April 2024

April 2024

•  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says a Russian missile attack that hit a television tower in Kharkiv was part of the Kremlin’s continuing effort to intimidate Ukraine’s second-largest city.

• Russian forces continue to pummel eastern Ukraine in a bid to advance farther into the Donetsk region while Ukraine continues to suffer shortages of manpower and material.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited near the frontline in the northeastern Kharkiv region amid Russia’s ramped up assault on the area. 

• Russia destroys 'almost all' energy infrastructure in Kharkiv, mayor says. The attacks destroyed a thermal power plant and all the electrical substations in Ukraine's second-biggest city.

• At least one person was killed and 19 injured after Russia attacked Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city, with what officials said could have been a new type of guided bomb.

• The European Commission has disbursed the first €4.5bn of support under the EU’s new Ukraine Facility.  

​

March 2024

• Germany’s defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said Berlin would send Ukraine 10,000 rounds of badly needed artillery shells, 100 armored infantry vehicles, and transport equipment in a new infusion of support worth 500 million euros, about $544 million.

• A Russian ballistic missile attack blasted homes in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, followed by a second missile that targeted first responders who arrived at the scene, officials said. At least 16 people were killed and 10 houses in Odesa and some emergency service equipment were damaged in the strike. 

• Russia does not intend to join a high-level peace conference that aims to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, even if it is formally invited, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

• Denmark will provide a new military aid package including Caesar artillery systems and ammunition to Ukraine worth around 2.3 billion Danish crowns ($336.6 million).

• The United States is preparing a new military aid package for Ukraine that could be worth as much as $400 million.

• European Union countries are set to agree on a new 5 billion euro ($5.46 billion) top-up to a fund used to finance military shipments to Ukraine, the Financial Times reported. 

• Ukrainian soldiers retreated from Avdiivka after a four-month battle under a relentless onslaught of Russian artillery and glide bombs that destroyed buildings and broke through deep concrete bunkers.

• Russia has increasingly used warplanes near the front lines to drop powerful guided bombs on Ukrainian positions and clear a path forward for the infantry. The Ukrainian Army last week said it had shot down seven Su-34 fighter jets, nearly all operating in the east, just a few days after downing an A-50 long-range radar reconnaissance aircraft.

• At least two civilians have been killed and another one injured in Kupiansk, a town in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, in a Russian attack with guided bombs, according to the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration. 

• The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that Moscow’s forces have taken control of the settlement of Sieverne, west of the town of Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region. Pro-Ukrainian military bloggers have also reported the loss of the village.

​

February 2024

• Hundreds of Ukrainian troops may have been captured by advancing Russian units or disappeared during Ukraine’s chaotic retreat from the eastern city of Avdiivka, a devastating loss that could deal a blow to already weakening morale.

• IAEA and Ukrainian officials are increasingly worried that attacks by Russian troops on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant -- the largest in Europe -- could cause it to be on the brink. Nuclear experts have identified three primary dangers: a military strike on the plant, a power outage that could trigger a meltdown, and staffing shortages.

• Ukraine will need $9bn over 10 years for its culture and tourism sectors to recover, the United Nations’ cultural agency said on Tuesday, adding that the two-year war had so far cost the country over $19.6bn in tourism revenue.

• Some parts of the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka are in a “critical” condition as they fight off incessant Russian shelling and incursions.

• European Union leaders agreed Thursday to more than $50 billion in aid for Ukraine. In emergency meetings in Brussels, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has spent months railing against the aid, finally agreed to sign on — though the terms remain unclear.

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has submitted a proposal to the Ukrainian parliament to extend martial law and general mobilization for another 90 days. The president first declared martial law and general mobilization on 24 February 2022, when Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

• Olaf Scholz and four other European leaders have admitted that the EU has “fallen short” of its goals to supply Ukraine with artillery ammunition. On the eve of an emergency EU summit of EU leaders (to break the deadlock between member states and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán over a £50bn aid package), they have warned that Europe needs to intensify and accelerate its supplies to the frontline.

​

January 2024

• At least 17 people have been injured, two of them seriously, after two S-300 Russian missiles hit residential buildings in the city of Kharkiv. 14 people have been sent to hospital.

• Ukraine's power grid operator has said severe winter weather has left more than 1,000 towns and villages without electricity in nine regions.

• Residents in Dnipro held a memorial service yesterday for the 46 people killed in a Russian missile strike a year ago. Six children were among those who died and dozens of other people were injured. 

• Russia launched another wave of missile strikes across Ukraine. Ukrainian officials detailed increasing numbers of casualties and ongoing rescue efforts, as well as damaged residential and non-residential buildings. Six people died and 73 others were injured.

​

​