Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining us, here's a look back over the key developments from the last couple of hours:

• A Russian strike on Odesa this morning has killed eight people with 39 others injured, according to the head of the regional administration
• In Sumy,eleven people have been killed and 63 injured after a Russian missile struck a residential neighbourhood

• Separately, Ukrainian police says four people have been killed in the country's Kherson region. It follows attacks that took place in the Kherson and Berislavsky districts yesterday

• A little earlier, Moscow accused President Biden of "adding oil to the fire" by giving Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles supplied by Washington
• Russia's Ministry of Defence has indicated they have claimed a further village in the Donetsk region amid an ongoing offensive in the area, the BBC has not yet been able to verify this claim

We can now bring you more information on an earlier strike by Russia on civilian infrastructure in Odesa.

Oleh Kiper, Odesa's regional head, says that eight people, including emergency service workers and civilians were killed.

He adds that a total of 39 people have been injured in the strike, including four children.

There are 30 adults being treated in hospital for their injuries, and three are in "extremely serious condition", Kiper adds.

Image source, State Emergency Service Of Ukraine Handout

The strike in Odesa shows that Russia is only interested in war, and nations of the G20 - currently meeting for a summit in Rio - and beyond should take note of that, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says.

The missile attack damaged multiple buildings in a residential area of the south-western city, killing at least eight people and injuring at least 18 others, Zelensky says.

Reacting on Telegram, he offers his condolences to those affected, then says "these are not random shots - they are indicative shots".

"Russia shows what it is really interested in: only war. And this signal should be heard in all parts of the world, from the halls where the members of the 'Group of Twenty' meet to all the capitals of the world."

Germany stands by its decision to not provide long-range missiles to Ukraine, a German government spokesperson says.

The spokesperson was asked whether there may be a shift in policy after the US's decision to allow Ukraine to fire long-range missiles into Russian territory.

"The chancellor's decision is unchanged," the spokesperson says.

Germany is Ukraine's second-biggest donor of military aid after the US, but chancellor Olaf Scholz has chosen not to equip Ukraine with German-made long-range Taurus missiles.

The German leader faced controversy last week after speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone, a move which his Ukrainian counterpart labelled "Pandora's box" and that it weakened Putin's isolation.

Ione Wells
Reporting from G20 in Rio

Image source, Reuters

The news of this highly sensitive decision dropped while Joe Biden was in the Amazon rainforest.

Unsurprisingly, he didn't mention it in his speech there.

That visit was an attempt to make climate change action a defining part of his legacy and was part of an announcement to commit tens of millions more dollars towards preserving the Amazon specifically, as well as billions for climate change initiatives.

President Biden warned against undoing this work.

But he did not name Donald Trump specifically, who has previously questioned climate change, vowed to increase oil and gas drilling, and roll back some of Joe Biden’s green investments.

This pretty private visit meant he was very far from the media spotlights of the G20 summit when the news came. But here the Ukraine decision – and the question of whether Donald Trump will sustain the same level of US support for Ukraine as president – is key.

Ukrainian authorities have arrested and charged four residents in the Kharkiv Region on suspicion of working for Russia's military intelligence (GRU).

The Kharkiv regional prosecutor's office says a software engineer, a veteran and two unemployed men are accused of collecting information on locations of the Ukrainian military in the area and passing on marked maps to Russian contacts.

It further alleges that they blew up the car of a Ukrainian soldier, leaving him seriously injured, planned to derail a train carrying military equipment to the front line and that one of the accused built home-made explosives.

Russia's Ministry of Defence says its forces have claimed another village - Novooleksandrivka - in the Donetsk region.

It comes as Russia continues its broader offensive in the area, during which it has gradually been making gains towards the small mining city of Pokrovsk - a logistics hub used by Ukrainian forces.

The BBC is unable to independently verify Russia's claim, but the fighting around Pokrovsk is some of the most intense in recent weeks as Russian forces work their way north-west.

We've just had an update from Oleh Kiper, the head of the Odesa regional administration, on the Russian strike this morning.

In a post on Telegram, he says the Russian attack on the Black Sea port city in southern Ukraine has killed eight people.

Kiper adds that 18 others have been wounded - four seriously. Among the injured is a child, he says.

Russia has launched a missile attack on Odesa, in the south-west of the country, according to the head of the region in Ukraine.

Oleh Kiper says "there are victims and wounded", without specifying the number of people.

He says civil infrastructure, including residential buildings, were damaged in the attack.

America has led the way on supporting Ukraine with military aid. Up to the end of August, data from the Kiel Institute shows that the US has sent $61.1bn worth of weapons and equipment to its ally - $50bn more than the UK.

But, with Joe Biden leaving the White House in January, there are concerns in Ukraine that his successor Donald Trump may slow or stop any further support.

The West needs to calculate how far it can go with support for Ukrainepublished at 10:49 Greenwich Mean Time 18 November

10:49 GMT 18 November

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

From the moment Russian forces launched their full-scale assault on Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Nato, the West and specifically the White House, had one, overriding challenge: how to provide Ukraine with enough military support without getting dragged into direct confrontation with Russia?

That challenge remains today.

The more hawkish commentators in the West, including former US and British generals, have argued that Russia's President Putin's repeated threats of retaliation were always hollow bluffs, that they were intended simply to scare Nato away from sending the sort of weapons Ukraine desperately needed.

Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Adviser, is known to be especially cautious on this issue and was said to have been irritated by Britain’s forward-leaning stance on sending heavy weapons like main battle tanks and F-16 fighter jets.

Ultimately, Putin knows that the old Cold War concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) still stands today.

Russia may have the world's largest arsenal of nuclear warheads but he knows that were they ever to be used against Western cities then Moscow would be obliterated within minutes.

However, there are many other, less apocalyptic ways in which Russia could respond to the use of ATACMS missiles against Russia, including sabotaging undersea cables and arming Yemen's Houthis with powerful, anti-ship missiles.

Image source, Reuters

Ukraine has been asking for permission to use these missiles to strike within Russian territory for months.

The timing coincides with expectations Russia could launch a major assault to dislodge Ukraine's forces from the Russian Kursk region any day now.

Ukraine may use the US-supplied ATACMS to defend against the assault, targeting Russian positions including military bases, infrastructure and ammunition storage.

The supply of the missiles will probably not be enough to turn the tide of the war - Russian military equipment, such as jets, has already been moved to airfields further inside Russia in anticipation of such a decision. But, hundreds of Russian military objects do remain within range of the missiles, the Institute for the Study of War says.

With the new range, Ukraine could hope to alleviate at least some of the pressure on the front line.

The weapons may grant Ukraine some advantage at a time when Russian troops have been gaining ground in the country's east and morale is low.

We can now bring you more lines from former US special representative for Ukraine negotiations Kurt Volker's interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Asked about the recent deployment of thousands of North Korean troops to support Russia in the war, Volker says this is a "fairly minor thing" given all the support North Korea has provided Russia.

He points out that North Korea has given Russia the majority of its artillery shells.

"Russia burns through anywhere from 1200-1500 troops a day, so 12,000 North Korean troops will replace 12,000 Russian soldiers in a couple of weeks," he says.

Four people were killed and 10 others injured in Ukraine's Kherson region as a result of Russian attacks, Ukrainian police say.

The Kherson and Berislavsky districts were subjected to artillery shelling, rocket salvos, mortars and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) yesterday, according to police.

Two high-rise buildings, 12 houses, two cars, a post office and a garage were damaged in the attacks.

Russia launched a significant wave of air strikes on Ukraine over the weekend, including a missile attack which killed at least 11 people in the city of Sumy.

Ukraine's emergency services have released this video of firefighters and other rescuers responding the aftermath of the deadly strike last night.

If you're just joining us now, or want a recap, here's the latest:

• Moscow says President Biden is adding "oil to the fire" of the conflict, after reports that the outgoing US leader has given Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles inside Russia
• While the US government has not confirmed the reports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says "such things are not announced. Missiles will speak for themselves"
• It is understood that the decision is a direct response to North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian forces

• Kurt Volker, a former US special representative for Ukraine negotiations, tells the BBC the policy change is "long overdue" and that international law does not restrict the range of missile use

• On the ground, eleven people have been killed and 63 others injured after a Russian missile struck a residential neighbourhood in the Ukrainian city of Sumy overnight, local officials report

Steve Rosenberg
BBC Russia editor

Asked about President Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to strike Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles, President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin had "noted these reports".

"If such a decision has been taken," he added, "it means a whole new spiral of tension and a whole new situation with regard to US involvement in this conflict".

Peskov accused the Biden administration of "adding fuel to the fire and continuing to stoke tension around this conflict".

Western leaders argue that it's Russia that started this war with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine – and that it's Moscow which is now escalating the conflict by deploying thousands of North Korean troops to the war zone to fight alongside Russian forces.

If missiles provided by the US are fired deep into Russia, Moscow will view the attack as not from Ukraine, but from the US itself, a statement from the Kremlin this morning says.

It adds that Russia and Putin have made their positions very clear, and that the decision by the US indicates a new level of involvement of Washington in the conflict.

The statement further said it was "obvious" that the outgoing Biden administration intends to take steps to add "oil to the fire" and provoke further escalation of tension around this conflict.

Image source, Shutterstock

Donald Trump is due to return to the White House in just two months' time.

He has already said he intends to bring the war in Ukraine to a swift end – without specifying how he plans to do it – and he could cancel the use of the missiles once he takes office.

President-elect Trump has not yet said whether he would continue Biden's new missile policy, but some of his closest allies have already criticised it.

Donald Trump Jr, Trump's son, wrote on social media: "The military industrial complex seems to want to make sure they get World War Three going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives."

Many of Trump's top officials, such as Vice President-elect JD Vance, say the US should not provide any more military aid to Ukraine.

But others in the next Trump administration hold a different view. National Security Adviser Michael Waltz has argued that the US could accelerate weapons deliveries to Ukraine to force Russia to negotiate.

Which way the president-elect will go is unclear. But many in Ukraine fear that he will cut off weapons deliveries, including ATACMS.

Ukraine has already been using the US long-range Army Tactical Missile System - ATACMS - to strike Russian targets in occupied Ukrainian territory for more than a year.

But the decision by President Biden will allow Kyiv to strike inside Russia itself, with missiles that have a range of some 300km (190 miles).