As the war enters its 975th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Sunday, October 27, 2024:
Fighting
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Ukraine’s air defence units were deployed early on Sunday to repel a wave of Russian drones heading towards Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, said, telling residents to stay in shelters.
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Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defence units also destroyed overnight at least 30 Ukrainian drones over the southern regions of Voronezh, Bryansk, Oryol, Lipetsk and Belgorod.
- One woman was injured as a result of the drone attack on the border region of Belgorod, the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on the Telegram messaging app. He added that a few cars were also damaged.
- Maxim Yegorov, governor of the Tambov region, some 450km (280 miles) southeast of Moscow, said a Ukrainian drone fell in the Michurinsky district of the region, sparking a short-lived fire but causing no injuries or material damage.
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Russian forces advanced further into several eastern Ukrainian towns, including in Selydove, getting closer to capturing the strategic city of Pokrovsk, Russian and Ukrainian bloggers said. The Russian news outlet SHOT said on Telegram that Russian troops control 80 percent of Selydove.
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Russian military bloggers also reported that Russian forces were close to taking over the town of Kurakhove southwest of Hirnyk.
- Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had taken control of the Oleksandropil settlement in eastern Ukraine, according to the state-run news agency RIA Novosti.
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Ukraine said in its Saturday evening report that its forces had repelled 36 Russian attacks along the Pokrovsk front line the previous day, including in the area of Selydove, while several battles were still ongoing.
- A Russian glide bomb killed one person and injured three in Kostiantynivka near the front line in Donetsk region, the regional governor said.
- Russian shelling killed two people in a small town west of the Ukrainian-held southern city of Kherson.
Politics and diplomacy
- A string of Russian attacks that killed and injured civilians in Ukraine in recent days has prompted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to issue a new call to Kyiv’s allies to intensify political pressure on Moscow.
- Finance ministers of the Group of Seven nations have decided to step up efforts to prevent Russia from evading sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine amid reports that Russian financial institutions have developed a network of foreign subsidiaries to facilitate the trade of sanctioned goods.
- The deployment of North Korean troops to help Russia in its war against Ukraine is unlikely to have a significant effect on the fighting on the ground but could affect security interests in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, said Pascal Dayez-Burgeon, a North Korea expert and former French diplomat in Seoul.