Russia-Ukraine war live news: Zelenskiy warns of ‘mass attacks’ on power grid; Kyiv mayor raises prospect of evacuations | Ukraine

• Ukraine is bracing for power blackouts and fresh Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure. Russia “is concentrating forces and means for a possible repetition of massive attacks on our infrastructure, primarily energy”, said Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president. Ukraine faced a 32% deficit in projected power supply on Monday, said Sergei Kovalenko, CEO of Yasno, a major supplier of energy to the capital.

• Planned blackouts are scheduled to hit seven regions of Ukraine throughout Monday, according to Ukraine’s state-run energy company. The regions include the city of Kyiv, and the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv and Poltava.

• Kyiv’s mayor has urged residents to prepare for a worst-case scenario by making emergency plans to leave the city and stay with friends or family. Vitali Klitschko told residents to “consider everything” including loss of power and water. “If you have extended family or friends outside Kyiv, where there is autonomous water supply, an oven, heating, please keep in mind the possibility of staying there for a certain amount of time.”

• Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, echoed Klitschko’s words about evacuating Kyiv’s residents, saying: “I hope it won’t come to this, and we’re still trying to renew all electric facilities, generating stations, the transformations, all of it. If it comes to it, we’ll have to move them back to west of Ukraine, Lviv and all the places closer to the European Union. That’s a huge number of people to be located but Ukrainian winters can become quite harsh. We have to think how we do it.”

• Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported Monday that President Vladimir Putin will make a decision on whether to attend the next G20 summit in person by the end of the week. Zelenskiy has said he will not attend if Putin does. The summit in Bali is due to begin on Tuesday 15 November.

• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the media on his daily call on Monday that while Russia remains “open” to talks, it is unable to negotiate with Kyiv due to its refusal to hold talks with Russia.

• The Kyiv Independent is reporting that “farmers’ warehouses, a cultural site, and private houses” were damaged in Zaporizhzhia region by Russian strikes, and according to local governor Pavlo Kyrylenko Russian forces have killed one civilian in Bakhmut and wounded five civilians elsewhere in the Donetsk region.

• Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, has said he expects the battle of Kherson to be the defining battle of the war. Russian state-owned news agency Tass quoted him saying: “We have a difficult time ahead of us, next winter will be even more difficult than this one, because we are facing the Battle of Stalingrad, the decisive battle in the war in Ukraine, the battle for Kherson, in which both sides use thousands of tanks, aircraft, artillery. The west thinks that in this way it will be able to destroy Russia, Russia believes that in this way it will be able to protect what it took at the beginning of the war and bring the war to an end. This will create additional problems everywhere.’”

• Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK has told Sky News in London that the new British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will visit the country soon. Sunak had promised that Ukraine would be his first overseas port of call if he became PM, but in a high-profile U-turn has headed to Egypt and Cop 27 instead. Prystaiko said:“We’re not going to discuss the dates, because of the security of your prime minister. But he’s coming to Ukraine quite soon.”

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Tom Ambrose will be with you shortly.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, has told Sky News in London that the new British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will visit the country soon. Sunak had promised that Ukraine would be his first overseas port of call if he became PM, but in a high-profile U-turn has headed to Egypt and Cop 27 instead. Prystaiko said:

We’re not going to discuss the dates, because of the security of your prime minister. But he’s coming to Ukraine quite soon.

The occupied city of Kherson has lost power for the first time since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

In a statement on Telegram, the Russian-controlled Kherson administration said electricity and water supplies were down after a “terrorist attack” damaged three power lines on the Berislav-Kakhovka highway in an occupied part of the region.

Yuriy Sobolevskyi, deputy head of Kherson regional council, said about 10 settlements in the region were affected, as well as the main city.

Russian officials have said Ukraine is preparing to attempt a second offensive to retake more of the Kherson region. Recapturing it would have immense symbolic and logistical value for Ukraine as Russia wants the area to secure a water supply to Crimea, as well as a land bridge to Russia.

The head of the regional administration, Yaroslav Yanushevych, blamed Russia for the power outages. He said that in the city of Beryslav in the region, about 1.5km (one mile) of electric power lines had been destroyed, cutting off power entirely because the “damage is quite extensive”.

Energy specialists were working to “quickly” resolve the issue, the Russian-backed authorities said, as they called on people to “remain calm”. Kherson’s Moscow-appointed governor, Vladimir Saldo, said authorities hoped to have power back by the end of Monday.

News of the outage followed claims on Sunday in Russian state media that the Kakhovka dam in the region of Kherson was damaged by a Ukrainian strike using Himars rockets.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has warned that Moscow’s forces intended to blow up the strategic facility to cause flooding. The hydroelectric dam was captured by Moscow’s forces at the start of their offensive.

Kyiv’s mayor has told residents to consider leaving the capital in the event of a complete blackout.

Vitali Klitschko said he could not rule out the prospect of a complete blackout for the capital as Russia continued its campaign of strikes on energy infrastructure.

Speaking to Ukraine’s United News, a centralised news programme broadcast across all channels, Klitschko told people to prepare by buying power banks and warm clothes. In case of an all-out blackout, he said Kyiv’s residents should try to stay with relatives outside the capital.

If you have extended family or friends outside Kyiv, where there is autonomous water supply, an oven, heating, please keep in mind the possibility of staying there for a certain amount of time,” he said.

However, Klitschko urged people in Kyiv not to be “pessimistic”, saying he was only advising people to prepare for different scenarios. “We will do everything that depends on us so that such a scenario does not happen.”

As of Sunday evening, stabilisation blackouts continue in Kyiv and six regions, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said. Describing the situation as “really difficult” he said more than 4.5m Ukrainians – mostly in Kyiv and the surrounding region – were without electricity.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned of continued “mass attacks” on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

The Ukrainian president said in his latest Sunday evening address:

We also understand that the terrorist state is concentrating forces and means for a possible repetition of mass attacks on our infrastructure. First of all, energy.

In particular, for this, Russia needs Iranian missiles. We are preparing to respond.”

Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said earlier on Twitter that Ukraine would “stand” despite Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure, adding that this would be done by using air defence, protecting infrastructure and optimising consumption.

Russian strikes over the past month have destroyed around a third of Ukraine’s power stations and the government has urged Ukrainians to conserve electricity as much as possible.

Sergei Kovalenko, CEO of Yasno, a major supplier of energy to the capital, said Ukraine faced a 32% deficit in projected power supply on Monday. “This is a lot, and it’s force majeure,” he said.

Ukraine’s authorities have issued scheduled blackouts across the country in order to stabilise the grid, and 17 EU countries have sent 500 power generators to Ukraine to help ease the energy crisis.

Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next few hours.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has warned of continued Russian “mass attacks” on the country’s energy infrastructure as Ukraine reels from the destruction of around a third of its power stations.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has told residents to consider leaving the capital in the event of a complete blackout.

For any updates or feedback you wish to share, please feel free to get in touch via email or Twitter.

If you have just joined us, here are all the latest developments:

• Ukraine is bracing for power blackouts and fresh Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure. Russia “is concentrating forces and means for a possible repetition of massive attacks on our infrastructure, primarily energy”, said Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president. Ukraine faced a 32% deficit in projected power supply on Monday, said Sergei Kovalenko, CEO of Yasno, a major supplier of energy to the capital. “This is a lot, and it’s force majeure,” he said. About 500 power generators were being sent to Ukraine by 17 EU countries as 4.5m Ukrainians were left without power.

• Kyiv’s mayor urged residents to prepare for a worst-case scenario by making emergency plans to leave the city and stay with friends or family. Vitali Klitschko urged residents to “consider everything” including loss of power and water. “If you have extended family or friends outside Kyiv, where there is autonomous water supply, an oven, heating, please keep in mind the possibility of staying there for a certain amount of time.”

• Ukraine’s Russian-occupied city of Kherson was cut off from water and electricity supplies on Sunday after an airstrike and damage to the Kakhovka dam, local officials said. “In Kherson and a number of other areas in the region, there is temporarily no electricity or water supply,” the city’s Moscow-installed administration said on Telegram. Russia accused Ukraine of an act of “sabotage”.

• Ukraine’s military said Russia was urging residents of Kherson to evacuate as soon as possible, sending them warning messages on their phones on Sunday. Russian soldiers warned civilians that Ukraine’s army was preparing for a massive attack and told people to leave for the city’s right bank immediately. Nataliya Humenyuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern forces, said Russia was “occupying and evacuating” Kherson simultaneously, trying to convince Ukrainians its force are leaving when in fact they are digging in. The Kremlin-installed administration in Kherson already has expelled tens of thousands of civilians from the city.

• Russian forces are stepping up their strikes in a fiercely contested region of eastern Ukraine, worsening the already tough conditions for residents and the Ukrainian army, Ukrainian authorities said. “Very fierce Russian attacks on Donetsk region are continuing. The enemy is suffering serious losses there,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

• US officials have reportedly warned the Ukrainian government in private that it needs to signal an openness to negotiating with Russia. Officials in Washington warned that “Ukraine fatigue” among allies could worsen if Kyiv continued to be closed to negotiations, the Washington Post reported. US officials told the paper that Ukraine’s position on negotiations with Russia was wearing thin among allies worried about the economic effects of a protracted war.

• External power was restored to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant two days after it was disconnected from the power grid when Russian shelling damaged high voltage lines, the UN nuclear watchdog said. Europe’s largest nuclear plant needs electricity to maintain vital cooling systems, but it had been running on emergency diesel generators since Russian shelling severed its outside connections.

• The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, held secretive talks with top Russian officials in hopes of reducing the risk of nuclear conflict, the Wall Street Journal has reported. It cited US and allied officials as saying that Sullivan held previously undisclosed conversations in recent months with the Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov and the Russian security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Sullivan’s counterpart. The White House declined to comment on the report.