Ukraine-Russia war – live: Ex-Russian officer says Putin’s forces ‘deteriorating’ as Crimea targeted by drones

Ukraine has deployed new western air defence systems as it braces for a second winter of Russian attacks on its energy grid.

President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the deployment of additional Nasams mobile surface-to-air missile launchers.

“I received reports on the receipt of ammunition, hardware and equipment over the past day,” he said on social media

“Additional Nasams systems from partners have been put on combat duty. Timely reinforcement of our air defence before winter.”

Shelling by Ukrainian forces killed six people in the city of Donetsk on Tuesday, a Russian-installed official in the eastern region of Ukraine said.

Eleven people were wounded, according to preliminary data, Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed head of the region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine has fully repaired 421 medical facilities and partly restored a further 413 damaged by Russia in the war, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health announced today.

Since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022, the ministry said Russia has damaged 1,468 medical facilities in Ukraine and completely destroyed an additional 193.

The Mykolaiv Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital, which was damaged at the beginning of the war, has been fully repaired, it said.

Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky has proposed extending Ukraine’s ban on exporting domestically produced natural gas until the end of 2024.

First introduced in February 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ban has already been extended once to cover 2023.

Ukrainian energy minister Herman Haluschenko has previously stressed the importance of its gas for domestic power generation because of the impact the war with Russia has had on coal production.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky cancelled a planned visit to Israel today after news of his apparent trip was leaked to Israeli media over the weekend, according to reports.

Israeli newspaper The Times of Israel cited diplomatic sources as saying the Ukrainian president was still due to visit the country, but no date had been set.

“If President Zelensky comes, he will be welcomed with open arms,” an Israeli official was reported as saying. A Ukrainian diplomat previously told The Times that Mr Zelenskyy was “very disappointed” by the leak.

Major figures in major US departments have urged Congress to approve $11.8bn in extra aid for Ukraine as part of Joe Biden’s emergency funding request.

The heads of the state, treasury and defence departments, Antony Blinken, Janet Yellen and Lloyd Austin, have co-signed a letter released today.

The aid “benefits from an unprecedented level of robust oversight and transparency, and is bolstered by significant budget support from the European Union, other G7 partners, and the International Monetary Fund”, they said.

Ukraine is bracing for a renewed Russian assault on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivk following several failed Russian attempts to take it.

“The third wave will definitely happen. The enemy is regrouping after a second wave of unsuccessful attacks,” Vitaly Barabash, head of the Avdiivka military administration, said on Tuesday.

Putin is said to have lost thousands of troops in his army’s “meat assault” attacks on the town which have so far been unsuccessful.

Russian president Vladimir Putin will visit Kazakhstan on Thursday, the Kremlin has confirmed.

The two leaders will meet in the Kazakh capital, Astana, to discuss a range of matters including “current regional and international problems,” it said in comments reported by state news agency TASS.

It will be only Putin’s third known trip abroad since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him in March for war crimes, which the Kremlin strongly rejects.

Kazakhstan is not a signatory to the ICC. Neither are China and Kyrgyzstan, the two other countries Putin has visited recently.

A Russian fibre optic cable under the Baltic Sea was damaged last month, the state company which operates it has confirmed.

Rostelecom said the damage to the cable between Russia and Kaliningrad, its Baltic exclave, was first detected on Saturday 7 October.

It did not respond to questions about the cause of the outage, Reuters reported.

The Netherlands sent its first five F-16 fighter jets to Romania for use in the training of Ukrainian pilots.

The Netherlands will deliver a total of between 12 and 18 F-16s for use in the new European F-16 training centre in Romania, which will be opened soon, its Defence ministry said.

The Dutch have also promised to deliver F-16s to Ukraine to use in battle, alongside similar pledges from Denmark, Norway and Belgium.