Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Nato has announced that its next summit will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania, on 11-12 July 2023. In a statement, secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said: We face the most complex and unpredictable security environment since the cold war. The meeting in Vilnius will be an opportunity for allied heads of state and government to agree further steps to strengthen our deterrence and defence and review significant increases in defence spending, as well as to continue our support for Ukraine. In an era of increasing strategic competition, the transatlantic bond between Europe and North America in Nato continues to be essential to the security of our one billion citizens. Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv, has warned residents that there will be scheduled power outages of about three hours today in the region. He also reminded businesses that outside of working hours they should not be using electricity to power external lights or advertisements. In the message on Telegram, he said: “Thanks to everyone who accepts the situation with understanding. We have to go through this difficult stage together.” Updated at 08.21 GMT Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, is in Cambodia today, meeting prime minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh. Kuleba wrote on Twitter: “We focused on bilateral cooperation and global food security. I also congratulated prime minister Sen on Happy Cambodian Independence Day.” A photo made available by the Cambodian government shows Ukrainian minister of foreign affairs Dmytro Kuleba (L) and Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen (R). Photograph: Kok Ky/Cambodian government cabinet handout/EPA Updated at 08.23 GMT Eastern European countries are preparing to reopen reception centres and are restocking food supplies in anticipation of a possible fresh surge in Ukrainian refugees as winter looms and Russia targets Ukraine’s power grid and heating plants. 6.9 million people are believed to have been displaced internally within Ukraine, often living in very tough conditions, and Reuters reports the Slovak government’s contingency plan envisages the possible inflow of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in the coming months. After an initial surge following Russia’s invasion on 24 February, the number of refugees heading west out of Ukraine dropped in late spring. There has been no big rise in numbers so far this autumn but charities say there are signs of increased movement across the borders and are stepping up preparations. “An increase in numbers is being felt, and is expected. It is currently up 15%,” said Roman Dohovič, an aid coordinator for the eastern Slovak city of Košice. “We are being called by people who are already staying in Košice and looking for accommodation for family members and acquaintances who are still in Ukraine.” Košice has provided accommodation for about 60 people daily in recent weeks but is preparing to raise that to 1,000 within 48 hours if needed. In Hungary, Zsófia Dobis-Lucski, spokesperson for the Hungarian Reformed Church Aid, an NGO working at the border, said the number of daily arrivals at the Záhony train station close to the border had jumped tenfold to about 300-500 since Russia’s bombardment of Ukrainian cities intensified. That is still below the 1,000 a day seen in the spring but power shortages in Ukraine are expected to boost arrivals in coming weeks. Updated at 07.55 GMT More Ukrainian governors are posting their daily status updates to Telegram on what appears to have been a quiet night in several regions. Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv reports that in his region one house has been destroyed and a car damaged overnight by shelling with no casualties reported. Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, governor of Sumy, reports that the region suffered eight explosions following shelling, but as yet there were no details of any casualties. Updated at 07.34 GMT Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has posted to Telegram to say that there were no missile strikes on the region overnight, but there was continued shelling in the border settlements. The Kharkiv region borders Donetsk and Luhansk, two of the occupied regions of Ukraine that Russia has claimed to annex. Synyehubov said two residents were hospitalised as a result of the shelling. He also said that two highway workers were killed and two injured as a result of their equipment hitting a mine in Chuhuiv. The claims have not been independently verified. Updated at 07.35 GMT Ukraine calls on G20 to address child deportations Ukraine has collated thousands of reports of its children being deported to Russia and wants their plight addressed at a summit of the Group of 20 major economies, Vladimir Zelenskiy’s chief of staff was quoted as saying on Tuesday. “The Russian Federation continues to commit its crimes in connection with Ukrainian children,” Zelenskiy’s office quoted Andriy Yermak as saying at a meeting he chaired of a group of officials responsible for child protection. “The removal of children continues.” The statement by Zelenskiy’s office said its National Information Bureau showed 10,500 children had been deported or forcibly displaced. Ukraine’s minister responsible for reintegrating Russian-occupied territories noted at the meeting that only 96 children had been returned. Yermak was quoted as saying Ukraine could count on UN help, but he restated Ukraine’s lack of confidence in the International Committee of the Red Cross to help. Yermak said discussions about the return of the children should start at the 15-16 November G20 summit in Indonesia, which Zelenskiy is expected to attend, most likely remotely. Updated at 07.37 GMT
Crimean Bridge repair unlikely before 2023, UK says
The UK Ministry of Defence has released its latest intelligence update, saying: “Russian efforts to repair the Crimean bridge continue but it is unlikely to be fully operational until at least September 2023.” “On 8 November the road bridge was due to be closed to allow the movement and installation of a replacement 64-metre space. Three more spans will be required to replace the damaged sections,” it said. “Although Crimean officials have claimed these additional spans will be in place by 20 December, a briefing provided to President Putin added that works to the other carriageway would cause disruption to road traffic until March 2023.” “The damage to the bridge, the recent attack on the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and the probable withdrawal from Kherson all complicate the Russian government’s ability to paint a picture of military success.” Updated at 08.00 GMT Millions in Ukraine without power Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Tuesday about 4 million people were without power in 14 regions plus the capital Kyiv, but on a stabilisation rather than an emergency basis. Scheduled hourly power outages would affect the whole of the country on Wednesday, said Ukraine’s electrical grid operator, Ukrenergo. Russian missile and drone attacks have targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the past few weeks as winter approaches, when mean temperatures typically drop to several degrees below 0C and lows of -20C. Two people look at a phone during a local power outage in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Ed Ram/Getty Images A Ukrainian military statement on Tuesday accused Russian troops of continuing to loot and destroy infrastructure in the southern city of Kherson, where a showdown has been looming for weeks in the only regional capital Russia has captured intact since its invasion. Russian artillery hit more than 30 settlements in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, and in Zaporizhzhia region the Russian-installed authorities were forcing residents to accept Russian passports after seizing their Ukrainian documents, the statement said.
Fierce fighting in southern Ukraine – reports
A Russian-installed mayor in the town of Snihurivka, east of the southern city of Mykolaiv, was cited by Russia’s RIA news agency as saying residents had seen tanks and that fierce fighting was going on, Reuters reports. “They got into contact during the day and said there were tanks moving around and, according to their information, heavy fighting on the edge of the town,” said the mayor, Yuri Barabashov referring to the residents. “People saw this equipment moving through the streets in the town centre.” Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-installed administration in the Kherson region, said on the Telegram messaging service that Ukrainian forces had tried to advance on three fronts, including Snihurivka. Vitaly Kim, the Ukrainian governor of Mykolaiv region, apparently quoting an intercepted conversation between Russian servicemen, suggested that Ukrainian forces had already pushed the Russians out of the area. “Russian troops are complaining that they have already been thrown out of there,” Kim said in a statement on his Telegram channel. File photo of damaged settlements in the village of Zorya, in the Mykolaiv region, following intense clashes this month. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Virginia Harrison and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next few hours. If you have just joined us, here are the latest developments:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his forces would not yield “a single centimetre” in fighting for control of eastern Donetsk region after earlier insisting that restoration of Ukrainian territory and compensation from Russia were conditions under which peace talks could take place. “The activity of the occupiers remains at an extremely high level – dozens of attacks every day,” Zelenskiy said. “They are suffering extraordinarily high losses. But the order remains the same – to advance on the administrative boundary of Donetsk region. We will not…
