Ukraine Daily Summary - Friday, October 6

Russian attack on Kharkiv Oblast village (population 300) kills 51, including 6-year-old child -- Ukraine advances but facing arms, ammunition shortages -- NGO Save Ukraine rescues 19 more children from Russian occupation -- Russia attacks hospital in Beryslav in Kherson Oblast -- and more

Friday, October 6

Russia’s war against Ukraine

(EDITORS NOTE: Image depicts death) A view of the area as police and military experts working at a site of a Russian strike, in the village of Hroza, in Kharkiv Oblast on Oct. 5, 2023. (Photo by Yevhen Titov/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Russian attack on Kharkiv Oblast village kills 51, including 6-year-old child. “Russia needs this and similar terrorist attacks for only one thing: to make its genocidal aggression the new norm for the whole world,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said following the strike.

US, European leaders condemn Russia’s deadly attack on Kharkiv Oblast village. The White House, the European Union, and several European leaders condemned Russia’s Oct. 5 missile strike on a cafe in Kharkiv Oblast’s village of Hroza that claimed over 50 lives. “Russia’s appalling terror against Ukraine’s civilian population shows no signs of abating and reached another grim landmark today,” the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in a statement.

Zelensky: Ukraine advances but facing arms, ammunition shortages. “The initiative is in our hands. Albeit slowly, we are pushing Russia out of our country step by step,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview.“ The difficulties are posed by the minefields. The difficulties are posed by the shortages of weapons and ammunition, especially in air defenses.“

Military: Russia intensifies attacks in Lyman-Kupiansk direction. According to Illia Yevlash, the spokesperson for the Eastern Grouping of Forces, Russian troops shifted the focus of their efforts against a new target – Makiivka, a Luhansk Oblast village roughly 30 kilometers north of Lyman and 60 kilometers south of Kupiansk.

Zelensky meets European leaders, Armenian PM at Granada summit. President Volodymyr Zelensky said he met with French President Emmanuel Macron, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and European Council President Charles Michel on Oct. 5 as part of the third European Political Community Summit.

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NGO Save Ukraine rescues 19 more children from Russian occupation. The 12th rescue mission brings the total number of children returned by the organization to 196, the NGO’s founder Mykola Kuleba wrote on Facebook.

Government appoints 3 new deputy defense ministers. Ukraine’s government appointed Ivan Havryliuk, Stanislav Haider, and Dmytro Klimenkov as new deputy defense ministers as part of recent personnel changes in the Defense Ministry, the government announced on Oct. 5.

Minister: Ukrainian hackers behind massive attack on Russian airports. Ukrainian hackers paralyzed Russia’s largest airports in a recent attack, Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Oct. 5.

Yermak: West working on legal procedure to send billions of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. “The USA and the EU are working on legal procedures to transfer $300 billion of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine,” President’s Office head Andriy Yermak said on Oct. 5.

Read our exclusives

Ukraine war latest: Russia kills 51 people in single deadliest attack against civilians this year

The Oct. 5 attack wiped out over half of the village’s population, becoming the single deadliest Russian attack against civilians in 2023.

Photo:  Amadeusz Mikolaj Swierk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

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Far-right party may hold keys to next Polish government, sets tone in talks with Ukraine

With the Polish parliamentary elections just around the corner, the country’s rising far-right threaten Poland’s relations with Ukraine in more ways than one.

Photo: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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Does Ukraine need NATO or does NATO need Ukraine?

Does Ukraine need NATO or does NATO need Ukraine?

Human cost of war

Son, widow of fallen soldier killed in Russia’s attack on Kharkiv Oblast village. Russian troops launched a missile attack on a grocery store and a café in the village of Hroza in Kharkiv Oblast on Oct. 5, where a funeral reception was being held on the occasion of the reburial of a Ukrainian soldier, said Dmytro Chubenko, a spokesman for the regional prosecutor’s office.

Russia strikes Kharkiv, injuring 3. A Russian attack against the city of Kharkiv in the early hours of Oct. 6 injured three civilians, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported via his official Telegram channel.

Russia attacks hospital in Beryslav in Kherson Oblast, injures 2. The injured victims included an ambulance driver, who suffered a leg fracture, and a parademic, who suffered a concussion, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin clarified.

Russian forces shell Sumy Oblast, killing 1. Russia shelled eight communities along Ukraine’s border Sumy Oblast on Oct. 5, firing 22 times throughout the day, the Sumy Oblast Military Administration reported on Telegram. At least 131 explosions were recorded.

International response

Rheinmetall to deliver Estonian mobile drone surveillance systems to Ukraine. Rheinmetall has received an order “in the two-digit million-euro range” from the German government to supply Ukraine with mobile drone surveillance systems, the arms manufacturer announced on Oct. 5.

Scholz pledges another Patriot system to Ukraine. Germany will send Ukraine another Patriot air defense system “to help ward off aerial and drone attacks during the coming winter months,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Oct. 5.

Ukraine to receive more Hawk air defense systems from Spain. Spain will provide Ukraine with another six Hawk air defense systems to combat potential Russian bombings of civilian facilities and protect the new Black Sea corridor, the Spanish government announced on Oct. 5.

UK to provide Ukraine with $600 million in winter support payments. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced new humanitarian aid on Oct. 5 to help Ukrainians survive the second winter of Russia’s full-scale war.

Japan to aid Ukraine in restoring agriculture. The announcement comes after a meeting between Markiian Dmytrasevych, Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister, and Mizuno Masayoshi, the director-general of the Export and International Affairs Bureau of Japan’s Agriculture Ministry.

Media: Campari files lawsuit in Russia, demands stop to Aperol imports. The Milan-based Campari Group, which owns the Italian drink brand Aperol, has filed a lawsuit in Russia to demand a stop to imports of Aperol, independent Russian media outlet Meduza reported on Oct. 5.

In other news

Trade chief: Ukraine freezes WTO action against Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. Kyiv “put on hold” its complaints against Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary over grain agreements at the World Trade Organization, Ukraine’s Trade Representative Taras Kachka said on Oct. 5, as cited by Interfax Ukraine.

Hungarian Nobel laureate to donate prize money to Ukraine charity. The Hungarian-born scientist Ferenc Krausz, who was one of the three joint winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics awarded on Oct. 3, said that he plans to donate the prize money to a charity he founded last year to help Ukraine.

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