Ukraine Strikes Back

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Listen to this Russian openly admit that they are systematically committing war crimes against civilians even in the ethnicity Russian part of Ukraine.

 

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Russian Marines Just Attempted Another Frontal Assault On Ukrainian Positions Around Pavlivka. The Result Was Predictably Bloody.​

Three months after it got wrecked trying and failing to punch through Ukrainian defenses, the Russian navy’s unhappiest marine brigade is back in action. And apparently getting beaten, again.

The bewildering and tragic plight of the 155th Marine Brigade is a reminder of one of the fundamental flaws in Russia’s war effort, nearly a year into the wider invasion of Ukraine.

Russian planners and commanders seem to be incapable of learning even the simplest battlefield lessons. For example: support your infantry with artillery. Don’t attack uphill. Try flanking the enemy.

The 155th Marine Brigade back in November suffered devastating losses in sloppy, frontal attacks against entrenched Ukrainians around Pavlivka, in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Last week, the brigade tried the same dumb tactics against an even more fortified foe in nearby Vuhledar—and seemingly suffered yet another horrific defeat.

“Another—there have been several dozen of them in 11 months—attempt to ram the long-term defense of the armed forces of Ukraine on the Donetsk front with frontal strikes resulted only in local tactical successes with very serious losses,” Igor Strelkov, a former colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence agency and a prominent Russian ultranationalist, lamented on his Telegram channel.

The Russian Pacific Fleet’s 155th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade—a.k.a., the 155th Marine Brigade—has been one of the main Russian formations around Russian-occupied Pavlivka, 28 miles southwest of Donetsk, since last summer.

The Vladivostok-based unit, with its 3,000 troops and hundreds of T-80 tanks, BMP-3 and BTR-82 fighting vehicles, has been in Ukraine since Russia widened its eight-year war on Ukraine back in late February.

The 155th Marine Brigade reportedly lost 63 troops in a doomed, two-day frontal assault on Ukrainian positions around Pavlivka on or before Nov. 4. It apparently was one of the worst single-operation losses for the small Russian marine corps since before the Chechen wars in the 1990s.

A local artillery mismatch helps to explain the marines’ heavy casualties. Without enough 122-millimeter shells of its own, the 155th Marine Brigade couldn’t suppress Ukraine’s big guns. Its troopers were defenseless against Ukrainian barrages.

“Either the country will mass-produce 122-millimeter shells, or it will mass-produce coffins,” a Russian officer told one blogger in reference to the earlier Pavlivka fight.

The Ukrainian army’s 72nd Mechanized Brigade—one of Kyiv’s better heavy units—inflicted most of the casualties in that November bloodbath. The same Ukrainian brigade then spent the next three months digging in even deeper around Pavlivka and surrounding settlements, including Vuhledar.

Strelkov described Vuhledar, which straddles the local high ground, as a “fortress.”

The 72nd Mechanized Brigade, along with the Ukrainian 68th Jaeger Brigade, was ready when the 155th Marine Brigade and supporting paratroopers attacked uphill on or around Thursday.

The assault was in trouble from the start. Having apparently failed, once again, to source adequate supplies of 122- and 152-millimeter artillery shells, the brigade deployed its T-80 tanks to fire their 125-millimeter main guns at high angles—effectively functioning as artillery, albeit inaccurate, short-range artillery.

Both the Ukrainian and Russian armies train their tankers, in an emergency, to function as artillery crews. But indirect tank-fire is no replacement for dedicated artillery. Thus the 155th Marine Brigade’s doomed troopers advanced on Vuhledar at a dangerous disadvantage against the 72nd Mechanized Brigade with its ex-Norwegian M-109 mobile howitzers.

“After initial successes and breaking through the front lines of the enemy's defenses, the offensive stuck due to heavy losses in the infantry assault units, lack of artillery ammunition and—in general—poor technical support for the attacking units and their low staffing,” Strelkov wrote.

Ukrainian missile teams lay in wait for the Russian marines who managed to get through the artillery fire. One video from the 72nd Mechanized Brigade depicts Javelin missile strikes on two T-80 tanks and a BMP-3 fighting vehicle from the 155th Marine Brigade. A photo that appeared on Telegram purports to depict a trench filled with dead Russian marines.

Several days later the fog of war still is thick around Vuhledar, but it appears the Ukrainians have held on. Whether and when the 155th Marine Brigade attempts a third, unsupported frontal assault around Pavlivka depends on whether its leaders can learn anything from past defeat.

 

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The Russian Casualties in Ukraine​

The past 24 hours have been particularly deadly for the Russian forces.

According to the Ukrainian estimates, which are corroborated to a certain degree by Western intelligence assessments, the Russian military and Wagner Group mercenary forces lost more than 1,000 troops killed and wounded in the past day of fighting. And in the past five days, the Russian forces have lost more than 4,200 troops killed or wounded.

This rate of casualties would be unthinkable before the start of the war, especially considering that during ten years of conflict in Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s, the Russian military lost 15,000 men killed.

Overall, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claimed that as of Friday, Ukrainian forces have killed approximately 169,170 Russian troops (and wounded approximately twice to thrice that number),

Destroyed equipment includes: 305 fighter, attack, bomber, and transport jets, 290 attack and transport helicopters, 3,574 tanks, 2,616 artillery pieces, 6,921 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, 511 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), 18 boats and cutters, 5,464 vehicles and fuel tanks, 276 anti-aircraft batteries, 2,208 tactical unmanned aerial systems, 277 special equipment platforms, such as bridging vehicles, and four mobile Iskander ballistic missile systems, and 909 cruise missiles shot down by the Ukrainian air defenses.

 

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Overall, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claimed that as of Wednesday, Ukrainian forces have killed approximately 172,340 Russian troops (and wounded approximately twice to thrice that number)

Destroyed equipment includes: 306 fighter, attack, bomber, and transport jets, 291 attack and transport helicopters, 3,609 tanks, 2,659 artillery pieces, 6,966 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, 526 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), 18 boats and cutters, 5,507 vehicles and fuel tanks, 277 anti-aircraft batteries, 2,239 tactical unmanned aerial systems, 288 special equipment platforms, such as bridging vehicles, and four mobile Iskander ballistic missile systems, and 911 cruise missiles shot down by the Ukrainian air defenses.

 

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russian lines breached, says Ukraine; Zelenskiy to meet Brazil’s president – as it happened​

It's 11pm in Kyiv. Here's where things stand:

• Ukraine said it has filed lawsuit at the World Trade Organization against its three EU neighbours – Poland, Slovakia and Hungary – over their bans on Ukrainian grain imports.
• A top Ukrainian general hailed the recent recapture of two eastern villages, Andriivka and Klishchiivka, as an important breakthrough on Monday, saying it had enabled Kyiv's troops to breach Russian lines near the shattered city of Bakhmut.
• The Russian foreign ministry said it summoned French ambassador Pierre Levy to protest over what it called the “discriminatory and openly Russophobic” actions of French authorities against Russian journalists at the recent G20 summit in New Delhi.

 

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Opening Remarks by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III at the 15th Ukraine Defense Contact Group (As Delivered)​

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us for the 15th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. And it’s great to see both new and familiar faces here today. And I want to start with a word of thanks to Oleksii Reznikov for his hard work and dedication—and for everything that he did for a free Ukraine in a secure world. I’d like to welcome Ukraine’s new Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov. And Rustem, it’s great to have you here. I thoroughly enjoyed our call a couple of days ago, and certainly enjoyed the meeting we just concluded. I look forward to working with you and your team closely. And I know that everyone else here does as well. Now, even as we’re meeting here, Ukrainian troops are in a hard fight to reclaim their sovereign territory from dug-in Russian invaders. Ukraine’s counteroffensive continues to make steady forward progress. And brave Ukrainian troops are breaking through the heavily fortified lines of Russia’s army of aggression. Ukraine’s progress is a testament to the fighting spirit of its people. But Ukraine’s recent gains also hinge on the crucial capabilities provided by the members of this Contact Group. And our shared commitment will be vital during the current battles—and for the long road ahead.

 

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Russia's war in Ukraine​

• Traffic on Kerch bridge linking Crimea with Russia has been suspended, according to local authorities, as a smokescreen — used for disrupting drone attacks — appeared on the occupied peninsula.
• A cargo ship in the Black Sea hit a sea mine, according to Romanian authorities. At least 12 crew members were taken to a port near the Ukrainian border following an explosion about 25 miles offshore, Romania's sea rescue agency said.
• President Volodymyr Zelensky urged a global front against Russian aggression in a dramatic speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. Moscow's aim was "to turn our lands, our people, our resources into a weapon against you, against the international rules-based order," he said.
• Ukraine’s special services were "likely" behind strikes on Wagner-backed forces in Sudan, a Ukrainian military source told CNN.

 

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Zelenskyy delivers upbeat message to US lawmakers on war progress as some Republican support softens​

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a whirlwind return visit to Washington on Thursday to shore up U.S. support for Ukraine, delivering an upbeat message on the war’s progress while facing new question about the flow of American dollars that for 19 months has helped keep his troops in the fight against Russian forces. The Ukrainian leader received a far quieter reception than the hero’s welcome he got last year, but also won generally favorable comments on the aid he says he needs to stave off defeat. Zelenskyy, in long-sleeve olive drab, came to the Capitol with a firm message in private talks with Republican and Democratic leaders. The Ukrainians have a solid war plan, and “they are winning,” lawmakers quoted him as assuring them, at a time that the world is watching Western support for Kyiv. Zelenskyy also spoke with military leaders at the Pentagon and was meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin greeted Zelenskyy at the Pentagon without the usual ceremonial band or fanfare that is typical of a high-level visit.

 

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How Norway outstrips US on Ukraine spending​

The United States has poured more than a hundred billion dollars into Ukraine's effort to repel Russia's invasion, spending far more than any other nation. But as President Volodymyr Zelensky comes to Washington to ask for more, there is growing Republican scepticism about funding the war effort.


In his Tuesday speech to the UN, Joe Biden made a passionate plea for the global community to not turn its back on Ukraine.
"Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalise Ukraine without consequence," he said. "But I ask you this: If we abandon the core principles of the United States to appease an aggressor, can any member state in this body feel confident that they're protected?"
For more than a year and a half, the US president has followed up that tough talk with American dollars. The US Congress has now authorised more than $110bn (£89bn) in aid to Ukraine. That includes:

• $49.6bn in military assistance
• $28.5bn in economic support
• $13.2bn in humanitarian aid
• $18.4bn to boost US defence industry capacity

As of 9 August, the White House said it had spent 91% of the allocated funds. The administration is currently asking Congress for an additional $24bn in aid, including $14bn in military support.
However, polls suggest support among Americans for further spending has declined, especially among conservatives.

 

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Ukraine: The soldiers who can’t leave the front line until the war is over​

Open-ended service, just 10 days' leave a year and a high casualty rate - for Ukrainian soldiers in one unit, life on the front line is far from easy, as BBC Newsnight witnessed up close. Standing among some flattened buildings, "Jimmy", a Ukrainian officer who's been on active service for years, reflected on his survival: "I'm a lucky man… as I see it, war can either love people or not." His soldiers think the fact Jimmy's still with them, despite multiple wounds, means he lives a charmed life. His unit, the 24th Mechanised Brigade, has a long history, and is part of the old regular Ukrainian army, fighting the Russians from 2014. But since the invasion of February 2022, the army has more than trebled in size, the nation mobilised and Jimmy's unit changed out of all recognition. We spent two weeks in August with the 24th, which now serves in the Donbas, that old centre of smokestack industries in the east, occupying a section of the front between Bakhmut and Horlivka. In the run-up to war, the 24th Brigade was just over 2,000 strong, rotating its three battalions to the front line in eastern Ukraine for occasional tours of duty. Although the Ukrainian army rarely discusses numbers, sources told me it has now swelled to more than 7,000, with a total of five infantry battalions, four of artillery, a tank battalion and numerous other supporting elements. As that mobilisation happened, the old regular soldiers were joined by thousands of volunteers and conscripts. "Yurii," a twenty-something venture capitalist from Kyiv, is one of the talented incomers.

 

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‘Turning point’: Milley steps down as chair at a crucial moment for Ukraine​

Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley is handing the reins over to his replacement on Friday. It couldn’t come at a more precarious time, as the West show signs of running out of weapons — and out of patience — with Ukraine. As the top military adviser to the president, Milley has weighed in on every major decision in the Ukraine conflict, from what weapons to send Kyiv to how to best train its forces. He has a longstanding relationship with Ukrainian Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, as well as other chiefs of defense around the world. He and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a former four-star general, have led the charge in rallying the West to support Ukraine with modern arms and equipment. But the war is far from over, and Milley is leaving his successor, Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, an array of challenges. As Ukrainian forces push for a breakthrough before winter sets in, there is a growing sense in Washington and Europe that the West may be weary of the fight. While Biden approved the training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16s in August, Washington has yet to greenlight the donation of long-range Gray Eagle drones, which Kyiv has sought for surveillance and air-to-ground strike.

 

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 582 of the invasion​

• The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, on an unannounced visit to Kyiv, said Ukrainian forces were “gradually gaining ground” in their counteroffensive against Russian forces. Speaking at a joint press conference with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Stoltenberg said “every metre that Ukrainian forces regain is a metre that Russia loses”. He added “And there is a stark contrast: Ukrainians are fighting for their families, their future, their freedom. Moscow is fighting for imperial delusions.”
• As part of the visit, Stoltenberg said Nato has framework contracts in place for €2.4bn (£2bn) of key ammunition for Ukraine, including €1bn (£864m) in firm orders.
• Russia is set to hike defence spending by almost 70% in 2024, a finance ministry document published on Thursday showed. Since invading Ukraine last year, Russia has ramped up arms manufacturing and pumped funds into its military machine, despite contending with persistently high inflation and a weaker rouble.
• Ukraine’s air force claimed on Thursday its air defence systems shot down 34 of 44 Shahed drones that Russia launched overnight, while a regional official said no casualties were caused by the attack. “Fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units and mobile fire groups were engaged to repel the attack,” the military said on the Telegram messaging app.
• Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said his region was the main target, but the attack left no casualties. “Our air defence forces did an excellent job,” Kiper said on Telegram.
• There were also strikes on Kirovohrad oblast and an infrastructure object was hit in Mykolaiv. One man was killed and another was injured in Kherson overnight. Three people have been hospitalised after a strike on Antonivka, near the Dnipro River.
• British defence secretary Grant Shapps discussed how to bolster Ukraine’s air defences during talks in an unannounced visit to Kyiv to meet Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president’s office said on Thursday. The visit was Shapps’ first trip to Kyiv since he became defence secretary last month. “On behalf of the whole nation, I thank you for everything you are doing for us. We are grateful for your help – military, financial, humanitarian. We greatly appreciate that we can rely on you,” a statement released by Zelenskiy’s office quoted the president as saying.

 

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Russia pardoned a murderer who put his girlfriend through a meat grinder because he agreed to fight in Ukraine, his mom says​

A Russian convicted murderer who was sentenced to 11 years in prison after he killed his girlfriend and put her body through a meat grinder has been pardoned after fighting against Ukraine, his mother said. The mother of Dmitry Zelensky told the Russian media news outlet 59.RU that her son was pardoned after serving less than half of his sentence. Zelensky, a veteran of the Second Chechen War, confessed to the 2018 murder of his 27-year-old girlfriend, Tatiana Melekhina, in 2019, 59.RU reported. He admitted to strangling her to death after a quarrel, before disposing of her body in a horrific way to try to cover up his tracks, the media outlet said. According to 59.RU, Zelensky told investigators during an interrogation that he dismembered her body, processed it in a meat grinder, collected the bones in three bags, and threw them into the river. In 2019, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison, but he was released around November last year to fight in Ukraine, according to his mother, Galina Zelenskaya, per 59.RU. She told the news outlet that she had received a call from her son late last year in which he said he had signed a six-month agreement with the Wagner Group to fight in Ukraine.

 

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Occupied Ukraine pulled into Russian conscription; Putin-sympathizing candidate could win election in major Kyiv-allied country​

A Putin-sympathizing candidate for prime minister is neck and neck with his rival progressive party in Slovakia’s general election, which will take place on Saturday.

Slovakia has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, and has sent it air defense systems and MiG jets.

Robert Fico — who served two prior periods as Slovakia’s prime minister, from 2006 to 2010 and 2012 to 2018 — is a fierce critic of Ukraine and the EU’s anti-Russian position on the war, and has vowed not to send arms to its eastern neighbor. A win for the populist leader could also fracture the EU’s efforts at a unified front against Russia.

 

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Russia says no new mobilization planned, claims 335,000 entered military service this year alone​

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the military has no plans for an additional mobilization of citizens to fight in Ukraine, claiming 335,000 had entered military service this year alone. “The armed forces have the necessary number of military personnel to conduct a special military operation,” Shoigu said, claiming that in September alone, more than 50,000 citizens had signed a contract with the defense ministry. Since the beginning of the year, he claimed, more than 335,000 people had entered military service and volunteer groups. The call comes at a tricky moment in U.S.-Ukrainian relations. Over the weekend, the U.S. Congress passed a stopgap funding bill that introduced a 45-day pause on new financial assistance for Kyiv. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, the U.S. has pledged more than $43 billion in security assistance to Kyiv.

 

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Putin rocked as 'dozens of Ukrainian cluster bombs' rain down on Russia​

Dozens of Ukrainian drones attacked three Russian regions overnight, according to Russia's Ministry of Defense.

Moscow claimed its air defenses shot down 31 of the drones over the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions.

Writing on Telegram, it said: "On the night of October 4, the demands of the Kyiv regime were suppressed and terrorist attacks were carried out on objects on the territory of the Russian Federation.

"31 Ukrainian unmanned aircraft of the airplane type were intercepted and destroyed by air defense units on duty over the territory of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions."

Although Russia claims to have shot down the drones, damage has been reported in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

He said: "An administrative building in Belgorod, a house in the village of Shishino, Belgorod district, and three cars were damaged."

The state-run TASS News Agency claimed 19 drones were shot down over the region.

In addition, the regional governor of Bryansk, Alexander Bogomaz, claimedUkraine's forces fired cluster munitions into the region.

He said no one was injured but several houses were damaged. The claims of these overnight attacks have not been verified.

Russian officials in bordering regions have long accused Ukraine of indiscriminate shelling, which Kyiv denies.

Ukraine has promised only to use the controversial munitions to dislodge enemy soldiers - their use is banned by more than 100 countries but not the US, Ukraine or Russia.

Both sides have used cluster munitions throughout the war.