As the war enters its 955th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Monday, October 7, 2024.
Fighting
- Russia unleashed an overnight drone attack across Ukraine targeting the capital Kyiv and hitting infrastructure in the Black Sea port of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said. The State Emergency Service said one person was injured and warehouses and cargo trucks damaged in Odesa during the multi-wave attack, which kept much of the country under air-raid alert for several hours.
- The Ukrainian Air Force said the Russian attack involved 87 attack drones and four missiles. Air defence units destroyed 56 of the drones and two of the missiles, the Air Force said.
- Anti-Kremlin activist Ildar Dadin, who was jailed in Russia for protesting against President Vladimir Putin, was killed on the front line in Ukraine where he was fighting alongside Kyiv’s forces, his relatives and Russian media said.
- Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said one of its units destroyed a Russian automated air defence unit with a first-person view drone. The agency released video of the attack but did not say where or when it took place.
Politics and diplomacy
- Ukraine may be offered “more concrete steps” towards joining NATO at the Ramstein summit that starts in Germany on October 12, The Washington Post reported, citing a diplomat it did not name.
- Russia arrested Yegor Guzenko, the administrator of the Telegram channel Thirteenth, who has previously criticised the Kremlin and Russia’s Ministry of Defence for not being tough enough in Ukraine. The arrest was reported by military bloggers and opposition media, some of whom said the ultranationalist had been detained after refusing to take a drug test following an altercation with police.
Weapons
- Dutch Minister of Defence Ruben Brekelmans made a surprise visit to Kyiv and announced that the Netherlands would invest 400 million euros ($440 million) in advanced drone development with Ukraine. He said he could also confirm that the country had delivered its first F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv and more would be sent in the coming months.
For the first time, I can officially announce that the first Dutch F-16s have been delivered to Ukraine.
This is urgently needed. In Kharkiv, I saw the damage from Russian airstrikes and heard frequent air raid alarms.
The rest of the 24 jets will follow in the coming months. pic.twitter.com/Oq6IbxQyWP
— Ruben Brekelmans (@DefensieMin) October 6, 2024
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