Image source, Kremlin / Reuters

Russia's President Vladimir Putin often makes historical references in his speeches, usually as a way of reinforcing his messages, and there was an example today.

During a conference with teachers Putin questioned one at length about the causes of a 18th Century rebellion which shook Russia during the reign of Empress Catherine the Great.

The 1773-1775 Pugachev Rebellion saw a soldier, Yemelyan Pugachev, lead an insurgency against Catherine II’s imperial government. Pugachev was eventually executed in public on Moscow's Red Square.

Putin said one of the causes of the rebellion was "the weakness of central authority in the country".

In this instance, it was clear what lesson he thinks the Pugachev Rebellion teaches: the importance of the state staying strong.

Image source, Reuters

A group of the world's top oil-producing countries have announced they will make deep cuts to the amount of barrels they export in a decision expected to raise oil prices around the world.

Members of Opec+ - a group of countries including Russia and the United Arab Emirates - will slash their production by two million barrels per day.

The demand on the limited oil supply will provide a welcome income boost for Russia, which is facing financial pressure due to the war and international economic sanctions.

It will also mean higher prices for consumers, with news of the planned production cut pushing prices up by 1 per cent to $92.74 (£82.74) a barrel today.

Defending the decision, United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazroui said "the decision is technical, not political".

Image source, Reuters

The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, is on his way to Kyiv, to discuss the situation at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine.

Rafael Grossi tweeted that he was travelling for "important meetings".

The site of the plant has been shelled several times, with both sides blaming each other.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Secretary Sergei Lavrov said the plant would operate under Moscow's supervision.

But the head of Ukraine's state nuclear energy regulator Enerhoatom, Petro Kotin, said later he would be taking over running the plant from the capital Kyiv - although it is not clear how he will be able to do this from a distance.

Russia's Tass news agency says Grossi is due in Moscow later this week.

Image source, Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he expects the situation to "stabilise" in Ukrainian regions annexed by the Kremlin after Moscow suffered military setbacks and lost several key towns to Kyiv.

Ukraine earlier claimed victories over Russian troops in the eastern region of Luhansk as the Kremlin vowed to recapture territory lost in a Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Putin said so-called referendums on annexation held in four occupied provinces of Ukraine were "absolutely transparent".

The polls have been overwhelmingly condemned by global leaders, with widespread reports of Ukrainians being forced to vote by armed Russian soldiers.

Putin also said he was "surprised" by the result, which had been treated as a foregone conclusion by many Russian media figures.

Hugo Bachega
BBC News, Kyiv

After a breakthrough in the southern Kherson region, where several villages have been liberated along the Dnipro River, Ukrainian forces are pushing ahead in the east.

There, another milestone: troops have reclaimed six villages in Luhansk since Tuesday, Governor Serhiy Haidai told me.

These are small, but very symbolic gains. Luhansk is one of the two regions Russia claims to be “liberating” in the east – the other is Donetsk - and it has been controlled almost in its entirety by the invading forces since July.

The setbacks are humiliating for President Putin. But they did not stop him from signing legislation claiming that four regions of Ukraine - Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south - were being annexed by Russia, including territory his army does not control.

Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, said there was no contradiction. Those areas were forever Russian, he said, and would be returned. Ukraine and most countries say President Putin’s declaration is a flagrant violation of international law.

Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine's presidential office, said that what Russia was doing reminded him of a "collective madhouse". "Meaningless decisions by a terrorist country are not worth the paper they are signed on," he said on Telegram.

Jessica Parker
Reporting from Brussels

The EU has agreed another round of sanctions against Russia, the bloc’s eighth.

The measures include more restrictions on trade with Russia as well as moves to align with the G7’s planned price cap on Russian crude oil.

There’s been plenty of haggling over this package which is regarded by many as relatively weak compared to previous rounds.

Some hard-line countries, like Poland, are already pushing for more measures.

But each round of sanctions seems to be getting harder for the EU to agree.

Ukraine faces uphill struggle to gain Africa's supportpublished at 15:48 British Summer Time 5 October 2022

15:48 BST 5 October 2022

Beverly Ochieng
BBC Monitoring

Image source, Reuter

In the Ivory Coast, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is in the midst of a ten-day mission to drum up support from countries across Africa.

Kuleba says the visit is aimed at establishing a mutually beneficial “Ukrainian-African renaissance” amid contesting narratives in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February.

But he faces an uphill struggle to gain Africa's backing in the war against Russia, as leaders in the continent shrug off pressure to distance themselves from Vladimir Putin.

His inaugural visit to the region has so far received less public and media attention than that of his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in July.

The West has been criticised for pressuring African countries to condemn Russia. South Africa and Zimbabwe have urged the continent to reject plans by the US to punish countries sympathetic to Russia.

Ukrainian officials have been sharing pictures of what they say is evidence of torture in a village in Kharkiv region.

One of the images shows a box of gold teeth, allegedly torn from the mouths of captives. Another shows a gas mask, which officials say was stuffed with a burning rag.

The BBC has not confirmed the allegations, which Ukraine is investigating.

Russia has previously been accused of widespread human rights abuses in Ukraine - last month the BBC heard from one man who said he was tortured with electric shocks.

The country has previously denied torture.

Earlier we brought you the news of the death of Rory Mason, an Irishman killed while fighting with Ukraine's International Legion near the Russian border.

The Legion hailed Mason's contribution to Ukraine's defence and said in a statement that his "memory will live on in his unit, in the Legion and the Armed Forces of Ukraine".

Speaking of his decision to fight in the conflict, the 23-year-old's family said he had "had a deep sense of right and wrong and an inability to turn the other way in the face of injustice".

"We are enormously proud of his courage and determination and his selflessness in immediately enlisting to support Ukraine," the family added.

And Ukrainian MP Sviatoslav Yurash told the Irish broadcaster RTE that Mason, who joined the Legion in March, had answered the call made by the free world and would live on "in the pantheon of heroes".

Paul Adams
BBC Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Russia is putting a brave face on its recent losses, in the east and the south. But those losses are so dramatic that it’s hard to put a positive spin on them.

Russian forces have been constantly out-manoeuvred and out-thought by the Ukrainian military. As one Western official put it yesterday, “Ukrainian commanders are throwing problems at the Russian chain of command faster than the Russians can respond.”

Russia, of course, is in the middle of a major process of mobilisation. It’s chaotic and riddled with problems but it will, in time, generate a significant number of new troops. How effective they will be remains to be seen, but 200,000 men is not nothing.

Ukraine knows this and is keeping up the pace, trying to take as much ground as it can before Russia is able to strike back. It has no such manpower problems, and it’s getting more and more sophisticated Western equipment every day.

As things stand, it’s hard to see how Russia can regain any of the territory it has just retreated from. Its losses, in manpower, equipment and morale, have been quite staggering. It’s been many months since it could boast any significant achievements. Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, are exuding confidence.

This could change, but it would need several things to happen.

Russia’s newly conscripted soldiers would have to be put to effective use. Its commanders would have to show a great deal more creativity than they have so far. And the West would have to lose interest in Ukraine.

For Moscow, the omens are not good.

Image source, Getty Images

Amateur boxing's governing body has lifted a ban on Russian and Belarusian boxers taking part in its events.

The International Boxing Association (IBA) is led by Russian businessman Umar Kremlev and counts the Russian state-backed energy giant Gazprom among its chief sponsors.

The body said its board of directors had voted to repeal a ban issued in March and said it "strongly believes that politics shouldn’t have any influence on sports".

The body is currently locked in a dispute with the International Olympic Committee over its governance, having postponed its leadership elections.

Last week, the IBA suspended Ukraine in a dispute over who leads its local federation. The IBA does not recognise Kyrylo Shevchenko as the Ukrainian federation's president, insisting it is Volodymyr Prodyvus, an ally of Kremlev who left Ukraine after the Russian invasion.

Image source, Enerhoatom

As we reported earlier, Russia said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine would operate under Moscow's supervision.

The announcement came after the Kremlin had declared the annexation of the Zaporizhzhia region along with three others this week.

The Ukrainian director of the nuclear plant - Europe's biggest - was last week briefly detained by the Russians, and the UN nuclear watchdog says he will not return to his job.

But the head of Ukraine's state nuclear energy regulator Enerhoatom, Petro Kotin, has just announced he will be taking over running the plant from the capital Kyiv.

In a video statement, he urged the station's Ukrainian personnel not to sign any contracts with Russian "occupiers".

It is not clear how Kotin will be able to run the facility, as it is located in the Russian-held part of the Zaporizhzhia region.

Russian troops seized the plant in the first days of their invasion launched on 24 February.

A Russian TV journalist who went viral after she staged an on-air protest against the Ukrainian war says she has fled house arrest because she has no case to answer.

Marina Ovsyannikova was placed under house arrest for two months on 30 September, and faces 10 years in prison if she is found guilty of spreading fake news about Russia's armed forces.

On Saturday, Russia Today reported Ovsyannikova had escaped house arrest, running away with her 10-year-old daughter.

"I consider myself completely innocent, and since our state refuses to comply with its own laws, I refuse to comply with the measure of restraint imposed on me as of 30 September 2022 and release myself from it," she told Reuters news agency on Telegram.

Ovsyannikova's lawyer said she was due to turn up to a hearing at 10:00 Moscow time (0700 GMT) at a district court on Wednesday, but investigators had failed to track her down.

If you are just joining us, here is a recap of the main developments:

• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said Russia will retake territories lost in recent days, telling the BBC that they will be "with Russia forever"
• Ukrainian troops reportedly advanced into the eastern Luhansk region, which Moscow illegally annexed last week. The province was previously completely under Russian control, but its Ukrainian governor Serhiy Haidai said: "Several settlements have already been liberated from the Russian army"
• Kyiv says it has captured another key city in the southern Kherson region, where its forces have been steadily advancing this week
• The EU has passed its eighth sanctions package against Russia. Details have yet to be announced, but it will reportedly include export controls, import bans, broadening of sanctions criteria and legal alignment with the planned G7 oil price cap

Will Vernon
BBC News, Moscow

The first known criminal case against a man accused of avoiding mobilisation in Russia has been reported by human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov.

He says a 32-year-old man in the city of Penza is facing serious criminal charges for refusing to sign call-up papers. The charges carry a possible two-year prison sentence.

The US's decision to send more military aid to Ukraine "increases the danger of a direct military clash" between Russia and the West, Russia's ambassador in Washington has warned.

Anatoly Antonov said the Biden administration's move to send another $625m (£547m) in military aid to Ukraine created an "immediate threat" to Moscow, describing the US as "a participant of the conflict".

"We call on Washington to stop its provocative actions that could lead to the most serious consequences," the Russian ambassador said.

After suffering a string of major defeats on the battlefield in Ukraine in recent weeks, Russia has vowed to defend itself with all means available - not ruling out the use of its nuclear weapons.

Ukraine says it has made gains in the Luhansk region, which was previously entirely under Russian control.

"The de-occupation of the Luhansk region has already officially started," regional head Serhiy Haidai said on Telegram.

The BBC has not independently verified the claims.

But if confirmed it would mean further progress for Ukraine, which earlier said it had advanced in three other regions illegally annexed by Russia.

The BBC's Orla Guerin has been reporting from recently recaptured areas of Ukraine in recent days - you can read her powerful report from Lyman here.

She's also sent these photos from her trip, showing other places she's visited. Of them, she wrote: "The Russians are gone but there is damage that can never be undone, and the dead cannot be restored to life."

Image source, PA Media

Earlier UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told us the government would "stay the course", and doubled down on the UK's commitment to provide support to Ukraine.

Now Prime Minister Liz Truss has echoed that statement, saying "we will stand with our Ukrainian friends, no matter how long it takes".

"Ukraine can win, Ukraine must win, and Ukraine will win," she told the Conservative Party conference.

Image source, Reuters

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has suggested introducing an EU-wide temporary price cap on natural gas to curb skyrocketing prices caused by dwindling Russian imports.

But getting EU nations to agree on a cap comes with its own complications, as the BBC's Paul Kirby explains.

While 15 of 27 EU nations back a Europe-wide cap, countries like Germany have dismissed the plans, opting to roll out a relief package for struggling consumers that smaller countries may not be able to afford.

The main risk is that the German package could disrupt a European level playing field, with German business having a far greater chance of surviving the energy crisis than, say, Italian business.