Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 992

Fighting

• Ukraine shot down 46 of 110 Russian drones launched overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said. An additional 60 Russian drones were lost in Ukrainian airspace and two travelled towards Belarus. Russian forces also launched three missiles during the overnight attack, in addition to guided aerial bombs, the Air Force said.
• Russian air defence systems destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones overnight in regions bordering Ukraine, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said.
• North Korean troops have begun engaging in combat alongside Russian forces, the United States State Department said. Spokesperson Vedant Patel said that more than “10,000 DPRK [North Korean] soldiers have been sent to eastern Russia”, the vast majority to the Kursk region, where they have “begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces”.

International affairs

• Russia’s growing economic and military cooperation with China, North Korea and Iran “is not only threatening Europe”, it is also “threatening peace and security” in the Asia Pacific and North America, according to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
• Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu has told China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi in Beijing that strong relations between Moscow and Beijing are a stabilising influence on the world.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to Brussels to discuss support for Ukraine in meetings with NATO and European Union counterparts, the State Department said.
• Ukraine is close to setting up three new joint ventures with European weapons producers to boost arms output, according to Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko. She said five joint ventures had already been set up with Western weapons producers, including German and Lithuanian companies.
• China needs to feel a “higher cost” for its support for Russia, which enables Moscow to pursue its war in Ukraine, Estonia’s ex-Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said at her confirmation hearing at the European Parliament to become the EU’s next foreign policy chief.
• The deputy chief of Russia’s Security Council and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused European leaders of seeking to dangerously escalate the Ukraine conflict and push it “into an irreversible phase”, following the re-election of former US President Donald Trump.
• Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was sentenced to 15 years in prison for leaking highly classified US military documents to a group of gamers on the Discord messaging app. The leaks included information concerning the use of US equipment in Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Russian affairs

• Russia’s estimates for this year’s grain harvest, as well as for the winter grain seeded area, will include data from Ukrainian territories under Moscow’s control, Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture said. Following months of bad weather, the ministry forecasts this year’s grain harvest at 130 million tonnes – a 12 percent decrease from 2023’s 148 million tonnes and an 18 percent reduction from the record 158 million tonnes in 2022.
• The city of Helsinki will initiate a forced takeover of the Finnish capital’s biggest sport and events stadium, the Helsinki Arena, from its sanctions-hit Russian owners, the city’s executive governing board said.
• A Russian Navy frigate equipped with new-generation hypersonic cruise missiles conducted drills in the English Channel and is carrying out tasks in the Atlantic Ocean, Russian media reported.
• Russia’s lower house of parliament unanimously voted to ban “propaganda” promoting a child-free way of life, as it hopes to boost the faltering birthrate while death rates are up due to Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
• A Russian court sentenced a Moscow paediatrician to five and a half years in a penal colony after the mother of one of her patients publicly denounced her over negative comments she allegedly made about Russia’s war in Ukraine.