As the war enters its 974th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Saturday, October 26, 2024:
Fighting
- Three people, including a child, were killed following overnight Russian missile strikes in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. At least 19 people were wounded in the attack, which damaged multiple buildings, according to Sergiy Lysak, the governor of Dnipro.
- Separate night attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and the surrounding region killed two people, including a teenage girl who died in a drone attack, according to regional authorities. At least five people were also reportedly injured.
- The Ukrainian Air Force said it destroyed 36 of 63 drones launched by Russia, downing them over various parts of Ukraine. It added that 16 drones were “locationally lost”.
Politics and diplomacy
- Finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the Group of Seven (G7) nations said $50bn in bilateral loans to Ukraine backed by frozen Russian assets would become available for disbursement starting December 1 through the end of 2027.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a plan for the United Nations secretary-general to visit Kyiv due to Antonio Guterres’s attendance at this week’s BRICS summit in Russia, a Ukrainian official said.
- Citing intelligence reports, Zelenskyy announced that Russia plans to deploy North Korean troops to the battlefield starting October 27-28.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was Moscow’s business whether it decided to use North Korean troops and that if Ukraine wanted to join NATO, Moscow could act as it wished to ensure its own security.
- Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said a full withdrawal of Russian troops, not just peace talks, is essential to ending the war that started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
- South Korea has urged Russia to stop its “illegal cooperation” with North Korea and voiced “grave concern” as Moscow moved to ratify its defence treaty with Pyongyang. Russian legislators voted unanimously this week to ratify the treaty. It will now be sent to the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, for approval.
- United States national security adviser Jake Sullivan met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, and the trio expressed “grave concern” over North Korean troop deployments in Russia and their potential use against Ukraine, the White House said.
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the prospect of North Korean troops being deployed to fight alongside Russian soldiers in Ukraine was very worrying, should not be underestimated and would escalate the situation further.
- China, India, Saudi Arabia and South Africa have reportedly blocked Ukraine’s bid to have Russia added to an international list of countries with weak money-laundering compliance, according to a Reuters news agency report.
- The Kremlin said it will look at proposals from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to revive contacts on Black Sea shipping with Ukraine. The deal, which allows exports of grains and other agricultural products from Ukraine, was terminated by Russia in July 2023.
