Ukraine Russia live: Zelensky accuses North Korea of sending troops to Russia

Friedrich Merz, an opposition candidate for German chancellor, says he is open to supplying Ukraine with Taurus long-range missiles as the current government refuses to do so.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz is said to fear that Ukraine would use Taurus missiles to strike politically sensitive targets in Russia – which could throw Germany into hostilities with Russia.

But Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel – says he would consider supplying the missiles under certain conditions.

First, there should be an appeal to Russia to stop striking civilian targets in Ukraine.

If Putin refuses, Ukraine should be free to use all weapons delivered by Germany however they please.

“And the second step would be to supply the Taurus missiles. Then it is up to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to decide how far he wants to escalate this war,” Merz said according to N-TV.

Taurus is a German-Swedish cruise missile which has a range of over 500 kilometres (310 miles).

A Russian Tu-134 military plane was set on fire at a military airfield in the Orenburg region overnight between Saturday anf Sunday, Ukraine said.

The aircraft is used to “transport the leadership of the Russian defence ministry”, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR).

The plane burned to the ground at the Orenburg-2 military airfield, around 1,250 kilometres (780 miles) from the front line in Ukraine.

HUR has not claimed responsibility for the incident, but in sharing footage of the fire it said: “Every crime against the Ukrainian people will be duly punished,” the Kyiv Independent reported.

Ukraine has previously carried out strikes against airbases belonging to Russia’s air force.

A Ukrainian refugee says she is living in a “surreal nightmare” after she was refused permission to bring her two children to the UK.

Pressure is mounting on ministers to open a family reunion pathway for Ukrainians with temporary immigration status, after the rules were changed without warning in February. Charities say that the Home Office’s “restrictive rules and poor decision-making” are “tearing families apart”.

Maria Kondratska, who arrived in Britain just months before Russia’s full-scale invasion, is now appealing on human rights grounds after the Home Office refused her application for her son and daughter, aged 11 and 15, to be given refuge with her in Britain.

Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, a 27-year-old award-winning reporter, died in Russian detention last month, confirmed Ukrainian authorities.

“I have official documentation from the Russian side confirming the death of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who was illegally deprived of her liberty by Russia,” Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said in a statement.

“We have every reason to believe that her death was either the result of a deliberate murder or the result of the cruel treatment and violence to which she was subjected during her time in Russian captivity,” Ukrainian journalists and media professionals said in a statement condemning her death, reported CNN.

BBC director-general Tim Davie will warn that the retreat of its World Service due to funding cuts has helped Russia and China broadcast “unchallenged propaganda”.

On Monday afternoon, in a speech at the Future Resilience Forum, a non-partisan meeting attended by international political figures, Mr Davie will discuss the global importance of the BBC World Service, which operates across more than 40 languages.

While addressing the war in Ukraine and unrest in the Middle East, Mr Davie is expected to say: “This is a critical moment of challenge for stability and democracy worldwide.”

Ukraine is considering ceding its territory to Russia to end the war, reported German news outlet Der Spiegel, citing official sources.

A key condition to Volodymyr Zelensky’s peace formula so far involves Russia forfeiting the invaded territory. But now the Ukrainian officials are holding discussion on letting go the aim of full restoration of occupied areas, reported the German outlet.

“We believed that victory had to mean the unconditional surrender of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s Russia,” the source reportedly said.

Factors forcing Ukraine to consider this option include the uncertainty of outcome in US presidential election as well as advancement by Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.

“Whether it’s (former US president Donald) Trump or (vice president Kamala) Harris, the Americans will slowly but surely withdraw,” the official told Der Spiegel.

Earlier, Trump had criticised American aid to Ukraine, pledging to get US “out” of the conflict if re-elected.

Russian forces have advanced near Kupyansk, Donetsk City, and Robotyne in Ukraine recently, a US war think tank has said.

Russia has recaptured almost two dozen settlements in Kursk Oblast as of October 11, Russian military sources have claimed, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Meanwhile, the ISW said Ukrainian forces partially regained lost positions, Ukrainian military officials reported, amid ongoing intense Russian counterattacks on Sunday.

On 5 October, videos showed a drone flying near Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine before it was shot down by another jet briefly flying alongside it.

Initial reports suggested it was either a Russian jet taken down by the Ukrainian air force or a Russian jet losing control and being shot down by Moscow.

However, the drone that fell down was no ordinary weapon. It was later identified as a stealth S-70 Okhotnik-B, also known as “Hunter”, one of Russia’s most advanced stealth drones, designed to accompany an Su-57 fighter jet.

Some 30,415 people including nearly 8,000 children have been evacuated from areas bordering Ukraine due to shelling and attacks, Russia’s human rights commissioner said in remarks published on Monday.

Tatyana Moskalkova, the commissioner, told news outlet Argumenty I Fakty in an interview that the evacuees have been placed in nearly 1,000 temporary accommodation centres across Russia, reported Reuters.

Ukraine, subjected to an invasion from Russia since February 2022, has retaliated with shelling and other attacks on Russia’s border regions, with the military saying the strikes target infrastructure key to Moscow’s war effort.

Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into the Kursk region in August, taking control of dozens of settlements and holding most positions since.

Ms Moskalkova said she had received appeals regarding more than 1,000 Russian citizens from Kursk, whose whereabouts are unknown and who were said to have been taken by Ukrainian forces.

Reuters could not independently verify Moskalkova’s reports. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

Both sides deny targeting or imprisoning civilians but thousands have died in the war, the vast majority of them Ukrainians.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman urged international organizations Sunday to respond to a claim that several Ukrainian prisoners of war were executed in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv had launched an incursion in August.

DeepState, a Ukrainian battlefield analysis site close to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, said that Russian troops shot and killed nine Ukrainian “drone operators and contractors” on 10 October after they had surrendered.

Dmytro Lubinets said on Telegram that he sent letters to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross regarding the case, calling it “another crime committed by the Russians.”