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Situation Summary
Fighting continued to occur mostly in the central part of the Zaporizhia region, on its boundary with the Donetsk region, around Russian-occupied Donetsk city, and in the area of Bakhmut. Russian forces resumed counter-attacks on the Kreminna-Svatove-Kupiansk line in the Luhansk and Kharkiv regions following a relative lull in the past two weeks.1Institute for the Study of War, ‘Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment,’ 6 October 2023 In the Kharkiv region, on 5 October, a Russian missile strike killed 59 civilians at a cafe in Hroza village during a wake luncheon for a fallen Ukrainian soldier. This is the deadliest single civilian targeting event since the start of the second year of the Russian invasion. On the following day, Russian missile strikes on Kharkiv city center killed a child and his grandmother, injured 30 others, and damaged multiple buildings. Throughout the week, four civilians were killed in Russian airstrikes and shelling of the Kherson region, and another three during Ukrainian shelling of Russian positions in the Donetsk region.
Russia continued conducting air and drone strikes further away from the frontlines, primarily targeting ports and warehouses in southern Ukraine. A massive drone strike on the night of 5-6 October shut down a ferry service to Romania across the Danube.2Madalin Necsutu,’Romania-Ukraine Border Point Closed by Russian Drone Attacks,’ Balkan Insight, 6 October 2023 In addition, Russian forces conducted repeated strikes on military and civilian infrastructure and airfields in the Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Kirovograd, Poltava, and Zhytomyr regions. Meanwhile, Russia reportedly relocated ten of about two dozen ships from the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol on the south-western edge of the Crimean peninsula to Novorossiysk, likely in response to continuing Ukrainian drone and missile strikes.3Institute for the Study of War, ‘Special Edition Campaign Assessment: Ukraine’s Strike Campaign Against Crimea,’ 8 October 2023
