WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

* Iran acknowledged for the first time that it had supplied drones to Moscow, but said they were sent before the war in Ukraine, where Russia has used them to target power stations and civilian infrastructure.

* External power has been restored to Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant two days after it was disconnected from the power grid after Russian shelling damaged high voltage lines, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said.

* The operator of Ukraine's grid, targeted by Russian air strikes in recent weeks, said it would step up rolling blackouts in Kyiv and seven Ukrainian regions in response to what it said was increased electricity consumption.

* Ukrainian attackers shot and seriously injured a judge in an eastern Russian-controlled region of Ukraine who sentenced three foreigners to death in June, a pro-Moscow official said.

DIPLOMACY

* German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, under fire for a Friday trip to Beijing with German CEOs, said his joint statement with Chinese President Xi Jinping opposing the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine had been reason enough for the visit.

ECONOMY

* Georgia is on course to become one of the world's fastest-growing economies this year following a dramatic influx of more than 100,000 Russians since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin's mobilisation drive to drum up war recruits.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian military shelled residential areas of Donetsk late on Saturday, heavily damaging or completely destroying multiple houses. According to preliminary information, Kiev’s forces used various rocket artillery in the attack, including US-supplied HIMARS systems, the city’s mayor Alexey Kulemzin said.

Footage from the scene shows several houses destroyed during the late-evening attack. So far, no information on potential casualties among civilians has emerged.

Apart from a M142 HIMARS launcher, which fired at least six projectiles at the city, the Ukrainian military used a Soviet-made BM-21 Grad launcher, with some 20 rockets hitting in the city’s north, Kulemzin said on social media.

The city of Donetsk has been subjected to artillery and missile attacks by the forces of Kiev on an almost daily basis amid the ongoing conflict. While rarely commenting on such activities, Kiev blamed Russian forces, which are in control of the city, for having shelled it themselves.

*Donetsk, the capital city of its namesake republic, has recently joined Russia along with three other formerly Ukrainian territories following referendums held in late September. Kiev, as well as its Western backers, have rejected the referendums as “sham” polls, refusing to recognize their outcome.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists that the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.

* The number of foreigners in the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces is such that they not only command, but also personally work in firing positions, Lieutenant Colonel of the People's Militia and the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) lawmaker Andrey Bayevsky told TASS.

"The number of foreigners who masquerade as mercenaries is such that they are no longer just serving as top commanders in Ukrainian formations, but are working directly in firing positions. In the case of [US-made multiple launch rocket systems] HIMARS and guided weapons, this is practically the rule. Today it is practically becoming a system," the lawmaker said.

He added that previously foreigners in the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces "used to disguise themselves somehow, but today they do not aspire to do so."

"We can see video and hear radio intercepts, they themselves post this video. What's their message? ‘The whole world is with us.’ That's what we see on social media videos of blacks near howitzers in Donbass. The level of those people who were mobilized from the Ukrainian side and brought in to work with Western weapons is that of an ordinary troop member. I am not even sure that they will be allowed to operate the HIMARS, they are powerless servants and nothing more," Baevsky noted.

He explained that the Ukrainian army was still operating according to the Soviet model, they were trying to improve their efficiency at the expense of weapons supplied through NATO, but this is done with the involvement of specialists from the West, because the Ukrainian military can use any sophisticated Western weapons systems only if they have trained people.

"So when we say that Russia and, in particular, the DPR and LPR (the Donetsk and the Lugansk People’s Republics - TASS) are at war with the West, this is not just a figure of speech. Earlier it was the involvement of Western specialists at the level of military planning and control of their execution in brigades, regiments, sometimes descending to battalions. Now it is the direct involvement, under the guise of mercenaries, of Western military specialists in the area of air defense from the Ukrainian side. This also applies to special operations forces and any high-tech or technically complex type of weapons supplied by the West," Baevsky stressed.

Reuters/RT/TASS