Putin watches Russian nuclear drills; 1,000 bodies exhumed in Kharkiv oblast, reports say – as it happened – The Guardian

The time in Kyiv is 9pm. Here is a summary of the day’s headlines:

• The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, monitored drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces involving multiple practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles on Wednesday. The defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, reported to Putin that the exercise was intended to simulate a “massive nuclear strike” by Russia in retaliation for a nuclear attack on the country.

• About 1,000 bodies – including civilians and children – have been exhumed in the recently liberated territories of the Kharkiv oblast, media reports say. This includes the 447 bodies found at the mass burial site in Izium.

• Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russian forces in the southern Kherson region is proving more difficult than it was in the northeast because of wet weather and the terrain, Ukraine’s defence minister said. Kyiv’s forces are piling pressure on Russian troops in the strategically important Kherson region occupied by Moscow since the start of its invasion, threatening president Vladimir Putin with another big battlefield setback, Reuters reported.

• The United Nations’ aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said on Wednesday that he was “relatively optimistic” that a UN-brokered deal that allowed Ukraine Black Sea grain exports would be extended beyond mid-November. Griffiths travelled to Moscow with senior UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan earlier this month for discussions with Russian officials on the deal, which also aims to facilitate exports of Russian grain and fertiliser to global markets.

• Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Wednesday he did not believe Russia’s president Vladimir Putin would use nuclear weapons. Putin has warned repeatedly that Russia has the right to defend itself using any weapons in its arsenal, which includes the world’s largest nuclear stockpile.

• About 70,000 civilians have been relocated from the right bank of the Dnipro river to the left bank in the Kherson oblast, the Russian-appointed governor of the region told Russian media.

• Ukraine’s government is advising refugees living abroad not to return until the spring amid mounting fears over whether the country’s damaged energy infrastructure can cope with demand this winter. The energy crisis comes as officials in Kyiv warned that the coming winter may herald the heaviest fighting of the war, around the southern city of Kherson where Russian forces have been digging in.

• Up to 70 Australian defence force personnel will be deployed to the UK to train Ukrainian troops in the latest increase in the country’s support for Kyiv. The Australian government announced the decision late on Wednesday while emphasising that the ADF members would not be entering Ukrainian territory.

• The Kremlin also said assets in the four Ukrainian regions that Russia claimed it had annexed last month may in future be transferred to Russian companies. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was obvious that “abandoned assets” could not be left inactive, and the government would deal with the issue.

• Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, held a phone call with his Indian and Chinese counterparts and raised Russia’s concerns about the possible use of a “dirty bomb” by Ukraine, Shoigu’s ministry said. It followed a series of calls Shoigu has held since Sunday on the same topic with Nato defence ministers.

• The only way to facilitate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is helping Kyiv to defend itself militarily, the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, told parliament. “Peace can be achieved by supporting Ukraine … it is the only chance we have for the two sides to negotiate,” Meloni told the Senate ahead of a confidence vote on her newly appointed rightist government.

• EU regulators are considering extending easier state-aid rules that allow governments to support businesses affected by the war in Ukraine to the end of 2023, and with bigger amounts permitted, the competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, said. The more flexible rules were introduced in March and subsequently revised in July.

That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Ukraine live blog for today. Thanks for following along.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, monitored drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces involving multiple practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles on Wednesday.

Defence minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that the exercise was intended to simulate a “massive nuclear strike” by Russia in retaliation for a nuclear attack on the country, the Associated Press reported.

It followed Putin’s warning about his readiness to use “all means available” to fend off attacks on Russia’s territory in a clear reference to the country’s nuclear arsenals.

During the Russian drills, a Yars land-based intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from the northern Plesetsk launch site. A Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea also launched a Sineva ICBM at the Kura firing range on the far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, and Tu-95 strategic fired cruise missiles at practice targets.

The Kremlin said in a statement that all tasks set for the exercise were fulfilled and all the missiles that were test-fired reached their designated targets.

The only way to facilitate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is helping Kyiv to defend itself militarily, the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, told parliament.

“Peace can be achieved by supporting Ukraine … it is the only chance we have for the two sides to negotiate,” Meloni told the Senate ahead of a confidence vote on her newly appointed rightist government.

Meloni has repeatedly pledged support to Kyiv, while her coalition allies Silvio Berlusconi and Matteo Salvini have been much more ambivalent on the issue due to their historic ties with Putin, Reuters reported.

Meloni said that while the arms Italy supplies to Ukraine are not decisive for the outcome of the war, they are vital for Italy to maintain its international credibility.

EU regulators are considering extending easier state-aid rules that allow governments to support businesses affected by the war in Ukraine to the end of 2023, and with bigger amounts permitted, competition chief Margrethe Vestager said.

The more flexible rules were introduced in March and subsequently revised in July.

The European Commission is seeking feedback from EU countries on the level of public guarantees they can provide to energy companies to cover the financial collateral for their trading activities in order to offset high market prices and volatility.

Governments are also asked how the rules can be made more flexible to allow them to provide faster and more effective support to companies hit with high energy bills.

“One of the things we are consulting on is a prolongation for a full year until 31 December 2023. We are also consulting on larger aid amounts,” Vestager told a European Parliament hearing.

She said the commission has to date given the green light to several billion euros of state aid.

“Based on the rules we have already, we have taken 114 decisions that is as of 17 October and we have been approving 133 national measures notified by 25 member states. The budgets that we have been approving are around €455bn,” Vestager said.

She said the commission may broaden the scope of the kind of businesses eligible for state aid.

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on individuals and entities involved in what it described as Russia’s malign influence operations in Moldova as well as systemic corruption in the small eastern European country.

The people who have had sanctions placed on them, a mix of Russian and Moldovan officials, include oligarchs “widely recognised for capturing and corrupting Moldova’s political and economic institutions and those acting as instruments of Russia’s global influence campaign”, the US Treasury Department said in a statement.

The designations also include former Moldovan parliament member Vladimir Plahotniuc, who has manipulated “key sectors of Moldova’s government, including the law enforcement, electoral and judicial sectors”, the statement said.

There was no immediate comment from Russia or Moldova, Reuters reported.

The United Nations’ aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Wednesday that he was “relatively optimistic” that a UN-brokered deal that allowed Ukraine Black Sea grain exports would be extended beyond mid-November.

Griffiths travelled to Moscow with senior UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan earlier this month for discussions with Russian officials on the deal, which also aims to facilitate exports of Russian grain and fertiliser to global markets.

Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russian forces in the southern Kherson region is proving more difficult than it was in the northeast because of wet weather and the terrain, Ukraine’s defence minister said.

Kyiv’s forces are piling pressure on Russian troops in the strategically important Kherson region occupied by Moscow since the start of its invasion, threatening president Vladimir Putin with another big battlefield setback, Reuters reported.

“First of all, the south of Ukraine is an agricultural region, and we have a lot of irrigation and water supply channels, and the Russians use them like trenches,” defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov told a news conference. “It’s more convenient for them.”

“The second reason is weather conditions. This is the rainy season, and it’s very difficult to use fighting carrier vehicles with wheels,” he said, adding that this reduced the options for Ukraine’s armed forces.

“The counter-offensive campaign in the Kherson direction is more difficult than in the Kharkiv direction,” he added.

Russia will not use nuclear weapons in its invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin’s ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin has said in an interview with CNN.

The US network’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour tweeted a video previewing an interview with Kelin, which is due to air later today.

The ambassador’s comments come on a day when Russia is conducting military nuclear training drills, she adds.

Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Wednesday he did not believe Russia’s president Vladimir Putin would use nuclear weapons.

Putin has warned repeatedly that Russia has the right to defend itself using any weapons in its arsenal, which includes the world’s largest nuclear stockpile.

Russia’s setbacks in the war in Ukraine have heightened Western concerns that Putin might use a tactical nuclear weapon, Reuters reported.

“My personal opinion is that Putin won’t use nukes,” Reznikov told a news briefing when asked about the issue.

About 1,000 bodies – including civilians and children – have been exhumed in the recently liberated territories of the Kharkiv oblast, media reports say.

This includes the 447 bodies found at the mass burial site in Izium.

About 70,000 civilians have been relocated from the right bank of the Dnipro river to the left bank in the Kherson oblast, the Russian-appointed governor of the region told Russian media.

With the strategic southern region of the partially Russian-occupied Kherson believed to be the location of the next “heaviest of battles”, Russian authorities have been relocating residents, some just over the Dnipro river, others to southern Russia.

The Russian-backed government are calling this an evacuation and say it’s for the civilians’ own safety as the Ukrainian armed forces move closer. Some Ukrainian officials believe the Russians are moving civilians as a way to fake-out Ukrainian forces. But no matter the reason, forcibly moving any citizen in an occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Convention.

The European Union urged the bloc’s defence ministers on Wednesday to coordinate purchases of weapons, to obtain better terms from suppliers as they seek to replenish supplies depleted by shipments to Ukraine.

Western countries have been rushing to restock weapons and ammunition after shipping huge quantities to Kyiv, requiring industry to ramp up to meet the surging demand, Reuters reported.

“It is urgent to restore the readiness of our European armed forces and replenish depleted stocks,” Stijn Mols, the head of the EU diplomatic service’s security and defence division, told a European Parliament committee.

EU defence ministers next meet on 15 November, and Mols said he hoped they would present concrete proposals for coordinated arms purchases.

European countries need air and missile defence, anti-tank and artillery systems and drones, Mols said. Brussels hopes for around 5-7 “emblematic projects” to coordinate purchases by member countries in areas such as ammunition.

Defence purchases in the EU are rarely carried out jointly, with countries eager to support their domestic industries.

Ukraine’s government is advising refugees living abroad not to return until the spring amid mounting fears over whether the country’s damaged energy infrastructure can cope with demand this winter.

The energy crisis comes as officials in Kyiv warned that the coming winter may herald the heaviest fighting of the war, around the southern city of Kherson where Russian forces have been digging in.

With a third of the country’s energy sector compromised by recent Russian missile and drone attacks Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned: “The networks will not cope.”

“You see what Russia is doing. We need to survive the winter,” she added.

The warning was delivered after a period in which, polling suggested, more Ukrainians had expressed their desire to return home.

Vereshchuk said that although she would like Ukrainians to return in the spring, it was important to refrain from returning for now because “the situation will only get worse. If it is possible, stay abroad for the time being”.

With no evidence of a letup in the fighting in the country’s east and south, where Ukraine has made recent gains in Russian-occupied areas, many fear the coming winter could be challenging.

Ukrainians have already been asked to be sparing in their use of electricity to balance the country’s struggling electricity grid.

Up to 70 Australian defence force personnel will be deployed to the UK to train Ukrainian troops in the latest increase in the country’s support for Kyiv.

The Australian government announced the decision late on Wednesday while emphasising that the ADF members would not be entering Ukrainian territory.

It also said it would provide Ukraine with 30 more Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles, bringing to 90 the total number promised since Russia’s invasion.

The government has been signalling for months that Australia might join other countries in training Ukrainian troops as part of longer term assistance, but has not confirmed the details until now.

It says up to 70 ADF members will fly to the UK in January to join Operation Interflex, a mission that also involves personnel from other countries including New Zealand, Canada, Sweden and Finland. Ukrainian troops, including new recruits, have been travelling to the UK for training under this programme.

A police officer secures a damaged gas station after a missile strike in Dnipro.

The Kremlin also said assets in the four Ukrainian regions that Russia claimed it had annexed last month may in future be transferred to Russian companies.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was obvious that “abandoned assets” could not be left inactive, and the government would deal with the issue.

Ukraine, its western allies and an overwhelming majority of countries at the UN general assembly have condemned Russia’s declared annexation of the four regions as illegal, Reuters reported.

Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, held a phone call with his Indian and Chinese counterparts and raised Russia’s concerns about the possible use of a “dirty bomb” by Ukraine, Shoigu’s ministry said.

It followed a series of calls Shoigu has held since Sunday on the same topic with Nato defence ministers.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow wanted to prompt an active response from the international community, Reuters reported.

India’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, reportedly told Shoigu that nuclear weapons should not be used by any side in the war, according to an Indian government statement.

“The prospect of the usage of nuclear or radiological weapons goes against the basic tenets of humanity,” Singh told Shoigu while reiterating the need for an early resolution to the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.

Ukraine and its Western allies have rejected Russia’s allegation that Kyiv is preparing to use a radioactive “dirty bomb” and voiced concern that Moscow is using that as pretext for a further escalation in the war.

• Over the past day, Russian forces have launched five rockets, 30 air strikes and more than 100 multiple-launch rocket system attacks on more than 40 settlements all around Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian general staff of the armed forces. Russian forces have continued their sustained offence on the strategically placed towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Ukraine’s industrial heartland of Donbas, killing one civilian yesterday in Bakhmut. However, Ukrainian authorities believe that Russian forces are digging in for the “heaviest of battles” in the strategic southern region of Kherson. Russian authorities spent yesterday relocating civilians in the region, blaming the oncoming onslaught of the Ukrainian armed forces for why they had to leave.

• A Russian missile attack killed two people in Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth-largest city. One of those who died was a pregnant woman. The office of the prosecutor general of Ukraine has launched a pre-trial investigation into the attack.

• Vladimir Putin entered the invasion of Ukraine with the term “denazification” – now his security council is pivoting to the term “desatanisation”. Aleksey Pavlov, assistant secretary of the security council of the Russian Federation, is now claiming there were “hundreds of sects” in Ukraine where citizens have abandoned Orthodox values. Those who live in Ukraine can attest to that statement as being patently false.

• The armed forces of Ukraine are estimating that about 480 Russian soldiers were killed yesterday alone, bringing the total to 68,900 personnel lost so far in the invasion of Ukraine.

• The Nobel Foundation has made the decision to not invite the Russian and Belarusian ambassadors to its storied prize ceremony this year, even though the foundation typically extends an invitation to all ambassadors stationed in Sweden. “In view of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the Foundation has chosen not to invite the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus to the Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockholm,” the foundation said in statement. The foundation jointly awarded this year’s peace prize to the Centre for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian human rights organisation, in conjunction with Memorial, a Russian human rights group outlawed by the Kremlin, and the veteran Belarussian activist Ales Bialiatski, who is being held in prison without trial in his native country.

• Russia is purportedly recruiting members of Afghanistan’s highly respected national army commando corps to fight in Ukraine, Foreign Policy is reporting. These are the commandos that were trained by US navy seals and British armed forces. About 20,000 to 30,000 of the volunteer commandos were left behind when the US left Afghanistan in Taliban control in August 2021.