Here is how things stand on Friday, October 3, 2025:
Fighting
- Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Ukraine it was playing a dangerous game by striking near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and suggested Moscow could retaliate against nuclear plants controlled by Ukraine.
- The plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power facility, has been cut off from external power sources for more than a week and is being cooled by emergency diesel generators, which were not designed for lengthy operations.
- As both Ukraine and Russia blame each other for cutting off the external power at Zaporizhzhia and shelling the area, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia deliberately cut the external power as it was preparing to connect the station to its own grid.
- Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said power had been fully restored in two areas of the border Sumy region hit by overnight Russian attacks. Repairs to power were also proceeding in the neighbouring Chernihiv region, where more than 300,000 consumers had been left without electricity after Russian strikes on Wednesday.
- The Trump administration’s desire to send long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine may not be viable because current inventories are committed to the United States Navy and other uses, a US official and three sources have told the Reuters news agency.
- President Putin warned any decision by the US to supply the missiles to Ukraine would trigger a major new escalation with Washington, but would not change the situation on the battlefield.
- Ukraine and Russia have exchanged 185 service personnel and 20 civilians in the latest prisoner swap.
Regional security
- Speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, southern Russia, Putin said Moscow would carry out a nuclear test if another nuclear power did so after saying that he had seen signs a country, which he did not name, was preparing to conduct tests.
- Putin repeated his offer to the US of voluntarily rolling over an agreement capping the number of nuclear warheads in Russia’s arsenal when a key arms control treaty expires next year, if Washington agrees to do the same.
- Putin said Moscow never had any issues with Sweden or Finland and that their decision to join the NATO military alliance was therefore “stupid”.
- France’s detention of a tanker vessel suspected of operating for Russia’s “shadow fleet” is part of a new European strategy to block revenue funding Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, President Emmanuel Macron said.
- The Kremlin said France’s boarding of the tanker was “hysteria” that could create problems for global energy transportation routes, while Putin condemned it as an act of piracy.
- Putin said the global economy would suffer without Russian oil, warning that prices would jump to more than $100 per barrel if its supplies were cut off.
Politics and diplomacy
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he saw great agreement among European leaders on supporting the use of frozen Russian assets to provide loans for Ukraine – to be repaid eventually using war reparations from Moscow – adding that he expects a concrete decision on the matter within three weeks.
- Russia said the European Union’s idea was “delusional” and would prompt it to retaliate very harshly.
- Maxim Kruglov, the deputy leader of Russia’s liberal Yabloko party, which opposes the war in Ukraine, has been charged with spreading lies about the Russian army and could face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty.
- Kruglov’s lawyer said her client had been charged over two posts he had made on the Telegram messaging app: One post referred to UN data about the number of people killed in the port city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, which Russia took control of in May 2022, and another to events in Bucha, a town north of Kyiv, in March 2022.
- Voters in the Czech Republic are likely to oust their centre-right government in an election on Friday and Saturday, with polls favouring populist billionaire Andrej Babis to return to power on pledges to raise wages and lift growth while reducing aid for Ukraine.
The post Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,317 appeared first on Al Jazeera.
