Ukraine is increasingly successful in fending off attacks with Iranian drones. In the absence of alternatives, the Russian army is increasingly relying on attacks from helicopters. All reports on the Ukraine war here in the ticker.
Tuesday, October 25, 8:14 a.m.: According to a brief report by British intelligence, the losses of 23 Russian Ka-52 Hokum attack helicopters have been confirmed since the beginning of the war of aggression. That’s a quarter of the fleet’s Ka-52 helicopters in service with the Luftwaffe. In total, Russia lost 50 helicopters in combat.
Russian attack helicopters have been particularly damaged by Ukrainian man-portable air defense systems, while the helicopters often fly their missions without the cover of fighter jets – contrary to Russian military doctrine. Russia has not yet managed to gain sovereignty over the airspace. This would allow them to provide close air support at the front lines. In addition, artillery ammunition is slowly becoming scarce. Due to these factors, the Russian commanders are probably increasingly relying on high-risk helicopter attacks. They are one of the last few options for close support of fighting troops on the ground.
1:52 p.m .: Before an expected major offensive by the Ukrainians in the southern Cherson region, there were only isolated battles along the front. This emerged on Monday from the situation reports of the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow reported that Ukrainian attacks in the eastern area of Kupjansk and Lyman and north of the occupied Black Sea port of Cherson had been repelled. Kyiv, in turn, reported repelling Russian attacks on the cities of Bakhmut and Soledar. In the Donbass they are part of a defensive wall in front of the Sloviansk and Kramatorsk conurbations.
In the north, the fighting is taking place on the regional border between Kharkiv and Luhansk and partly in Donetsk. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov spoke of battles at battalion and company level. He also reported on allegedly unsuccessful attacks by Ukrainian troops on several villages in the Kherson region. On the other hand, the Ukrainian general staff reported fighting in the Donbass around the cities of Soledar and Bakhmut and further south around Avdiivka and Marjinka. The information provided by the warring parties could not be verified independently.
However, it is suspected that a major Ukrainian offensive is imminent. The Russian bridgehead north-west of the Dnipro in the Cherson region, including the regional capital itself, is considered to be the most likely area of attack. Here the Russian supply routes are largely blocked. However, Ukrainian advances in the Zaporizhia region towards the Sea of Azov are not ruled out either. Reports of troop concentrations on both sides mounted.
12:59 p.m .: The Ukrainian military intelligence service does not expect Russian troops to withdraw from the occupied city of Cherson in southern Ukraine. On the contrary, the Russian army is preparing to defend the city, the head of the secret service, Kyrylo Budanov, said in Kyiv on Monday. “Russian occupiers only create the illusion that they are leaving Kherson, but in fact they are bringing new military units there,” he told the Ukrayinska Pravda portal. Budanov’s statements, like those of the Russian side on the situation in Kherson, could not be verified independently.
Budanov sees the Russian information about the withdrawal of the occupation administration and the Russian banks and the evacuation of hospitals as more of a diversionary maneuver. He said the newly arrived troops are making sure that they have an open route back across the Dnipro in the event of a Ukrainian advance.
In the war of aggression that has been going on for exactly eight months, Cherson is the only regional capital of Ukraine that has fallen into Russian hands. Moscow has declared the city and the administrative region to be annexed to Russia. For weeks, however, the Ukrainian army has been pushing ever further into the Russian bridgehead on the north-west bank of the Dnipro River.
11:20 a.m .: According to information from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Russian army has carried out a number of attacks on several fronts. Civil infrastructure facilities in Bakhmut, Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv and Novotavrycheske settlements came under fire, Ukrainska Pravda reports. The report mentions 2 rocket attacks and 28 airstrikes. Nothing is known of any injuries or deaths. There is also a risk of further rocket and air attacks on critical infrastructure from neighboring Belarus. Iranian drones could also be used, the Ukrainians fear.
Overall, the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces speaks on Facebook of attacks on seven other fronts. Sloboda, Kupiansk, Lyman, Avdiivka, Novopavlivka, Zaporizhia and on the southern Bug.
According to the report, the Ukrainian armed forces carried out eleven attacks. They are said to have destroyed Russian military equipment and weapons. In addition, the Ukrainian air defense reportedly shot down 12 Shahed-136 UAVs (Iranian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).
10.02 a.m .: The situation of the Russian military in Kherson is “gloomy”. This is what a Russian blogger who serves as a soldier (so-called milblogger) writes, quoted by the US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in its analysis.
The Milblogger writes that evacuating troops from the front line of defense has proved “virtually impossible”. Moscow has withdrawn its troops from the west of the region and has urged the city’s residents to evacuate their homes “immediately”. A counter-offensive by Ukraine is expected. According to the blogger, the only question that remains is how the Russian leadership will complete the final withdrawal and explain it to the population.
Monday, October 24, 8:04 a.m.: Ukraine is increasingly successfully repelling the Iranian combat drones used by Russia. The British Ministry of Defense announced this in its daily morning update on Twitter.
The ministry cites official sources, including President Zelensky, who state that up to 85 percent of attacks are intercepted with kamikaze drones. The information cannot be checked independently.
Russia is likely to deploy large numbers of Iranian Shahed-136 drones to penetrate Ukraine’s increasingly effective air defenses, thereby compensating for shortages in its own arsenal.
Sunday, October 23, 10:23 a.m .: According to British secret services, Russia is making great efforts to defend its occupied territories in Ukraine. This is supposed to ward off rapid Ukrainian counter-offensives, it said on Sunday in the daily short report of the British Ministry of Defense on Twitter.
The head of the “Wagner” mercenary unit, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced online in mid-October that his teams would set up a secure “Wagner Line” to defend the occupied Luhansk region. According to Prigozhin, it is likely that the Siwerskyi Donets river will also be integrated into this defensive zone, the British said. Published images show a section of newly constructed anti-tank systems and trenches south-east of the city of Kreminna in the Luhansk region.
5:12 p.m .: The governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod has again accused Ukraine of heavy shelling of the area. Vyacheslav Gladkov said two people were killed on Saturday in the border town of Schebekino. Eleven people were injured, four of them seriously.
According to Gladkow, the shelling also hit energy infrastructure. He did not give details. Around 15,000 people were temporarily without electricity, heating and water. After massive Russian rocket attacks, Ukraine also announced that hundreds of thousands of people in the country were without electricity on Saturday.
The Belgorod region, along with other border regions such as Kursk and Bryansk, has always complained of fire from the other side since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Ukraine has not admitted the allegations. Russia had repeatedly threatened to take even tougher action in the war and also to target command centers in Kyiv if the shelling didn’t stop.
According to the governor, the situation has worsened in recent weeks. Those who live very close to the border with Ukraine should therefore be housed near Moscow, he said. Gladkow also ordered stricter surveillance of energy infrastructure objects. He had also brought the autumn holidays forward and extended them because of the tense situation.
2:11 p.m.: The pro-Russian authorities in Kherson have asked all civilians to leave the city “immediately”. “Due to the tense situation at the front, the increased threat of massive shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians should leave the city immediately and move to the left bank of the Dnipro,” the statement said.
10.44 a.m .: The recent rocket attacks have again hit important energy infrastructure in Ukraine. This was announced by the state energy supplier. Accordingly, there are power outages in several regions.
You can read more reports on the Ukraine conflict on the following pages.
