The new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine made a rare acknowledgment of the pressures they were under from Ukrainian offensives to retake southern and eastern areas that Moscow claims to have annexed just weeks ago.

ON THE GROUND

* The situation in areas Russia claims to have annexed was "tense", said Sergei Surovikin, a Russian general appointed this month to take charge of its forces. Russian troops in some areas were under continuous attack, he said.

* Russian-appointed governor of Kherson announced the evacuation of four towns in the region.

* Russian air strikes have destroyed 30% of Ukraine's power stations since Oct. 10, causing massive blackouts across the country, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

* Russian strikes hit a power plant in Kyiv, killing three people, and energy infrastructure in Kharkiv in the east and Dnipro in the south. A man sheltering in an apartment building in the southern port city Mykolaiv was also killed and the northern Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr was without water or electricity.

* Both sides traded blame for overnight shelling of Russian-held Enerhodar - the town where many of the employees of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station live.

NUCLEAR THREAT

* International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi expects to return "soon" to Ukraine, he told Reuters, amid negotiations to establish a security protection zone around the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

* The Kremlin said that the four regions of Ukraine that Russia declared it had annexed fall under the protection of Russia's nuclear arsenal.

DIPLOMACY

* Ukraine's foreign minister said he was proposing a formal cut in diplomatic tieswith Iran after a wave of Russian attacks using what Kyiv says are Iranian-made drones.

* Iran has denied supplying drones and Russia has denied using them.

* But senior Iranian officials and diplomats told Reuters that Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface to surface missiles as well as drones.

* The United States, Britain and France plan to raise alleged Iranian arms transfersto Russia at a closed-door U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday, diplomats said.

* NATO said Ukraine would receive anti-drone defence systems in coming days.

Reuters