Wednesday, October 9

Russia’s war against Ukraine

An elderly woman collects wood ahead of the winter in an area that was recently shelled in the village of Yasenove, south of the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, on Oct. 8, 2024. (Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images)

‘Fights taking place at every building entrance’ as Russia enters eastern Toretsk, military says. “The fighting is taking place within Toretsk itself. The situation is unstable; fights are ongoing literally at every building entrance,” spokesperson Anastasia Bobovnikova said.

Russian forces outnumbered Ukrainians tenfold in battle for Vuhledar, commander says. “That is, the enemy’s forces had superiority in tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, artillery systems, anti-tank weapons, and personnel,” said Oleksandr Okhrimenko, commander of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade.

Ammunition crowd-funded by Slovak citizens already in Ukraine. The “Ammunition for Ukraine” campaign has raised almost 4.5 million euros ($4.9 million) for the Czech artillery initiative after the Slovak government refused to participate.

France to deliver first Mirage 2000 jets to Ukraine in early 2025. The planes “will be equipped with new equipment: air-to-ground combat capabilities and anti-electronic warfare defense,” a French minister said.

US military identifies American weapons systems to support Ukraine in war with Russia, CNN reports. The U.S. military’s top commander in Europe, Gen. Chris Cavoli, has drawn up a list of American weapons systems that could strengthen Ukraine’s fight against Russia but which the Biden administration has yet to supply.

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Hungary blocks EU sanctions changes, holding up $50 billion G7 loan package for Ukraine. “We believe that this issue, the prolongation of the Russian sanctions, should be decided after the U.S. elections. We have to see in which direction the future U.S. administration is going with this issue,” Hungarian Finance Minister Mihaly Varga said.

UK slaps sanctions on Russian forces for chemical weapons use in Ukraine. The United Kingdom issued sanctions against Russian units involved in the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine, the country’s Foreign Office said on Oct. 8.

Trump reportedly spoke with Putin as many as 7 times after leaving White House. Former U.S. President Donald Trump also secretly sent Putin COVID-19 test devices for personal use at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, according to journalist Bob Woodward’s book.

Russia continues influence campaigns to support Trump’s 2024 candidacy, US intelligence says. American voters are likely to face a surge of misinformation and influence campaigns orchestrated by U.S. adversaries, according to senior U.S. intelligence officials.

Russia has stolen over 180,000 tons of Ukrainian grain from occupied Mariupol, Shmyhal says. Russia has stolen more than 180,000 tons of Ukrainian grain through the port of the occupied city of Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast alone, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a government meeting on Oct. 8.

Read our exclusives

Ukraine war latest: ‘Fights taking place at every building entrance’ as Russia enters eastern Toretsk, military says

The situation in Toretsk in Donetsk Oblast remains very difficult as Ukraine is fighting Russian forces in the eastern outskirts of the front-line town, a spokesperson of the Luhansk Operational Tactical Group said on Oct. 7.

Photo: Vlada Liberova/Libkos/Getty Images

Two months into Ukraine’s Kursk offensive, anger in Russia’s border regions fuels war support

For two months now, Ukrainian troops have been in control of dozens of settlements in Russia’s border region, with refugees continuing to pour into the Kursk Oblast’s provincial capital as fierce fighting in the west of the region continues.

Photo: Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images

Human cost of war

Russian strike on Kharkiv injures 21, including minor. The governor initially said that Russia used KAB aerial bombs but later clarified that the type of weapon used is still being determined.

Second Russian strike hits Kharkiv in a day, deaths, injuries reported. Russian forces attacked a densely populated area of the city of Kharkiv with guided aerial bombs on Oct. 8, killing at least two people and injuring five others, local authorities reported.

Russia’s strike on Sumy Oblast kills 2. Russia attacked the Esman community in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy Oblast on Oct. 8 with guided bombs, killing two civilians, local military administration reports.

Opinions and insights

We can’t solve war in Ukraine without solving Belarus, Tsikhanouskaya says in exclusive interview

Despite receiving popular support during the 2020 elections, the Belarusian opposition leader was kicked out of her country, her supporters were jailed en masse, while the country she wanted to lead is now entangled in Russia’s war against Ukraine on Moscow’s side.

Photo: Aleksander Kalka/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Anne Applebaum: Russia is ‘one of the world’s most unstable autocracies’

American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum’s latest book, “Autocracy, Inc.,” delves into the complex mechanisms that underpin autocratic regimes, highlighting the roles of financial networks, surveillance technologies, and propagandists who bolster their narratives of power and control.

Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

As signs of talks about West Germany model for Ukraine peace emerge, experts weigh in on feasibility

Uncertainty looms over what Zelensky’s ‘Victory Plan’ seeks and could achieve by floating NATO’s umbrella for parts of territory controlled by the country.

Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

International response

Harris dodges question on Ukraine’s NATO membership. Washington will address Ukraine’s possible entry into NATO “if and when it arrives at that point,” Vice President Kamala Harris said regarding her future policies if elected president in an interview aired on Oct. 7.

North Korea likely sending soldiers to Ukraine to aid Russia, Seoul says. “As Russia and North Korea have signed a mutual treaty akin to a military alliance, the possibility of such a deployment is highly likely,” South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-Hyun said in the parliament.

Cuba asks to join BRICS as partner country in letter to Putin. “Cuba has officially requested to join the BRICS as a ‘Partner Country’ through a letter to the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, who holds the presidency of the group,” said Carlos M. Pereira, the director of bilateral relations at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, in an X post shared by the ministry’s official account.

Biden postpones visit to Germany due to hurricane ahead of Ramstein meeting. Biden was supposed to convene a leader-level meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany on Oct. 12, where President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to present his victory plan.

In other news

Russian state media faced ‘unprecedented’ cyberattack on Putin’s birthday. The cyberattack was carried out by Ukrainian hackers as a “congratulations” on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s birthday, an undisclosed government source told Reuters and several Ukrainain media outlets.

Ukraine’s SBU investigating director of controversial ‘Russians at War’ documentary Trofimova. Anastasia Trofimova’s documentary has faced criticism for what many perceive as an attempt to whitewash Russian soldiers involved in the war.

Top medical official in Kyiv suspected of faking disability certificates for draft-age men. The head of one of the inter-district Centers for Medical and Social Experts in Kyiv will appear in court for allegedly handing out fake disability certificates, the police said on Oct. 8.

Quality of food supplied to Ukrainian military raises red flags, media investigation says. Soldiers received inedible cans of food on the front line, according to a serviceman who turned to NGL media to raise leadership’s concern after unsuccessful attempts to communicate directly with decision-makers, NGL Media wrote on Oct. 7.

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Martin Fornusek, Kateryna Denisova, Francis Farrell, Kate Tsurkan, Asami Terajima, Dmytro Basmat, and Olena Goncharova.

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