A handout photo taken and released by the press office of the Ukrainian President on October 1, 2024 shows the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attending an event to mark the national “Day of Defenders” in Kyiv, background of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. | Photo: Handout photo/Press Office of the Ukrainian President/AFP
A Russian strike on a market in southern Ukraine killed six people on Tuesday (Oct 1, 2024) as the nation observed a minute’s silence to mark a major public holiday honoring the troops, authorities said.
Debris, broken glass and bodies were strewn around a market in the city of Kherson, which sits on the west bank of the Dnieper River, a de facto front line between Russian forces in the east and Ukrainian forces in the west.
The regional prosecutor’s office reported seven dead, but later corrected that to six, saying doctors had stabilized one of the presumed dead.
“At around 11:30 am IST (06:00 GMT) on October 1, Russian forces hit the center of Kherson, allegedly with artillery. The shelling took place near a local market and a public transport stop,” Telegram said.
Moscow’s troops withdrew from the capital Kherson in November 2022, withdrawing to the other side of the Dnieper, but continued to shell the city heavily.
The deadly attack came as Ukraine observed a minute’s silence for the country’s war dead on Defender’s Day, the third since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the army in a speech to soldiers, acknowledging that his troops had endured “painful moments” on what he called the “difficult” road to victory.
“Inside we all scream in pain for every fallen hero, scream in hatred for the evil that has come upon our land,” he said.
Neither Ukraine nor Russia have disclosed how many of their soldiers have been killed in the conflict, but independent estimates put the number in the tens of thousands on each side.
“Our boys are progressing”
Russia has been advancing on the eastern front for months and on Tuesday (1 October 2024) said it had captured two more frontline villages, including one just 13km (eight miles) from the key Ukrainian supply hub of Pokrovsk.
Responding to reports that Russian troops were closing in on another key Ukrainian-held town of Vagledar, the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin regularly receives reports from the battlefield.
The Kremlin has captured dozens of villages in eastern Ukraine this year, pushing forward even as Kiev’s forces mount a cross-border offensive in Russia’s Kursk region.
The Ukrainian army is suffering from fatigue after more than two and a half years of war and relentless Russian bombing.
“Work with both”
As Moscow advanced east, Russia announced plans on Monday (30 September 2024) to increase its defense budget by almost 30% next year as it directs resources to the war in Ukraine.
Moscow had already increased military spending to levels not seen since the Soviet era, pumping out missiles and drones to shell Ukraine and paying lucrative salaries to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting on the front lines.
The latest planned spending increase will bring Russia’s defense budget to an unprecedented 11,818 lakh crore (13.5 trillion rubles) in 2025, legislative documents show.
Planned spending on “national defense” is more than double that allocated to areas Moscow labels “social policy”. But on Tuesday (October 1, 2024), the Kremlin denied that Moscow had skewed its priorities.
“This is a carefully balanced, calibrated budget. The state supports the fulfillment of social obligations,” said Mr. Peskov.
Ukraine, which has also been forced to accelerate its own military spending, will allocate more than 60% of the country’s entire budget to defense and security next year.
But Russia’s $145 billion defense budget dwarfs Ukraine’s $54 billion, with Kiev relying on Western military and financial aid to keep fighting.
New NATO chief Mark Rutte on Tuesday (Oct 1, 2024) played down fears about the impact of a possible Donald Trump victory in the upcoming US election, amid concerns that the Trump administration will waver on its support for Ukraine.
“I’m not worried. I know both candidates very well. I worked for four years with Donald Trump. He was the one who made us spend more and he achieved it,” Mr Rutte said before the official handover ceremony.
Published – 01 Oct 2024 11:45 PM IST
