Here is the situation on Sunday, March 9 :

Fighting

• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it had retaken the village of Lebedevka in its western region of Kursk, and taken the village of Novenke, across the border in Ukraine’s Sumy region.

• Russian special forces were storming the town of Sudzha after using a gas pipeline to surprise Ukrainian units as part of a major offensive to eject them from Kursk, pro-Russia war bloggers said.

• A Ukrainian drone hit an industrial facility overnight in Russia’s Volga River region of Chuvashia, some 1,300km (800 miles) from the border with Ukraine, the regional governor said on Sunday. There were no casualties in the strike, which was one of the deepest yet into Russia by a Ukrainian drone.

• Russian authorities said air defence units destroyed 88 Ukrainian drones overnight, with no injuries or other damage reported. The Defence Ministry said 52 of the drones were destroyed over the border region of Belgorod, 13 over the Lipetsk region and nine over the Rostov region.
• Ukraine said its attacks in the war aim to destroy infrastructure key to Moscow’s war efforts and are in response to the continued bombing of Ukraine.

• Ukraine’s air defences shot down 73 of 119 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack, the air force said.

Politics and diplomacy

• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is “fully committed” to having a constructive dialogue with the representatives of the United States in Saudi Arabia on Monday.

• Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said he was in discussions with Ukraine for a framework deal to end the three-year war with Russia.

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would consider taking part in a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, but stressed it was too early for any deployment.

• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to Albanese by phone and welcomed his commitment to consider contributing to a “coalition of the willing” for Ukraine, a Downing Street spokesperson said.

• Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said appeasement towards Russia was leading to more tragedy in Ukraine.