Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, listens to Ivanovo Region Governor Stanislav Voskresensky at Moscow's Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Oct. 4, 2022. (AP)Russia Ukraine War Live News Updates, October 5: Ukraine’s presidential office on Wednesday said that at least five civilians have been killed and eight have been wounded by the latest Russian shelling, AP news agency reported. A statement on Wednesday says Russian troops used six Iranian suicide drones to strike the town of Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region, leaving one person wounded.
Meanwhile, Russia’s President Putin Wednesday signed a law formally annexing four Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, reports Reuters citing Russian news agency TASS. This comes hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address to the nation that Ukraine’s military had made major, rapid advances against Russian forces in the past week, taking back dozens of towns in regions in the south and east that Russia has declared annexed.
In other updates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Zelenskyy Tuesday and asserted that there can be no military solution to the Ukraine conflict, while also underlining that endangerment of nuclear facilities could have catastrophic consequences. Zelenskyy thanked PM Modi for India’s support of Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty and underlined that Ukraine will not conduct any negotiations with Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia must be part of investigations into last week's explosions in the two Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea.
"So far, from those news conferences which took place in Denmark and Sweden, we've heard disturbing statements that any cooperation with the Russian side is ruled out," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"We, obviously, will be waiting for some clarification on that as we believe that, definitely, participation of the Russian side in examining the damaged area and investigating what happened should be mandatory."
European governments and NATO say the two Nord Stream pipelines were attacked in an act of sabotage, which has further roiled global energy markets after months of tension and disrupted supplies since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin on Friday blamed the United States and its allies, allegations rejected by Washington. Russia has rejected what it called "stupid" theories in the West that it sabotaged the pipelines itself.
The operators of the two pipelines between Russia and Germany have said they are currently unable to inspect the damaged sections because of restrictions imposed by Danish and Swedish authorities, in whose waters the blasts and leaks occurred.
Nord Stream 2 AG, Switzerland-based operator of the second pipeline, said on Tuesday it will examine the condition of the leaking pipelines once a police investigation of the "crime scene" is completed and a cordon is lifted.
Later on Tuesday, Nord Stream AG, operator of the older Nord Stream 1 pipeline, said it had been told by Danish authorities that receiving the necessary permits to carry out an inspection could take over 20 working days. (Reuters)
The Kremlin on Wednesday said that comments by a Pentagon official on Tuesday that Ukraine may use U.S.-supplied equipment to strike targets in Crimea were extremely dangerous, and evidence of direct U.S. involvement in the Ukraine conflict.
In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the comments made by Laura Cooper, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian affairs, were "extremely dangerous" and are "evidence of direct U.S. involvement in the conflict". (Reuters)
Kyiv has dismissed as “worthless” the laws that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed on Wednesday formalising the annexation of four Ukrainian regions into Russia.
“The worthless decisions of the terrorist country are not worth the paper they are signed on," the head of the Ukraine President's Office, Andriy Yermak, said on Telegram messaging application. “A collective insane asylum can continue to live in a fictional world.” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier said in his nightly address that he has signed a decree rendering void any of Putin's acts designed to annex Ukrainian territories since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
“Any Russian decisions, any treaties with which they try to seize our land — all this is worthless,” Zelenskyy said at the end of his video address.
Russian energy company Gazprom says it is resuming gas supplies to Italy after reaching an agreement for transit through Austria.
The Russian government-controlled company had suspended delivery to Italy through Austria last week citing regulatory changes that came into effect in the Alpine nation last month.
In a statement on Wednesday, Gazprom said the operator of an Austrian pipeline has indicated its willingness to handle the transit of gas to Italy “making it possible to resume the supplies of Russian gas across Austria”. (AP)
Russian TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, famous for staging an on-air protest against Russia's war in Ukraine, confirmed she had escaped house arrest over charges of spreading fake news again, saying she had no case to answer.
'I consider myself completely innocent, and since our state refuses to comply with its own laws, I refuse to comply with the measure of restraint imposed on me as of 30 September 2022 and release myself from it,' she said on Telegram
Her lawyer said she was due to turn up to a hearing at 10 Moscow time (12.30 pm IST) at a Moscow district court, but that investigators had failed to establish her whereabouts. (Reuters)
A Russian-installed official in Ukraine's occupied Kherson region said on Wednesday that Russian forces in the region were regrouping for a counterattack, amid rapid Ukrainian gains in the region, state-owned news agency RIA reported.
RIA quoted Kirill Stremousov as saying that Russian forces were "conducting a regrouping in order to gather their strength and deliver a retaliatory blow". (Reuters)
An orthopaedic doctor from Andhra Pradesh, who was based in Ukraine when the conflict broke out with Russia, has appealed to the Indian government to help rescue his pet jaguar and panther left behind when he was forced out of the war zone.
Dr Gidikumar Patil, known as Jaguar Kumar after his unusual pets, says his topmost priority is to save the life of his “precious cats” – Yasha, a male rare “lep-jag” hybrid between a leopard and jaguar, and Sabrina, a female black panther.
The 42-year-old was forced to leave them behind with a local farmer when he left Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, a hotbed of the conflict in the region, in search of alternate sources of income.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed laws absorbing four Ukrainian regions into Russia, a move that finalizes the annexation carried out in defiance of international law.
Earlier this week, both houses of the Russian parliament ratified treaties making the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions part of Russia. The formalities followed Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums” in the four regions that Ukraine and the West have rejected as a sham. (AP)
Russia's President Putin signs law formally annexing four Ukrainian regions, reports Reuters citing Russian news agency TASS.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during his phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday, “emphasised the importance” of PM Modi’s recent comment to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the ongoing war.
Speaking to Putin on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Uzbekistan on Sept. 16, PM Modi called for dialogue and diplomacy, and told the Russian leader: “I know that today’s era is not an era of war, and I have spoken to you on the phone about this.” His comment was widely praised by Western leaders and media.
said: “Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Narendra Modi for India’s support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and also emphasized the importance of the Indian leader’s recent statement that now is not the time for war.”
➡️ Ukrainian forces captured the town of Dudchany on the west bank of the Dnipro River in their major advance in Kherson region, according to the Russian-installed head of the administration of occupied areas in the province.
➡️ Russian military bloggers described a Ukrainian tank advance through dozens of kilometers of territory along the west bank of the Dnipro. Kyiv has maintained almost complete silence about the situation in Kherson.
➡️ In the east, Ukrainian forces were advancing after capturing Lyman, the main Russian bastion in the north of Donetsk province. The pro-Russian leader in Donetsk said forces were forming a new defensive line around the town of Kreminna.
➡️ Russia has sacked the commander of its Western military district, news outlet RBC reported, after battlefield reverses.
➡️ US President Joe Biden told Zelenskiy that Washington will provide Kyiv with $625 million in new security aid, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers, the White House said. (Reuters)
Washington's decision to send more military aid to Ukraine poses a threat to Moscow's interests and increases the risk of a military clash between Russia and the West, said Anatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to the United States.
"We perceive this as an immediate threat to the strategic interests of our country," Antonov said on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday.
"The supply of military products by the US and its allies not only entails protracted bloodshed and new casualties, but also increases the danger of a direct military clash between Russia and Western countries." (Reuters)
Japan will reopen its embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday, the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement.
Japan temporarily closed its embassy in the capital on March 2 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on phone, said that Ukraine will not conduct any negotiations with the current President of the Russian Federation, reported news agency ANI on Wednesday.
Days after India abstained on a United Nations Security Council resolution which sought to declare Russian annexation of captured Ukrainian territories as invalid, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a phone conversation Tuesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and told him “there can be no military solution” to the conflict and India was ready to “contribute to any peace efforts”.
The Ministry of External Affairs, in a statement, said, “The leaders discussed the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Prime Minister reiterated his call for an early cessation of hostilities and the need to pursue the path of dialogue and diplomacy. He expressed his firm conviction that there can be no military solution to the conflict and conveyed India’s readiness to contribute to any peace efforts.”