2024-09-29 15:19:25
Ukraine is apparently struggling with high losses of recruits at the front. Meanwhile, Russia has lost tens of thousands of tons of ammunition. All information in the news blog.
1:21 p.m.: According to British estimates, Ukrainian drone attacks have inflicted the worst losses on Russian ammunition stocks since the start of the Ukraine war. A strike on an ammunition depot near the small town of Toropets in the Tver region of central Russia most likely destroyed at least 30,000 tons of ammunition on September 18, the British Ministry of Defense said in its regular intelligence update.
On the night of September 21, there were further Ukrainian attacks on depots in Tikhoretsk in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar and elsewhere in Toropets, the ministry writes. The tonnage of ammunition destroyed at the three sites represents the largest loss of Russian and North Korean-supplied ammunition during the war.
The Russian army admitted the drone attacks, but downplayed the damage and spoke of fires that were caused by crashed drone debris. For the British it sounds completely different: The attacks will most likely lead to at least short-term interruptions in the Russian ammunition supply, as stated in the statement, which the Ministry of Defense supports with satellite images of the attacked depots.
7:46 a.m.: Russia says it shot down 125 Ukrainian drones on Sunday night. The Defense Ministry said the 125 drones were intercepted and destroyed by Russian air defenses. The governors of several regions reported damage from the attacks but no casualties.
0.01 a.m.: Ukraine is apparently struggling with high losses of recruits at the front. A report in the Financial Times reveals that many of them are wounded or killed shortly after they go to war. Others are probably fleeing. “Ukrainian infantry is the hardest hit: its troops are struggling with exhaustion and dwindling morale, prompting some to abandon their positions and allowing Russia to capture more land, according to front-line commanders,” it said the report from reporters who were at the front.
Figures from local commanders said that about 50 to 70 percent of infantrymen fail even before they are first transferred. One problem is the selection of recruits. “Not everyone is fit for the front,” Mykhailo Temper, battery commander of the 21st battalion of the Presidential Brigade of Ukraine, told FT reporters.
9:15 p.m.: A prominent Russian military official, Aleksey Kolomeitsev, has been found dead in the city of Kolomna in the Moscow region, according to Ukrainian Military Intelligence (HUR). The 51-year-old colonel headed the 924th State Center for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and was instrumental in training combat drone specialists. Read more about it here.
5:03 p.m.: Russia says it is ready to take the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines to court. A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said that “pre-litigation claims” had been filed against Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.
These are based on international agreements to combat terrorism. “If the matter is not resolved at this stage, Russia intends to take the matter to court and apply to the International Court of Justice.” The West “will not get away with sweeping the case under the carpet.”