Ukraine Update…904 Days of the Russian Conflict….

Ukraine troops are advancing in Kursk…..

Russia troops are advancing in the Donetsk Territory ….

Vast numbers of Russian troops have surrendered to Ukraine troops around Kursk…..

Germany has notofied Ukraine that it will cut by 50%  new funds after the current funding in the pipeline renews….

• Moscow has said US missiles were likely used to destroy a bridge in Kursk. Yesterday two key bridges were destroyed in the region on the Seym River.

• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his forces were “strengthening” their positions in Russia’s Kursk region where Kyiv has been mounting a major ground offensive.

• Ukraine’s air defences shot down all 14 Russian drones fired in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian air force said on Saturday. In a statement, it said that the Shahed drones were downed over six Ukrainian regions in the south and centre of the country.

• Ukraine’s incursion into Russia has derailed plans to hold indirect talks in Qatar on halting strikes on energy infrastructure, the Washington Posthas reported, citing undisclosed official sources.

• Russia has lost 598,180 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, according to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces. This number includes 1,230 casualties Russian forces suffered over the past day.

• On Saturday, Russia’s defence ministry accused Ukraine of planning to attack the Kursk nuclear power plant and blame such a “provocation” on Moscow, Interfax news agency reported. The ministry said Russia would respond harshly in the event of such an attack, which it said would contaminate a large surrounding area. Kyiv denied Russia’s claims, calling them “insane propaganda”.

• The Russian management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said on Saturday a Ukrainian drone dropped an explosive charge on a road outside the plant, endangering its staff who use the road, the TASS news agency reported.

• Russia has accused Nato and the west more widely of aiding the Ukrainian incursion, including by permitting the use of western-supplied equipment. But British officials said Ukraine was entitled under international law to use British-donated equipment in operations, including within Russia.

• Reporters from the Associated Press said that, on a trip through Kursk organised by the Ukrainian government, they witnessed a “trail of destruction”.

• Germany, the second largest contributor of aid to war-torn Ukraine, plans to halve its bilateral military aid to Kyiv in 2025, a parliamentary source told AFP on Saturday.

• Russia is restricting access to information in a bid to limit criticism of its invasion of Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. In a post on X, the MoD said Russian authorities are “deliberately slowing” traffic on WhatsApp and YouTube and that the latter could be “blocked altogether in autumn 2024”….

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