Ukraine war latest: Fighting for Vovchansk continues, Kyiv restores control over aggregate plant

Key developments on Sept. 24:
Ukrainian forces recaptured an aggregate plant in the town of Vovchansk in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) reported on Sept. 24.
HUR Chief Kyrylo Budanov was briefed on the “successful completion of the operation” earlier in the day, the agency said in a statement, adding the “extremely difficult” attack was carried out by HUR special forces.
“The fighters of HUR carried out a systematic sweep of the plant’s buildings, constantly engaging in battles with the enemy in densely urbanized conditions,” it added.
Vovchansk is an embattled town some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast of Kharkiv that has seen heavy battles since Russia launched a new offensive in the area in May. While initially gaining ground, the Russian offensive in northern Kharkiv Oblast has quickly bogged down, with Russian troops reportedly suffering heavy losses.
“Ukraine’s Armed Forces took under control the territory of the aggregate plant after all 30 buildings were cleared (of Russian forces),” Ukraine’s military intelligence said.
During the operation, Ukrainian troops also reportedly took Russian captives.
The Kyiv Independent couldn’t independently verify this information.
Russian troops have been in control of the Vovchansk plant for several months.
During the operation, Russian soldiers attacked Ukrainian soldiers with kamikaze attack drones, guided aerial bombs, and continued intensive shelling with TOS-1 “Solntsepek” multiple rocket launchers.
Russian forces struck Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, on Sept. 24, killing at least three and injuring 34 people, local authorities reported.
Russia bombarded the city with guided aerial bombs, targeting densely populated districts, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported at around 3:30 p.m. local time. Kharkiv’s four districts were under attack, with residential high-rise buildings damaged in the Kyivskyi and Saltivskyi districts.
Terekhov said that Russia used eight FAB-250 bombs in the attack, while Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said that one of the strikes was carried out with a FAB-500 bomb.
One of the high-rise buildings came under a direct Russian strike, according to Syniehubov.
People are trapped under the rubble; emergency services are continuing search and rescue operations at the scene, Syniehubov added.
Terekhov said that one of the buildings, which was damaged in the Kyivskyi district, had already been attacked in the beginning of the full-scale invasion. According to the mayor, it was almost repaired, insulated, and prepared for the heating season before Russian forces struck it again.
Some 82 people lived in the section of the building that suffered the most severe damage, Terekhov said. “We are now trying to contact all of them to find out if people are under the rubble,” he added.
One of the strikes also hit a food industry enterprise, Terekhov said. The local authorities later clarified that Russia attacked a bakery plant with a FAB-500 gliding aerial bomb, killing one person and injuring eight others.
The youngest victim is a 17-year-old girl, while the oldest is an 87-year-old woman. The majority of the injured are in moderate condition, with four people in serious condition. Three people are in surgery as of 6 p.m. local time, according to Syniehubov.
The Kremlin will maintain record high defense spending in 2025, Bloomberg reported on Sept. 24 citing draft budget proposals seen by the outlet.
With no immediate end to the war in Ukraine in sight, the Russian government will increase defense spending to 13.2 trillion rubles ($142 billion) in 2025 from a projected 10.4 trillion rubles ($111 billion) in 2024.
In contrast, social spending is expected to amount to 7.7 trillion rubles ($87 billion), or 21.1% of the Russian budget in 2024.
NATO countries have set a goal to spend 2 percent of the country’s GDP on defense in 2024. Russia is spending around 6 percent.
Russia is on track for an intense economic slowdown due to significant labor shortages and constraints placed on the key sectors that backed growth until now, it was reported on Aug. 9.
Labor resources are practically drained while the competition between the military and business for recruits becomes more fierce.
This is likely to limit the further growth of defense-related industries. The banking and construction sectors are no longer protected from the impacts of high interest rates as the government shuts down the state-subsidized mortgage programs.
Despite Russia’s GDP growing by 4% in the first quarter of the year, it will likely slow down to 2% in the last half of the year and hit 0.5% – 1.5% in 2025, says Alex Isakov, Russia economist at Bloomberg Economics.
Most of the foreign parts found in Russian weapons used on the battlefield against Ukraine come from China, Vladyslav Vlasiuk, an adviser to Ukraine’s President’s Office, said on Sept. 24.
China has positioned itself as neutral in the ongoing war but has deepened economic ties with Russia and became Moscow’s leading source of dual-use goods during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, fueling the Kremlin’s war machine.
“If you take all the usual types of weapons and count the foreign made components, about 60% would be coming from China,” Vlasiuk said in comments reported by Reuters, calling Beijing “the biggest problem.”
Vlasiuk said that Kyiv held talks with some manufacturers on the issue, without providing further details.
Important parts used in surveillance systems, drones and missiles also come from countries including the U.S., the Netherlands, Japan and Switzerland, he added.
Despite extensive Western sanctions aimed at cutting off supply lines, Russia continues to obtain sanctioned goods, such as microchips, via third-party countries.
Kyiv’s allies have sought to halt the Kremlin’s ability to circumvent sanctions. One of the EU’s sanctions package included a ban for third-country entities to re-export sensitive goods to Russia.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia uses dozens of critical components from abroad to produce all its missiles. Missiles launched at Kyiv in one of the spring attacks had an estimated total of 1,500 foreign parts.
The “temporary” occupation of some Ukrainian territories by Russia is the most likely outcome of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, Czech President Petr Pavel said in an interview published on Sept. 23.
Speaking to The New York Times (NYT), Pavel said neither Ukraine nor Russia should expect to achieve outright victory.
“To talk about a defeat of Ukraine or defeat of Russia, it will simply not happen. So the end will be somewhere in between,” he said.
As of late August, Russia was in control of around 27% of Ukrainian territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts are partially controlled by Russian troops. Russia claims to have annexed the whole territory of those regions despite not controlling two regional capitals — Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.  Moscow also controls all of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the illegal annexation of four oblasts in September 2022, and in June called for Ukrainian troops to leave these territories as a condition for peace negotiations, a proposal which was rejected by Ukraine.