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The war in Ukraine, which broke out in February 2022 with Russia's invasion of its neighbor, shows no sign of ending as both sides intensify attacks to gain control of contested regions.
Read our latest updates here. For all our coverage, visit our Ukraine war page.
Finland hopes China will help end Russia's invasion of Ukraine
U.S. should support both Israel and Ukraine: Army secretary
China's Belt and Road Forum to illuminate scope of Russia ties
Russia-North Korea nuclear cooperation danger to all: Estonian president
From drones to cyberattacks, technology is shaping Ukraine conflict
Russia's war bloggers hold potential spark of further unrest
Special report: Russia buying civilian drones from China for war effort
Note: Nikkei Asia decided in March 2022 to suspend its reporting from Russia until further information becomes available regarding the scope of the revised criminal code. Entries include material from wire services and other sources.
Here are the latest developments:
Saturday, Oct. 28 (Tokyo time)
2:20 a.m. Russia has named a new chief of the nation's aerospace forces, Tass reports, citing the Ministry of Defense.
Colonel-General Viktor Afzalov replaces army General Sergei Surovikin, who was relieved of his duties after mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin's failed June mutiny. Surovikin was seen as an ally of Prigozhin.
Before his appointment, Afzalov served as acting commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces, Tass reports.
Friday, Oct. 27
9:37 p.m. Russia's central bank raises its key interest rate by a higher than expected 200 basis points to 15%, hiking borrowing costs for the fourth consecutive meeting to try to tamp down inflation. The ruble jumped to a more than six-week high against the dollar after the decision.
The central bank has now raised rates by 750 basis points since July. Companies are passing on higher costs driven by factors like a weak ruble and labor shortages on to consumers, the central bank says.
"The Bank of Russia has effective tools to reduce inflation towards target," Elvira Nabiullina, the central bank governor, says in a briefing. "At recent meetings, we raised the key rate by tangible steps and will be ready to do this again if we do not see signs of a sustainable slowdown in inflation and a cooling of inflation expectations."
3:30 p.m. The European Union's strategy relating to the Ukraine war "has failed" and the bloc should create an alternative plan, as the Ukrainians will not win on the front line, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told state radio. Speaking in Brussels on the sidelines of an EU summit, Orban said there was a "big battle," especially over support for Ukraine. Orban said he saw no reason for Hungary to send its taxpayers' money to support Ukraine. "Today, everybody knows but they do not dare to say it out loud, that this strategy has failed. It's obvious that this will not work ... the Ukrainians will not win on the front line," he said.
7:30 a.m. The U.S. has "information that the Russian military has been actually executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders," White House spokesperson John Kirby tells reporters. "We also have information that Russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units if they seek to retreat from Ukrainian artillery fire."
3:00 p.m. The latest U.S. security assistance package for Ukraine is valued at up to $150 million and includes AIM-9M missiles for air defense, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and more, the U.S. Department of Defense announces. "The United States has committed more than $44.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden Administration," including $43.9 billion since the war began, the Pentagon says in a fact sheet detailing the aid.
In a thank-you tweet, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy writes: "As winter approaches, strengthening air defense is critical to protect Ukrainian cities and infrastructure."
12:30 a.m. Representatives of the Palestinian militant group Hamas have arrived in Moscow and met with Russian officials, the foreign ministry says.
Hamas senior political leader Abu Marzouk had contacts with the Russian side "for the immediate release of foreign hostages located in the Gaza Strip, and issues related to ensuring the evacuation of Russian and other foreign citizens from the territory of the Palestinian enclave were also discussed," RIA Novosti reports, citing the foreign ministry.
Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for the Middle East, said Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would visit Moscow "soon" for talks with Putin.
As with the Ukraine war, the war between Israel and Hamas has widened divisions in the United Nations Security Council. On Wednesday, Russia joined China in vetoing a U.S.-backed draft Security Council resolution that called for a creation of a humanitarian corridor in Gaza. The U.S. and U.K. similarly opposed a Russian-backed text urging a broader ceasefire.
Thursday, Oct. 26
11:40 a.m. South Korea, Japan and the U.S. strongly condemned the supply of arms and military equipment by North Korea to Russia and said they had confirmed "several" deliveries of such weapons, a joint statement issued on Thursday says.
8:50 a.m. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says a Russian drone attack early on Wednesday in the western Khmelnitsky region had probably targeted the area's nuclear power station. In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said the attack provided yet more evidence that tougher sanctions were needed against Russia. "It is most likely that the target for these drones was the Khmelnitsky nuclear power station," he said, adding, "The shock wave from the explosion shattered windows, including on the nuclear power station's premises." The attack injured 20 people.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, said blasts from the drone attack did not affect the plant's operations or its connection to the grid. Power was temporarily cut to some off-site radiation monitoring stations.
2:40 a.m. Russia's President Vladimir Putin has overseen a training exercise for the country's nuclear deterrent involving land, sea and air capabilities, the Kremlin says.
The ground-based Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from a test site in Kamchatka in the Russian Far East, according to the Kremlin. The exercise also involved a missile launched from a submarine in the Barents Sea and air-launched cruise missiles fired by a Tupolev Tu-95 bomber, the Kremlin says.
Putin, as commander in chief of the Russia's armed forces, joined the exercise from the Kremlin's situation center and listened to reports by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, Tass reports.
"Under your leadership, training was conducted on managing the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, during which the tasks of delivering a massive nuclear strike by strategic offensive forces in response to an enemy nuclear strike were worked out," Tass quotes Shoigu as telling Putin.
Wednesday, Oct. 25
11:11 p.m. Ukraine aims to produce tens of thousands of drones every month by year-end as it ramps up its defense industry output despite the challenge posed by Russian attacks, Reuters reports by citing the minister for strategic industries.
Drones have played a central role in the 20-month-old Russia-Ukraine war, used in huge numbers by both sides for surveillance and attack. Kyiv has focused on increasing its output, but has relied heavily on foreign-made drone engines.
6:00 a.m. Russian forces pounded the shattered eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka on Tuesday, but heavy losses forced them to switch to air attacks and rely less on ground advances, Ukrainian officials say. Russia has focused on advancing in the east -- in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk -- after failing to move on Kyiv in the early days of its invasion, launched in February 2022. Ukraine in June undertook a counteroffensive, capturing villages in the east and south, but at a much slower pace than a rapid advance through the northeast a year ago.
3:30 a.m. Russia scrambled fighter jets to intercept two U.S. bombers and a drone that approached Russia's northern and southern borders on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry reports. According to the ministry, two U.S. B-1B strategic bombers approached the border over the Baltic Sea and a Global Hawk drone approached the border over the Black Sea. As with the fighter jets, a single Su-37 approached in both cases and the U.S. bombers and the drone pivoted away from the Russian border, the ministry said.
Tuesday, Oct. 24
6:30 p.m. The Russian ruble soared to a six-week high past 94 to the dollar on Tuesday, supported by higher oil prices and increased foreign currency sales by exporters as a month-end tax period approached. By 0819 GMT, the ruble was up 1.1% against the dollar at 93.42, its strongest since Sept. 12. Month-end tax payments usually see exporters convert foreign exchange revenues to pay domestic liabilities. Additionally, President Vladimir Putin's decree on mandatory FX sales came into force last week, requiring 43 groups of exporters to repatriate 80% and sell 90% of FX revenues. The ruble has strengthened from beyond 100 to the dollar since the decree was first announced.
12:30 a.m. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has submitted Sweden's NATO accession bid to his country's parliament for ratification, the presidential office says, bringing the Scandinavian country closer to joining the alliance. Stockholm ended its longtime policy of neutrality following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year
Erdogan vowed in July to remove his objections to Sweden joining the bloc, but the process has been held up by persistent concerns in Ankara that Stockholm has not done enough to counter terrorism and Islamophobia within its borders. Turkey and Hungary are the only two NATO members yet to approve Sweden's admission.
Monday, Oct. 23
7:00 p.m. The Kremlin reiterates that Russia had nothing to do with damage inflicted on a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia, known as the Balticconnector. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told a regular briefing that threats made toward Russia were unacceptable, when asked about comments by Latvia's president regarding Moscow's possible responsibility for the damage. Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said in an interview with LTV's "Today's Question" last Thursday that NATO should opt to close the Baltic Sea to ships if Russia were proven responsible for the damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline.
6:30 p.m. A Russian-American journalist who stands accused of breaking Russia's law on foreign agents had her pre-trial detention extended on Monday until Dec. 5. Alsu Kurmasheva is a Prague-based journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is funded by the U.S. Congress and designated by Russia as a foreign agent, meaning it gets foreign funding for activity deemed to be political. Kurmasheva's lawyer Edgar Matevosyan told Reuters he considered the Kazan court's decision "too harsh" and said he intended to appeal it. Under the ruling, she is to be held in a pre-trial detention center in Kazan.
6:30 a.m. Russian forces aiming to contain a four-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive maintained unrelenting pressure on the shattered town of Avdiivka in the east and intensified shelling in the southern area of Kherson. The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, in its evening report, said Ukrainian forces repelled nearly 20 Russian attacks around Avdiivka, its buildings now largely reduced to shells. Russian air strikes hit nearby villages, it said. Avdiivka has become a watchword for resistance, viewed as the gateway to recapturing the Russian-held city of Donetsk and the rest of Donbas, comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Sunday, Oct. 22
9:40 p.m. Russia's Gazprom will supply extra gas to Hungary through the coming winter and will also provide China with an additional 600 million cubic meters this year on top of its contractual obligations, TASS news agency quotes its boss, Alexei Miller, as saying. Hungary is the only member of the European Union whose leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has maintained friendly ties to Putin since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It is also a member of NATO. Miller said, "We regularly supply additional volumes to the Chinese market. Moreover, we have been doing this for several years now. "
6:00 a.m. Two missiles strike a postal distribution center, killing six people in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, according to regional prosecutors, quoted by Ukraine's public broadcaster.
Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Synehubov, meanwhile, says 14 people are injured in the attack, including several in serious condition. "This is strictly a civilian site," Synheubov says. "The Russians have inflicted more terror on Kharkiv's peaceful population."
For earlier updates, click here.
