Russia-Ukraine war as it happened: Russia striking Avdiivka ‘with everything they have’, says city official (2024)

Here’s a roundup of the key developments from the day.

• A top Ukrainian commander has claimed that Russia’s biggest offensive in months – involving tanks, thousands of soldiers and armoured vehicles in an attack on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka – is failing, as he admitted Kyiv’s own attempts to advance in the south were proving “difficult”. At least 36 Russian tanks and armoured vehicles were destroyed in the first 24 hours, he said. According to the Kyiv Post, that figure has risen to 102 tanks and 183 armoured vehicles lost, with 2,840 troops killed.

• Fierce fighting in Avdiivka entered a fifth day as Russia continued to deploy new forces in an attempt to surround the city, according to Vitaliy Barabash, the head of its military administration. Shelling was so fierce that emergency crews were unable to recover the dead from wrecked buildings, he said. Both Moscow and Washington have described the upsurge in violence around Avdiivka as a new Russian offensive.

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• At least six people have been killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine in the past 24 hours, local officials reported Sunday. Two people were killed and three more injured in the Kherson area after more than 100 shells bombarded the region over the weekend, the local governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on social media, according to AP.

• The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday that a new weapons package for Israel and Ukraine would be significantly higher than $2bn.In an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, said Sullivan said Joe Biden would have extensive talks with the US Congress this week on the need for the package to be approved.

• The EU has urged China to treat it as a geopolitical power in the wake of the war against Russia in Ukraine. Ending a visit to Shangai and Beijing, Josep Borrell, the bloc’s high representative for foreign affairs said it was one of three messages he conveyed to his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

• Vladimir Putin, said in an interview published on Sunday that suggestions in the west that the US prepare for a simultaneous war with both Russia and China were nonsense, Reuters reports.

• Russian forces have improved their positions along almost the entire line of contact in Ukraine, Putin said on Sunday. Reuters reports that in a video posted to social media by the Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin, Putin said: “What is happening now along the entire length of the [line of] contact is called ‘an active defence’”

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked troops in areas where fighting was “particularly hot”. In his regular address he said: “I thank everyone who is holding their positions and destroying Russian troops”, citing Avdiivka, Maryinka and other key locations in the Donetsk region.

• Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea near the southern resort city of Sochi on Saturday morning. The city’s mayor, Alexei Kopaigorodskyi, said there had been no casualties or damage and that the situation was under control.

• A top Ukraine general said fighting in the north-east had “significantly worsened” as daily Russian attacks continued.

• Protesters gathered outside city hall in Odesa again to speak out against the misuse of budget funds and pay tribute to Ukrainian soldiers killed or injured in the war.

We’ll be closing this liveblog shortly. Thanks so much for joining us.

My colleaue Luke Harding has this report from Ukraine. The major assault Russia launched on Tuesday in Donetsk is said to have resulted in serious losses for Moscow’s forces.

A top Ukrainian commander has claimed that Russia’s biggest offensive in months – involving tanks, thousands of soldiers and armoured vehicles in an attack on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka – is failing, as he admitted Kyiv’s own attempts to advance in the south were proving “difficult”.

Russian forces have pummelled the town over the past week, a key bulge surrounded by Russian-held territory on the eastern Donbas front. It is one of the largest assaults by Moscow since last year’s full-scale invasion and comes at a time when Ukraine’s counteroffensive is moving slowly, and the world is focused on the imminent Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.

At least three Russian battalions, each supported by an estimated 2,000-3,000 troops, began a dawn attack on Tuesday. Drone footage showed a line of military vehicles trundling forward. There has been intense fighting ever since. Russia has bombarded the city with relentless artillery fire and airstrikes.

Ukrainian military officials say Moscow’s goal is to encircle Avdiivka, but so far the attackers have made modest gains. Russia’s 25th combined arms army pushed forward from the south and north. It seized the nearby village of Berdychi and closed in on a 150-metre high slag heap next to the town’s co*ke and chemical factory.

The Russians have suffered serious losses. At least 36 Russian tanks and armoured vehicles were destroyed in the first 24 hours. According to the Kyiv Post, that figure has risen to 102 tanks and 183 armoured vehicles lost, with 2,840 troops killed. There were chaotic scenes. One tank fell off a pontoon bridge into a river. Another crushed a Russian soldier as it reversed; a Ukrainian munition then blew it up.

Col Dmytro Lysyuk – the commander of Ukraine’s 128th separate mountain assault brigade – said he believed there was zero possibility the Russian army would break through. He said that sending a lengthy military column into battle – a tactic used when Russian forces tried to seize Kyiv last year, and the eastern town of Vuhledar in February – would not work.

“The Russians should have realised this a long time ago,” said Lysyuk. “They have not managed to achieve even tactical success.” He added that Gen Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s general staff, was responsible: Gerasimov had underestimated Ukraine’s strength in Avdiivka, which has been on the frontline since 2014, when Moscow seized the nearby city of Donetsk. “It was an intelligence failure,” Lysyuk said.

Read more here:

Here is a quick summary of today’s key events:

• Fierce fighting in Avdiivka on the eastern frontline entered a fifth day as Russia continued to deploy new forces in an attempt to surround the city, according to Vitaliy Barabash, the head of its military administration. Shelling was so fierce that emergency crews were unable to recover the dead from wrecked buildings, he said. Both Moscow and Washington have described the upsurge in violence around Avdiivka as a new Russian offensive.

• At least six people have been killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine in the past 24 hours, local officials reported Sunday. Two people were killed and three more injured in the Kherson area after more than 100 shells bombarded the region over the weekend, the local governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on social media, according to AP.

• The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday that a new weapons package for Israel and Ukraine would be significantly higher than $2bn.In an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, said Sullivan said Joe Biden would have extensive talks with the US Congress this week on the need for the package to be approved.

• The EU has urged China to treat it as a geopolitical power in the wake of the war against Russia in Ukraine. Ending a visit to Shangai and Beijing, Josep Borrell, the bloc’s high representative for foreign affairs said it was one of three messages he conveyed to his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

• Vladimir Putin, said in an interview published on Sunday that suggestions in the west that the US prepare for a simultaneous war with both Russia and China were nonsense, Reuters reports.

• Russian forces have improved their positions along almost the entire line of contact in Ukraine, Putin said on Sunday. Reuters reports that in a video posted to social media by the Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin, Putin said: “What is happening now along the entire length of the [line of] contact is called ‘an active defence’”

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked troops in areas where fighting was “particularly hot”. In his regular address he said: “I thank everyone who is holding their positions and destroying Russian troops”, citing Avdiivka, Maryinka and other key locations in the Donetsk region.

• Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea near the southern resort city of Sochi on Saturday morning. The city’s mayor, Alexei Kopaigorodskyi, said there had been no casualties or damage and that the situation was under control.

• A top Ukraine general said fighting in the north-east had “significantly worsened” as daily Russian attacks continued.

• Protesters gathered outside city hall in Odesa again to speak out against the misuse of budget funds and pay tribute to Ukrainian soldiers killed or injured in the war.

The White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday that a new weapons package for Israel and Ukraine would be significantly higher than $2bn.

In an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, said Sullivan said Joe Biden would have extensive talks with the US Congress this week on the need for the package to be approved.

In this clip, the Ukrainian commander, Dmytro Lysyuk, says Russia’s large scale tactics do not work.

At least six people have been killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine in the past 24 hours, local officials reported Sunday.

According to AP, two people were killed and three more injured in the Kherson area after more than 100 shells bombarded the region over the weekend, local governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on social media.

Two guided bombs later hit key infrastructure in Kherson city, sparking a partial blackout and disruption to the area’s water supply, reported the head of the city’s military administration, Roman Mrochko.

Local officials said two more people had died in the Donetsk area and that a 57-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman had been killed by an airstrike that destroyed their home in the Kharkiv region.

Meanwhile, the Russian defense ministry announced Sunday that Ukraine had launched 27 drones in an overnight attack on western Russia.

Officials said that 18 drones were shot down over the Kursk region, leading to speculation in the Russian press that the attack could have been targeting the nearby Khalino military airfield.

Images on social media showed burning debris just 1.5 kilometers (a mile) from the airbase, which was previously attacked by Ukrainian forces at the end of September.

Writing on social media, Kursk governor Roman Starovoit said that debris had fallen in the region’s namesake capital and the nearby village of Zorino. No casualties were reported.

Officials also said that two more drones had been shot down over Russia’s Belgorod region, but did not confirm the fate of the remaining seven drones.

These claims have not been independently verified.

Here are some of the latest images from the news wires.

Vladimir Putin, who is to visit China this week, said major powers prepared for war but as an attempt to ensure peace, adding that it was the US which was seeking to build a military alliance against China.

The Kremlin chief said thoughts of a war between nuclear powers were unhealthy. He said:

I don’t think these are healthy thoughts in the minds of healthy people, because to say that the US is preparing for war with Russia, well we are all preparing for war because we follow the ancient principle: if you want peace, get ready for war.

According to Reuters, Putin replied with a chuckle, saying:

But we want peace.

Moreover, to fight with both Russia and China, it is nonsense – I don’t think it is serious. I think they are just scaring each other.

The EU has urged China to treat it as a geopolitical power in the wake of the war against Russia in Ukraine.

Ending a visit to Shangai and Beijing, Josep Borrell, the bloc’s high representative for foreign affairs said it was one of three messages he conveyed to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

He said:

Europe takes China very seriously and we also expect to be considered, not through the lens of our relations with others.

The war in Ukraine has converted us in a geopolitical power, not just an economic one and we want to talk with China from this approach. Do not look at the European Union relations through the lens of the relations with others.

Russia represents a huge threat for our security and that we are committed to support Ukraine facing the Russian invasion and asking China to take into consideration this very tough position from our side, considering Russia as a security threat for the whole European Union.

Other topics Borrell discussed were China’s use of coal and the danger of a debt crisis.

Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said in an interview published on Sunday that suggestions in the west that the US prepare for a simultaneous war with both Russia and China were nonsense, Reuters reports.

More on the counteroffensive, Vladimir Putin, said that Russian forces had bolstered their positions across the entire frontline in Ukraine including in Avdiivka, a symbolic industrial hub.

He said troops had been “improving their position” in a vast area in an interview on Russian television, which was posted on social media, AFP reports. He added:

This concerns the areas of Kupiansk, Zaporizhzhia and Avdiivka.

On Saturday, Kyiv reported “heated” fighting around Avdiivka Saturday, saying Russian forces had “not stopped assaulting” it for days in their attempt to surround it.

Russian forces are conducting an ‘active defence’ and have been able to improve their positions at almost entire line of contact in Ukraine, president Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.

Reuters reports that in a video posted to social media by Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin, Putin said:

What is happening now along the entire length of the [line of] contact is called ‘an active defence’

And our troops are improving their position at almost entire area. Quite a large area.

Anti-aircraft units destroyed 27 Ukraine-launched drones over Russia, most of them over the Kursk region, Russia’s defence ministry said early on Sunday, according to Reuters.

Eighteen of the drones were downed over the Kursk region in southern Russia, while two where destroyed over the Belgorod region, the ministry said on Telegram.

Earlier, Kursk region’s governor, Roman Starovoit, said that there were no casualties in the drone attack and that debris from the drones landed outside populated areas.
Both Kursk and Belgorod regions border Ukraine.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

Drone attacks on Russian targets, especially in Crimea – annexed by Moscow in 2014 – and in regions bordering Ukraine, have become almost a daily occurrence since two drones were destroyed over the Kremlin in early May.

Welcome to our continuing coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Below is a selection of the latest developments to bring you up to speed.

• Fierce fighting in Avdiivka on the eastern frontline entered a fifth day as Russia continued to deploy new forces in an attempt to surround the city, according to Vitaliy Barabash, the head of its military administration. Shelling was so fierce that emergency crews were unable to recover the dead from wrecked buildings, Barabash said. Both Russia and the United States have described the upsurge in violence around Avdiivka as a new Russian offensive. “They are striking with everything they have. Bouts of shooting, artillery, multiple rocket launchers, mortars and a lot of aircraft,” Barabash told national television. He said 1,620 residents remained in Avdiivka, a town with a large co*king plant and a pre-war population of 32,000.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked troops in areas where fighting was “particularly hot”. In his regular address he said: “I thank everyone who is holding their positions and destroying Russian troops”, citing Avdiivka, Maryinka and other key locations in the Donetsk region.

• Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea near the southern resort city of Sochi on Saturday morning. The city’s mayor, Alexei Kopaigorodskyi, said there had been no casualties or damage and that the situation was under control.

• A top Ukraine general said fighting in the north-east had “significantly worsened” as daily Russian attacks continued.

• Protesters gathered outside city hall in Odesa again to speak out against the misuse of budget funds and pay tribute to Ukrainian soldiers killed or injured in the war.

• The Russian Black Sea Fleet is highly likely to have reinforced its defensive and reactive posture since suffering a series of strikes in August and September, the UK Ministry of Defence said. In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said the BSF has relocated many of its prestige assets – including cruise missile-capable ships and submarines – from Sevastopol to operating and basing areas farther east, such as Novorossiysk.

• Russia has detained three lawyers of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and raided their homes, aides said, a step that comes as pressure on the Kremlin’s critics increases. The move was an attempt to “completely isolate Navalny”, his ally Ivan Zhdanov said on social media