Here is the situation on Tuesday, September 10, 2024.
Fighting
- Russia said it destroyed more than 70 Ukrainian drones, including 12 that were heading towards Moscow, in the early hours of Tuesday. The drones prompted flight suspensions from the capital’s three airports, and there were reports of a fire at a Moscow apartment block.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it captured the Ukrainian village of Memryk, about 20km (12 miles) east of the strategically important city of Pokrovsk, inflicted losses on Ukrainian forces in at least two other nearby villages and repelled eight enemy attacks in the Donetsk region. Ukraine did not mention Memryk in its daily update.
- Romania said it found fragments from a Russian drone in a village near the Danube River that borders Ukraine following an overnight attack on Ukrainian river ports.
- Latvia’s National Armed Forces Commander Lieutenant General Leonids Kalnins said a Russian drone found in its territory over the weekend was an Iranian-designed Shahed type and carrying explosives.
Politics and diplomacy
- British Foreign Secretary David Lammy will hold talks on Tuesday with visiting United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken in London, with discussions to include support for Ukraine.
- Vladimir Kara-Murza, a leading critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, urged the West against allowing the Russian leader any “face-saving” way out of the war against Ukraine, telling the AFP news agency in an interview that ending Putin’s rule was the only solution for peace. Kara-Murza, who had been serving a 25-year sentence in a Siberian penal colony on treason and other charges for criticising the war, was freed in a prisoner swap last month.
- China’s top diplomat Wang Yi will visit Russia this week for a security meeting of the BRICS emerging economies, Beijing’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Riyadh where he met Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The official Saudi Press Agency said the two discussed “recent international and regional developments”.
Weapons
- Iranian senior Revolutionary Guard commander Fazlollah Nozari denied reports that Tehran had supplied Russia with ballistic missiles, describing them as “psychological warfare”. A European Union spokesperson said the reports were “credible”. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Iran had sent short-range ballistic missiles to Russia.
- Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said it summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires Shahriar Amouzegar to warn of “devastating and irreparable consequences” for bilateral relations if the reports proved correct.
- The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) said in its annual report that more than 1,000 people had been killed or wounded by cluster munitions in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, and called on all countries to ban the weapons.
- Minister for Defence Pal Jonson said Sweden will send additional military support to Ukraine totalling 4.6 billion Swedish crowns ($443m). The new package will include ammunition for infantry fighting vehicles already donated by Sweden, as well as purchases that would facilitate the future transfer of Gripen fighter jets which should be agreed upon.
- Chief of Defence General Carsten Breuer, Germany’s top military official, said North Korea’s weapons exports to Russia have strengthened Moscow in Ukraine and allowed it to keep its domestic weapons arsenals stocked.
