A woman holds a child outside a residential building struck overnight by a Russian attack, October 30, 2025

Wednesday’s Coverage: Kyiv Strikes Oil Refineries and Chemical Plant in Western Russia

UPDATE 1355 GMT:

Ukraine has closed its embassy in Havana, downgrading diplomatic ties because of Cuban citizens recruited to fight Russia’s full-scale war.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha posted, as Ukraine voted against a resolution in the UN General Assembly to end the US embargo against Cuba:

Our vote is not against the Cuban people — we respect their right to live in prosperity. It is against the inaction of Cuba’s authorities in response to massive recruitment of Cuban citizens to the Russian occupation army.

Thousands of them have signed contracts, joining the ranks of soldiers directly engaged in combat operations on Ukrainian soil.

Earlier this month, the US claimed an “estimated 1,000 to 5,000 Cubans fighting in Ukraine”. Cuba’s Foreign Ministry said Washington was making “false accusations”.

UPDATE 1024 GMT:

Russian commanders are executing soldiers or deliberately sending them to their deaths if they refuse to fight in Ukraine, reports the independent Russian outlet Verstka.

The site verified at least 150 deaths, saying the actual number is far higher. It identified 101 Russian servicemen accused of murdering, torturing, or fatally punishing their comrades.

The report is based on testimonies from serving soldiers, relatives of the dead, leaked videos, and official complaint records.

Some troops were sent on suicide missions, deployed as “mayachki” (beacons) to walk ahead of assault groups without equipment to draw enemy fire.

Soldiers said commanders appointed “execution shooters” to open fire on troops and dump their bodies in rivers or shallow graves, registering them as killed in action. Commanders used drones and explosives to “finish off” wounded or retreating soldiers. In several cases, officers ordered drone operators to drop grenades on their own men, disguising the killings as battlefield strikes.

Troops who disobeyed orders were reportedly thrown into pits covered with metal grates, doused with water and beaten for hours or even days. In some instances, they were forced to fight each other in gladiator-style battles to the death.

Several killings were linked to demands by commanders for payments from troops in exchange for avoidance of suicide missions. Those who could not or would not pay were “zeroed”.

Most of the identified perpetrators are mid-ranking officers in their 30s and 40s, many of them veterans of earlier Russian campaigns or transfers from penal battalions. Few if any have faced prosecution.

Official data show the Russian military prosecutor’s office received almost 29,000 complaints from soldiers and families in the first half of 2025, more than 12,000 of which related to punishment by superiors.

An official in the prosecutor’s office said there is an informal ban on investigations against commanders serving in combat zones: “They say: ‘If we open this, it could harm operations.’ That means these officers have total impunity.”

UPDATE 0856 GMT:

The toll has risen to two murdered and 15 wounded by Russia’s overnight strikes on the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine.

UPDATE 0721 GMT:

Russia’s overnight missile and drone assault struck multiple thermal power plants across Ukraine, says the country’s largest private energy company DTEK.

“The attacks caused fires at the facilities and resulted in damage to power plant equipment. Following the strikes, energy workers immediately began damage assessment and recovery operations,” DTEK said in a statement.

The attack was the third on thermal power plants in a month. Three energy workers were injured in previous assaults.

UPDATE 0553 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged that the situation around Pokrovsk, the city in eastern Ukraine which Russia has tried to overrun since July 2024, is “the most difficult … with the most intensive combat activity, with a strong concentration of Russian forces”.

Earlier this week, the Ukrainian military said around 200 Russian infantry had infiltrated the city, a logistics hub in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine’s 7th Corps said Russia has deployed about 11,000 troops in an attempt to encircle the Pokrovsk area. Ukrainian war monitor DeepState said Russia had broken a military logistics route to Pokrovsk’s neighboring city of Myrnohrad using infantry ambushes and drone attacks.

Zelensky said the situation around Kupyansk, around 214 km (133 miles) to the north in the Kharkiv region, “remains difficult, but our forces have more control in recent days. We are continuing to defend our positions.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Emergency power outages have imposed on most regions of Ukraine amid Russia’s latest massive missile and drone attack targeting energy infrastructure.

State-owned energy grid operator Ukrenergo told consumers, “If you currently have electricity, please consume it sparingly.”

Ukraine’s air defense tried to intercept Iran-type attack drones, cruise and ballistic missiles, and hypersonic Kinzhal missiles.

In the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine, 15 civilians were injured as two industrial enterprises and residential buildings were damaged by the launch of eight missiles and 20 drones.

Among the victims were six children, aged 3 to 6. Rescuers are searching for one person under the rubble.

In the Kyiv region, a 36-year-old woman was injured in the attacks on residences.

Explosions were also reported in the Khmelnytskyi and Ivano-Frankivsk regions in western Ukraine. The mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk city, Ruslan Martsinkiv, said there could be interruptions to electricity supply.

On Wednesday morning, a Russian artillery strike on a children’s hospital injured nine civilians, including four juveniles, in Kherson city in southern Ukraine.