TOP HEADLINES

· Russian President Vladimir Putin declared martial law in four regions of Ukraine recently absorbed by Moscow. Putin's decree to introduce military rule in the Moscow-controlled regions, which the UN says he has attemnpted to "illegally annex" also gives additional power to authorities in Russian border areas and comes after a string of battlefield defeats. READ MORE BELOW

· Pro-Kremlin officials in Kherson said they had begun moving civilians from its main city, as Ukrainian forces advance south. Russia's Rossiya 24 TV showed images of people waiting to board ferries to cross the river. READ MORE BELOW

· A Kyiv-appointed official in Ukraine's Kherson region said the announced evacuation of civilians from the region's eponymous main city was the equivalent of deportation. "We see that the evacuation announced in Kherson is equal to deportation. Its purpose is to create a kind of panic in Kherson and a propaganda picture," Sergiy Khlan, the deputy head of the Kherson region, said during a press conference.

· The Russian military said the situation for its troops on the ground in Ukraine was "tense", after several major setbacks in the east and south. "The situation in the area of the special military operation can be described as tense. The enemy is not abandoning its attempts to attack Russian troop positions," General Sergey Surovikin, who has been in charge of operations in Ukraine for the past 10 days, told state television Rossiya 24.

· The head of Ukraine's state nuclear agency Energoatom said about 50 employees of the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine were held in Russian captivity. "More than 150 people from the staff of the plant were captured" since the start of the conflict, Petro Kotin said. "Some of them were later released, but there are those whose fate is still unknown. About 50 people are still in captivity," he said. "They are plant employees."

· Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow's widespread use of Iranian-made drones in recent attacks on his country was a symbol of the Kremlin's "military and political bankruptcy". But, he added, "strategically, it will not help them anyway."

· Western powers will raise alarm at a UN Security Council session over Russia's attacks in Ukraine with purported Iranian drones, as the European Union prepares sanctions. The United States, France and Britain requested the discussion, which will take place behind closed doors at the Security Council, diplomats said.

· Around five million people, from the parts of Ukraine that Moscow has claimed to have absorbed, have left for Russia, said the secretary of Russia's National Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, referring to the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. He gave no details of how they arrived in the country or within what time frame.

· Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said "several Russian rockets" had been downed over the Ukrainian capital after AFP news agency reporters heard loud explosions in the centre of the city. "Air defenses have shot down several Russian rockets over Kyiv. Stay in shelters!" Klitschko said on social media.

· Israel will not send weapons to Ukraine, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said, two days after Russia warned that an Israeli move to bolster Kyiv's forces would severely damage relations. "Our policy vis-a-vis Ukraine will not change - we will continue to support and stand with the West, we will not provide weapon systems," Gantz told a briefing of European Union ambassadors, according to a statement from his office. 

· Russia's missile and drone attacks on power stations and other infrastructure in Ukraine are "acts of pure terror" that amount to war crimes, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

IN DETAIL

Putin declares martial law in recently absorbed regions

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared martial law in four regions of Ukraine recently absorbed by Moscow as his proxy officials in a southern-held city pulled out with Ukraine troops advancing.

Putin's decree to introduce military rule in the Moscow-controlled regions also gives additional power to authorities in Russian border areas and comes after a string of battlefield defeats.

"We are working on solving very complex large-scale tasks to ensure security and protect the future of Russia," Putin said. 

The decree gives greater powers to limit movement to, from and within the areas and allows for the residents of those territories to be moved to "safe zones".

Moscow is 'expecting to evacuate between 50,000 and 60,000 people' from Kherson

Moscow-installed authorities in Ukraine's southern Kherson region said they planned to evacuate some 50,000 civilians due to a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

"We are expecting to evacuate between 50,000 and 60,000 people to the left bank of the Dnipro," pro-Kremlin official Vladimir Saldo said on the Telegram channel Solovyov Live.

Saldo said he expected the evacuation to take six days and RIA Novosti news agency reported that evacuations by boat had already begun.

Citing another pro-Russian official, it said that the evacuees could travel to Russia.

RIA Novosti said local residents had received text messages urging them to evacuate "before the Ukrainian army begins bombing".

Russia's military commander for Ukraine operations said Russian forces were planning a "safe evacuation".

The city of Kherson and the surrounding region were captured by Russian forces at the beginning of the conflict in the spring.

Ukraine mounted a counteroffensive in the south at the end of the summer and has been pushing closer to Kherson.

Ukrainian advances have been on the right bank of the Dnipro, where Kherson is located, and Ukrainian strikes have targeted bridges to the left bank to disrupt supply lines.

Russian general Sergey Surovikin said on Russian state channel Rossiya 24 that the Russian army "will above all ensure the safe evacuation of the population".

Surovikin said Ukrainian strikes targeting civilian infrastructure "create a direct threat to the lives of residents".