Here is the situation on Saturday, November 9:
Fighting
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One person was killed in the Black Sea port city of Odesa and more than 30 were injured across the country after Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles into Ukraine overnight, Ukrainian officials said.
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Russian drones struck an apartment building in Odesa, triggering a large fire, according to Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne. Videos posted online showed cars and buildings ablaze and thick smoke billowing skywards.
- Russian forces also pounded the city of Kharkiv in the northeast with guided bombs, wounding at least 25 people, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
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Russian air defences intercepted and destroyed 15 Ukrainian drones over the southern Bryansk region, regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said, adding that there was no damage or injuries.
- Military bloggers have reported that Russian forces entered the village of Sontsivka and were moving closer to capturing the northwestern city of Kurakhove, on the eastern front in the war in Ukraine as part of their drive westwards to capture all of the Donbas region.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged in his nightly video address that fighting on the eastern front was the heaviest around Kurakhove and Pokrovsk, a major logistics centre to the northwest.
- Ukraine said it had received the bodies of 563 soldiers from Russian authorities, mainly troops who had died in combat in the eastern Donetsk region.
Politics and diplomacy
- Zelenskyy has renewed his appeal to Ukraine’s allies to help strengthen its air defences and impose more sanctions against Moscow, as Russia intensifies its attacks across the country.
- Billionaire businessman and Trump supporter Elon Musk joined United States president-elect Donald Trump during a 25-minute congratulatory call made by Zelenskyy, according to US media. According to the news outlet Axios, Musk reportedly said he would continue supplying Starlink satellites to Ukraine.
- US President Joe Biden has allowed US defence contractors to work in Ukraine, to maintain and repair Pentagon-provided weaponry, US officials said, in a significant policy shift that aims to aid Kyiv’s fight against Moscow.
- The 32-member NATO alliance said the “deepening military cooperation” between Russia and North Korea “impacts Euro-Atlantic security, with implications also for the Indo-Pacific”. Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Ukraine also supported the NATO statement. North Korea has deployed thousands of soldiers to Russia.
- Russian and Ukrainian rights officials exchanged lists of prisoners of war in a rare meeting in Belarus. Both officials said they also facilitated the transfer of an elderly woman from Ukraine to Russia.
Economy
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Global oil prices “would have hit the roof” if the world’s third largest importer, India, had not bought oil from Russia following the Ukraine war, India’s Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri wrote on X. India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, has become the top buyer of discounted Russian seaborne oil shunned by Western countries since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
