Eurasia Press & News
In today’s summary:
After more than two years of fighting, Russian troops occupied Ugledar – in the battle for the city, the Marines alone lost 2.1 thousand people
Counter battles along the Seversky Donets-Donbass Canal on the line from Chasov Yar to Kleshcheyevka and Andreyevka south of Bakhmut
In the north of the Kharkov region, the Russian Armed Forces are conducting suicidal assaults on the aggregate plant in Volchansk
In two months of operations in the Kursk region, the Russian military managed to recapture only 8 to 21% of the lost territories
In the “drone war,” Ukrainian fighters master the use of net throwers against quadcopters
“Important Stories”: Russia plans to recruit up to 40% of defendants for war after the adoption of the corresponding law
The Economist: Russia’s total losses in the war amount to 100,000 killed and 430,000 wounded
At least 93 Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered were known to have been executed, 80% of which occurred in 2024
The situation at the front
The most significant event on the front this week was the capture of Ugledar by Russian troops . The battle for this city lasted for more than two years, the 155th and 40th Marine Brigade lost 2,100 people killed, seriously wounded and missing, or up to 40% of the pre-war regular personnel. In recent weeks, Russian forces have advanced on the flanks, threatened supply lines and entered the city from three sides.
Soon, the Ukrainian Armed Forces also announced a withdrawal from Ugledar “in order to preserve personnel” – although, according to Ukrainian military personnel, the withdrawal was not organized and was accompanied by heavy losses, and the wounded had to be left at the mercy of the Russians. At the same time, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, only 44 Ukrainian soldiers were captured . It also became known that the commander of one of the Territorial Defense battalions shot himself when the unit entrusted to him left its positions near Ugledar. Meanwhile, the resistance of Ukrainian forces north of the city continues: a remarkable video of a duel between a Ukrainian and Russian BMP -2 has been published , the latter went to the Ukrainians as a trophy.
The tense situation remains in the Pokrovsk direction and the northern flank of the Ugledar salient. Russian troops are trying to encircle Kurakhovo and Selidovo from the flanks , consolidating their positions in the “landings” to the south of the latter and occupying Marinovka to the northeast, and are also destroying the civilian infrastructure of Pokrovsk (before 2016, Krasnoarmeysk). At the same time, the Ukrainian fortifications built in the Gornyak area are characterized as unfinished and built without taking into account the UAV threat .
On the Bakhmut front, there are counter battles: thanks to the introduction of reserves and the large-scale use of drones, the Ukrainian military managed to push the Russian Armed Forces back to the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal east of Stupochki near Chasovy Yar, but now, as they say, the Russians are moving back and trying to gain a foothold closer to the canal in the area of Andreyevka and Kleshcheyevka to the south of Bakhmut. In the area of the Seversky salient, the Russian Defense Ministry reported the capture of Verkhnekamenskoye, which caused bewilderment among Russian fighters in this direction. The latter, however, did not prevent Defense Minister Andrei Belousov from sending a congratulatory telegram to the personnel and command of the 6th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade in connection with the “liberation” of the settlement.
The Russian Defense Ministry announces the capture of Nelepovka in the Toretsk direction. At the same time, in Toretsk itself (until 2016, Dzerzhinsk) there is practically not a single intact building left due to constant shelling – as DeepState writes , the Russian Armed Forces are advancing and consolidating their positions in the city. In addition, the department reports the capture of Makeyevka in the Luhansk region. DeepState confirms the capture of Nevsky by the Russians in the Liman direction, as well as successes near Kruglyakovka in the Kupyansk direction.
Russian troops have become more active in the north of the Kharkiv region . Suicidal assaults in an attempt to recapture the aggregate plant in Volchansk, cleared out by special forces of the GUR last week , resulted in the loss of several MT-LBs ( 1 , 2 ), “crammed to the brim” with troops, who were also destroyed. At the same time, it was announced that the Russians had captured the village of Staritsa near Volchansk – the Russian Armed Forces had already occupied this settlement at the beginning of the Kharkov offensive, but later the Ukrainians managed to recapture it.
Russian and Ukrainian sources report ( 1 , 2 ) that the Russian Armed Forces have restored control over Obukhovka in the western part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces bridgehead in the Kursk region . Meanwhile, the Russian assault on Plekhovo in the eastern part of the bridgehead has been thwarted by Russian fortifications, now occupied by Ukrainian troops. The Ukrainians, in turn, are trying to advance north of Malaya Loknya and in the Vesyoloye area in the Glushkovsky district. Meanwhile, in the district center of Glushkovo, controlled by Russian troops, looting continues: this time, a Magnit store was looted . Overall, in two months of fighting in the region, the Russian Armed Forces have managed to recapture only 8 to 21% of the territory lost in the first weeks of the Ukrainian offensive.
The “drone war” fronts are continuing to change: the Ukrainian Armed Forces are mastering shooting down enemy quadcopters with net-throwing missiles and are using a new method of combating vehicles equipped with electronic warfare , which involves damaging the wheels or engine with an FPV drone with a fragmentation warhead, and when the electronic warfare on the immobilized vehicle stops working, finishing it off with another drone. Meanwhile, the Russians, following the Ukrainian Armed Forces, continue to increase their counteraction to reconnaissance drones with FPV interceptors, which worries Sergei “Flash” Beskrestnov , since due to insufficient production volumes, Ukrainian reconnaissance UAVs will run out faster than Russian ones.
According to a source of Important Stories in the Russian Defense Ministry, up to 40% of defendants are planned to be sent to war thanks to a new law that has opened up such an opportunity. Meanwhile, at the front, Russian soldiers who refused to follow orders or were guilty in other ways continue to end up in illegal prisons – the Astra publication managed to discover two more “basements” in Donetsk and Makeyevka .
Mutual shelling and sabotage
В течение недели Командование Воздушных сил ВСУ отчиталось (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) о запуске по территории Украины 359 «Шахедов» (из них 278 были сбиты, 54 — «локационно потеряны» под воздействием РЭБ, пять улетели в Россию и два — в Беларусь, один из них взорвался в воздухе в районе Калинковичей). Кроме того, применялись семь ракет различных типов, три из них были сбиты.
As a result of the night raids, port infrastructure in the Izmail district of Odessa Oblast was damaged (two truck drivers were also injured, including a Turkish citizen) and energy facilities (emergency shutdowns had to be introduced in Sumy and Poltava Oblasts to eliminate the consequences of the attack). In addition, the Russian Armed Forces struck the Yuzhmash plant in Dnepr, a train with ammunition in Mykolaiv Oblast, and a diesel locomotive in Sumy Oblast.
Among the damaged civilian infrastructure facilities were a hospital in Sumy ( eight people died , 22 were injured ), a market in the center of Kherson (six people died, 12 were injured) and a five-story building in the Saltovka microdistrict of Kharkiv ( 12 people were injured ). KAB strikes on Zaporizhia also continued ( 16 people were injured on September 29, 21 on October 1 ). Russian drone operators hunted civilians in frontline settlements in the Kherson and Donetsk regions. A well-known Russian “drone operator” with the call sign Moisei admitted that he was deliberately terrorizing the local population and demanded that the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces be given to him .
The Russian Defense Ministry, in turn, reported ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ) on the destruction and interception of 277 Ukrainian aircraft-type UAVs over Russian territory. Of these, 125 were launched on the night of September 29 (no significant objects were hit), 113 – on the night of October 3 (the UAVs hit the Borisoglebsk military airfield, but did not cause significant damage). The next day, an oil depot near the village of Anna in the Voronezh region was hit – local authorities confirmed the fire of an empty tank.
In addition, the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported the destruction of an S-400 radar system in the Belgorod region and a pontoon crossing in the Luhansk region using a UAV (in the latter case, the extent of the damage is unclear). In occupied Gorlovka, as a result of a “skid”, four employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were injured , who went to extinguish a fire from a previous incoming attack, and in Novaya Tavolzhanka, Belgorod region, seven local residents were injured during a drone attack .
Overall, in September, according to calculations by the Agency. News publication, both sides launched a record number of drones at each other’s rear areas: 886 Ukrainian UAVs were shot down over Russia, and 1,331 “Shahed” were launched at Ukraine . September also became the first month when mutual raids did not stop for a single day. According to CIT volunteers , during the month, at least 253 civilians were killed in Russia and Ukraine (including in the occupied territories) as a result of shelling of civilian infrastructure, and at least 1,718 were injured .
In addition, this week the Main Intelligence Directorate reported the liquidation of Russian Armed Forces Colonel Alexei Kolomeitsev, who was training UAV operators (according to other sources , Kolomeitsev is alive and retired), the defector judge Vitaly Lomeiko in occupied Berdyansk, and the head of security at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant Andrei Korotkiy , who also went over to the Russian side.
Losses
The BBC Russian Service and the Mediazona publication, together with a team of volunteers, updated the calculation of losses in the war on the Russian side based on open source reports. In total, 72,004 people are known to have died, more than half of whom were not connected with the army until February 2022. At the same time, a large article in The Economist about the prospects of the war cited a new estimate of Russian losses from an unnamed American official – 100 thousand killed and 430 thousand wounded.
Ukrainian Telegram channels have published a video from a drone, which shows the execution of 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Pokrovsk direction. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine reported that they know about the execution of at least 93 Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered, 80% of which occurred in 2024.
Izvestia’s “war correspondent” Denis Kulaga was wounded near Chasovy Yar. This happened when a Ukrainian FPV drone hit an ATV carrying Kulaga and escort officers. Judging by the video, the “war correspondent” was wearing protective clothing, as well as a camouflage bulletproof vest and helmet without press identification marks.
Analyst Naalsio updated the calculation of visually confirmed losses of Russian and Ukrainian military equipment in the Kursk direction. From September 10 to October 1, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost at least 78 units of equipment, the Russian Armed Forces – at least 51 units. The total losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces since the beginning of the operation in the Kursk region are 202 units, the Russian Armed Forces – 134 units .
A researcher nicknamed Cyrus visualized the Russian side’s losses of UAZ-452 vehicles, better known as “Bukhanka” and one of the most sought-after at the front, based on data from another researcher, Andrew Perpetua. According to the graph, more than 200 “Bukhankas” were damaged and destroyed in August and September.
Weapons and military equipment
The Patriot air defense system promised by Romania has arrived in Ukraine , Vladimir Zelensky and the Romanian Defense Ministry reported .
Zelensky also spoke at the DFNC2 conference about the state of the Ukrainian defense industry. In particular, according to him:
in the first half of 2024, 25 times more artillery and mortar ammunition was produced than in the whole of 2022;
the capacity to produce unmanned aerial vehicles reaches four million units per year;
15-20 Ukrainian wheeled self- propelled guns “Bogdana” are produced monthly (also, for the first time , a prototype of the “Bogdana” in a towed version was publicly demonstrated to conference participants ).
In addition, plans to localize the production of M777 howitzers , Switchblade 600 drones and 155-mm artillery ammunition in Ukraine became known at the conference .
Earlier, it became known about Denmark’s intention to finance the Ukrainian defense industry in the amount equivalent to €560 million (more than a third of this amount will come from income from frozen Russian assets), as well as about a contract for the maintenance of 500 SAMs for the Hawk SAM system with their subsequent transfer to Ukraine. In addition, Belgium announced plans to supply Ukraine with three Caesar wheeled self-propelled howitzers, and France – about launching the production of 12 self-propelled howitzers of this type with Ukrainian funds. Meanwhile, within the framework of the “Czech initiative”, a third of the 155-mm artillery rounds promised by the end of the year have been delivered to Ukraine , and negotiations are underway to expand the initiative.
Rostec reported on the early delivery of a batch of Pantsir-S air defense missile and gun systems to the troops . In turn, military blogger Boris Rozhin announced the dispatch of a batch of “assault robots” to the front. Meanwhile, OSINT researchers, having analyzed the reserves at Russian storage bases, came to the conclusion that the Russian air defense is at risk of depletion due to the inability to restore the S-300 air defense systems, but the remaining reserves of pontoon equipment are quite enough to replenish the losses recently inflicted on the Ukrainian Armed Forces during strikes on crossings across the Seim River in the Kursk region. In addition, The Insider learned that high-precision equipment necessary for the production of electronic warfare systems continues to be supplied to Russia.
This week, the Russian “front-line military-industrial complex” distinguished itself by installing a RBU-6000 naval rocket launcher in place of the turret on the T-80 tank, as well as “browning” a ground-based unmanned tracked platform .
