Miners walk after finishing their working shift in a coal mine in the western part of Donbas, on October 11, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Russia said Monday (October 14, 2024) that it has captured the village of Levadne in southern Ukraine as it probes for weaknesses along the war ’s roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, including in eastern areas that are the main focus of Moscow’s military effort before winter arrives.

Ukrainian authorities, meanwhile, reported no nighttime Shahed drone attacks on the country for the first time in about six weeks, after saying five days ago they struck a Shahed storage facility in Russia’s Krasnodar region where around 400 drones reportedly were being kept.

Levadne, in the Zaporizhzhia region, was seized by the Russians early on during the full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022, but was recaptured by Ukrainian forces during a counteroffensive in the summer of 2023.

Ukrainian officials made no comment about Levadne’s possible capture, though they had previously noted that the Russian army was assembling troops there and was conducting local assaults at the end of last week.

Ukraine’s troops are straining to hold back Russia’s military might, especially in the eastern Donetsk region, and don’t have the manpower or weaponry to launch their own offensive. Though Russia’s gains have been incremental, its steady forward movement is slowly adding up as the Ukrainians are pushed backward.

Ukraine says it needs more Western help to have a chance of holding back Russia’s invasion.

Russia illegally annexed four regions of Ukraine, including Zaporizhzhia, in September 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from all four regions as the main condition for a prospective peace deal — a demand Ukraine and the West have rejected.

Last week, the Ukrainian General Staff reported a direct hit on the Shahed drone warehouse inside Russia.

“The destruction of the Shahed drone storage base will significantly reduce the ability of Russian occupiers to terrorize peaceful residents of Ukrainian cities and villages,” it said at the time.

Ukrainian officials are keen to show the West that they aren’t giving up the fight against their much bigger neighbor. An incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region has put Ukrainian troops on Russian soil for more than two months.

The Russians are managing to retake some territory in Kursk but the Ukrainians are capturing even more, according to Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military analyst from Information Resistance, a Kyiv-based think tank.

He told The Associated Press that the onset of winter fog and rain will affect the use of drones — an important element in Ukraine’s military strategy.

Ukraine has deployed sophisticated long-range drones to strike targets inside Russia, including airfields, oil refineries and ammunition depots.

The Ukrainian Main Directorate of Intelligence said Monday that it destroyed a Russian military transport aircraft, a Tu-134, at a military airfield in Russia’s Orenburg region.

Russia, meanwhile, struck port infrastructure in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa with a ballistic missile Monday, killing one person and wounding eight others, as well as damaging two merchant ships, officials said.

The attack damaged grain storage facilities, cargo cranes, administrative buildings, port equipment and vehicles, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration Oleksii Kuleba said on his Telegram channel.

Recent attacks on Odesa port facilities appear intended to disrupt the country’s exports of grains and other food staples.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, center, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, right, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet inside 10 Downing Street in London, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived at 10 Downing St. in London on Thursday (October 10, 2024) for talks with the leaders of Britain and NATO on his “victory plan” for the war against Russia.

Mr. Zelenskyy is meeting Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, before traveling to Paris for talks with President Emmanuel Macron.

Mr. Starmer said the Downing Street meetings, also attended by U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey and armed forces chief Adm. Tony Radakin, were a chance to “go through the plan, to talk in more detail”.

Mr. Zelenskyy is to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Friday (October 11, 2024) and will also travel to Italy to discuss the plan.

He had been due to present his blueprint at a weekend meeting of Western leaders and defense ministers in Germany, but it has been postponed because U.S. President Joe Biden said he had to stay home to respond to Hurricane Milton’ s landfall in Florida.

Mr. Zelenskyy said on Wednesday (October 9, 2024) he hoped the meeting could be rescheduled soon.

The details of Mr. Zelenskyy’s plan have been kept quiet but contours have emerged, including the need for fast action on decisions Western allies have been mulling since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.

Mr. Zelenskyy said on Wednesday (October 9, 2024) at a summit in Croatia with leaders of southeastern European states that the plan seeks to strengthen Ukraine “both geopolitically and on the battlefield” before any kind of dialogue with Russia.

“Weakness of any of our allies will inspire [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he said. “That’s why we’re asking them to strengthen us, in terms of security guarantees, in terms of weapons, in terms of our future after this war. In my view, he [Putin] only understands force.”

Mr. Kyiv is still awaiting word from Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets deep inside Russia. While some, including the U.K., are thought to be willing, Biden has held back out of concern it could escalate the conflict.

Ukraine’s leader last visited London in July, soon after Mr. Starmer’s Labour Party government was elected, when he addressed a meeting of the British Cabinet.

Mr. Starmer’s spokesman, Dave Pares, said Thursday’s ( October 10, 2024) meeting would involve “broad strategic discussions” on U.K. and allied support for Ukraine during a “crucial period,” rather than specific decisions.

It comes as Russia continues a slow but relentless drive deeper into Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and targets key infrastructure with airstrikes.

The death toll from a Russian ballistic missile strike on Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa has risen to seven, the regional governor said on Thursday (October 10, 2024). It’s the latest in a string of assaults on the Black Sea port.

A civilian container ship under a Panamanian flag was hit in the attack on Wednesday (October 9, 2024), Gov. Oleh Kiper said on Telegram. He said it was the third attack on a civilian vessel in the past four days.