Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 235

Here is the situation as it stands on Sunday, October 16.

Fighting

• At least 11 people were shot dead at a Russian military training ground in the city of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine, RIA news agency cited the ministry of defence as saying, adding that 15 others were wounded.
• Ukrainian forces shelled damaged the administration building in the city of Donetsk, the capital of the Donetsk region, the Russian-backed administration of the city said on Sunday.
• In the 24 hours to Sunday morning, Russian forces targeted more than 30 towns and villages across Ukraine, launching five missile and 23 air attacks and up to 60 rocket attacks, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said.
• A missile attack seriously damaged a key energy facility near Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, the country’s grid operator has said, as the Russian military strove to cut power in far-flung populated areas.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence says its troops have halted Ukrainian attempts to advance in the Kherson region.
• Fighting is particularly intense in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, and the strategically important Kherson province in the south, three of the four provinces Russia “annexed”.
• Ukrainian troops are still holding the strategic eastern town of Bakhmut despite repeated Russian attacks, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said.
• The first Russian soldiers to take part in a new joint force with Belarusian troops have arrived in Belarus, Minsk’s defence ministry has said.

Diplomacy

• Elon Musk said his rocket company SpaceX would continue to fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, citing the need for “good deeds”, a day after he said it could no longer afford to do so.
• Iran’s foreign ministry has again rejected claims that it has supplied Russia with weapons “to be used in the war in Ukraine”. The comment came after Kyiv and many of its Western allies accused Moscow of using Iranian-made drones in attacks in recent weeks. The topic is expected to be discussed by EU foreign ministers in a meeting in Luxemburg on Monday.
• France will train up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers on its territory, Sebastien Lecornu, minister for the armed forces, has told Le Parisien newspaper.
• Germany’s foreign minister has warned that Russia could seek to spark division in the West through refugees, as Moscow seeks to expand its “hybrid war”.