Here is the situation on Saturday, September 21, 2024.
Fighting
- Four people were injured after a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa. Governor Oleh Kiper said some port facilities and an Antigua-flagged civilian vessel were also damaged.
- Ukraine’s air force said 61 out of 70 Russian attack drones and one out of four missiles across 13 regions of Ukraine were destroyed.
- Some 70,112 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, according to the BBC and the independent Russian news site, Mediazona. The toll was documented from publicly available information such as official statements, death notices in the media and announcements on social media, as well as tombstones in Russian cemeteries. The “actual number is believed to be considerably higher”, the BBC said.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would regain control of its Kursk region “in a timely manner”, but declined to say how soon this could be achieved. Ukraine launched a surprise cross-border incursion into Kursk on August 6, taking swaths of territory.
Politics and diplomacy
- Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council banned the use of the Telegram messaging app on official devices used by government officials, military personnel and key workers amid concerns about Russian surveillance.
- Visiting Kyiv, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the European Union would lend Ukraine as much as 35 billion euros ($39bn) backed by revenues from frozen Russian assets to help the country “keep warm” through the third winter of war with Russia.
- Russia charged four of its soldiers serving in occupied Ukraine with the torture and killing of Russell Bentley, a 64-year-old US citizen living in Russian-held Donetsk who was found dead in April. Bentley was a longtime supporter of Russia. His wife said he had been abducted and killed by Russian soldiers.
- Norway will increase civilian aid to Ukraine by five billion kroner ($475m) this year and extend its aid package by three years to 2030, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said.
- Prominent Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was released from prison in a high-profile prisoner swap earlier this year, said Russian President Vladimir Putin should not be allowed to win the war in Ukraine.
Weapons
- The United States is preparing a $375m military aid package for Ukraine, two senior officials told the Reuters news agency. The aid package, expected to be announced next week, includes patrol boats, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition, spare parts and other weapons, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
- Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Italy would send Ukraine another Samp-T antimissile system to “protect hospitals, schools, universities”.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said senior Ukrainian officials including the defence and foreign ministers and top military commanders agreed in an “emotional” discussion that the country needs to make more weaponry domestically and speed up production.