Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin’s forces launch major drone attack as they claim key hill town of Vuhledar

Vuhledar has been a bastion of Ukrainian resistance since Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion in February 2022

Trump claims he could end Russia-Ukraine war as he meets with Zelensky

Putin’s forces have launched a major drone attack on 15 Ukrainian regions, causing widespread damage to commercial and residential infrastructure.

The Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 78 out of 105 Russian drones during the assault, with 23 more likely impacted by active electronic jamming.

Authorities in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv said the air force had downed around 15 drones over the city and its surroundings during an air alert that lasted more than five hours.

An attack on the southern region of Odesa damaged power lines, regional governor Oleh Kiper said. Workers restored power to more than 3,000 consumers, though a further 2,000 people remained without power in one of the districts.

It comes as claimed a key town in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv’s troops were forced to withdraw from the area after years of fighting.

The Russian Army said it had seized Vuhledar, Donetsk, a bastion that had resisted intense attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Control of the area, which lies at the intersection of the eastern and southern battlefields, is significant because it will ease Russia’s advance as it tries to pierce deeper behind the Ukrainian defensive lines.

Key Points

• Russia’s major drone attack damages residential buildings
• Ukraine’s military says it struck Russian radar station with US ATACMS missiles
• 12 injured after a Russian glide bomb smashes into a Ukrainian apartment building
• Russia suffers heavy losses in capturing Vuhledar, says think-tank
• Russia claims key eastern Ukrainian town Vuhledar

[2 October 2024 18:10 · Alex Croft]

New Nato chief not worried by potential second Trump presidency

New Nato chief Mark Rutte has doubled down on his commitment to Ukraine as he takes charge at a critical time for the Western alliance.

The former Dutch prime minister replaced Jens Stoltenberg as Nato secretary general on Tuesday, where he pledged continued support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia.

Mr Rutte’s appointment comes just before a pivotal US presidential election in November, with Nato-sceptic Donald Trump, who declined to say whether he wants Ukraine to win the war, on the Republican ticket.

“We have to make sure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent, democratic nation,” Mr Rutte said at Nato’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

Speaking about the prospect of former US president Donald Trump’s re-election, Mr Rutte added: “I’m not worried.

“I worked for four years with Donald Trump. He was the one pushing us to spend more on defence and he achieved this.

“Because indeed, at the moment, we are now at a much higher spending level than we were when he took office.”

[2 October 2024 17:35 · Alex Croft]

Russia is ready for long confrontation with US, senior diplomat says

Russia must prepare for a long confrontation with the United States and has sent repeated warnings to Washington over the crisis in relations, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned.

The Ukraine war has triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

The conflict is entering what Russian officials say is the most dangerous phase to date. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been urging Kyiv’s allies for months to let Ukraine fire longer-range Western missiles deep into Russia to limit Moscow’s ability to launch attacks.

Mr Ryabkov, who oversees arms control and relations with Washington, said Moscow had no illusions about relations, given the “bipartisan anti-Russian consensus” in the United States.

“We must prepare for a long-term confrontation with this country. We are ready for this in every sense,” Mr Ryabkov was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA.

[2 October 2024 17:00 · Askold Krushelnycky]

Putin’s forces are desperate for a prize eastern city and Ukraine will fight street to street to keep them out

[2 October 2024 13:35 · Alexander Butler]

Russia claims key eastern Ukrainian town

Vladimir Putin’s forces have claimed a key town in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv’s troops were forced to withdraw from the area after years of fighting.

The Russian Army said it had seized Vuhledar, Donetsk, on Wednesday, a bastion that had resisted intense attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Kyiv’s eastern military command said it had ordered a pullback from the hilltop coal mining town to avoid encirclement by Russian troops.

The town, which had a population of over 14,000 before the war, has been devastated, with Soviet-era apartment buildings smashed apart and scarred.

A Ukrainian soldier in Vuhledar last winter. The bastion of resistance has now been claimed by Russian forces after over two years of fighting reduced it to rubble (AP)

[2 October 2024 13:30 · Alexander Butler]

Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns

[2 October 2024 12:30 · Alexander Butler]

Ukraine orders pull back from Vuhledar

Ukrainian troops received an order to pull back troops from the embattled eastern hilltop town of Vuhledar to avoid encirclement by Russian troops, the eastern military command said on Wednesday.

“Senior command granted permission to carry out a maneuver to withdraw units from Vuhledar in order to preserve personnel and military equipment, and take positions for further actions,” the statement said.

[2 October 2024 11:39 · Alexander Butler]

Russian drones attack port infrastructure, power substations in Ukraine

Russian drones overnight attacked port infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, damaging a grain facility and buildings at a border crossing to Romania, as well as cutting power to thousands in the northern Sumy region, officials said.

The attack hit Ukraine’s Izmail district near the Danube river, the regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram messenger.

“Russia continues to wage war against grain and global food security,” Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy prime minister for restoration, said on Telegram, reporting damage to the grain facility and administrative buildings at the Orlivka crossing.

The crossing temporarily suspended operations due to the attack, Kiper added. Two lorry drivers, including a Turkish citizen, were injured, according to officials.

[2 October 2024 10:25 · Alexander Butler]

Ukraine can produce 4m drones a year, Zelensky says

Ukraine can produce four million drones annually and is quickly ramping up its production of other weapons, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in comments authorised for publication on Wednesday.

Speaking on Tuesday to executives from dozens of foreign arms manufacturers in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said Ukraine had already contracted to produce 1.5 million drones this year.

Drone production was virtually non-existent in Ukraine before Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

“In extremely difficult conditions of the full-scale war under constant Russian strikes, Ukrainians were able to build a virtually new defence industry,” said Zelenskiy.

Ukraine tripled its overall domestic weapons production in 2023 and then doubled that volume again in just the first eight months of this year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told the same gathering. Ukrainian officials gave no absolute figures.

[2 October 2024 09:42 · Alexander Butler]

Vladimir Putin wants to wipe us off the map, Ukraine’s top tennis player warns

[2 October 2024 09:32 · Alexander Butler]

Russian forces fully control bastion of Vuhledar in east Ukraine, war bloggers say

Russian troops have taken complete control of the eastern Ukrainian town of Vuhledar, a bastion that had resisted intense Russian attacks since the beginning of the 2022 war, Russian war bloggers and media said on Wednesday.

Russian Telegram channels published video of troops waving the Russian tricolour flag over shattered buildings. The town, which had a population of over 14,000 before the war, has been devastated, with Soviet-era apartment buildings smashed apart and scarred.

The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper said that Vuhledar had finally fallen after the last Ukrainian forces from the 72nd Mechanized Brigade, a unit famous for its resistance, abandoned the town late on Tuesday.

The Shot Telegram channel and pro-Russian war bloggers confirmed that Vuhledar was under total Russian control, though there was no official response from either the Russian or Ukrainian militaries.