President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that the United States is pushing for Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the Donetsk region to establish a free economic zone in the Kyiv-held parts of eastern Ukraine that Moscow wants to control. Zelenskyy confirmed on Thursday that his country had presented the US with a 20-point set of counter-proposals for peace amid discussions on security guarantees with top US officials, making it clear that any territorial concessions would have to be put to a referendum in Ukraine.
Russia's Ministry of Defence claimed that its forces captured the village of Pleshchiivka in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine on the latest claim of territorial gain by Moscow. The Russian Defence Ministry had earlier announced the capture of one village in the Dnipropetrovsk region and two in the northeastern Kharkiv region, closer to the Russian border.
Russia and Ukraine have traded blame, accusing one another of imperilling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Kyiv, Ukraine On October 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin alleged that Ukrainian attacks had destroyed a high-voltage transmission line between the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine and Kyiv-controlled areas. Days earlier, Ukraine's leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russian shelling had cut the plant off from the electricity network. list of 4 itemsend of list
Zelenskyy said Russian shelling was preventing restoration of a power line needed to cool the reactors and prevent a meltdown. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, said it was working with both sides to restore the external power line. Rafael Grossi said there was no immediate danger as long as diesel generators remained in operation, providing emergency power for the facility.
Russian drone attacks and shelling killed three people and injured five others in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhiy Lysak wrote on Telegram. Two people were killed in Russian attacks on the Polohivskyi district, as Russian forces launched 578 attacks on 18 settlements in Ukraine's Zaporizhia region, Governor Ivan Fedorov said. Separate Russian attacks also killed one person in Kherson, one person in the Kyiv region and one person in Donetsk, local officials reported, according to the Kyiv Independent news outlet.
