Live blog: 6 killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine as Kiev continues counterstrikes

Sunday, October 15, 2023

1803 GMT - Russian attacks on Ukraine over a 24-hour period killed six people, local officials have reported.

Two people were killed and three more injured in the Kherson area after more than 100 shells bombarded the region over the weekend, local governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on social media.

Two guided bombs later hit key infrastructure in Kherson city, sparking a partial blackout and disruption to the area’s water supply, reported the head of the city’s military administration, Roman Mrochko.

Local officials said two more people died in the Donetsk area and that a 57-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman were killed by an airstrike that destroyed their home in the Kharkiv region.

In a separate incident, a 14-year-old boy was killed by a mine in a field in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. The explosion also injured another 12-year-old boy.

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1514 GMT - Russian governor reported to police for Ukraine war remarks

A Russian governor was accused by critics of “discrediting Russia’s armed forces” after telling residents in her region that the country had “no need” for its war in Ukraine.

Natalya Komarova, the governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk region and a member of President Vladimir Putin’s governing United Russia party, made the remarks during a meeting with residents in the Siberian city of Nizhnevartovsk on Saturday.

Critics have called for authorities to launch an investigation into her remarks, but Komarova hasn't been detained or faced any charges so far.

1504 GMT - Putin sees gains on Ukraine frontlines, including Avdiivka

Russian forces have made gains in their Ukraine offensive, President Vladimir Putin said, including in Avdiivka, a symbolic industrial hub where fighting has been fierce.

Ukrainian forces say they continue to repel Russian troops in the area.

"Our troops are improving their position in almost all of this area, which is quite vast," Putin said in an interview on Russian television, an extract of which was posted on social media.

"This concerns the areas of Kupiansk, Zaporizhzhia and Avdiivka," Putin said, praising the army's "active defence strategy ".

0619 GMT - Russia does not violate UN sanctions against N Korea - Russian diplomat

Moscow does not violate United Nations sanctions against North Korea, but is categorically against new restrictive measures on Pyongyang, a high-ranking Russian diplomat told the RIA state news agency in remarks published.

"Russia, as a responsible member of the world community, strictly adheres to its international obligations towards Pyongyang through the UN Security Council," Russian Ambassador at Large Oleg Burmistrov told RIA in an interview.

"At the same time, we are categorically against the introduction of new restrictive measures.

0534 GMT - Russia's Black Sea Fleet conducts drills in Crimea - governor

Russia's Black Sea Fleet is conducting navy drills using rocket launchers off Sevastopol, the Crimean port's Russian-installed governor said.

"Everything is calm in the city," Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy, which has its primary headquarters in Sevastopol, launches many of its drone and missile attacks on Ukraine from the Black Sea.

0500 GMT - Putin to visit China to deepen 'no limits' partnership with Xi

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Xi Jinping in China this week in a bid to deepen a partnership forged between the United States' two biggest strategic competitors.

Putin will attend the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17-18, his first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the Hague-based International Criminal Court issued a warrant for him in March over the deportation of children from Ukraine.

China and Russia declared a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two.

0221 GMT - Russia says dozens of Ukraine drones destroyed over border regions

Anti-aircraft units have destroyed 27 Ukraine-launched drones over Russia, most of them over the Kursk region, Russia's defence ministry said.

Eighteen of the drones were downed over the Kursk region in southern Russia, while two were destroyed over the Belgorod region, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Earlier, Kursk region's governor, Roman Starovoit, said that there were no casualties in the drone attack and that debris from the drones landed outside populated areas. Both the Kursk and Belgorod regions border Ukraine.

The reports have not been independently verified. There was no immediate comment from Kiev.

2148 GMT - No letup in Russian strikes on Ukrainian town of Avdiivka

Russia's military has pressed on with fierce assaults on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, with shelling so fierce that emergency crews were unable to recover the dead from wrecked buildings, the town's top administrative official said.

It was the fifth straight day of assaults on the town in Ukraine's industrial heartland of Donbass, focal point of Moscow's 19-month-old invasion of its neighbour.

Both Russia and the United States have described the upsurge in violence around Avdiivka as a new Russian offensive.

For our live updates from Saturday (October 14), click here.