Ukraine-Russia war – live: Drone attack south of Moscow after two killed in Kherson shelling

Russia’s air defence systems repelled a drone attack over the Tula region near Moscow, Russia’s RIA news agency reported early on Monday. Two of Moscow’s major airports, Vnukovo and Domedovo, directed flights to other destinations, the TASS state news agency said. The incident came after two people were killed and at least eight injured when Vladimir Putin’s forces shelled southern Ukraine’s Kherson region on Sunday. Kherson governor Oleksandr Prodkudin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said shelling from the Russian-held eastern bank of the Dnipro River had hit private homes in Beryslav, on the Ukrainian-held west bank. A man was killed in the nearby village of Lvove. The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said the country’s forces had repelled Russian attacks on two villages near Bakhmut, where Kyiv has been trying to regain ground lost when the city fell to Moscow’s forces in May. And North Korea has hit out at South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol after he criticised its cooperation with Moscow following leader Kim Jong Un’s Russia visit, saying it is ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ for neighbours to keep close relations. Key Points Ukrainian missile strikes Sevastopol US ‘to give Kyiv ATACMS long-range missiles’ Ukrainian counteroffensive pushes through Putin’s final line of defence Putin’s spies ‘hacking Ukrainian files for Russian war crimes evidence’ Two dead in Russian shelling of southern Ukraine – governor Russia’s Tula region under drone attack – Russia’s RIA Two dead in Russian shelling of southern Ukraine – governor 22:30 , Eleanor Noyce Russian forces shelled southern Ukraine’s Kherson region on Sunday, killing two people and injuring at least eight, the region’s governor said, as Ukraine’s armed forces said they were keeping in check Russian advances in the east and south. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, newly returned from a visit to the United States and Canada, praised Ukrainian forces for successes in both areas of a three-month-old counteroffensive, but he gave no indication any new movement forward. Kherson governor Oleksandr Prodkudin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said shelling from the Russian-held eastern bank of the Dnipro River had hit private homes in Beryslav, on the Ukrainian-held west bank. A man was killed in the nearby village of Lvove. An air strike on Kherson, the region’s main town, injured at least five people and caused considerable damage to buildings. The Russian military abandoned positions on the west bank of the river and in Kherson city late last year. The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said the country’s forces had repelled Russian attacks on two villages near Bakhmut, where Kyiv has been trying to regain ground lost when the city fell to Moscow’s forces in May. North Korea says cooperation with Russia ‘natural’ for neighbours – KCNA 23:47 , Eleanor Noyce North Korea on Monday slammed South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for criticising its cooperation with Moscow following leader Kim Jong Un’s Russia visit, saying it is ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ for neighbours to keep close relations. Yoon, speaking at the U.N. General Assembly last week, said that if Russia helped North Korea enhance its weapons programmes in return for assistance for its war in Ukraine, it would be ‘a direct provocation.’ In a piece carried by KCNA news agency, the North denounced Yoon for ‘malignantly’ slandering its friendly cooperation with Russia, and said Yoon was serving as a ‘loudspeaker’ for the United States. ‘It is quite natural and normal for neighbouring countries to keep close relations with each other, and there is no reason to call such practice to account,’ it said. Kim returned home last week from a week-long trip to Russia in which he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to boost military and economic cooperation. U.S. and South Korean officials have expressed concern that Russia could be trying to acquire ammunition from the North to supplement its dwindling stocks for the war in Ukraine while Pyongyang seeks technological help for its nuclear and missile programmes. 23:30 , Eleanor Noyce An imprisoned Russian opposition figure has been transferred to a maximum security prison in Siberia and placed in a tiny ‘punishment cell,’ his lawyer said Sunday. Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., 42, earlier this year was convicted of treason for publicly denouncing Russia’s war in Ukraine and sentenced to 25 years in prison as part of the Kremlin’s relentless crackdown on critics. On Thursday, he arrived at IK-6 – a maximum security penal colony in the Siberian city of Omsk, his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov said in a Facebook post Sunday. Dasha Litvinova has more: Russia’s Tula region under drone attack – Russia’s RIA 22:30 , Eleanor Noyce Russia’s air defence systems were engaged in repelling a drone attack over the Tula region that borders Moscow’s region to its north, Russia’s RIA news agency reported early Monday. Citing the ministry of regional security, the agency reported that according to preliminary information, there was no damage or injuries as a result of the attack. Two of Moscow’s major airports, however, the Vnukovo and Domedovo, limited air traffic, directing flights to other airports, the TASS state news agency reported. 21:30 , Eleanor Noyce It’s almost the end of the U.N. General Assembly high-level meeting that brings world leaders together at U.N. headquarters in New York . Here are the highlights of what happened Saturday at the United Nations and what to keep an eye on Tuesday, the last day (Monday’s off for Yom Kippur). ICYMI: 20:30 , Eleanor Noyce Russia’s top diplomat lashed out at the U.S. and the West on Saturday as self-interested defenders of a fading international order, but he didn’t discuss his country’s war in Ukraine in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly. ‘The U.S. and its subordinate Western collective are continuing to fuel conflicts which artificially divide humanity into hostile blocks and hamper the achievement of overall aims. They’re doing everything they can to prevent the formation of a genuine multipolar world order,’ Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. ‘They are trying to force the world to play according to their own self-centred rules,’ he said. Swiss ‘millionaire’s playground’ plays host to Ukraine refugees 19:30 , Eleanor Noyce Zug, Switzerland ‘s wealthiest canton, is famous for its flawless alpine vistas and low taxes. And here in the rolling hills sits Kloster Menzingen monastery, a temporary home to 160 Ukrainian refugees who have fled their war-torn country. ‘They were bombing my city last night,’ explains law graduate Hana, 28, from Odesa, as she walks along the gloomy corridor in the southern wing of the convent. ‘This is our life, waking up to news that our towns and cities are once more under siege,’ she says. Paddy Dowling has more: Zelensky says he met top businessmen during U.S. visit 18:30 , Eleanor Noyce Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday he met leading American entrepreneurs and financiers during a visit this week to the United States, where investment opportunities in Ukraine were discussed. Zelensky said the businessmen, who included Michael Bloomberg, Larry Fink and Bill Ackman, were prepared to make major investments in rebuilding Ukraine after its war with Russia. ‘The American entrepreneurs and financiers confirmed their readiness to make large-scale investments in our country immediately after the end of the war and the receipt of security guarantees,’ he posted on Telegram, along with photos of the meeting. ‘We are working for the victory and reconstruction of Ukraine.’ On a trip to the U.S. and Canada this week, Zelensky sought continued military and financial support for Kyiv’s effort to fend off Russia’s 19-month-old invasion. Russian-installed head of Donetsk imposes 5-hour curfew 17:30 , Eleanor Noyce The Russian-installed head of the Russian-annexed Ukrainian region of Donetsk has imposed a curfew, according to a decree published on Sunday. Denis Pushilin banned the presence of civilians on streets and public places from 11 p.m. until 4 a.m. on Mondays-Fridays, according to the decree. The decree forbade assemblies, rallies and demonstrations as well as other mass events in Russia-controlled parts of Donetsk region unless they were permitted by Operational Headquarters for Military Threat Response in Donetsk People’s Republic. The decree signed by Pushilin on September 18 introduced ‘military censorship of postal mail and messages transmitted via telecommunications systems as well as control of telephone conversations’. Among other steps entailed by Pushilin’s order was the establishment of checkpoints and security posts at borders with Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions. 16:30 , Eleanor Noyce This is the heartwarming moment a six-year-old Ukrainian girl who lost her leg to a Russian missile strike learns to ride a bike again with the help of her prosthetic leg she named Kesha. Ukraine ‘s Ministry of Defence posted footage of brave Marinya cycling a small tricycle through cones as she recovers from the bombing of Kherson in May last year. The girl, the first Ukrainian child to be fitted with a prosthetic since the Russian invasion, manages to complete the course solo under the watchful eye of physiotherapists at The Kyiv Institute of Rehabilitation. Barney Davis has the full story: Inside Putin’s attempts to indoctrinate Russia’s youth by encouraging ‘self-sacrifice’ 15:33 , Eleanor Noyce Russian textbooks praising Vladimir Putin ‘s invasion of Ukraine are an attempt to encourage ‘self-sacrifice’ among schoolchildren, experts have warned. In September, Russia rolled out new history textbooks to schools that claim Ukraine is an ‘ultranationalist state’ being used as a ‘battering ram’ by the United States to ‘destroy Russia’ . One chapter claims that Ukrainian membership of Nato could have led to a catastrophic war and ‘possibly the end of civilisation’, an outcome it says Russia had to prevent. Alexander Butler reports: Inside Putin’s attempts to indoctrinate Russian youth by encouraging ‘self-sacrifice’ Russian airstrike on Kherson kills two 14:25 , Barney Davis Russian airstrikes on Sunday killed two people and wounded three others in southern Ukraine’s Kherson province, the region’s governor reported Sunday as the war in Ukraine entered a 20th month. According to Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin, Russian forces struck the city of Beryslav, destroying an unspecified number of private houses. A woman was killed and three people were wounded, including a police officer, he said. Another airstrike also killed a 67-year-old man in the village of Lvove, Prokudin said without specifying the type of weapons used in the attack. Broken windows are seen at hostel damaged as result of night shelling on September 21 (Global Images Ukraine via Getty) The communities hit both are located in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Kherson region, where the Dnieper River that bisects the province has marked a battle line since Russian troops withdrew across it in November 2022, a retreat that boosted the invaded country’s morale. Kindergarten struck in another wave of Russian missiles on Nikopol and Sumy 14:01 , Barney Davis Ukrainians were injured by shrapnel after Russia initiated a fresh wave of artillery assaults on the Nikopol region. The city of Nikopol itself suffered severe damage to a department store building and a kindergarten, according to local reports. These attacks resulted in the injury of a 25-year-old man who has since been hospitalised with shrapnel wounds and is currently fighting for his life according to Serhii Lysak, the head of the military administration in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant overlooks the now dry Kakhkova reservoir and the city of Nikopol (Bel Trew) Despite more strikes across the neighbouring regions, the Sumy regional military administration did not receive any reports of injuries. Heartbreaking images of a Ukrainian train taking soldiers away from family to the frontline 13:00 , Barney Davis Associated Press has been recording the heartbreaking separations of soldiers and their families as they board the same train line to take them to the frontline. Every day, around seven in the morning, passengers on the Kyiv-Kramatorsk route leave the relative safety of the capital and head east to frontline areas where battles between Ukrainian forces and Russian troops rage and Russian strikes are frequent with imprecise missiles that slam into residential areas. A Ukrainian serviceman hugs his wife and the daughter at the railway station in Sloviansk (AP) The passengers are a mix of men and women that offer up a slice of Ukrainian society these days. They include soldiers returning to the front after a brief leave, women making the trip to reunite for a few days with husbands and boyfriends serving on the battlefields, and residents returning to check on homes in the Donetsk region. A girl stands on the platform at the railway station in Sloviansk, Donetsk region (AP) A woman hugs a Ukrainian serviceman before departure of the train to Kramatorsk (AP) The connection was suspended for six months early in the war. The halt in April last year followed a Russian missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station while passengers were waiting for evacuation. The strike killed 53 people and wounded 135 others in one of the deadliest Russian attacks. Local media reports another air strike on the Russian city of Kursk 12:06 , Barney Davis Ukrainian media is claiming another strike on the Russian city of Kursk hours after a drone strike hit an administrative building. Black smoke can be seen pouring out of a large warehouse-type building in the bordering region. There is currently no clear information on the scale of destruction or casualties with the attack coming on Kursk City Day. The fresh strike came after Ukraine fired at least 19 ‘lethal’ drones over the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula, and three more over other regions of Russia , on Thursday. The Russian anti-aircraft units intercepted and destroyed over a dozen drones in the region, the ministry said on its Telegram channel. ‘In the night an attempt by the Kyiv regime to commit a terrorist attack with lethal drones on sites in the Russian Federation was intercepted,’ the ministry said. Russia imposes overnight curfew on Ukrainians living in Donetsk 11:30 , Barney Davis The Russian-installed head of the Russian-annexed Ukrainian region of Donetsk has imposed an overnight curfew, according to a decree published on Sunday. Denis Pushilin banned the presence of civilians on streets and public places from 11 p.m. until 4 a.m. on Mondays-Fridays, according to the decree. The decree forbade assemblies, rallies and demonstrations as well as other mass events in Russia-controlled parts of Donetsk region unless they were permitted by Operational Headquarters for Military Threat Response in Donetsk People’s Republic. Ukraine’s ministry of defence post heartwarming footage of bomb victim learning to ride bike again 10:50 , Barney Davis A Ukrainian girl who lost her leg in a Russian bombing raid has taken her first steps to recovery in heartwarming footage. Maryna, 6, was filmed learning to ride a bike again by doctors helping her rehabilitation after she lost her leg in a missile strike in Kherson in May last year. According to local reports, after suffering from severe trauma she