Russia-Ukraine War News: Shelling cuts power to Ukraine nuclear site

The United States will soon be unable to provide Ukraine with certain types of ammunition that are essential to Kyiv's battle against Russia's invasion, as supplies are being used up faster than they can be replaced. Washington has become by far the largest supplier of arms to Ukraine since Russia launched the invasion on February 24, with more than $16.8 billion in military assistance provided since that date.

A series of explosions rocked the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv early Saturday, sending towering plumes of illuminated smoke into the sky and triggering a series of secondary explosions. There were no immediate reports of casualties

US President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin's threat to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine has brought the world closer to "Armageddon" than at any time since the Cold-War Cuban Missile Crisis, and human rights campaigners of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Britain on Friday rejected Russia's call for a secret ballot in the UN General Assembly next week on whether to condemn Moscow's move to annex four partially occupied regions in Ukraine and requested that the 193-member body vote publicly. Moscow has moved to annex four partially occupied regions in Ukraine - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia - after staging what it called referendums. Ukraine and allies have denounced the votes as illegal and coercive.

The head of Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz criticised local authorities on Friday for turning on the heating too soon before what is likely to be a difficult winter following Russia's invasion. "Warm and sunny weather in Kyiv. Daytime up to +19 (degrees Celsius/66 degrees Fahrenheit). It is only the beginning of October, and local authorities in Ukrainian cities make a decision to start the heating (season)," Yuriy Vitrenko wrote on Facebook. "If heating facilities' workers bought gas at the market price and paid for it in full, it would be a different situation," he wrote.

Russian forces are advancing on Bakhmut, threatening to take some of the shine off weeks of Ukrainian victories, as life becomes more desperate for the eastern town's hard-pressed residents.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday congratulated the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize -- three rights groups from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus -- saying the win "shines a spotlight on the power of civil society to advance peace." "Civil society groups are the oxygen of democracy, and catalysts for peace, social progress and economic growth," Guterres said. "They help keep governments accountable and carry the voices of the vulnerable into the halls of power," he added, calling on the world to support "the brave defenders of universal values of peace, hope and dignity for all" in the face of increasing attacks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin should face an "international tribunal", the head of Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties said Friday after the group was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. To "give the hundreds of thousands of victims of war crimes a chance to see justice... it is necessary to create an international tribunal and bring Putin, (Belarus President Alexander) Lukashenko and other war criminals to justice," Oleksandra Matviychuk said on Facebook.

The Ukrainian presidency said Friday that the people of Ukraine, under Russian attacks since February, were "architects of peace," after a Ukrainian NGO became the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. "The Ukrainian people are the main architects of peace, in which we must be able to exist without aggression," presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on social media.

At least five people were killed and as many injured after Ukrainian forces shelled a bus in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's southern Kherson region, Russia's TASS news agency reported on Friday. Russian-installed authorities in the region said the strike took place as the bus drove civilians across a bridge near the village of Darivka.

"You gained the reputation of a national leader selflessly devoted to the Fatherland, sincerely loving the Motherland and giving all its strength to it," the patriarch said. The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church since 2009, Kirill has been a vocal supporter of the military operation in Ukraine. He has close ties with Putin's government, backing conversative values over Western liberalism.

As he turns 70, Russian President Vladimir Putin finds himself in the eye of a storm of his own making: His army is suffering humiliating defeats in Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of Russians are fleeing his mobilisation order, and his top lieutenants are publicly insulting military leaders.

They were honored last year for “their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”