Ukraine War: Day 1,302 – Key Events

Here are the key events on day 1,302 of RussiaS 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 Defense. Ukraine has not confirmed the claim, and both sides have engaged in what autonomous 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