Ukraine-Russia war live: Killed security chief at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was ‘collaborator’, Kyiv says

Zelensky defends Vuhledar retreat and says it was done to save ‘citizens of Ukraine’

Trump claims he could end Russia-Ukraine war as he meets with Zelensky

An employee at a Russian-controlled nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been killed in a car bomb attack.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, said the employee, Andrei Korotkiy, had died after a bomb planted under his car went off near his house in the city of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhia plant is located.

Korotkiy worked in the plant’s security department, the Committee said. A criminal case has been opened into his death.

Ukrainian military intelligence published a video of his car exploding and in a statement branded Korotkiy a “war criminal” and collaborator, accusing him of repressing Ukrainians and of handing Russia a list of the plant’s employees and then pointing out people with pro-Ukrainian views.

“The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine‘s Ministry of Defence reminds people that every war criminal will be fairly punished,” the Ukrainian agency said.

Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors, soon after they entered Ukraine in February 2022. The plant is not currently operating.

The plant’s authorities condemned Ukrainian authorities for orchestrating the murder.

“This is a horrific, inhumane act,” said plant director Yuri Chernichuk, vowing punishment for the attackers.

Key Points

• Ukraine prepares to present ‘victory plan’ to world leaders
• Russia knocked out most infrastructure in Ukraine's Pokrovsk
• No prospect for Ukraine war negotiation ‘anytime soon’, say western officials
• Former Nato chief says he regrets not providing Ukraine with support earlier

[4 October 2024 13:05 · Jabed Ahmed]

Ukraine's top commander orders defences bolstered in the east after Vuhledar falls

Ukraine‘s armed forces commander General Oleksandr Syrskyi has said he had ordered defences to be strengthened in the eastern Donetsk region, a day after Kyiv forces announced they had withdrawn from the town of Vuhledar.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged the loss of Vuhledar, saying moving troops out and preserving lives was the critical issue.

The Russia-appointed governor of Donetsk region said both sides had recognised the strategic value of the town, adding that reconstruction efforts there would take time.

Russian troops are steadily inching forward in different sectors in eastern Ukraine despite Kyiv’s surprise incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region in August that Ukraine hoped would slow the advances.

Syrskyi said on social media he was working on “one of the hottest front sectors” with the 25th Sicheslav Airborne Brigade.

He gave no details on the location but the brigade operates in the Pokrovsk front, an area of intensified Russian assaults.

“While working in the brigade, I made a number of decisions aimed at strengthening stability and effectiveness of our defence,” Syrskyi said.

[4 October 2024 12:33 · Jabed Ahmed]

Kosovo's leader says Russia prevailing in Ukraine would threaten 25 years of peace in the Balkans

[4 October 2024 11:58 · Jabed Ahmed]

Russia knocked out most infrastructure in Ukraine's Pokrovsk, local official says

Russia has knocked out around 80 per cent of critical infrastructure in the town of Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in Ukraine‘s east, as Moscow’s troops inched forward, a local official said.

Serhiy Dobriak, Pokrovsk’s military administration head, said Russian forces were at about 4 miles from the town, which is at an intersection of roads and a railway that makes it an important logistics point for the military and for civilians in the eastern Donetsk region.

Russia forces have focused some of their heaviest assaults in recent weeks on Pokrovsk, which could allow it to consolidate and advance the front line in the region.

“The enemy is leaving us without power, without water, without gas. Prepares us for the winter, so to say,” Dobriak said on national television.

Some 13,050 residents remain in the town and Ukrainian officials are pressing on with an evacuation plan that has been going on for some weeks. Just a month and a half ago, the town hosted more than 48,000 people, he said.

Russia continued to pummel the town on Thursday, launching a total of nine glide bombs and injuring four people in two attacks which damaged infrastructure, Dobriak said.

He said the daily attacks targeted energy facilities and other vital infrastructure. Almost half of Pokrovsk, 10 nearby villages and one smaller town were without power, he said, adding the energy infrastructure was “almost impossible to repair”.

[4 October 2024 11:30 · Jabed Ahmed]

Kremlin accuses Ukraine of 'playing with fire' after reported attack near Kursk nuclear plant

The Kremlin has accused Ukrainian authorities of playing with fire, a day after Russian forces said they had intercepted a Ukrainian drone near the Kursk nuclear plant and some news outlets reported a fire had broken out several miles away.

“Kyiv is continuing to play with fire, and we will naturally bring this to the attention of the IAEA’s representatives,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi on Thursday denied that Ukraine had fired weapons at or near the plant.

Ukrainian forces entered the Kursk region in a surprise cross-border incursion on 6 August and remain there even as the Russian military tries to eject them.

[4 October 2024 11:01 · Jabed Ahmed]

Employee at Russia-controlled nuclear plant killed in car bomb, say investigators

An employee at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine was killed in a car bomb attack, Russian investigators said.

The power plant in a statement accused the Ukrainian authorities of orchestrating the murder. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the largest in Europe, has been controlled by Russian forces since March 2022 and is close to the frontline between the two sides.

[4 October 2024 10:29 · Jabed Ahmed]

Full report: Russia launches major drone attack on Ukraine – as new Nato chief visits Kyiv

[4 October 2024 09:56 · Jabed Ahmed]

More than 140 clashes on the frontline in past day, Ukraine says

There were 142 clashes on the frontlines in Ukraine, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The General Staff also said Russian forces launched three missile strikes on Ukrainian positions and settlements, using three missiles.

Putins forces conducted 67 airstrikes, including dropping of 135 guided aerial bombs, according to the situation update.

[4 October 2024 09:28 · Jabed Ahmed]

Huge Russian fuel depot blaze put out, drones strike near Ukraine border

Firefighters put out a huge blaze at a fuel depot in Russia’s Ural mountains, and a series of drone strikes were reported in areas close to the Ukrainian border, one of which also started a small fire at a fuel depot.

The emergencies ministry said it was still investigating the cause of the fire in the Perm region, which is in the Ural mountains 1,500 km (950 miles) away from the Ukrainian combat zone.

Separately, Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement that its air defences had shot down or intercepted 18 Ukrainian drones overnight, including six over the Belgorod region, six over the Voronezh region, one over the Rostov region and five over the Azov Sea. All are near Ukraine.

Voronezh regional governor Alexander Gusev said air defences had destroyed several Ukrainian drones and nobody had been hurt.

He said firefighters had put out a small fire at an empty storage tank at a fuel depot, which he said on his official Telegram channel had not been damaged.

[4 October 2024 08:57 · Jabed Ahmed]

Ukraine's military says it hit fuel storage facility in Russia's Voronezh region

The Ukrainian military has said it hit a fuel storage facility in Russia’s Voronezh region during an overnight attack.

“Russian air defence systems were observed operating in the area. It was confirmed that at least one of the vertical tanks was hit,” according to the statement on the Telegram messaging app.

[4 October 2024 08:33 · Arpan Rai]

Russian offensive to peak in 'months, if not weeks'

Vladimir Putin’s offensive in eastern Ukraine is likely to culminate in the coming months, a US-based think-tank has assessed.

“Russian forces do not have the available manpower and materiel to continue intensified offensive efforts indefinitely, however, and current Russian offensive operations in eastern Ukraine will likely culminate in the coming months, if not weeks, as Ukrainian officials and ISW have previously assessed,” the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest assessment.

Ukrainian forces, it said, also face serious operational challenges and constraints, which are providing Russian forces with opportunities to pursue tactically significant gains.

But the current Russian offensive, which was started in autumn last year, has not yielded operationally significant gains for Russian forces and only offered gradual tactical gains in specific sectors of the front, the ISW said.

Ukraine’s “effective defence in depth along the frontline” has caused Russia significant losses and prevent Mr Putin’s troops from making more rapid gains on the battlefield, it said.