Here’s how it is on Sunday, October 16th.
fighting
- At least 11 people were shot dead at a Russian military training ground in the city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine, the RIA news agency quoted the Defense Ministry as saying, adding that 15 others were wounded.
- The Russian-backed city administration said, on Sunday, that Ukrainian forces bombed an administrative building in Donetsk city, the capital of the Donetsk region.
- The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that in the 24 hours until Sunday morning, Russian forces targeted more than 30 towns and villages across Ukraine, launching five missiles, 23 air attacks and up to 60 missile attacks.
- Ukraine’s network operator said a missile attack severely damaged a major power facility near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, as the Russian military sought to cut power in remote populated areas.
- The Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces stopped Ukraine’s attempts to advance in the Kherson region.
- Fighting is particularly intense in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, and the strategically important Kherson province in the south, three of the four “annexed” provinces by Russia.
- Ukrainian President Zelensky said that Ukrainian forces are still in control of the strategic eastern town of Pakhmut despite repeated Russian attacks.
- The Ministry of Defense in Minsk said that the first Russian soldier to participate in a new joint force with Belarusian forces has arrived in Belarus.
Diplomacy
- Elon Musk said his space company SpaceX will continue to fund Starlink internet service in Ukraine, citing the need for “good deeds,” a day after saying it could no longer afford it.
- Iran’s Foreign Ministry once again rejected allegations that it supplied Russia with weapons “for use in the war in Ukraine”. The comment came after Kyiv and several of its Western allies accused Moscow of using Iranian-made drones in attacks in recent weeks. EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the issue at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.
- Sebastien Licornu, Minister of the Armed Forces, told Le Parisien newspaper that France will train up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers on its soil.
- Germany’s foreign minister has warned that Russia may seek to sow division in the West through refugees, as Moscow seeks to expand its “hybrid war”.
