Because the warfare enters its 599th day, these are the primary developments.
Right here is the scenario on Sunday, October 15, 2023.
Combating
- Two folks have been killed in Russian assaults on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, officers stated, and two others have been killed in shelling of Beryslav metropolis in Ukraine’s Kherson area.
- Russian forces continued their assault on Avdiivka, repeatedly shelling the city and launching floor operations in one of many few offensives by Russian forces in months.
- Ukraine’s army stated it had withstood 15 Russian floor assaults mounted within the neighborhood of Avdiivka, Tonenke and Pervomaiske within the Donetsk area. The fierce Russian onslaught round Avdiivka has been described as a brand new offensive by Moscow.
- Ukraine army spokesperson Oleksandr Stupun stated Avdiivka was now a key goal for Russian forces to take “as a result of it’s the solely likelihood to indicate some type of victory. They don’t have any different choices.”
- Nearly 30 Ukrainian combat drones have been shot down by Russian air defences over Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod areas. Two further drones have been shot down over the Black Sea close to the southern Russian resort metropolis of Sochi. There have been no reviews of casualties instantly.
- Russia’s Black Sea Fleet carried out drills utilizing rocket launchers off the port metropolis of Sevastopol within the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Regional safety
- The White Home accused North Korea of delivering greater than 1,000 containers of army gear and munitions to Russia for its ongoing warfare in Ukraine. Washington launched photographs that it stated confirmed the containers being loaded onto a Russian-flagged ship earlier than being moved by practice to southwestern Russia. North Korea has beforehand denied offering weaponry to Moscow.
Diplomacy
- Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet China’s Xi Jinping on the Belt and Street Discussion board in Beijing on October 17-18. Putin’s go to to China is his first worldwide journey since The Hague-based Worldwide Prison Courtroom (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest in March for warfare crimes associated to the deportation of kids from Ukraine.
- Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan ratified the ICC statutes, his workplace stated.
- Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets stated the International Ministry in Kyiv despatched a notice of protest to Israel after Ukrainian residents have been unable to evacuate from war-torn Gaza. Lubinets stated Ukraine couldn’t perceive why its residents, and people of different international locations, weren’t allowed to evacuate from besieged and bombarded Gaza. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been a vocal supporter of Israel in its warfare on Gaza.
Sanctions
- World Athletics President Sebastian Coe stated the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) had made the “solely choice left open” in suspending Russia’s nationwide Olympic physique for violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The IOC choice got here after Russia’s Olympic Committee this week formally recognised regional sporting organisations from 4 Ukrainian territories annexed by Russia since its invasion of Ukraine started in 2022.