31 drones shot down over Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk overnight, says Russian Ministry of DefenceDozens of Ukrainian drones attacked three Russian regions overnight, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence, which claimed to have shot down 31 unmanned aircraft in what it described as a ‘terrorist attack’.
The ministry wrote on Telegram:
On the night of October 4, the demands of the Kiev regime were suppressed and terrorist attacks were carried out on objects on the territory of the Russian Federation.
31 Ukrainian unmanned aircraft of the airplane type were intercepted and destroyed by air defense units on duty over the territory of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions.
The Guardian has not independently verified these claims.
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy inspects a Leopard 2 tank as he visits a position of Ukrainian troops in a front line, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in an undisclosed location. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/ReutersA Russian court has sentenced the former state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who burst into a news broadcast with a placard that read “Stop the war” and “They’re lying to you”, to eight and half years in jail in absentia on Wednesday.
Ovsyannikova was found guilty of “spreading knowingly false information about the Russian armed forces”, according to a statement posted by the court on Telegram.
Ovsyannikova, 45, fled Russia with her daughter for an unspecified European country a year ago after escaping from house arrest, according to her lawyer, saying she had no case to answer.
A fire broke out at the Rusal-owned Krasnoyarsk Aluminium Smelter early on Wednesday, Russia’s TASS state news agency reports, citing local emergency ministry officials.
“At 08.57am (1.57sm GMT) a fire was reported on the territory of the KrAZ (Krasnoyarsk Aluminium Smelter),” the agency cited the officials as saying. “A transformer caught fire on an area of 50 square metres (538 square feet).”
It was not immediately known what caused the fire. Rusal is the largest aluminium producer outside China.
Russia will conduct a nationwide test of its emergency public warning systems on Wednesday, blaring out sirens and interrupting television broadcasts to warn the population of an impending danger.
The test, first conducted in 2020, is part of a new initiative that requires authorities to conduct tests twice a year, starting from 1 September, Reuters reports.
It comes, though, amid the war in Ukraine which has triggered the deepest crisis in Russia’s relations with the west since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
At 10.43am Moscow time (7.43am GMT), sirens will wail and stern announcements demanding “Attention everyone!” will alert the public, mimicking what would happen in a true disaster or catastrophe.
“When you hear the sound of a siren, you need to remain calm and not panic, turn on the TV – any publicly accessible channel or radio – and listen to the information message,” the Ministry of Emergency Situations said in a statement.
“The warning system is designed to timely convey a signal to the population in the event of a threat or emergency of a natural or man-made nature.”
The US is also conducting a large-scale test of its public warning systems on Wednesday, via US mobile phones and TV and radio stations.
The purpose of the US test is to ensure that the systems “continue to be effective in alerting the public to emergencies, particularly at the national level”, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a press release.
Many other countries have also conducted alert system tests for crisis and disasters in recent years.
A Ukraine “report card” by political group Defending Democracy Together’ rated the leading candidates for US House speaker from A to F on the strength of their past support for Ukraine aid, with A signifying the strongest support.
Representative Steve Scalise, the No 2 House Republican, has long been favoured to take over as speaker after McCarthy, and received a B, a step up from McCarthy’s B-minus grade. However, hard-right Republican Matt Gaetz, who led the push to oust McCarthy and has said he would support Scalise, received an F.
House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan and hardline rising star Representative Byron Donalds also received Fs.
Representative Tom Emmer, the House Republican whip, got the highest rating, an A:
US aid for Kyiv in limbo amid search for new House speakerEyes are on the search for a new US house speaker as chaos in Washington puts further US aid in jeopardy.
Shortly before Republicans ousted House speaker Kevin McCarthy, likely putting a hold on any legislation being passed for further aid to Ukraine, US President Joe Biden called allies to reassure them of US support, and National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby warned “time is not on our side”.
New assistance for Ukraine was dropped from a deal in the US Congress to avoid a government shutdown on Saturday, amid opposition from hardline Republicans.
The next speaker could quash more Ukraine aid before a proposal reaches the House floor. And while some of McCarthy’s possible successors are strongly in favor of assisting Kyiv, others are staunchly opposed.
The search for a new speaker is expected to take three days, but National Security Council spokesman John Kirby warned earlier on Tuesday that if fresh aid is not approved, existing funds to help Ukraine fight Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion will only last “a couple of months.”
“Time is not our friend,” Kirby told reporters. A lapse in funding would not only harm Ukraine on the battlefield but “make Putin believe that he can wait us out.”
Ukraine also fired cluster munitions at Bryansk villages, says governorUkrainian forces also apparently fired cluster munitions at several villages in Russia’s southern region of Bryansk, its governor, Alexander Bogomaz, said on the Telegram messaging app.
There were no casualties in the attacks, although several homes were damaged, he added.
Neither the Guardian nor Reuters were able to verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from the government in Kyiv.
Ukraine has received cluster munitions from the United States and pledged to use them only to dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers.
Russian officials in Bryansk and other regions bordering Ukraine have repeatedly accused Ukraine’s armed forces of indiscriminate shelling.
Cluster munitions are prohibited by more than 100 countries. They typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. Those that fail to explode can pose a danger for decades.
Buildings damaged in Belgorod, TASS reports governor as sayingRussia’s TASS news reports that 19 drones were shot down over Belgorod, but that “an administrative building in Belgorod, a house in the village of Shishino, Belgorod district, and three cars were damaged”, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
The Guardian has not independently verified this claim
31 drones shot down over Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk overnight, says Russian Ministry of DefenceDozens of Ukrainian drones attacked three Russian regions overnight, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence, which claimed to have shot down 31 unmanned aircraft in what it described as a ‘terrorist attack’.
The ministry wrote on Telegram:
On the night of October 4, the demands of the Kiev regime were suppressed and terrorist attacks were carried out on objects on the territory of the Russian Federation.
31 Ukrainian unmanned aircraft of the airplane type were intercepted and destroyed by air defense units on duty over the territory of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions.
The Guardian has not independently verified these claims.
Opening summaryWelcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.
Our top story this morning: Dozens of Ukrainian drones attacked three Russian regions overnight, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence, which claimed to have shot down 31 unmanned aircraft in what it described as a ‘terrorist attack’.
More shortly.
Elsewhere meanwhile:
A huge fire erupted at an oil pipeline in the western Ukrainian region of Ivano-Frankivsk on Saturday, injuring nine people, five of them critically, authorities said. The blaze near the village of Strymba caused an oil spill spanning 100 sq metres before it was extinguished. Footage shared on social media showed thick clouds of black smoke billowing out over the village. The cause of the rupture was not immediately clear, but local media outlets reported there had been a powerful explosion. The regional governor, Svitlana Onyshchuk, said two children and three adults were in critical condition with numerous burns.
A Ukrainian drone attack on Saturday in the southern Russian region of Bryansk injured one person and damaged windows and the roof of an administrative building, the region’s governor said. Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram the incident occurred in Trubchevsk town. He earlier said a village in the region had been shelled by Ukrainian forces, damaging three homes.
Ukraine signed 20 agreements and memorandums with foreign partners on the manufacture of drones and the repair and production of armoured vehicles and ammunition at the first international Defence Industries Forum, which Kyiv organised with international producers. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he wanted to turn Ukraine’s defence industry into a “large military hub”, also announcing the creation of the Defence Industries Alliance.
The UK’s new defence secretary says he has held talks with army leaders about deploying British troops within Ukraine for the first time for a training program. Grant Shapps, who met Zelenskiy for talks in Kyiv this week, said the proposal being discussed would reduce the reliance on the UK and other Nato members’ bases.
Nato member Romania reported possible violations of its airspace during overnight drone attacks by Russia on infrastructure in neighbouring Ukraine. “Following the detection of groups of drones heading towards Ukrainian territory near the Romanian border,” residents in the Tulcea and Galati municipalities were alerted, the defence ministry said in a statement on Saturday. “The radar surveillance system … indicated possible unauthorised entry into national airspace.” The ministry said no objects so far appeared to have fallen on Romanian territory but the search would continue.
Vladimir Putin has signed a decree marking Saturday 30 September as “Reunification Day”, commemorating Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. In a video address the Russian president said their “accession” to the Russian Federation a year ago was “a defining, truly historic and life-changing event”.
Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev marked the anniversary by suggesting Russia may annex more of Ukraine. “Victory will be ours. And there will be more new regions within Russia,” said Medvedev, who is now deputy chair of Russia’s security council.
The Ukrainian air force shot down Iranian kamikaze drones overnight on Friday, the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said. In conjunction with anti-air defences, Ukrainian forces destroyed 30 Shahed drones within the Odesa, Mykolaiv and Vinnytsia regions.
Russia has been recruiting struggling Cubans to fight in Ukraine. The Havana government, a longstanding ally of Russia which says it is “not part” of the war, arrested 17 people last month in connection with a people-trafficking ring that lured Cubans to fight for Moscow. But a Reuters investigation has found recruits who volunteered to go to Russia to work for the military following overtures on social media from a recruiter.