Ukraine marks 1,000th day of Russia’s full-scale invasion, its Armed Forces issue an address. Ukraine uses U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles to strike inside Russia for the first time. Russian attacks kill 12 in Sumy region, injure 12 in Kharkiv.
Ukraine marks 1,000th day of Russia’s full-scale invasion, its Armed Forces issue address
November 19, 2024 marks the 1,000th day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine continues to resist Russia. In the war’s 1,000 days, Russia has occupied 20 per cent of Ukraine’s territory. Thirty per cent of its territory is littered with mines. The longest air raid alert lasted more than two days. Russia has lost more than 700,000 troops since the invasion.
According to alerts.in.ua, a web site that tracks air alerts across the country, as of 12:53 p.m. on November 18, 50,857 air raid alerts have been declared in Ukraine since the invasion. Donetsk region accounts for most alerts (5,462), and is followed by the regions of Kharkiv (5,164) and Zaporizhzhia (5,071).
As of October 2024, approximately 3.6 million Ukrainians were internally displaced, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration. An additional 6.7 million refugees from Ukraine were seeking safety beyond Ukraine’s borders, including 6.2 million in countries across Europe, UNHCR said.
According to the October report from the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, 12,162 civilians have been killed since February 24, 2022 when Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including 2,615 in Russia-occupied Ukrainian territory. The number of injured civilians over the same time period is estimated at 26,919, including 4,056 in occupied areas. The mission has recorded 15,572 civilian deaths since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014.
According to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, as of November 18, 591 children have been killed and another 1,690 injured since the invasion. The Office has registered 148,430 crimes of aggression and war crimes since February 24, 2022, including almost 114,000 violations of the laws and customs of warfare.
Seventy-five medical facilities have been destroyed completely and 587 damaged since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to a UN report. The UN also said that 324 educational facilities have been destroyed and 1,172 others damaged. As of November 18, Russia has launched 2,134 attacks on medical facilities, the World Health Organization said.
In October, UNESCO confirmed the damage to 457 cultural sites in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
In an address circulated to mark the 1,000th day since the invasion, the Armed Forces of Ukraine said: “The Russian-Ukrainian war is not a sprint, but a marathon. We have endured the first 1,000 days of the full-scale invasion with determination. Behind us are many superhuman challenges. Yet the victory will be for those who will endure a day longer than the enemy. It’s time to act together again, like a thousand days ago, like ten years ago when the Russian-Ukrainian war began.”
Ukraine uses U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles to strike inside Russia for first time
Overnight into Tuesday, Ukraine struck a military installation deep inside Russia with ATACMS ballistic missiles for the first time, editor-in-chief of Ukrainian news web site Censor.net Yuriy Butusov said in a post on Facebook Tuesday.
“Today more of the Kremlin’s ‘brown lines’ have been crossed. The whole world is now watching whether Putin will somehow respond,” Butusov wrote.
He added that long-range strikes into Russia will not be a turning point in the war, but instead will inflict heavy losses on military facilities deep inside Russia, complicate Russia’s maneuver and supply system in border areas, and stretch its air defenses.
Ukraine said on Tuesday it struck a Russian arsenal near the town of Karachev in the Bryansk region, in what appears to be the first strike with U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles. There was no official confirmation about what weapon was used in the attack.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said the strike was followed by 12 secondary explosions and detonations in the area.
“[Ukraine] will continue to strike ammunition depots of the Russian occupying army in order to stop Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” it added.
A Ukrainian missile attack struck the 67th arsenal of the Defense Ministry’s Main Missile and Artillery Directorate (GRAU) in the Bryansk region, Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, an agency of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said on Telegram. The depot was used to store artillery ammunition, glide bombs, anti-aircraft missiles, and ammunition for multiple-launch rocket systems, he added.
Russian attacks kill 12 in Sumy region, injure 12 in Kharkiv
Twelve people including a seven-year-old child were killed in an overnight Russian drone attack on the town of Hlukhiv in Sumy region on Monday evening, Ukrainian officials said. The attack on a residential building also wounded 11 people including two children. The regional military administration said that Russian forces used two drones in the strike.
A Russian attack on Kharkiv on Tuesday injured 12 people. Five of them were taken to the hospital, with two in critical condition.