As the war enters its 973rd day, these are the key developments.
This is the situation on Friday, October 25, 2024:
Russian combat forces launched overnight drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital, the 15th air attack on Kiev this month, city officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries. One person was killed and nine wounded in a Russian attack in the town of Kubyansk in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, regional governor Oleh Sinyhopov said. Vadim Velashkin, governor of the Donetsk region, said via the Telegram messaging app that the Russian bombing led to the deaths of three people around the strategic center of the city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region. Velashkin said that a Russian raid on a branch of the Nova Pushta delivery service resulted in two deaths in Olekseevo-Drozhkivka, near the front-line towns of Chasev Yar and Kostiantinivka. Russian media and war bloggers reported that Russian forces advanced to the coal mining town of Selidov, about 20 kilometers southeast of Pokrovsk. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that the most intense Russian attacks along the front line are currently taking place on the Pokrovsk front, including near Seledov. But it did not mention whether Russian soldiers had entered the town. Ukraine said that Russian forces executed four Ukrainian soldiers captured in Donetsk. Ukrainian military intelligence said the first North Korean units trained in Russia deployed to Kursk, a Russian border region where Ukrainian forces made a surprise incursion in August. Politics and Diplomacy The South Korean Foreign Ministry expressed its “deep concern” after Russia moved to ratify the defense treaty with North Korea, calling on Moscow to stop its “illegal cooperation” with Pyongyang. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Tokyo was following “with great concern” reports of the presence of North Korean forces in Russia ahead of their possible deployment to Ukraine. UN Secretary-General António Guterres informed Russian President Vladimir Putin that his invasion of neighboring Ukraine violates the UN Charter and international law, according to a reading of their meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan. Putin said that any peace proposals with Ukraine must take into account the territories controlled by Russian forces, stressing that negotiations must be “based on facts on the ground.” He also said he welcomed “sincere” comments made by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump about ending Russia’s conflict with Ukraine. Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, criticized Guterres for meeting with Putin, describing the Russian president as a “killer.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected Ukraine’s request to immediately join NATO, made by President Volodymyr Zelensky when he presented his “Victory Plan” to the Western allies, saying a country at war “can never become a member” of the bloc.
