Zelensky says nearly 30% of country’s power stations destroyed; EU inches towards sanctioning Iran

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said power and water supplies had been partially restored. Earlier, he urged residents in the capital to conserve use as more critical infrastructure was damaged in further strikes. Zelensky expressed gratitude to troops who had intercepted attacking drones, saying “every destroyed drone is a life saved”.  

European Union member states want to review evidence to confirm when Iranian drones were delivered to Russia before imposing new sanctions against the country, according to people familiar with the issue. Ukrainian officials have highlighted the use of Iranian-made drones in recent Russian attacks across Ukraine since mid-September.

Key developments

• Putin’s war escalation is hastening demographic crash for Russia


• Ukraine power grid holds up against Russia’s missile barrage


• EU unveils interim gas market steps with no quick price cap 


• EU inches toward sanctioning Iran for supplying drones to Russia


• What are Iranian drones Russia is using in Ukraine?: QuickTake


• EU’s sanctions against Russia risk ensnaring more oil tankers


• How Russian ships are laundering grain stolen from occupied Ukraine


• Exxon completes Russia exit, says operation was expropriated

On the ground

Six C-300 missiles hit storage facilities for humanitarian aid in Kharkiv on Tuesday morning, according to a TV report citing local police. Explosions hit the city of Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk region on Tuesday morning, Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said on Telegram. Air raid sirens went off across most of Ukraine on Tuesday morning, including Kyiv. Energy facilities were hit in strikes at Dnipro and Zhytomyr, according to the deputy head of the president’s staff, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, who cited “serious damage”. Some 20 civilians were killed by Russian attacks on 17 October, and 22 were injured, the deputy head of the presidential staff, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said on Telegram.

Nato to deliver signal jammers to shield Ukraine from drone strikes

Nato is set to deliver hundreds of signal jammers to Ukraine, possibly in the coming days, to help it counter the threat of drone strikes, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. Speaking via video stream to a conference in Berlin, Stoltenberg said the counter-drone systems “will help them to address this specific threat of drones, including of course Iranian-made drones that are now causing a lot of havoc and suffering”.

The alliance chief underscored Ukraine’s need for various air defence systems for different threats, including for drones, saying it was a “huge task” to protect the country’s vast territory.

Kyiv must meet conditions for EU funding disbursement  

Ukraine will have to meet conditions in the areas of economy, corporate governance, energy and the rule of law to access €3-billion in EU funding agreed to earlier this month, to be released by the end of the year.

The memorandum of understanding signed with the European Commission this month lists seven requirements, including the approval of a methodology for electing board members of state-owned banks, progress on the integrity of the vetting process of judicial appointments and strengthening the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, commission spokeswoman Veerle Nuyts said.

Iran agrees to ship missiles, more drones to Russia — report 

Iran has agreed to deliver surface-to-surface missiles to Russia, along with more drones, Reuters reports, citing two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats.

A deal was agreed to on 6 October, when Iran’s first vice-president, Mohammad Mokhber, two senior officials from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and a Supreme National Security Council official were in Moscow for talks.

Russia and Iran eye new Swift replacement within months 

Russia and Iran could have their own version of the Swift payment system operating within two to three months, Russia’s trade representative to Iran, Rustam Zhiganshin, was quoted by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying. Zhiganshin, who spoke at a meeting of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, said the time frame for the new payment system was possible if the two countries reach an agreement.

In March, the US and the EU cut off seven Russian banks from Swift, and the EU blocked three more, including Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, in June. Iran’s banks were suspended in 2018 after the US withdrew from the nuclear accord.

EU inches towards sanctioning Iran for supplying drones to Russia

As member states weigh evidence, several reports and intelligence assessments have concluded that Iranian drones were most likely delivered to Russia during the summer.

Iran has repeatedly denied exporting any weapons for use in the war in Ukraine. EU states want to nail down that the drones were delivered after Russia’s invasion, given the firmness of Tehran’s denials, said the people, who asked not to be named on a confidential matter.

Russian Duma suspends online broadcasts over leak concerns

The State Duma, Russia’s lower house of Parliament, suspended live online broadcasts of its plenary sessions, citing concerns that sensitive information about the invasion might be revealed, state news agencies reported.

The only media access will be for accredited reporters inside the building. The upper house said it will continue live webcasts of plenary sessions, Tass reported. Russia has drastically tightened control over information since the invasion, broadening legal restrictions and limiting the release of economic data.

 

Ukraine’s top envoy calls for breaking ties with Iran

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba asked President Zelensky to break the country’s diplomatic ties with Iran over its continued support for Russian aggression. After Iranian drones caused massive damage to civilian infrastructure and many casualties, Iran may be planning to provide Russia with ballistic missiles, Kuleba said in an online video.

Ukraine raises military spending by more than $10bn

The Ukrainian Parliament passed a law increasing budget spending by almost 387 billion hryvnia ($10.5-billion), primarily to finance the nation’s military and defence needs, according to the Rada website. The spending will be financed with a “corresponding increase in domestic borrowing”, it said.

Backlog of Ukrainian grain ships eases

A logjam of vessels shipping Ukrainian crops eased as inspections sped up over the weekend, but the backlog remained high with just over a month of the grain-export deal left.

Shippers are rushing to export as much as possible through the Black Sea corridor before the current deal expires, with negotiations on extending it continuing.

Russia needs assurances from the US for the grain deal to continue, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said, speaking to AHaber TV in a live interview. Kalin said he had conveyed Russian concerns to US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

Kremlin reiterates mobilisation covers 300,000 troops

Putin’s order for a “partial mobilisation” covers 300,000 troops and a number of Russian regions have already met their targets for recruitment under it, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

“In the decree, it’s specified up to 300,000,” Peskov told a conference call, without explaining why the text of the order released by the Kremlin when Putin signed it last month doesn’t include that figure. The decree includes an article that’s classified, but officials have refused to comment on what it covers.

Putin on Friday announced that the mobilisation, which has led to widespread anxiety in Russia and triggered an exodus of more than 300,000 people out of the country, would be completed within two weeks. This week, the heads of Moscow and several other regions announced they’d completed the call-up and suspended further recruitment, but fears have persisted that the mobilisation may resume.

Kyiv mayor asks citizens to conserve power, water 

More critical infrastructure was damaged in Kyiv by fresh Russian missile strikes, Mayor Klitschko said on Facebook. “Currently, electricity and water supply services are partially limited in many houses on the left bank of the Dnipro river in Kyiv,” Klitschko said. He urged Kyiv residents to use electricity and water as sparingly as possible, and not to turn on powerful electrical appliances. “City services are doing everything needed to stabilise the situation and return vital services to citizens,” Klitschko said.

Zelensky says nearly a third of Ukraine’s power stations destroyed

Since October 10, Russian strikes have destroyed 30% of the country’s power stations, Zelensky said on Twitter, adding this has left no room for negotiations with Moscow.

While the attacks have led to electricity outages in parts of the country, Ukrenergo has been able to blunt the impact by shifting power loads on its transmission system.

Russia’s 10 October missile blitz originally knocked two gigawatts of power offline, equivalent to about 14% of electricity supplied the week before. But the Paris-based International Energy Agency said more than 1.3 gigawatts of generating capacity had been restored as of Monday.

Belarus military exercises used to distract Ukraine, says Latvia  

Belarus’s joint military exercises with Russia are taking place to divert Ukrainian resources from its eastern front, Latvia’s intelligence service said in a statement. Russia and Belarus will hold exercises that include live fire and anti-aircraft missiles, Valeriy Revenko, an assistant to the defence minister of Belarus, said on Monday.

Still, if Belarus were to enter the war, its main role would be to sever Western military supply lines, the Latvian service said. Any move could weaken the Belarus regime’s ability to suppress dissent since the public largely opposes the attack on Ukraine.

Nord Stream ‘missing about 50m of pipeline’

A section of Nord Stream spanning at least 50m seems to be missing in the area of the Baltic Sea where detonations caused a rupture in the gas pipeline last month, the Swedish newspaper Expressen reported.

Expressen filmed the underwater pipeline using a drone operated by Norwegian company Blueye Robotics.

Norway detains four Russian citizens under suspicion

Norwegian authorities took four Russian citizens into custody, accusing them of taking images of “objects subject to a photography ban” in the northern region of Nordland, police said.

The three men and a woman were detained on 11 October after police found photography equipment and “relatively extensive” visual material in their car. No connection had been found with cases reported last week, in which two Russian nationals were detained for illegally flying drones and taking footage. The Russian embassy referred to Norway’s actions as a “psychosis,” NTB newswire reported.

Two nuclear plant officials detained by Russia, says Ukraine

Ukraine’s nuclear operator Energoatom accused Russia of detaining two senior officials of the Zaporizhzhia plant — Oleh Kostyukov, the head of its information technology service, and Oleh Osheka, the station’s general director assistant.

“We appeal to the director-general of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], Rafael Grossi, and the entire world community to make every effort and take all possible measures to release the ZapNPP workers,” the company said. DM