Latest Ukraine Updates: 11 killed in Russia firing range attack

France will train up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers on its territory, Sebastien Lecornu, minister for the armed forces, has told Le Parisien newspaper.

The soldiers will “be taken into our units for several weeks”, he said, adding that there would be three levels of training: general combat, “specific needs outlined by the Ukrainians such as logistics” and then training on how to use defence materiel furnished by Ukraine’s Western allies.

France will also provide Ukraine with Crotale air defence systems, he said, without specifying how many.

The number is being “defined with the Ukrainians” he said, adding that it “will be significant to allow them to defend their skies”.

Ukrainian troops are still holding the strategic eastern town of Bakhmut despite repeated Russian attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

Russian forces have repeatedly tried to seize Bakhmut, which sits on a main road leading to the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Both are situated in the Donetsk region.

“Active fighting continues in various areas of the front. A very difficult situation persists in the Donetsk region and Luhansk region,” Zelenskyy said.

“The most difficult [situation] is in the direction of Bakhmut, as in previous days. We are holding our positions.”

Russia’s defence ministry has said two attackers opened fire at a military firing range near Ukraine, killing 11, and wounding 15.

The ministry said in a statement that the shooting took place in the Belgorod region in southwestern Russia, which borders Ukraine.

It said that the two volunteers from an unnamed ex-Soviet nation fired on other soldiers during target practice and were killed by return fire.

The ministry called the incident a “terrorist attack”.

Hundreds of people turned out to take part in a mock referendum on whether Poland should annex Russia’s embassy in Warsaw, part of a protest organised by several groups.

“Annexations are in this season,” the organisers said in a statement, referring to Moscow’s recent claim to have annexed four Ukrainian regions following referendums, which the West has dismissed as illegal and a “sham”.

“We decided to go down that road and organise a referendum on the annexation of the Russian embassy … in Warsaw,” the statement said.

Brandishing the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag and placards notably reading “Terrorussia” and “Hands off Ukraine”, some 3,000 people attended the mock referendum in Warsaw, organisers said.

Elon Musk has said that his rocket company SpaceX will continue to fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, although it was unclear if the statement was made in earnest.

Musk made the claim in a tweet the day after he said his company could no longer afford to fund the satellite internet system in the Ukraine, which has been vital to military and civilian communication during the conflict.

“The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding uUkraine govt for free,” Musk tweeted.

Musk had previously said he spends nearly $20m a month maintaining satellite services in Ukraine.

The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2022

Norway’s police have arrested a Russian man at the airport in the arctic town of Tromsoe and charged him with flying a drone in the second such arrest in a week.

Police seized a large amount of photographic gear, including a drone and several memory cards, during Friday’s arrest of the 51-year-old, who had admitted to flying a drone in Norway, police said.

Sanctions laws forbid Russian companies or citizens from operating aircraft in Norway, which has increased its alertness levels following a number of drone sightings close to its oil and gas infrastructure in recent weeks and in response to the September 26 leaks on the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.

“Among the seized material we have reviewed, we have seen pictures from the airport in Kirkenes and pictures of the defence forces’ Bell helicopter,” police prosecutor Jacob Bergh said in a statement.

Iran’s foreign ministry has again rejected claims that it has supplied Russia with weapons “to be used in the war in Ukraine”.

Iranian Minister for Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian “emphasised that the Islamic Republic of Iran has not and will not provide any weapon to be used in the war in Ukraine,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“We believe that the arming of each side of the crisis will prolong the war,” the Iranian foreign minister said in a call with his Portuguese counterpart Joao Gomes Cravinho.

He also told EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in a call on Friday that despite Iran’s defence cooperation with Russia “our policy regarding the war in Ukraine is not sending weapons to the conflicting parties, stopping the war and ending the displacement of people.”

Kyiv and many of its Western allies have accused Moscow of using Iranian-made drones in attacks in recent weeks. The topic is expected to be discussed by EU foreign ministers in a meeting in Luxemburg on Monday.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence has said its troops have halted Ukrainian attempts to advance in the Kherson region.

“In the direction of Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih, the enemy made unsuccessful offensive attempts near the settlements of Dudchani, Sadok, Ishchenka of the Kherson region. As a result of the actions of the Russian troops, all attacks were repelled,” Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

Konashenkov also said that Russian troops blocked Ukrainian attempts to make inroads into Russian defences near Lyman in the eastern Luhansk region.

Ukraine has reclaimed large swaths of territory since launching a counteroffensive in the south and east of the country.

Germany’s foreign minister has warned that Russia could seek to spark division in the West through refugees, as Moscow seeks to expand its “hybrid war”.

“This war is not only waged with weapons, it is also waged with energy and for that, we have found an answer. But it will also be waged with fear and division, and that is precisely what we have to prevent,” said Annalena Baerbock at a congress of her Greens party.

“In this situation, it is clear what will be next – refugees and not refugees from Ukraine … but because this war is hybrid, other countries are also participating,” Baerbock said, pointing to Serbia which she accused of letting in planeloads of migrants without visas.

She said that there cannot be a situation “where people are being used as weapons”, adding Germany was in talks with the Czech Republic and Slovakia on the issue.

The first Russian soldiers to take part in a new joint force with Belarusian troops have arrived in Belarus, Minsk’s defence ministry has said.

The troops arrived after the leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, accused Ukraine on Monday of plotting to attack his country and announced a joint force with Moscow.

“The first convoys of Russian servicemen from the regional force group have arrived in Belarus,” the ministry said, adding that their mission was “exclusively to strengthen the protection and defence of the border”.

Nevertheless, the deployment has sparked fears that Belarussian troops could joint Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

Lukashenko accused Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine of training Belarusian radicals “to carry out sabotage, terrorist attacks and to organise a military mutiny in the country”.

Ukraine has said a missile attack has seriously damaged a key energy facility in Ukraine’s capital region,

Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said the attack on the unidentified facility did not kill or wound anyone, while electricity transmission company Ukrenergo said repair crews were working to restore electricity service but warned residents about further possible outages.

Russia launched what is believed to be its largest coordinated missile raid in Ukraine since the initial invasion of the country in late February.

The assault has included attacks on the capital Kyiv.

A fuel depot in Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, caught fire on Saturday, according to the area’s governor, following “shelling”.

Russian border regions including Belgorod have accused Ukraine of attacking targets including power lines and fuel stores since Moscow sent its armed forces into Ukraine on February 24. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov did not say where the shelling originated.

“We have another shelling. One of the shells hit an oil depot in the Belgorod district. Emergency services are already battling the fire. There is no danger of [the fire] spreading,” Gladkov said on social media, posting a picture of flames and black smoke rising into the air.

He later said the fire had been put out.