Ukraine-Russia warfare newest: Poland says Putin may strike ‘deep into Europe’ as downed Shahed drone unveiled

A network overload and the residual effects of previous Russian attacks triggered blackouts in Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions late last night, officials said.

Water pressure was also affected in parts of the capital.

The Kyiv City State Administration said the overload had caused a problem in one of the capital’s energy sites.

Power was cut in three central Kyiv districts on the west bank of the Dnipro River running through the city. The Kyiv metro was temporarily forced to rely on reserve power to keep operating. The administration later said emergency crews had restored power to affected areas, though outages were still being reported. It said water pressure would be restored to normal levels within two to three hours.

Ukrenergo, which operates Ukraine’s high-voltage lines, said lingering problems from Russian attacks on the energy system had triggered outages in regions across northern, central and southeastern Ukraine.

Trump, who has said he thought this conflict would be the “easiest” to settle, is set to host Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday in what could be a pivotal visit for Zelensky, who is openly seeking access to more advanced American weaponry that would let his armed forces strike targets deep inside Russia.

While Trump was able to leverage America’s relationship with Netanyahu’s government to force the Israeli leader to accept a settlement over the objections of several members of his right-wing coalition, the president doesn’t have the same pressure points to work with Putin.

Britain’s defence secretary John Healy said on Wednesday his country’s jets will keep flying over Poland until the end of this year as the British commitment to the Eastern sentry mission is extended.

“We are also ramping up our drone production for Ukraine,” he told reporters before attending a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels.

The UK has delivered more than 85,000 military drones to Ukraine over the past six months, the defence secretary is to announce, amid a surge in Russian attack drone strikes.

John Healey will say that £600m has been put towards drones for Kyiv’s armed forces.

The drones – including tens of thousands of short-range first-person-view models – are being used for reconnaissance, precision strikes and to disrupt Russian operations behind the front lines.

He will tell the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels tomorrow that Western countries need to “ramp up drone production to outmatch (Vladimir) Putin’s escalation”.

Western officials said that in September, Russia launched around 5,500 one-way attack drones into Ukraine – a significant increase from 4,100 in August.

In October so far, more than 2,400 have already been launched, with attacks focused on Ukrainian gas storage and production facilities.

Nato chief Mark Rutte has mocked one of Russia’s submarines for “limping home from patrol”, claiming the vessel had been forced to surface because of technical problems.

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet denied its diesel-powered submarine Novorossiysk had suffered a serious malfunction, after it surfaced in French waters on the weekend and was escorted by Dutch authorities through the English Channel.

Mr Rutte’s public ridicule of Moscow’s military capability signals tensions between Europe and Russia continue to escalate in the midst of the war in Ukraine.

In a speech in Slovenia, Mr Rutte dismissed Moscow’s argument that the vessel surfaced because it was complying with navigation rules in the English Channel, as he argued it was broken.

A World Health Organization team came under attack while accompanying a United Nations convoy in Ukraine, but managed to deliver medical supplies to the city of Bilozerka, director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.

Two World Food Programme trucks were damaged in the incident, Tedros said. He reiterated calls for attacks on humanitarian workers to end.

Local authorities in Ukraine ordered the evacuation of families from dozens of villages near the all-but-destroyed northeastern city of Kupiansk, citing the “worsening security situation”, in a region that has faced heavy Russian attacks.

Oleh Syniehubov, governor of northeastern Kharkiv region, wrote on Telegram that a total of 409 families with 601 children were told to leave 27 localities.

Another official in the affected area later told public broadcaster Suspilne that the list of localities to be evacuated by families had been expanded to 40.

For months, Russian forces have been attacking and advancing on the city of Kupiansk, seen as a key target in their push westward through central and eastern Ukraine in the more than three-and-a-half-year-old war.

The town was initially seized by Russian forces in the early weeks of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but Kyiv’s forces recaptured it later that year.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky last week said Ukrainian forces were defending key frontline areas, including Kupiansk. He has also in recent days spoken of a Ukrainian counter offensive near the town of Dobropillia further south.

Major Chinese airlines have urged the Trump administration to abandon a plan to bar them from flying over Russia on US flights, saying it would increase flight times, raise air fares and could disrupt some routes.

China Eastern, one of six Chinese airlines that sent letters, said in a filing with USDOT that the move could extend the flight time on some of its most important routes by two to three hours, significantly increase risks of missed connections and boost fuel consumption.

Air China and China Southern said the decision would adversely affect a substantial number of passengers in the United States and China.

China Southern projected at least 2,800 passengers scheduled to travel during the peak holiday season of 1 November to 31 December would need to be rebooked “jeopardizing their travel plans.”

Separately United Airlines urged the Trump administration to extend the prohibition to Cathay Pacific, which flies over Russia on flights to the United States from Hong Kong and other Hong Kong-based carriers.

Last week the US Transportation Department proposed banning Chinese airlines from flying over Russia on routes to and from the United States, saying the reduced flight time puts American carriers at a disadvantage.

The worldwide delusion that Donald Trump’s bizarre approach to diplomacy has delivered a ceasefire – or even “peace” – in Gaza is being enthusiastically embraced by Ukraine’s president as he prepares for a White House meeting this week.