Moscow links the extension of the Black Sea agreement to facilitating its exports of grain and fertilizers

Zelensky pledges not to give up "an inch" to Russia in eastern Ukraine

Ukrainians wait in line for free meals in Kyiv.

EPA

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged that his forces would not give up "even an inch" in the ongoing battles for control of the eastern Donetsk region, while Russian-appointed officials spoke of Ukrainian forces storming a southern town with tanks, and Russia said it did not see any progress so far in facilitating its exports of oil. Fertilizers and grains, which are part of the Black Sea grain agreement, are considered essential by Moscow to extend the initiative beyond next week.

"The Russians are still very active ... dozens of attacks every day," Zelensky said in his video address on Tuesday night.

"They are incurring huge losses," he said.

But it is still the same, progress towards the administrative boundaries of the Donetsk region.

We will not give up an inch of our land.”

The area is one of four that Russia announced it had annexed in late September.

Fighting has continued there between the Ukrainian army and Russia's proxy forces since 2014, the same year that Moscow annexed Crimea in the south.

The Russian TASS news agency reported that the Ukrainian armed forces used the US-made HIMARS multiple launcher system, and fired two missiles at the city of Stakhanov in Luhansk.

It added that four civilians there were killed by a missile launch on Sunday evening.

In his speech, Zelensky said that about four million people were without electricity in 14 regions, in addition to the capital, Kyiv.

The company, Orenergo, operator of the Ukrainian electric network, said that alternating power cuts every hour would affect the entire country.

Russian missile and drone attacks have targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure in the past few weeks, as winter approaches, when average temperatures usually drop to several degrees below zero, sometimes to minus 20.

Next week, the United Nations General Assembly is expected to vote on a bill that states that Russia should be held responsible for compensating Ukraine for damages caused by "deliberate impermissible acts".

The text of the draft resolution was submitted by Ukraine, Canada, Guatemala and the Netherlands.

Iran has expressed its readiness to contribute to "putting an end" to the war between Moscow and Kiev, according to what the Secretary of its Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani told his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev, in Tehran yesterday.

The Russian official's visit comes in light of the rapprochement witnessed for months by the relations between Tehran and Moscow, which are subject to US sanctions.

It also comes as Kyiv and its Western allies accuse Russia of using Iranian-made drones to attack Ukrainian targets, most notably energy facilities.

After Iran has repeatedly denied sending weapons to any party "for use in war", it admitted for the first time last week that it had supplied Russia with such aircraft before the war began in late February.

Yesterday, Shamkhani reiterated Tehran's support for "any initiative for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine based on dialogue," according to the official IRNA news agency, and affirmed his country's readiness to "play a role in putting an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine."

For its part, the Russian Security Council said in a statement that the two sides "exchanged views on a series of international problems, especially the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East."

On the other hand, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that the United States and the European Union pose obstacles to Russian exports, adding that it was not yet clear whether Russia would extend its participation in the initiative, which ends on November 19.

"The United States and the European Union continue to put obstacles in the way of the export of Russian fertilizers and grains.

We will take this into account when deciding whether to extend the grain agreement.”

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