Ukraine war live: Drones wound Russian firefighters as G7 ministers pledge support

Ukraine’s air defence units shot down 31 Russian drones overnight on Sunday.

Russian drones were shot down over 13 regions, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Sunday morning according to Ukrainska Pravda.

A total of 49 drones and two missiles were detected and tracked by Ukrainian forces. Another 13 Russian drones were “locationally lost” and that two had flown into neighbouring Belarus, Reuters reported.

The two Iskander-M ballistic missiles were fired from occupied Crimea.

Russia is testing the readiness of a missile unit that forms part of its strategic nuclear forces, the defence ministry has said – with Russian officials having repeatedly raised the spectre of nuclear war over the West’s support for Ukraine.

The drill involves a unit equipped with Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles which are capable of reaching US cities and can be equipped with multiple nuclear warheads, a reminder to the world that Russia possesses the world’s largest atomic arsenal. Troops are practising moving the missiles in the field over distances of up to 60 miles (100 kilometres) under camouflage and protecting them against air attack and enemy sabotage groups, the ministry said.

The test is taking place in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, in the same week that Nato conducted its annual nuclear exercise and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky unveiled his “victory plan” for the war.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday he could not confirm reports on North Korea sending troops to Russia to be deployed in the war in Ukraine, but added that it would be concerning if true, reported Reuters.

On Friday, South Korea’s spy agency said that North Korea had sent 1,500 special forces troops to Russia’s Far East for training and acclimatisation at local military bases, for likely deployment for combat in the war in Ukraine.

The U.N. human rights chief warned Thursday that the world is at an especially dangerous moment in history, with disregard and disrespect for international law “reaching a deafening crescendo.”

Volker Türk said conflicts are spreading and intensifying and humanitarian and human rights laws are being “trampled amid broad impunity.”

He was sharply critical of Israeli authorities for allowing Palestinians in Gaza to reach “catastrophic levels of hunger” but also cited human rights violations in Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti and Myanmar — and said he could name many other conflicts.

The U.N. high commissioner for human rights spoke about this critical moment “for human life, for human rights and for the stability and prosperity” of countries to reporters Thursday and in a briefing to the General Assembly’s human rights committee on Wednesday.

Türk said the reason the world is in such a crisis of conflicts and violations of international law is because the international structures that were painstakingly built after World War II and the Holocaust to protect human rights and prevent atrocities are starting to erode.

“Then, we have to be very worried because the erosion leads to more erosion,” and if civilian casualties are at the edge of being accepted in conflicts, “and you sort of get used to the fact that war is the answer to everything, I fear for the world — and I fear for human rights in particular,” he said.

French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot has said a Russian victory over Ukraine would “precipitate the international order towards chaos” on Saturday.

He was in Kyiv for a visit on 19 October to reaffirm France’s support for Ukraine.“A Russian victory would consecrate the law of the strongest and precipitate the international order towards chaos,” Mr Barrot said, standing alongside his counterpart Andrii Sybiha.

On Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s victory plan, Mr Barrot said: “We support the victory plan because we have been alongside Ukraine for nearly 1,000 days.”

Mr Zelensky unveiled a five-point victory plan earlier this week, underscoring the test of allegiance facing Kyiv’s allies, declaring: “This plan doesn’t depend on Russian will, only on the will of our partners.”

Russia launched major air strikes on Ukraine overnight, targeting Kyiv and the western region of Lviv. At least 17 have been injured, including a rescue worker in the city of Kryvyi Rih in the eastern part of the country, officials said.

Ukraine’s interior ministry said on Telegram that Russia’s strikes also targeted the city of Kryvyi Rih, some 400 km southeast of Kyiv, injuring 17, including a rescue worker. Eight of the wounded were hospitalised.

A city administration building in Kryvyi Rih was left partially destroyed while multiple residential buildings and cars were damaged. A fire also damaged emergency services equipment.

Kyiv’s military administration said on the Telegram messaging app that around 10 drones were destroyed near the city. They added that there were no reports of destruction or injuries.

Ukraine’s capital saw two air alerts during the night, lasting about three hours in total.

Ukraine drone strikes targeted Moscow and the Ya M Sverdlov State Owned Enterprise in Dzerzhinsk city, Nizhny Novgorod region overnight, regional officials and Russian Telegram channels reported on Sunday.

The explosive manufacturer plant in Dzerzhinsk is one of the largest used by Russian forces in the war in Ukraine, and is subject to sanctions by the United States and the European Union.

Russian air defence units downed 110 Ukrainian drones over Russia, including one over Moscow, said the defence ministry. It added that eight Ukrainian drones were destroyed over Nizhny Novgorod.

Four firefighters received minor shrapnel wounds from a drone attack on an industrial zone in Dzerzhinsk city, the regional governor said.

A video purporting to show dozens of North Korean recruits lining up to collect Russian military fatigues and gear aims to intimidate Ukrainian forces and marks a new chapter in the 2 1/2-year war with the introduction of another country into the battlefield, Ukrainian officials said.

Mr Zelensky made the claim, without offering further details, a day after US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell said Washington and its allies were concerned by North Korea’s military support for Russia.

“From our intelligence, we’ve got information that North Korea sent tactical personnel and officers to Ukraine,” Mr Zelensky told reporters at the Nato headquarters in Brussels.

“They are preparing on their land 10,000 soldiers, but they didn’t move them already to Ukraine or to Russia.”

Mr Zelensky warned that any third country wading into the conflict, in this case North Korea, would be “the first step to a world war”.

Russia on Friday returned to Ukraine the bodies of 501 soldiers, Ukrainian authorities said, in what appeared to be the biggest repatriation of war dead since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Most of the soldiers were killed in action in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, mostly around the city of Avdiivka that Russian forces captured in February after a long and grueling battle, Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement.

Law enforcement agencies and forensic experts will identify the victims, who will then be handed to family members for burial, it said.