The Ukrainian troops continue to advance into occupied areas. President Putin has sent a special train to Ukraine. During the withdrawal from Lyman, the Russian armed forces apparently suffered heavy casualties. You can find all the latest news about the war in Ukraine here in the ticker.
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.
Tuesday, October 4, 7:48 a.m.: The Ukrainian army successfully continues its counteroffensive. After the victory in Lyman, the troops are now advancing on the city of Lysychansk to the east. This is what a military spokesman for the Moscow-controlled Luhansk separatists wrote in the Telegram news service. The Ukrainian units are under constant fire from the Russian army.
Russian sources also reported how Ukrainian armored forces advanced south along the Dnipro River. “The information situation is tense, let’s put it that way, because there have indeed been breakthroughs,” said Vladimir Saldo, Russia’s installed governor in the occupied parts of Kherson, on Russian state television. It was the biggest breakthrough on the southern front since the beginning of the war.
You can read more about the current territorial gains of the Ukrainians here: This news from the battlefield is a hard blow for Putin
9:21 p.m .: According to official information, the first recruits called up in Russia as part of the partial mobilization have been transferred to the occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. “Mobilized soldiers are undergoing combat training in the Donetsk People’s Republic,” the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Monday on its Telegram channel. It also posted a video showing soldiers doing target practice. The Russian military had previously announced the arrival of reservists in the Luhansk region.
Both in Luhansk and in the northern part of the Donetsk region, Russian troops have recently fallen on the defensive. So they had to evacuate the strategically important city of Lyman. Ukrainian formations are now targeting the connecting roads between the cities of Svatove, Kreminna and Rubischne in order to encircle the Russian units stationed there or force them to retreat. Moscow military bloggers report a shortage of personnel on the Russian side.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, however, the reservists will not be deployed to fill gaps, but will secure the supply routes after their training in the rear of the front. The Russian leadership said that all reservists should first go through training before being deployed to refresh their military knowledge. According to expert estimates, most of the recruits would only be deployed in a month or two.
7.46 p.m .: Video recordings of a long freight train with special military equipment increase concerns about a nuclear attack by Russia. As the “Daily Mail” and the “Times” report, the train is heading towards Ukraine. According to The Times, President Putin has ordered the operation. The train is reportedly linked to a branch of the Russian Defense Ministry that has nuclear weapons. According to them, the equipment and vehicles on the train belong to the 12th Main Directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry.
This special department is responsible for the storage, maintenance and provision of weapons for the Strategic Missile Forces; it is a military branch that controls nuclear missiles and is a key element of Putin’s nuclear program.
Military analyst Konrad Musyka told both newspapers that the deployment of such units could be a sign of an impending escalation in the conflict or a sign of a large-scale nuclear exercise on the border.
5:12 p.m .: According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the head of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which is under Russian control, has been released. He received confirmation that Ihor Murashov had “returned home safely,” said IAEA chief Rafael Grossi on Twitter on Monday. Murashov was arrested by a Russian patrol on Friday, according to Ukrainian sources.
2:12 p.m .: The President of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, wants to send three of his children to the war against Ukraine. On Telegram, “Putin’s bloodhound” announced on Monday that the underage boys aged 14, 15 and 16 were now “ready”.
“Akhmat, Eli and Adam are ready to show their skills in the military special operations zone. I’m not joking. The time has come to prove yourself in battle and I applaud your ambition,” writes Kadyrov.
The disturbing statements come about two days after Kadyrov called for a tactical nuclear strike after the loss of Lyman.
Monday, October 3, 10:12 a.m.: In the areas of Ukraine annexed by Russia, Moscow’s troops are still under massive pressure given the advance of Kiev’s armed forces. On Monday, the Russian occupiers from the Zaporizhia, Cherson, Donetsk and Luhansk regions reported numerous attempts by Ukraine to break through front lines. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had previously reported new successes in retaking towns.
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin admitted the four regions to the Russian Federation on Friday under an internationally unrecognized treaty. The annexation, which has been criticized as a breach of international law, is only complete when numerous laws for the integration of the areas have been passed. The State Duma wanted to pass the laws on Monday. Subsequent approval by the Federation Council is considered a mere formality. Then Putin still has to sign the incorporation laws.
The occupiers assume that a major Russian offensive will then begin in the east and south of Ukraine. The separatist leader Denis Puschilin in Donetsk was confident on state television on Monday that the situation at the front would develop in favor of the occupiers. The partial mobilization brings new personnel and new technology to the combat areas, he said. “Therefore, the picture of what is happening at the front will change. In a positive way,” said Puschilin after numerous defeats by the Russian army, which also gave up the strategically important city of Lyman at the weekend. There are already successes in the Bachmut area, said Puschilin.
7:02 p.m .: According to its own statements, Russia has already stopped more than 180 conscript men trying to escape from entering the military on the border with neighboring Georgia. The Interfax agency reported on Sunday, citing the military commissariat of the Russian region of North Ossetia, which borders on the ex-Soviet Republic of Georgia, that they were handed a draft notice directly at the Verkhni Lars border crossing.
The partial mobilization ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin about ten days ago triggered a real mass exodus in Russia. Tens of thousands of men fled not only to Georgia in the South Caucasus, but also to the Central Asian ex-Soviet states of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
In view of the influx of refugees, the North Ossetia region had imposed transit restrictions last week. In addition, it had already been announced that men of military age should now be checked more intensively at the border.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said recruits would have to complete training in the “rear areas” of the combat zone. It had previously been said that the newly drafted men would initially be deployed in the immediate vicinity, but not in the war zone itself.
1:06 p.m .: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Sunday the complete capture of the city of Lyman in the Russian-annexed Donetsk region. Since 12:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. CEST), the city has been “completely” liberated from the Russian military presence, Zelenskyy said in a video published on online networks. “Thanks to our military!”
The strategically important city of Lyman had been occupied by Moscow’s troops since the spring. On Saturday, the Ukrainian army surrounded the city and encircled several thousand Russian soldiers; later the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the withdrawal from the city.
The recapture of Lyman is Ukraine’s first major military victory in the territories annexed by Russia on Friday. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin completed the annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Cherson regions, which the West described as illegal under international law.
With the annexation, the Russian leadership made it clear that it would consider future attacks on these regions as attacks on Russian territory. In this case, the number two on the Russian Security Council, ex-President Dmitry Medvedev, had threatened the use of “strategic nuclear weapons”.
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