Key facts
- Eleven Ukrainians, including a 96-year-old woman, returned from Russian-occupied territories.
- A 96-year-old woman and her son were evacuated from Kherson Oblast.
- Ukrainian forces struck Russian drone sites and ammunition depots in occupied territories.
- Equipment wear at occupied Donbas coal mines reaches 80-90%.
- Six teenagers accused of arson attacks in Luhansk sent to court.
Eleven Ukrainians, including a 96-year-old woman and her son, have returned to Ukrainian-controlled territory from Russian-occupied areas, according to Ukraine's Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, who reported the evacuations on Oct. 16. One evacuee was a man who had remained in occupied Luhansk after his wife died in 2018 and required specialized transport due to health issues. Another case involved an elderly woman and her son from Kherson Oblast, who were injured in a Russian air attack. Separately, the humanitarian NGO Save Ukraine stated on Oct. 11 that 33 children had been returned from occupied territories in the past week. The Volyn humanitarian corridor is typically used for such evacuations, though direct routes from Russia to Ukraine are closed. The fate of thousands of Ukrainians in captivity or under occupation remains uncertain, with estimates suggesting 3.5 to 5 million remain in occupied territories or Russia. Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops conducted strikes on Russian drone sites, military supply depots, and troop concentrations in occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea between Oct. 11 and Oct. 16. Russian occupation authorities also sent a terrorism case against six teenagers accused of arson attacks in Luhansk to court. Separately, equipment wear at occupied Donbas coal mines has reached 80-90% due to a lack of modernization, according to an investor in the region's coal industry. The Kyiv Independent reported on Oct. 15 that humanitarian crises are deepening across all occupied regions of Ukraine.