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By Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS The largest U.S. and EU business federations urged leaders meeting for a summit on

The government has strongly opposed petitions that are seeking marriage equality in the Supreme Court.

A teenager is among at least six people killed in Russian airstrikes across Ukraine over the past 24-hour period, local officials said on Sunday. Of these, two people were killed and three were injured in the Kherson area after Russia fired more than 100 shells over the weekend, local governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. Two more people died in the Donetsk area, local officials said. An airstrike in the Kharkiv region killed a 57-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman, and also destroyed their home. A 14-year-old boy was killed in a separate incident after a mine exploded in a field in the Mykolaiv region, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said. Another 12-year-old boy was also injured in the attack. In another separate strike, Russia fired two guided bombs on key infrastructure in Kherson city, causing a partial blackout and disruption to the water supply in the area, the head of the city’s military administration Roman Mrochko said. A total of 27,768 casualties in Ukraine have been recorded since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February last year, in which 9,806 civilians have been killed and 17,962 have been injured, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Ukraine saw 188 casualties – 66 killed and 122 injured – in just the first week of October, the OHCHR said. It has also warned that the actual figures of casualties are considerably higher. This comes as Kyiv continued with its drone strikes inside Russia, with the Russian defence ministry claiming that Ukraine had launched 27 drones in an overnight attack on western Russia. A total of 18 drones were shot down over the Kursk region as analysts speculated that Ukrainian forces were targeting the nearby Khalino military airfield. The debris of downed drones was seen burning just 1.5km (1 mile) from the air base in images posted on social media. The facility was previously attacked by Ukrainian forces at the end of September. The debris had fallen in the region’s namesake capital and the nearby village of Zorino, Kursk governor Roman Starovoit said on social media. Two more drones were shot down over Russia’s Belgorod region, officials said. Even as the other seven drones remained unaccounted for, Ukrainian media outlets later said that Kyiv’s forces had carried out a successful strike on Russia’s Krasnaya Yaruga electrical substation, close to the Ukrainian border. The reports cited an unnamed source from within Ukraine’s security services and included a video that appeared to show an aerial strike against an unidentified target. This comes at a time fighting has flared up in eastern Ukraine with Russian forces trying to force their way into the Kharkiv region’s Kupiansk city and encircle it, military officials said. Ukrainian forces in the area, defending the territory, faced 10 separate attacks in a span of 24 hours, Illia Yevlash, spokesperson for the Ukrainian military’s eastern forces said on Sunday. “The enemy is trying to attack us in the direction of Kupiansk to encircle it and reach the banks of the Oskol River,” he told Ukrainian television. He said that Ukrainian forces in the town of Lyman in the Donetsk region had also faced heavy attack. Read More Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin suffers serious losses in largest offensive in months Russia's foreign minister will visit North Korea amid claims of weapons supplied to Moscow Russian governor reported to police for speaking out over Putin’s ‘unnecessary’ war against Ukraine Putin's visit to Beijing underscores China’s economic and diplomatic support for Russia

Ukraine’s military has released a video of the burning wreckage of a Russian Mi-8 helicopter on the war’s southern frontline, saying the aircraft was shot down by paratroopers. “The Russian Mi-8 was shot down. Great work by the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade. It burns beautifully. Well done, warriors,” said Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, heading the Ukrainian armed ground forces on one of the southern Ukrainian fronts. A 12-second video of the helicopter engulfed in flames was shared by General Syrskyi on his official Telegram channel late on Sunday. The location and the time of the destruction of the Russian helicopter was not immediately clear. The Ukrainian armed forces have destroyed several of Russia’s fleet of Soviet-era Mi-8 attack helicopters during the course of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion. In August this year, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was captured after landing in Ukraine’s Kharkiv oblast following what Kyiv described as a long-term operation by Ukrainian intelligence. It comes as fighting intensified over the weekend around the city of Avdiivka, in Ukraine’s Donbas, as well as in other sectors of the 1,000-km-long (600-mile) front. One top Ukrainian commander said clashes further north had “significantly worsened”, while another said Russian losses were mounting in the war’s southern sectors. “What is happening now along the entire length of the [line of] contact is called ‘an active defence’,” Mr Putin said. “And our troops are improving their position at almost the entire area. Quite a large area,” he said in video remarks posted to social media by a Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin. Mr Putin could be trying to temper expectations of significant Russian advances around Avdiivka, the US-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War said. “Putin’s characterisation of Russian offensive operations near Avdiivka as an ‘active defence,’ instead of ‘active combat operations’ as Russian UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya claimed on 13 October, or discussing Russian operations as an ‘offensive’ as some milbloggers have, may be an attempt to temper expectations of significant Russian advances,” the ISW said in its latest assessment. It added that while Russian operations – including intensive artillery and airstrikes – are likely intended to degrade Ukrainian forces around Avdiivka, Russian forces are unlikely to make significant breakthroughs or cut off Ukrainian forces in the settlement in the near term, and potential advances at scale would likely require a significant and protracted commitment of personnel and materiel. Read More Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin suffers serious losses in largest offensive in months Russian governor reported to police for speaking out over Putin’s ‘unnecessary’ war against Ukraine Putin's visit to Beijing underscores China’s economic and diplomatic support for Russia As the conflict in Israel rages on, the world must not forget about Ukraine

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By Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS The European Union will seek this week to ward off the return of Trump-era

A Russian governor who said that Moscow had not prepared for its invasion of Ukraine and did not “need” the continuing war has been reported to the police. Natalya Komarova, a member of president Vladimir Putin’s governing United Russia party and the governor of Russian Khanty-Masiysk region, on Saturday criticised the conflict that has stretched to nearly 600 days during a meeting with residents of the Siberian city of Nizhnevartovsk. Ms Komarova was confronted by the wife of a mobilised Russian man fighting in Ukraine who had asked why her husband was not provided with the necessary equipment to fight. “Are you asking me (why your husband does not have equipment) knowing that I’m the governor and not the minister of defence?” the official said. She added: “As a whole, we did not prepare for this war. We don’t need it. We were building a completely different world, so in this regard, there will certainly be some inconsistencies and unresolved issues,” according to a video of the event posted on social media. The comments, captured on video, were circulated widely online and prompted pro-war activists to condemn Ms Komarova for “discrediting Russia’s armed forces”. A letter has been sent to Russia’s minister of internal affairs by the director of a Siberian non-profit organisation, Yuri Ryabtsev, asking the ministry to further investigate Ms Komarova’s comments, reported Russian news outlet Sibir.Realii, stating that its journalists had seen the letter. An activist has also filed a report with the local police, demanding Ms Komarova be held accountable under Russia’s Code of Administrative Offences for “discrediting” the army, the news outlet reported. The Russian politician has not issued any fresh remarks on the issue. Russia approved a law last year making it illegal to describe the conflict in Ukraine as a “war” or an “invasion” by Russia. Mr Putin called it a “special military operation” when he ordered the attack on Ukraine in February last year, and the law has been used to compel Russian media, businesses and citizens to follow suit, as well as to penalise critics of the war. The legislation also outlaws “disparaging” the military and the spread of "false information" about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Several critics of the war have already been handed fines or jail terms under the law, while experts say it has made it increasingly difficult to gauge levels of public support for the invasion. Sasha Skochilenko, an artist and musician with serious health issues, was arrested in April last year for replacing supermarket price tags with antiwar slogans, charged with spreading false information about the military. Former FSB agent and battlefield commander Igor Girkin, known as a prominent Russian hardline nationalist, was detained on charges of extremism in July this year after he accused Mr Putin of weakness and indecision in Ukraine. Russia media have been extensively covering the Ukraine conflict yet at the same time prohibited from calling it a “war”, while protesters using that word on placards are hit with steep fines. Independent news sites have been blocked, as were Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. A prominent radio station has been taken off the air, and the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, led by 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov, has also lost its licence. Read More Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin suffers serious losses in largest offensive in months As the conflict in Israel rages on, the world must not forget about Ukraine Putin's visit to Beijing underscores China’s economic and diplomatic support for Russia Ukraine’s Avdiivka ‘completely ablaze’ as Russia pounds city for fourth straight day Could Putin be arrested? President to leave Russia for first time since international arrest warrant issued

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Russia has lost 127 tanks, 239 armoured personnel vehicles (APVs) and 161 artillery systems in a week, Kyiv has said as Vladimir Putin launches a sustained assault in the east of Ukraine. Moscow’s forces lost eight tanks, 25 APVs and 33 artillery systems in the past day, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Sunday. The Independent cannot independently confirm Kyiv’s numbers which come after Putin claimed Ukraine‘s counteroffensive “completely failed”. “As for the counteroffensive, which is allegedly stalling, it has failed completely,” Putin said in video remarks posted to social media by a Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin. Russia currently controls about 17.5% of Ukrainian territory and a four-month-old Ukrainian counteroffensive this year has resulted in almost no net territorial gains. Read More Putin's visit to Beijing underscores China’s economic and diplomatic support for Russia As the conflict in Israel rages on, the world must not forget about Ukraine Biden insists US can back two wars at the same time in Israel and Ukraine

Markets steadied on Monday in Asia, with US equity futures gaining and Treasuries falling as the US and