Frontline report

As Russia pushes artillery forward to pound Pokrovsk with thermobaric weapons and 200 infiltrators spark street fighting in central districts, Ukrainian forces have launched a devastating counterbattery campaign, destroying Russian artillery systems within minutes of detection and slowly turning the tide.

After Russia refused ceasefire terms and demanded Ukraine surrender territory without security guarantees, the United States canceled planned Trump-Putin talks and joined the UK and EU in launching the largest coordinated sanctions package since 2022, targeting Rosneft and Lukoil alongside 34 subsidiaries. Within hours, India suspended state oil imports and China's energy giants halted Russian crude purchases, isolating Moscow from buyers representing over 85% of its crude exports.

Russia, built on vast oilfields and resource exports, has become a fuel importer as Ukrainian strikes devastate its refining capacity. Belarus rail deliveries surged fourfold to 49,000 tons in September, while Moscow eliminated import duties and seized oligarch energy assets in increasingly desperate measures to keep pumps running.

Ukraine's Air Force struck the Bryansk Chemical Plant with British-made Storm Shadow missiles in the first officially acknowledged deep strike inside Russia, marking a major escalation in Ukraine's campaign against Russian military-industrial targets.

Russia's elite VDV paratroopers faced annihilation near Orikhiv after 22 of 26 assault vehicles were destroyed in a single day. As survivors attempted to surrender, their own command turned drones on them, with footage showing Russian kamikaze drones ignoring Ukrainian soldiers to strike surrendering Russian troops instead.

A week-long Ukrainian strike campaign has destroyed at least 11 fuel tanks at Crimea's Feodosia oil terminal and damaged critical power substations, pushing the peninsula into acute fuel and power shortages. With Russian authorities unable to deliver promised solutions, diesel and gasoline rationing has spread across southern Crimea, while residents face lengthening queues and unreliable supplies that threaten to turn private frustrations into public unrest.

After months of Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities, Ukraine has launched massive retaliatory strikes on Russia's power infrastructure, plunging regions like Belgorod and Kursk into darkness. As Russia declares a national emergency, President Zelensky's warnings about proportional retaliation are becoming reality.

For Russian conscripts, the illusion of patriotic duty has shattered, replaced by fear and desperation. Mass shootings in barracks, equipment shortages forcing soldiers to loot their own dead, and the discovery of World War Two-era ammunition reveal a military breaking under pressure - with no escape in sight.

With negotiations underway for Tomahawk missile delivery to Ukraine, the first targets have been publicly confirmed. The Yelabuga Shahed factory - producing thousands of kamikaze drones - tops the list, as Ukraine plans strikes on over 1,600 military targets deep inside Russian territory.

After an extensive Ukrainian strike campaign, Russia has been effectively left with no refined fuel for export, with flows of petrol and diesel collapsing toward pandemic-era levels. Daily rail shipments fell 26% compared to last year's average, while seaborne exports dropped 17% in September alone - costing Moscow over $12 billion in a single month.

Russia's main summer offensive has officially failed, with Ukrainian forces launching clearing operations after repelling mechanized assaults near Pokrovsk. Since August 21, nearly 13,945 Russian soldiers have been neutralized, while dozens of tanks and armored vehicles lie destroyed across the battlefield. Putin's deadline to capture the entire Donbas before winter has passed unfulfilled.

The Baltics are moving from protest to action. Following Russian fighter jets violating Estonian airspace and Moscow's increasingly imperial rhetoric toward the region, Latvia has ordered the expulsion of hundreds of Russian citizens while requesting NATO F-35 patrols, closing what officials see as dangerous openings for Russian influence and potential invasion.

Wave after wave of desperate Russian attacks were crushed by Ukrainian defenses near Dobropillia, leaving fields covered with dead soldiers tangled in razor wire. In an act of desperation, Russian commanders detonated an ammonia pipeline, creating a toxic cloud that endangered both sides in a bid to break through fortified Ukrainian lines.

Ukrainian counterattacks in the Dnipropetrovsk region have begun to blunt a slow Russian push eastward, forcing Moscow to reconsider its strategic approach as two pivotal battles determine whether recent Russian gains can translate into an operational breakthrough or Ukrainian forces can establish a defensive shield across the oblast.

Russian drones have been spotted over airports, power plants, military bases, and refineries from Denmark to France, signaling a coordinated campaign of hybrid intimidation that experts say is testing European defenses.