Ukraine-Russia latest: Zelensky unveils five-point ‘Victory Plan’ as Putin’s forces launch mass drone attack

Russian attacks on Ukraine killed five and injured at least 34 others over the past day, according to regional authorities.

One woman was killed and at least 23 people injured in a Russian strike on the city of Mykolaiv, which damaged residential buildings, cars and an industrial facility.

Four people were killed and six injured in attacks on 22 settlements in the Kherson region, according to governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Donald Trump again claimed he got along “very well with Putin”, suggesting that Putin had spoken to him about his desire to control Ukraine.

Speaking at a town hall event in oaks, Pennsylvania, on Monday, Trump said: "I get along very well with Putin. I got; I fully understand what’s happening.

"[Ukraine] was the apple of his eye; he used to talk about it. But I said, ‘You’re not going in,’ and he wasn’t going in."

The presidential hopeful repeated his claim that there wouldn’t be a war between Russia and Ukraine were he still in the White House, adding that he also gets along “very well with Zelensky”.

A Ukrainian documentary film telling the story of three Ukrainian artists and their life in the war-torn country has received two nominations for the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards.

Porcelain War, a film directed by Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontiev, was nominated for Best New Documentary Filmmakers and Best Political Documentary, with the winners to be announced on November 10.

The three artists shown in the film - Slava Leontiev, who helped direct the film, his wife Ania Stasenko, and Andrii Stefanov - all remain in Kharkiv, which has sustained heavy Russian attacks since day one of the invasion. They continue to produce porcelain figurines and decorate houses destroyed in the attacks, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

The Ukrainian Defense Mininstry has released footage it says shows it using unmanned aerial vehicles to hit Russian targets.

“The UAV crew is destroying the occupiers,” the ministry said alongside the footage.

Ukraine is preparing for large-scale Russian attacks on their energy system due to the start of the “heating season”.

Oleksandr Lytvynenko , the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, said according to Interfax-Ukraine: “With the start of the heating season, we can expect large-scale Russian attacks on the energy sector.”

The Ukrainian energy sector has shown its capacity for innovative solutions, Lytvynenko said, adding that the Russians’ intentions to destroyr the Ukrainian economy have not succeeded.

But the Energy Community Secretariat has warned Ukraine it could lose its certification of compliance with European standards, meaning it could lose electricity imports from Europe.

Ukraine’s energy resources are “enough to pass the winter”, prime minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday.

Shmyhal said on Telegram that Ukraine has 12.2 billion cubic metres of natural gas and 3.1 million metric tons of coal in warehouses.

It comes despite Russian attempts to damage Ukraine’s energy systems ahead of the winter.

There are no intact buildings or shelters left in Toretsk, a town in the region of Donetsk, leaving Russia free to occupy new areas of the embattled down, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said.

"Now the town looks more like a desert planet: there are no shelters for civilians or soldiers, and unfortunately, this allows the enemy to occupy new areas, but on scorched earth," said Anastasia Bobovnikova, a spokesperson for the Operational Tactical Group Luhansk, on October 14.

Toretsk is around 35 kilometres (20 miles) north of occupied Donetsk and is one of the hottest areas on the eastern front, as Russian troops continue to make slow but steady progress in the region.

DeepState, a crowdsourced monitoring website, reported on October 15 that Russian troops have advanced in Toretsk over the past day, the Kyiv Independent reported.

Ukraine’s Foreign ministry has rejected accusations that it has supplied drones to Malian rebels.

French outlet Le Monde claimed that Tuareg fighters in the anti-government CSP movement had used Ukrainian drones against government forces.

The Malian government has been allied with the Wagner mercenary group, who were involved in fighting for the Russians against Ukraine.

But the Ukrainian ministry dismissed the claims as  "accusations spread by some international media".

After the Tuareg rebels inflicted heavy damage on Wagner mercenaries and government soldiers in July, Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesperson Andrii Yusov said rebels had received “useful information, and not just that, which allowed them to carry out a successful military operation against Russian war criminals”.

The Malian government took it as an admission of Ukrainian support for the Tuareg rebels, and broke off diplomatic ties.

But in a statement on October 15, the foreign ministry said: "We also categorically deny all the regular accusations made by the high-ranking officials of the Republic of Mali and the Republic of Niger that Ukraine is allegedly involved in ‘cooperation with terrorists,’ ‘arms supplies and providing them with information,’ ‘support to the terrorist coalition,’ etc.”

A Russian missile attack on the southern city of Mykolaiv overnight on Oct. 15 killed a woman and injured 16 others, the region’s governor said.

Russian forces hit the city with a S-300 anti-aircraft missiles at around 2:30am, The Kyiv Independent reported.

Residential buildings, cars, an industrial facility, restaurant complex and shops were all damaged, according to governor Vitalii Kim.

The Mykolaiv region, which neighbours the Kherson region, has suffered regular Russian attacks. Three Shahed-type drones were downed in the region overnight on October 15, Kim said.