Wed. Nov 6th, 2024
Occasional Digest - a story for you

As the war enters its 985th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Wednesday, November 6:

Fighting

  • A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia has killed six people, injured at least 20 more, and destroyed a critical infrastructure facility, Ukrainian officials have said.
  • A Ukrainian army drone has attacked an apartment block in the Russian city of Belgorod, injuring one civilian and setting three apartments on fire.
  • Ukraine’s military said it shot down 48 out of 79 drones and two missiles launched by Russia overnight.
  • Russia’s Ministry of Defence has said that while it believes Ukraine is incapable of producing nuclear weapons, it is able to make a “dirty bomb” – a conventional weapon combining explosives with radioactive material.
ZAPORIZHZHIA, UKRAINE - NOVEMBER 05: A Ukrainian tank crew climbs into a Soviet-era T-64 tank near Zaporizhzhia to make final adjustments before heading into battle as Russia-Ukraine war continues on November 05, 2024 in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. ( Fermin Torrano - Anadolu Agency )
A Ukrainian tank crew climbs into a Soviet-era T-64 tank near Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine to make final adjustments before heading into battle as the Russia-Ukraine war continues, on November 5 [Fermin Torrano/Anadolu]

North Korean troops in Ukraine

  • South Korea’s Defence Ministry has reiterated its belief that more than 10,000 North Korean troops are in Russia, with a “significant number” in the frontline areas, including Russia’s Kursk region.
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the first battles between Ukrainian and North Korean troops “open a new page in instability in the world” after the country’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said a “small engagement” had taken place.
  • Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) democracies – the United States, Japan, Italy, Britain, Germany, France and Canada – and three allies – South Korea, Australia and New Zealand – have called the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia a “dangerous expansion of the conflict”.

International affairs

  • Russia would use all possible means to defend itself in response to NATO aggression, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, adding that “nobody will be safe”.
  • Parcels that exploded at logistics depots in several European countries were a test run for a Russian plot to trigger explosions on cargo flights to the United States, according to a Lithuanian presidential adviser. Western governments and intelligence agencies have previously said Moscow is behind a series of acts of sabotage aimed at destabilising Ukraine’s allies.
  • Polish prosecutors have indicted two men – a Belarusian citizen and a Polish citizen – on accusations of cooperating with Belarusian intelligence services in espionage operations in the country. If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.
  • Poland plans to invest three billion zlotys ($744m) to boost ammunition production, according to a new bill, as it aims to ensure it has sufficient supplies in the event of a Russian attack.
  • The European Union’s likely new energy commissioner, Dan Jorgensen, told a parliamentary hearing that he wants to “speed up” the end of the bloc’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels.

Russian affairs

  • An engineer at a factory making tanks for Russia’s war in Ukraine has been jailed for 16 years after being convicted of passing military secrets to Kyiv, weeks after his wife received a similar sentence.
  • A Moscow court has fined US tech giant Apple 3.6 million roubles ($36,889) for refusing to remove two podcasts containing “information aimed at destabilising the political situation in Russia”.

 

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