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Heavy fighting has broken out in eastern Ukraine, where Russia’s Wagner mercenaries are firing thermobaric weapons to strike Ukrainian positions.
Firey explosions and shockwaves could be seen in footage recorded in the Bakhmut area of Donetsk Oblast as the TOS-1A Multiple Launch Rocket Systems hit their targets.
Russia has moved the battle eastward after retreating from Kherson, according to Ukrainian officials, with locals in the Luhansk region reporting heavy fire close by.
Russia is said to be suffering heavy losses as Ukraine continues its counter-offensive.
Today’s liveblog is closing. Here is a roundup of the day’s biggest stories:
Finland’s government on Thursday proposed spending 139 million euros ($143.4 million) to build fences along parts of the country’s border with Russia, fulfilling a promise made in the wake of Moscow’s February invasion of Ukraine.
Finland, which is applying for membership in the Western military alliance Nato, has a history of wars with Russia, but the forest-covered border is still only marked with signs and plastic lines for most of its 1,300 km (810 mile) length.
The Nordic country said in June it would build barriers along parts of the Russian frontier in a move to strengthen preparedness against hybrid threats such as the potential mass influx of asylum seekers.
The bill on preparedness, while contested in terms of European Union asylum rules, was passed in July by a supermajority that allows parliament to fast-track laws.
The country’s border guard authority has said it ultimately aims to construct between 130-260 km of fences, covering 10-20 per cent of the overall length, focusing primarily on border crossing points and adjacent areas in southeast Finland.
Wagner mercenaries have been recorded deploying thermobaric weapons in the Bakhmut area of Donetsk Oblast.
Footage of TOS-1A thermobaric MLRS strikes reportedly by Wagner in the Bakhmut area. https://t.co/t7JKgY2aco pic.twitter.com/umWeuF7HqR
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that Russia agreeing to renew the Black Sea grain deal was a sign that Moscow felt the world would not accept any refusal to extend it.
The grain deal was extended earlier today.
"Together, we sent a clear message to President Putin that he should extend the Black Sea grain initiative, which was set to expire on Saturday," Mr Blinken told a news conference in Bangkok, ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
"Russia again heard and apparently felt that the world would not accept Moscow refusing to extend the agreement."
He added: "While Russia seems to have heard the G20’s message on the grain deal, President Putin continues to ignore global calls for de-escalation, choosing instead to escalate, raining down scores of missiles on infrastructure across Ukraine."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that Russia bore responsibility for a deadly blast in Poland, where an initial probe pointed to Ukrainian air defences.
Addressing reporters at an Asia-Pacific summit in Bangkok, Mr Blinken said that he had spoken again with his Ukrainian counterpart on the probe but added: "Whatever its final conclusion, we already know the party ultimately responsible for this tragic incident – Russia."
The Kremlin on Thursday accused Kyiv of shifting the goalposts regarding possible peace talks, saying it could not imagine engaging in public negotiations with Ukraine.
In a briefing call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the United States was capable of taking Russia’s concerns into account and could encourage Kyiv to return to the negotiating table if it wanted to.
Mr Peskov also said Ukraine had changed its position on whether it even wanted to negotiate with Moscow several times during the course of the nine-month conflict and could not be relied on.
"First they negotiate, then they refuse to negotiate, then they pass a law that prohibits any kind of negotiations, then they say they want negotiations, but public ones," Peskov told reporters.
"Therefore it’s difficult to imagine public negotiations. … One thing is for sure: the Ukrainians do not want any negotiations," he added.
Mr Peskov said in this context Moscow would continue what it calls a "special military operation", and that missile strikes on targets across Ukraine were the consequence of Kyiv not being willing to meet at the negotiating table.
Here is a roundup of the latest pictures coming out of Ukraine:
The Kremlin said on Thursday it had been given assurances by the United Nations that work will be finalised on removing barriers to Russia’s exports of agricultural products and fertilisers.
Moscow said earlier on Thursday it had agreed to let the Black Sea grain deal, which facilitates Ukrainian agricultural exports from its southern ports on the Black sea, roll over for another 120 days without any changes to its terms.
Had Moscow raised objections to its extension, the deal would have ended on Nov 19.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have said commitments to secure the removal of Western barriers – both direct sanctions on a state agricultural bank and the indirect impact of sanctions on Russia’s shipping and financial sectors – are a crucial part of the deal.
In a conference call with reporters on Thursday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "There is an assurance from the UN that work will be finalised to ensure the export of Russian food and fertilisers."
He said Russia had already seen progress towards easing sanctions, citing a joint statement by the United States, Britain and the EU to not sanction Russian food and fertiliser exporters, and said work was underway to "fully lift" the remaining obstacles.
Rishi Sunak believes the blame for a missile hitting a Polish village close to the Ukrainian border "belongs solely to Russia".
The Prime Minister noted it is possible the explosion, which killed two people, was caused by Ukrainian munition deployed in self-defence but said Ukraine could not be blamed for trying to defend itself.
Mr Sunak, making a statement to the Commons on the G20 summit in Indonesia, told MPs:
"On the very day I and others confronted the Russia foreign minister across the G20 summit table with the brutality of his country’s actions, on the very day that President Zelensky addressed the G20 with a plan to stop the war, Russia launched over 80 separate missile strikes on Ukraine.
"The targets were innocent people and civilian infrastructure. The aim to cast the population into darkness and cold. Once again Russia has shown its barbarity and given the lie to any claim that they are interested in peace.
"During the bombardment of Ukraine on Tuesday an explosion took place in eastern Poland. The investigation into this incident is ongoing and it has our full support.
"As we’ve heard the Polish and American presidents say, it is possible the explosion was caused by Ukrainian munition which was deployed in self-defence – and whether or not this proves to be the case no blame can be placed on a country trying to defend itself against such a barrage. The blame belongs solely to Russia."
A Ukrainian surface-to-air missile that failed to self-destruct after it went off course may be responsible for the death of two Poles who died in an explosion earlier this week, Polish authorities said on Thursday.
It came as Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, reiterated during a speech in the Commons that Russia bore ultimate responsibility for the attack, regardless of whose missile killed the two men.
The incident, which took place on Tuesday near the Polish village of Przewodow which lies close to the Ukrainian border, is now the subject of a criminal investigation in Poland.
Read more about the attack and its aftermath here.
A city hall employee was caught up in this morning’s attack on Dnipro while helping an elderly woman as part of her job.
The city’s mayor Borys Filatov shared a picture of a shrapnel fragment which pierced their coat and said that the employee is being operated on.
He said:
"This is the coat. And this is a fragment… The coat belongs to an employee of the city hall. My employee. She is now being operated on.
"During today’s rocket (attack), she and her colleague were just doing their job. Helping infirm elderly women.
When you (say) your prayers to heaven, please do not forget words of thanks for ordinary people: social security workers, postmen, energy workers, doctors, rescuers, utility workers. All those who fight without weapons in their hands and save our lives."
Russian missile strikes on Thursday damaged or destroyed some of Ukraine’s gas production facilities, state energy company Naftogaz said.
Naftogaz chief executive Oleksiy Chernyshov said Russia had carried out a "massive attack" on the infrastructure of gas producer Ukrgazvydobuvannia in eastern Ukraine.
"Currently, we know of several objects that have been destroyed. Others have suffered damage of varying degrees," Mr Cherynshov said.
Ukraine said Thursday that Russia was ultimately responsible for a deadly missile blast in Poland this week, after Washington announced it was likely fired by Ukrainian air defence.
"We share the view that Russia bears full responsibility for its missile terror and its consequences on the territory of Ukraine, Poland and Moldova," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter, announcing he had spoken by telephone with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
A missile struck the Polish village of Przewodow near the Ukrainian border on Tuesday, killing two people, raising fears of an escalation of the conflict.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that the missile was Russian but Kyiv’s allies said the explosion was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile launched to intercept Russian attacks.
Warsaw, Washington and Nato stressed that Moscow was ultimately to blame for attacking Ukraine. The Kremlin said it had "nothing to do with the incident".
At least four people have been killed in Vilniansk in the Zaporizhzhia region after an overnight strike that hit a residential building.
Rescuers are currently searching through debris for other victims, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said.
At least 63 bodies with signs of torture have been uncovered in Ukraine’s recently liberated Kherson region, according to the country’s interior minister.
But authorities expect to find “many more dungeons and burial places”, Denys Monastyrsky said.
A total of 436 war crimes during Russia’s occupation of the area have been discovered so far, including 11 places of detention, four of which were used for torture.
Common types of abuse committed include electric shocks, beatings with plastic or rubber nightsticks, and suffocation by pinching the breathing hose on a gas mask placed over a prisoner’s head, Andriy Kovalenko, a prosecutor in the Kherson regional prosecutor’s office, told the New York Times.
Mass burial sites have been found in other parts previously occupied by Russian troops, including some with civilian bodies showing signs of torture.
Fresh Russian strikes hit cities across Ukraine on Thursday, officials said, the latest in a series of attacks that have crippled the country’s energy infrastructure.
"Two cruise missiles were shot down over Kyiv. Information about any casualties and damage is being clarified," Kyiv regional officials announced.
The moment of explosion in Dnipro. People commuting to work in the morning. Tactics of the terrorists. Currently, 14 are injured, including a 15-year-old girl. pic.twitter.com/76R5ZODLpW
Officials in the central city of Dnipro and the Black Sea hub of Odessa also reported Russian strikes.
"They are shelling our gas production and our enterprises in Dnipro," Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said at an economic forum in Kyiv, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.
Ukraine is likely to get access to the site in southeastern Poland where a missile killed two people, the Polish president’s top foreign policy advisor said on Thursday after Kyiv demanded access to the scene of the blast.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Wednesday that access to the site of the explosion would require the agreement of both countries leading the investigation, Poland and the United States.
Warsaw says the explosion was most likely caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile that went astray, something Kyiv denies.
"A Polish-American investigating team is on-site," Jakub Kumoch told private broadcaster TVN 24.
"The Ukrainians asked for access to the site of the investigation. If both parties agree, and as far as I know there will be no objection from the American side, such access could be obtained soon."
The United Nations Secretary-General said on Thursday he welcomed an agreement by all parties to extend the Black Sea grain deal to facilitate Ukraine’s agricultural exports from its southern Black Sea ports.
"I welcome the agreement by all parties to continue the Black Sea grain initiative to facilitate the safe navigation of export of grain, foodstuffs and fertilisers from Ukraine," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement on Thursday.
Mr Guterres said the UN was also "fully committed to removing the remaining obstacles to exporting food and fertilisers from the Russian Federation" – a part of the deal Moscow sees as critical.
In the capital Kyiv, which has been suffering from scheduled and unannounced electricity cuts, the first snowfall of the season hit on Thursday.
It came after the regional governor this week warned the situation could become "difficult" and that temperatures could soon drop to minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit).
Until nine months ago, the only people likely to end up in Kherson’s Teploenerhetykiv Street police station were thieves and drunks.
But when Russian troops arrived, anyone suspected of disliking the city’s new rulers could find themselves dragged in there.
Technically, that meant nearly everyone in Kherson – although in practice, it was locals like Maxim, who was on a list of former Ukrainian troops the Russians found. For the crime of serving his country, he was interrogated for three weeks, beaten and electrocuted.
"They arrested ex-soldiers like me, but they also took anyone suspected of being pro-Ukrainian nationalists," he told The Telegraph.
To find out more, read our dispatch from Kherson here.
An agreement allowing Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea will continue "under current terms," a senior Turkish official told AFP.
"The agreement will remain in place under current terms for four months," the official said on condition of anonymity.
Ukraine is one of the world’s top grain producers, and Russia’s invasion of the country blocked 20 million tonnes of grain in its ports before the United Nations and Turkey brokered the deal in July.
The official told AFP the agreement would be in force for "120 days considering the winter conditions", adding that there could be "new arrangements" after the winter season.
An international source close to the negotiations also confirmed to AFP that the parties concerned agreed to extend the deal.
On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a press conference at the G20 summit in Indonesia: "I am of the opinion that it (the deal) will continue. There’s no problem there."
A Russian missile strike hit Ukraine’s southern Odesa region for the first time in weeks on Thursday, the regional governor said.
An infrastructure target was hit, Odesa regional Governor Maksym Marchenko said on Telegram, warning about the threat of a "massive missile barrage on the entire territory of Ukraine."
Mr Marchenko’s statement comes amid media reports about explosions in other parts of Ukraine and regional governors urging residents to stay in bomb shelters as the threat of missile strikes persists.
Thursday’s blast follows the huge barrage of Russian strikes on Tuesday that also resulted in a missile strike hitting Poland.
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