Here is the situation on Monday, September 23, 2024.
Fighting
- The number of people injured in a Russian air attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, rose to 21, including an eight-year-old child. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia used glide bombs to target “an ordinary residential building”. Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said people were sleeping when the attack happened and two of the injured were in critical condition. Kharkiv’s city council said 18 buildings were damaged in the attack.
- In Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a Russian air attack struck homes in the city of Sloviansk, trapping one woman under the rubble and injuring two of her neighbours, regional prosecutors said.
- Also in Donetsk, two miners were killed and one other person injured after Russian forces shelled a mine west of the city of Pokrovsk, according to local Governor Vadym Filashkin and Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy.
- At least six people were injured in Russian attacks on the southern Kherson region. Two of them were hurt in a Russian drone attack on the city of Kherson, regional authorities said.
- The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched 80 Shahed drones and two missiles at Ukraine overnight into Sunday. Air defences shot down 71 drones while a further six were lost on location because of electronic warfare countermeasures, the statement said.
- Moscow said that a firefighter was killed and two of his colleagues injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in Russian-occupied Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
- In Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said at least 12 people, including a village official and members of a volunteer self-defence force, were hurt in Ukrainian shelling.
Politics and diplomacy
- Zelenskyy arrived in the United States where he will present proposals for peace which he has dubbed a “victory plan” to President Joe Biden, as well as election candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. He spent his first day in the country visiting Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, a Pennsylvania factory that produces 155mm artillery shells.
- The International Chess Federation (FIDE), the game’s top body, rejected a Kyrgyzstan-led proposal to readmit Russia and Belarus, but will consider allowing players under 12 or with disability to take part in tournaments. The two countries were expelled from FIDE in 2022 after Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Weapons
- Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said that Kyiv was in talks with partners in Europe to secure Swedish-made Gripen and European Eurofighter Typhoon jets. Umerov said that commitments were already in place for deliveries of US-made F16s and French Mirage aircraft.
