Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,345

On Friday, October 31, 2025, how things are going:

Fighting

• According to Russian state news reports, the Ministry of Defense of Russia’s forces seized control of the villages of Krasnohirske and Sadove in the Zaporizhia region of Ukraine.
• Seven people were killed when Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and other targets on Thursday and in the early hours of Friday, imposing nationwide power restrictions.
• One victim was killed in a Russian drone strike in a village south of Zaporizhzhia, which is one of the country’s southeastern industrial cities.
• Regional officials reported that two men had also been killed in the Russian-inflicted attacks on Zaporizhzhia itself, and that a seven-year-old girl from the central Vinnytsia region had also perished in the attacks.
• One person was killed and three were hurt in Russian attacks on Kramatorsk residences, according to Donetsk regional prosecutor’s office.
• The regional governor of Sumy, a city close to Russia’s northern border, reported on Telegram that 10 Russian drones had attacked the city early on Friday. He claimed that two apartment buildings were struck, and that pictures of several apartments that had been posted online showed them all ablaze.
• In his weekly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed two people were killed and several others were hurt in a bombing that occurred at a thermal power plant in the eastern Donetsk region of Sloviansk.
• Zelenskyy added that during the attacks, Russia had launched more than 650 drones and 50 missiles. He claimed that the majority of the drones had been neutralized and that the majority of the missiles had been defused.
• Yulia Svyrydenko, the prime minister of Ukraine, claimed that Moscow is attempting to sabotage Ukrainian power and the country’s power supplies as winter draws near. Its intention is to “plunge Ukraine into the darkness.” Our goal is to keep the light,” Svyrydenko said.

Europe

• In a second incident this week, a Russian reconnaissance plane was intercepted by a Polish MiG-29 fighter aircraft over the Baltic Sea, according to Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz.
• In response to growing security concerns, Poland announced that it would not reopen border crossings with close Russian ally Belarus until at least mid-November.
• Six weeks prior, Poland closed its border with Belarus as a result of what Warsaw described as “very aggressive” Russian-led military exercises that took place on Belarusian territory, days after 21 Russian drones entered Polish airspace. In response to smuggling balloons’ disruption of the airspace, Lithuania closed its land border with Belarus this week and declared that it would remain closed until November.
• A German with Russian ethnic background was found guilty of spying on and planning arson attacks on Russian-occupied military installations and railroads in Germany. Two accomplices received 12- and 6-month suspended sentences from a court in Munich, the capital of Bavaria.

Peace talks

• Viktor Orban, the head of the Hungarian government, will meet with US President Donald Trump on November 7 in Washington to discuss possible arrangements for a US-Russia meeting and request exemption from US energy sanctions.
• According to state news agency RIA Novosti, Russian senator Vladimir Dzhabarov said Trump should engage in negotiations with Russia rather than imposing sanctions.

Nuclear weapons

After President Trump suggested that the United States would resume nuclear weapons testing to the same level as its rivals, the Kremlin claimed that Russia’s tests of a nuclear-powered missile and torpedoes were not nuclear weapons tests. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “Russland would also test a nuclear weapon if any other country tested it.”
• Senior Russian lawmaker Andrei Kartapolov predicted that the US’s nuclear testing would bring us back to an era of uncertainty and public conflict, according to RIA.