Indonesia leader hands Zelensky note to Putin

1. Indonesia's president says he's delivered a message to Russia's Vladimir Putin from Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky
2. Joko Widodo tells reporters after meeting Putin in Moscow that he wants to help start communication between the two leaders
3. Ukraine is celebrating after Russia withdrew its forces from Snake Island - but Moscow says the move is a "goodwill gesture"
4. UK PM Boris Johnson commits to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade
5. Nato members have agreed a significant increase in funding for the alliance, on the second day of its Madrid summit
6. The alliance's chief says Sweden and Finland will sign the protocol to join Nato on Tuesday, though member states will then need to ratify it

And that's a wrap

Reuters

Thank you for joining our live coverage of the Nato summit and war in Ukraine.

Here are today's closing headlines:

• Indonesian President Joko Widodo hand-delivered a message from Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky to Russia's Vladimir Putin. Widodo said his country would like the war to end soon and he wished to help start communication between the two leaders
• Nato's Madrid summit came to an end with the alliance's leaders agreeing on a significant increase in defence funding. In an interview with the BBC, Nato's secretary general said Russia's nuclear rhetoric was "reckless and dangerous".
• Russia withdrew its troops from the strategic outcrop Snake Island, which belongs to Ukraine and has been fought over since the start of the war
• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade to adapt to a "more dangerous" world
• On the ground, Russia continues its assault in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. The regional governor of Luhansk has said it is no longer possible for people to evacuate from Lysychansk

The writers of today's live page were: Dulcie Lee, James Clarke, Catherine Evans, Malu Cursino, Nadeem Shad and Doug Faulkner. The editors were Holly Wallis, Jeremy Gahagan, Heather Sharp and Rob Corp

Extraditions decided by independent courts, says Sweden

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Since Turkey dropped its veto over Sweden and Finland joining Nato, there have been some concerns over its reasons for doing so.

On Wednesday, Ankara said it would seek the extradition of 33 alleged Kurdish militants and coup plot suspects from Sweden and Finland.

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said Ankara wanted 12 suspects from Finland and another 21 from Sweden.

The Nordic states agreed late on Tuesday to "address Turkey's pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects expeditiously".

Turkey would ask them to "fulfil their promises", the justice minister said.

But on Thursday, Sweden's Justice Minister Morgan Johansson insisted that any decisions regarding extradition of Kurds would be made by "independent courts".

"Swedish citizens are not extradited," said Johansson.

"Non-Swedish citizens can be extradited at the request of other countries, but only if it is compatible with Swedish law and the European Convention."

A new iron curtain is descending - Lavrov

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A mainstay of Putin's inner circle, Sergei Lavrov, has been drawing some historic parallels during a press conference.

The Russian foreign minister said that a new "iron curtain" was being put in place between the West and Russia.

The term was used during the Cold War to refer to the division between Western countries and those with links to the Soviet Union, as relations between the two sides ebbed to an all time low.

"As far as an Iron Curtain is concerned, essentially it is already descending..." said Lavrov.

"The process has begun," he said, adding that Western countries should "just behave carefully".

In pictures: Flowers and funerals

Funerals continue to be held for those who have been killed in the fighting in Ukraine.

They include victims of the Kremenchuk shopping centre which was hit by Russian rockets on Monday.

EPA

Relatives and friends attend a funeral ceremony for Andriy Krasyuk who was killed in the Russian rocket attack on the Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk on Monday

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A woman mourns in front of flowers left in memory of civilian victims killed at the shopping mall

Reuters

Natalia, the wife of Ukrainian serviceman Volodymyr Kochetov, 46, who was killed in a fight during Russia's invasion, cries by his coffin during his funeral in the village of Babyntsi, Ukraine

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A soldier holds a red carnation as he attends the funeral of a Ukrainian soldier at the St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv

No longer possible to evacuate from Lysychansk, governor says

Reuters

We've been reporting on the situation in Lysychansk, a city in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine.

Serhiy Haidai, the region's governor, warned residents in Lysychansk to stay in shelters because "it is no longer possible to evacuate".

Haidai said Russian troops were on the outskirts of the city and were firing from several directions.

Earlier, Haidai said the city has been suffering "endless air strikes" and the Russians were using "almost all their forces" to try to capture Lysychansk.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff said Russia has been successful in seizing some of the territory in Lysychansk's oil refinery, but that Ukrainian forces had beaten back an attack on a gelatin plant in the city.

Lysychansk stands across the river Siversky Donets from Severodonetsk, which has come under full Russian control in recent days after weeks of fighting.

It's the last major city under Ukrainian control in the Luhansk region

BBC

Blatant ignoring of human rights law in occupied Ukraine - UN

The United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Ukraine says there is "blatant ignoring" of international humanitarian and human rights law in parts of the country no longer under Ukrainian government control.

Osnat Lubrani says aid organisations were unable to deliver relief supplies, or get access, to Kherson or Mariupol, and had been unable to get agreement on safe passage to evacuate people to leave Severodonetsk. Russian forces are now in control of both Mariupol and Severodonetsk.

"We are making every effort to support the people whose lives have been torn apart by this war," Lubrani says at a news conference in Kyiv.

"But the Russian Federation, also the Ukrainian government, have to do more to protect the people of this country and to make our work possible."

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Nato's new strategy is irresponsible - China

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More now on Nato's new strategy towards China.

Earlier on, secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said the new approach reflects Russia and China's use of "economic leverage, coercion, and hybrid approaches to advance their interests in the region".

But Beijing has called Nato's new strategy irresponsible .

China's foreign minister, Zhao Lijian, said "Nato's so-called new strategy concept document disregards the facts".

Lijian said that the new strategy "wrongly defines China as posing a strategic challenge and smears China's foreign policy".

He added that it is "irresponsible, encourages conflict, and is full of Cold War thinking and ideological prejudice".

Earlier this week China criticised the West for arming Ukraine.

China should stop threatening Taiwan - says Nato chief

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg speaks with the BBC's Frank Gardner

While Nato's focus has been on the situation in Ukraine, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has also spoken about China.

For the first time the defence alliance has decided to talk about what it's been calling "the challenges that Beijing poses to our security, interests and values."

It comes as China's military presence has been growing on the world stage. The country recently launched it's third and most modern aircraft carrier joining a very small group of nations that are capable of fielding these kinds of ships.

Taiwan, an island in the East China Sea is seen by China as an integral part of its territory. In recent years Beijing officials have threatened military action if any attempts are made for independence.

While emphasizing that Taiwan is not a Nato member, the Nato head admitted that what happens to the island does "matter to Nato allies".

Stoltenberg made the comments during an interview with the BBC's Frank Gardner where Stoltenberg also discussed China and Russia's development of hypersonic missiles. Both countries have led the way in the development of the weapons that are capable of travelling towards their target at more than five times the speed of sound on a unpredictable flight path.

Ukraine announces sanctions against Syria

Ukraine says it's introducing a trade embargo against Syria and sanctions targeting Syrian legal entities and individuals.

It's in response to Syria's decision to recognise the two Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics in the Donbas region, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has announced.

On its website it says it "strongly condemns" the decision of the Syrian Arab Republic to recognise "the so-called independence" of the "temporarily occupied territories" in Donetsk and Luhansk.

It called the move an "unfriendly act" towards Ukraine and a violation of the principles of international law.

On Wednesday, Syria's Foreign Ministry announced that the country - an ally of Russia - had recognised the "independence and sovereignty of the self-declared Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics" in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky severed diplomatic ties with Syria following the announcement.

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Today's satellite imagery of Snake Island shows scale of attacks

Chris Partridge

BBC News

Maxar Technologies

New satellite imagery taken today shows the aftermath of Ukraine’s attack on Snake Island, which many believe forced Russian troops to leave.

Pictures from Maxar Technologies were taken this morning, showing what’s left of burned vehicles and structures across the north end of the island.

Artillery strikes and air attacks delivered the blows to Russian forces, something that has been happening frequently to stop Moscow gaining a permanent foothold.

We know at least one Russian Pantsir SA-22 air defence unit with medium-range capability was stationed on the island. It’s not clear whether it was destroyed in this latest attack, or in any of the strikes before.

Maxar Technologies

In this second image, a colour infrared view, the black/grey areas present those which were recently burned. Non-burned vegetation shows up red/pink.

More details will likely emerge of what was destroyed, but Ukraine is clear it was enough to drive out Russian forces.

“Not withstanding the fire of our artillery, missile strikes and aviation, Russian occupants left Snake Island,” said Brig Gen Oleksiy Hromov, deputy chief of the Main Operations Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Moscow says it left as a “goodwill gesture.”

You can read more about Snake Island here

Ten civilians killed in missiles strikes, including six in Mykolaiv - officials

EPA

Mykolaiv came under heavy shelling on Wednesday

Turning to the conflict on the ground now, the death toll from a Russian missile strike on the southern city of Mykolaiv yesterday has risen to six, the local emergency services say.

Another six people were injured and rescuers are continue to search for bodies at the five-storey residential building which came under attack and was destroyed, they added.

The six victims are among 10 civilians reported to have been killed in Russian shelling across yesterday and today.

Two were killed in shelling of the Donetsk region, and another person died in an attack on the Izyum district of the Kharkiv region, according to posts from the regional governors on messaging service Telegram.

And Russian missiles, mortars and artillery hitting the northern Sumy Region left one person dead, the governor there says.

BBC

Russia brands UK rhetoric 'insulting'

We have more now on that diplomatic telling-off Russia has given to the UK ambassador in Moscow over comments made by UK PM Boris Johnson.

Earlier this week Johnson said Vladimir Putin would not have started the war in Ukraine if he was a woman and described the operation as a "perfect example of toxic masculinity".

Putin has dismissed Johnson's comments as "incorrect".

In a statement the Russian foreign ministry said that "in polite society it is customary to apologise for remarks of this kind", adding that it was "unacceptable insulting rhetoric".

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has also accused the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman of "every week, threatening to nuke everyone or doing something or another".

The Russian foreign ministry underlined it was "unacceptable" for British officials "to share deliberately false information, especially on alleged threats by Russians 'resorting to nuclear arms'".

Moscow rebukes UK ambassador over PM's 'offensive' comments

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Russia has summoned the British ambassador in Moscow to protest against Prime Minister Boris Johnson's "offensive" remarks about President Vladimir Putin, a Russian foreign ministry statement said.

Deborah Bronnert was told that Russia "firmly" opposed the "openly offensive comments by the British authorities towards Russia, its leader, its officials as well as the Russian people", the AFP news agency reported the ministry as saying.

Reuters reported that the "offensive" statements included those about alleged Russian threats to use nuclear weapons.

In pictures: 144 Ukrainian soldiers released in prisoner swap

Reuters / Ukraine's Military Intelligence

Ukraine has welcomed the release of 144 soldiers in the biggest prisoner swap seen yet in this war.

The exchange includes 95 soldiers who defended Mariupol's steelworkers, Ukraine's military intelligence agency said.

The majority of the Ukrainians were badly wounded, suffering from gunshot and shrapnel wounds, blast traumas, burns, fractured bones and amputated limbs, the agency known by the acronym GUR said in a statement on Telegram.

There was no comment from Russia about a prisoner swap.

But the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine said it had secured the release of 144 soldiers, including its fighters and those of the Russian army.

Reuters / Ukraine's Military Intelligence

It is the biggest prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia so far

Reuters / Ukraine's Military Intelligence

The majority of the Ukrainians were badly wounded, Ukraine's military intelligence agency said

Reuters / Ukraine's Military Intelligence

Ambulances gathered at the site to treat the injured soldiers

What happened to the Snake Island Ukrainian guard who went viral?

Marianna Spring

Disinformation and social media reporter

EPA

The Snake Island defenders were depicted in a set of Ukrainian stamps

As Russia's troops withdraw from Snake Island, remember the Ukrainian border guard who went viral when it was first attacked?

His name was Roman and he became famous around the world for defiantly swearing at a Russian warship which had threatened to bomb him and his fellow border guards on the Black Sea island if they didn’t surrender.

A recording of the exchange was shared widely on social media in the early days of the war - and the Ukrainian government declared that Roman and his comrades had died as national heroes.

Roman’s mother Tetyana thought that he had died - but it turned out he was still alive.

I interviewed her for BBC Radio 4’s War on Truth podcast, where she told me about what it was like being at the heart of the information war over Ukraine.

Her story tells us a lot about how propaganda battles play out alongside military action. In the fog of war, it can be hard to tell what is a concerted effort to mislead - war strategy and propaganda - and what is just down to confusion.

I'd like the war to end soon, says Indonesian leader

Reuters

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who has met Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin on consecutive days, says his country would like the war to end soon.

Speaking at a news conference with Putin in Moscow following their meeting, Widodo said: "Although the external situation is still difficult, it is still important to move towards a settlement and open dialogue.

"I call on all world leaders to revive the spirit of co-operation," AFP quoted him as saying.

Putin said the talks had been productive, adding: "I am convinced that the agreements reached today will further strengthen the Russian-Indonesian partnership."

But the Russian leader took the opportunity to blame the West for any potential global food crisis.

"We have repeatedly stressed that the imbalance of food markets is a direct consequence of many years of irresponsible economic policies of a number of countries, uncontrolled emission and accumulation of unsecured debts, and the situation has worsened since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

"However, Western countries, not wanting to admit the fallacy of their economic course, are further destabilising global agricultural production by imposing restrictions on the supply of Russian and Belarusian fertilisers," he said, repeating his claim that sanctions are preventing agricultural exports from leaving the region, rather than Russia's invasion and its blockade of Black Sea ports.

Indonesian president: I've delivered Zelensky's message to Putin

Reuters

Indonesian President Joko Widodo says he has delivered a message from Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Widodo met the Ukrainian president on a visit to Kyiv yesterday and has been in Moscow today for a meeting with Putin.

"I conveyed President Zelensky's message to President Putin," Widodo said after the Moscow talks.

He did not reveal what the message said but added he's expressed his "readiness" to help start communication between the two leaders.

Widodo said Indonesia will continue to co-operate with Russia, and in turn Putin told reporters that Russia is ready to fulfil Indonesia's need for fertilisers - the supply of which has been affected by the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions.

The Indonesian leader is the current president of the G20 group of nations and a member of a United Nations crisis group set up to address the threat of global hunger resulting from the war.

Widodo has invited Zelensky to the November G20 summit in Bali. AFP reports the Ukrainian president told Widodo his attendance would depend on who else was there - Russia is a member of the G20 and as such Putin would be expected to attend.

Reuters

Joko Widodo met Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday...

Captured Britons must not face death penalty - European court

TELEGRAM

Aiden Aslin (left) and Shaun Pinner (centre) were sentenced alongside Moroccan national Brahim Saaudun

Russia has been told to prevent the execution of two Britons who were captured while fighting for Ukraine, by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin were sentenced by a Russian proxy court -which is not internationally recognised - in eastern Ukraine earlier this month.

In an emergency ruling, the ECHR said Russia must ensure the death penalty is not carried out, but Russia has dismissed the call for the men to be spared.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "You know that Russia no longer complies with the requirements of the ECHR," in remarks quoted by the Interfax news agency.

He added that the fate of the men was a matter for the pro-Russian, breakaway Donetsk People's Republic.

Earlier this month, the family of Mr Aslin said he had been told that the execution would be carried out.

Johnson's defence spending pledge aims to show words and promises match

Chris Mason

Political editor, reporting from Madrid

After a public and pretty noisy debate over defence spending in the last couple of days, there was a striking sentence in UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's opening address at his news conference here at the Nato summit in Madrid.

"The logical conclusion of the investments we propose to embark, these decisions, is that we'll reach 2.5% of GDP on defence by the end of the decade," he announced.

This is well above the 2% demanded by Nato of its members and I'm told the goal could mean an extra £55bn in total for defence, based on current projections of how the economy might grow over the next eight years.

Other sources acknowledge though that the precise number can't be known, nor the final costs of various projects or the big decision points between now and then - what are known as spending reviews.

But the prime minister will hope it can help quell at least some of the public grumbling from those claiming his words and promises don't always match.

Endless air strikes in Lysychansk - governor

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Lysychansk residents are trying to leave the city for safety by train

The city of Lysychansk "suffers from endless air strikes", according to the governor of Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai.

He says in a post on Telegram the Russians are using "almost all their forces" to try to capture the city, which is in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region.

It stands across the river Siversky Donets from Severodonetsk, which has come under full Russian control in recent days after weeks of fighting.

Haidai says "there is a lot of destruction" in Lysychansk, the police department has been destroyed and the city's oil refinery damaged.

"It is difficult to find a safe place in the city," Haidai says. "People dream of at least half an hour of silence, but the occupiers do not stop firing from all available weapons."

He says it is difficult to get to and from the city, with roads to Lysychansk "littered with shell fragments", and the Russians trying to take control of the highway linking the city with Bakhmut, about 50km away.

Many residents who want to leave the city are aiming to do so by train.

He says despite this, there are attempts to bring food into the city but adds residents can only access water when it is delivered by the emergency services.

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