Ukraine says 170,000 Russian troops deployed in Donetsk

The energy ministers of the Group of Seven nations issued a joint statement condemning Russia's attacks on Ukraine's energy system. They also said the G7 will support Ukraine's energy needs.

"Russia's recent attacks on Ukraine's natural gas infrastructure have created risks to communities and human lives, weakening civilian infrastructure and the energy security of the Ukrainian people," the ministers said.

In recent weeks, both Ukraine and Russia have intensified attacks on each other's energy infrastructure.

At least five people were killed and two others were injured when their vehicle hit a landmine in a forest in the Zhytomyr region of northern Ukraine.

The explosion occurred in a border area near Belarus when the vehicle drove over an explosive device in a minefield, according to a police statement on Facebook.

The victims, who were all men between the ages of 19 and 65, were killed instantly. Two others were hospitalized with injuries.

According to police, the civilians had been cutting wood near the Belarusian border, through which Russian forces entered Ukraine at the beginning of Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Belarus remains a close ally of Russia in the war. Fearing further attacks from the north, Ukraine has heavily mined sections of the border area.

The police reiterated that warning signs are in place and civilians are prohibited from entering within 30 kilometers of the state border.

The United Nations says 2025  has been more deadly for civilians in Ukraine than last year, with a 30% increase in casualties so far. 

Drone attacks caused a third of all recorded civilian deaths and injuries.

"This is increasingly a technological war, a drone war," Matthias Schmale, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, said.

"Apart from the terror of war, the sirens, the attacks, it's also increasingly a fight for survival," with limited access to basic goods, he said.

He added Russia's near-daily airstrikes on Ukrainian energy sites are also concerning as a colder winter looms.

"Destroying energy production and distribution capacity as winter starts clearly impacts the civilian population and is a form of terror," he said.

The UN's winter aid plan, targeting 1.7 million people with heating and cash support, is only half funded.

"My appeal to the international community, with all the other crises going on, don't forget Ukraine, the war is not over, and we need predictable funding," Schmale said. 

Poland reported that its warplanes intercepted a Russian reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea for the third time this week.

"The Polish pilots intercepted and identified the foreign aircraft and then escorted it in accordance with NATO procedures," and the airspace over Poland was not violated,  the Polish Armed Forces High Command wrote on X.

It posted a picture of an Ilyushin Il-20 aircraft that was escorted out of the area by two Polish MiG-29 fighter jets.

"This is already the third such situation this week, confirming the increasing activity of Russian aviation in the Baltic region," the military said.

NATO's eastern members remain on high alert after Russian jets and drones violated Estonian and Polish airspace in September.

Russia has deployed around 170,000 troops in the eastern Ukraine Donetsk region, focusing on the city of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Speaking to the media in Kyiv, he described the situation as "difficult," but denied Russian claims that the city is fully surrounded.

"There are Russians in Pokrovsk," Zelenskyy said. "They are being destroyed, gradually destroyed, because, well, we need to preserve our personnel."

The battle for the city marks one of Russia's largest offensives in months, as President Vladimir Putin seeks to demonstrate military gains.

Putin is trying to persuade the United States, which wants him to seek a peace deal, that Ukraine can't hold out against Russian military superiority.

Ukraine, facing troop shortages, has previously withdrawn from cities to preserve its forces.

But it has held out in Pokrovsk despite more than a year of intense fighting.

Ukraine's security chief said on Friday that more than 160 successful strikes have targeted Russia’s oil extraction and refining facilities so far this year.

Lt. Gen. Vasyl Maliuk, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, said the attacks have hit six refineries, two oil terminals, three depots, and nine pumping stations since January. He said the strikes caused a more than 20% fuel deficit in Russia, shut down 37% of refining capacity, and led to fuel shortages in 57 regions, prompting Moscow to ban gasoline exports until year-end.

"Clearly, we are not stopping at these achievements," Maliuk said.

Western analysts say the strikes — dubbed "Ukrainian sanctions" by some in Kyiv — have hurt Russia's energy sector but stopped short of crippling it.

According to a review by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Ukrainian drones have hit 16 major refineries — about 38% of Russia’s refining capacity — though most resumed operations within weeks thanks to idle capacity and fuel reserves.

Ukraine has handed over a captured Russian soldier to Lithuania for trial on war crimes charges, calling the move a "historic" first since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said on Friday that the soldier, who served in Russia's military police, was captured near the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region. 

Kravchenko said the extradition marks "an important precedent for the entire international justice system," sending a message that "no war criminal will be able to hide from justice in any country of the free world."

The Lithuanian prosecutor general's office said the country's law enforcement officers had cooperated with Kyiv on the case.

"It is suspected that together with other Russian soldiers, the suspect not only guarded the illegally detained civilians and prisoners of war but also participated in their beating and torture," prosecutors said.

The torture allegedly involved "imprisoning the victims in a metal safe, suffocating them until unconsciousness, hanging them with tied hands, pouring cold water on them in freezing weather, and traumatising with electric shocks."

A court in Vilnius has ordered that he remain in custody for at least three months pending trial.

A Russian airstrike on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy has injured 11 people overnight, including four children, local authorities said.

The strikes hit a residential high-rise and infrastructure facilities, according to an online message posted by emergency officials on Telegram.

Regional governor Ihor Kalchenko said a railway depot was also hit, destroying several train cars and damaging nearby buildings.

Sumy, which borders Russia, has been repeatedly targeted by drone and missile attacks since the start of the war.

The Kremlin has dismissed a Financial Times report claiming that a Russian memo led the US to cancel a planned Budapest summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that only official statements from Russia’s Foreign Ministry and the US State Department should be regarded as reliable, not media reports.

The Financial Times reported that Washington called off the meeting after Moscow sent the memo, which restated its hardline demands on Ukraine.

Cheng Li-wun, the new chairwoman of Taiwan's largest opposition party the Kuomintang (KMT), has told DW that Russian President Vladimir Putin should not be considered a dictator, describing him instead as "a president elected through democratic votes."

She added, "Pinning that label on him is unreasonable and unfair." 

Vladimir Putin has steadily dismantled Russia’s democratic institutions, jailing or exiling political opponents and silencing independent media. Multiple critics and political rivals, including Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov, have died under suspicious circumstances. He also changed the constitution to "reset" presidential term limits, allowing him to potentially stay in power until 2036.

Putin also directly ordered Russia's full invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — framing it as a "special military operation." Criticizing the move and even labeling it as a war is against the law in Russia, with many journalists jailed for allegedly "discrediting" the nation's military.

When asked whether Putin alone held the power to decide on war, Cheng rejected the premise, saying it was "an extremely complex international situation."

"Back then, NATO promised Russia it wouldn't expand eastward," she said. "But NATO broke its promise and expanded eastward again and again, right up to Russia's doorstep. That is the core, fundamental reason why war broke out in Ukraine today."

The invasion of Ukraine sounded alarm bells in Taiwan, which China sees as a breakaway province. Taipei leaders fear that China might follow the example set by Russia and launch a military invasion of the island. Cheng's KMT advocates engagement with Beijing and favors cross-strait dialogue. It opposes Taiwan's independence but does not support unification under Beijing's terms.

The United States canceled a planned summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest after Moscow sent Washington a memo restating hard-line demands on Ukraine, according to a UK media report.

The cancellation followed a tense phone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Afterward, Rubio told Trump that Russia was showing no willingness to negotiate. "Trump was not impressed with their position," one source said.

Earlier this month, Trump and Putin had agreed by phone to meet in the Hungarian capital to discuss ending Russia's war in Ukraine. Days later, Russia's Foreign Ministry sent the memo underlining demands to address what Putin calls the "root causes" of his three-and-a-half-year invasion, three people familiar with the matter said. 

It outlined conditions that included Ukrainian territorial concessions, a steep reduction of its armed forces, and guarantees that it would never join NATO.

Despite describing his October 16 call with Putin as "very productive," Trump reportedly grew irritated when the Russian leader boasted of battlefield gains near Kupiansk and the Oskil River.

After the summit’s cancellation, Trump imposed new sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil producers and criticized Putin for testing nuclear weapons rather than pursuing peace.

A Russian power plant in the Oryol region was hit by Ukrainian drones overnight, regional authorities said on Friday.

Governor Andrey Klychkov wrote on Telegram that debris from an intercepted drone fell on the facility, causing power outages and heating disruptions in parts of the city of Oryol.

The Russian Telegram channel Astra reported additional Ukrainian attacks on an electrical substation in Vladimir and a refinery near Yaroslavl on the Volga River.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces intercepted 130 Ukrainian drones overnight.

In response, Russian air strikes targeted the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy, where local officials said 10 combat drones struck within one hour. Regional governor Oleh Hryhorov reported that a residential building and other civilian sites were hit, injuring at least two people.

Ukrainian railway depots in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions were also damaged, officials said.

Welcome to DW's coverage of the latest developments in the Russian war on Ukraine.

The UK's Financial Times is reporting that the US called off a planned Trump-Putin summit in Budapest after Moscow restated its hardline demands on Ukraine in a memo.

The head of Taiwan's main opposition party told DW that Vladimir Putin is not a dictator and blamed NATO's expansion for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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