Russia-Ukraine war live: fresh missile strikes on Zaporizhzhia region; Zelenskiy says Russians ‘planning something in the south’

In his late-night update, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote on Telegram: “Despite extremely big Russian losses, the occupiers are still trying to advance in the Donetsk region, gain a foothold in the Luhansk region, move in the Kharkiv region, they are planning something in the south.

“But we are holding out and – most importantly – do not allow the enemy to fulfil their intentions.”

Oleksandr Starukh, the head of Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said on Telegram early on Wednesday morning that Russian strikes in the region overnight hit a gas distribution point, causing a fire that has since been extinguished. There were no injuries or casualties.

“In one of the settlements of the Zaporizhzhia district, a gas distribution point was damaged as a result of a rocket (probably S-300) hit, resulting in a fire. It was quickly eliminated, but three streets remained without gas. Fortunately, people were not hurt,” he wrote.

Hi, this is the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Sullivan.

Oleksandr Starukh, the Head of Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, said on Telegram a short while ago that Russian strikes overnight hit a gas distribution point, causing a fire that has since been extinguished. There were no injuries or casualties.

In his late night update, Ukraine’s president, Vlodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote on Telegram, “Despite extremely big Russian losses, the occupiers are still trying to advance in the Donetsk region, gain a foothold in the Luhansk region, move in the Kharkiv region, they are planning something in the south.”

“But we are holding out and – most importantly – do not allow the enemy to fulfil their intentions.”

Meanwhile Nato leaders will meet for a second day of talks in Romania on Wednesday, after vowing more help for Ukraine to restore power and heat knocked out by strikes as Russia attacks on multiple fronts.

Here are the other key recent developments:

• Nato doubled down on Tuesday on its commitment to one day include Ukraine, a pledge that some officials and analysts believe helped prompt Russia’s invasion this year. The world’s largest security alliance also pledged to send more aid to Ukrainian forces locked in battle with Russian troops.

• Ukraine’s supplies of spare parts for its battered electricity grid are running out amid sustained Russian bombing. European companies are being asked to urgently donate surplus kit to help the country get through the winter, after the latest step in Russian bombings targeting power plants and substations resulted in power cuts lasting 48 hours or more across the country.

• Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned Nato against providing Ukraine with Patriot missile defence systems and called the alliance a “criminal entity”. “If, as [Nato secretary general Jens] Stoltenberg hinted, Nato were to supply the Ukrainian fanatics with Patriot systems along with Nato personnel, they would immediately become a legitimate target of our armed forces,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram.

• Ukrainian forces struck a power plant in multiple attacks on Russia’s Kursk region on Tuesday, causing some electricity outages, the local governor said. “In total, there were about 11 launches. A power plant was hit,” Roman Starovoyt, the governor of the Kursk region, said on the Telegram messaging app. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility and made no immediate comment.

• Ukraine’s state energy operator, Ukrenegro, has said it is still struggling to restore full power nearly a week after Russian strikes damaged energy facilities across the country. The power deficit was running at 30% as of 11am local time on Tuesday, Ukrenegro said in a statement, a slight rise from the previous day.

• The jailed Belarusian senior opposition leader, Maria Kolesnikava, has been taken to intensive care in the city of Gomel, according to reports. Belarusian opposition politician Viktor Babariko posted to Telegram that Kolesnikova, one of the most prominent opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko, was taken to hospital on Monday for unknown reasons.

• Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said Moscow had been left with “no other choice” but to cancel nuclear weapons talks with the US, state-run news agencies reported. He said it was unlikely any meeting would take place this year. Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, accused the US of “the highest level of toxicity and hostility” and of “a pathological desire to harm our country”.

• China’s president, Xi Jinping, has said Beijing is ready to “forge a closer partnership” with Moscow to “maintain international energy security”. “China is willing to work with Russia to forge a closer energy partnership, promote clean and green energy development and jointly maintain international energy security and the stability of industry supply chains,” Xi was cited by state-owned broadcaster CCTV as writing.

• Ukraine has detained a deputy head of newly liberated Kherson’s city council on suspicion of aiding and abetting Russian occupation forces, Ukraine’s state prosecutor has said. The official, who was not named, cooperated with the occupation authorities and helped with the functioning of public services under the Russians, according to the prosecutor.

• European Union countries are inching towards a deal this week on a price cap on Russian oil, a way to adjust the cap in future, and on linking it to a package of new sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, diplomats said on Tuesday. The deadline for a deal is 5 December because that is when the EU’s own full embargo on purchases of Russian seaborne oil, agreed at the end of May, kicks in.

• The G7 group has agreed to set up a network to coordinate investigations into war crimes, as part of a push to prosecute suspected atrocities in Ukraine. In a joint declaration, G7 justice ministers said member countries would ensure there is a central national contact point in each state for the prosecution of international crimes.

• Pope Francis has sparked fury in Russia over an interview in which he suggested that Chechen and Buryat members of its armed forces showed more cruelty in Ukraine than ethnic Russian soldiers. He said soldiers from Buryatia, where Buddhism is a major religion, and the Muslim-majority Chechnya republic, were “the cruellest” while fighting in Ukraine.

• Germany’s justice minister, Marco Buschmann, said his country contributed to the outbreak of war by “adhering” to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, despite Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Buschmann also said Russian missile strikes on energy infrastructure constituted a “terrible war crime”, adding that he was “certain that at the end, we will see war crimes cases at the international criminal court against senior Russian leadership too”.