Here is the situation on Wednesday, October 9, 2024.
Fighting
- At least two people were killed and more than 30 injured in a series of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv, officials said. Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said Russian forces dropped about four guided bombs on Ukraine’s second-largest city.
- At least one person was killed and five injured after Russia shelled the village of Antonivka in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
- Ukraine’s Air Force said it shot down 18 of 19 Russian drones involved in an overnight attack on the southern region of Odesa with the last drone returning to Russian territory. Odesa regional Governor Oleh Kiper said the drone attack on the city of Chornomorsk started a fire in an apartment building but there were no casualties.
- Russian forces entered the outskirts of the front-line city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine. Anastasiia Bobovnikova, a spokesperson for the Operational Tactical Group “Luhansk”, told Ukraine’s national broadcaster: “The situation is unstable, fighting is taking place literally at every entrance [to the city].”
- Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had taken control of Zolota Nyva and Zoryane Pershe, two villages in eastern Ukraine, each with a population of a few hundred people.
- The Defence Ministry also said Russia’s air defence units destroyed 16 Ukrainian drones overnight, 14 of them over the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine. It did not elaborate on damage or casualties.
- South Korea’s Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun said North Korean soldiers appeared to be fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, and that it was “highly likely” that six of the country’s officers were killed in a Ukrainian missile strike near Donetsk on October 3.
Politics and diplomacy
- United States President Joe Biden cancelled a planned trip to Germany, throwing the weekend’s conference of Ukraine’s key Western allies into doubt. Leaders were due to meet at the Ramstein airbase with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy detailing his “victory plan“. Biden cancelled the visit because of Hurricane Milton, which is threatening Florida with a record storm surge.
- The United Kingdom imposed sanctions on the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops of the Russian Federation and their leader Igor Kirillov, saying they were involved in using chemical weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine and accusing Moscow of “cruel and inhumane tactics”.
- Ukraine’s SBU security service said it arrested Dmytro Chystilin, a Russian-Ukrainian dual national extradited from Moldova, and charged him with “high treason” and “justification” of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Chystilin faces a life sentence, if found guilty.
- Several Russian regions, including Belgorod and the oil-rich Siberian region of Khanty-Mansiysk, have announced significant increases in pay and bonuses to encourage people to sign up to fight in Ukraine.
- The European Union set up a system for imposing sanctions against people accused of cyber-attacks or acts of sabotage on behalf of Russia to undermine EU support for Ukraine.
- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the closest Russian ally in the EU, said Ukraine could not win the war against Russian forces on the battlefield, and that a “new strategy” was needed.
- Russia’s telecoms watchdog announced that it was banning the messaging platform Discord, claiming the site was “actively used by criminals” and breaking Russian law as Moscow tightens its grip on the internet.
Weapons
- Speaking in his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said he had held a meeting with Ukraine’s top commanders on the development of domestic weapons supplies. He said Ukraine needed to secure and deploy advanced missiles, and to achieve faster results with them on the battlefield.
- NATO chief Mark Rutte warned this winter could be the most difficult one for Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022, and called on allies to ramp up arms supplies. “NATO must and will do more to help Ukraine,” Rutte, who took over at the helm of the alliance this month, told reporters.
