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Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, emerged from seclusion to say he was ready to meet the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to discuss the war in Ukraine and mending bilateral ties. It breaks a weeks-long absence of Lavrov from the public sphere after the collapse of attempts to stage a Putin-Trump summit in Hungary. Speaking to Russia’s Ria state news agency, Lavrov signalled there was no change in Moscow’s maximalist demands for Ukraine’s capitulation. He said peace could not be achieved without “taking Russian interests into account”.
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Lavrov appeared to be contradicted by the Kremlin after the reappearing foreign minister said work had begun on Vladimir Putin’s order to prepare plans for a possible Russian nuclear test. Putin ordered officials to study the possibility of resuming nuclear testing after Donald Trump’s statements that the US would begin immediately to match nuclear tests by China and Russia – even though, like the US, neither is known to have exploded a nuclear bomb since the 1990s. On Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Putin has repeatedly said that Russia is committed to its obligation to end nuclear tests, and that we have no intention [of conducting them].” Putin has said Russia would not conduct a nuclear test unless the US did so first.
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Ukrainian strikes disrupted power and heating to Voronezh and Belgorod – large Russian cities near the Ukrainian border, Russian officials reported on Sunday. In Voronezh, home to just over a million people, a drone started a fire at an energy facility, said the area’s governor. Russian and Ukrainian news channels on Telegram said the Voronezh strike targeted a thermal power plant.
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A missile strike late on Saturday affected about 20,000 Belgorod households, said the local governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, who declared the “electricity and heating supply network has suffered severe damage”. In the western Kursk region, “a fire broke out at one of the power plants in the village of Korenevo”, cutting power to 10 localities, said the governor, Alexander Khinshtein.
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Ukrainian crews scrambled on Sunday to repair damage caused by one of the most devastating Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Volodymyr Zelensky said. “Although the situation is difficult, thousands of people are involved in stabilising the system and repairing the damage,” Ukraine’s president said. The situation was most difficult in the north-eastern regions of Kharkiv and Sumy.
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Russia has switched tactics, simultaneously striking generation facilities as well as power transmission and distribution systems, said deputy Ukrainian energy minister Artem Nekrasov. “This complicates the prompt restoration of normal power supply and the normal operation of the energy system.”
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In the central region of Poltava, one of the areas most affected, power was mostly restored on Sunday but damaged equipment left parts of its main city still in the dark, local authorities said. Ukraine’s energy minister, Svitlana Grynchuk, said the wave of attacks, which killed four people, marked “one of the most difficult nights” for Ukrainian energy since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.
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In an exclusive interview, Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Guardian’s Luke Harding that “everyone in the world” was afraid of Trump. Asked if that applied to him as well, Ukraine’s president said: “No … we are not enemies with America. We are friends. So why should we be afraid? … Trump was elected by his people. We have to respect the choice made by the American people, just as I am elected by my people.”
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Zelenskyy credited King Charles with a crucial behind-the-scenes role in encouraging the US president to support Ukraine more enthusiastically. During a state visit to the UK in September, Trump held a one-on-one meeting with the king. “I don’t know all the details but I understand His Majesty sent some important signals to President Trump,” Zelenskyy said. He said Trump respected the king and considered him to be “very important”, a genuine compliment not extended – he thought – to very “many people”. “His Majesty is very sensitive to our people. Maybe sensitive is not the right word. He’s very supportive.”
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In recent days Russian troops have captured most of the eastern city of Pokrovsk, after a long and bloody campaign. Zelenskyy said Moscow had thrown enormous forces into its operation – “170,000 men” – with the war at its fiercest and most brutal in Donetsk province, Putin’s main objective. “That’s the whole story. There is no [Russian] success there. And many casualties,” he said. According to Zelenskyy, Moscow suffered 25,000 soldiers killed and wounded in October – a record.