As the war enters its 934th day, here are the top developments.
Here is the situation on Monday, September 16, 2024.
Struggle
- At least one person was killed and 42 injured after a Russian-guided bomb hit a multi-storey apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, causing a fire. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said three children were among the injured.
- At least one person has been killed in Russian airstrikes on Pokrovsk, the eastern Ukrainian town toward which Russian troops have been advancing for months. Russian attacks over the past two weeks have cut off water and electricity supplies to many of the remaining residents of the strategically important town.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN that Ukrainian forces were suffering heavy losses because Western weapons were arriving too slowly. Zelenskyy said the situation in the east was “very tough” and that half of the Ukrainian brigades fighting there were not fully equipped.
- Ukraine's Air Force said air defense units destroyed 10 of the 14 drones Russia launched overnight Sunday. It also said Russia launched two Iskander M ballistic missiles and a Kh-59 guided air missile at the southern Odesa region. The guided air missile was destroyed, the Air Force said. It did not say what happened to the Iskander missiles or whether there was any damage as a result of the attack.
- Zelensky said Russia had used around 30 missiles of various types, more than 800 guided aerial bombs and nearly 300 attack drones against Ukraine over the past week.
- The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defense units destroyed 29 Ukrainian drones targeting seven Russian regions. Fifteen of the drones were shot down over the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine.
Politics and diplomacy
- U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said President Joe Biden will use the remainder of his term in office “to put Ukraine in the best possible position to prevail” against Russia.
Arms
- Following the attack on Kharkiv, Zelensky again called on Ukraine's Western allies to allow it to attack military targets inside Russia, especially air bases. “Only a systemic solution can counter this terrorism: the long-range solution to destroy Russian military aviation wherever it is based,” Zelensky said in his evening speech.
- UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “bluff” over his warning that allowing Ukraine to use long-range weapons to strike inside Russia would put NATO “at war” with Moscow.
- Ukraine's spy chief said increased Russian production of guided bombs, as well as shipments of artillery ammunition from North Korea, were posing problems for Ukrainian forces on the battlefield.
