Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia’s biggest drone strike in weeks hits Ukrainian infrastructure

Summary of the day so far …

• Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine for weeks early on Friday, hitting critical infrastructure in the west and south of Ukraine and destroying private houses and commercial buildings in Kharkiv. The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 24 “Shahed” drones out of 40 launched by Russia, with Kharkiv, Odesa, Kherson, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv among the targets.

• Ukraine’s air force said the latest drones were launched in several waves and flew to different regions in small groups. Air alerts in some regions lasted for several hours during the night. No casualties were reported, but Lviv’s governor said an infrastructure facility had been hit five times during the attacks on his region, a military facility was hit in Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kharkiv’s governor said drones had hit civilian infrastructure and caused fires in and near the city of Kharkiv.

• Officials say Ukraine is bracing for a second winter of Russian air strikes on the energy system, which they warn is more vulnerable than it was last year as it has less excess capacity and little in the way of spare equipment. “We realise that as winter approaches, Russian terrorists will try to do more damage. We will respond to the enemy,” president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said of the attack.

• In Russia, the foreign office spokesperson Maria Zakharova has dismissed the latest round of US sanctions against Russia. On state television, Reuters reports she said: “This is a continuation of the policy of inflicting as they call it – a strategic defeat on us. They will have to wait in vain forever before that happens”. On Thursday, the US state department imposed new sanctions targeted at Russia’s future energy capabilities, sanctions evasion and the manufacture of suicide drones. The Biden administration added a dozen Russian companies to a trade blacklist, and announced a crackdown on sanctions evasion in the UAE, Turkey and China.

• Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a law withdrawing Russia’s ratification of the global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests. US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, criticised Russia for leaving the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and called on Moscow to commit not to test. “Unfortunately, it represents a significant step in the wrong direction, taking us further from, not closer to, entry into force” of the treaty, Blinken said in a statement.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Mattha Busby will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.