Here is the situation on Sunday, November 3:

Fighting

Russian forces downed 19 Ukrainian drones overnight – 16 over the southern Rostov region and the remainder over the Belgorod and Bryansk regions – Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Sunday.
Blasts were heard in Kyiv early on Sunday and smoke was seen rising from above residential buildings after a suspected Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s capital.
The attack comes after Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram channel that Ukraine’s air defence units were trying to repel a Russian air attack on the city, ordering people to stay in shelters.
Ukrainian forces are restraining one of Russia’s “most powerful offensives” since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine’s top military commander, General Oleksandr Syrskii, has said.
Russia troops have taken two more settlements along the Donbas frontline – Kurakhivka and Pershotravneve – Russian news agencies reported on Saturday, citing the country’s Defence Ministry.

Smoke rises in the sky over Kyiv after a Russian drone attack on November 2 [Gleb Garanich/Reuters]

Russian-Ukrainian relations

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said Ukraine is sabotaging the prisoner swap process and has refused to take back its own citizens. She claimed Russia offered to hand over 935 Ukrainian prisoners of war, but Ukraine had taken only 279.
Kyiv has denied the allegations and called on Moscow to provide a list of Ukrainian prisoners of war ready to swap. “We are always ready to exchange prisoners of war!” Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets wrote on Telegram.

International relations

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, who also served as president from 2008 to 2012, has warned the US to take Russia’s nuclear warnings seriously to avoid World War III. Medvedev said “they are wrong” if US and European leaders believe “the Russians will never cross a certain line.”
A US citizen, who Russia evacuated from eastern Ukraine after helping Russian forces target Ukrainian troops, has said in Moscow he has asked for Russian citizenship. Daniel Martindale, who said he was under no duress, supplied information to the Russian military about the location of key Ukrainian infrastructure for two years.