Live blog: Russia can shoot down all Ukrainian F-16 jets in 20 days — minister

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu has said that going by statistics Russian air defence systems will shoot down all F-16 fighter jets promised to Ukraine in a matter of 20 days.

Speaking at a meeting in Moscow, Shoigu claimed a total of 1,400 air targets, including 37 Ukrainian planes and 6 ATACMS missiles, were shot down in air battles in October.

He said Ukraine has run out of reserves, its soldiers are demoralised, and despite the supply of new NATO weapons, its army has been retreating.

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1841 GMT — Ukraine needs new military capabilities as war moves to attritional fighting: army chief

Ukraine's commander-in-chief has said the war with Russia was moving to a new stage of positional warfare involving static and attritional fighting, a phase he warned could benefit Moscow and allow it to rebuild its military power.

In an article for The Economist, top general Valery Zaluzhnyi said the Ukrainian army needed key new military capabilities and technology, including air power, to break out of that kind of war.

He also called for Ukraine to build up its army reserves and expand the categories of Ukrainian citizens who can be called up for training or to be mobilised.

1629 GMT — More than 260 civilians killed after stepping on mines, explosives: Ukraine

More than 260 civilians have been killed in Ukraine after stepping on landmines or other explosives during the 20-month-old war with Russia, Ukraine's military said.

Kiev estimates that 174,000 square kilometres of the country — about a third of its territory — is potentially strewn with mines or dangerous war detritus.

At least 571 people have received injuries during more than 560 incidents involving mines or explosive objects left behind by the fighting, the General Staff said on Telegram messenger.

Almost a quarter of the incidents occurred in fields, it added.

1551 GMT — Russia jails three more captive Ukrainian troops

Russia has sentenced three more Ukrainian soldiers who fought in the city of Mariupol to jail, as it continued to put soldiers held in captivity on trial.

Around 2,500 people were taken into Russian captivity after the fall of Mariupol last May, some of whom were sent to Russia or occupied east Ukraine to face "trial".

Ukrainian soldiers Oleg Kolmychevsky, Dmitry Dobrovolsky and Alexander Romashin were found guilty of the murder of eight people in Mariupol, Moscow's Investigative Committee said.

1500 GMT — Bulgaria expels Russian journalist as an alleged threat to national security

Bulgaria has expelled a Russian journalist for allegedly engaging in activities that pose a threat to the country's national security, authorities said.

The State Agency for National Security said Alexander Gatsak, a correspondent for Russian state-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, was stripped of his residency rights and barred from entering Bulgaria and other European Union member nation.

1200 GMT — Ukraine says Russian warplanes drop explosives on Black Sea shipping lanes

Ukraine has said Russian warplanes had dropped "explosive objects" into the likely paths of civilian vessels in the Black Sea three times in the last 24 hours, but that its fledgling shipping corridor was still operating

Ukraine is trying to build up a new shipping lane without Russian approval to revive its vital seaborne exports. Russia said it would consider any vessel a potential military target after it quit a deal in July that allowed some food exports to flow despite the war.

1058 GMT — Two killed in Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine that also damage Kherson city centre

A Russian attack on Kherson in eastern Ukraine has killed one person and caused serious damage in the city's centre, the region's governor said, and a Russian drone strike reportedly killed another civilian in the frequently targeted city of Nikopol.

The attack on Kherson, which Russian forces seized early in the war but then abandoned a year ago, also wounded two people. Despite the withdrawal, Russian attacks from the other side of the Dniper River persist.

In Nikopol, which is on the opposite bank of the Dniper from the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, four people were wounded in the drone strike along with the woman who was killed, according to regional Gov. Serhii Lysak.

Over the past day, three civilians were killed in the east and south of the country and at least 16 were wounded, according to a summary from the presidential office.

One person was killed in rocket attacks on Beryslav and neighbouring villages in the Kherson region. One person was killed in the Donetsk region and another around Kupyansk, which is along the front line in the Kharkiv region.

1025 GMT — South Korea's spy agency says North Korea shipped more than a million artillery shells to Russia

South Korea's top spy agency says North Korea sent more than a million artillery shells to Moscow since August to help fuel Russia-Ukraine war, according to a lawmaker who attended a closed-door briefing with intelligence officials.

North Korea and Russia have been actively boosting the visibility of their partnership in the face of separate, deepening confrontations with the United States.

Their diplomacy — highlighted by a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Putin in September — has triggered concerns about an arms arrangement in which North Korea supplies Russia with badly needed munitions in exchange for advanced Russian technologies that would strengthen Kim’s nuclear-armed military.

Both Pyongyang and Moscow have denied US and South Korean claims that the North has been transferring arms supplies to Russia.

0900 GMT — Ukraine reports most extensive Russian shelling this year

Ukraine has said that Russia had shelled more than 100 settlements over the last 24 hours — more than in any single day so far this year.

Moscow has fired millions of shells on cities, towns and villages along the frontlines since it launched its offensive last February, reducing several across the eastern part of the country to rubble.

0349 GMT — Air raid alert in Sevastopol

An air raid alert has been declared in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, and traffic on the Crimean Bridge as well as sea transport were suspended, Russian-supported officials in the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula have said.

0636 GMT — Russian attack hits oil refinery as drones, missile shot down: Ukraine

Russia launched a score of drones and a missile in an overnight attack that targeted military and critical infrastructure, Ukraine's air force has said, while regional officials said the Kremenchuk oil refinery was hit.

On the Telegram messaging app, the air force said 18 of the 20 Russian-launched kamikaze Shahed drones were destroyed before reaching their targets, as was the missile.

But a repeated target of earlier Russian attacks, the Kremenchuk oil refinery in the central region of Poltava, was struck, setting it a blaze, according to Filip Pronin, head of the region's military administration.

"(The fire) has been extinguished. The situation is under control," he said on Telegram, adding that there were no reports yet of casualties as officials sought to gather more details of the destruction.

0048 GMT — Zelenskyy touts battlefield victories as he rallies troops

Ukraine's attacks on the Russian Navy in the Black Sea have crippled Moscow's war efforts, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, seeking to rally his troops even as the outside world expects instant successes.

Zelenskyy said his troops have succeeded in diminishing Moscow's military strength in the Black Sea, which he said with greater support from Kiev's allies could lead to Ukraine's ultimate victory over Russia.

"When we ensure even more security to the Black Sea, Russia will lose any ability to dominate in this area and expand its malign influence to other countries," Zelenskyy said.

0009 GMT — Biden would veto Republicans' Israel-only aid bill

US President Joe Biden would veto a House of Representatives Republican bill to provide aid to Israel but not Ukraine, which includes cuts to funding for the Internal Revenue Service, were it to pass both chambers, the White House said.

"In contrast to the President’s national security package, this bill provides no aid whatsoever to Ukraine. This is an urgent requirement," the White House's Office of Management and Budget said

For our live updates from Tuesday (October 31), click here