Russo-Ukrainian war, day 1666: Ukraine’s counteroffensive disrupts Russia’s Donetsk encirclement plan

Exclusives

The West has tried everything except ending the war. Diplomacy, sanctions, 200 rounds of talks—Russia used all of it to buy time. Diesel prices in America are just the tsunami's latest wave.

Military

Ukrainian partisans claim sabotage at Russian plant supplying missiles Moscow uses to bomb Ukrainian cities. ATESH says its agent disabled the power supply at the Voronezh facility, disrupting production of components used in Russian weapons.

Ukraine's Vivaldi counteroffensive disrupts Russia's plan to encircle Donetsk Fortress Belt – ISW. Ukrainian forces have likely advanced beyond the territory publicly disclosed by Kyiv, while Russian sources increasingly acknowledge setbacks around Lyman.

Russian general killed in Ukraine weeks after telling Putin Kostiantynivka was captured. Major General Anton Grunis was killed in occupied Donetsk Oblast after leading Russian forces on the Kostiantynivka front.

Intelligence and technology

Ukraine put an Italian-Swiss Skyguard into combat duty. The missile inside is a Cold War design derived from the American Sparrow. Spain and Italy delivered Skyguard/Aspide starting in 2022. The 38th Regiment just showed it on combat duty for the first time.

Ukrainian border unit's HIMERA B1 relay took 10 strikes from Russia's FPV drones and guided bombs. Last one leveled building and tower, and relay kept working. Border guards dug the HIMERA B1 out of the rubble because it was still transmitting.

Russia ships armor to Libya despite mounting vehicle losses in Ukraine. Two sanctioned cargo vessels crossed the Mediterranean without broadcasting location data. Russian and Libyan authorities have not disclosed who was to receive their cargo.

Ukraine's Build with Ukraine has 200-plus foreign cooperation bids pending decision. Its arms industry, representing 400-plus firms, wants to help fix mechanism. The Council of Defence Industry wants a costly new export-permit fee scrapped.

In April, 24 Ukrainian companies ran their own air defense. By mid-September, 81 do — about one new firm per day. They've already downed 20-plus Russian drones.

International

A drone came down beside a Bundeswehr air base, weeks after Berlin blamed Moscow for the Leipzig airport attack. The drone's owner and origin are still unknown, and investigators are collecting further parts before saying anything about how it came down.

For first time, foreign government is funding Ukrainian drone school: Canada picks foundation that has already bought Ukraine nearly $50M in drones. Canada, once behind on drones, gets Ukraine's combat experience in return.

Humanitarian and social impact

Strikes on UN warehouses push aid money from delivery to protection. The UN is weighing underground storage for Ukraine aid supplies after Russia hit 10 of its facilities this year.

Russian drone killed five people on a scheduled minibus in southeastern Ukraine. The vehicle was running an intercity route through a district that sits across the river from Russian-held ground when the strike caught it.

Political and legal developments

US charges five as alleged Kremlin assassination network reaches American soil. Prosecutors say the network expanded from targeting Russian dissidents and defectors to arranging attacks against European countries supporting Ukraine.

He thought Ukrainian army uniform would hide what he did under occupation. It didn't. Man who guarded Kherson's Russian-run prison drew eight years. He guarded cells holding captured Ukrainian resistance members, then hid inside the army before the SBU caught him at a training center.

Kushner's "win-win" peace deal is impossible when Putin wants all of Ukraine — Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian president said he knew Putin would never change his goal, and that the deal formula was built on a misreading of what Russia wanted.

Read our earlier daily review here.