TOP HEADLINES 

· Russia attacked the center of Kyiv during morning rush hour with suicide drones on Monday, said Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian President's staff on Telegram. Pieces of a drone used in the attack bore the words: "For Belgorod" – an apparent reference to Ukrainian shelling of a Russian region bordering Ukraine, said Reuters.

· Ukraine has destroyed 37 Russian drones since Sunday evening, around 85 percent of the number involved in attacks, Ukraine's air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said. "That's quite a good result for the work of our air defenses and that number will rise in the future," he told a news briefing.

· "All night and all morning, the enemy terrorizes the civilian population. Kamikaze drones and missiles are attacking all of Ukraine. A residential building was hit in Kyiv," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram. "The enemy can attack our cities, but it won't be able to break us. The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations. And we will get victory."

· In the city of Mykolaiv in Southern Ukraine a drone hit the Everi marine terminal around 10 p.m. on Sunday, damaging sunflower oil storage tanks and it set aflame leaking oil, said a senior manager. It took more than five hours to extinguish the flames ignited by the attack, the second on the storage facility on the Bukh River since June, he added.

· Ukraine has been accused by Russia of hitting targets in Belgorod region near the border. Pro-Russian news sources on Telegram reported that Ukraine had struck Belgorod's airport overnight.

· A criminal investigation has been opened by Russia after gunmen shot dead 11 people and injured 15 at a military training ground near the Ukrainian border, authorities said.

· Ukrainian troops are holding the strategic eastern town of Bakhmut despite repeated Russian attacks while the situation in the Donbas region remains very difficult, Zelenskyy said.

· Russia's defense ministry said its forces had repelled efforts by Ukrainian troops to advance in the Donetsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.

· Iran said that it had not provided Russia with drones to use in Ukraine. "The published news about Iran providing Russia with drones has political ambitions and it's circulated by Western sources. We have not provided weaponry to any side of the countries at war," said Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani.

· Logistical issues faced by Russian forces in southern Ukraine have become more acute following damage to a key bridge to Crimea on October 8, a British intelligence update said on Monday. "With the Russian presence in Kherson strained, and the supply routes through Crimea degraded, the ground line of communication through Zaporizhzhia Oblast is becoming more important to the sustainability of Russia's occupation," the UK defense ministry tweeted.

·  European Union foreign ministers are expected to agree on a mission to train 15,000 Ukrainian troops from next month and an extra 500 million euros ($488 million) of funding for arms deliveries to Kyiv when they meet in Luxembourg on Monday. 

·  The defense ministry in Minsk on Sunday said just under 9,000 Russian troops would be stationed in Belarus as part of a "regional grouping" of forces to protect its borders.

IN DETAIL

Kyiv hit by suicide drones during morning rush hour

Russia attacked the center of Kyiv during morning rush hour with drones on Monday and shelled other cities around the country, the second time in a week it has unleashed strikes across Ukraine while its forces face setbacks on the battlefield.

Soldiers fired into the air trying to shoot down drones after the blasts rocked central Kyiv, while residents fled for shelter. 

An anti-aircraft rocket could be seen streaking into the morning sky, followed by an explosion and orange flames.

Reuters later saw pieces of a drone used in the attack that bore the words: "For Belgorod" – an apparent reference to Ukrainian shelling of a Russian region bordering Ukraine.

The attacks came exactly one week after Russia unleashed its heaviest aerial bombardment of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities since the start of the war - also during morning rush hour.

"All night and all morning, the enemy terrorizes the civilian population. Kamikaze drones and missiles are attacking all of Ukraine. A residential building was hit in Kyiv," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

"The enemy can attack our cities, but it won't be able to break us. The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations. And we will get victory."

There was no immediate word on casualties from the blasts. Ukraine said the Kyiv attacks used Iran-made 'suicide drones,' which fly to their target and detonate, which Russia has increasingly deployed in recent weeks. Iran denies supplying drones to Russia. The Kremlin has not commented.