Russia-Ukraine war: Ukraine urges G7 to provide more air defence systems

Media reports have suggested that Tesla CEO Elon Musk spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin before tweeting his 'peace plan', last week.

The alleged conversation between Musk and Putin was reported by Ian Bremmer in an email sent to Eurasia Group subscribers. Bremmer said he met Musk two weeks ago where the Tesla boss told him that Putin would accomplish his goals 'no matter what'.

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday addressed the emergency G7 meeting and urged the powerful nations in the group to provide Kyiv with the necessary defence equipment.

“When Ukraine receives a sufficient quantity of modern and effective air defence systems, the key element of Russia’s terror, rocket strikes, will cease to work,” said Zelensky. 

On Tuesday, forensics exhumated bodies from what Ukrainian officials say is a mass grave in the recently liberated eastern town of Lyman.

Fifty-five bodies of civilians and servicemen were found, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, Donetsk Region governor.

Ukrainian on Tuesday said that that 32 of its soldiers were freed and the body of an Israeli citizen recovered in the latest prisoner swap with Russia.

"Another exchange of prisoners took place today. We managed to free 32 of our soldiers and get back the body of Israeli citizen Dmytro Fialka," Andriy Yermak, head of the president's office, wrote on Telegram.

Russia's armed forces continued to strike various cities across Ukraine on Tuesday, Russian Defense Ministry's chief spokesperson said according to AFP.

In a broad statement of support for Ukraine following an emergency virtual summit, G7 leaders pledged “undeterred and steadfast” financial and military help for Kyiv, and reiterated there would be “severe consequences” if Russia were to use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, reports the New York Times.

Zelensky says Russia 'trying to directly draw Belarus into this war'. He has called for international monitoring mission on Belarus border.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has assured to step up thier support to Ukraine as Russia continues to target Kyiv's critical infrastructre. 

"I think what we saw yesterday is actually a sign of weakness, because the reality is that they are not able to make progress on the battlefield. Russia is actually losing on the battlefield," Stoltenberg told journalists.

According to Sputnik news agency, Russia has added Mark Zuckerberg-owned Meta to the list of terrorist and extremist organisations.

The Federal Financial Monitoring Service Rosfinmonitoring announced on Tuesday.

On March 21,  Meta was designated as extremist after Russian alleged that it selectively lifted its rules to allow Ukrainians to call for violence and use hate speech against Russian "invaders," including calls for death of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
 

United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan landed in Russia on Tuesday (October 11) for talks with President Vladimir Putin regarding Ukraine.

UAE's foreign ministry said the al-Nayhan's visit aims to help reach "effective political solutions" to the Ukrainian crisis, UAE state news agency WAM reported on Monday. 

According to local reports, Russia is contuing to target the energy facilities in Lviv region in western Ukraine, a day after carried out a mass retaliatory attack on Ukraine.

"As of this moment, there have been three explosions at two energy facilities in the Lviv region," governor Maxim Kozitsky said on Telegram with Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi saying part of the region's main city, also called Lviv, was without electricity.

Moscow says ahead of G7 meeting it expects more 'confrontation' with West, reports AFP

Justifying sending a contingent of Belarusian troops alongside the Russian forces towards its border, defence minister Viktor Khrenin said that the move was “purely defensive” as they wanted to secure their borders.

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A Turkish official told AFP that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet his Russian counterpart  Vladimir in the Kazakh capital Astana this week,

He initailly said that meeting would take place on Wednesda, but later calrified. 

A day after Russia launched a massive counterattack against Ukraine, local officials in the Lviv region of western Ukraine warned Tuesday that the region's energy facilities had been hit by attacks.

Taking to Telegram, the region's governor, Maxim Kozitsky said, "As of this moment, there have been three explosions at two energy facilities in the Lviv region,", and the mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, reported that a portion of the region's largest city, also called Lviv, was without electricity.

United Nations in a statement on Tuesday, said that the recent Russian strikes on Ukraine may have been violation of rules of war and could possibly amount to war crimes, if Moscow specifically targeted civilians in Ukraine,

"These strikes may have violated the principles of the conduct of hostilities under international humanitarian law," said UN Human Rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, adding that intentionally targeting civilians and civilian objects, "amounts to a war crime".

Turkey has called for a viable ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. The nation's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in a televised interview said that both sides were moving away from diplomacy as the war drags on adding that "A ceasefire must be established as soon as possible. The sooner the better."  

An official source said the Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will be meeting Russian president Vladimir Putin for a regional summit in Astana on Wednesday (October 12).

Russia's deputy foreign minister on Tuesday said that Russia will respond top West (
US) growing involvement in its invasion in Ukraine after the US pledged to send more military weapons to Ukraine. 

Emergency services all across Ukraine are on high alert and have issued air raid warnings after more missiles strike on Tuesday.

Ukraine said that at least 19 people were killed and over 100 wounded as a result of Russian strikes across the country a day earlier. 

Ukraine's emergency services said on Facebook: "According to preliminary data, 19 people were killed and 105 more were injured." 

French Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna told French radio on Tuesday that Belarus could face more sanctions if it gets more and more involved in the Ukraine conflict. 

This comes after the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday that he had ordered troops to deploy with Russian forces near Ukraine. 

Crisis talks will be held by the United States and other G7 powers on Russia's recent bombing blitz across Ukraine. Britain's PM Liz Truss expected to insist they "must not waver one iota" in their support for Kyiv. 

The meeting on Tuesday comes a day after Russian missiles rocked the Ukrainian capital for the first time in months. 

In the aftermath, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Moscow that his country "cannot be intimidated". 

Zelensky called Russian missile strikes in Ukraine a "typical terrorist tactic" in a bid to incite more fear. Zelensky also stated that Ukraine "cannot be intimidated" and they have been more united. 

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He also pledged to "restore everything" destroyed in Russian strikes. 

In the aftermath of Russia's biggest aerial assaults on Ukrainian cities since the beginning of the war, Kyiv vowed to strengthen its armed forces.

The attacks on Monday forced thousands to flee to bomb shelters and prompted Kyiv to halt electricity exports to Europe. 

India has voted against Russia's demand for a secret ballot on a draft resolution to condemn Moscow's annexation of four regions in Ukraine.

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Ukraine denounced Russia as a "terrorist state" at an urgent United Nations General Assembly meeting on Monday. 

"Russia has proven once again that this is a terrorist state that must be deterred in the strongest possible ways," said Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine's ambassador to the UN in his opening remarks. He also said that his own immediate family had come under attack.

"Unfortunately, you can hardly call for a stable and sane peace as long as an unstable and insane dictatorship exists in your vicinity," he added

General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that more than 84 missile and air strikes were launched by Russia. Ukraine claimed to have intercepted 56 of the missiles and drones. It further informed that around 20 Ukrainian settlements were hit.

Ukrainian State Emergency Service has said that Monday's missile strikes killed at least 14 people and injured around 97. Power was also knocked out in Kyiv, Lviv, Sumy, Ternopil and Khmelnytsky. 

The power outages have trapped over 850 miners underground at mines.

UN members expressed solidarity with Ukraine after holding a vote on Monday to reject Russia's call for the body to hold a secret ballot on whether to condemn Moscow's move to annex four partially occupied regions. The General Assembly decided, with 107 votes in favor, that a public vote will be held instead of a secret ballot.

After Russia launched missiles on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities on Monday, the latter vowed to strengthen its armed forces. It was the biggest aerial assault on cities since the beginning of the war, forcing thousands to flee to bomb shelters. Kyiv has also halted electricity exports to Europe.

In the aftermath of an explosion that damaged the bridge linking Russia and Crimea, the former has mounted aggressive missile attacks on Ukraine. Consequently, allies US and Germany have stepped up and promised to rush air defence systems to Kyiv's rescue.

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