As the war enters its 953rd day, these are the main events.
Here is the situation on Saturday, October 5, 2024.
Struggle
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Romania has recovered fragments of a Russian drone from a canal in the Danube Delta near the border with Ukraine, the Defense Ministry said. Romania shares a 650-kilometer (400-mile) border with Ukraine and over the past year there have been fragments of Russian drones entering its territory repeatedly.
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Russia has destroyed about 80 percent of critical infrastructure in the city of Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in eastern Ukraine, as Russian soldiers slowly advance. Serhiy Dobriak, head of Pokrovsk's military administration, said Russian forces were about 7 kilometers (4 miles) from the city.
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An employee at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine was killed in a car bomb attack near the town of Enerhodar. Ukrainian military intelligence released a video of his car exploding and in a statement called Andrei Korotkiy a “war criminal” and collaborator. The plant's director, Yuri Chernichuk, called the attack “horrible” and an “inhuman act.”
Politics and diplomacy
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he visited the northern Sumy region, from where Ukraine launched a major incursion into the neighboring Russian Kursk region. He said the raid “has enormously helped” kyiv secure the latest military support packages from Western countries.
- Poland will begin building the first elements of improved defense lines on its borders with Russia and Belarus by the end of 2024, Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk said. Spurred by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Warsaw laid out plans to reinforce its northern and eastern borders with fortifications, surveillance, reconnaissance and anti-drone systems by the end of 2028.
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The Kremlin accused Ukrainian authorities on Friday of playing with fire, a day after Russian forces said they had intercepted a Ukrainian drone near the Kursk nuclear plant and some media outlets reported that a fire had broken out several kilometers away. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi denied that his country had fired weapons at or near the plant.
- A Russian court has arrested a Dutch citizen for “violence towards a police employee”, a charge that carries up to 10 years in prison. Harry Johannes Van Wurden will be detained for an initial period of two months, according to a statement from the Moscow City Courts.
- Russia sentenced a Crimean man to 14 years in prison for treason after accusing him of helping the Ukrainian army. Russian media said the FSB security service had accused the suspect, a Sevastopol resident, of helping kyiv's armed forces and preparing a “terrorist” attack. Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
