Summary
It’s slightly past 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
Ukrainian forces have repelled Russian attacks near 11 settlements, the Kyiv Independent reported on Friday evening. According to the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, Russian forces were attempting to advance near the settlements of Novosadove, Yakovlivka, Berestove, Bakhmut, Bakhmutske, Opytne, Krasnohorivka, Nevelske, Pervomaiske, Mariinka, and Pobieda.
Iran has reiterated that it rejects accusations it has supplied Russia with weapons “to be used in the war in Ukraine”, its foreign ministry said. The topic is due to be discussed by EU foreign ministers in a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday. In a statement, the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, “emphasised that the Islamic republic of Iran has not and will not provide any weapon to be used in the war in Ukraine”.
Russia has continued to try to hit Ukrainian’s energy infrastructure but Vladimir Putin’s forces did not appear to have enjoyed any significant success. One missile seriously damaged a key energy facility in the region around Ukraine’s capital and 10 missiles and four drones hit locations in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence has revealed the identity of the “Ghost of Vinnytsia” who had replaced the “Ghost of Kyiv”, which turned out to be propaganda, in a Twitter post. Vadym has been Ukraine’s poster fighter in the past few weeks following multiple reports of Russian losses in the skies of Ukraine.
Updated
Ukrainian forces have repelled Russian attacks near 11 settlements, the Kyiv Independent reported on Friday evening.
According to the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, Russian forces were attempting to advance near the settlements of Novosadove, Yakovlivka, Berestove, Bakhmut, Bakhmutske, Opytne, Krasnohorivka, Nevelske, Pervomaiske, Mariinka, and Pobieda.
The Ukrainian forces also targeted five Russian military command points, among other targets, the outlet reported.
Ukrainian forces also hit five Russian military command points and seven concentrations of Russian troops and military equipment, three ammunition depots, and shot down six Russian drones and a helicopter.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) October 15, 2022
Updated
Iran has reiterated that it rejects accusations it has supplied Russia with weapons “to be used in the war in Ukraine,” its foreign ministry said.
The topic is due to be discussed by EU foreign ministers in a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.
In a statement, the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, “emphasised that the Islamic republic of Iran has not and will not provide any weapon to be used in the war in Ukraine”.
“We believe that the arming of each side of the crisis will prolong the war,” the Iranian foreign minister said in a call with his Portuguese counterpart, João Gomes Cravinho.
“We have not considered and do not consider war to be the right path either in Ukraine or in Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen.”
Updated
Russia has continued to try to hit Ukrainian’s energy infrastructure but Vladimir Putin’s forces did not appear to have enjoyed any significant success.
One missile seriously damaged a key energy facility in the region around Ukraine’s capital and 10 missiles and four drones hit locations in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia.
There were periodic electricity blackouts in Kyiv but fires set off in Zaporizhzhia and subsequent damage to electricity substations did not appear to affect supply in the city.
Evidence on the ground suggested that a number of the missiles launched at Zaporizhzhia had badly misfired, damaging only cars and smashing the windows of apartment blocks rather than disabling the critical infrastructure.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence has revealed the identity of the “Ghost of Vinnytsia” who had replaced the “Ghost of Kyiv”, which turned out to be propaganda, in a Twitter post.
Vadym has been Ukraine’s poster fighter in the past few weeks following multiple reports of Russian losses in the skies of Ukraine.
The Defence of Ukraine tweeted: “This is the pilot who is defending the skies over Vinnytsia. He has already shot down 5 ‘Shaheds’ and 2 missiles.
“The hero’s name is Vadym.”
Shahed killer.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) October 15, 2022
This is the 🇺🇦 pilot who is defending the skies over Vinnytsia. He has already shot down 5 "shaheds" and 2 missiles.
The hero's name is Vadym. pic.twitter.com/iFZGxZsQqf
Summary
The International Monetary Fund member countries issued a near-unanimous call for Russia to end its war in Ukraine, the IMF’s steering committee chair said on Friday, calling the conflict the single biggest factor fuelling inflation and slowing the global economy.
Nearly eight months into Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, citizens in core western alliance countries show little appetite for the kind of concessions to Russia that might form part of an eventual agreement to end the fighting, according to a major survey.
According to the Belarusian Hajun project, the Russian foreign ministry confirms the re-equipping of Belarusian Su-25 aircraft to carry nuclear weapons.
A missile strike seriously damaged a key energy facility in Ukraine’s capital region as the Russian military strove to cut water and electricity supplies in populated areas, the country’s power system operator said on Saturday, as reported by Associated Press.
The Kyiv Independent is reporting that Ukrainian troops have launched an offensive in Kherson Oblast, although this has not yet been confirmed by the Ukrainian government.
Associated Press reports that Dane Partridge, a 34-year-old man from Idaho who fought as a volunteer soldier in Ukraine, died on Tuesday from injuries sustained during a Russian attack in Luhansk.
A fuel depot in Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, caught fire after shelling on Saturday, its governor said, without specifying the origin of the shelling.
Updated
Andrew Roth, Moscow correspondent, has covered the return of the first coffins of Russian conscripts who had died in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of the country.
“Andrei Nikiforov, a lawyer from St Petersburg, was one of the hundreds of thousands of Russians mobilised since last month to hold the frontlines in his country’s faltering war in Ukraine.
On 25 September he received his call-up papers. By 7 October, just two weeks later, he was dead.
“We don’t know what happened,” said Alexander Zelensky, the head of the Nevsky Collegium of Lawyers, of which Nikiforov was a member. Zelensky and a member of Nikiforov’s family confirmed his call-up and death. “All we have is a date and a place.”
That place was Lysychansk, one of the most dangerous spots near the frontlines.
The first coffins are now returning to Russia from Ukraine, bringing the remains of ordinary Russians who at first were promised a quick “special military operation” and now have been drafted to go and fight in a war. Their deaths may mark another inflection point for Russia in this conflict, where mismanagement has led to Kremlin infighting and at least half a million men have been drafted or fled their homes to avoid it.”
You can read the full report here:
Updated
A fuel depot in Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, caught fire after shelling on Saturday, its governor said, without specifying the origin of the shelling.
Reuters reports:
Russian border regions including Belgorod have accused Ukraine of attacking targets including power lines and fuel stores since Moscow sent its armed forces into Ukraine on 24 February.
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.
“We have another shelling. One of the shells hit an oil depot in the Belgorod district. Emergency services are already battling the fire. There is no danger of [the fire] spreading,” the governor of Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on social media, posting a picture of flames and black smoke rising into the air.
The local emergency service said one of 10 tanks with residual diesel fuel had been set alight, the TASS news agency reported. Gladkov said later that the fire had been put out.
On Thursday, Russian officials said Ukrainian shells had destroyed an ammunition depot and also hit a school, an apartment block and an electricity substation in the Belgorod region.
Gladkov said a customs checkpoint had also been shelled for several days in a row, and that 14 shells had landed there on Saturday, but caused no injuries.
Reuters notes that this content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine.
Associated Press reports that Dane Partridge, a 34-year-old man from Idaho who fought as a volunteer soldier in Ukraine, died on Tuesday from injuries sustained during a Russian attack in Luhansk.
The Ukrainian government has recruited people with military experience to join the International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine. At least four other US citizens have been killed fighting in Ukraine, based on reports from families and the state department.
As a former US army infantryman, Partridge said he felt “spiritually called” to volunteer, said his sister, Jenny Corry. He flew to Poland on a one-way ticket in April, his rucksack packed with body armour, a helmet and tactical gear.
Updated
The Kyiv Independent is reporting that Ukrainian troops have launched an offensive in Kherson Oblast, although this has not yet been confirmed by the Ukrainian government.
⚡️Occupation government: Ukrainian troops launch offensive in Kherson Oblast.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) October 15, 2022
Kirill Stremousov, a deputy head of the Russian illegal occupation government in Kherson Oblast, said that the Ukrainian military is trying to launch an offensive near the village of Dudchany.
The offensive was also reported by several pro-Kremlin war journalists, including Yevgeny Poddubny and Alexander Kots. Ukraine has not yet confirmed the reports.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) October 15, 2022
You can read the Guardian’s reporting from Thursday, on Ukraine’s evacuation efforts from the region, here:
Updated
A missile strike has seriously damaged a key energy facility in Ukraine’s capital region as the Russian military strove to cut water and electricity in populated areas, the country’s power system operator said Saturday, as reported by Associated Press.
Associated Press reports:
Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of the Kyiv region, confirmed that the strike did not kill or wound anyone.
Electricity transmission company, Ukrenergo said that repair crews were working to restore power but warned residents about possible outages.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, also urged Kyiv area residents and people in three neighbouring regions to reduce their energy consumption during evening hours of peak demand.
After a truck bomb explosion a week ago damaged the bridge that links Russia to the annexed Crimean Peninsula, the Kremlin launched what is believed to be its largest coordinated missile attacks since the initial invasion of Ukraine.
This week’s wide-ranging retaliatory attacks hit residential buildings, killing dozens of people, as well as civil infrastructure such as power stations near Kyiv and other cities far from the front lines of the war.
In the neighbouring Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh, the governor, said the Russian military carried out strikes with Iranian-made kamikaze drones and S-300 missiles. Some experts said the Russian military’s use of the long-range missiles may reflect shortages of dedicated precision weapons for hitting ground targets.
To the north and east of Kherson, Russian shelling killed two civilians in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the local governor, Valentyn Resnichenko.
Updated
In case you missed it, Daniel Boffey reports that a City of London body whose members comprise the world’s biggest shipping insurers is embroiled in a row with Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency over enabling the export of Russian oil.
You can read the full report here:
According to the Belarusian Hajun project, here are some more details regarding the Belarusian Su-25 being equipped with nuclear weapons.
Russian Foreign Ministry confirms re-equipping of Belarusian Su-25 to carry nuclear weapons.
— Belarusian Hajun project (@MotolkoHelp) October 15, 2022
Last night, the Kremlin’s RIA News reported on a statement by Konstantin Vorontsov, the deputy head of the Russian delegation at the UNGA First Committee meeting.
1/6 pic.twitter.com/F001oYWkOs
According to him, Russia is transferring dual-equipped Iskander-M systems to Belarus and re-equipping some Belarusian Su-25 aircraft with the technical capability to carry nuclear weapons.
— Belarusian Hajun project (@MotolkoHelp) October 15, 2022
2/6
According to the Kyiv Post, Russia is to enable some warplanes to carry nuclear weapons. More soon ...
⚡️#Russia to enable some #Belarusian Su-25 warplanes to carry nuclear weapons.
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) October 15, 2022
Updated
In case you missed it, Jon Henley reports that nearly eight months into Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, citizens in core western alliance countries show little appetite for the kind of concessions to Russia that might form part of an eventual agreement to end the fighting, according to a major survey.
The YouGov-Cambridge globalism project, which gauged public opinion in 25 of the world’s largest countries, also found strong support for maintaining, and often toughening and expanding, military and economic measures against Moscow.
But while the survey found respondents in most western nations in an uncompromising mood, multiple countries around the world – including some in the west – were markedly more ambivalent, or even sympathetic, towards Russia.
The Associated Press has reported on the role of Ukraine’s minesweepers, which you can read here:
Beside an abandoned Russian military camp in eastern Ukraine, the body of a man lay decomposing in the grass – a civilian who had fallen victim to a tripwire land mine set by retreating Russian forces.
Nearby, a group of Ukrainian minesweepers with the country’s territorial defense forces worked to clear the area of dozens of other deadly mines and unexploded ordnance – a push to restore a semblance of safety to the cities, towns and countryside in a region that spent months under Russian occupation.
The deminers, part of the 113th Kharkiv Defense Brigade of Ukraine’s territorial defense forces, walked deep into fallow agricultural lands on Thursday along a muddy road between fields of dead sunflowers overgrown with high weeds.
Two soldiers, each with a metal detector in hand, slowly advanced up the road, scanning the ground and waiting for the devices to give a signal. When one detector emitted a high tone, a soldier knelt to inspect the mud and grass, probing it with a metal rod to see what might be buried just below the surface.
The detector’s hit could indicate a spent shell casing, a piece of rusting iron or a discarded aluminum can. Or, it could be an active land mine.
Oleksii Dokuchaev, the commander of the minesweeper brigade based in the eastern Kharkiv region, said that hundreds of mines have already been discharged in the area around the village of Hrakove where they were working, but that the danger of mines across Ukraine will persist for years to come.
“One year of war equals 10 years of demining,” Dokuchaev said. “Even now we are still finding munitions from World War II, and in this war they’re being planted left and right.”
Russian forces hastily fled the Kharkiv region in early September after a rapid counteroffensive by Ukraine’s military retook hundreds of square miles of territory following months of Russian occupation.
While many settlements in the region have finally achieved some measure of safety after fierce battles reduced many of them to rubble, Russian land mines remain an ever-present threat in both urban and rural environments.Small red signs bearing a white skull and crossbones line many of the roads in the Kharkiv region, warning of the danger of mines just off the pavement. Yet sometimes, desperation drives local residents into the minefields.
The local man whose body lay near the abandoned Russian camp was likely searching for food left behind by the invading soldiers, Dokuchaev said, an additional danger posed by the hunger experienced by many in Ukraine’s devastated regions.
The use of the kind of tripwire land mines which killed him is prohibited under the 1997 Ottawa Treaty – of which Russia is not a signatory – which regulates the use of anti-personnel land mines, he said.
“There are rules of war. The Ottawa Convention says that it’s forbidden to place mines or any other munitions with tripwires. But Russians ignore it,” he said.
Here is a roundup of what we know on day 234 of the invasion.
The United States has warned it can impose sanctions on people, countries and companies that provide ammunition to Russia or support its military-industrial complex, as Washington seeks to increase pressure on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
Reuters reported that the US deputy Treasury secretary, Wally Adeyemo, told a meeting of officials from 32 countries to discuss sanctions on Russia that the department would issue guidance on Friday making clear that Washington was “willing and able” to impose such a crackdown.
The first such gathering on sanctions on Russia included officials from countries in the European Union, Canada and South Korea.
International Monetary Fund member countries issued a near-unanimous call for Russia to end its war in Ukraine, the IMF’s steering committee chair said on Friday, calling the conflict the single biggest factor fueling inflation and slowing the global economy.
But Reuters also reported that Nadia Calvino, Spain’s economy minister, told a news conference that Russia had again blocked consensus on issuing a joint communique during a meeting of the international monetary and financial committee.
Calvino said the call for an end to the war was stronger than at IMF and World Bank meetings in April as the conflict causes food and energy insecurity, rising prices and financial stability risks.
The IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said:
It is very clear for just on a human level, practical level, objective level: stop the war. Stop the war. This is the most straightforward way to get the world economy in better shape. Stop the war.
Georgieva’s sentiments were echoed by the US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, who said at a separate news conference that in thinking about economic responses, “it’s obvious what the most important is, and everyone agrees Russia should stop its war on Ukraine”.
Russia’s opposition to such calls forced the IMF steering committee to issue a chair’s statement, Calvino said, adding that it reflected strong agreement on many economic issues.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine was “stronger than ever” and would emerge victorious in its war with Russia, as Ukraine marked its first Defenders Day since Moscow invaded.
The Ukrainian president said in a video address to mark the public holiday on Friday:
On October 14 we express our gratitude ... gratitude to everyone who fought for Ukraine in the past, and to everyone who is fighting for it now; to all who won then, and to everyone who will definitely win now.
Agence France-Presse also quoted Zelenskiy as saying in respect of western aid:
The world is with us, more than ever. This makes us stronger than ever in history.
The president’s address came as Vladimir Putin said Moscow was “doing everything right” in its war in Ukraine, despite defeats in which Kyiv’s forces have been clawing back territory in the east and south.
Updated
Moscow 'doing everything right' despite setbacks, insists Putin
Vladimir Putin has said Moscow is “doing everything right” in its war in Ukraine despite a string of embarrassing defeats.
The Russian president’s comments on Friday came hours after Kremlin-installed officials in the southern region of Kherson urged residents to leave after Kyiv said its forces were advancing on the region’s main city of Kherson, Agence France-Presse reported.
Moscow also hinted at the extent of the damage dealt to the Crimea bridge connecting to Russia following an explosion last weekend, saying it could take many months to complete repairs.
Putin said after a summit in the Kazakhstan capital:
What is happening today is not pleasant. But all the same [if Russia hadn’t attacked in February] we would have been in the same situation, only the conditions would have been worse for us. So we’re doing everything right.
He acknowledged, however, that Russia’s ex-Soviet allies were “worried”.
Updated
Endemic corruption hampering Russian military progress, says UK MoD
Many Russian reservists called up to fight in Ukraine are probably having to buy their own body armour – and its prices have soared, the latest British intelligence briefing says.
The UK Ministry of Defence also said in its daily update that “endemic corruption and poor logistics” remained a cause of Russia’s “poor performance” in Ukraine.
The ministry said the average amount of personal equipment Russia was providing to its mobilised reservists was “almost certainly lower than the already poor provision of previously deployed troops”.
It tweeted:
Many reservists are likely required to purchase their own body armour, especially the modern 6B45 vest, which is meant to be on general issue to combat units as part of the Ratnik personal equipment programme.
The ministry said the vest had been selling on Russian online shopping sites for 40,000 roubles (about US$640 or £570), up from about 12,000 roubles in April.
It said that in 2020 Russian authorities announced that 300,000 sets of the Ratnik armour had been supplied to its military – “ample to equip the force currently deployed in Ukraine”.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 15 October 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) October 15, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/4KkxQIhrGa
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/NkcRRk4s2B
Updated
Summary
Welcome to our continuing daily coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Here is a summary of the main recent developments:
Vladimir Putin said he believed the “partial mobilisation” of army reservists would be completed in two weeks. The Russian president said after attending a summit in Kazakhstan on Friday that a total of 222,000 reservists would be called up, down from the 300,000 figure initially circulated after the order last month.
The Belarus defence ministry said Russian troops would start arriving in the country “in the next few days” as part of its joint force.
The US and Germany are to deliver sophisticated anti-aircraft systems to Kyiv this month to counter attacks using Russian missiles and kamikaze drones, Ukraine’s defence minister said. Oleksiy Reznikov said Ukraine would receive the Iris-II air defence system from Germany this month.
A Russian submarine has reportedly been spotted off the French coast and escorted by the French navy. The submarine was spotted sailing on the surface off the Brittany coast at the end of September, the French navy said on its Twitter feed. It said British and Spanish warships had also been involved in monitoring the submarine’s movements.
Putin has called for the humanitarian corridors for Ukrainian grain to be closed if they are used for “acts of terror”. At a news conference in the Kazakh capital of Astana he also said there was “no need” for talks with the US president, Joe Biden.
A Ukrainian member of Kherson’s regional council has condemned Russia’s “evacuation” of the occupied city, saying it is in fact a “deportation”. The council member also said it was an evacuation for collaborators, urging residents to go to Ukrainian-controlled territory if they could.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has responded to criticism from the Ukrainian government calling for immediate access to all PoWs, saying: “We share the frustration regarding our lack of access to all prisoners of war.” Its comments came after the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, accused the ICRC of inaction in upholding the rights of Ukrainian prisoners and called on it to visit the Olenivka camp in eastern Ukraine, where dozens of Ukrainian PoWs died in an explosion and fire in July.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX says it can no longer pay for critical satellite services in Ukraine, according to CNN. SpaceX is reportedly asking the US government to start paying instead.
The US will send munitions and military vehicles to Ukraine as part of a new $725m security assistance package, the defence department said on Friday. The package is the first since Russia’s barrage of missiles fired on civilian population centres in Ukraine this week, Reuters reports, and will bring total US security assistance since Russia’s invasion to $17.5bn.
Democrats on Capitol Hill have suggested transferring US weapons systems in Saudi Arabia to Ukraine and suspending a planned transfer of Patriot missiles to Riyadh in the wake of what they call a “turning point” in Washington’s relationship with the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia will provide $400m in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Saudi state news agency SPA said. It added that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Zelenskiy on Friday, Reuters reported.
A newly discovered hacking group has attacked transportation and logistics companies in Ukraine and Poland with a novel kind of ransomware, Microsoft said on Friday. The attackers targeted a wide range of systems within an hour on Tuesday, Microsoft said in a blog post, adding it had not been able to link the attacks to any known group yet. Notably, however, researchers found the hacks closely mirrored earlier attacks by a Russian government-linked cyber team.
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, said two 16-year-old boys were among those injured by Russian shelling in the region in the last 24 hours.
The UK Ministry of Defence said that “Russia continues to prosecute offensive operations in central Donbas and is, very slowly, making progress”. The ministry said that “in the last three days, pro-Russian forces have made tactical advances towards the centre of the town of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast” and “likely advanced into the villages of Opytine and Ivangrad to the south of the town”.
