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Day 993: Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih kills a mother and her three children

A Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih kills four members of the same family. Trump interested in two points of Zelenskyi’s victory plan, according to the Financial Times. Ukrainian troops defend their positions against the Russian counteroffensive in Kursk, take out an assaulting battalion.

Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih kills a mother and her three children

A woman’s body was pulled out of the wreckage of a residential building in Kryvyi Rih that was struck by a Russian missile on Monday evening. Rescue workers pulled the bodies of her three children from under the rubble on Tuesday morning.

The Russian missile strike claimed the lives of four people, head of the Dnipropetrovska regional military administration, Serhiy Lysak said in a statement on social media. The youngest child was an infant, he added.

“It’s a terrible tragedy. My sincere condolences to the family,” Lysak said.

A further 14 people, including two children, were injured in the attack. Four people are still in hospital, including an 11-year-old boy. They are in moderate condition.

Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne spoke to a local resident Iryna by the ruined house on Monday evening. She said her son survived the attack, and her daughter-in-law and three grandchildren were unaccounted for. 

“The children are ages 10, two-and-a-half and two months. They were at home, my son went to the kitchen to cook breakfast, he survived. He fell [from the third story] to the second floor. His wife and children are being searched for under the rubble,” she said. 

Trump interested in two points of Zelenskyi’s victory plan, according to Financial Times

When meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi in New York in September 2024, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump expressed interest in two points of Ukraine’s victory plan, according to a Financial Times article published on Tuesday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the piece. 

Ukraine’s allies in Europe and the US, including senior Republicans, have offered advice on how to best frame proposals that incentivise close co-operation with Kyiv rather than cutting off critical aid to the country, said Ukrainian and European officials.

Two of the ideas were laid out in Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “victory plan” with Trump specifically in mind, said people involved in drawing it up. The proposals were later presented to Trump when Ukraine’s president met him in New York in September.

One idea would replace some US troops stationed in Europe with Ukrainian forces after the war.

The other — first devised by Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, according to people involved in designing Zelenskyy’s “victory plan” — suggests sharing Ukraine’s critical natural resources with western partners.

Trump was “interested” in the two points, said a person briefed on the meeting.

Separately, business leaders in Ukraine are also talking with the government about offering Trump “investment screening” powers, allowing him to essentially choose who can do business in the country.

One person involved in the planning described the idea as “ABC — anybody but China,” which could play especially well with Trump. Ukrainian industries dependent on Chinese technology and materials, such as telecoms, according to the person involved, could switch to US suppliers and attract more western investment. The idea is in the early stages but some business leaders close to the president’s office believe it could play well with Trump.

Western allies have responded rather tepidly to the “victory plan”, especially to the call to formally invite Kyiv to join Nato and supply it with more advanced weaponry.

Zelenskyy last week said he had a “great” initial phone call with Trump following his re-election. But Kyiv and its allies fear the US could still wind down its military support after the Republican takes office in January, the officials said.

A senior Ukrainian official earlier told Reuters it felt “less likely” after Trump’s victory that there would be a NATO invitation for Ukraine.

Ukrainian troops defend positions against Russian counteroffensive in Kursk, take out assaulting battalion 

Ukrainian troops repelled a major Russian assault in the Kursk region on Monday and took out an assaulting Russian battalion, spokesperson for the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade, Lieutenant Anastasiya Blyshchyk said on national television Tuesday.

“Yesterday was a dark day for Russian occupying forces that attempted to storm [the Ukrainian positions] in five-six waves. Ten armored vehicles were destroyed. Three APCs were blown up after hitting landmines. [Ukrainian troops] destroyed the rest of the [Russian] materiel with FPV drones and Stuhna anti-tank guided missiles,” Blyshchyk said. 

Other Ukrainian brigades deployed in the area destroyed more of the remaining Russian armored vehicles. Ukrainian troops took out part of the assaulting Russian force. Some retreated and hid in the windbreaks. They are being searched for by Ukrainian drones, Blyshchyk added.

The Russian military has assembled a force of 50,000 soldiers, including North Korean troops, as it prepares to begin an assault aimed at reclaiming territory seized by Ukraine in the Kursk region of Russia, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials, cited by The New York Times on Sunday.

DeepState, a Ukrainian OSINT project, said on Monday that Russian forces attempted a number of assaults to retake the village of Novoivanovka in Russia’s Kursk region. The Russians lost at least 18 of almost 30 vehicles deployed in the battle, and 300 Russian troops were wounded or killed. The remaining troops either hid in the windbreaks, or escaped. 

Analyzing the control of terrain after an attempted Russian counteroffensive in the Kursk region on Monday, Bild’s Julian Röpcke called the operation “a disaster for Putin and his generals”.