Russia Ukraine war live: Drone attacks on Odesa damages 124-year-old art gallery

Russian drone attacks on Odesa late on Sunday evening left at least five people injured, set trucks with grain on fire and damaged one of the city’s principal art galleries, Ukrainian officials in the Black Sea port said.

“On 6 November, the Odesa National Art Museum turns 124 years old,” Oleh Kiper, governor of the Odesa region, of which the Odesa city is the administrative centre, said on the Telegram messaging app.

“On the eve of 6 November, the Russians ‘congratulated’ our architectural monument with a missile that hit nearby.”

The walls of the building were damaged, some windows and glass were broken, he said.

The Odesa National Art Museum, in one of the oldest palaces of Odesa, housed more than 10,000 pieces of art before the war, including paintings by some of the best-known Russian and Ukrainian artists of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Speaking at a briefing in Kyiv on Saturday alongside European commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Mr Zelensky said Russia wanted the focus on Ukraine to be “weakened” but added that “everything is [still] in our power”.

Mr Zelensky has offered to visit Israel, though he has admitted it is “difficult” because it depends on “what’s happening on the battlefield” in Ukraine, which he said remains “hot”.

With pointed disdain for the West, Russia on Saturday unveiled a sprawling exposition highlighting the nation’s accomplishments, which will run through the months leading to the presidential election in which Vladimir Putin is widely expected to seek a new term.

Putin issued a decree in March to hold the exposition and some observers have seen it as aimed at creating an ideological framework for his reelection. News reports had suggested he might use the opening to announce his candidacy for the March election, but his spokesman later said he would not attend the event.

Putin has led Russia as president or prime minister since 2000, and reelection would extend his term until 2030.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said that Republicans would only support aid to Ukraine if it also came with measure to further secure the US-Mexico border.

The newly elected speaker spoke in his first press conference in his new role and said that a package to support Ukraine would come “in short order” after the House of Representatives first passed an aid package to assist Israel.

“You’ve heard me say that we want to pair border security with Ukraine because I think we’d get bipartisan agreement on those matters,” he told reporters. “We have obligations and we have things that we can and should do around the world, but we have to take care of our own house first. And as long as the border’s wide open, we’re opening ourselves up for a great threat.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky invited former US president Donald Trump to fly in to see the scale of the conflict for himself.

Mr Trump, who is seeking reelection in 2024 and is the leading candidate for his party’s presidential nomination, has been sharply critical of US support for Kyiv and has said he could end the war in 24 hours if reelected.

“If he can come here, I will need … 24 minutes to explain to President Trump that he can’t manage this war,” Mr Zelensky said. “He can’t bring peace because of Putin.”

Exclusive: The second winter of the conflict is almost here and Ukraine’s forces are marching into more grinding warfare. But faced with freezing temperatures, Kyiv and its expert drone pilots still hope to bring home a lot to celebrate, a senior general tells Arpan Rai

Satellite imagery has shown destruction to a Russian military vessel in a port on the eastern coastline of Crimea.

Below are the latest maps detailing movement on the Ukrainian frontline.

The Russian military on Sunday reported a successful test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile designed to carry nuclear warheads from a new nuclear submarine.

The report comes as tensions are soaring between Russia and the West over the fighting in Ukraine. Adding to those tensions, President Vladimir Putin last week signed a bill revoking Russia’s ratification of a global nuclear test ban in a move that Moscow said was needed to establish parity with the United States.

Explosions are heard in Kherson, Sospilny correspondents report.