The German weapon system Iris-T is already in use in Ukraine. According to a British intelligence report, Iranian drones are not making up for the weaknesses of the Russian air force. Belarus sends Putin first tanks. All current reports on the war in Ukraine can be found in the ticker.
11:52 a.m .: According to reports, heavy fighting is currently underway in Cherson. Several posts by Russian soldiers report further Ukrainian advances in the region. Phillips P. OBrien, US war strategy expert, shared these. However, there is currently no official information about a possible battle.
10:51 a.m .: According to British information, reservists mobilized by Russia are being sent to the war against Ukraine with inadequate equipment. Contingents of Russian reservists have been deployed to Ukraine in the past two weeks, the British Defense Ministry wrote on Saturday in its regular intelligence update on the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. “The average level of their personal gear is almost certainly lower than the already poor supply of previously deployed troops.”
Many reservists would probably have to buy their own body armor themselves, especially a modern type 6B45 body armor, which was actually supposed to be issued to combat troops in general as part of the Russian Ratnik equipment program. Their price has more than tripled in Russian online retail since April.
10.19 a.m .: A Russian rocket hit severely damaged an energy supply system in the area around the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. This was announced by the energy supplier Ukrenerho on Saturday. The exact location was not mentioned. Specialists are working to restore a reliable power supply to Kyiv and central Ukraine, it said. However, the citizens were asked to consume little electricity, especially in the evening hours, so as not to overload the network.
Because of the attacks from the air, air raids were temporarily triggered throughout Ukraine in the morning. According to the authorities, industrial and energy plants were also hit in the city of Zaporizhia, which is close to the front. The blast from an explosion also damaged 16 residential buildings. But there are no injuries.
Since the beginning of this week, Russia has increased shelling of the Ukrainian hinterland, primarily aimed at destroying the energy and water supply. Russian sources reported on Saturday Ukrainian shelling on the city of Donetsk and Nova Kakhovka on the lower Dnipro River. A woman was killed in Donetsk. There was no independent confirmation of this information.
Saturday, October 15, 7:48 a.m .: According to the authorities, several regions of Ukraine were fired at by Russian troops on Saturday night. Infrastructure objects were hit in the southern city of Zaporizhia, close to the front. There are fires. Governor Oleh Staruch called on the population to go to shelters.
According to the local authorities, five enemy drones of Iranian design were intercepted over the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region. There, however, more than 50 shells from multiple rocket launchers and heavy artillery hit the Nikopol district. Two people were injured. Shortly after 7:00 a.m. local time (6:00 a.m. CEST) in the morning, an air alert was triggered for the entire Ukraine because further attacks were feared.
8:32 p.m .: Ukraine is already using the Iris-T air defense system delivered by Germany a few days ago in the south of the country. The spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Yuriy Ihnat said on television on Friday. He did not name the exact location, only spoke generally of “southern direction”. Ukraine is the first country in the world to use this state-of-the-art air defense system.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov confirmed on Wednesday that the first Iris-T system had arrived in the country attacked by Russia. Germany initially wants to make four of the weapon systems, each costing 140 million euros, available to Kyiv, and the financing of three more has been secured.
Each unit consists of radar, command post and three truck-mounted rocket launchers. Iris-T SLM can fire at targets up to 20 kilometers altitude and 40 kilometers away. This means that a medium-sized city like Nuremberg or Hanover can be protected.
You can read more about the weapon system here: Iris-T air defense weapon – the super weapon from Germany, which heralds “a new era” in Ukraine
3:47 p.m .: After the devastating attacks on large parts of Ukraine at the beginning of the week, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised further shelling. Out of a total of 29 objects targeted, seven “were not damaged in the way the Defense Ministry had planned,” Putin said at the conclusion of a summit in the Kazakh city of Astana in Central Asia on Friday. “But they will catch up, the objects.” The Kremlin chief did not say what the specific goals were.
At the same time, he emphasized that no further large-scale attacks are currently planned: “There is no longer any need for massive strikes. Now there are other tasks.”
Around seven and a half months after the war began, Russia fired more than 80 rockets at Ukraine on Monday – including at the capital Kyiv. Around 20 people were killed and more than 100 injured. The attacks were apparently primarily aimed at the neighboring country’s energy infrastructure. In the meantime, the power went out in several regions.
When asked whether he had any regrets about the war, which Moscow continued to refer to as a “special military operation”, Putin said: “No.” Then he added: “I would like to make it clear: what happened today is , to say the least, unpleasant, but we would have gotten the same thing a little later, only on worse terms for us. So we are acting correctly and in good time.”
3:37 p.m .: According to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, the ongoing partial mobilization of reservists in Russia should be completed in the next two weeks. So far, 222,000 recruits have been drafted out of a total of 300,000, Putin said on Friday at the conclusion of a summit in the Kazakh city of Astana in Central Asia. Of these, 16,000 men are already deployed in combat.
The Russian President also countered the fears of the population that a second wave of mobilization could already be planned. “No proposals have been received from the Department of Defense in this regard, nor do I see any need for the foreseeable future.”
Putin had ordered a total of 300,000 reservists to be called up at the end of September in view of the heavy defeats suffered by Russian troops, especially in eastern Ukraine. In Russia itself, the measure triggered panic and a real mass exodus to neighboring ex-Soviet states such as Georgia and Kazakhstan.
1:08 p.m .: Under the increasing pressure of the Ukrainian counter-offensives, the Russian occupiers in the southern Cherson region have called on civilians to flee. For their own safety, people are recommended to travel to Russia, Moscow-appointed head of administration Kirill Stremoussow wrote on Telegram on Friday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he had “outlined steps for further liberation of Ukrainian territories” with his country’s military leadership.
The British Financial Times, citing unspecified Western military experts, reported that Ukrainian troops could possibly break through to the Dnipro River in Cherson next week.
Along with Zaporizhia, Luhansk and Donetsk, Cherson is one of the four Ukrainian regions that Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin had illegally annexed at the end of September. According to observers, seven and a half months after the start of the war, the Ukrainian army could be on the verge of its next major success there. In the past few weeks, Kyiv has repeatedly reported that the first villages in Cherson have been recaptured.
Friday, October 14, 12:01 p.m.: According to information from the British secret service, the Russian armed forces in Ukraine are making progress again. “Over the past three days, pro-Russian forces have made several tactical advances towards downtown Bakhmut,” writes British Intelligence in its daily Ukraine Update. The Wagner group of mercenaries run by Putin’s bloodhound Kadyrov had made some progress in the Donbass.
“Russia continues to conduct military operations in the Donbass,” the British summarize. “They are making progress very, very slowly.” This, however, would be more than offset by Ukraine’s gains on other fronts.
8:04 p.m .: According to information from Kyiv, the Russian armed forces shot down cruise missiles at targets in western and southern Ukraine on Thursday. The command of the Ukrainian Air Force in Kyiv said it had managed to intercept five of the incoming missiles. Accordingly, the Russian cruise missiles of the type Kalibr were fired from the Black Sea.
Three of the rockets were aimed at a military facility in the Zolochiv district in western Ukraine, according to the Lviv regional administration. Two rockets hit and caused property damage. A rocket had been shot down, said Governor Maksym Kosytskyi. Information on the attacked military object was not given.
Because of the Russian attacks, there was an air alert in large parts of Ukraine at times.
12:35 p.m .: The “Kyiv Indipendent”, citing the Ukrainian general staff, reports that the Russian troops have received orders to end their offensive in parts of the front line.
“As reported by the Ukrainian General Staff on October 13, in some areas, particularly in the Donetsk region, the Russian armed forces have received orders from their command to halt offensive operations,” the report reads. The reasons for this are “the extremely low morale and psychological state of the recruits, numerous cases of flight and refusal to obey combat orders,” the report continues.
So far, there has been no statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense in this regard. Ukrainian propaganda could also be behind the report.
You can read more reports on the Ukraine conflict on the following pages.