General Staff: Ukraine downs 6 Russian drones

Ukrainian air defense shot down six Shahed-type drones Russian forces launched overnight on Oct. 24, according to the General Staff update.

The Russian forces launched four missiles and 68 air strikes against Ukraine over the past 24 hours. They also used  multiple launch rocket systems to target the Ukrainian military positions and civilian population. Ukraine's Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts came under attack.

Russian forces also shelled three settlements near the Sumy Oblast border on Oct. 23, firing five times and causing at least 48 explosions, according to the local military administration. The attacks struck the communities of Bilopillia, Yunakivka, and Khotin.

Russia has currently deployed over 400,000 soldiers in Ukrainian territory, Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) spokesperson Andrii Yusov reported earlier. "There are enough forces for separate operations in certain areas of the front. And the occupier's group in Ukraine in the temporarily occupied territories, we remind you, is more than 400 thousand Russian servicemen," he said.

Demographic disaster: Ukraine’s biggest post-war threat

The threat of a demographic crisis has been building in Ukraine for a while but Russia’s full-scale invasion has pushed it to the breaking point. The country had a population of 41 million in 2021, by the government’s reckoning. Now, it hovers around 35 million and experts warn

The Kyiv IndependentDominic Culverwell