three of the four provinces Putin proclaimed as part of Russia last month.
- 12h ago(12:12 GMT)
Russia says its forces repelled Ukrainian advances in three regions
Russia’s defence ministry says its forces have pushed back efforts by Ukrainian troops to advance in the Donetsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, inflicting what it described as significant losses against the enemy.
The battlefield reports could not immediately be verified.
Russia also said it was continuing air attacks on military and energy targets in Ukraine, using long-range precision-guided weapons.
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