Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited troops near the partially besieged town of Pokrovskoye, where Russia is trying to break through its defenses. On Tuesday night, widespread Russian drone and missile attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine left at least one dead and 17 wounded. Ukraine also continued its strikes on Russian territory, with drones hitting the Sterlitamak petrochemical plant, located almost 1,500 kilometers from the front line.
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15:26 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited soldiers near the partially besieged town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, which Russia has been trying to capture for more than a year.
"I met with our fighters at the command post of the 1st Azov Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine, which is conducting a defensive operation in the Dobropil sector," Zelensky said on social media."This is our land, this is our east, and we will definitely do everything to keep it Ukrainian," he added.
I met with our warriors at the command post of the 1st Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine "Azov," which is conducting a defensive operation in the Dobropillia sector together with adjacent units.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Volodymyr Zelenskyy (@ZelenskyyUa) November 4, 2025
I heard reports from the military; we discussed the situation on the frontline… pic.twitter.com/1toCuW3r33
Kiev said hundreds of Russian soldiers had infiltrated Pokrovsk. The Russian military said on Tuesday it had captured dozens of buildings in the city. Ukraine deployed special forces over the weekend to bolster the city's defenses.
Taking Pokrovskoye would provide a major propaganda boost for the Kremlin, which has rejected US calls to end the nearly four-year war. The city, which was home to 60,000 people before the war, is now largely a wasteland devastated by fighting.
15:00 Ukrainian marines have destroyed two Russian boats carrying soldiers attempting to cross the Dnieper River. The Ukrainian Navy announced this, reports the news website Ukrainska Pravda.
Two Russian boats trying to cross the river were hit by the Ukrainian 426th Independent Battalion of Unmanned Systems. The boats were destroyed and none of the Russian soldiers survived, the navy said. The time and location of the attack were not disclosed.
"Marine drone operators are closely monitoring every enemy movement, so any attempts at landing are doomed to failure," the Ukrainian Marine Corps said.
14:50 Russian drone and missile attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine on Tuesday night left at least one dead and 17 injured, Ukrainian authorities said. TASR reports this based on a report by the DPA agency.
A 65-year-old woman died in an attack in the Dnipropetrovsk region and 11 other people, including two children, were injured, local authorities reported.
Six people, including two firefighters, were injured in the Kharkiv region. Firefighting equipment was also damaged in the attack.
росия такувала одесчина БпЛА в одещина БпЛА: флазнули програми на объктах енергетической и портовой инфрастрафиции. Fortunately, there are no dead or injured.
— DSNS.GOV.UA (@SESU_UA) November 4, 2025
До ликудации онлайн ударив, rescuers of the DSNS, the local fire brigade of the village of Kislytsia and the fire department of the National Guard pic.twitter.com/kzobBS4k8Q
Several fires broke out in the Odessa region on the Black Sea after attacks on energy and port infrastructure, the region's governor, Oleh Kiper, said. The fires were eventually extinguished and no injuries were reported.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia attacked the country with 130 drones on Tuesday night, destroying 92 of them. It also said Russia fired a total of seven missiles at Ukraine.
14:05 Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday ordered his government to develop a plan for the extraction of rare earth minerals by December 1. In addition, ministers are to take measures to develop transport links on Russia's borders with China and North Korea. This was stated on the Kremlin website, TASR reports, citing reports by Reuters and Politico magazine.
Rare earths are now of strategic importance in international trade – they are essential for the production of cars, semiconductors and even military equipment. They are essential components in almost all modern devices from smartphones to wind turbines. They are considered crucial for technology and energy security.
Putin called for an action plan “for the long-term development of rare earth mining and production” to be ready by early next month, Russia’s TASS news agency reported. He also ordered that transport links include two existing railway bridges connecting Russia and China and a planned new bridge to North Korea, which he said should be operational by 2026.
According to Politico, Russia accounts for only about 1 percent of global rare earth production, despite having vast deposits on its territory. The Kremlin estimates that Russia has reserves of 15 rare earths totaling 28.5 million tons.
China dominates the global supply chain for these raw materials, making other countries more vulnerable to supply disruptions. The EU is almost 99% dependent on China for its rare earths, but is working to reduce this dependence.
In April, US President Donald Trump signed an agreement with Ukraine that gives the United States preferential access to new Ukrainian mineral trade and establishes a joint US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. In February, as Washington and Kiev negotiated the deal, Putin said he was willing to offer the US access to precious minerals, including from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory.
13:42 Ukraine has made progress on key reforms and the remaining accession chapters could be opened by the end of this year. The European Commission said this today in its regular assessment report on the progress of the candidates for EU membership. The Ukrainian government has previously indicated that its aim is to conclude accession negotiations by the end of 2028.
The Commission is ready to support this - in its opinion, ambitious - goal, but to achieve it, the Union executive says it is necessary to accelerate the pace of reforms, especially in the area of the rule of law.
"We are more determined than ever to make EU enlargement a reality," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. A larger Union, she said, means a stronger and more influential Europe on the global stage. But she stressed that the enlargement process would remain based on merit."We are making concrete recommendations to all our partners and we say to them all: EU membership is a unique offer - a promise of peace, prosperity and solidarity. With the right reforms and strong political will, you can all seize this opportunity," she added.
Ukraine officially launched talks on its accession to the European Union in June 2024, during the Belgian presidency, more than two years after the start of the Russian invasion. This was followed by a so-called screening, an assessment of the compliance of Ukrainian legislation with EU standards. Warsaw subsequently hoped to open the first chapters of the accession negotiations during the Polish presidency in the first half of 2025, but this did not happen. Unanimity is required to open each group of chapters, and Hungary still does not agree with Ukraine's path to the EU.
13:29 The Council of the European Union has approved the fifth payment of 1.8 billion euros to Ukraine from the so-called Ukraine Facility, or the Instrument for Ukraine. According to today's statement of the EU Council, the attacked country is continuing with the reforms on which the Union has made the disbursement of funds from the instrument conditional. The money is intended to support macro-financial stability and the functioning of Ukraine's public administration, which has been resisting a Russian invasion since 2022.
"This amount reflects the successful completion of nine steps required for the fifth payment and one remaining step from the fourth payment," the EU Council, which represents member states, said. It added that the approval of the next regular quarterly payment reflects reforms in areas such as the judiciary, the fight against corruption, financial markets, local government and energy policy.
The Ukraine Facility entered into force on 1 March 2024 and aims to support the country's reconstruction and modernisation in the period 2024-2027. It will provide Ukraine with up to €50 billion in grants and loans. Disbursements are conditional on Ukraine submitting a duly substantiated request every quarter until the end of 2027.
The European Commission will then assess whether Ukraine is meeting the conditions set. These include reforms in energy, agriculture, transport, the ecological and digital transitions, human capital, state-owned enterprises, the business environment, public finances and decentralisation. Thanks to the instrument, Kiev has already received over €22 billion.
13:09 More than half of Ukrainian refugees of working age who fled Ukraine shortly after the Russian invasion in 2022 have found work in Germany. This is according to a study presented today by the Federal Institute for Demographic Research (BiB), reports the ČTK correspondent.
“Among Ukrainian men and women aged 20 to 64 who arrived in Germany between February and May 2022, the employment rate in the summer of this year was 51 percent – 50 percent for women and 57 percent for men,” BiB said. In the summer of 2022, the employment rate was 16 percent. The institute obtained data for its study from interviews it conducted with more than 6,000 Ukrainian refugees every six months.
According to the head of the study, Andreas Ette, many Ukrainians have been able to integrate into the German labor market after completing language courses. He described language skills and social contacts as"the key to integration." Ette pointed out that Ukrainian refugees in Germany are highly qualified compared to the average in their homeland. Given the demographic development in Germany and the shortage of labor, Ukrainians could represent"an important resource for the German labor market," he said.
Ukrainian refugees in Germany, unlike asylum seekers, can start working immediately. They were granted protection status under an agreement between EU member states, which is currently valid until March 2027. Ukrainians are also included in the unemployment benefit system in Germany and receive, like Germans, the so-called citizen's income (Bürgergeld). However, there has been a long-standing debate about abolishing this exemption. The conservative ruling CDU/CSU coalition in particular is pushing for them to receive money under the asylum seeker benefits law, just like other refugees.
12:15 An industrial complex was hit in Sterlitamak, Republic of Bashkortostan. In Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod region, a drone attack set fire to an industrial zone where the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez oil refinery and the SIBUR-Kstovo petrochemical plant are located. The Russians attacked the port and energy infrastructure of the Odessa region.
11:42 Fierce fighting continues in Pokrovskoye, Moscow and Kiev agree
Ukrainian special forces have engaged in heavy fighting in the strategic town of Pokrovskoye in the east of the country, the country's military intelligence confirmed today. The Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow said Russian troops were continuing to destroy besieged Ukrainian units in the town, where they had reportedly captured dozens of buildings.
"Fierce fighting with the Russian occupiers continues," the Ukrainian military intelligence service HUR reported about the situation in Pokrovskoye. According to it, special forces have secured a land corridor that allows the city's defenders to be supplied, and are now trying to prevent the enemy from shelling the supply routes.
The Russian ministry stated in a post on the Telegram social network that soldiers from the 2nd and 51st armies are fighting in Pokrovsk, but they must repel counterattacks by the Ukrainian side and"foreign mercenaries" aimed at freeing the encircled forces.
Battlefield maps from the Ukrainian project DeepState today showedthat Russian forces appear to have pushed deeper into Pokrovskoye and the surrounding area from the south. Much of the area remains shown as a gray zone, a no-man's land controlled by neither side, Reuters reported. It added that Russian control of the city was gradually expanding, according to the Russian military blog Rybar, but"the city is still far from being completely cleared."
Claims made by opposing parties cannot be directly verified by independent sources in the context of a war.
Pokrovsk was originally an important logistical center for supplying Ukrainian troops defending against the Russian invasion in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. The capture of Pokrovsk, as well as Kostyantynivka, located a few dozen kilometers to the northeast, would provide the Russian army with a base for advancing on the two largest cities still controlled by Ukraine in the Donetsk region - Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
10:58 At least one woman has been killed and 11 others, including two children, injured in a Russian attack on the Dnepropetrovsk region , Ukrainian authorities said today."A 65-year-old woman has died," Vladyslav Khayvanenko, the head of the Dnepropetrovsk region's military administration, wrote on social media about the aftermath of a Russian missile and drone explosion in the village of Mykolaivka. According to him, the eight injured include a 15-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl who were taken to hospital in serious condition. Three more Ukrainian medics were injured when an ambulance intervened during Russian shelling of the city of Nikopol. The Russians deliberately fired on an ambulance carrying a patient, rescuers say. The patient escaped unharmed.
Russia launched 130 drones, one Iskander-M missile and six S-300 missiles against Ukraine overnight, originally intended for air defense but converted to attack ground targets. The Ukrainian Air Force claims to have destroyed 92 drones. It admitted to recording missile hits and 31 drones in 14 locations.
Russia launched another large-scale attack on energy and port infrastructure in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine overnight, which faced two waves of drone strikes, regional administration chief Oleh Kiper said. Although air defenses shot down most of the enemy drones, infrastructure was hit and fires broke out, which firefighters quickly extinguished. Fortunately, there were no deaths or injuries, he added.
Some consumers have been left without power as a result of a Russian attack on energy infrastructure in the Odessa region, the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy said, adding that the hour-long power outages will also affect other regions.
Six people were injured in shelling of the Kherson region in the southeast of the country, according to Ukrainian police. Russian drones wounded six civilians, including two firefighters, in an airstrike near Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, rescue workers said.
10:29 Ukrainian Serhiy Kuznetsov, who Germany suspects of participation in attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in the year and was detained in Italy, has begun a hunger strike in custody. His lawyer Nicola Canestrini announced this on Tuesday, TASR reports, citing the APA agency.
"My client has been refusing food since Friday in order to achieve respect for his fundamental rights, in particular the right to adequate nutrition, dignified conditions of detention and equal treatment with other prisoners in terms of family visits and access to information," Canestrini said in a press release.
The lawyer for the detained Ukrainian says he has not been given food appropriate to his health since his arrest in August. He called the hunger strike an alarming signal."No one should be forced to resort to extreme measures to achieve recognition of their fundamental rights," Canestrini said. He also called on the prison administration and the Italian Ministry of Justice to ensure that detention conditions are in line with the constitution and international standards.
On October 27, a court in Bologna again allowed Kuznetsov to be extradited to Germany. It had done so for the first time in September, but the Ukrainian appealed to the Court of Cassation. The Court of Cassation upheld the appeal, arguing that his rights had been violated during the trial following the arrest of the 49-year-old Kuznetsov.
Kuznetsov's lawyer has appealed the Bologna court's verdict to the Italian Supreme Court. His client will remain in custody until then.
10:20 Between mid-October and November 1, 2025, Ukraine carried out at least 15 attacks on energy facilities in Russia.
9:52 Alexander Tikhonov is a four-time Olympic champion in biathlon, but is currently better known for his shocking statements in the Russian media.
8:35 The Russian military made steady territorial gains in Ukraine in October, focusing on the Donetsk region. This is according to an analysis of data from the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and compiled by the AFP agency.
The analysis found that Russia gained 461 square kilometers of territory in the month, in line with the average monthly gain this year, although less than in July, when Russian forces captured 634 square kilometers. Russia now controls 81 percent of the Donetsk region, which it claims and is seeking to gain full control over.
Moscow has made peace talks conditional on Ukraine withdrawing its troops from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, a demand Kiev has rejected. Fighting for the strategic town of Pokrovsk, which has been ongoing for more than a year, has intensified in recent weeks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described the situation in Pokrovsk as"difficult" and said that 260 to 300 Russian soldiers are fighting in the town.
In addition to the Donetsk region, Russia has also acquired 150 square kilometers in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which is not among the regions claimed by Moscow. In total, Russia controls or claims about 19.2 percent of Ukraine's territory, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
8:15 At least one woman was killed and 11 other people, including two children, were injured in a Russian attack on the Dnepropetrovsk region, Ukrainian authorities said today. A Ukrainian drone strike hit a petrochemical plant in the city of Sterlitamak in the Urals. The head of the autonomous republic of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, said today that the attack did not cause any deaths or injuries.
"A 65-year-old woman died," Vladyslav Khayvanenko, head of the military administration of the Dnepropetrovsk region, wrote on social media about the aftermath of the explosion of a Russian missile and a drone. He said the injured included a 15-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl who were taken to hospital in serious condition.
The plant in Stelitamak was attacked by two Ukrainian drones and both were shot down, Khabirov wrote on Telegram. The explosion, according to the city administration, partially damaged the water treatment plant at the plant. However, Khabirov said that the company is operating normally.
According to the Astra Telegram channel, Ukrainian drones also attacked two petrochemical plants of Sibur and Lukoil in the city of Kstovo in the Russian Nizhny Novgorod region, and according to eyewitnesses, a fire broke out at the site.
Russian air defenses shot down 85 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said, without mentioning any damage.
6:30 This is how every enemy drone that flies into Poland will end up, stated Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, showing several Russian drones that reached Polish territory in September.
"What you see behind me is part of the Russian drones that fell on the night of remembrance. This is how every enemy drone, every Russian drone that flies into Poland will end up. We are working on this and investing billions of zlotys in it to secure Polish skies and land from such objects," Tusk said on the social network. Under the video on the X network, ironic comments also appeared, asking whether they would end up running out of fuel. The video shows drones that were not shot down, but were found in various places in Poland.
On the night of September 9-10, 2025, approximately 19 to 23 Russian drones entered Polish airspace as part of a massive attack on Ukraine (Russia launched up to 415 drones). The intrusion was detected at around 23:30 CET, most of them coming from Belarus. The Polish military and NATO allies shot down several of them, and others were found scattered in eastern and northern Poland.
Poland called the incursion a deliberate act of aggression and a test of NATO's resolve, activated Article 4 of the treaty (consultations with allies) and called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. Russia rejected the plan to send drones to Poland. It was the first case of Russian drones being shot down over the territory of a NATO member state, raising concerns about an escalation of the conflict on the EU's eastern border. Poland subsequently closed its border with Belarus and accelerated the modernization of its anti-drone defenses.
6:25 A Ukrainian drone attack has hit a petrochemical plant in the city of Sterlitamak in the Urals. The head of the autonomous republic of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, said on Tuesday that the attack resulted in no deaths or injuries.
The plant was attacked by two Ukrainian drones, both were shot down, Khabirov wrote on Telegram. According to the city administration, the attack partially damaged the plant's equipment, but Khabirov said that operations were operating normally.
Ukraine has been fighting a large-scale Russian military aggression for four years, with air strikes by both countries. In recent months, Ukraine has increasingly targeted its drone and other strikes on Russia's oil industry. The stated aim is to cut off fuel supplies to the Russian military and make it harder for Moscow to finance the war through oil exports.
