Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,302 | Russia-Ukraine war News

Here are the key events on day 1,302 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Thursday, September 18:

Fighting

• A Ukrainian drone has struck a car in Russia’s Belgorod border region, killing one person and injuring another, according to the region’s governor.

• The Ukrainian army lost more than 1,500 troops during front-line fighting over the past day, reported Russia’s state TASS news agency, citing the Ministry of Defence. Ukraine has not confirmed the claim, and both sides have engaged in what independent analysts described as unsurprising narrative warfare aimed at projecting military gains.

• The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said Russia had lost an estimated 1,020 people, along with 360 unmanned aerial vehicles and 36 artillery systems, in the past day. Russia has not confirmed the claim.
• Meanwhile, Russian forces also hit Ukrainian railway infrastructure facilities, “storage and launch sites for long-range unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as temporary deployment sites”, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media platform X that although Russia had prepared offensives in Sumy, Novopavlivka, Pokrovsk and Zaporizhzhia this year, Russia has lost “so much manpower” that “as of now, they lack the strength for large-scale offensives.”

Military

• Speaking at a joint news conference with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, Zelenskyy said missiles for Western air defence systems were among the first set of US weapons being sent under the Priority Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) mechanism, which allows NATO states to pay for the transfer of United States-sourced weapons and technology.
• Ukraine has received more than $2bn so far as part of the PURL scheme, Zelenskyy said, with the total expected to rise to up to $3.6bn in October.

• Lithuanian prosecutors charged 15 people in connection with detonations of DHL parcels at logistics depots in Europe last year, which prosecutors allege were organised by Russian citizens with ties to Russian military intelligence.

• In what Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called “a paradigm shift”, Denmark will procure “long-range precision weapons” for the first time in response to the threat posed by Russia. Moscow’s ambassador to Copenhagen said the decision was “pure madness”.

Politics and diplomacy

• After a birthday phone call from Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the Russian president – who he referred to as “my friend” – on X, writing that India is “ready to make all possible contributions towards a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict”.

• King Charles seemed to gently nudge US President Donald Trump on standing firm in Ukraine’s corner, during a lavish ceremony for Trump during his visit to the United Kingdom, when the British monarch recalled the US-UK alliance during World Wars I and II. “Today, as tyranny once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine, to deter aggression and secure peace,” the king said. The comments came amid questions over whether Trump has put sufficient pressure on Putin to negotiate a peace deal.

• Ahead of the 80th United Nations General Assembly “high-level” week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he would meet with Russian and Ukrainian delegations but was “not optimistic about the short-term progress in the peace process in Ukraine”. The two sides’ positions are too different, he said, with Ukraine driven by “a legitimate interest to preserve its territory” and Russia “determined to [do] something that would mean the occupation of large parts of Ukraine”.

• Russian nationalists and online bots moved quickly to sow division after the killing of conservative right-wing figure Charlie Kirk, The Associated Press news agency reported, tying his death to US support for Ukraine and even spreading the conspiracy theory that Ukraine was responsible for his death.

Economy and energy

• Ukraine and the US International Development Finance Corporation said they would each commit $75m to a joint investment fund that is part of Kyiv’s minerals deal with Washington. The deal – which Trump has referred to as “payback” for Ukraine aid – was signed in May and will give the US preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals and natural resources licences in exchange for post-war financial and military assistance.
• Ukraine has gas reserves to meet about 80 to 90 percent of its demand for the upcoming winter, but still needs up to $1bn in additional fuel stockpiled, data show.
• Russia’s consumer price index rose by 0.04 percent in the week ending September 15, the state statistics agency said, compared with 0.1 percent growth in the previous week. Overall price growth in the year to date stands at 4.08 percent, compared with 5.78 percent for the same period last year.