Global Courant
As the war enters its 609th day, these are the most important developments.
Here is the situation on Wednesday, October 25, 2023.
To fight
Russia continued to storm the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, but Ukrainian officials said heavy losses had forced them to switch to airstrikes. Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesman for Ukraine’s Southern Armed Forces Group, told national television that Russia “dropped about 40 guided aerial bombs in two nights. But the number of ground attacks has been reduced.” Shtupun said that during the past five days of fighting in the Donetsk region, about 2,400 Russians have been killed or wounded. At least eight people were injured in Russian shelling on frontline areas of Ukraine. Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said four people, including a 12-year-old, were injured by Russian airstrikes and artillery fire in the southern Kherson region, and another four people were taken to hospital after an attack on the northeastern region of Kharkiv. The Russian Defense Ministry said its naval forces destroyed three unmanned Ukrainian boats in the northern part of the Black Sea near Crimea. Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told a security conference in Prague that Kiev would maintain military pressure on occupied Crimea after destroying the “illusion” of Russian domination of Crimea and the Black Sea . Zelensky said the Russian fleet was “no longer capable” of operating in the western Black Sea and was gradually withdrawing from Crimea. He has provided no evidence for the claim. More than half of the members of Ukraine’s newly formed Siberian Battalion are Russian citizens, Reuters news agency reported. The Russian recruits for the 50-strong battalion are mainly indigenous people of Siberia and want to fight “Russian imperialism”, Reuters said, citing a Ukrainian military officer who asked not to be named. The battalion is part of the International Legion within the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Politics and diplomacy
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stressed that Berlin’s support for Ukraine will not be affected by its support for Israel in its conflict with Hamas. Speaking at a German-Ukrainian business forum attended by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and virtually joined by President Zelenskyy, Scholz said Kiev would receive help – from the economy to weapons – for “as long as necessary”. Shmyhal said Ukraine expects Germany to provide the country with an additional 1.4 billion euros to improve its air defenses and help the country through a second winter of war with Russia. Moldova blocked access to more than 20 Russian media websites, including RT, NTV and other prominent outlets, saying they had been used as part of an information war against the country. The Russian Foreign Ministry labeled the measure a ‘hostile step’. The older sister of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich called for his release before his birthday and urged the United States to step up efforts to bring him home. The journalist has been held in Russia since March and accused of espionage, charges he and the Journal have denied. Gershkovich turns 32 on Thursday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian economy has adapted to mainly Western sanctions imposed following the large-scale invasion of Ukraine and that the prospect of more sanctions “does not frighten” the country.
Weapons
Ukraine has announced a joint venture with German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall to maintain and repair Western weapons sent to Kiev since Russia’s large-scale invasion. “The first project will be to repair German equipment, tanks, heavy armored vehicles, Panzerhaubitzers and other German equipment,” Prime Minister Shmyhal told reporters in Berlin. The venture will also assist in the local production of some of Rheinmetall’s key equipment, he added.
