Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 980

3 hours ago 4

As the war enters its 980th day, these are the main developments.

Published On 1 Nov 2024

Here is the situation on Friday, November 1, 2024:

Fighting

Rescue teams completed recovery operations at a building hit by a Russian guided-bomb on Wednesday in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The death toll has risen to three, with children aged 12 and 15 among the dead, while 36 people have been injured.
Air defence systems intercepted 10 Ukrainian drones over four regions of Russia, the Russian Defence Ministry has said, with no damage or injuries reported. Five drones were downed in Kursk, three in Bryansk, one in Oryol, and one in the Black Sea Crimean Peninsula.
Several fuel and energy facilities have been targeted in a Ukrainian drone attack on the central Russian region of Bashkortostan, causing minimal damage and no casualties.
Russian forces captured the settlement of Yasna Poliana in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, according to Russia’s Defence Ministry.
Russia attacked a strategic bridge across the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Estuary in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, launching two ballistic Iskander missiles and eight guided missiles, Kyiv has said.
Ukraine has said it shot down 17 out of 43 drones and two guided missiles launched by Russia overnight.
Russia has said Ukraine’s leadership is clearly nervous about Russian advances along the front line if Kyiv is asking the United States to supply long-range Tomahawk missiles.

The US expects North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region to enter the fight against Ukraine in the coming days, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He added that 10,000 North Korean troops are in Russia, including as many as 8,000 in Kursk, where Ukrainian forces continue to hold territory.
Blinken also pressed China in a “robust conversation” this week to use its influence to rein in Pyongyang. He said China, along with the entire world, should be demanding North Korea cease its “provocative” actions, including deploying troops in Ukraine.
In an interview with South Korean media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted what he called his allies’ “zero” response to Russia’s deployment of North Korean troops in Ukraine, saying a weak reaction would encourage President Vladimir Putin to increase the contingent.
Zelenskyy also said he believed Moscow was trying to agree for North Korea to send engineering troops and a “large number of civilians” to work at Russian military plants.
In prepared remarks to the United Nations Security Council, the Ukrainian government named three North Korean generals it said are accompanying the thousands of Korean People’s Army troops deployed to Russia.
The Kremlin declined to comment when asked if Russia was helping North Korea to develop its military technology, as Seoul warned Pyongyang could get missile technology from Russia for helping with the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine is confident of continued US support regardless of who wins next week’s presidential election, the country’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has said, despite Donald Trump previously blaming President Zelenskyy for helping start the war with Russia.
The war in Ukraine is hurting the entire world and the longer it goes on the worse the consequences will be for everyone, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said at a two-day Montreal conference concerning the return of Ukrainian prisoners and children detained by Russia.

The Russian government is seeking to reallocate 7 trillion roubles ($72bn) in its three-year budget draft, with a significant portion of the funds directed towards the military, Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has said. The budget draft allocates 13.5 trillion roubles ($139bn) to the military in 2025, or 6.3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) – the highest level since the Cold War.
Russian man Yan Petrovsky, who also goes by the name Voislav Torden, is to stand trial in Finland charged with having committed war crimes in Ukraine in 2014, Finland’s National Prosecution Authority said.
A treaty that Russia and Iran are set to sign will include closer defence cooperation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, as concern grows over closer military ties between the countries.
Ukrainian lawmakers have passed the first stage of discussions over the 2025 budget, with around 26 percent of GDP ($53.38bn) allocated for defence.
Ukraine is using dozens of domestically made AI-augmented systems for un-piloted drones to reach targets, a senior official has said, allowing cheap drones carrying explosives to fly in areas protected by extensive signal jamming.

Source

Al Jazeera and news agencies