Here is the situation as it stands on Thursday, October 27.
Conflict
- Ukrainian troops are holding out against repeated attacks near the two eastern towns of Avdiivka and Bakhmut in the Donbas region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, describing the Russian tactics as “crazy” as the war in Ukraine dragged into a ninth month of fighting.
- Zelenskyy promised to retake Kherson as his adviser said Russia is digging in for “the heaviest of battles” there.
- Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces in the southern Kherson region is proving more difficult than a previous offensive in Kharkiv because of wet weather and the terrain, Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksii Reznikov has said.
- Russia continues to make the case that Ukraine intends to detonate a “dirty bomb” with radioactive contaminants. Kyiv has denied that. Slovenia said one of the images Russia has used to claim Ukraine is planning to detonate a dirty bomb was an old photo of smoke detectors taken in Slovenia.
Diplomacy
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has monitored drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces involving multiple practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles, in a show of force amid heightened tensions with the West over the conflict in Ukraine, suggesting the eight-month conflict could turn nuclear.
- UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said he was “relatively optimistic” that a UN-brokered deal that allowed a resumption of Ukraine Black Sea grain exports would be extended beyond mid-November.
- US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the remains of a US citizen killed in fighting in Ukraine have been identified and released to Ukrainian authorities and will soon be returned to the person’s family.
- Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the only way to facilitate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is by helping Kyiv defend itself militarily.
Economy
- The US and Western officials are finalising plans to impose a cap on Russian oil prices amid a warning from the World Bank that any plan will need active participation of emerging market economies to be effective.
- The European Union could introduce a gas price cap this winter to limit excessive price spikes, if countries give Brussels a mandate to propose the measure.
- Mercedes-Benz, which stopped manufacturing in Russia in March, became the latest carmaker to leave the country.
