Here is the situation on Thursday, October 17, 2024.
Fighting
- Russian forces captured two villages in eastern Ukraine – Krasnyi Yar in the Donetsk region and Nevske in the Luhansk region, according to Russian state-run news agency TASS.
- Fierce fighting took place in Ukraine’s Kurakhove area, where Russian forces launched 42 assaults. Ukrainian troops pushed back 16 of these attacks, but battles are still raging.
- Russian aircraft carried out seven attacks on Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region, dropping nine guided bombs, but Ukraine’s military remain in control across several areas of the occupied Russian oblast.
- A Russian military officer who recently returned from Ukraine has been assassinated in what is believed to be an organised hit in the Moscow region, TASS reports.
- Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called North Korean involvement in Russia’s war in his country a “huge threat of escalation” and urged tougher sanctions and isolation against Pyongyang.
Politics and diplomacy
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his “victory plan” to end the war with Russia includes requests for specific weapons and an “unconditional” invitation to join NATO, saying it “may be possible to end the war no later than next year” if the plan is implemented now.
- Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Zelenskyy’s plan is pushing NATO towards direct conflict with Russia and would lead to disaster for the Ukrainian people.
- NATO’s new chief Mark Rutte said the plan was a positive development, but he was not able to support it as a whole as “that would be a bit difficult”.
- Zelenskyy is scheduled to attend a NATO defence ministers’ meeting on Thursday, according to NATO’s agenda for the day.
- Ukraine has appealed to the International Maritime Organization to send an international monitoring mission to Odesa ports, accusing Russia of putting “millions of people in the world at risk of starvation” as it attacks civilian ships and grain storage facilities.
Military aid
- NATO’s Rutte said members of the military alliance are “firmly on track” to fulfil a pledge of 40 billion euros ($43.53bn) in military aid for Ukraine this year, saying the bloc committed 20.9bn euros ($22.7bn) during the first half of 2024 and is on track for the rest of the year.
- US President Joe Biden spoke to Zelenskyy in a call in which he announced a new $425m military aid package for Ukraine, which will include air defence capability, air-to-ground munitions, armoured vehicles and other critical munitions.
