Fifty Nations Demand Ceasefire; Strikes Kill, Cut Power

Fifty countries and the EU demanded Russia halt its war in Ukraine, with the United States conspicuously absent from the signatories. Zelenskyy warned Moscow that further strikes on Ukraine's grid would make this winter painful for Russia instead, and called Putin the patient zero of a war ideology now spreading globally, built on squeezing Russian finances. The fighting kept killing. A Russian strike on Aleksandrivka in Donetsk region left five dead and seven missing. Separately, Sybiga said strikes on data centers had knocked out missile-warning systems, disrupting emergency alerts nationwide. Ukraine also handed two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea, a reminder Russia fields fighters from 47 countries. Diplomacy moved in parallel but changed little. Lavrov met Rubio at the UN and complained about Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil, while separately saying Moscow won't pause military operations, ruling out a real ceasefire. Poland discussed a permanent US troop presence with Trump, a long-standing NATO request, and Zelenskyy signed a drone deal with Finland's Stubb. The EU sanctioned 77 candidates running for Russia's Duma from occupied Ukrainian land. Away from the war, Italy's Senate voted to restart nuclear power, ending the moratorium that followed the 1987 Chernobyl referendum.