Russia-Ukraine war live: US and Moscow call Russian attacks in the east a ‘new offensive’

Moscow and Washington deem the fighting in Avdiivka a new Russian offensive

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Back to that Russian attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka that is now continuing into its fourth day.

Russia’s representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, has gone as far as saying the intensified battles in the east signified a new stage in its campaign and it means the Ukrainian counteroffensive is over.

Russia has detained three lawyers of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and raided their homes, aides said, a step that comes amid increasing pressure on the Kremlin’s critics. The move was an attempt to “completely isolate Navalny,” his ally Ivan Zhdanov said on social media.

The US has claimed that North Korea delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia for the war in Ukraine. The White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said the US believed Kim was seeking sophisticated Russian weapon technologies in return for the munitions to boost North Korea’s nuclear programme.

Fighting on the eastern frontline, in Avdiivka, entered a fourth day as Russia seeks to regain the initiative in its biggest offensive in months. Ukraine’s top military command said that it had repelled more than 20 attacks over the past day around the town, while there were claims Ukrainian reservists were being sent in to shore up defences after initial Russian breakthroughs.

Vladimir Putin dismissed the idea that Russia damaged a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia and suggested such claims were made up to divert attention from what he said was a western attack on Nord Stream.

EU leaders meeting later in October will demand “decisive progress” on using Russian assets frozen by sanctions to help Ukraine, according to their draft statement.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, visiting the Black Sea port of Odesa, vowed on Friday to improve Ukraine’s air defences and to increase the security of a “humanitarian corridor” for grain exports.