Russia suffers heavy losses in failed tank counter-attack on Vuhledar

The Russian Orthodox Church on Friday called for an apology from Alla Pugacheva, the country’s most renowned pop singer who returned home this week, over her criticism of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Ms Pugacheva, for decades hugely popular in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, left the country for Israel along with her husband several weeks after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

In September of that year, she sparked widespread attention by both supporters and opponents of the conflict by saying that Russian soldiers were dying for “illusory goals” and that the country had become “a pariah.”

Vladimir Putin said that some Western weapons supplied to Ukraine were finding their way to the Middle East and falling into the hands of the Taliban.

Ukraine says it keeps tight control over any weapons supplied to it.

Reuters is reporting that President Zelensky is weighing up whether to hold presidential elections next spring, citing the country’s foreign minister. 

Elections cannot currently be held in Ukraine under martial law, which must be extended every 90 days and is next due to expire on November 15, after the normal date in October for parliamentary polls but before presidential elections which would normally be held in March 2024.

Mr Zelensky has previously said that voting could take place during wartime if partners shared the cost, legislators approved, and everyone got to the polls.

The Kremlin dismissed a Wall Street Journal report that US intelligence believed Russia’s Wagner mercenary group plans to provide Hezbollah with an air defence system, saying such talk was unfounded.

“We have already said that, de-facto, such a group [Wagner] does not exist,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked about the report, which cited unidentified US officials as saying that US intelligence thinks Wagner plans such a transfer.

“All of these musings are as a rule based on nothing and have no foundation,” Mr Peskov said when asked about the report.

Vladimir Putin plans to visit the “Russia” exhibition in Moscow at some point, the Kremlin said on Friday, an event at which a newspaper has suggested he may announce he will take part in next year’s presidential election.

The Kommersant newspaper reported last month that Putin, who has been in power as either president or prime minister since 1999, may use a visit to the exhibition to drop a hint that he is going to take part in the 2024 contest.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the timing of Putin’s visit to the exhibition would be announced in due course.

Nearly two years on from the start of the Ukraine war, The Telegraph’s Dominic Nicholls says Russia is heading for an inflection point when the conflict has an impact on the home front regardless of the battlefield.

Russia has dismissed new US sanctions over the war in Ukraine, saying that the United States would never defeat Moscow, while the boss of Russia’s fastest growing natural gas company quipped the sanctions were a badge of success.

The United States on Thursday targeted Russia’s future energy capabilities, sanctions evasion and a suicide drone that has been a menace to Ukrainian troops and equipment, among others, in sanctions on hundreds of people and entities.

“This is a continuation of the policy of inflicting as they call it – a strategic defeat on us,” Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, told Russian state television when asked about the new sanctions.

Russia launched 40 drones overnight in a “massive” attack on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure but over half of them were downed, officials said on Friday.

“Last night there were about 40 ‘Shaheds’. More than half of them were shot down,” President Zelensky said in a post on social media.

Russia has used hundreds of Iranian-made self-detonating Shahed drones to attack targets across Ukraine since the start of the conflict.

Ukrainian intelligence has claimed that the purposeful spread of fake news helps to gauge ‘reactions of individuals, the elite and the media’, writes James Kilner.

The Kremlin spread a rumour that Vladimir Putin had died to test his popularity among the Russian public, Ukraine has claimed.

Andrii Yusov, a Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman, said that a report last week by a Russian Telegram channel on the alleged demise of the president was a ploy by Moscow intended to help it tighten domestic control.

“In this way, the empire, which is built on the work of the secret services, learns how to continue to rule,” he told Ukrainian media.

The Telegram channel, General SVR, reported on Oct 27 that Putin had died and that body doubles were representing him in public.

It claimed the Russian president’s body was being stored in a freezer after his alleged demise.

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Kyiv said its air defence systems had downed two dozen Russian drones and a missile overnight, as concern grows over increased strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure through winter.

“On the night of November 3, 24 Shahed-136/131 attack UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] and one guided missile were destroyed,” Ukrainian presidential advisor Andriy Yermak said.

Ukraine faces a second winter of lengthy power outages amid relentless Russian attacks that have left parts of the energy system more vulnerable than a year ago.

The Republican-led lower chamber of US Congress passed a $14 billion aid package for Israel on Thursday, defying President Joe Biden’s request to also include more money for Ukraine and other pressing priorities.

The bill, which diverts funding budgeted to the US tax collection agency, is almost certain to fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate, while Biden has also threatened to veto it.

The White House has requested a larger, multifaceted package of support for both Israel and Ukraine, as well as humanitarian aid for Gaza and additional funding for US border-related projects.