Ukrainian forces said they shot down a Russian warplane in Ukraine’s east on Saturday. The bomber was downed near the city of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk region, the head of its military administration, Serhiy Horbunov, was quoted as saying by Ukraine’s public broadcaster, Suspilne. Photos showed charred remains of an aircraft after it landed on a house that caught fire.
Ukraine said five civilians were killed by Russian shelling in the country’s south and east while Russian forces claimed to have made gains in Ukraine’s east. A 65-year-old woman and an 86-year-old man were killed in the city of Toretsk and the village of Velyka Novosilka, prosecutors in the Donetsk region said. In the Zaporizhzhia region, two men aged 44 and 46 were killed by Russian shelling in the village of Mala Tokmachka, said the regional governor, Ivan Fyodorov. Prosecutors in the Kharkiv region said a 49-year-old man died when the car he was driving was hit by a Russian drone.
Russian forces captured the village of Zhelanne Druge in the Donetsk region, Moscow’s defence ministry claimed on Saturday. The village is located close to Pokrovsk, a logistics hub for the Ukrainian army that is threatened by the advance of Russian troops. If confirmed, the village’s capture would come three days after Ukrainian forces said they were withdrawing from the frontline town of Vuhledar, about 33km from Zhelanne Druge, after a hard-fought two-year defence.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would present his “victory plan” at the 12 October meeting of the Ramstein group of nations that supplies arms to Ukraine. The plan had “clear, concrete steps towards a just end to the war”, the Ukrainian president said on X on Saturday, adding that the 25th Ramstein meeting would be the first to take place at the leaders’ level. “The determination of our partners and the strengthening of Ukraine are what can stop Russian aggression.” Zelenskyy presented his plan to the US president, Joe Biden, in Washington in September.
Nine people were wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a passenger bus in the Donetsk city of Horlivka, according to the city’s Russian-installed mayor, Ivan Prikhodko.
Russia launched three guided missiles and 13 attack drones at Ukraine overnight into Saturday, Ukraine’s air force said. The missiles were intercepted, three drones were shot down over the Odesa region and 10 others were lost, it said. Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday that air defences shot down 10 Ukrainian drones overnight in three border regions, including seven over the Belgorod region, two over the Kursk region and one over the Voronezh region.
Ukrainian prosecutors said they were investigating allegations Russian forces executed four Ukrainian prisoners of war and said a possible suspect for the killings was in custody. “The investigation was initiated by interrogations of Russian prisoners of war, during which testimonies were obtained regarding the commission of the crime,” the prosecutor’s office in the north-eastern Kharkiv region posted on Telegram on Saturday. The servicemen are alleged to have been killed on the orders of Russian military command over the summer at an aggregate plant in Vovchansk, which has been the focus of fierce fighting.
Russian prosecutors called for a seven-year sentence at the trial of a US citizen accused of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine against Russia, Russian news agencies reported. Prosecutors asked the court to take into account 72-year-old Stephen Hubbard’s age and said he had admitted guilt, according to Interfax on Saturday. They asked that he serve the sentence in a maximum-security penal colony. The US embassy in Moscow said it was aware of the reports of an American citizen’s arrest but could not comment further “due to privacy restrictions”.
