Fighting

• Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said that Ukraine was expecting a record number of Russian drone attacks this winter. Ihnat told national television that data Russia had already used a “record’ number of more than 500 Iranian-made Shahed drones in September, compared with about 1,000 over a six-month period during last winter.
• Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson had “another terrible night” as it was targeted in some 59 Russian attacks that left 12 people injured, including a mother and her nine-month-old baby. Several houses and gas pipelines were also damaged.
• Four people including a nine-year-old girl were injured in a rocket attack on Konstantinivka, according to the Donetsk regional Governor Ihor Moroz. Several homes and other buildings were also damaged.
• The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said the situation on the battlefield in the east and south of the country remained difficult, with troops coming under intense artillery and mortar fire in and around the front line in areas including Bakhmut, Kupiansk and Lyman. The General Staff said Ukrainian forces had inflicted casualties and equipment losses on the Russians.

• The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence said Ukraine had “almost certainly liberated at least 125 square kilometres (48 sq miles) of territory” in the Velyka Novosilka area, west of the town of Vuhledar, since Kyiv’s counteroffensive began. It added that Russian troops were likely to retain a defensive posture to guard against future Ukrainian offensives.

Diplomacy and politics

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke on the phone with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said Ukraine stood with Israel. “I spoke with Netanyahu to affirm Ukraine‘s solidarity with Israel, which suffers from a brazen large-scale attack, and to express condolences for the multiple victims,” Zelenskyy said.
• Poland’s President Andrzej Duda said the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel would help divert global attention from Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and perhaps work in Moscow’s favour.