Here is the situation on Friday, September 27, 2024.

Fighting

• Ukraine’s military said Russian forces fired 78 attack drones and six missiles over various regions during an hours-long attack from Wednesday into Thursday. Air defences destroyed 66 drones and four missiles, it added. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the attack targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
• One woman was killed in a missile strike on Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, while 10 people were injured in a guided-bomb attack on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, officials said.
• At least one person was killed and one injured after Russian forces repeatedly shelled a village west of the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson, Regional Governor Vyacheslav Prokudin said.
• A local official in the town of Slatyne in northeastern Kharkiv said rescuers were searching for people who might have been hurt after a fire triggered by a Russian rocket attack engulfed six houses.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces captured Ukrainsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. The town, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) west of the city of Donetsk, was home to more than 10,000 people before the war.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy met United States President Joe Biden at the White House. Biden promised that the US would “stand by” Ukraine and that Kyiv would “prevail” in the war that began when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. He also announced a high-level summit of 50 allies of Ukraine would convene in Germany next month.
• Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris also met Zelenskyy and promised her “unwavering” support for Ukraine. She also criticised her Republican rival Donald Trump for what she said was his “surrender” policy on Ukraine. Trump, who has said Ukraine should have “made a deal” with Russia, confirmed he would meet Zelenskyy in New York on Friday.
• The foreign ministers of China and Ukraine met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said they discussed ways to achieve “a comprehensive, fair and lasting peace for Ukraine based on the UN Charter”.
• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier held talks on Ukraine with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. Wang said Russia-China ties would “move forward” while Russia’s Foreign Ministry described the discussions as “constructive”.

• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s move to broaden its nuclear doctrine was a “signal” to Western countries that there would be consequences for attacks on Russia.
• Russia’s security service said it had arrested six people, including three teenagers, for allegedly setting fire to railway and communications equipment on orders from Ukrainian intelligence.
• Officials in Qatar said Ukraine and Russia will exchange 13 children following mediation by the Gulf state. Nine children and teenagers as well as a 19-year-old sibling will be reunited with their families in Ukraine, while four children will go to Russia, the officials said.

• A Polish court jailed a 23-year-old Ukrainian national and a 30-year-old Belarusian citizen after they were found guilty of spying for Russia, state news agency PAP reported. The two men were among 16 citizens of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia arrested as part of an investigation into a spy ring whose activities included collecting information on the transportation of military equipment to Ukraine.

• Balazs Orban, a senior adviser to Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, told a pro-government newspaper that it was “irresponsible” for Ukraine to have responded to Russia’s invasion of its sovereign territory. Orban, who is no relation to the prime minister, said Hungary would probably not have defended itself if the same thing happened given Moscow’s brutal crackdown on the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising. Orban’s comments fuelled outrage on social media in Hungary.