1,155 political violence events
12% increase compared to last week
71 incidents of violence targeted at civilians
9% increase compared to last week
At least 38 fatalities from civilian targeting
17% decrease compared to last week
Key trends
- Russian forces seized 14 settlements in the Donetsk region, the highest weekly number this year. The occupations mainly occurred in the frontline areas between Pokrovsk and Vuhledar, with takeovers also recorded in the direction of Velyka Novosilka and west of Horlivka.
- Russian forces continued to advance towards Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, seizing two settlements amid the ongoing battles for Vovchansk in the north of the region.
- ACLED records 26 Russian long-range missile and drone strikes, targeting the central Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, and Poltava regions, the southern Mykolaiv and Odesa regions, and the northern Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions. Ukrainian forces also intercepted strikes in at least 44 further instances.
- Russian shelling, missiles, and drones killed at least 38 civilians across Ukraine. In addition, Ukrainian shelling killed one civilian in Russia-occupied Horlivka in the Donetsk region.
Key events
- 28 Oct. | Dnipropetrovsk – Russian missiles hit civilian infrastructure in Kryvyi Rih, killing one civilian and wounding 15 others
- 29 Oct. | Kherson – Russian shelling of Kherson city kills two civilians, wounds eight others, and causes blackouts
- 30 Oct. | Kyiv – Russian drones hit a multi-story residential building in Kyiv city, wounding nine civilians
Spotlight: Toll on civilians in 2024 rises in Kharkiv with daily Russian strikes
Russian forces attacked Kharkiv city almost daily last week, with each attack causing multiple civilian casualties, as part of an apparent campaign of targeting Ukraine’s population and industrial centers, including the capital Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Zaporizhia. Between 27 and 30 October, Russian aerial bombs and missiles killed a total of seven civilians and wounded at least 49 others in Kharkiv city alone, while also damaging dozens of residential buildings, a regional hospital, and other infrastructure. On 1 November, Russian forces attacked the city at least three times with ballistic and modified S-300/S-400 missiles, hitting residential buildings and a police station, killing one police officer and injuring around 30 police officers and 11 civilians.
The second largest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv is situated only 30 kilometers away from the Russian border and is frequently subjected to indiscriminate targeting. While such targeting decreased after Ukraine’s liberation of the Kharkiv region in September 2022, Russian forces have been increasingly using aerial bombs to attack Kharkiv this year. In the first 10 months of 2024, civilian fatalities from Russian attacks on Kharkiv city already reached almost a hundred people, compared to seven civilian fatalities recorded in the city in 2023. Highly destructive and difficult to intercept, around 3,000 Russian aerial bombs are used each month to pummel areas close to the frontline.1Lori Hinnant, Vasilisa Stepanenko, and Hanna Arkhirova, ‘Russia obliterates Ukraine’s front-line towns faster with hacked bombs and expanded air base network,’ Associated Press, 20 June 2024
Explore the ACLED Conflict Exposure tool to assess the numbers of people affected by armed violence, disaggregated by locations, time period, and actors involved.
