Ukraine war latest: Two dead as Russian troops continue fierce shelling of Avdiivka

Russian forces are conducting an ‘active defence’ and have been able to improve their positions at almost entire line of contact in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.

“What is happening now along the entire length of the [line of] contact is called ‘an active defence’,” Putin said in video remarks posted to social media by a Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin.

“And our troops are improving their position at almost entire area. Quite a large area.”

Two civilians were killed in Russian attacks on the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka on Saturday, according to the Donetsk region administration.

In one of its few offensives in months, Russia’s military pressed on for a fifth day with assaults on Avdiivka, with shelling so fierce that emergency crews were unable to recover the dead from wrecked buildings.

The administration of the Donetsk region said on Sunday on the Telegram messaging app that one more person was injured elsewhere in the region.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Sunday its forces had repelled 15 Russian attacks near Avdiivka, Tonenke and Pervomaiske in the Donetsk region, while Russian forces launched heavy air strikes in the area.

Oleh Sinehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region also in Ukraine’s east, said on Sunday a 54-year-old woman and a 57-year-old man were killed and one woman injured in an overnight Russian air attack.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is set to meet Xi Jinping in China this week, marking only his second visit outside former USSR since the start of the war in Ukraine.

The Russian president will be attending the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on 17, 18 October.

This would also be Mr Putin’s first trip outside of former USSR since Hague-based International Criminal Court issued a warrant for him in March over the deportation of children from Ukraine.

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is conducting drills using rocket launchers off the Crimean-port Sevastopol.

“Everything is calm in the city,” the Crimean-port’s Russian-installed governor said today in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

It is known that Russia’s Black Sea Fleet launches many of its drone and missile attacks on Ukraine from the Black Sea.

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has doubled down on defence measures after suffering setbacks in the recent months, according to the UK Defense Ministry.

“Since suffering a series of strikes in August and September, the Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) has highly likely doubled down on its defensive and reactive posture,” the Defense Ministry said yesterday.

Ukraine has gained the initiative in the northwest Black Sea since June launching unmanned surface vessels, unmanned air vehicles, and missile attacks against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

The Russian fleet has mostly continued to defend itself while also launching missiles into Ukraine, which “it can almost certainly continue to do so from the eastern (region of the) Black Sea,” the UK Defense Ministry said.

More than two dozen drones launched from Ukraine have reportedly been destroyed over Kursk and other Russian regions.

About 18 of these were downed over Kursk in southern Russia and two where destroyed over Belgorod, another region bordering Ukraine, Russia’s defence ministry said early today.

Kursk governor Roman Starovoit said there were no casualties in the drone attack, Reuters reported.

Nearly a third of Ukrainian territory is unsafe due to mines and unexploded ordinance, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday.

Demining and clearing of explosive materials were issues discussed at a two-day conference in Croatia in October.

About 250 people have reportedly been killed by mines so far in Ukraine, and over 500 have been injured.

More than 40 countries took part in the conference in Croatia, and jointly pledged about 500 million euros ($530 million) to assist in demining

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has moved a number of its ‘prestige assets’ following a series of strikes by Ukraine in August and September, the Ministry of Defence has said.

In it’s daily update on progress on the war, the MoD said cruise missile capable ships and submarines had been relocated from Sevastopol to bases further east.

“The risk of further military losses and the dire political consequences of Russian naval forces overtly attacking merchant shipping would highly likely outweigh any gain from attempting to enforce a blockade of Ukrainian-bound trade.”

Ukrainian officials have said assaults being carried out by Russian forces are “relentless”, as the ongoing attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka entered its fifth day.

“The enemy has not stopped either assaulting or shelling positions” around Avdiivka, city head Vitalii Barabash said on Ukrainian television.

Barabash also reported that Moscow was deploying additional forces to encircle the strategically important city in the eastern Donetsk region, situated just north of the Moscow-held regional capital, also called Donetsk.

Around 1,600 civilians remain within the city, a stark contrast to its prewar population of about 31,000.

Barabash’s comments came after Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Friday that the intensified attacks in the east amounted to a new stage in Moscow’s campaign in Ukraine.

“Russian troops have, for several days now, switched over to active combat action practically throughout the entire front line — The so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive can therefore be considered finished,” he said.

Ukraine has said they have uncovered more than 700,000 explosive objects in the country.

Sappers surveyed more than 152,000 hectares looking for potentially deadly devices.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine posted a video of their efforts on X on Saturday morning.