Here is the situation on Wednesday, November 6:

Fighting

A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia has killed six people, injured at least 20 more, and destroyed a critical infrastructure facility, Ukrainian officials have said.
A Ukrainian army drone has attacked an apartment block in the Russian city of Belgorod, injuring one civilian and setting three apartments on fire.
Ukraine’s military said it shot down 48 out of 79 drones and two missiles launched by Russia overnight.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence has said that while it believes Ukraine is incapable of producing nuclear weapons, it is able to make a “dirty bomb” – a conventional weapon combining explosives with radioactive material.

A Ukrainian tank crew climbs into a Soviet-era T-64 tank near Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine to make final adjustments before heading into battle as the Russia-Ukraine war continues, on November 5 [Fermin Torrano/Anadolu]

North Korean troops in Ukraine

South Korea’s Defence Ministry has reiterated its belief that more than 10,000 North Korean troops are in Russia, with a “significant number” in the frontline areas, including Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the first battles between Ukrainian and North Korean troops “open a new page in instability in the world” after the country’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said a “small engagement” had taken place.
Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) democracies – the United States, Japan, Italy, Britain, Germany, France and Canada – and three allies – South Korea, Australia and New Zealand – have called the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia a “dangerous expansion of the conflict”.

International affairs

Russia would use all possible means to defend itself in response to NATO aggression, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, adding that “nobody will be safe”.
Parcels that exploded at logistics depots in several European countries were a test run for a Russian plot to trigger explosions on cargo flights to the United States, according to a Lithuanian presidential adviser. Western governments and intelligence agencies have previously said Moscow is behind a series of acts of sabotage aimed at destabilising Ukraine’s allies.
Polish prosecutors have indicted two men – a Belarusian citizen and a Polish citizen – on accusations of cooperating with Belarusian intelligence services in espionage operations in the country. If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.
Poland plans to invest three billion zlotys ($744m) to boost ammunition production, according to a new bill, as it aims to ensure it has sufficient supplies in the event of a Russian attack.
The European Union’s likely new energy commissioner, Dan Jorgensen, told a parliamentary hearing that he wants to “speed up” the end of the bloc’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels.

Russian affairs

An engineer at a factory making tanks for Russia’s war in Ukraine has been jailed for 16 years after being convicted of passing military secrets to Kyiv, weeks after his wife received a similar sentence.
A Moscow court has fined US tech giant Apple 3.6 million roubles ($36,889) for refusing to remove two podcasts containing “information aimed at destabilising the political situation in Russia”.