UAF – Ukrainian Forces
RF – Russian Forces
MLRS – Multiple Launch Rocket Systems
Summary of the Events
The war continues with no known territorial gains by either side over the last two days. Russia has wound down their ground assaults and are targeting the electrical and water grids around Eastern Ukraine to create hardships over the coming Winter.
Battle for Kherson Region (Ukraine Offensive)
UAF have reached the town of Kiselivka, and fighting has commenced. UAF forces are now less than 17 miles away from the city of Kherson.
Other Regions
Crimea – Rumors have circulated that UAF have landed on the narrow Kinburn Spit in Crimea.
Dnipropetrovsk – RF continue almost nightly attacks on Nikopol destroying over twenty homes in the last two days. The city is without power and water. Kryvyi Rih has also been under attack over the last two days destroying a dam and flooding the city.
Kharkiv – UAF continues to clean up the region after RF retreated.
RF conducted a missile strike on a residential neighborhood of central Kharkiv in the early minutes on Thursday. There was no casualties or damage from the attack.
Kirovohrad – RF attacked some water infrastructure in the region.
Mykolaiv – RF have bombed the city of Mykolaiv for 173 of the 202 days since the invasion began. Over the last three night, bombs fell on multi-story residential buildings and a school killing two people and wounding three.
Sumy – RF continue to shell UAF troops along the border to keep them pinned down.
Zaporizhia – RF fired two missiles on the outskirts of Zaporizhia Thursday night, but there were no casualties.
Other News
The Russian government has warned their journalists that they face arrest if they publicly criticize the Russian military considering the huge setbacks in the loss of the Kharkiv Region last week. Many have begun criticizing the military campaign against Ukraine and questioning whether either the Russian people have been betrayed or that the Russian military is inept. Officially, Russia is trying to calm down the Russian people by claiming that Kharkiv Region was not lost to Russia, but that Russia decided to abandon the region to beef up their forces in taking the Donbas. But that rationale is not holding up as UAF have begun counteroffensives in the Donbas and RF are losing ground there as well.
The Russian military leadership has decided to stop mobilizing more Russian troops to the war against Ukraine because too many are refusing to participate in combat operations. The concern is if Russia refuses to accept defeat, and cannot mobilize more troops, they will revert to chemical and nuclear weaponry to defeat Ukraine.
Russia had invaded and took half of the Donbas back in 2014 and issued the residents who stayed Russian passports. Those who stayed were mostly pro-Russian. But now, most of the people who live in that region have become pro-Ukrainian and Russia no longer accepts their passports for visiting Russia. Russia has also began turning off mobile service in the regions of the Donbas they have controlled over the last eight years.
Azerbaijan has taken advantage of the weak Russian military situation to regain territory they lost to Russian ally Armenia by restarting their struggle to liberate Nagorno-Karabakh. And now Georgia is considering a referendum to seek whether the Georgian people would support the start of liberating Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two regions that Russia have recently taken from them.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to recently liberated Izyum to officially restore the Ukrainian flag flying over the city on Wednesday. He was involved in a car accident on his return to Kyiv but survived unscathed.
Russia, unable to win a ground war, is turning to creating hardships throughout Europe to force Ukraine to the negotiation table and agree to surrender territory to Russia. By turning off Nordstream 1 oil pipeline and ceasing to deliver natural gas to Europe, Russia is hoping that the citizens of Europe will reach compassion fatigue and pressure Ukraine to the negotiating table. And by targeting the electrical and water grids of Ukraine, they hope to create suffering over a cold winter and force Ukraine to negotiate as well. On Thursday, RF fired eight missiles against a large dam near Kryvyi Rih releasing a six-foot wall of water that forced hundreds of civilians to flee their homes. It will also make it difficult for UAF to cross the Inhulets River downstream where they are conducting a counteroffensive in Kherson.
International Support
Denmark announced they will begin training Ukrainian soldiers on their territory. In the past, 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been training in the UK with Danish instructors participating. But now Denmark will open training facilities in their own country to increase the number of Ukrainian soldiers being trained in Western weaponry.
The European Union has allocated €100 million to restore schools destroyed by Russian attacks over the last six months. The European Parliament also approved a €5 billion macro-financial loan to Ukraine.
EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen was in Kyiv on Thursday to meet with President Zelensky to discuss a closer relationship between the EU and Ukraine and steps to assist Ukraine in its desire to join the EU.
The US announced they are considering supplying Ukraine with long-range missile systems. Russia responded with a warning that if such weapons are delivered to Ukraine, they would then consider the US at war with Russia.