TOP HEADLINES

· Russian-backed authorities urged residents in the southern Kherson region to leave the main city "immediately" in the face of Kyiv's advancing counter-offensive. The call came as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched 36 rockets overnight in a "massive attack" on Ukraine. READ MORE BELOW

· Russia said its forces had prevented an attempt by Ukraine to break through its line of control in the Kherson region, where it anticipates a wider Ukrainian counteroffensive.

· Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian aggressor continued to terrorize Ukraine. "At night, the enemy launched a massive attack: 36 rockets, most of which were shot down... These are vile strikes on critical objects. Typical tactics of terrorists," Zelenskyy said on social media.

·  Kyiv's energy operator said scheduled power cuts have been introduced in the Ukrainian capital after repeated Russian strikes on the country's energy infrastructure. "On October 23, stabilization shutdowns were introduced in Kyiv by national energy operator Ukrenergo to avoid accidents," energy company DTEK said in a statement, adding that the blackouts should last "no more than four hours" but may be longer "due to the scale of damage to the power supply system". 

· More than a million households in Ukraine were left without electricity following Russian strikes on energy facilities across the country, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidency said. "As of now, 672,000 subscribers have been disconnected in Khmelnytskyi region, 188,400 in Mykolaiv region, 102,000 in Volyn region, 242,000 in Cherkasy region, 174,790 in Rivne region, 61,913 in Kirovograd region and 10,500 in Odesa region," Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on social media.

· Fresh Russian strikes targeted energy infrastructure in Ukraine's west, national energy operator Ukrenergo said, with officials in several regions reporting outages. Russians "carried out another missile attack on energy facilities of the main networks of Ukraine's western regions. The scale of the damage is comparable or may exceed the consequences of the attack on October 10-12," the company said on social media.

· Some parts of Ukraine are reducing their electricity use by up to 20 percent after Russian strikes hit output, according to Ukrenergo. "We are grateful to both people, who have reduced their consumption at home, and to businesses, who are doing the same in their offices and workplaces. We see savings in different regions and on different days the level of voluntary consumption reduction ranges from five to 20 percent on average," Ukrenergo chief Volodymyr Kudrytskyi said.  

· Two civilians were killed following strikes on Russia's southern Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. "There are two dead among civilians," Gladkov said on social media following shelling on "civilian infrastructure" in the town of Shebekino, where nearly 15,000 people were left without electricity.

· Tehran warned European countries against "provocative approaches", after they urged a UN probe into Iranian drones the West says Russia is using in Ukraine. In a letter to the United Nations a day earlier, France, Britain and Germany called for an "impartial" investigation into the matter, after the EU and Britain slapped new sanctions on Tehran this week. Iran has denied supplying Russia with weapons for use in Ukraine, and Moscow has accused the West of seeking to put "pressure" on Tehran with the allegations.

· The Group of Seven industrial powers condemned Russia's kidnapping of Ukrainian leaders at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and called for the immediate return of full control of the plant to Ukraine.

IN DETAIL

Russian-backed authorities ask Kherson residents to leave 'immediately'

Russian-backed authorities urged residents in the southern Kherson region to leave the main city "immediately" in the face of Kyiv's advancing counter-offensive.

The call came as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched 36 rockets overnight in a "massive attack" on Ukraine, following reported strikes on energy infrastructure that resulted in power outages across the country.

And Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida became the latest world leader to reproach Moscow for its talk of using nuclear weapons.

Kyiv's forces have been advancing along the west bank of the Dnipro river, towards the Kherson region's eponymous main city.

Kherson was the first major city to fall to Moscow's troops, and retaking it would be a major prize in Ukraine's counteroffensive.

In recent days, Russia has been moving residents in the region - which Moscow claims to have absorbed in September, a move that UN says is an "illegal attempted annexation"  - in efforts Kyiv has denounced as "deportations".

"Due to the tense situation on the front, the increased danger of mass shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians must immediately leave the city and cross to the left bank," of the Dnipro river, the region's Russian-backed authorities announced on social media.

A Moscow-installed official in Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, told Russian news agency Interfax that around 25,000 people had made the crossing.

Sergiy Khlan, the Ukrainian deputy head of the Kherson region, said Russians were removing property and documents from banks and the passport office as they withdrew.

Ukraine's general staff said Moscow's forces had abandoned two more settlements in Kherson and were evacuating medical personnel from a third, accusing them of looting local civilians.