TOP HEADLINES

• Ukraine said it had been forced to cede some territory in the east of the country in the face of a Russian offensive. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the pressure his armed forces were under in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine as "Hell". He spoke of fierce fighting around the town of Avdiivka and the fortified village of Pisky, where Kyiv has acknowledged Russia's "partial success" in recent days.

• Rights group Amnesty International accused Ukrainian forces of violating international law and endangering civilians by establishing bases in residential areas, including in schools and hospitals. Their tactics "in no way justify Russia's indiscriminate attacks," it says in a new report, and some Russian "war crimes" including in the city of Kharkiv are not linked to the tactics. Ukraine slammed the report as "unfair."

• NATO members are working closely with defense companies to ensure Ukraine gets more supplies of weapons and equipment to be prepared for the long haul in its conflict with Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. "We are providing a lot of support but we need to do even more and be prepared for the long haul," Stoltenberg said.

• Russian shelling of a bus stop in the frontline east Ukraine town of Toretsk killed eight people and injured four, the regional governor said. "According to preliminary information, there was artillery fire. They hit a public transport stop, where there was a crowd of people at that time," Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Ukraine-run Donetsk region administration, wrote on Telegram. 

• The Kremlin said a Turkish-brokered deal to unblock Ukrainian grain exports from the Black Sea was not a "one-off mechanism," and that it hoped it would continue to work effectively. "This is not a one-time mechanism, but a mechanism that is designed to ensure the export of the grain that has accumulated in these ports," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 

• A Russian court sentenced U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner to nine years in prison over drug smuggling as U.S. President Joe Biden called the ruling "unacceptable." The court "found the defendant guilty" of smuggling and possessing "a significant amount of narcotics," judge Anna Sotnikova told a court in the town of Khimki just outside Moscow. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will likely try to speak with his Russian counterpart on the sidelines of a meeting in Cambodia, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced he will launch a fact-finding mission to uncover the "truths" about a jail where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war died in a missile strike last week. Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame over the strikes on the prison in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka in eastern Ukraine. READ MORE BELOW

• Ukraine is facing a worsening health emergency as the conflict with Russia rages on, the World Health Organization said, with a combination of burnt-out staff, increased shelling and the approach of winter fuelling the agency's concerns. READ MORE BELOW

• Finland's Foreign Minister presented a plan for limiting tourist visas issued to Russians, after increasing tourism from its eastern neighbor spurred discontent due to the conflict in Ukraine. As flights from Russia to the EU have been halted, Finland has become a transit country for many Russians seeking to travel further into Europe.

• A Syrian ship left the Lebanese port of Tripoli after being cleared for release following its seizure over allegations it was carrying flour and barley stolen from Ukraine. Investigations have failed to prove The Laodicea carried stolen goods, officials said. Ukraine said it is "disappointed" by the decision, which it argues will encourage Russia to "continue thefts in the temporarily occupied southern Ukraine with a sense of impunity".

IN DETAIL

UN to uncover 'truths' about Olenivka prison attack

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced he will launch a fact-finding mission to uncover the "truths" about a jail where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war died in a bombing strike last week.

Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame over the strikes on the prison in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka in eastern Ukraine.

"We received the request from the Russian Federation and the request from the Ukraine" for the investigation, Antonio Guterres told a press conference.

"I decided... to launch a fact-finding mission," he said, noting he did not have the authority for criminal investigations.

He said the exact terms of the mission are still in the works, and hopefully Russia and Ukraine will reach an agreement on them.

"We hope to have all the facilities from both sides for access and for the obtention of all data that is necessary to be able to clarify the truths about what has happened," Guterres said, adding they are looking for "competent, independent people" to join the mission team.

The prison attack left over 50 people killed.

Moscow said that among the dead were Ukrainian forces who had laid down their arms after weeks of fighting off Russia's brutal bombardment of the sprawling Azovstal steel works in Mariupol.

Russia's defense ministry alleged that the strikes were carried out by Ukraine with US-supplied long-range missiles, in an "egregious provocation" designed to stop soldiers from surrendering.

But Kyiv has laid the blame squarely on Russia, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling it "a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war."

'An emergency of public health'

Ukraine is facing a worsening health emergency as the conflict with Russia rages on, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, with a combination of burnt-out staff, increased shelling and the approach of winter fuelling the agency's concerns.

There have been 434 attacks on healthcare facilities in the country, out of 615 such attacks reported this year worldwide, according to a WHO tracker. 

The WHO's Ukraine emergency co-ordinator Heather Papowitz said healthcare teams in many areas have become used to working with shelling outside their window. 

"It's kind of falling off the news in a way... but this is an emergency of public health," Papowitz said. 

Papowitz, who visited Ukraine last week, said the WHO was most concerned about areas inaccessible to its teams due to fighting or Russian occupation, including the eastern Donbas region and Kherson to the south. 

"Getting access is the biggest issue, it is what keeps us up at night," said Papowitz, citing challenges in getting medicines into these areas for people with chronic conditions or treating physical and mental trauma.