Russia is rising air assaults to compensate for its failure to crack Ukrainian defences on the bottom, in keeping with Kyiv.
“Russia has began a brand new wave of air terror towards Ukraine – towards our cities and civilian infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy informed NATO’s 71st Parliamentary Meeting on October 13.
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Zelenskyy spoke days after Russia launched an overnight strike towards Ukraine’s vitality infrastructure involving 465 drones and 19 missiles.
Ukraine mentioned it downed 405 of the drones and 15 missiles. The rest disadvantaged three-quarters of 1,000,000 Ukrainians of electrical energy for the day, wounded 20 folks and killed a seven-year-old boy.
Zelenskyy mentioned chilly autumn climate had diminished the effectiveness of Ukraine’s air defences by 20-30 p.c, claiming Russia “intentionally waited” for this.
On Wednesday, Russian drones once more knocked out energy in some components of Ukraine and struck a thermal energy plant, in keeping with Naftogaz, Ukraine’s gasoline utility.
Russia ‘elevated the variety of air assault means’
On the battlefront, too, Russia was turning to the air.
“In a month, the enemy has elevated the variety of air assault means utilized by 1.3 instances,” wrote Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii on his Telegram channel on Saturday.
Syrskii usually refers to Russian first-person view (FPV) drones and air-launched glide bombs, which Russia makes use of on the entrance along with artillery and a number of launch rocket programs.
However Russia was more and more utilizing its long-range Shahed drones – the kind it deploys towards cities – to hit targets on the entrance as effectively, mentioned the Kyiv Unbiased after talking with analysts.
Shaheds are extra exact than glide bombs, and Russia was “seemingly seeking to preserve KAB guided aerial bombs the place attainable to arrange for a protracted conflict forward”, mentioned the newspaper.
Russia’s ways prompted a flurry of consultations with allies.
On the day of the huge air strike, Zelenskyy mentioned he spoke with United States President Donald Trump concerning the harm to Ukraine’s vitality sector and what the nation wants to guard it. Throughout the week, he additionally spoke with the leaders of Canada, Germany, the UK and France, and the European Union’s overseas coverage chief, Kaja Kallas.
Zelenskyy mentioned he’s wanting air defences and has requested allies to extend provisions to guard 203 key services in Ukraine.
At Wednesday’s assembly of the Defence Contact Group for Ukraine, Germany pledged 2.3 billion euros ($2.7bn) in new weapons and air defence programs, together with interceptors for Patriot launchers and two extra IRIS-T programs.
Poland provided electrical energy exports, turbines and the companies of a liquefied pure gasoline (LNG) terminal to bolster Ukraine’s vitality provide.
Zelenskyy dispatched Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko to the US to put the groundwork for his assembly with Trump on Friday.
Russia’s combat for Donetsk
On the bottom, Zelenskyy mentioned this week that Russia had deliberate to seize everything of the Donetsk area this autumn. A few quarter of it stays in Ukraine’s fingers.
The hammer has fallen hardest on Pokrovsk, as soon as a metropolis of 60,000 folks. Russia has did not take it by direct assault and by conducting an enveloping manoeuvre via Dobropillia to its north.
Syrskii mentioned a Ukrainian counteroffensive at Dobropillia had retaken 181sq km (70sq miles) of territory for the reason that finish of August.
The Dobropillia counteroffensive precipitated 12,000 Russian casualties, together with 7,000 deaths, and upset Russia’s plans to beat Donetsk this autumn, Zelenskyy claimed.
Al Jazeera was unable to independently confirm the demise toll estimated by Ukraine.
Ukraine’s operation “disrupted all of the plans that the Russians communicated to the American facet, claiming they’d supposedly occupy the Donbas – most of it – particularly by November. Initially, they mentioned September, then pushed the deadline to November”, mentioned Zelenskyy.
Russia’s dedication to seize Donetsk was evident in the truth that it had returned to high-casualty mechanised assaults on October 6, 9 and 13, mentioned the Institute for the Research of Warfare, a Washington-based assume tank, having largely stopped strengthened company-sized mechanised assaults in late 2024.
All three assaults got here within the Dobropillia route and have been defeated with excessive losses to males and armour.
“The Russians at the moment are tasked with urgently taking Pokrovsk – at any value,” Zelenskyy mentioned, and a few analysts urged they might be swinging to the south of Pokrovsk as a substitute.
Russia has not been wholly with out success. Throughout the week of October 9-15, it claimed to have seized 4 villages in Donetsk, and settlements in Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk.
In Kharkiv, Zelenskyy mentioned, Ukrainian forces have been pushing Russian troops out of some positions within the metropolis of Kupiansk, in whose northwestern outskirts they’ve taken positions.
Regardless of this, Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday evacuated lots of of households from 27 villages within the Kupiansk space, citing the safety state of affairs.
Ukraine’s strikes and Tomahawks
Ukraine continued a successful campaign to choke off Russian gasoline manufacturing.
Its drones struck Lukoil’s Korobkovsky Gasoline Processing Plant within the Volgograd area of Russia on October 9.
“The plant is a part of the gasoline provide system for the home market of the Russian Federation, in addition to for export,” mentioned Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Heart for Countering Disinformation.
On Monday, Ukraine struck the oil depot on the port of Feodosia in Crimea, confirmed the area’s occupation head, Sergey Aksyonov. It’s used to provide Russian occupying troops in Crimea, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv with gasoline by rail.
Russian opposition information outlet Astra mentioned the strikes broken 11 gasoline tanks, together with eight 5,000-10,000-tonne diesel tanks and two petrol tanks.
Geolocated footage confirmed the assault, in addition to strikes on two electrical energy substations in Feodosia and Simferopol, additionally in Crimea.
“That is completely truthful that Ukraine strikes again with exact, focused assaults,” mentioned Zelenskyy.
The Monetary Instances reported on Sunday that Ukraine has not been conducting these operations alone.
A number of US and Ukrainian officers informed the each day that Washington has been offering intelligence for the focusing on of Russian refineries for months.
“The shift got here after a telephone name between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in July, when the FT reported the US president requested whether or not Ukraine may strike Moscow if Washington supplied long-range weapons,” wrote the paper.
The sources mentioned the US was concerned in goal choice, timing and route planning to evade Russian air defences.
Ukraine has thus far largely used its domestically produced drones, and Zelenskyy final month requested Trump to supply US Tomahawk cruise missiles, with a spread of as much as 2,500km (1,550 miles)
The difficulty is to be amongst these mentioned between Trump and Zelenskyy on Friday.
Russia’s deputy chairman of its Nationwide Safety Council warned towards the deployment of Tomahawks, that are nuclear-capable.
“The supply of these missiles wouldn’t be good for anybody. At first, it’ll finish badly for Trump himself,” warned Dmitry Medvedev in a written submit.
