As the war enters its 976th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Monday, October 28, 2024:
Fighting
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An elderly man from Ukraine’s port city of Kherson was killed after explosives were dropped on him from a drone, and another man was killed by artillery fire, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messaging app.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defence units destroyed 21 Ukrainian drones overnight targeting the border Belgorod region as well as Bryansk, Voronezh and Kursk regions.
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A drone attack sparked a fire at an unspecified industrial facility and injured one person, according to Alexander Gusev, governor of the Voronezh region in southern Russia. He said emergency services were dispatched to the fire.
- Two explosions were heard near an ethanol plant in the village of Krasnoye, according to the Baza news Telegram channel close to Russia’s security services.
- Two people were hospitalised after Russia hit the city of Kharkiv with precision-guided bombs and damaged several residential buildings, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. He reported more attacks on the city later in the night.
- Four people suffered injuries in the Kharkiv region later in the night after Russia launched more attacks, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram.
- A residential building was damaged in an attack on the city of Chuhuiv, Syniehubov said. No injuries were reported in the attack.
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Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had taken control of the village of Izmailivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
- Russian forces thwarted an attempt at another cross-border incursion by Ukraine into the southwestern Bryansk region, Governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said, months after Kyiv staged a bold assault on its nuclear-armed enemy that Moscow is still struggling to halt.
Politics and diplomacy
- Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Defence Ministry was working on different ways to respond if the United States and its NATO allies help Ukraine to strike deep into his country with long-range Western missiles.
- Putin’s Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said cooperation within the “Ukraine plus Northern Europe” format is gaining speed with more steps that can increase pressure on Russia expected in the coming week. The five Nordic countries – Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland – are now NATO countries and have all been staunch supporters of Ukraine.
- A high-level delegation from South Korea will brief NATO about North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia, the alliance said, after the US expressed grave concern over the possible use of the troops against Ukraine.
- Ukraine said it is investigating reports that Russian soldiers shot at civilians in the embattled front-line town of Selydove. A video posted on Telegram by “Ghost of Khortytsia”, a Ukrainian army unit, purported to show Russian forces opening fire on a civilian vehicle.