Claimed image of a Ukrainian strike with US long-range missiles on a Russian airfield in eastern Ukraine, October 17, 2023

Tuesday’s Coverage: Putin Visits China

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1639 GMT:

Tolls have been raised from Russia’s latest attacks across Ukraine.

The fatalities from this morning’s strike on a five-story residential building in Zaporizhzhia city (see 0827 GMT) has been raised to four.

A 31-year-old woman was killed in the village of Obukhivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine.

A man and a woman were killed in overnight attacks on the Kherson region.

UPDATE 1334 GMT:

Finland’s security and intelligence service SUPO says it is defending against increased online espionage efforts by Russia during Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

SUPO cited the threats of cyberattacks and disinformation.

“Russia’s espionage attempts towards us have increased during the war, mainly in the cybersphere,” said senior analyst Suvi Alvari. “We assess that it’s likely that Russia will continue to use denial of service attacks towards us.”

Alvari said that Russia’s aim was “to create an image of malfunctioning services” and that it was “unlikely that Russia would try to physically harm our critical infrastructure on Finnish soil in the near future”.

Sweden also said on Monday that it was facing increased threats of cyberwarfare from Russia and other state actors. The head of cyberdefense for Swedish armed forces, Maj. Gen. Johan Pekkari, cited “increased activity in the cyber domain” and said there were preparations to protect critical infrastructure from future cyberattacks.

UPDATE 1153 GMT:

Vladimir Putin said that he informed Chinese leader Xi Jinping on “the situation that is forming on the Ukrainian track, in quite a detailed way” in their meeting on Wednesday.

The men met in Beijing with their delegations and then one-on-one with translators. Putin said the conversation lasted “maybe about an hour and a half, maybe two hours”.

Xi was non-committal on Ukraine, noting that, seeing Putin 42 times in the past decade, they had “developed a good working relationship and a deep friendship”.

UPDAT£ 0927 GMT:

“Two Western officials” have given details of US long-range ATACMS missiles that were used by Ukraine on Tuesday, destroying nine Russian helicopters on airfields in the east of the country.

The officials said about 20 missiles were delivered “in secrecy, out of concern that they could be attacked by Russia as they were shipped”.

The secrecy also was maintained because “Ukraine wanted to try to catch the Russians off guard”, with Moscow not moving weapons and supplies in anticipation of a Ukrainian attack.

UPDATE 0827 GMT:

One civilian has been killed and three wounded by a Russian attack on the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine.

Governor Serhiy Lysak said six private houses were damaged.

A 63-year-old man was killed in the Kherson region by Russian bombing.

And at least two people were killed and five injured in the Zaporizhzhia region by a Russian missile.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said:

Overnight, Russian terrorists attacked Zaporizhzhia with missiles, striking an ordinary five-story residential building. Eight apartments were destroyed. There are wounded and dead. There may be people under the rubble. Emergency rescue efforts are ongoing.

The evil state continues to use terror and wage war on civilians.

UPDATE 0611 GMT:

The Guardian reports that Russia is recruiting hundreds of Serbian men to fight on the frontline in Ukraine.

The newspaper cites accounts from two Serbian fighters who travelled to Russia, and a leaked list of recruits.

One of the men, Branko, speaks of his flight to Moscow in September. He signed a contract in Krasnogorsk, on the outskirts of the capital: “It all went very fast; in one day I became a soldier for Russia….Now I am waiting to be sent to Ukraine.”

Soon after his February 2022 invasion, Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin should help foreign nationals to fight for Russia. A series of laws enabled the nationals to join the Russian military.

Russia has been recruiting men from Cuba, and Cubans in Russia. Last month the Cuban Foreign Ministry, acting on reports of the recruitment, revealed the efforts and said 17 people had been arrested.

The campaign in Serbia has been led by Davor Savičić, a Serb who fought with the Russians in their incursion into eastern Ukraine in 2014. He has been linked with the Wagner Group, having reportedly fought in Syria with the mercenaries.

BBC Russian says it has a private recording of a meeting between Savičić and Russian officials in Moscow, with the Serbian saying he planned to recruit up to 1,000 compatriots to form a battalion as part of Russia’s 106th Airborne Division.

In an interview on Russian State TV on August 21, Savičić confirmed, “We are now officially signing a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry.” He said the Serbian fighters are sent, after training, to the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine.

In the same interview, Serbian national Deyan Beric said, “Most of the foreign volunteers in the Russian army are from Serbia.”

Another man, interviewed by the Guardian, said, “We are about 60-70 men so far.”

In January, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, responded on State TV to a Russian news video claiming to show Serbian volunteers in training: “Why do you, from Wagner, call anyone from Serbia when you know that it is against our rules?”

Serbian Defense Minister Miloš Vučević also warned Serbs against joining the Russian military, and more than two dozen Serbian men were subsequently prosecuted.

UPDATE 0600 GMT:

Russian military bloggers are posting that Ukrainian forces have captured positions on the left (east) bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

The Rybar channel says that units from Ukraine’s 35th and 36th Marine Brigades, supported by artillery and drone strikes, have captured the town of Poima and are fighting for Pishchanivka.

Russian forces reportedly blew up the Nova Kakhovka Dam in June, flooding Kherson and causing widespread environmental damage, to prevent any Ukrainian crossing of the Dnipro.

While Ukrainian units made incursions on the left bank over the summer, this week’s advance would be Kyiv’s first capture of a town in the area.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine has used US-made long-range missiles for the first time, destroying nine Russian helicopters at airfields in the occupied east of the country.

After months of deliberation, the Biden Administration agreed in September to provide the Army Tactical Missile System. The models supplied have a range of about 100 miles.

The Ukraine military said on Tuesday that it “made well-aimed strikes on enemy airfields and helicopters near temporarily occupied Luhansk and Berdyansk”.

An anti-aircraft missile system and an ammunition warehouse were also blown up.

The Washington Post reported that the ATACMS was armed with cluster bomblets, rather than a single warhead.

In his nightly address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, “Today is special, thanks to the United States. Our agreements with President Biden are being implemented. Very accurately – ATACMS missiles proved themselves.”

Without referring to the attack on the Russian airfields, US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said, “We believe these ATACMS will provide a significant boost to Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities without risking our military readiness.”

Russian military bloggers posted about “one of the most serious strikes…if not the most serious” on Moscow’s warplanes. However, the Kremlin’s officials made no comment.