As the war enters its 938th day, these are the main events.
Here is the situation on Friday, September 20, 2024.
Fighting
- At least one person was killed and 13 injured after Russia bombed a nursing home in the northeastern city of Sumy, military officials in the region said.
- Russia also attacked electricity infrastructure in the northeastern region causing a temporary disruption of supply, Ukraine’s national grid operator Ukrenergo said.
- An old woman was killed and two other people were injured when Russia attacked the Zaporizhia region, Governor Ivan Fedorov said. Russian forces have attacked the region 161 times in the past 24 hours, damaging infrastructure and residential buildings, he added.
- Ukraine’s air force said it shot down all 42 Russian planes and four cruise missiles used on Thursday.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s surprise attack on the Russian border town of Kursk in early August led to the diversion of some 40,000 Russian troops from eastern Ukraine, reducing the likelihood of an attack there. Zelenskyy added that the situation in the east remains “a big challenge”.
- Russia says it has taken control of the village of Georgievka, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Politics and diplomacy
- The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said the Russian airstrike on Ukraine’s power generation, transmission and distribution facilities may have violated international humanitarian law.
- European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen is expected to announce 160 million euros ($179m) in new funding for Ukraine’s energy needs when she travels to Kyiv on Friday. Most of the money is expected to come from Russian assets that have been frozen in the EU since Moscow invaded in 2022.
- Daria Kozyreva, the 18-year-old girl who pasted a 19th-century Ukrainian poem on a mural to protest the invasion of Moscow, has gone on trial in Saint Petersburg. He has been charged with “defaming the Russian military” and faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
- In Russia’s eastern Primorye region, authorities have jailed a 19-year-old student for nearly two months for “publicly justifying” a banned Ukrainian military group online.
- Authorities in Russia’s Tyumen region have filed a treason case against a local organizer accused of taking orders from an unnamed “foreign organization.”
- Russia also opened a criminal case against Kirill Martynov, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, for creating an “unpopular” group. Moscow called Novaya Gazeta Europe, which operates outside Russia, “unpopular” in June last year.
- The White House said Zelenskyy will hold separate talks on September 26 with US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. The two will “reiterate their unwavering commitment to stand with Ukraine until it wins this war”, Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
- Separately, Zelenskyy’s office said he will meet again with Republican President Donald Trump. There was no immediate confirmation from Trump’s campaign team.
Weapons
- President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is increasing the production of drones about 10 times to produce about 1.4 million drones this year.
- Germany will approve about 400 million euros ($450 million) in additional military aid to Ukraine, according to a Finance Ministry document seen by Reuters and AFP news agencies. The funds are in addition to nearly eight billion euros ($8.9bn) earmarked for Ukraine this year, and will be used to purchase weapons and equipment including ammunition, anti-aircraft vehicles and drones.
- The European Parliament has adopted a non-binding resolution urging EU countries to allow Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons to attack Russian forces.
- After the vote, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian parliament and a friend of Putin, warned Western governments of nuclear war if they agreed to use the weapons.