LIVE UPDATES: UN Secretariat Has No Mandate to Probe Claims of Iranian Drone Usage - Nebenzia

Earlier in the day, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said that Russian strikes on Ukraine's infrastructure affected at least half of the country's thermal energy generation capacity.

"We consider and will consider every means to advance diplomacy if we see an opening to advance it by whatever means. Of course, we'll always look at it, Blinken said during a press briefing. "At this moment, Russia shows no signs of being willing to engage in meaningful diplomacy by any means."

“Draining the Reserve to the lowest point in decades and strangling our domestic energy production capacity will make America more vulnerable to disruptions and manipulations of global energy markets,” McConnell said.

Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council head Alexey Danilov said on Friday that the Russian language should be completely abolished in Ukraine, noting that reaching an understanding with the Russian-speaking part of Ukrainian population poses a threat to the state.

"The Russian language in general should disappear from our territory as an element of hostile propaganda and brainwashing of our population," Danilov said on a national talk show.

Danilov claimed that the "narrative" about the need to reach mutual understanding with Russian-speaking Ukrainians is highly dangerous for the state. At the same time, the official called for the compulsory study of English in the country in addition to the Ukrainian language.

"To plant these Russian narratives here is a very, very dangerous thing. Presumably, we have to understand each other, who they are, what they are. Look, we don't need anything from them. Let them get rid of us, let them go to their swamps and croak in their Russian language," Danilov said.

Danilov complained about a large number of Ukrainian political experts who regularly appear on television using Russian as the main language. In response to this, the show host proposed to create and broadcast a list of Ukrainian public figures that speak Russian.

Based on the 2001 census, over 14.3 million Ukrainians, or almost 30% of the country's population, called Russian their native language. Since the Maidan coup in 2014, Kiev has adopted a number of policies aimed at regulating and limiting the use of the Russian language on TV and in public places, including in education and service sector.

The discrimination of the Russian-speaking population led to a civil war in Ukraine, which resulted in the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics declaring their independence and, finally, appealing to Russia for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian aggression in late February.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on October 14 that the very question of the abolition of the Ukrainian language in Russia is illegal, since it is one of the state languages in the Russian federal subject of Crimea.

Poll aggregator Real Clear Politics (RCP) has Republican candidates ahead in 221 contests, Democrats leading in 176, with 38 considered "toss ups." 218 are needed to win control of the lower chamber. If the races ended today, Republicans would end up with 47 seats in the Senate, the Democrats 46, with seven races in the toss-up category.

The ministry also called on the Iranian nationals residing in Ukraine to leave the country, urging them to remain calm and, if necessary, contact the Iranian Embassy in Kiev, according to the agency.

If a person has a Ukrainian passport, then they need to translate it first, Pavenko said. Documents in Ukrainian must also be translated, she added.

Erdogan also said that Ankara has not lost the hope of organizing a meeting between Putin and Zelensky, and noted that the Ukrainian president signaled his intention to overcome the crisis during a telephone conversation on Wednesday.

The Russia-Ukraine talks began at the end of February after the start of Moscow's special military operation and the last round concluded in Istanbul on March 29. The negotiations have since stalled, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accusing Kiev of a lack of interest in reaching an agreement.

In late September, Putin confirmed that Russia was still open to talks with Ukraine and called on Kiev to stop the hostilities. Zelensky, in turn, stated that Kiev was ready for a dialogue with Moscow, but only if another president came to power in Russia. The Kremlin responded that Moscow would wait for a change in the position on the negotiations of the country's current president or his successor.