Here is the situation on Friday, October 18, 2024.
Fighting
- Russian forces attacked energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern region of Mykolaiv, launching 56 drones and one missile in an overnight assault.
- Russia also attacked an industrial facility in western Ternopil Oblast, causing a large fire that was put out, according to a local governor.
- Ukraine downed 51 out of 136 Russian attack drones launched on Thursday, its air force reported, while Russia also fired a Kh-95 guided aerial missile.
- The Kremlin has reiterated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “victory plan”, announced on Wednesday, will risk direct conflict between Russia and NATO.
- Norway will supply six F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine “in the near future”, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said, following talks with his Norwegian counterpart Bjorn Arild Gram.
Diplomacy
- French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will discuss security guarantees for Ukraine in a meeting in Berlin on Friday with US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after a Brussels summit attended by EU leaders that Ukraine has made significant progress towards EU membership.
- NATO chief Mark Rutte said alongside President Zelenskyy that the military alliance’s members will not lose their will to support Ukraine, and Russian President Vladimir Putin would be wrong to think otherwise.
- Rutte added that “Ukraine will be a member of NATO, there is no doubt about and until that happens we will make sure that Ukraine has everything it needs to prevail”.
- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said Belarus should be present at any talks on settling the crisis in Ukraine.
Sanctions
- The US has issued new sanctions targeting Chinese and Russian entities for designing, building and shipping attack drones used in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
- The sanctions targeted two Chinese entities – Xiamen Limbach Aircraft Engine Co Ltd, and Redlepus Vector Industry Shenzhen Co Ltd (Redlepus) – and Russian entity TSK Vektor and its General Director Artem Mikhailovich Yamshchikov.
- The Biden administration said the entities have directly helped Russia develop and produce its Garpiya series attack drones, responsible for long-range attacks in Ukraine.
- The UK announced sanctions against 22 more vessels in Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers. Some 43 Russian oil tankers, which operate in defiance of Western sanctions, are now barred from UK ports and British maritime services.
