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The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EDT.
11:30 p.m.: Germany must avoid repeating with China the mistakes that it made in its relationship with Russia over recent years, the German foreign minister said Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.
Annalena Baerbock said Germany must face up to a “competition of systems” between countries that believe in international law and cooperation and authoritarian regimes.
“We must first of all learn from the mistakes of our Russia policy of recent decades,” Baerbock said at a foreign policy forum in Berlin organized by the Koerber Foundation think tank. “I say very clearly that one-sided economic dependence exposes us to political blackmail.”
“As far as Russia is concerned, that’s spilt milk now,” Baerbock said, acknowledging that Germany ignored warnings from eastern European partners about its dependence on Russian energy. “We must ensure that we don’t make such a mistake again, and that means that we will have to take account of this more strongly in our policy toward China.”
11 p.m.: Europe's largest land-based container terminal started operating near Hungary's border with Ukraine on Tuesday, aiming to increase shipments of Ukrainian grains via Hungary to Adriatic ports, Reuters reported.
The East-West Gate terminal, built at a cost of about $95.65 million, allows containers to be transferred between wide and standard gauge rail tracks as well as between trains and trucks.
It "will have a huge role in shipping Ukrainian grains," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a news conference in Fenyeslitke in eastern Hungary, adding the terminal would make shipping of Ukrainian agricultural goods more efficient.
The terminal is expected to handle 15,000 to 20,000 metric tons of grains per month.
10:30 p.m.: Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Tuesday she is convinced there is a "wide support" within the Parliament to build a fence on the Nordic country's border with Russia as proposed by the Finnish border guard officials.
The Finnish Border Guard had earlier suggested covering parts of the 1,340-kilometer border Finland shares with Russia, the longest of any European Union member, to help in preventing possible large-scale and illegal migration — a concern that has grown in Helsinki amid Russia's war in Ukraine.
Based on a risk analysis by border officials, the fence would be up to 260 kilometers long in total and cover areas that have been identified as potential risks for large-scale migration from Russia.
The main parts of the fence would be erected in southeastern Finland, where most border traffic to and from Russia takes place, but some sections are likely be built also around border stations in the north.
9:10 p.m.: Ukraine's state nuclear energy agency on Tuesday accused Russia of detaining two senior employees at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reported.
Energoatom called on International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi to secure the release of Oleg Kostyukov, the head of information technology, and Oleg Osheka, the plant's assistant general director.
Last week Energoatom said Russia detained and mistreated the plant's deputy director general for human resources, Valeriy Martyniuk.
In a statement released late Tuesday the IAEA, announced that Martyniuk had been released.
Grossi welcomed his release while expressing "deep concern" at the two new detentions at the nuclear plant.
8:27 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Moscow's widespread use of Iranian-made drones in recent attacks on his country was a symbol of the Kremlin's "military and political bankruptcy," Agence France-Presse reported.
"The very fact of Russia's appeal to Iran for such assistance is the Kremlin's recognition of its military and political bankruptcy," Zelenskyy said in his daily address.
But, he added, "strategically, it will not help them anyway."
"It only further proves to the world that Russia is on the path of defeat and is trying to draw someone else into its accomplices in terror," Zelenskyy said.
He didn't commit to a proposal from his Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, on Tuesday that Kyiv cut diplomatic ties with Iran.
8 p.m.: Diplomats said Tuesday that the United States, Britain and France have requested that the U.N. Security Council discuss the Iranian drone issue in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, VOA's U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer reported.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also told reporters that the Iranians “have not been truthful about this and deny providing weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine.”
Jean-Pierre said the United States will enforce sanctions on Russian and Iranian arms trade and “make it harder for Iran to sell these weapons to Russia.”
7:35 p.m.: A court in Russia on Tuesday rejected imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny's second appeal of a nine-year sentence, The Associated Press reported.
The 46-year-old dissident is serving the sentence, handed to him in March, on the charges of fraud and contempt of court, in a high-security prison.
Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe, was arrested in January 2021 upon returning from Germany, where he had been recuperating from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.
Russian authorities deny the charge. He was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for a parole violation that the West has called politically motivated.
In March, he was sentenced to nine years in a separate case on charges of embezzling money that he and his foundation raised over the years and of insulting a judge during a previous trial. Navalny has rejected the allegations as politically motivated. His first appeal was rejected in May.
6:57 p.m.: The European Commission on Tuesday unveiled its latest proposals to rein in skyrocketing EU energy prices caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Moscow's decision to cut off Europe's gas supply, Agence France-Presse reported.
As winter approaches, the EU's executive has been under intense pressure to tackle soaring heating bills for household and businesses, with some member countries loudly calling for an immediate gas price cap.
The commission's latest plan does not include the price cap given the opposition of Germany, which fears scaring off alternative suppliers that have stepped in to replace Russia as the bloc's main source of gas.
The commission's proposals will be taken up at a summit of EU leaders on Thursday. Diplomats warned that the discussions would be difficult because of a lack of ambition perceived by member states that still want a more direct answer to high prices.
6:23 p.m.: American WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner, whose appeal against a Russian jail term is to be heard next week, sent her supporters a message of thanks on Tuesday, her 32nd birthday, Reuters reported.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist was arrested on February 17 at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage and was sentenced on August 4 to nine years in a penal colony on drug smuggling charges. Her appeal is to be heard next Tuesday.
"All the support and love are definitely helping me," Griner was quoted as saying by her lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, who spent several hours with her in the Moscow pre-trial detention center where she is being held.
Griner pleaded guilty at her trial but said she had made an "honest mistake" and not meant to break the law. Cannabis is illegal in Russia for both medicinal and recreational purposes.
5:52 p.m.: The head of Germany’s national cybersecurity agency has been dismissed following reports of possible ties to Russian intelligence, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.
The ministry said that Interior Minister Nancy Faeser dismissed Arne Schoenbohm as head of the BSI agency following the allegations, which “damaged the necessary confidence of the public in the neutrality and impartiality” of his management, German news agency dpa reported.
Schoenbohm co-founded a cybersecurity group a decade ago that brings together experts from public institutions and the private sector. German media have reported that one of its members was a company founded by a former Russian intelligence agent, which the group said last week that it had thrown out.
The German government said over a week ago that it was investigating the reports comprehensively.
There is growing concern in Germany that the country’s critical infrastructure might be targeted by Russia because of Berlin’s support for Ukraine in the war.
5:10 p.m.: The Kremlin is refusing to confirm that the Russian military is using Iranian drones in its attacks on Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
Asked Tuesday whether Russia is using them to strike Ukrainian targets, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded: “We don’t have such information.”
Speaking in a conference call with reporters, he emphasized that “Russian equipment with Russian names is being used.”
The Iranian Shahed drones reportedly have been rebranded Geran-2 by Russia and used extensively to carry out strikes across Ukraine.
4:20 p.m.: A senior Ukrainian official says Russian attacks have damaged more than 400 infrastructure targets across Ukraine since early last week, The Associated Press reported.
The Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, Oleksii Chernyshov, said Tuesday that Russian missiles and Iranian-made drones have struck 408 Ukrainian targets since Oct. 10.
The targets include 45 energy facilities. He said that more than 180 civilian buildings were also struck.
Chernyshov insisted that Ukrainians will not be cowed by Moscow’s onslaught. He said that “such terrorist actions of the aggressor mobilize and harden us even more.”
3:05 p.m.: Damage to the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Europe was caused by powerful explosions, Danish police said on Tuesday, according to Reuters, echoing earlier findings into leaks that erupted in the network under the Baltic Sea and that have been blamed on sabotage.
In what a Swedish newspaper described as the first publicly released footage of damage to the system, film from a private drone appeared to show a gaping rupture in one pipe. Expressen reported a 50-meter section missing from one area of pipeline.
2:30 p.m.: The Russian-installed chief of the southern occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson on Tuesday said some civilians would be evacuated, citing what he said was the risk of an attack by Kyiv's forces, Reuters reported.
In a video statement, Vladimir Saldo said people in four towns would be moved away from the Dnipro river, given the risk that Ukrainian shelling could damage a nearby dam.
2:05 p.m.: Soldiers with Ukraine's 30th Mechanized Brigade say they have been hit from all sides around the key Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Russian forces have been making slow but steady progress in the area. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent Maryan Kushnir was with the Ukrainian troops and has this report from one of the hottest zones in the war.
1:45 p.m.: Ukraine has invited United Nations experts to inspect what it says are Iranian-origin drones used by Russia to attack Ukrainian targets in violation of a Security Council Resolution, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
Russia launched dozens of "kamikaze" drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on Ukraine on Monday, hitting energy infrastructure and killing five people in the capital Kyiv.
Two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface to surface missiles, in addition to more drones.
1:10 p.m.:
12:30 p.m.: NATO will deliver anti-drone air defense systems to Ukraine in the coming days, Reuters reported Tuesday.
The systems are to help the country defend itself against the wave of Iranian-made drones with which Russia is targeting critical infrastructure, the alliance's secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, said.
12:05 p.m.:
11:35 a.m.: As killer drones vie for supremacy over Ukraine, The Associated Press published this explainer:
They are precise, small in size, able to effectively penetrate air defenses when fired in groups and, above all, they’re cheap.
In Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, killer drones have cemented their reputation as a potent, cost-effective weapon that can seek out and destroy targets while simultaneously spreading the kind of terror that can fray the resolve of soldiers and civilians alike.
They’re also quickly surpassing missiles as the remote weapon of choice. Known as “the poor man’s cruise missile,” the flying death machines can flood any combat theater much more cheaply.
Russia’s unleashing of successive waves of the Iranian-made Shahed drones over Ukraine has multiple goals — taking out key targets, crushing morale, and ultimately draining the enemy’s war chest and weapons as they try to take them out.
11:05 a.m.:
10:55 a.m.: A United Nations commission found Russian forces were responsible for the “vast majority” of human rights violations in the early weeks of the war in Ukraine, including attacks on civilians that were potential war crimes, Reuters reported.
In a report on events in four northern provinces, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine found that Russian forces had indiscriminately shelled areas they were trying to capture and “attacked civilians trying to flee.”
It also found abuses committed by Ukraine, including two cases of people who were out of action who were shot, wounded or tortured.
The report covered events in Ukraine’s northern Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Sumy regions in late February and March 2022, following Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.
10:40 a.m.:
10:25 a.m.: Estonian lawmakers have declared Russia a "terrorist regime" over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and moves it has made since, including the illegal annexation of parts of Ukraine and thinly veiled threats by President Vladimir Putin concerning the possible use of nuclear weapons, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Members of the Riigikogu, Estonia's parliament, voted 88-0, with three abstentions, on October 18 in favor of the declaration, which says the country "will never recognize the violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine through aggression and sham referendums."
"The Riigikogu declares Russia a terrorist regime and the Russian Federation a country that supports terrorism, whose actions we must confront together. The Riigikogu calls on the international community to adopt similar declarations," a statement said.
"Putin's regime, with its threats of nuclear attack, has turned Russia into the biggest danger to peace both in Europe and in the whole world," it added.
10:10 a.m.: A senior Ukrainian official says Russian attacks have damaged more than 400 infrastructure targets across Ukraine since early last week, The Associated Press reported.
The Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, Oleksii Chernyshov, said Tuesday that Russian missiles and Iranian-made drones have struck 408 Ukrainian targets since October 10.
The targets included 45 energy facilities. He said that more than 180 civilian buildings were also struck.
Chernyshov insisted that Ukrainians will not be cowed by Moscow’s onslaught. He said that “such terrorist actions of the aggressor mobilize and harden us even more.”
9:45 a.m.:
9:30 a.m.: Russia's Duma has indefinitely stopped broadcasting live plenary sessions to protect information from "our enemy", a leading lawmaker said on Tuesday as parliament's lower house debated topics related to the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported.
"Those questions that require sensitive discussion in a narrow professional circle should not be the property of our enemy," Vladimir Vasilyev, head of the dominant United Russia faction, told the military news channel Zvezda TV.
The move meant there was no live broadcast on the Duma website or social media of Tuesday's session, where deputies were due to consider a report from Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin on the process of moving civilians to Russia from the Russian-occupied Kherson region of Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces are waging a counter-offensive.
They were also due to consider a draft law that would allow the Defense Ministry to mobilize people who have committed grave crimes into the armed forces - repealing an existing ban on calling up criminals.
9:15 a.m.: Amid a chaotic call-up, some Russian draftees are returning home In body bags, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Now Russian President Vladimir Putin says mobilization is ending.
9:00 a.m.: Ukraine's foreign minister said on Tuesday he was submitting a proposal to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to formally cut diplomatic ties with Tehran after a wave of Russian attacks using what Kyiv says are Iranian-made drones, Reuters reported.
Russia launched dozens of "kamikaze" drones on targets in Ukraine on Monday, striking energy infrastructure and killing four people in the capital of Kyiv.
Ukraine says the attacks were carried out with Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones, though Tehran denies supplying the drones.
8:50 a.m.:
8:35 a.m.: Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says Kyiv received 2 billion euros ($1.97 billion) in financial assistance from the European Union on Tuesday -- the first tranche of a 5-billion euro ($4.91 billion) EU package following Russia's unprovoked invasion, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
"The additional financial resource will help to cover urgent budgetary expenses, in particular for the social and humanitarian spheres," Shmyhal wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Shmyhal said Ukraine this year received a total of 4.2 billion euros ($4.13 billion) in macro-financial assistance from the EU.
8:20 a.m.:
8:05 a.m.: Estonia’s foreign minister says that sanctions against Russia still haven’t gone far enough, The Associated Press reported.
European Union countries so far have approved several packages of sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said Tuesday that the point of sanctions is to raise pressure to end the war, and the only person who can end the war at present is Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He argued that “as we have not reached that decision point, it means the sanctions have not reached the needed altitude.”
He didn’t specify what further sanctions should be imposed.
7:40 a.m.:
7:25 a.m.: Officials say two people have been killed in Russian missile attacks on Kyiv, The Associated Press reported.
The Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office said the fatalities occurred Tuesday morning as Moscow’s forces targeted the capital’s energy facilities.
The attacks left some 50,000 people in Kyiv without power, according to Antonina Antosha, spokesperson for the DTEK group, which operates of the affected infrastructure.
7:15 a.m.: Russian missiles crashed into infrastructure targets across Ukraine on Tuesday morning as Moscow stepped up what looked like a deliberate campaign to destroy electricity and water facilities before winter, Reuters reported.
The major of Zhytomyr, a city of 263,000 people, said the attacks had knocked out the power and water supply, and two explosions rocked an energy facility in the southeastern city of Dnipro, a city of nearly 1 million, causing serious damage, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a Ukrainian presidential aide.
In the southern Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv, a missile slammed into an apartment building killing at least one man, a Reuters witness said, and blasts were heard and smoke seen rising in Kyiv, the capital.
There were also reports of power facilities being targeted in the city of Kharkiv, a city with a pre-war population of 1.43 million people, close to the Russian border.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy accused Russia of terrorizing and killing civilians with the air attacks, which came a day after drone strikes on Kyiv and other cities killed at least four people.
7:05 a.m.:
6:50 a.m.: The Kremlin on Tuesday denied its forces had used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Ukrainian leaders have accused Russia of using Iranian Shahed-136 "kamikaze" drones, which explode on impact, in attacks on Kyiv. Several images posted on social media showed delta-wing drones similar to the Iranian model being used in an attack on the Ukrainian capital on Monday.
Asked if Russia had used Iranian drones in its campaign in Ukraine, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin did not have any information about their use.
6:35 a.m.:
6:20 a.m.: The European Commission is set to propose another set of emergency measures on Tuesday to tackle high energy prices, but draft proposals suggest they will not include an immediate cap on gas prices as EU countries remain split over the idea, Reuters reported.
The package, a draft of which was seen by Reuters, is the European Union's latest effort to address the spike in energy prices and fuel supply crunch that have gripped Europe after Russia cut gas flows since invading Ukraine.
6:10 a.m.: A senior U.S. intelligence official says Russia has been using up its stock of munitions “at an unsustainable rate,” The Associated Press reported.
Avril Haines, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said late Monday that Russian forces face a major supply shortage, especially of precision weapons such as cruise missiles.
Moscow is being forced to turn to countries such as Iran and North Korea for supplies and equipment, including UAVs, artillery shells and rockets.
International sanctions and export controls slapped on Russia are exposing its technological weaknesses, Haines said.
5:55 a.m.:
5:35 a.m.: Airstrikes cut power and water supplies in a repeatedly bombed Ukrainian city and pounded critical energy facilities elsewhere on Tuesday, part of what Ukraine’s president denounced as a quickening Russian campaign to drive Ukrainians into the cold and dark and making peace talks impossible, The Associated Press reported.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said nearly one-third of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed in the past week, “causing massive blackouts across the country.”
“No space left for negotiations with Putin’s regime,” he tweeted.
The campaign of strikes using missiles, drones and other weaponry has opened a new phase in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nearly eight-month invasion, as winter begins to bite. Even far from battlefields, water, heating and power are no longer certainties, with daily strikes reaching far into the country to slam utilities, sometimes faster than they can be repaired.
5:20 a.m.:
5:15 a.m.: Ukraine’s president says that over the past week Russian attacks have knocked out 30% of his country’s power plants, The Associated Press reported.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a tweet on Tuesday that the strikes have caused “massive blackouts across the country.”
Russian missiles have taken aim at Ukraine’s power grid since Oct. 10, in an apparent bid to deny Ukrainians heating in the approaching winter and eroding civilian morale.
Moscow has also been bombarding Ukrainian cities with Iranian-made drones that have smashed into apartment blocks.
The Institute for the Study of War think tank, in Washington, that Moscow is “prioritizing creating psychological terror effects on Ukraine over achieving tangible battlefield effects” amid Ukraine’s recent counteroffensive.
5:05 a.m.:
4:55 a.m.: Russians forces have abducted two more employees of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, The Associated Press reported.
State nuclear operator Energoatom wrote on its Telegram channel that two people were detained and taken to an unknown location: the head of the information technology service Oleh Kostiukov and the assistant general director of the station Oleh Osheka.
At the beginning of October, another person, the deputy general director for personal Valeriі Martyniuk, was abducted, and his whereabouts are still unknown.
The first one among top management of the plant to be seized was the plant’s director, Ihor Murashov. He was blindfolded by Russian forces on his way home from work, then released in early October after being forced to make false statements on camera.
Ukrainian technicians have continued running the plant after it was seized by Russian troops.
4:45 a.m.:
4:39 a.m.: South Korea's Hyundai Motor is considering a decision on its Russia operations that could include selling its manufacturing plant there, local media reported Tuesday, according to Reuters.
Hyundai Motor recently submitted to management a report analyzing the situation and future prospects in Russia, Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said, citing an unidentified auto industry source.
The newspaper said Hyundai's report includes the company's analysis of the scenarios and impact of the sale of the Russia plant, citing the difficult environment to conduct normal financial activities.
Hyundai Motor was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.
Many factories in Russia have suspended production and furloughed workers due to shortages of high-tech equipment because of sanctions and an exodus of Western manufacturers since Moscow sent armed forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Hyundai's operations at its St. Petersburg plant have been suspended since March.
4:10 a.m.:
3:55 a.m.: The U.S. Commerce Department said it has issued an order denying export privileges to Russian carrier Ural Airlines, citing what it said were ongoing export violations, Reuters reported.
The order terminates the right of Ural to participate in transactions subject to U.S. export regulations. President Joe Biden's administration has stepped up the crackdown against Russian airlines that followed the invasion of Ukraine, seeking to deny them access to spare parts, refueling and other services.
The department said Ural was still advertising flights within Russia as well as international flights from Moscow to Bishkek and Osh, Kyrgyzstan, and Kulyab, Tajikistan.
To date, Commerce has issued 10 orders against Russia and Belarus’s biggest airlines, said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod.
2:45 a.m.:
1:20 a.m.: Norwegian police said on Monday they arrested four Russians suspected of violating a photography ban, as the country fears possible sabotage at critical infrastructure sites, Agence France-Presse reported.
Norway is on high alert following several reports of mysterious drone sightings close to offshore oil and gas drilling platforms run by the major energy producer.
Monday's announcement came just days after Norwegian police arrested two Russians in two separate incidents last week. They were accused of illegally flying drones and taking photos or videos.
Officers arrested the four in northern Norway in a car with Russian license plates last Thursday and a day later placed them in custody for a week, said regional police.
12:30 a.m.: In its latest report, the Institute for the Study of War analyzed Russia’s drone and missile strikes against residential areas and critical infrastructure throughout Ukraine on Monday, noting that the five Shahed-136s drones that struck Kyiv had the effect of 15 artillery shells fired at a very large area.
12:10 a.m.: In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about the attacks Monday on Kyiv.
“The world can and must stop this terror. When we talk about Ukraine's need for air and missile defense, we are talking about real lives that are being taken by terrorists. We manage to shoot down some of the missiles and drones. In just 12 hours from 9 p.m. Sunday, 37 Iranian ‘Shaheds’ and several cruise missiles were destroyed,” he said. “But in order to guarantee the protection of our skies and to reduce the capabilities of Russian terrorists to zero, we need significantly more modern air defense systems and a greater missile provision for such systems.”
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
