As the war enters its 977th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Tuesday, October 29, 2024:
Fighting
- At least four people were killed in Russia’s overnight bombing of Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on the Telegram messaging app. Kharkiv lies about 30km (18 miles) from the Russian border and has been repeatedly targeted by Russian aerial attacks.
- An earlier attack on Kharkiv injured six people and destroyed much of the Derzhprom building, one of the most celebrated landmarks in the city, dating from the 1920s.
- Two people were injured and a residential building caught fire in Solomianskyi, a district in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, after a Russian drone attack, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
- One person was killed and 11 wounded after a Russian missile struck a three-storey residential building in Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown.
- Eight people were injured in the city of Chuhuiv in a separate Russian strike.
- Russian forces claim to have taken control of the village of Tsukuryne in the Pokrovsk district of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the RIA Novosti news agency reported citing Russia’s Ministry of Defence.
- The Ukrainian Air Force said it destroyed 66 of 100 attack drones launched by Russia during an overnight strike. Another 24 were “locationally lost” but “several” others had struck civilian infrastructure and left parts of Sumy and Poltava regions without power.
- Russia’s air defences destroyed seven Ukrainian drones overnight, according to the Defence Ministry. The drones reportedly targeted the regions of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk, all bordering Ukraine.
- Two people were injured after Ukrainian drones targeted ethanol plants in Russia’s southern region of Voronezh, according to Alexander Gusev, the regional governor. The attack sparked a fire and damaged two industrial enterprises.
Politics and diplomacy
- The Pentagon announced an estimated 10,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia to train and fight against Ukraine in “the next several weeks”.
- NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte confirmed that North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia and deployed to Kursk. He said this signals Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “growing desperation”.
- North Korea helping Russia in Ukraine is “very dangerous”, United States President Joe Biden warned.
- South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said the deployment of North Korean forces to the front lines may come sooner than expected, the Yonhap news agency reported.
- Ukraine would not see any new restrictions on the use of US weapons against North Korean forces should they enter the fight against Ukrainian forces, the Pentagon said.
- Zelenskyy is in Iceland to discuss his “victory plan” to end the war with Russia with Nordic leaders. He said there were already about 3,000 North Korean soldiers on Russian soil – with four times that expected soon.
- Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said sanctions would not be enough of a response to North Korean involvement, as he called for more weapons supplies to his country.
- North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui has departed Pyongyang to visit Russia, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
- Switzerland’s President Viola Amherd said she is in favour of revising a ban that currently prevents Swiss-made arms from being re-exported from another country to Ukraine, saying the embargo was hurting her country’s industry and security.
- The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on three Russian public relations agencies – the state-funded Social Design Agency (SDA), its partner company Structura and another firm called Ano Dialog – and their senior staff, accusing them of “attempting to undermine and destabilise Ukraine and its democracy”.
- The government said SDA and Structura had attempted “interference operations” aimed at Ukraine, while SDA had also tried “to incite protests in half a dozen European countries”.
