Alexander Lukashenko said this week that his troops would deploy with Russian forces near the Ukrainian border./AP via CFP
TOP HEADLINES
· Gunmen have shot dead at least 11 people and wounded 15 at a Russian military training ground in the Bolgorod region on Saturday, the defense ministry said, according to the RIA news agency. The two assailants were also killed.
· Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on YouTube that the gunmen who opened fire at the Russian military training camp close to the Ukrainian border, were from Tajikistan and had opened fire after an argument over religion.
· Norway said it arrested a Russian national carrying a drone and camera equipment on Saturday after he was seen taking photos of an airport in the far north, the second such arrest in a week. The country is on high alert following reports of mysterious drone sightings close to offshore oil and gas drilling platforms run by the major energy producer.
· Shelling from Ukrainian forces has damaged the administration building in Donetsk, the Russian-backed administration of the city said.
· Ukrainian troops are still holding the strategic eastern town of Bakhmut despite repeated Russian attacks while the situation in the Donbas region remains very difficult, Zelenskyy said. Russian missiles and drones are continuing to hit Ukrainian cities, causing destruction and casualties, he added.
· Belarus said the first convoys of Russian servicemen, part of a "regional grouping" of troops, had arrived in the country. President Alexander Lukashenko said this week that his troops would deploy with Russian forces near the Ukrainian border.
· Ukrainian engineers have restored "much needed" back-up power to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after shelling robbed it of access to external electricity twice in the past week, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said.
· Zelenskyy said almost 65,000 Russians had been killed since the start of the war, a figure far higher than Moscow's official September 21 estimate of 5,937.
· Elon Musk said his rocket company SpaceX would continue to fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, citing the need for "good deeds," a day after he said it could no longer afford to do so. The service has helped civilians and military stay online during the war with Russia.
· Russia's attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine away from the front lines will complicate the dire economic situation facing the country, which has already seen a tenfold increase in poverty this year, a top World Bank official said.
· Arup Banerji, World Bank regional country director for Eastern Europe, said Ukraine's rapid restoration of power after this week's large-scale Russian attacks on energy facilities reflected the efficiency of the wartime system.
There was damage to the front of the administrative building in Donetsk and to cars outside from the shelling. Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
IN DETAIL
Gunmen kill at least 11 people at a Russian military training ground
Two gunmen shot dead at least 11 people at a Russian military training ground on Saturday, Russia's defense ministry said.
RIA news agency cited the ministry as saying 15 other people were wounded in the shooting, in Russia's Belgorod region that borders Ukraine, when two men gunned down a group who had volunteered to take part in the war.
It said the two assailants - nationals from an unspecified former Soviet republic - had been shot dead. Some Russian independent media outlets reported that the number of casualties was higher than the official figures.
"A terrible event happened on our territory, on the territory of one of the military units," regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said early on Sunday. "Many soldiers were killed and wounded ... There are no residents of the Belgorod region among the wounded and killed."
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RIA cited a defense ministry statement as saying, "During a firearms training session with individuals who voluntarily expressed a desire to participate in the special military operation (against Ukraine), the terrorists opened fire with small arms on the personnel of the unit."
Just a day earlier, Putin said Russia should be finished calling up reservists in two weeks, promising an end to a divisive mobilization that has seen hundreds of thousands of men summoned to fight in Ukraine and huge numbers flee the country.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in a YouTube interview that the attackers were from the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan and had opened fire on the others after an argument over religion.
Tajikistan is a predominantly Muslim nation, while around half of Russians follow various branches of Christianity. The Russian ministry had said the attackers were from a nation in the Commonwealth of Independent States, which groups nine ex-Soviet republics, including Tajikistan.