Here is the situation as it stands on Sunday, October 9.
Fighting
- Traffic has resumed at Russia’s road-and-rail bridge to Crimea hours after huge explosion partially damaged the bridge – which is a major supply route for Moscow’s armed forces in southern Ukraine.
- Shelling in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia has kiled a dozen people, according to Ukrainian officials.
- Ukrainian troops are involved in very tough fighting near the strategically important eastern town of Bakhmut, which Russia is trying to take, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.
- Russia’s Defence Ministry has named Air Force General Sergei Surovikin as the overall commander of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, Moscow’s third senior military appointment in a week.
- Shelling has cut power to Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear plant, which needs cooling to avoid a meltdown, forcing it to switch to emergency generators, according to Ukraine’s state nuclear company and the United Nations atomic watchdog.
(Al Jazeera)
Economy
- Ukraine’s economy has shrank an estimated 30 percent in the first three quarters of 2022 from the same period in 2021, with bad harvest weather compounding the impact of the war, according to the economy ministry.
- Ukraine’s exports has jumped 23 percent month-on-month in September apparently with the positive affect of an internationally brokered deal allowed Black Sea grain shipments.
Diplomacy
- German Minister Christine Lambrecht has said that NATO must do more to protect itself against Russia and Putin, because we “cannot know how far Putin’s delusions of grandeur can go”.
- Hong Kong could damage its reputation as a financial hub if it gives haven to sanctions dodgers, a US State Department spokesperson told the AFP news agency, after the city said it would not act against a superyacht reportedly owned by a Kremlin ally.
