A block of flats in Zaporizhia near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant was again destroyed in another rocket attack. At least seven people die. Meanwhile, Ukraine reports further land reclamations in Kherson. You can find all the latest news about the war in Ukraine here in the ticker.
Friday, 8:03 a.m., 7:10 a.m.: Another block of flats in Zaporizhia was destroyed in a rocket attack. This is reported by a Ukrainian official. Seven people were killed in the process. The governor of the Zaporizhia region reports that people were buried under rubble during a rocket attack on the city of Zaporizhia. At least five people are missing.
4:46 p.m .: The Ukrainian army claims to have recaptured more than 400 square kilometers of territory in the Cherson region within a few days during its counter-offensive. Since the beginning of October, the troops have “liberated” this area in the south of the country, said the spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military command South, Natalia Gumenchyuk, on Thursday. Meanwhile, according to Ukrainian authorities, three people were killed and others buried in Russian attacks on the city of Zaporizhia.
Kherson is one of four regions in Ukraine that Russia annexed despite international protests. The annexations are not accepted by most countries in the world and are condemned as a breach of international law.
The capital of the region of the same name, which borders on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea annexed by Russia in 2014, was the first major city in Ukraine to be taken by the Russian army in early March, shortly after the start of the Russian invasion.
On Wednesday, Ukraine had already reported breakthroughs in the Luhansk region, which is also claimed by Russia. Several settlements have already been liberated and the Ukrainian army has hoisted the Ukrainian flag there. Luhansk was previously almost entirely under Russian control.
1:27 p.m.: Oleksii Danilov, secretary of the National Defense and Security Council of Ukraine, reported an interesting statistic. The number of Russians of draft age who have fled the country is said to be twice as high as that of those currently drafted.
“After Putin made such a big mistake (…) the number of people willing to fight against our country decreases exponentially,” says Danilov. The secretary is referring to the partial mobilization in Russia, which officially began on September 21.
10.02 a.m .: After several rockets hit residential buildings in Zaporizhia, further attacks are imminent. A few minutes ago, three more loud explosions were heard there, according to “BBC”. Smoke rises from the center of the city.
The governor of Zaporizhia, Oleksandr Starukh, urged residents via telegram to stay in the emergency shelters. He also warned of a “further enemy missile attack” that was imminent. According to Starukh, two people were killed in the explosions in the morning.
9:25 a.m .: According to British intelligence services, Russia faces a strategic dilemma in defending fiercely contested areas on the Dnipro River in Ukraine. One of the biggest challenges for Russian commanders is the growing threat to the strategically important city of Nowa Kakhovka at the southern end of the Dnipro Dam, according to the British Defense Ministry’s daily briefing on Thursday. The Russians needed the damaged supply route across the Dnipro in this region to resupply their own troops across the river.
A withdrawal of the units from there would strengthen the defense of the region around the regional capital of Cherson, but the political imperative will probably dictate not to withdraw, according to the British. Moscow has already deployed the majority of its undermanned air force to defend Kherson. As a result, the Kremlin hardly has any other highly qualified and rapidly deployable troops that could stabilize the front. It is likely that reservists will be used in the future, it said.
Thursday, October 6, 7:53 a.m.: Early in the morning, Russian forces fired seven rockets at the city of Zaporizhia near the nuclear power plant. This is reported by the governor of Zaporizhia Oblast, Oleksandr Starukh. A number of high-rise buildings were shot at. According to Starukh, rescue services have already started to extricate people from the rubble. At the time of publication, no information about victims was available.
3:02 p.m .: NATO is increasingly concerned about Russian attacks with Iranian kamikaze drones (see below). One observes with concern how successfully Russia uses them, reports the “Business Insider”. “The drones are causing problems for Ukraine,” a high-ranking NATO representative told the newspaper. The problem: the small drones are difficult for Ukraine’s defense to locate and turn off. At the moment, they can only be intercepted during the day.
NATO hopes that the new arms shipments from the US will give Ukraine a better chance of defending itself against Iranian-made kamikaze drones.
10:51 a.m .: According to information from Kyiv, the Russian army has attacked targets near the Ukrainian capital with kamikaze drones for the first time. “There were six hits and explosions,” the governor of the Kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, told the Telegram news service on Wednesday. One person was injured in the small town of Bila Tserkva. Infrastructure was hit. During the night there had been an air alert in the capital and the adjacent area for more than three hours.
According to the air force, a total of 12 Iranian drones have flown towards targets from the south. Iran had officially denied a delivery. “Six of them were shot down, three with anti-aircraft missiles in the south and also three were shot down by the air force,” Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said on Ukrainian television. The information cannot be independently verified. According to media reports, a barracks in Bila Tserkwa should have been the target.
9.42 a.m .: According to British secret services, Ukraine’s ongoing counter-offensive is causing Russia problems in supplying its own troops. For example, Ukrainian units in the north-eastern region of Kharkov advanced up to 20 kilometers behind the Oskil River into the Russian defense zone, according to the daily short report by the British Ministry of Defense on Wednesday. The troops were thus approaching a supply hub in the town of Swatowe.
The Ukraine could now presumably attack an important road in the region with its weapon systems and thus further limit the possibilities of the Russians to supply their troops in the east with supplies, it was said. Intelligence services say Ukraine’s advance on the borders of the Luhansk region should worry the Russian leadership after it annexed the region last week. The step contrary to international law is not recognized by the international community.
Wednesday, October 5, 2022, 7:30 a.m.: According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, dozens of towns have been liberated from Russian occupation in the past few days as the Ukrainian army advanced. There is good news, said Zelenskyj in a video message distributed in Kyiv on Tuesday evening. “The Ukrainian army is advancing fairly quickly and powerfully in the current defense operation in the south of our country.” Villages in the Kherson, Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions have been brought back under Ukrainian control.
In particular in the Cherson region in the south, localities were liberated. The Ukrainian armed forces spoke of a total of eight settlements in the evening. “Our soldiers don’t stop. And it’s only a matter of time before we expel the invaders from our country,” said Zelenskyy.
2:56 p.m .: In counterattacks in southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian army says it has liberated other towns from Russian troops. The head of the presidential office, Andriy Yermak, wrote to the Telegram news service on Tuesday about five places that had been recaptured. Videos from the long-fought village of Davydiv Brid and the villages of Velyka Oleksandrivka and Starossillya on the Inhulets River circulated on social networks. In addition, Ukrainian units are said to have moved into Dudchany on the Dnipro River. Official confirmations were initially not available.
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