WAR IN UKRAINE: October 20, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 239
Zelensky doesn't rule out potential failure of Ukraine’s electricity system. The Ukrainian leadership is preparing for "a number of different scenarios" of further serious damage to the energy infrastructure of Ukraine after over a week of Russian missile and drone strikes on electricity facilities across the country, according to a statement released by the President's Office - Kyiv Independent
Electricity supply to be limited across Ukraine from Oct. 20. The supply of electricity will be greatly limited, with more regular blackouts a realistic scenario if consumption isn't reduced accordingly, warned Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the President's Office. Separately, outages of up to four hours at a time will affect the whole country on Thursday, grid operator Ukrenergo said
Israel has repeated its long-standing refusal to sell air defence weapons to Ukraine despite a fresh appeal from Kyiv after this week's "kamikaze" drone strikes. On Wednesday, Israel's Defence Minister Benny Gantz said their position had not changed. "Our policy toward Ukraine is clear - we are on the side of the West, we provided humanitarian aid, took care of refugees and the wounded," he told Israel's Kan radio. For obvious reasons, we did not want to involve ourselves in combat systems. This was the policy until now. I am careful about this matter." Speaking later to EU diplomats, Mr Gantz said: "We will not provide weapon systems” - BBC
The representative of the Russian Federation threatened to "reconsider" relations with the UN if the organization sends experts to Ukraine to study the downed drones. He called the statements of Western countries and Ukraine about the use of Iranian drones by the Russian Federation at the front "disinformation" - DW
The U.S. Justice Department has charged multiple individuals with participating in illegal schemes to export sophisticated technologies to Russia - RFE/RL
The European Parliament has awarded its 2022 Sakharov Prize to "the brave people of Ukraine" in their battle against Russia's unprovoked invasion in late February.