Ukraine latest: Conflicting accounts of Zaporizhzhia frontline battle reported

The war in Ukraine, which broke out in February 2022 with Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, shows no sign of ending as both sides intensify attacks to gain control of contested regions.

Read our latest updates here. For all our coverage, visit our Ukraine war page.

Finland hopes China will help end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

U.S. should support both Israel and Ukraine: Army secretary

Ukraine fights two-front war against Russia and graft

Russia-North Korea nuclear cooperation danger to all: Estonian president

Canada backs Ukraine’s entry to CPTPP, trade minister says

From drones to cyberattacks, technology is shaping Ukraine conflict

Russia’s war bloggers hold potential spark of further unrest

Special report: Russia buying civilian drones from China for war effort

Note: Nikkei Asia decided in March 2022 to suspend its reporting from Russia until further information becomes available regarding the scope of the revised criminal code. Entries include material from wire services and other sources.

Here are the latest developments:

Monday, Nov. 6 (Tokyo time)

1:30 p.m. Russia and Ukraine gave clashing accounts over the weekend about what is going on along the frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region, with Moscow saying it has stopped Kyiv’s counteroffensive and Ukraine’s army saying it is still pressing on. “The enemy has been stopped and their counteroffensive, which has been so hyped, has been completely halted,” Yevgeny Balitsky, the top Moscow-installed official in the Zaporizhzhia region, told the Russian state news agency in remarks published on Monday. Ukraine’s General Staff said on Sunday evening that Russian forces made several unsuccessful assaults near Robotyne and Verbove, a village a few miles east of it.

0:30 a.m. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the U.S. to provide more funding to help his forces counter Russia, and invited former U.S. President Donald Trump to fly in to see the scale of the conflict for himself. According to a transcript of an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” airing on Sunday, Zelenskyy invited Trump to visit Ukraine and see the fallout of the conflict initiated by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

Trump, who is seeking reelection in 2024 and is the leading candidate for his party’s presidential nomination, has been sharply critical of U.S. 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,” Zelenskyy said. “He can’t bring peace because of Putin.”

Sunday, Nov. 5

3:20 p.m. Russia’s new nuclear-powered submarine Imperator Alexander III successfully tested the Bulava ballistic missile, designed to carry nuclear warheads, the Russian defense ministry says.

“Firing a ballistic missile is the final element of state tests, after which a decision will be made to accept the cruiser into the Navy,” the ministry says on the Telegram messaging app.

President Vladimir Putin has been pushing for Russia to maintain its nuclear deterrent. The intercontinental missile, launched from an underwater position in the White Sea off Russia’s northern coast, hit a target thousands of kilometers away on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, according to the statement.

8:30 a.m. A barrage of Ukrainian cruise missiles damaged a vessel at a Russian shipyard in the Crimean port city of Kerch, Russia’s defense ministry says.

The statement says 15 missiles were fired, 13 of which were destroyed in the air, while one hit a ship. Reuters could not verify the statement. It was also unclear what kind of ship took the hit.

“I hope another ship has followed the Moskva!” Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, says in a Telegram post, referring to the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship sunk by Ukrainian missiles on April 14, 2022.

Saturday, Nov. 4 (Tokyo time)

10:30 a.m. Russian forces, focused for weeks on seizing the key eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, are now intent on capturing its vast coking plant, the town’s mayor, Vitaliy Barabash, tells national television. “They have a new aim, and that’s the coking plant. They have to take it. Period,” Barabash said. “We understand that a [new] third wave of attacks is bound to start any day once the ground dries out and they can move forward. They are engaged in a build-up. We see and hear that.”

8:10 a.m. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appoints a new commander of its special forces, a unit known for conducting military operations in Moscow-held territories. The officer replaced in the shuffle said he had not been told why. Zelenskyy says in his nightly video address that Col. Serhiy Lupanchuk will now head the forces and his predecessor, Maj.-Gen. Viktor Horenko, who began leading the forces in July 2022, “will continue to perform special tasks” within the Defence Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate. The president gave no further explanation for the change.

6:00 a.m. Authorities in Moldova barred a pro-Russia party from taking part in local elections on the grounds it endangers national security — two days before the vote viewed as a litmus test of President Maia Sandu’s campaign to join the European Union. Prime Minister Dorin Recean announces the ban on candidates from the Chance Party linked to fugitive business magnate Ilan Shor, jailed in absentia earlier this year on fraud charges.

2:55 a.m. Turkey and France are ramping up engagement with Central Asia, traditionally a Russian sphere, as Moscow’s waning influence opens the door to a diplomatic tug of war.

The Turkey-led Organization of Turkic States has held its 10th summit in the Kazakh capital of Astana. The group of Turkic-language-speaking countries, which was renamed and strengthened in 2021, also includes Azerbaijan and former Soviet states Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

At the summit, leaders adopt 12 wide-ranging documents calling for broader economic, political, security and cultural cooperation. They urgedan immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas and expressed grave concern over the numerous civilian deaths in Gaza, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling it an “unprecedented human tragedy.” Read more.

1:17 a.m. The U.S. announces its 50th tranche of military equipment from Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine since August 2021, including “additional air defense capabilities, artillery ammunition, anti-tank weapons” and more. The list includes a Patriot air defense battery and munitions, 12 National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and munitions, 2,000-plus Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, 31 Abrams tanks, and small-arms ammunition and grenades.

The U.S. says it has committed more than $44.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine during the Biden administration, including $44.2 billion since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits training centers to mark the “Day of Missile Forces and Artillery and the Engineering Troops Day.” He is briefed on such equipment as artillery, vehicles and demining machinery.

For earlier updates, click here.