This week, fighting continued to rage all along the front lines with the most intense battles being fought in Donetsk region. Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from Vuhledar to avoid encirclement. The town was one of Ukraine’s strongholds on the eastern fronts since the invasion.
Russia continued to strike Ukrainian cities and towns far behind the front lines with missiles and drones. A Russian artillery strike hit a market in central Kherson on Tuesday morning, killing six people and wounding six others. Russian drones hit a border crossing to Romania in an overnight attack on Odesa region on Wednesday. Water supply will be cut to consumers in the northern part of Donetsk region for an indefinite time after Russian attacks damaged two water infrastructure sites there last week. Russia systematically tortures Ukrainian war prisoners, a UN report reveals.
Mark Rutte, a former Dutch Prime Minister, took office as NATO’s new Secretary General on Tuesday. He visited Ukraine on Thursday in his first official trip and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi in Kyiv.
Russian offensive operations in eastern Ukraine to likely culminate in coming months, ISW says.
Russian forces do not have the available manpower and materiel to continue intensified offensive efforts indefinitely, however, and current Russian offensive operations in eastern Ukraine will likely culminate in the coming months, if not weeks, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an update on October 3.
The Russian offensive effort in eastern Ukraine that began in fall 2023 continues to produce gradual Russian tactical gains in specific sectors of the front, but operationally significant gains will likely continue to elude Russian forces, the report reads.