Russia-Ukraine war live news: Kyiv region and Zaporizhzhia hit by fresh strikes, local officials say

The United Nations is using before-and-after satellite imagery to systematically monitor the cultural destruction inflicted on Ukraine by Russia’s war, announcing it will launch its tracking platform publicly within weeks.

The platform, to be launched by the UN’s culture agency Unesco, will assess the impact on Ukraine’s architecture, art, historic buildings and other cultural heritage.

An initial list found damage to 207 cultural sites since the Russian invasion began eight months ago, including 88 religious sites, 15 museums, 76 buildings of historical and or artistic interest, 18 monuments and 10 libraries.

Russian forces reportedly struck the Kyiv region overnight, according to local media reports and regional officials.

Kyiv regional governor, Oleksiy Kuleba, did not disclose the location of the attack but said that rescue workers were on site. Posting an update via the Telegram messaging app, he wrote:

The Russians terrorise the Kyiv region at night. We have several arrivals in one of the communities of the region.

Rescuers and all emergency services are on the scene. The elimination of the fire and the consequences of the impact is ongoing.”

The Kyiv city state administration issued air raid alarm alerts around midnight on Wednesday, urging residents to seek shelter.

Russian forces also reportedly hit the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia in what is believed to be another overnight attack.

Acting mayor of Zaporizhzhia Anatoly Kurtev reported that Russian forces struck the city as well as its surrounding area, causing a fire.

Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next few hours.

Russian forces reportedly struck the Kyiv region and the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, according to local media reports and regional officials.

Ukrainian troops are poised to battle for the strategic southern Kherson region, which Russia appears to be reinforcing with more troops and supplies.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy hinted that there would be good news from the front but he gave no details in his latest national address.

If you have just joined us, here are all the latest developments:

• The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is said to have monitored drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces involving multiple launches of ballistic and cruise missiles. The defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, reported to Putin that the exercise was intended to simulate a “massive nuclear strike” by Russia in retaliation for a nuclear attack. The drills were seen as a continuation of Moscow’s unfounded dirty bomb claims.

• The prospect of bitter urban fighting for Kherson came closer as Russian-installed authorities told residents to move to the east bank of the Dnieper river. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said there was no sign Russian forces were preparing to abandon the city.

• Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russian forces in Kherson was proving more difficult than it was in the north-east because of wet weather and the terrain, Ukraine’s defence minister said.

• About 70,000 civilians had left their homes in Kherson province in the space of a week, a Moscow-installed official, Vladimir Saldo, told a regional TV channel.

• Ukraine is advising refugees living abroad not to return until the spring amid mounting fears over whether the country’s damaged energy infrastructure can handle winter. With a third of the country’s energy sector compromised, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, warned: “The networks will not cope … You see what Russia is doing. We need to survive the winter.”

• About 1,000 bodies – including civilians and children – have been exhumed in the recently liberated Kharkiv region, media reports say. This includes the 447 bodies found at the mass burial site in Izium.

• Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, said he did not believe Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, would use nuclear weapons. Putin has said repeatedly that Russia has the right to defend itself using any weapons in its arsenal, which includes the world’s largest nuclear stockpile.

• Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, held a phone call with his Indian and Chinese counterparts and raised Russia’s purported concerns about the possible use of a “dirty bomb” by Ukraine, Shoigu’s ministry said. It followed calls between Shoigu and Nato defence ministers on the topic. There is no evidence to support Russia’s “dirty bomb” claim.

• The UN culture agency, Unesco, has said it is using before-and-after satellite imagery to monitor the cultural destruction inflicted by Russia’s war in Ukraine, and would make its tracking platform public soon. Unesco said it had verified damage to 207 cultural sites including religious sites, museums, buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, monuments and libraries.

• The United Nations’ aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said he was “relatively optimistic” that a UN-brokered deal allowing Black Sea grain exports from Ukraine would be extended beyond mid-November. Griffiths travelled to Moscow with senior UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan this month for discussions with Russian officials on the deal, which also aims to facilitate exports of Russian grain and fertiliser to global markets.

• The remains of a US citizen killed in fighting in Ukraine were released to Ukrainian authorities and would soon be returned to the person’s family, a US state department spokesperson said.

• The European Union could introduce a gas price cap this winter to limit price spikes if countries give Brussels a mandate to propose the measure.

• EU regulators are considering extending easier state-aid rules that allow governments to support businesses affected by the war in Ukraine to the end of 2023, and with bigger amounts permitted, the competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, has said. The more flexible rules were introduced in March and revised in July.