Here is the situation on Sunday, October 8, 2023.
Fighting
Russia’s defence ministry said it shot down two Ukrainian S-200 anti-aircraft missiles over the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula. The ministry issued two near-identical Telegram posts on Saturday night saying that Kyiv had “attempted a terrorist attack” at 6pm (15:00 GMT) and 10pm (19:00GMT) Moscow time with an S-200 anti-aircraft missile that had been “converted to an attack version”.
Another Ukrainian drone was also shot down near Moscow early on Saturday, the Russian TASS news agency reported, adding that it appeared to cause no damage or injuries.
In Russia’s Belgorod, local authorities said three Ukrainian Tochka-U missiles were destroyed over the border region and that shelling by Kyiv’s forces had killed one person who was on the street at the time of the attack.
In Ukraine, a member of Russia’s governing United Russia Party was killed by a car bomb in the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region, according to officials. Vladimir Malov died in hospital, the officials said.
In the Ukrainian town of Hroza in the Kharkiv region, local residents began burying victims of a Russian missile strike that killed some 50 people on Friday. Representatives from the United Nations Monitoring Mission in Ukraine told The Associated Press news agency that conversations with local residents and survivors indicate “that virtually all those killed were civilians and that the target itself, a busy village cafe and store, was also clearly civilian”.
Politics
Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s Chechnya region and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, proposed that a presidential election due next March should either be postponed due to the war in Ukraine or limited to one candidate.
“I propose now, while the ‘special military operation’ is under way, to unanimously decide that we will have one candidate in the elections – Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin,” Kadyrov was quoted as saying. “Or temporarily call off the elections, because there’s no one else who could defend our country today.”
Regional security
A United States think tank said rail traffic along the North Korea-Russia border spiked this week to the highest in years, suggesting arms supplies by Pyongyang to Moscow after the leaders of the two countries discussed deeper military cooperation.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies said satellite imagery showed an “unprecedented” 73 or so freight cars at Tumangang Rail Station in the North Korean border city of Rason. The traffic was far greater than that observed in the past five years, including pre-pandemic levels, it said.
Denmark’s defence ministry said it aims to restart ammunition production after a 55-year gap to ensure its domestic supplies as Russia’s war in Ukraine creates increased demand for military hardware across Europe.
