As the war enters its 936th day, here are the top developments.
Here is the situation on Wednesday, September 18, 2024.
Struggle
- At least two people have been killed and five wounded in Russian shelling of the town of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhia region in southeastern Ukraine, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov.
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Russia fired at least four missiles at energy infrastructure in the northeastern city of Sumy, regional governor Volodymyr Artiukh said, disrupting power supplies to some 281,000 people. Ukraine's air force said it shot down 34 of 51 Russian drones targeting five regions of the country.
- Russia's state news agency RIA and pro-Russian bloggers reported that Russian forces had captured the city of Ukrainsk in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region. The Ukrainian military's General Staff did not confirm that Russia had taken Ukrainsk in its evening update, saying only that it was one of several areas under Russian attack. It said 34 attacks had been recorded near the strategically important city of Pokrovsk.
- Russia said it had repelled five new attempts by Ukrainian forces to cross its border into the Kursk region, bringing the total number of reported attacks on the frontier in the past six days to 26. Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into Kursk on August 6, seizing swathes of Russian territory.
- Russia said it destroyed several Ukrainian drones targeting several regions in western Russia, including Smolensk, near the border with Belarus, and Bryansk. Local governors reported no damage or casualties. kyiv says the strikes targeted military, energy and transport infrastructure considered key to Moscow's war efforts.
Politics and diplomacy
- U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Secretary of State Antony Blinken was briefed on elements of a Ukrainian plan to pressure Russia to end the war when he was in kyiv last week.
- Russian Foreign Minister Mirjana Spoljaric said at a meeting with the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that Ukraine has committed “numerous” violations of international humanitarian law, “including in the context of the treatment of prisoners of war and civilians.” ICRC chief Mirjana Spoljaric said she had reiterated the need for all states to “comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law,” including visits to prisoners of war.
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Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office said it was investigating the alleged Russian execution of a Ukrainian soldier found dead with a sword in his body in the latest criminal investigation since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The latest incident allegedly took place in the eastern city of Novohrodivka.
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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country is committed to strengthening ties with Russia to counter Western sanctions, state media reported, during his meeting with top Russian security official Sergei Shoigu. The United States is concerned that Iran is supplying missiles to Moscow for use in Ukraine. Tehran has denied sending ballistic missiles to Russia.
- Ukraine's prosecutor general has said that a Ukrainian defense industry worker who collected sensitive military information and passed it on to Russia has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Prosecutors have not revealed the name of the man who allegedly passed sensitive details about the results of artillery and rocket attacks on kyiv and its environs to a Russian Defense Ministry intermediary.
- Russia's FSB security service said it has shot dead a suspected Ukrainian agent who tried to plant explosives under the car of a senior defense industry official in Ukraine's Sverdlovsk region. The FSB did not reveal the man's name.
- Maria Ponomarenko, a 46-year-old Siberian journalist serving a six-year prison sentence for speaking out against the war in Ukraine, has gone on a hunger strike, according to RusNews, the publication she worked for.
- Yuri Kokhovets, a 38-year-old Russian convicted of criticizing the Ukraine conflict during a street interview in July 2022, saw his sentence toughened after prosecutors appealed. He will now serve five years in prison instead of five years of hard labor, state media reported.
- Russia has lashed out at Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, after the company banned RT and other Russian state media from using its platforms. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the decision was “unacceptable” and that Meta had discredited itself.
