Ukraine war briefing- Authorities order evacuation of previously liberated Kupiansk

Zelenskyy due to present ‘victory plan’ to EU leaders; Spain rounds up alleged sanctions-busting gang sending chemicals to Russia. What we know on day 966
See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverageWarren Murray and agenciesTue 15 Oct 2024 19.58 EDTShare Ukrainian authorities have ordered the mandatory evacuation of Kupiansk city in the north-eastern Kharkiv region as Russian forces press closer and officials face difficulty providing services through the winter. Kupiansk fell to Russian forces in the weeks after their February 2022 invasion, but was retaken by Ukrainian troops later that year. The Kharkiv regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said: “On the east bank of the Oskil River, which divides the city, we can no longer guarantee the restoration of electricity, heat and water supply due to constant shelling. All repair crews immediately come under Russian fire.” The order also applied to the town of Borova, further south and near the city of Izium.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited to present his “victory plan” to defeat Russia at a meeting of EU leaders on Thursday. The European Council president, Charles Michel, announced he had invited the Ukrainian president “to take stock of the latest developments of Russia’s war against Ukraine and present his victory plan”. Military support to Kyiv and strengthening Ukraine’s heavily damaged energy grid are on the table as leaders from the EU’s 27 countries meet in Brussels.
The US is “concerned” by reports of North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia in Ukraine, the White House national security council spokesperson, Sean Savett, said on Tuesday. If those reports were true it would signal a “new level of desperation for Russia”, Savett said.
Russia launched a drone attack on Kyiv late on Tuesday, top officials in the Ukrainian capital said. “Stay in shelters,” said Vitali Klitschko, mayor of the Ukrainian capital. Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said air defence was engaged in repelling the attack.
Alexei Moskalyov, a Russian man jailed for two years because his daughter drew an anti-war picture, was released on Tuesday. Moskalyov was greeted by human rights defenders and his daughter, Masha, who was 12 when she drew a picture showing Russian missiles raining down on a Ukrainian mother and child and the head of her school called the police. Moskalyov told OVD-Info, a Russian human rights project, of being put in a cramped cell infested by rats. “We were on our feet for 16 hours every day because the beds were fastened to the wall and the metal bench was so cold that it was impossible to sit on it.”
Spanish authorities said they arrested four people in Catalonia suspected of running a sanctions-busting commercial network after intercepting 13 tonnes of chemical products bound for Russia. Police and customs officials impounded the chemicals in a container in the port of Barcelona, Spanish national police said. Spanish authorities had in initial findings detected a company managed by “citizens of Russian origin” behind the scheme. The firm sent the goods to its Moscow-based subsidiary through shadow companies in countries such as Armenia or Kyrgyzstan, with the deliveries reaching Russia by land.
Four-fifths of Ukrainians said they supported a law banning Russia-affiliated religious groups in a survey released on Tuesday. The Ukrainian Orthodox church, which counted 6% of the respondents as followers, has for years faced accusations that it is a tool of Moscow’s influence and intelligence services in Ukraine. The church insists it officially broke from the Russian Orthodox church in May 2022, three months after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Russia will reduce its consular staff in Norway after a request from Oslo, the Russian embassy has said. The Russian mission said only two diplomats would remain in the consular section. The Russian consulates in Kirkenes, near the Russian-Norwegian border in the north, and in Barentsburg, a Russian mining community in the Arctic Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, announced they would be suspending their consular services. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Norway in April 2023 expelled 15 Russian embassy employees it suspected of spying. In response, Russia expelled 10 Norwegian diplomats from Moscow. Norway has closed its consulate in Murmansk in north-west Russia and now has a limited diplomatic presence, including a sharply reduced embassy staff in Moscow and a consulate in St Petersburg.
Russia’s Olympic chief, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, said he was stepping down to make way for the election of a replacement, citing “geopolitical challenges” facing Russian sport. Russia was banned from competing as a team at the Paris Olympics because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A few Russians were authorised by the International Olympic Committee to compete as neutrals after attempts to screen out anyone who had publicly supported the war in Ukraine or had links with Russia’s military.