Zelensky said on Thursday that around 40,000 Russian troops had withdrawn from the front line after Ukrainian forces launched an offensive in the Kursk region on the Russian border.Kiev launched the Kursk Offensive on August 6 to draw Moscow's forces away from eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have seized a string of villages in recent months.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced that its forces had occupied the village of Heorhivka, east of the city of Krahove in the Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine.The Ukrainian General Staff said in an afternoon report that the village was one of several caught up in the fighting. Popular Ukrainian military blog Deep State reported the village had fallen to Russian forces. In an evening video address, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces had “succeeded in weakening the offensive power of the occupying forces in Donetsk Oblast,” but the situation remains tough near Krahove, the hardest-hit area, and in the city of Pokrovsk, another key Russian target.
Russian forces struck a nursing home in the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Thursday, carrying out a new series of airstrikes targeting the energy sector, killing at least one civilian, Ukrainian authorities said.A Russian guided bomb struck the five-story building during a daytime attack on the northern city, regional and military officials said. The Interior Ministry said one person was killed and 12 were wounded. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said rescuers were checking whether anyone was trapped under the rubble. Images from the scene shared with the ministry's post showed elderly patients who had been evacuated from damaged buildings lying on carpets and blankets.
The United Nations Human Rights Watch Ukraine said attacks on its power grid likely violated humanitarian law, while the International Energy Agency said in a report that power shortfalls during Ukraine's critical winter period could amount to about a third of expected peak demand.Moscow has repeatedly attacked the Sumy region, which borders Russia's Kursk region, where Kiev claims Ukrainian forces have carried out a major incursion and seized more than 100 villages.
Zelensky is due to meet Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the White House next week, in his final visit before the US elections and a possible reversal of Washington's policy towards Kiev.With Kiev concerned that Donald Trump's reelection could weaken U.S. engagement in Ukraine, Zelensky is expected to share a “winning plan” for ending the war with Russia with U.S. leaders during his visit on September 26. In a separate announcement, Zelensky said he would also meet with Trump.
Ramzan Kadyrov, a strongman in Russia's Chechen republic, accused Elon Musk on Thursday of disabling a Tesla Cybertruck that he claimed he received from him last month.Kadyrov, who has ruled Chechnya with an iron fist for more than 17 years, shared a video in August of himself driving an electric car with what appeared to be a machine gun mounted on the roof. Kadyrov said he received the vehicle from Musk, but Musk denied the claim on his social media platform X. “Musk recently remotely disabled the Cybertruck,” Kadyrov said in a post on his Telegram account. Kadyrov's claim could not be independently verified.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced Thursday that it had imposed sanctions on a network of five entities and one individual for enabling financing between Russia and North Korea to support the war in Ukraine and North Korea's weapons development.The United States, Ukraine and independent analysts say North Korea is helping Russia by supplying it rockets and missiles in exchange for economic and other military aid from Russia.
Shells sold by Indian arms makers are being diverted to Ukraine by European customers, according to 11 government and defense industry sources in India and Europe and a Reuters analysis of commercially available customs data, and despite protests from Moscow, the Indian government has not intervened to stop the transactions.The transfer of military equipment to support Ukraine's defense against Russia has been taking place for more than a year, according to intelligence sources and customs data.
Germany plans to approve nearly 400 million euros ($450 million) in additional military aid to Ukraine, according to a German finance ministry letter seen by Reuters on Thursday. The funding is in addition to the approximately 8 billion euros budgeted for Ukraine in 2024.
Russia on Thursday began the trial of an 18-year-old girl who plastered a 19th century Ukrainian poem onto a statue to protest Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.Daria Kozyreva faces up to five years in prison after she was arrested in February for pasting lines from Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko's poems on a statue of him in St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, a court in the country's Far East sentenced a Ukrainian student to nearly two months in prison on Thursday for making positive comments about Ukrainian paramilitary groups that Moscow classifies as “terrorist” groups.
President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia would increase drone production about tenfold this year to 1.4 million drones to ensure victory. Ukraine“In total, about 140,000 unmanned aerial vehicles of various types were delivered to the military in 2023,” Putin said. “This year we plan to significantly increase drone production – almost tenfold, to be precise.”
