Putin’s forces have launched a major drone attack on 15 Ukrainian regions, causing widespread damage to commercial and residential infrastructure.
The Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 78 out of 105 Russian drones during the assault, with 23 more likely impacted by active electronic jamming.
Authorities in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv said the air force had downed around 15 drones over the city and its surroundings during an air alert that lasted more than five hours.
An attack on the southern region of Odesa damaged power lines, regional governor Oleh Kiper said. Workers restored power to more than 3,000 consumers, though a further 2,000 people remained without power in one of the districts.
It comes as claimed a key town in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv’s troops were forced to withdraw from the area after years of fighting.
The Russian Army said it had seized Vuhledar, Donetsk, a bastion that had resisted intense attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Control of the area, which lies at the intersection of the eastern and southern battlefields, is significant because it will ease Russia’s advance as it tries to pierce deeper behind the Ukrainian defensive lines.
Key Points
- Russia’s major drone attack damages residential buildings
- Ukraine’s military says it struck Russian radar station with US ATACMS missiles
- 12 injured after a Russian glide bomb smashes into a Ukrainian apartment building
- Russia suffers heavy losses in capturing Vuhledar, says think-tank
- Russia claims key eastern Ukrainian town Vuhledar
Ukraine requires ‘considerable’ assistance from western allies, think tank says
11:45
Jabed Ahmed
Ukraine still requires “considerable” support from western allies despite increasing its domestic output of weapons and military equipment, a think tank has said.
The Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine’s efforts to expand domestic arms output will allow it to reduce its dependence on western military aid in the long term, but Kyiv still needs “considerable” assistance from allies over the next few years to defend against Russia.
Russia announced yesterday it will raise its defence spending by 25 per cent to its highest on record, reaching 13.5tn rubles (£109bn) in 2025.
Russian court to hear case of American charged as Ukrainian mercenary behind closed doors, state media says
11:14
Jabed Ahmed
A Russian court has decided to hear the case of Stephen Hubbard, a US citizen accused of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, behind closed doors, Russian state news agency TASS reported.
Russian state media have cited prosecutors as saying Mr Hubbard signed a contract with a Ukrainian territorial defence unit in the city of Izyum in February 2022. He was captured by Russian forces that April.
12 injured after a Russian glide bomb smashes into a Ukrainian apartment building
10:49
Jabed Ahmed
A Russian glide bomb struck a five-story apartment block in Kharkiv, Ukraine‘s second-largest city, injuring at least 12 people including a 3-year-old girl, local officials have said. The bomb hit between the third and fourth floors of the building on Wednesday night, igniting blazes, Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Firefighters searched for survivors through smoke and rubble.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said the latest Kharkiv attack highlighted the urgent need for increased support from Ukraine's Western allies.
Russian attack damages power lines, substations in three regions, Ukraine's energy ministry says
10:19
Jabed Ahmed
A Russian drone attack damaged power lines and substations in the Kyiv, Odesa and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, Ukraine‘s energy ministry has said via the Telegram messaging app.
Pictured: Russian strike on residential building in Kharkiv
09:49
Jabed Ahmed
Ukraine's military says it struck Russian radar station with ATACMS missiles
09:31
Jabed Ahmed
The Ukrainian military has said it had used ATACMS ballistic missiles to strike a Russian radar station to reduce Moscow's ability "to detect, track and intercept aerodynamic and ballistic targets".
The military did not say when the strike had taken place or give the venue of the 'Nebo-M' radar station in its statement on the Telegram messaging app.
"The destruction of the Nebo-M radar will create a favourable 'air corridor' for the effective use of Storm Shadow and SCALP-EG cruise missiles," it said.
The Ukrainian military said it believed Russia had 10 such operational systems left, each estimated to be worth more than $100 million.
The United States sent long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine this spring and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Ukraine had committed at the time to only using the weapons inside its own territory. Russian forces currently occupy about 18% of Ukraine's territory.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been pleading with allies for months to let Ukraine fire Western missiles, including long-range US ATACMS and Britain's Storm Shadow, deep into Russia.
Russia’s major drone attack damages residential buildings
08:42
Arpan Rai
A major Russian drone attack overnight on 15 Ukrainian regions has caused damage to commercial, residential buildings and kindergarten schools, local authorities said this morning. No immediate casualties have been reported so far.
The Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 78 out of 105 Russian drones during the assault, with 23 more likely impacted by active electronic jamming.
The air force shot down 16 drones in the Cherkasy region and debris caused a forest fire which has since been put out, local authorities said.
Authorities in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv said the air force had downed around 15 drones over the city and its surroundings during an air alert that lasted more than five hours. Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said the drone debris had fallen in the Desnianskyi district but said they had caused no fires.
However, the overnight attack caused fires in three other districts of the Kyiv region which have since been extinguished, regional authorities said.
An attack on the southern region of Odesa damaged power lines, regional governor Oleh Kiper said. Workers restored power to more than 3,000 consumers, though a further 2,000 people remained without power in one of the districts, he said.
Dozens of Russian drones also targeted the central Ukrainian region of Poltava, damaging six commercial buildings and shattering windows in a residential building and a kindergarten, governor Filip Pronin said on Telegram.
Another attack, on the central region of Kirovohrad, also damaged windows in a residential apartment and neighbouring garages, governor Andriy Raykovych said.
Russia suffers heavy losses in capturing Vuhledar, says think-tank
08:06
Arpan Rai
Russia suffered heavy losses in its bid to capture the frontline town of Vuhledar, a think-tank has said, citing military reports.
Vladimir Putin’s forces claimed the key town in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv’s troops were forced to withdraw from the area yesterday after years of fighting.
“Ukraine’s Khortytsia Group of Forces reported on 2 October that Russian forces suffered significant losses during their efforts to seize Vuhledar and that the Ukrainian high command gave Ukrainian forces permission to withdraw from Vuhledar to preserve personnel and combat equipment,” the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest assessment.
It added that official Ukrainian military sources acknowledged that Russian forces have seized Vuhledar (southwest of Donetsk City) amid further Russian advances northwest of the town.
The ISW said geolocated footage published on 1 October indicates that Russian forces recently marginally advanced along the Pavlivka-Bohoyavlenka road northwest of Vuhledar.
Russia is ready for long confrontation with US, senior diplomat says
08:00
Alex Croft
Russia must prepare for a long confrontation with the United States and has sent repeated warnings to Washington over the crisis in relations, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned.
The Ukraine war has triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The conflict is entering what Russian officials say is the most dangerous phase to date. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been urging Kyiv’s allies for months to let Ukraine fire longer-range Western missiles deep into Russia to limit Moscow’s ability to launch attacks.
Mr Ryabkov, who oversees arms control and relations with Washington, said Moscow had no illusions about relations, given the “bipartisan anti-Russian consensus” in the United States.
“We must prepare for a long-term confrontation with this country. We are ready for this in every sense,” Mr Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA.
Ukraine investigating alleged killing of 16 POWs by Russian army
07:02
Alex Croft
Ukraine said it had launched an investigation into what it said was an apparent shooting of 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers.
The soldiers who were allegedly killed had surrendered on the eastern Ukrainian frontline.
“This is the largest reported case of the execution of Ukrainian POWs on the front line and yet another indication that the killing and torture of prisoners of war are not isolated incidents,” Ukraine’s prosecutor general Andriy Kostin said on X.
“This is a deliberate policy of the Russian military and political leadership.”
Moscow did not immediately comment on the accusations. The Kremlin denies that Russia commits war crimes in Ukraine.
The Ukraine prosecutor general office said on the Telegram messaging app that it was looking into a video shared on social media showing the alleged killing.
A video with grainy drone footage purported to show a group of more than ten people leaving a trench. They are lined up and then fall down after being fired upon by other, indistinct figures.
Mr Kostin said the incident took place on the Pokrovsk front, an area of intensified Russian assaults.
Ukraine downs 78 out of 105 Russian drones overnight
06:56
Arpan Rai
The Ukrainian air force shot down 78 out of 105 Russian drones during an overnight attack on the country, it said on Telegram.
“As a result of anti-aircraft combat, 78 enemy attack UAVs of the ‘Shahed’ type were shot down in Kyiv, Cherkasy, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Chernihiv, Kherson, Odesa, Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Rivne, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions,” it said.
These drones were fired from Kursk and Crimea among other Russian territories, the air force said.
It is not immediately clear if the 27 drones that were not intercepted caused any damage in Ukraine.
Airport in Russia's Kazan closes temporarily, RIA says
06:18
Arpan Rai
The airport in Russia’s southwestern city of Kazan is temporarily closed for flights today, the RIA news agency cited the aviation watchdog as saying.
Russia typically announces airspace closures when there are an ongoing or expected Ukrainian drone attacks.
Officials at the Russian defence ministry have not confirmed drones heading towards Moscow or Kazan.
Russia claims key eastern Ukrainian town
06:05
Alex Croft
Vladimir Putin’s forces have claimed a key town in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv’s troops were forced to withdraw from the area after years of fighting.
The Russian Army said it had seized Vuhledar, Donetsk, on Wednesday, a bastion that had resisted intense attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Kyiv’s eastern military command said it had ordered a pullback from the hilltop coal mining town to avoid encirclement by Russian troops.
The town, which had a population of over 14,000 before the war, has been devastated, with Soviet-era apartment buildings smashed apart and scarred.
Lavrov thanks China for ‘balanced’ position on Ukraine
05:30
Arpan Rai
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov praised China’s approach to the war in Ukraine and said both countries wanted to eliminate the problems that Moscow says lie behind the conflict.
Mr Lavrov wrote about Sino-Russia ties in an essay published in the government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta, marking the 75th anniversary of Russia’s diplomatic relations with communist China.
He praised China’s “balanced and consistent” approach to the war in Ukraine and said its initiatives rightly called for the elimination of its root causes, including Nato’s eastward expansion and the creation of an “anti-Russian military bridgehead in Ukraine”.
Former aide ‘doesn’t buy’ Trump’s claims that he can end Ukraine war
05:01
Io Dodds
Why has Ukraine pulled out of frontline town Vuhledar?
04:50
Arpan Rai
After more than two years of grinding battle, Ukrainian forces are withdrawing from the frontline town of Vuhledar, military officials announced yesterday.
The loss of Vuhledar, perched atop a tactically significant hill, is a significant development on the war’s eastern frontline. But why has Ukraine yielded the territory after Vladimir Putin threw Russian reserve forces into the fight?
Ukraine’s Khortytsia ground forces formation, which commands eastern regions including Donetsk, said it was withdrawing troops from Vuhledar to “protect the military personnel and equipment.”
“In an attempt to take control of the city at any cost, [Russian] reserves were directed to carry out flanking attacks, which exhausted the defence of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As a result of the enemy’s actions, there arose a threat of encircling the city,” the statement said.
The tactical significance of the town, situated at the confluence of two major roads, is two-fold. Dominant heights and proximity to railway lines offer Moscow greater protection for their own logistics routes, and a better vantage point for attacks against Ukrainian forces and supply lines feeding the south.
Its capture is another notch in Moscow’s belt, bringing it closer to the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
Russia rejects nuclear talks with US over Nato expansion
04:21
Arpan Rai
Russia has dismissed the possibility of nuclear talks with the United States citing Washington’s stance on Nato expansion, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
“We see no point in dialogue with Washington without respect for Russia’s fundamental interests. First of all, this is the problem of Nato’s expansion into the post-soviet space, which poses threats to common security,” Ms Zakharova said yesterday.
A day earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia will not discuss signing a new treaty with the United States to replace an agreement limiting each side’s strategic nuclear weapons that expires in 2026 as it needs to be broadened and expanded to cover other states.
10 injured as Russian bomb hits Kharkiv apartment
04:06
Arpan Rai
At least 10 people were injured, including a three-year-old child, after a Russian guided bomb struck a five-storey apartment block in Kharkiv, local officials said.
Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said the bomb hit between the third and fourth floors of the building in the city’s Saltivka district.
“Several floors have been destroyed. An apartment by apartment search is under way. People could be under the rubble,” Syniehubov said in a video posted online.
Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said guided bombs had struck two city districts.
Photos posted on social media showed cars ablaze outside the apartment block and firefighters making their way through smoke rubble to get inside the building.
A man gets life in prison in Russia for a car bomb that wounded a writer
04:02
Alex Croft
Ukraine’s troops pull back from key eastern town as Putin’s forces advance
03:57
Arpan Rai
After more than two years of intense fighting, Kyiv’s forces have withdrawn from a key town in eastern Ukraine after Russian troops advanced on the area.
Ukraine’s eastern military command pulled back from Vuhledar, Donetsk, as Vladimir Putin’s troops claimed it had seized the area.
The town, which had a population of 14,000 before the war, was a bastion of resistance that saw off Russian attacks ever since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Alexander Butler reports:
Russian forces fully control bastion of Vuhledar in east Ukraine, war bloggers say
03:07
Alex Croft
Russian troops have taken complete control of the eastern Ukrainian town of Vuhledar, a bastion that had resisted intense Russian attacks since the beginning of the 2022 war, Russian war bloggers and media said on Wednesday.
Russian Telegram channels published video of troops waving the Russian tricolour flag over shattered buildings. The town, which had a population of over 14,000 before the war, has been devastated, with Soviet-era apartment buildings smashed apart and scarred.
The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper said that Vuhledar had finally fallen after the last Ukrainian forces from the 72nd Mechanized Brigade, a unit famous for its resistance, abandoned the town late on Tuesday.
The Shot Telegram channel and pro-Russian war bloggers confirmed that Vuhledar was under total Russian control, though there was no official response from either the Russian or Ukrainian militaries.
Nato’s new chief Mark Rutte makes Ukraine support a top priority
02:03
Alexander Butler
The new Nato chief Mark Rutte has vowed to strengthen Western support for war-ravaged Ukraine as he takes charge of the alliance.
The former Dutch prime minister officially replaced Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday as Nato secretary general after his predecessor spent a decade in the job.
Mr Rutte’s appointment comes at an important time for Nato, with the US election just weeks away, he will soon be working with a new president.
The secretary general said during a press conference on Tuesday that he could work with either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris and appreciates that Ukraine will be his top priority.
Mr Rutte, 57, was prime minister of the Netherlands until he stepped down earlier this year following the collapse of his coalition government in 2023. In June he was appointed to the Nato role.
Russia’s FSB detains nearly 40 people for support to ‘Ukrainian terrorist’ groups
01:05
Alex Croft
Russia’s security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), said it detained 39 individuals, including teenagers, accused of supporting “Ukrainian terrorist” groups.
The FSB accused the arrested individuals of “inciting children and adolescents to commit violent acts against representatives of state bodies, classmates and teachers”.
“Thirty-nine radicals aged 14 to 35, supporters of Ukrainian terrorist organizations banned in Russia, were detained,” the FSB said in a statement.
It claimed that nine teenagers were involved in planning “armed attacks on educational and religious institutions” in Russia.
It alleged that they were communicating with “Ukrainian handlers” online.
Ukraine says it downed 11 drones during Russia’s overnight attack
Thursday 3 October 2024 00:03
Alex Croft
Ukraine’s forces took down 11 out of 32 Russian attack drones launched overnight, Ukraine‘s air force said today.
Another four drones left Ukrainian airspace in the direction of Russia and 10 drones were lost in northern and central Ukrainian regions as a result of electronic warfare countermeasures, it said.
Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian Izmail district near the Danube river in the southern Odesa region, local governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.
“The Russians targeted the port and border infrastructure,” Kiper said, adding that two lorry drivers, including a Turkish citizen, were injured.
He said the Ukrainian-Romanian crossing of Orlivka had temporarily suspended operations due to the shelling.
Putin’s forces are in ‘complete control’ of Vuhledar, Russian bloggers claim
Wednesday 2 October 2024 23:02
Alex Croft
Vladimir Putin’s forces are in complete control of the strategic Ukrainian frontline town of Vuhledar, the SHOT Telegram channel and pro-Russian war bloggers said.
The Russian defence ministry has not yet claimed the town’s capture.
On Tuesday, a regional Ukrainian official said Russian troops had reached the town centre, a bastion on strategic high ground that has resisted Russian assaults for more than two years.
Images of Russian forces waving their flag on the roof of an administrative building on Tuesday in the town centre showed a structure which had been reduced to rubble in parts and whose blackened windows had all been blown out.
Vuhledar is a coal mining town that lies at the intersection of the eastern and southern battlefields, giving it added importance to supplying both sides’ troops.
Moscow has long sought to capture Vuhledar, which had a pre-war population of around 14,000, as a key stepping stone to incorporating the entire Donetsk region into Russia.
Vuhledar also sits close to a railway line connecting Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, to Ukraine’s industrialised Donbas region, which comprises Donetsk and the eastern region of Luhansk, most of which Moscow controls.
Watch: Russian fighter jet narrowly misses American aircraft off coast of Alaska
Wednesday 2 October 2024 22:29
Alex Croft
Former aide ‘doesn’t buy’ Trump’s claims that he can end Ukraine war
Wednesday 2 October 2024 21:43
Io Dodds
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Wednesday 2 October 2024 21:00
Alexander Butler
Death toll rises to six in Ukrainian supermarket strike
Wednesday 2 October 2024 20:15
Alex Croft
At least six people were killed and three were injured in an alleged Russian artillery strike in a busy market in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Tuesday.
The attack came on the same morning Ukrainians across the country were observing a minute’s silence for their military and war dead.
The strike happened as shoppers made their way between stalls at the city centre market, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
He published a video showing the blurred corpses of people in civilian clothes lying near a stall with tomatoes and other vegetables.
Ukraine’s general prosecutor’s office said the strike was “most likely” carried out by Russian artillery and hit close to a public transport stop.
It initially reported that seven people were killed but later corrected that toll to six, saying a severely wounded person thought to be dead was in intensive care at a local hospital.
Ukraine investigating alleged killing of 16 POWs by Russian army
Wednesday 2 October 2024 19:30
Alex Croft
Ukraine said it had launched an investigation into what it said was an apparent shooting of 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers.
The soldiers who were allegedly killed had surrendered on the eastern Ukrainian frontline.
“This is the largest reported case of the execution of Ukrainian POWs on the front line and yet another indication that the killing and torture of prisoners of war are not isolated incidents,” Ukraine’s prosecutor general Andriy Kostin said on X.
“This is a deliberate policy of the Russian military and political leadership.”
Moscow did not immediately comment on the accusations. The Kremlin denies that Russia commits war crimes in Ukraine.
The Ukraine prosecutor general office said on the Telegram messaging app that it was looking into a video shared on social media showing the alleged killing.
A video with grainy drone footage purported to show a group of more than ten people leaving a trench. They are lined up and then fall down after being fired upon by other, indistinct figures.
Mr Kostin said the incident took place on the Pokrovsk front, an area of intensified Russian assaults.
Russian troops reach centre of Ukraine’s Vuhledar in the east, Ukrainian governor says
Wednesday 2 October 2024 18:52
Alex Croft
Russian troops have reached the centre of Vuhledar, a bastion on strategic high ground in eastern Ukraine that has resisted Russian assaults since Moscow’s full-scale invasion, the regional governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said on Tuesday.
Vadym Filashkin, the governor, said the situation in Vuhledar was extremely difficult.
“The enemy is already nearly in the centre of the city,” Filashkin told Ukrainian TV.
Russian forces reached the outskirts of the small mining town last week and intensified their offensive push in recent days.
Moscow’s troops in eastern Ukraine advanced at their fastest rate in two years in August, according to multiple open-source maps. Their relentless advance in the Ukrainian east comes despite Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region
New Nato chief not worried by potential second Trump presidency
Wednesday 2 October 2024 18:10
Alex Croft
New Nato chief Mark Rutte has doubled down on his commitment to Ukraine as he takes charge at a critical time for the Western alliance.
The former Dutch prime minister replaced Jens Stoltenberg as Nato secretary general on Tuesday, where he pledged continued support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia.
Mr Rutte’s appointment comes just before a pivotal US presidential election in November, with Nato-sceptic Donald Trump, who declined to say whether he wants Ukraine to win the war, on the Republican ticket.
“We have to make sure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent, democratic nation,” Mr Rutte said at Nato’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Speaking about the prospect of former US president Donald Trump’s re-election, Mr Rutte added: “I’m not worried.
“I worked for four years with Donald Trump. He was the one pushing us to spend more on defence and he achieved this.
“Because indeed, at the moment, we are now at a much higher spending level than we were when he took office.”
Russia is ready for long confrontation with US, senior diplomat says
Wednesday 2 October 2024 17:35
Alex Croft
Russia must prepare for a long confrontation with the United States and has sent repeated warnings to Washington over the crisis in relations, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned.
The Ukraine war has triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The conflict is entering what Russian officials say is the most dangerous phase to date. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been urging Kyiv’s allies for months to let Ukraine fire longer-range Western missiles deep into Russia to limit Moscow’s ability to launch attacks.
Mr Ryabkov, who oversees arms control and relations with Washington, said Moscow had no illusions about relations, given the “bipartisan anti-Russian consensus” in the United States.
“We must prepare for a long-term confrontation with this country. We are ready for this in every sense,” Mr Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA.
Putin’s forces are desperate for a prize eastern city and Ukraine will fight street to street to keep them out
Wednesday 2 October 2024 17:00
Askold Krushelnycky
Russia claims key eastern Ukrainian town
Wednesday 2 October 2024 13:35
Alexander Butler
Vladimir Putin’s forces have claimed a key town in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv’s troops were forced to withdraw from the area after years of fighting.
The Russian Army said it had seized Vuhledar, Donetsk, on Wednesday, a bastion that had resisted intense attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Kyiv’s eastern military command said it had ordered a pullback from the hilltop coal mining town to avoid encirclement by Russian troops.
The town, which had a population of over 14,000 before the war, has been devastated, with Soviet-era apartment buildings smashed apart and scarred.
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Wednesday 2 October 2024 13:30
Alexander Butler
Ukraine orders pull back from Vuhledar
Wednesday 2 October 2024 12:30
Alexander Butler
Ukrainian troops received an order to pull back troops from the embattled eastern hilltop town of Vuhledar to avoid encirclement by Russian troops, the eastern military command said on Wednesday.
“Senior command granted permission to carry out a maneuver to withdraw units from Vuhledar in order to preserve personnel and military equipment, and take positions for further actions,” the statement said.
Russian drones attack port infrastructure, power substations in Ukraine
Wednesday 2 October 2024 11:39
Alexander Butler
Russian drones overnight attacked port infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, damaging a grain facility and buildings at a border crossing to Romania, as well as cutting power to thousands in the northern Sumy region, officials said.
The attack hit Ukraine’s Izmail district near the Danube river, the regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram messenger.
“Russia continues to wage war against grain and global food security,” Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy prime minister for restoration, said on Telegram, reporting damage to the grain facility and administrative buildings at the Orlivka crossing.
The crossing temporarily suspended operations due to the attack, Kiper added. Two lorry drivers, including a Turkish citizen, were injured, according to officials.
Ukraine can produce 4m drones a year, Zelensky says
Wednesday 2 October 2024 10:25
Alexander Butler
Ukraine can produce four million drones annually and is quickly ramping up its production of other weapons, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in comments authorised for publication on Wednesday.
Speaking on Tuesday to executives from dozens of foreign arms manufacturers in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said Ukraine had already contracted to produce 1.5 million drones this year.
Drone production was virtually non-existent in Ukraine before Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
“In extremely difficult conditions of the full-scale war under constant Russian strikes, Ukrainians were able to build a virtually new defence industry,” said Zelenskiy.
Ukraine tripled its overall domestic weapons production in 2023 and then doubled that volume again in just the first eight months of this year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told the same gathering. Ukrainian officials gave no absolute figures.
Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns
Wednesday 2 October 2024 09:42
Alexander Butler
Russian forces fully control bastion of Vuhledar in east Ukraine, war bloggers say
Wednesday 2 October 2024 09:32
Alexander Butler
Russian troops have taken complete control of the eastern Ukrainian town of Vuhledar, a bastion that had resisted intense Russian attacks since the beginning of the 2022 war, Russian war bloggers and media said on Wednesday.
Russian Telegram channels published video of troops waving the Russian tricolour flag over shattered buildings. The town, which had a population of over 14,000 before the war, has been devastated, with Soviet-era apartment buildings smashed apart and scarred.
The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper said that Vuhledar had finally fallen after the last Ukrainian forces from the 72nd Mechanized Brigade, a unit famous for its resistance, abandoned the town late on Tuesday.
The Shot Telegram channel and pro-Russian war bloggers confirmed that Vuhledar was under total Russian control, though there was no official response from either the Russian or Ukrainian militaries.
Nato’s new chief Mark Rutte makes Ukraine support a top priority
Wednesday 2 October 2024 08:45
Shweta Sharma
The new Nato chief Mark Rutte has vowed to strengthen Western support for war-ravaged Ukraine as he takes charge of the alliance.
The former Dutch prime minister officially replaced Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday as Nato secretary general after his predecessor spent a decade in the job.
Mr Rutte’s appointment comes at an important time for Nato, with the US election just weeks away, he will soon be working with a new president.
The secretary general said during a press conference on Tuesday that he could work with either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris and appreciates that Ukraine will be his top priority.
Russia’s FSB detains nearly 40 people for support to ‘Ukrainian terrorist’ groups
Wednesday 2 October 2024 08:30
Shweta Sharma
Russia’s security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), said it detained 39 individuals, including teenagers, accused of supporting “Ukrainian terrorist” groups.
The FSB accused the arrested individuals of “inciting children and adolescents to commit violent acts against representatives of state bodies, classmates and teachers”.
“Thirty-nine radicals aged 14 to 35, supporters of Ukrainian terrorist organizations banned in Russia, were detained,” the FSB said in a statement.
It claimed that nine teenagers were involved in planning “armed attacks on educational and religious institutions” in Russia.
It alleged that they were communicating with “Ukrainian handlers” online.
Ukraine says it downed 11 drones during Russia’s overnight attack
Wednesday 2 October 2024 08:15
Shweta Sharma
Ukraine’s forces took down 11 out of 32 Russian attack drones launched overnight, Ukraine‘s air force said today.
Another four drones left Ukrainian airspace in the direction of Russia and 10 drones were lost in northern and central Ukrainian regions as a result of electronic warfare countermeasures, it said.
Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian Izmail district near the Danube river in the southern Odesa region, local governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.
“The Russians targeted the port and border infrastructure,” Kiper said, adding that two lorry drivers, including a Turkish citizen, were injured.
He said the Ukrainian-Romanian crossing of Orlivka had temporarily suspended operations due to the shelling.
Putin’s forces are in ‘complete control’ of Vuhledar, Russian bloggers claim
Wednesday 2 October 2024 07:46
Shweta Sharma
Vladimir Putin’s forces are in complete control of the strategic Ukrainian frontline town of Vuhledar, the SHOT Telegram channel and pro-Russian war bloggers said.
The Russian defence ministry has not yet claimed the town’s capture.
On Tuesday, a regional Ukrainian official said Russian troops had reached the town centre, a bastion on strategic high ground that has resisted Russian assaults for more than two years.
Images of Russian forces waving their flag on the roof of an administrative building on Tuesday in the town centre showed a structure which had been reduced to rubble in parts and whose blackened windows had all been blown out.
Vuhledar is a coal mining town that lies at the intersection of the eastern and southern battlefields, giving it added importance to supplying both sides’ troops.
Moscow has long sought to capture Vuhledar, which had a pre-war population of around 14,000, as a key stepping stone to incorporating the entire Donetsk region into Russia.
Vuhledar also sits close to a railway line connecting Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, to Ukraine’s industrialised Donbas region, which comprises Donetsk and the eastern region of Luhansk, most of which Moscow controls.
Watch: Russian fighter jet narrowly misses American aircraft off coast of Alaska
Wednesday 2 October 2024 07:00
Alexander Butler
Putin’s plans to boost defence budget draw ire from some Russians
Wednesday 2 October 2024 06:30
Shweta Sharma
Vladimir Putin’s plans to boost its defence budget next year and prolong the war have drawn backlash from some quarters of the Russian public.
Russia is set to increase its spending on defence by 25 per cent next year, taking it to the highest level on record.
The newly proposed increase in spending will push Russia’s defence budget to a record 13.5 trillion rubles (£109bn) by 2025, according to draft budget documents released on Monday on the parliament’s website.
The spending on defence and security combined will account for 40 per cent of Russia’s total budget.Irina, a pensioner, called it an “outrage” and said “we need to end this war”, reported AFP. She said increasing spending on war is a “crime”.
Another pensioner called it a “shame and a disgrace” in a country that has no money to treat its own children.
Russia to conduct nationwide emergency public warning tests
Wednesday 2 October 2024 05:55
Shweta Sharma
Russia will run a nationwide test of its emergency public warning systems on Wednesday, letting sirens wail and interrupting television and radio broadcasts in a twice-yearly initiative amid the war in Ukraine.
At around 10.30am in most of Russia’s 11 time zones, sirens will sound for a minute, with loudspeakers broadcasting an “Attention everyone!” call, the emergency ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
The exercise aims to check the warning systems, the readiness of those responsible for launching them and to raise public awareness, the ministry said, adding, “Don’t panic - everything is according to a plan.”
The frequency of rehearsals was doubled from last year, following the first event held in 2020.
It comes amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, which Moscow started in 2022, triggering the deepest crisis in its relations with the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.