Victory Chronicles-DAY 1309

Russian forces struck a Ukrainian Ground Forces training unit on Sept. 24 with two Iskander ballistic missiles, killing and injuring service members, Ukraine’s military said. 

The barrage slammed into a shelter on the base despite safety precautions, officials reported.Emergency crews worked through the day to evacuate casualties, and the wounded received medical treatment. 

The attack highlights Russia’s ongoing campaign to target Ukraine’s troop rotation and training areas far from the front lines. Strikes on barracks and training ranges have become a recurring tactic that is aimed at disrupting mobilization and weakening morale. 

Ukraine’s Ground Forces said efforts are underway to strengthen protective shelters at training centers, firing ranges and other facilities to better safeguard troops from missile and drone attacks.

EU weighs 130 billion-euro loan for Ukraine from frozen Russian assets. The European Union is considering a massive new loan for Ukraine, backed by frozen Russian assets, that could reach 130 billion euros ($141 billion), Reuters reported on Sept. 24, citing European officials.

The proposed “reparations loan” would be financed using Russian central bank assets that were seized in the West after Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to this plan, Ukraine would not be required to repay the money until Russia itself pays reparations under a future peace settlement.

Most of the roughly 210 billion euros ($228 billion) in Russian assets frozen in Europe are held at the Belgian securities depository Euroclear. Officials say about 175 billion euros ($190 billion) of those holdings have already been converted into cash, which could serve as collateral for the loan should it default.

Before launching the new instrument, the EU plans to repay an earlier $48 billion loan that was already provided by the Group of Seven industrialized nations. That would leave around 130 billion euros available for Kyiv, depending on the Washington-based lender International Monetary Fund’s upcoming assessment of Ukraine’s financial needs in the next two years.

Drones hit Russian petrochemical plant in Bashkortostan for second time in a week

Ukrainian strike drones targeted a major petrochemical facility in Russia’s Bashkortostan region on Sept. 24, the second such attack in a week, sparking a fire nearly 930 miles east of the Ukrainian border.

The target was the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat plant, one of Russia’s largest producers of fuels and chemical feedstocks. Bashkortostan’s regional governor, Radiy Khabirov, said emergency services rushed to the scene to contain the blaze and assess the damage. Photos and videos posted on Russian social media showed plumes of thick black smoke billowing above the site.

The facility had already been hit Sept. 18, when Ukraine’s Security Service used long-range drones to damage its main oil refining unit, known as the ELOU-AVT-4. That system processes crude oil into gasoline, diesel, kerosene and fuel oil.

Russians filmed massacring family while take child hostage as human shield. Russian forces brutally shot and killed a family in the easternmost Donetsk region and took their underage daughter hostage to cover advancing troops, Ukraine’s military reported on Sept. 24.

The incident occurred near the village of Shandryholove in the Lyman sector, a frontline area. According to Ukrainian communication intercepts, a Russian commander known by the call sign “Bali” ordered his soldiers to “kill everyone without distinction” before storming the abode.

Troops entered a residential home, executed the parents, and seized their daughter. Ukrainian officials said the child is being forced to march with Russian assault groups, effectively being used as a human shield to prevent return fire.

Military officials described the act as a premeditated war crime, citing real-time radio intercepts and drone footage that captured both the orders and the execution of the attack.

Key Takeaways

• U.S. President Donald Trump expressed confidence in Ukraine’s ability to fully liberate all of its internationally recognized territory that Russia currently occupies, following a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
• The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) publicly acknowledged Russia’s intent to advance further into Kharkiv Oblast should Russian forces seize Kupyansk, supporting ISW’s assessment of Russia’s operational intent.
• The Russian MoD’s September 23 statement undermines repeated Russian claims that Russia’s main military objective and territorial demands in Ukraine are limited to Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts.
• The Russian MoD may be issuing this statement about Russian operational intent to justify ongoing Russian operations to seize Kupyansk to Russian society and frontline forces.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Borova, Novopavlivka and in the Dobropillya tactical area and western Zaporizhia Oblast. Russian forces recently advanced in northern Kharkiv Oblast and in the Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical area and near Siversk.

• Trump unexpectedly says Ukraine can regain all territories and ‘maybe even go further’
• Zelenskyy: We can hold elections if we have a ceasefire
• Ukrainian Security Service drones once again behind attack on Gazprom petrochemical plant in Russia
• Macron: All of Europe challenged by destabilisation threats from Russia
• ‘Heavy tariffs’ for Russia: Trump threatens Moscow at the UN General Assembly
• Trump at UN: NATO states “funding war against themselves” by buying Russian energy
• Zelenskyy on talks with Putin: If he wants it to take place in Kazakhstan, we’re ready