As the war enters its 774th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Monday, April 8, 2024.
Fighting
- Ukraine’s military said that fighting around the front line city of Chasiv Yar was “difficult” and “tense” but that its forces were resisting Russian air and infantry attacks.
- Ivan Fedorov, the head of Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhia region, said three people died in the town of Huliaipole after their house was hit by a Russian shell.
- A woman was killed in a Russian attack that hit an apartment block in Kupiansk, in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
- In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, five people were injured in a Russian attack.
- In Russia, meanwhile, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said one woman was killed after shrapnel from a shot-down Ukrainian drone hit a car. Authorities said they brought down 12 drones in the Belgorod region and three over Bryansk.
- Russia accused Ukraine of a drone attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Ukraine denied the claim. Russia seized the facility shortly after launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Politics and diplomacy
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Beijing on Monday and Tuesday, and hold talks with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The Foreign Ministry said the “Ukrainian crisis” would be discussed.
Weapons
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would lose to Russia and other countries would be at risk of attack if the United States Congress did not approve a $60b military aid package that Republicans have blocked for months.