Here is the situation as it stands on Sunday, October 2nd.
Battle
- The “liberation” of Lyman in the Donetsk region is a key factor in “further de-occupation” in the neighboring Luhansk region, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said.
- The head of Russia’s Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, said Moscow should consider using a low-yield nuclear weapon in Ukraine after the loss of Lyman.
- US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin praised Lyman’s recapture, saying it was an encouraging success on the battlefield and that the loss of the logistics and transportation hub will pose a dilemma for Russia’s military.
- Ukrainian officials accused Russia of killing 24 civilians, including 13 children, in an attack on a road convoy near a recently recaptured Kharkiv town.
diplomacy
- Russia has failed to garner enough votes to be re-elected to the United Nations Aviation Administration’s governing board, giving a boost to Western powers keen to hold Moscow accountable after its invasion of Ukraine.
- Germany will deliver the first of four advanced IRIS-T air defense systems to Ukraine in the coming days to repel drone strikes, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said during an unannounced visit to Odessa.
Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
- A Russian patrol detained the general director of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the state-owned company in charge of the power plant said. The UN nuclear watchdog said Russia has confirmed the move.
- The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, is expected to hold talks in Moscow and Kyiv in the coming days on creating a protective zone around the Russian-held power plant, the UN watchdog said.
gas flows
- Italy’s Eni said it would not receive any gas it requested from Russia’s Gazprom for delivery on Saturday, but the firms said they were working to fix it.
- Greece and Bulgaria have started commercial operations on a long-delayed gas pipeline that will help reduce south-eastern Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and increase energy security.
- The Danish Energy Agency says one in two ruptured natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea appears to have stopped leaking gas.