For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine. All times EDT.
11:35 p.m.: Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on reports that Russian troops complained to the Governor of Primorsky Krai about the "enormous losses" in the Donetsk region during his nightly address, The Associated Press reported.
Russian war correspondents reported that marines from Russia’s Pacific Fleet sent a complaint to Gov. Oleg Kozhemyako, lamenting that in four days the fleet suffered “about 300 people killed, wounded and missing” during “some incoherent offensive” on the village of Pavlivka in Ukraine’s heavily contested Donetsk region.
Kozhemyako said he ordered military prosecutors to investigate the complaint, and later reported that the group’s commanders confirmed “losses, but not nearly as (big)” as the complaint alleged.
Speaking in Russian, Zelenskyy said Russian troops are "finally giving thought to what is happening" in the Donetsk region, adding that Kozhemyako "predictably lied" to them about the number of troops killed.
10:30 p.m.:
10:06 p.m.: The Kremlin has refused to comment on a U.S. news report that Washington has held undisclosed talks with top Russian officials amid fears Moscow could further escalate its military aggression in Ukraine and perhaps even use nuclear weapons, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that, while Russia remains "open" to talks, it was unable to negotiate with Kyiv due to its refusal to hold talks with Moscow.
His comments come after The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan held undisclosed talks with top Russian officials in the hope of reducing the risk of Russia's invasion of Ukraine spilling over or escalating into a nuclear conflict.
8:18 p.m.: Ukraine has taken shares of five companies identified as strategic to guarantee sufficient military supplies as it fights to repel an invasion by Russian forces, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security Council, told a news conference in Kyiv on November 7 that the move was made under wartime laws "in connection with military necessity."
The companies include aerospace company Motor Sich, energy company Ukrnafta, electrical transformer company Zaporizhtransformator, vehicle maker AvtoKrAZ, and oil refiner Ukrtatnafta.
"In order to meet the needs of the country under martial law, we have the right to make such decisions," Danilov said.
7:05 p.m.:
6:22 p.m.: Ukrainians whose loved ones were killed during the occupation of Izyum gathered to donate DNA as investigators build cases for war crimes allegedly committed during the Russian invasion. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has compiled a photo gallery.
5:18 p.m.: Ukrainians whose loved ones were killed during the occupation of Izyum, in eastern Ukraine, gathered to donate DNA as investigators build cases for war crimes allegedly committed during the Russian invasion. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has this photo essay.
4:24 p.m.: Facing a frigid winter with what may be widespread power outages in war-torn Ukraine, motorcycle traveler and camping enthusiast Olena Bastun aims to see it through by relying on her vast experience on the road, Reuters reported.
"This is a question of survival," said Bastun, 53, who believes her nights sleeping in tents in Norway and Iceland in sub-zero temperatures have prepared her for the cold and darkness confronting Ukrainians this winter.
Bastun, who has visited 117 countries with her husband on two wheels, has stocked up on head lamps, gas, tents and sleeping bags, as well as a portable fridge and solar panel and a range of snacks from Vietnam, Germany and the United States.
Much of the equipment was gifted by her son, who is serving as a medic in the Ukrainian military.
"I never intended to use a camping tent in Kyiv," she told Reuters from inside her living room in the Ukrainian capital, laughing as she demonstrated how to set up the accessory. "Life didn't prepare me for this."
3:18 p.m.: Twenty percent of Ukraine’s protected areas and 3 million hectares of forests have been affected by the war in the country, where eight nature reserves and 10 national parks remain under the control of Russian troops, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported Monday.
This was reported by the Ukrainian branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on November 6, which is the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict.
Sixteen sites that have the status of wetlands of international importance are in danger of being destroyed, the WWF said.
2:30 p.m.:
2:10 p.m.: The head of Ukraine’s Byzantine-rite Catholic Church met Pope Francis on Monday and said there can be no dialogue with Russia as long as Moscow considered the neighbor it invaded a colony to be subjugated, Reuters reported.
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk’s trip to the Vatican was his first trip outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February. He said he prefers to remain in Kyiv to be close to the people despite the bombings and hardships.
“The war in Ukraine is a colonial war and peace proposals by Russia are proposals of colonial pacification,” he said after meeting the pope at the Vatican.
“These proposals imply the negation of the existence of the Ukrainian people, their history, culture and even their Church. It is the negation of the very right of the Ukrainian state to exist with the sovereignty and territorial integrity that is recognized by the international community,” Shevchuk said.
“With these premises, Russia’s proposals lack a basis for dialogue,” he said.
1:45 p.m.: It’s not just people and pets that have become victims in the war in Ukraine. In some cases, wild animals have been forced to evacuate as well. VOA’s Oleksii Kovalenko looks at some lions that were rescued from the Odesa Biopark Zoo and flown to safety.
1:30 p.m.: Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian military company, announced on November 6 the funding and creation of “militia training centers,” according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
The centers will be located in Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions in the southwest, according to Prigozhin, who said that locals were best placed to “fight against sabotage” on Russian soil.
The training centers are in addition to a military technology center the group said it was opening in St. Petersburg.
1:05 p.m.:
12:50 p.m.: At least 88% of Ukrainians believe their country will be a prosperous member of the European Union in 10 years, according to a poll published by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology on Monday, Reuters reported.
Ukraine applied for membership of the EU shortly after Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February and Kyiv was granted candidate status in June.
The invasion has killed thousands of civilians and devastated vast tracts of territory and infrastructure.
The poll surveyed 1,000 respondents across Ukraine with the exception of the annexed peninsula of Crimea and other areas that were occupied by Russian proxies before Feb. 24 when Moscow launched its invasion.
Ukrainians were optimistic about their chances of joining the EU even in the east of the country, which has seen particularly heavy fighting, the poll found.
12:25 p.m.:
12:10 p.m.: A senior adviser to Ukraine's president said on Monday that Kyiv had never refused to negotiate with Moscow and that it was ready for talks with Russia's future leader, but not with Vladimir Putin, Reuters reported.
The comments on Twitter by Mykhailo Podolyak followed a Washington Post report on Saturday saying the Biden administration was privately encouraging Ukraine's leaders to signal an openness to negotiate with Moscow.
11:45 a.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that 50,000 Russian soldiers called up as part of his mobilization drive were now fighting with combat units in Ukraine, Reuters quoted the Interfax news agency as reporting.
Putin said 80,000 were "in the zone of the special military operation" - the term Russia uses for its war in Ukraine - and the rest of the almost 320,000 draftees were at training camps in Russia.
"We now have 50,000 in their combat units. The rest are not taking part in the fighting yet," Interfax quoted Putin as saying during a visit to the Tver region, outside Moscow.
In September, Putin announced a "partial mobilization" drive to call up hundreds of thousands of new fighters for the war after Ukraine recaptured large swathes of territory in a counter-offensive. The move triggered an exodus of hundreds of thousands of Russians and triggered anti-war protests across the country.
11:25 a.m.:
10:55 a.m.: Ukraine is set to finalize new agreements with the International Monetary Fund after a new IMF mission from November 11-17, Ukrainian central bank governor Andriy Pyshnyi said on Monday, according to Reuters.
The governor told a briefing Ukraine had already held substantive and constructive talks with the IMF in Vienna on a whole range of issues.
10:20 a.m.:
9:35 a.m.: Ukraine accused Russia on Monday of looting empty homes in the southern city of Kherson and occupying them with troops in civilian clothes to prepare for street fighting in what both sides predict will be one of the war's most important battles, Reuters reported.
In recent days Russia has ordered civilians out of Kherson in anticipation of a Ukrainian assault to recapture the city, the only regional capital Moscow has seized since its invasion in February.
Kyiv has described the evacuation of the area as a forced deportation, a war crime. Moscow says it is sending residents away for safety.
The city lies in the only pocket of Russian-held territory on the west bank of the Dnipro River that bisects Ukraine. Recapturing it has been the main focus of Ukraine's counter-offensive in the south which accelerated since the start of October.
Ukraine's military said in an overnight update that Russian forces, "disguised in civilian clothes, occupy the premises of civilians and strengthen positions inside for conducting street battles." It also said Russian journalists were preparing to stage videos accusing Ukraine of hurting civilians.
The situation inside Kherson could not be independently confirmed. Reuters was seeking comment from Russian authorities on the Ukrainian allegations.
9:10 a.m.: The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) posted a video on Twitter over the weekend, showing recent delivery of humanitarian aid to a conflict-hit part of Ukraine’s Kherson region which was recently taken over by Ukrainian forces. Approximately 90 percent of the population had to flee, and the 10 percent who remain are in need of assistance, UNOCHA reported.
8:45 a.m.: Russian-appointed authorities say they are working to partially restore power in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson following what they have called a Ukrainian “terrorist attack” on power lines, The Associated Press reported. The southern city in the region that Moscow illegally annexed in September was cut off from power and water supplies on Sunday following damage to three power lines.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the pro-Kremlin administration of the partially occupied Kherson region, said Monday that “power and connectivity is being partially restored” in Kherson city.
The alleged attack occurred on the Berislav-Kakhovka power line, and Russian state media reported on Sunday that the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station had also been damaged by Ukrainian strikes.
Ukrainian officials haven’t responded to the allegations.
Stremousov has repeatedly called for civilians to evacuate from Kherson — which lies on the western bank of the Dnieper River — to Russian-controlled territory on the eastern bank in anticipation of a major Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake the strategic port city. Yet on Monday, the region’s Russian-installed administration announced it was halting “the movement of civilian vehicles across the Dnieper by water and pontoon ferry,” citing “increased military danger” and threats to civilians.
A daily update from Ukraine’s presidential office on Monday said that Russian soldiers in plainclothes have been moving into apartments in Kherson that civilians had left during the evacuation. One Kherson resident told The Associated Press that Russian military personnel were going door to door, checking property deeds and forcing tenants to leave immediately if they can’t prove ownership of apartments.
8:15 a.m.: Ukraine has received its first delivery of NASAMS and Apside air defense systems, Reuters reported Monday, citing Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
"We will continue to shoot down the enemy targets attacking us. Thank you to our partners: Norway, Spain and the US," Reznikov wrote on Twitter.
8:05 a.m.: Russia's defense ministry took the unusual step on Monday of denying reports by Russian military bloggers that a naval infantry unit had lost hundreds of men in a fruitless offensive in eastern Ukraine, Reuters quoted the state-owned RIA news agency as saying.
RIA said the ministry had rejected the bloggers' assertions that the 155th marine brigade of the Pacific Fleet had suffered "high, pointless losses in people and equipment."
On the contrary, in the course of 10 days the unit had advanced 5 km (over 3 miles) into Ukrainian defensive positions southwest of Donetsk, RIA quoted the ministry as saying.
It specifically denied that the brigade's commanders had shown incompetence. "Due to the competent actions of the unit commanders, the losses of marines for the given period do not exceed 1% of combat strength, and 7% wounded, a significant part of whom have already returned to duty," it said.
The rare denial suggested the reports had touched a raw nerve at a point in the war's ninth month when Russian forces are under heavy pressure in partly occupied regions of Ukraine that Moscow has proclaimed as its own territory - actions denounced as illegal by Kyiv, the West and most countries of the United Nations.
7:55 a.m.:
7:40 a.m.: Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Monday he had interfered in U.S. elections and would continue doing so in future, the first such admission from a figure who has been formally implicated by Washington in efforts to influence American politics, Reuters reported.
In comments posted by the press service of his Concord catering firm on Russia's Facebook equivalent VKontakte, Prigozhin said: "We have interfered (in U.S. elections), we are interfering and we will continue to interfere. Carefully, accurately, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do."
The remark was posted on the eve of the U.S. midterm elections in response to a request for comment from a Russian news site.
"During our pinpoint operations, we will remove both kidneys and the liver at once," Prigozhin said. He did not elaborate on the cryptic comment.
In July, the U.S. State Department offered a reward of up to $10 million for information on Prigozhin in connection with "engagement in U.S. election interference". He has been hit by U.S., British and European Union sanctions.
7:25 a.m.: A spokesperson for the German government on Monday said it is up to Ukraine to decide when to hold peace talks with Russia, adding that Moscow has also been reluctant to participate in them, according to Reuters.
The Washington Post reported that the United States has been privately encouraging Ukraine to signal it is open to talks with Russia, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ruled out negotiations while Russian President Vladimir Putin is in power.
7:10 a.m.:
6:55 a.m.: Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is visiting Moscow for talks expected to focus on economic and political issues. The two-day visit during which the Indian minister will meet his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Industry, Denis Manturov, will be the first by a senior Indian official to Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February. VOA’s Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi.
6:40 a.m.: A senior Ukrainian lawmaker published what he said was a government document on Monday announcing the nationalization of some privately held shares in several strategic corporations, including engine maker Motor Sich and energy company Ukrnafta, Reuters reported.
The authenticity of the document posted on the Telegram messaging app by Yaroslav Zheleznyak, the first deputy chairman of parliament's finance, tax and customs policy committee, could not immediately be confirmed by Reuters. The document was authored by the National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market.
Media outlet Ekonomichna Pravda reported the nationalization of shares in five strategic companies linked to businessmen Ihor Kolomoisky, Vyacheslav Bohuslaev and Kostiantyn Zhevago earlier on Monday.
6:25 a.m.:
6:18 a.m.: Russian-appointed authorities in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson say power is currently being partially restored following what they have called a Ukrainian terrorist attack on power lines, The Associated Press reported.
The southern city was cut off from power and water supplies on Sunday after three power lines were damaged in the region that Moscow illegally annexed in September. Ukrainian officials have not responded to the allegations, although officials have previously claimed that Russia was deliberately turning off the power in order to force civilians to evacuate in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake the city.
5:30 a.m.: The Kremlin on Monday declined to comment on a Wall Street Journal report that Washington held undisclosed talks with top Russian officials about avoiding further escalation in the Ukraine war.
According to the report, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held talks with aides to President Vladimir Putin in the hope of reducing the risk that the war in Ukraine spills over or escalates into a nuclear conflict, Reuters reported.
"We have nothing to say about this publication," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"Once again I repeat that there are some truthful reports, but for the most part there are reports that are pure speculation," he said, directing people to contact the White House or the paper itself.
He added that while Russia remains "open" to talks, it is unable to negotiate with Kyiv due to the latter's refusal to hold talks with Russia.
Few high-level contacts between U.S. and Russian officials have been made public in recent months as Washington has insisted that any talks on ending the war in Ukraine be held between Moscow and Kyiv.
5:15 a.m.:
5 a.m.: The accounts of life under occupation by those who managed to escape tell a tale of near-total paranoia and subjugation to the whims of soldiers and Kremlin appointees.
Russia has imposed martial law and curtailed communications across four Ukrainian regions it proclaimed as its own in September, Agence France-Presse reported.
None are under full Kremlin control and all are enduring heavy fighting in the third month of Ukraine's push back into captured lands.
Lack of independent media access to Russia-held regions make these stories nearly-impossible to independently verify.
4:30 a.m.: More than six months after Russian forces retreated from the towns around the Ukrainian capital, residents of the region are still struggling to rebuild their lives, The Associated Press reported.
An estimated 1 million people have returned to the Kyiv area, but many no longer have jobs and cannot afford to fix their houses. They say they need more assistance.
Ukraine’s government struggles to carry out the most urgent repairs to civilian homes. According to a recent report, nearly $350 billion is needed for reconstruction across the war-ravaged country, and that amount is expected to grow.
4:00 a.m.: Ukraine's grid operator told consumers to brace for more blackouts in Kyiv and other regions on Monday as it seeks to reduce the strain on energy infrastructure damaged by Russian missile and drone attacks, Reuters reported.
Rolling blackouts are becoming increasingly routine in the capital of 3 million after a wave of Russian attacks on power facilities that have damaged 40% of energy infrastructure since October 10.
Several of those attacks have struck during the Monday rush hour, but there was no immediate indication of new strikes on Monday morning although President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy said late on Sunday that Russia might be preparing new attacks.
"The country's power grid still cannot resume full operation after the Russian terrorist attacks. In some regions, we have to introduce blackouts to avoid overloading the high-voltage infrastructure," the Ukrenergo grid operator said.
Scheduled shutdowns from 06.00 a.m. local time to the end of the day will affect Kyiv and the regions of Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv and Poltava, it said in a statement.
Zelenskiyy said in his nightly video address to the nation that more than 4.5 million consumers were without power.
Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko has told the city's residents to consider everything including a worst-case scenario where the capital loses power and water completely.
3:30 a.m.: Russia's largest lender, Sberbank, is suing global commodities trader Glencore for around $116 million (117 million euros) over unpaid oil supplies, Reuters reported Monday, citing the database of Moscow's Arbitration Court.
The database showed Sberbank was seeking to recover debt and penalties from Glencore Energy U.K. Ltd over two agreements, worth roughly 58 million euros each.
One related to oil blend supplies to the border of Ukraine and Hungary in March, and the other related to supplies to the border of Ukraine and Slovakia in the same month.
The database gave no further details on the agreements or the lawsuit. Sberbank did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Glencore was not immediately available for comment.
3:08 a.m.: Melinda Simmons, Britain's ambassador to Ukraine said Monday that the situation in Kyiv is "calm."
2:32 a.m.: Russia's state-owned multinational energy corporation Gazprom said it would ship 42.4 million cubic meters of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Monday, levels similar to those reported in recent days, Reuters reported.
2:00 a.m.:
1:34 a.m.: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy warned on Sunday against more potential Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, Reuters reported, while the mayor of Kyiv urged residents to consider preparing to leave temporarily if the capital lost water and power supplies.
1:01 a.m.:
12:33 a.m.:
12:10 a.m.: Ukraine's Russian-occupied city of Kherson was cut off from water and electricity supplies Sunday after an air strike and a key dam in the region was also damaged, Agence France-Presse reported citing local officials.
It is the first time that Kherson — which fell to Moscow's forces within days of their February offensive — has seen such a power cut.
"In Kherson and a number of other areas in the region, there is temporarily no electricity or water supply," the city's Moscow-installed administration said on Telegram.
Some information in this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
