Tag: weapons

As the war enters its 813th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Friday, May 17, 2024.

Fighting

• Visiting Kharkiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation in the northeast was “extremely difficult” but “under control” after the military partially halted a Russian advance, most notably thwarting an invasion of Vovchansk, 5km (3 miles) from the border with Russia.
• Sergiy Bolvinov, the head of police investigations in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, accused Russia of taking “30 to 40” civilians captive in Vovchansk to use as “human shields” near their command centre.
• General Christopher Cavoli, NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe, said he did not believe Russia’s military had the troop numbers to make a strategic breakthrough in the Kharkiv region and he was confident Ukrainian forces would hold their lines there.
• Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia was directing its most intense assaults on the front line near the cities of Pokrovsk and Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russia’s offensive has been unrelenting for months.
• An air raid alert in the northeastern Kharkiv region remained in place for more than 16 and a half hours amid Russian drone and missile attacks. Officials said five drones hit parts of the city of Kharkiv, starting a fire. There were no reports of casualties. The alert was lifted in the early hours of Friday.
• Vyacheslav Gladkov, the regional governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, said a woman and her four-year-old son were killed when their car was hit by a Ukrainian drone. Two other people in the vehicle were injured.

Politics and diplomacy

• Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. The two held talks, walked in a park and drank tea. Xi said the two countries’ deepening relationship was a “stabilising force” in the world and that he hoped the war in Ukraine could be resolved peacefully. China has not condemned Moscow’s full-scale invasion. Putin said he was grateful for China’s efforts to resolve the crisis.
• Russia expelled Adrian Coghill, the United Kingdom’s defence attache, from Moscow a week after Britain ordered Russia’s defence attache to leave London for being an “undeclared military intelligence officer”. UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said Moscow’s move was because Coghill “personified the UK’s unwavering support for Ukraine“.
• Sri Lanka said it would send a high-level delegation to Russia to investigate the fate of hundreds of nationals reportedly fighting in the war in Ukraine. The Defence Ministry said social media campaigns via WhatsApp have targeted ex-military personnel with promises of lucrative salaries and citizenship in Russia, warning its nationals not to be duped.

Weapons

• The United States announced sanctions on two Russian nationals and three Russian companies for facilitating arms transfers between Russia and North Korea, including ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine. US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Russia had already used at least 40 North Korean-produced ballistic missiles against Ukraine.
• Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, denied Pyongyang was selling weapons to Russia, saying it was a “most absurd theory”, according to state media. UN monitors have found debris from North Korean missiles in Ukraine.
• Denmark said it would send Ukraine a new military aid package, mostly of air defence and artillery, worth about 5.6 billion Danish crowns ($815.47m).

As the war enters its 812th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Thursday, May 16, 2024.

Fighting

• Intense fighting raged in Vovchansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region about 5km (3 miles) from the border with Russia. Oleksiy Kharkivskyi, the town’s police chief, said the situation was “extremely difficult”, while Ukraine’s General Staff said Ukrainian troops managed to “partially” push back some Russian infantry groups but “defensive actions” were ongoing on the town’s northern and northwestern fringes.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed Russian forces had taken control of the settlements of Hlyboke and Lukyantsi in the northeastern Kharkiv region, and Robotyne in the southern Zaporizhia region.

• Regional Governor Serhiy Lysak said a Russian air attack on Ukraine’s city of Dnipro killed two people and injured several more.

• At least 25 people were injured, three of them seriously, after Russian missiles and guided bombs struck Ukraine’s southern cities of Kherson and Mykolaiv. The attack also damaged apartment blocks, homes, schools and a medical facility, local officials said.

• At least two people were injured in Russian shelling of a central district of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said the injured were being treated in hospital.

• The Russian Defence Ministry said its air force destroyed 10 long-range Ukrainian missiles launched at Sevastopol in Crimea, which Moscow invaded and annexed from Ukraine in 2014. It did not say whether there was any damage.

• Sri Lanka said at least 16 of its citizens had been killed fighting as mercenaries in the war in Ukraine, mostly on the Russian side.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cancelled visits to Spain and Portugal that were scheduled to take place this week.
• Swiss President Viola Amherd said delegations from more than 50 countries, including in South America, Africa and the Middle East, had so far signed up for next month’s Ukraine peace summit. Switzerland is trying to persuade more countries to join, including China.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in China on Thursday for a two-day visit where he will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In an interview with Chinese state news agency Xinhua ahead of the visit, he backed China’s peace proposals for Ukraine.

• European Union ambassadors agreed to expand sanctions on Russian media to four more outlets, accusing them of publishing propaganda. EU Commissioner for Values and Transparency Vera Jourova said Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestija and Rossiyskaya Gazeta would be added to the list, which already includes Sputnik and RT. Jourova said Russian funding of EU media, nongovernmental organisations and political parties would also be banned.

• Nadezhda Buyanova, a 68-year-old Moscow paediatrician, went on trial for spreading “fake” information on the army after the ex-wife of a soldier killed in Ukraine lodged a complaint about an alleged comment Buyanova made during a consultation.

Weapons

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $2bn in additional military aid for Ukraine and said Washington was rushing ammunition, armoured vehicles, missiles and air defences to the country to ensure their speedy delivery to the front line.
• Putin said Russia’s total defence and security spending may reach a little more than 8.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024

As the war enters its 811th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Wednesday, May 15, 2024.

Fighting

• At least 20 people were injured in northeastern Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, after Russia struck residential areas, including a high-rise apartment block, with guided bombs and artillery shells.

• The United Nations said at least eight civilians had been killed and 35 injured since Russia began a new offensive in the northeastern region on Friday. It called on Russia to “immediately cease its armed attack against Ukraine – in line with the relevant resolutions of the UN General Assembly” – and withdraw to the internationally recognised borders.
• Ukraine’s military said its forces pulled back to new positions in two areas of the Kharkiv region and warned of a Russian force buildup to the north near its Sumy region. Russia said it had made further inroads and taken a 10th border village, Buhruvatka.
• Ukraine’s Air Force said defence systems destroyed all 18 attack drones that Russia launched over several regions, including the Kyiv region and the front line.
• Russian officials said one person was injured and several buildings damaged in a Ukrainian air attack on the border city of Belgorod, with Russia’s air defence destroying 25 missiles over the broader Belgorod region.
• Russian media said a Ukrainian drone attack derailed a cargo train and led to a fire in a diesel tank in the southern Russian region of Volgograd, mangling several hundred metres of track. Russian Railways said the incident was the result of “interference by unauthorised persons”.

Politics and diplomacy

• United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a surprise visit to Kyiv, promised Ukraine that military assistance that would make “a real difference” on the battlefield was on its way.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit China from May 16-17 for talks with President Xi Jinping. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Hua Chunying said the two will discuss “bilateral ties, cooperation in various fields, and international and regional issues of common interest”.
• South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol confirmed Seoul’s participation in a Ukraine peace summit that will be held in Switzerland in June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X.
• Russia’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Vladimir Kara-Murza, a dual Russia-United Kingdom national and prominent Kremlin and war critic, against a 25-year jail sentence on treason and other charges. UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the decision was an “outrage” and that Kara-Murza was a political prisoner.
• International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan said he would not be intimidated by threats as his office investigates possible war crimes in Ukraine. Russia put Khan on its wanted list after the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Putin and Russia’s children’s commissioner for their role in the alleged deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia.
• Ireland said it would slash a weekly payment for all Ukrainian refugees in state accommodation from 220 euros ($238) to just 38.80 euros ($41.96) from August. Just more than 100,000 Ukrainians have fled to Ireland since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Nearly half are living in state-provided accommodation.

Weapons

• Minister of Defence Sebastien Lecornu said France would send more Aster surface-to-air missiles for the Franco-Italian SAMP/T-MAMBA air defence system defending Kyiv.
• Russia said its submarine-launched Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile had been put into service, a key element in the modernisation of its nuclear arsenal.

As the war enters its 810th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Fighting

• Russia has widened its ground assault on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, attacking new areas to try and expand the front and “stretch” Ukraine’s forces, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov. He said about 5,700 people had been evacuated from in and around Vovchansk and urged the town’s remaining residents, about 300 people, to leave. The DeepState Telegram channel, which is close to the Ukrainian army, said Russia had taken territory of about 100sq km (39sq miles).
• Ukraine’s Security Council chief Oleksandr Lytvynenko told the AFP news agency that there was no imminent risk of a ground assault on Kharkiv, the country’s second-biggest city, despite the latest Russian offensive. Lytvynenko said there were “a lot” of Russians at the border and “more than 30,000” involved in the current attack, which began on Friday.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its army had improved its tactical position near four settlements in the Kharkiv region – Vesele, Neskuchne, Vovchansk and Lyptsi.
• Russia said its air defence systems destroyed 16 missiles and 31 drones that Ukraine launched at Russian territory, including 12 missiles over the border region of Belgorod. Five houses were damaged in Belgorod, but there were no injuries, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Politics and diplomacy

• Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic expressed support for Ukraine in its war against Russia after meeting visiting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, but stopped short of committing to sanctions against Moscow.
• Ukraine said it thwarted a Russian plan to carry out bomb attacks on May 9 in the capital Kyiv and in the western city of Lviv. It said two Russian military agents had been detained on suspicion of involvement in the alleged plot, and 19 explosive devices had been seized.
• A Russian-installed court on Ukraine’s annexed Crimean peninsula jailed five Ukrainian citizens for between 11 and 16 years after they were found guilty of sharing military intelligence with Kyiv. The men were charged with treason and espionage.

Weapons

• US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States was doing “everything” possible to rush weapons to Ukraine, and that some weapons were already on the battlefield. A new arms package would be announced “in the coming days”, he added.
• Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskii and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov had discussions with Sullivan, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Charles Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We spoke about the situation at the front, as well the assistance that Ukraine needs on the battlefield,” Syrskii wrote on Telegram.

As the war enters its 809th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Monday, May 13, 2024.

Fighting

• Ukraine’s military chief Oleksandr Syrskii said his forces were facing a “difficult situation” in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where thousands more people have fled their homes amid an advance by Russian forces.
• Ukraine’s General Staff said fighting was raging around Vovchansk, a town about 4km (2.5 miles) from the border and 45km (28 miles) from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city and the capital of the Kharkiv region. The Ukrainian military said Russia had deployed “significant forces for its attack on the town” but “taking no account of their own losses”, with at least 100 soldiers reported dead.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “defensive battles” were taking place along large sections of the border near Kharkiv and that fighting was “no less acute” in some areas of the Donetsk region further to the east. Zelenskyy said 30 armed clashes had occurred in the past 24 hours in the Pokrovsk sector, northwest of the Russian-held town of Avdiivka, and there was also fighting in sectors including Lyman, Kupiansk and Kramatorsk.
• Ukrainian prosecutors said at least four civilians had been killed in the Kharkiv region since Russia began its ground offensive on Friday. Some 6,000 people have been evacuated as a result of the fighting.
• At least 13 people were confirmed dead and 20 injured after an apartment building collapsed in the Russian border town of Belgorod. Russia said the building was struck by fragments from a Ukraine-launched Soviet-era missile that was shot down by air defence.

Politics and diplomacy

• The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin planned to remove Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle and replace him with Andrei Belousov, a former deputy prime minister who specialises in economics.
• Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda appeared on track to secure a second term in office after Sunday’s election, following a campaign dominated by security concerns about Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
• Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba began a tour to Serbia – the first by a top Ukrainian delegation since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

As the war enters its 806th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Friday, May 10, 2024.

Fighting

• Two people were killed in Russian shelling of Ukraine’s southern city of Nikopol, while Ukraine’s air force said air defence systems destroyed 17 out of 20 Russian attack drones targeting the southern Odesa region. No casualties were reported from those attacks.
• Eight people were injured and dozens of buildings damaged in a Ukrainian air attack on Russia’s Belgorod, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s army was facing “a really difficult situation” against Russian forces on the eastern front, but that the US’s $61bn military aid package was coming and would turn the tide.
• Ukraine’s state energy company Ukrhydroenergo said two hydropower plants were no longer operating after Russian attacks earlier this week caused “devastating damage”.
• Unnamed intelligence sources in Kyiv told the Reuters and AFP news agencies that a Ukrainian drone struck a major oil refinery in Russia’s Bashkortostan region on Thursday from some 1,500km (932 miles) away in the longest-range attack since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
• Russia’s emergency services said a building at Gazprom’s Neftekhim Salavat oil processing, petrochemical and fertiliser complex in Bashkortostan was damaged, the RIA state news agency reported.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukrainian President Zelenskyy fired the head of the state guards, the unit that provides protection to top officials, after the intelligence services said two of its members were involved in a Russian plot to assassinate him.
• Zelenskyy appointed Brigadier General Oleksandr Trepak as the commander of Ukraine’s special forces replacing Colonel Serhiy Lupanchuk. It is the second time in six months that the president has changed the head of the unit that operates in Russia-occupied territories. No reason was given.
• Ukraine’s popular former army chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who led Ukraine’s defence in the first two years of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, was named Kyiv’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. The previous ambassador was fired in July 2023 after criticising the president.
• Ukraine’s parliament backed a bill to crack down on voted-on draft dodgers. The legislation includes raising fines for anyone caught trying to avoid the call-up and allowing authorities to detain draft dodgers for up to three days.
• Speaking at Russia’s Victory Day military parade, President Vladimir Putin accused “arrogant” Western elites of forgetting the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II, and of stoking conflicts across the world. Putin ordered Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow currently occupies about 18 percent of the country.
• South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Seoul would maintain strong ties with Ukraine and a “smooth” relationship with Russia but ruled out direct weapon shipments to Kyiv.

Weapons

• German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Ukraine’s Western allies would deliver three more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS). The system can launch multiple guided missiles in quick succession.

As the war enters its 805th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Thursday, May 9, 2024.

Fighting

• Three people were injured after Russia launched more than 70 missiles and drones at power stations and energy infrastructure in Kyiv and six other cities. The attack, one of the biggest in weeks, also led to power cuts in nine Ukrainian regions.
• At least four children and three adults were injured after a Russian air attack hit a school stadium in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv. Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said two of the injured – two teenagers – were in serious condition in hospital.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces made additional advances along the 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) front, taking control of the village of Kyslivka in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and the village of Novokalynove in the Donetsk region.
• Ukraine’s parliament passed a law that would allow some convicts to enlist in the army in return for a chance at parole, as part of an effort to get more men to the front and relieve exhausted troops.
• Indian police said they had arrested four people on suspicion of luring young men to Russia with the promise of lucrative jobs or university places only to force them to fight in Ukraine. About 35 Indian men were duped in this manner, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said in March.

Politics and diplomacy

• European Union nations reached a tentative breakthrough deal to provide Ukraine with billions in additional funds for arms and ammunition using the windfall profits from frozen Russian central bank assets held in the 27-member bloc. Ministers still need to approve the legal text that will see 90 percent of the proceeds channelled into an EU-run military aid fund for Ukraine, with the remainder supporting Kyiv in other ways, four EU diplomatic sources told the Reuters news agency.

• British Home Minister James Cleverly said the United Kingdom would expel Russia’s defence attache, remove diplomatic status from some properties and impose new restrictions on Russian diplomatic visas and visits in response to what he described as Moscow’s “malign activity”. Cleverly said the attache was an “undeclared military intelligence officer”. Britain has introduced several waves of sanctions on Russian companies and individuals since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
• Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia would make an “appropriate response” to Britain’s move.
• The Kremlin said it had no comment on Ukrainian claims that it had uncovered a plot by Russian agents to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
• Polish border guards said they had detained a Russian defector, who illegally crossed into Poland from Belarus, a staunch ally of Moscow. Border guard spokeswoman Katarzyna Zdanowicz told the AFP news agency that the man “had his military papers on him”.

Weapons

• Herman Smetanin, head of Ukraine’s state arms manufacturer, told the Defence Ministry’s media outlet, ArmyInform, that Ukraine was now producing the same number of long-range attack drones as Russia. He provided no figures.
• Hungary reiterated that it would not participate in a NATO plan to provide long-term military assistance to Ukraine through a fund worth 100 billion euros ($107bn). Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said the plan was a “crazy mission”.

As the war enters its 804th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Wednesday, May 8, 2024.

Fighting

• One person was killed and four injured by Russian artillery fire in the eastern border region of Sumy, which has come under increasing aerial bombardment in recent weeks. Ukrainian police said Moscow’s forces had fired on the territory 224 times over the previous 24 hours.
• Five people were injured after Ukraine hit an oil storage depot in the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk triggering a large fire.

Politics and diplomacy

• The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said it uncovered a Russian plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other senior officials. The SBU said Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) had set up a network of agents to carry out the plan and two colonels in the State Guard of Ukraine, which provides protection to top officials, had been arrested on suspicion of treason.
• Vladimir Putin was sworn in for a fifth term as Russian president in a Kremlin ceremony boycotted by the United States, the United Kingdom and several European Union countries. In a speech to mark the occasion, Putin said the country would emerge victorious and stronger from a “difficult” period.
• Several dozen protesters gathered outside The Hague’s Peace Palace to protest against Putin’s inauguration, calling for him to stand trial. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and Russian Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on war crime charges related to the abduction of Ukrainian children in March 2023.
• Chinese President Xi Jinping left France after a two-day trip during which he offered no major concessions on foreign policy, even as President Emmanuel Macron urged him to use his influence on Russia to help end the war in Ukraine.
• Zelenskyy said the island state of Cape Verde had become the first African country to agree to attend next month’s “peace summit” in Switzerland. Bern has invited 160 delegations to the event which is scheduled for June 15-16.
• Russia banned the US-based non-profit Freedom House, labelling it an “undesirable” organisation in Russia. In its 2024 Freedom in the World report, Freedom House assessed Russia as “not free”, noting restrictions on political rights and civil liberties had tightened since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Weapons

• Ukrainian state prosecutors told the Reuters news agency they had examined debris from 21 of about 50 North Korean ballistic missiles launched by Russia between late December and late February, as they work to assess the threat from Moscow’s cooperation with Pyongyang. The prosecutors’ office said evidence so far suggested a high failure rate.

• Speaking during a visit to the US, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said he was open to discussions on sending a Patriot missile system to Ukraine. Romania signed a $4bn deal to procure Patriots in 2017, with the first shipment delivered in 2020.
• The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Russia and Ukraine each accused the other of using banned toxins on the battlefield in meetings in The Hague. The OPCW said the accusations were “insufficiently substantiated” but the situation remained “volatile and extremely concerning regarding the possible re-emergence of use of toxic chemicals as weapons”.