War in Ukraine: Russia claims the capture of a new village, “victory plan”… the latest on the situation

La Russie a revendiqué samedi la capture d'un nouveau village près de Pokrovsk. MAXPPP – Yevhen Vasyliev/Le Pictorium

Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Saturday, October 5, 2024, discover the latest news about this conflict.

Russia claims capture of new village near Pokrovsk

Russia claimed capture of a new village near Pokrovsk on Saturday, a city that serves as a logistics hub in eastern Ukraine and which Russian forces have been gradually approaching for weeks. “Thanks to active and decisive action, units of the Southern Troop Group liberated the village of Zhelannoye Vtoroye”, the Russian Defense Ministry said in its daily report. The locality is called Jelanne Drugue in Ukrainian. The village is located southeast of the city of Ukrainsk, which the Russian army captured in late September.

In this sector of the front, Russian troops are threatening the city of Pokrovsk, a key logistical hub for the Ukrainian army and also home to major coal mines. In the Russian-occupied territories of eastern Ukraine, 11 people were injured Saturday in Ukrainian artillery shelling and drone strikes on the town of Gorlivka, according to its mayor Ivan Prikhodko.

A civilian was also injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Russian border region of Voronezh, its governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram. On the Ukrainian side, two people were killed in Russian strikes on the Zaporizhzhia region (south), its governor Ivan Fedorov announced.

Ukraine investigates alleged execution of 4 prisoners of war by Russian army

Ukraine announced on Saturday that it had opened an investigation into the alleged execution by Russian troops of four Ukrainian prisoners of war in the summer of 2024 in Vovchansk, a city that has been the scene of fierce fighting in the northeast of the country.

The investigation concerns“the deliberate murder of four prisoners of war – servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces – who were executed by the Russian military on the orders of their command in the summer of 2024 on the territory of the Vovchansk Aggregate Plant", the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office of the Kharkiv Region, where the city is located, said.

“These facts are documented thanks to cooperation with the intelligence services of the defense of Ukraine", the Prosecutor's Office assured in a statement, which indicated that it was questioning Russian prisoners of war on this subject. According to this source, a potential suspect in this case is currently "held in captivity in Ukraine" and could therefore be tried.

In early October, Ukraine had already announced that it had opened an investigation into the alleged execution of sixteen Ukrainian prisoners of war by the Russian army near Pokrovsk, a city in the east of the country that Moscow's forces have been closing in on for weeks. Both sides have accused each other of killing prisoners of war since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The UN Human Rights Office says it has “documented numerous violations of international humanitarian law against prisoners of war, including cases of summary executions of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war”.

Ukraine to present “victory plan” at Ramstein meeting

Ukraine will present its “victory plan” at an Oct. 12 meeting with its allies in Ramstein, Germany, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday. The plan will outline “clear and specific steps for a just end to the war”, the head of state added on the Telegram messaging application.

Volodymyr Zelensky had already presented his peace plan to US President Joe Biden, during his trip to the United States in September to participate in the UN General Assembly. The US State Department spokesperson later said that the plan contained “a number of productive steps” that the United States would engage with Ukraine.

However, U.S. officials cited by the Wall Street Journal on condition of anonymity said the plan lacked a comprehensive strategy and restated kyiv's request for more weapons and the lifting of restrictions on the use of long-range missiles. The Contact Group on Ukraine's Defense, known as the “Ramstein format” in reference to the US military base in Germany where the talks took place, is an ad hoc coalition led by the United States.

US President Joe Biden, who will be in Berlin from October 10 to 12, had called in September for a summit with 50 of Ukraine's allies to be held this month in Germany.