Elon Musk’s satellites in Ukraine keep failing, disrupting communications. For the first time in months there have been violent explosions in the center of Kiev. You can find all the latest news about the war in Ukraine here in the ticker.
7:48 a.m .: Heavy explosions occurred in the center of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Monday morning. There were several impacts, reported Mayor Vitali Klitschko and a correspondent for the German Press Agency.
“BBC” correspondent Paul Adams reports “at least two large explosions”. It was the first time in months that Kyiv itself was hit. Adams speaks of a “significant escalation”.
An excerpt from the live broadcast of the British broadcaster from Kyiv is circulating on the Twitter short message service. As he speaks, it suddenly becomes very loud, and at that moment the rockets seem to be hitting Kyiv. The moderator has to take cover, the switch is interrupted.
Monday, October 10, 7:20 a.m .: According to several media reports, the “Starlink” satellites from Elon Musk’s SpaceX company in Ukraine are increasingly failing. They are responsible for Internet access in the country at war and are supposed to help the Ukrainian troops with warfare and planning.
The result: “catastrophic” difficulties in communication within the troops, reports the Financial Times, citing a Ukrainian government official with direct knowledge of the situation. Experts now fear devastating consequences. Musk has criticized the reports, writing on Twitter that he believes they “falsely claim that Starlink terminals and service were paid for when only a small percentage was paid.” He rejects accusations that his system would interfere with the work of the Ukrainian army: “What happens on the battlefield is secret.”
5.30 p.m .: According to its own statements, Ukraine has recaptured seven towns in the Luhansk region in the east of their country, which is largely occupied by Russia. These included the villages of Novolyubiwka and Grekivka, wrote the Ukrainian head of administration for Luhansk, Serhiy Hajday, on Telegram on Sunday.
The conquests are important because it shows that the advance to the east continues. The troops continue to advance from the recaptured Lyman in the direction of the strategically very important Svatove and also in the direction of Lysychansk and Sieverodonetsk.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had already spoken of six liberated Luhansk towns on Friday. However, since these still had to be secured after the Russian troops were driven out, the details could only be given now, said Hajdaj.
In the course of its counter-offensive, the Ukrainian army has made considerable gains in territory in recent weeks, particularly in the eastern region of Kharkov. According to Zelenskyy’s statements, a total of 2434 square kilometers and 96 settlements have been brought back under Ukrainian control so far.
2 p.m .: Five people were killed in a Russian attack on a convoy of civilians, reports “Kyiv Independent”. The attack in the fiercely contested Kherson region was said to have come from an airplane, officials at the newspaper confirmed. The civilians were shot at by the plane, it is said. Five other people were injured, according to the reports of Andriy Kovany, spokesman for the police department of the Kherson region. People just sat in their cars near the Daryivskyi Bridge, waiting for a ferry, the sources said.
Sunday, October 09, 12:08 p.m.: Kyrgyzstan apparently canceled an important joint military exercise at home with Russia, Belarus, Armenia and other states of the former Soviet Union at the last minute. This was announced by the Kyrgyz Ministry of Defense on Sunday, without giving reasons. Almost 7,000 soldiers were to take part in the military gathering under the motto “Unbreakable Brotherhood”.
Within the post-Soviet, Russian-dominated military alliance, there had recently been repeated disputes. As recently as September, Armenia had stayed away from a two-week military exercise in Kazakhstan in protest. Russia and its allies previously refused to send military aid to Armenia after neighboring Azerbaijan attacked several border posts.
6:27 p.m .: Under pressure from Ukrainian counter-offensives, the Russian occupiers are preparing to evacuate tens of thousands of civilians in the southern Ukrainian region of Cherson annexed by Moscow. Among other things, the Russian regions of Krasnodar and Stavropol are ready to take in children and adults, wrote the head of the occupation of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, on his Telegram channel on Saturday.
Another crew official, Kirill Stremusov, admitted on Russian state television that his administration is preparing for “a difficult time”. At the same time, with a view to the planned evacuations, he spoke of “recreation invitations” from Russian regions to children, parents and the elderly.
Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine on February 24. Around seven months after the start of the war, the Ukrainian army has made major gains in its counter-offensive in recent weeks – particularly in the eastern areas of Kharkiv and Donetsk. The Ukrainians also recently reported the successful recapture of several towns from Cherson.
9:21 a.m .: According to British military experts, the Ukrainian army is now largely using vehicles captured by the Russian invading army. More than half of the deployed Ukrainian tanks come from Moscow’s stocks, the British Defense Ministry’s daily intelligence update on the Ukraine war said on Friday. “Ukraine has probably captured at least 440 main battle tanks and about 650 armored vehicles since the invasion.”
The failure of Russian crews to destroy operational material before retreating or surrendering shows how poorly trained Russian soldiers are and how low morale is. It is likely that the Russians will continue to lose heavy weapons, it said.
Friday, October 7, 7:10 a.m.: According to Ukrainian sources, at least eleven people were killed when residential buildings in the city of Zaporizhia were shelled. Another 21 residents were rescued from the rubble after the Russian attacks on Thursday, some seriously injured, the Ukrainian civil defense said on Friday. Photos show rescue workers digging through the rubble to find missing people. According to the information, two multi-storey houses were hit by the rockets.
The Zaporizhia region is one of four regions officially annexed by Russia around a week ago, along with Cherson, Donetsk and Luhansk. So far, Russian troops have occupied around 70 percent of the region – but not the regional capital Zaporizhia itself.
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 was 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 air alerts in the capital and the surrounding 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 .: During 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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