Ukraine-Russia warfare newest: Putin hosts Slovak PM in uncommon go to and vows ‘destruction’ after Kazan drone assault

Russian forces executed five Ukrainian prisoners of war, Ukraine’s Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said on Sunday.

Lubinets said on the Telegram messenger app that Russian troops shot the five unarmed soldiers after capturing them. He gave no details, but will report this fact to the UN.

“Russian war criminals who shoot Ukrainian prisoners of war should be brought before an international tribunal and punished with the most severe punishment provided for by law,” Lubinets said.

Russia did not immediately comment on the incident, but has previous denied committing war crimes.

Ukraine’s membership of NATO is “achievable”, but Kyiv will have to fight to persuade allies to make it happen, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Ukrainian diplomats in a speech on Sunday.

Ukraine has repeatedly urged NATO to invite Kyiv to become a member. The Western military alliance has said Ukraine will join its ranks one day but has not set a date or issued an invitation.

Moscow has cited the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO as one of the principal justifications for its 2022 invasion. Kyiv says membership in the Western alliance’s mutual defence pact, or an equivalent form of security guarantee, would be crucial to any peace plan to ensure that Russia does not attack again

“We all understand that Ukraine’s invitation to NATO and membership in the alliance can only be a political decision,” Zelensky told diplomats at a gathering in Kyiv. “Alliance for Ukraine is achievable, but it is achievable only if we fight for this decision at all the necessary levels.”

Zelensky said allies needed to know what Ukraine can bring to NATO and how its membership in the alliance would stabilise global relations.

Last week Zelensky urged European countries to provide guarantees to protect Ukraine after the war with Russia ends and said Ukraine would ultimately need more protection through membership of the alliance.

According to Ukraine’s Air Force, Russia launched 103 Iranian-made Shahed drones at its neighbor overnight into Sunday. Ukrainian air defense shot down 52 of the drones while another 44 failed to reach their targets, the force said in a statement, in a likely reference to electronic jamming.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that its forces had intercepted 42 Ukrainian drones launched overnight at Russian territory.

According to the ministry, 20 of those were over the Oryol region, where the local governor said a blaze tore through the oil terminal.Separately, Russian forces have continued grinding forward in Ukraine’s northeast, in addition to eking out gains near the eastern town of Kurakhove.

On Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that its troops had captured two northeastern settlements: Lozova in the Kharkiv region and Krasne in the Luhansk province. There was no immediate confirmation from Kyiv.

Two civilians died after Russia late on Saturday launched drones at Ukraine’s southern Kherson province, local Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin reported.

He said a man in his late 40s suffered fatal injuries after a Russian drone dropped explosives nearby. Hours later, a woman was found dead under rubble after another drone slammed into her house. In the Kharkiv region in the northeast, a Russian drone strike Sunday severely injured a 56-year-old man as he walked down a road in the city of Kupiansk, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov reported. He said the man would need to have at least one limb amputated as a result, but gave no further detail.

In the Kyiv suburb of Brovary, debris from a Russian drone sparked a fire late on Saturday on the roof of a 25-story tower block, according to regional Gov. Ruslan Kravchenko. There were no immediate reports of any casualties.

Ukrainian drones struck a major Russian fuel depot for the second time in just over a week on Sunday, according to a senior Russian regional official, as part of a “massive” cross-border attack on fuel and energy facilities that Kyiv says supply Moscow’s military.

The strikes came days after Russia launched sweeping attacks on Ukraine’s already battered energy grid, threatening to plunge thousands of homes into darkness as winter tightens its grip over the region, and as Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor nears the three-year mark.

A fire broke out at the Stalnoy Kon oil terminal in Russia’s southern Oryol region, local Gov. Andrey Klychkov said in a post on the Telegram messaging app, adding Russian forces downed 20 drones targeting “fuel and energy infrastructure” in the province.

Russian independent news outlet Astra shared video of what it said was an explosion at the site, showing a massive orange blaze lighting up the night sky. While the clip could not be independently verified, it was later shared by a Ukrainian security official who described it as footage from Oryol.

According to Klychkov, the local governor, the fire was extinguished hours later and did not cause casualties or “significant” damage.

Russia’s central bank has left its benchmark interest rate at 21%, holding off on further increases as it struggles to snuff out inflation fueled by the government’s spending on the war against Ukraine.

The decision comes amid criticism from influential business figures, including tycoons close to the Kremlin, that high rates are putting the brakes on business activity and the economy.

The central bank said in a statement that credit conditions had tightened “more than envisaged” by the October rate hike that brought the benchmark to its current record level.

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Ukraine’s air defences downed 52 of the 103 Russian drones launched overnight, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday.

The military said on Telegram that it had lost track of 44 drones, and another had left the territory of Ukraine to Belarus.

The military gave no information on the fate of the remaining drones.

However, they said that in Kherson, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions, private businesses and apartment buildings have been damaged by the Russian attack.

“Tentatively, without casualties,” the military added.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday that Russian forces had captured two villages in Ukraine – Lozova in Kharkiv region and Sontsivka in Donetsk region, Russian news agencies reported.

These battlefield reports have not been independently confirmed.

Jonah Leff told the U.N. Security Council that researchers on the ground examined remnants of four missiles from North Korea recovered in Ukraine in July and August, including one that had marks indicating it was produced in 2024.

“This is the first public evidence of missiles having been produced in North Korea and then used in Ukraine within a matter of months, not years,” he said.

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Moscow said it had downed 42 Ukrainian drones over five Russian regions overnight.

Twenty drones were shot down over the Oryol region, eight drones each were destroyed in the Rostov and Bryansk regions, five in the Kursk region and one over Krasnodar Krai, the ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

One attack triggered a fire at a fuel infrastructure facility in the village of Stalnoi Kon, said Andrei Klychkov, the governor of Oryol.

“Fortunately, thanks to the quick response, the consequences of the attack were avoided – the fire was promptly localised and is now fully extinguished. There were no casualties or significant damage,” he said.

It was the second week in a row where fuel infrastructure facilities in Oryol have been attacked.

The heads of the Rostov and Bryansk regions said there were no casualties or damage after the latest drone attacks.