Meanwhile the Russia’s military conducted a simulated nuclear strike in a drill overseen by President Vladimir Putin, hours after the upper house of parliament voted to rescind the country’s ratification of a global nuclear test ban.

Here are top ten updates from the long-drawn war

–Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine is preparing for renewed Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure ahead of the second winter of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of the country

–Russia tested its ability to deliver a retaliatory nuclear strike in an exercise involving the launch of missiles by land, sea and air. News of the exercise was delivered on Russian state media by the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu

–Russia’s military claimed on Wednesday that its air defence forces had shot down two long-range US-made ATACM missiles fired by Ukraine at Russian targets

–A drone attack by Russia near Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant temporarily cut power to some off-site radiation monitoring stations, the International Atomic Energy Agency said

-The attack involved 11 Shahed drones and injured 16 people according to local authorities.

–Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern groups of forces, said Russian forces were pressing ahead in their bid to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka

–Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, said the armed forces had recruited 385,000 people in 2023. “More than 1,600 people are signing a contract with the armed forces every day,” Medvedev said in a video on social media.

–Ukraine is aiming to increase domestic manufacture of its own drones, producing tens of thousands every month by the end of the year, Oleksandr Kamyshin, the minister who oversees Ukraine’s defence industry, told a NATO forum in Stockholm

-Lawmakers in Russia’s upper house of parliament unanimously approved a bill to revoke the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The legislation now only needs the signature of President Vladimir Putin to come into effect.

-Arms makers are reporting profits above market expectations as the United States and other Western countries replenish stocks of military equipment sent to Ukraine, Al Jazeera reports

-Speaking ahead of a meeting of European Union leaders, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that Europe “must not make the mistake” of weakening its common support for Ukraine.

(With agency inputs)

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Updated: 26 Oct 2023, 09:42 PM IST