Ukraine-Russia latest: Kremlin accuses NATO of stoking nuclear tensions as drill with 2,000 troops launched

Last week Russia’s air force was forced to shoot down one of its newest and most advanced models of attack drone, in an incident that is being seen as one of the biggest embarrassments ever suffered by the Russian Air Force.

On 5 October, videos showed a drone flying near Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine before it was shot down by another jet briefly flying alongside it. Initial reports suggested it was either a Russian jet taken down by the Ukrainian air force or a Russian jet losing control and being shot down by Moscow.

However, the drone that fell down was no ordinary weapon. It was later identified as a stealth S-70 Okhotnik-B, also known as “Hunter”, one of Russia’s most advanced stealth drones, designed to accompany an Su-57 fighter jet.

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Changes announced by Russia to its nuclear weapons policy were long overdue and will probably "cool the ardour" of its Western enemies, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview on Sunday.

Lukashenko, a close ally of president Vladimir Putin, said "hotheads" in the West had already heard Moscow's nuclear signals even before the Kremlin leader announced the changes last month.

Mr Putin on 25 September expanded the scenarios for Russia's potential use of nuclear weapons, including responding to a massive cross-border attack involving aircraft, missiles, or drones. He also warned that any attack on Russia involving a nuclear power would be treated as a joint assault.

"This doctrine should have been renewed long ago," said Mr Lukashenko, who agreed to host Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus last year.

He told a Russian TV reporter that Western missiles would "already be bombing us, especially Russia" if the West had not paid attention to Mr Putin's earlier nuclear signals. But the change to the nuclear doctrine "probably cools their ardour", he added.

Ukraine has accused Russia of nuclear blackmail, with president Volodymyr Zelensky urging the West to ignore Mr Putin's "red lines."

Russia has warned that if Western allies allow Ukraine to launch ATACMS or Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory, it will consider it direct involvement in the war.

At least two people were killed and 22 others wounded in Russian attacks across multiple regions of Ukraine over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday.

The fatalities were reported in the Donetsk region, where the settlements of Kurakhivka and Ulakla came under heavy shelling. Eleven others were injured in the same attack, according to regional governor Vadym Filashkin.

Russian forces also targeted the Kharkiv, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions, damaging homes and essential infrastructure.

Kherson governor Oleksandr Prokudin stated on Telegram that a critical infrastructure facility, a cellular tower, and several residential areas were hit.

"A high-rise building and three private homes were damaged," he added.

One person was killed when a Ukrainian drone struck the Russian village of Ustinka in the Belgorod region close to the border with Ukraine, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a statement.

Russia's defence ministry earlier said its air defence units shot down 13 Ukrainian drones overnight across three regions near the border with Ukraine.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had taken control of the settlement of Mykhailivka in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported quoting the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

The claim has not been independently confirmed yet.

Friends, family and colleagues of Viktoriia Roshchyna, a Ukrainian journalist who died in Russian prison, gathered for a vigil this weekend in a square in Kyiv.

"Read and remember Vika," they asked, Ukrainska Pavda reported.

Roshchyna, who was covering the war as a freelance journalist for Ukrainska Pravda, disappeared in August 2023.

In May this year, Russia confirmed that she was detained. This week, her father was informed by the Russian defence ministry in a letter that she died in September, aged 27.

The document said her body would be returned in one of the swaps organised by Russia and Ukraine for soldiers killed on the battlefield.

Roshchyna was one of the very few people who was covering the war from a Russian-occupied territory. She provided crucial stories that weren't otherwise available, and despite the risk to her life she continued to report without a pseudonym.

She was earlier detained for 10 days, but she did not stop reporting, her colleagues said.

“Her parents used to call and tell us to stop deploying her, but we never did deploy her!” one of her former bosses told BBC News.

“All her editors tried to stop her. But it was impossible.”