Victory Chronicles-DAY 1336

Power generators were heard humming throughout Chernihiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine when it lost electricity on the morning of Oct. 21 after Russian aerial attacks targeted energy infrastructure across the northern region, forcing critical facilities onto backup generators and leaving roughly 285,000 residents without power.

Chernihivvodokanal, the municipal water utility, reported a “critical situation” as crews scrambled to restart pumping stations using alternative power sources beginning at 5:30 a.m. The company warned residents that water pressure would be sufficient only for lower floors of apartment buildings and urged people to fill bathtubs and containers immediately.

Drinking water deliveries by truck were planned for some neighborhoods, with additional updates promised throughout the day. Chernihiv, located about 90 miles north of Kyiv near the border with Belarus, has faced repeated Russian attacks on its power grid as Moscow intensifies efforts to break Ukrainian morale heading into winter.

Ukraine destroys 1,000 Iranian-designed Shahed drones worth $70 million. Ukraine’s newly formed Unmanned Systems Forces announced on Oct. 21 they have shot down 1,000 Russian Shahed attack drones since forming specialized counter-drone units, destroying roughly $70 million worth of Iranian-designed weapons before they could reach their targets.

The achievement highlights Ukraine’s evolving tactics against Russia’s preferred weapon of terror as they target cities. The Iranian-designed Shaheds, which cost about $70,000 each, are slow-moving suicide drones packed with explosive payloads. Russia launches them in waves to overwhelm air defenses and exhaust expensive interceptor missiles. Ukraine has responded by deploying cheaper counter-drone systems and trained drone operators who use electronic warfare, small drones and mobile firing groups to bring them down.

Operators from the 412th Nemesis Regiment accounted for much of the tally, turning what would have been a 2.2-mile-long chain of drones — roughly the area of two soccer fields if laid side by side — into scrap metal, the force said.

Russian strikes on northeast Ukraine kill one civilian, injured five as family narrowly escapes drone. Russian forces killed a 71-year-old man and wounded five others in attacks on two towns in the eastern region of Kharkiv on Oct. 19-20, regional prosecutors reported, as Moscow continues pounding civilian areas far from the front line of hostilities.

On the morning of Oct. 20, a Russian Geran-2 attack drone — the Russian designation for Iranian-designed Shaheds — struck the town of Orilka in the Lozova district, damaging single-familyhomes. A 42-year-old woman suffered injuries, while her husband and their two sons, ages 11 and 19 years, experienced acute stress reactions from the blast. The family survived, but the strike left their neighborhood in ruins.

Ukrainian special forces ambush Russian troops behind enemy lines, killing at least 13. Ukrainian commandos slipped across front lines in the northern Kharkiv region, raided Russian positions and then stayed overnight to ambush reinforcements, killing at least 13 enemy soldiers in a multi-day operation, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SOF) reported on Oct. 21.

Operators from Group A of the 1st Detachment, 144th special operation forces , quietly infiltrated Russian-controlled territory in the North-Slobozhanskyi area after dawn. After conductingreconnaissance, they struck dugouts and firing positions, eliminating Russian troops before conducting an a so-called ACE assessment by  checking ammunition, casualties and equipment.

Rather than withdrawing immediately, the Ukrainian team decided to hold the captured positions overnight and set a trap. When Russian reinforcement groups arrived the next day, coordinated strikes from SOF operators, drone teams and mortar crews destroyed several assault groups that were attempting to retake the area.

After confirming 13 kills, the SOF group successfully exfiltrated and returned to Ukrainian controlled territory. The unit is now preparing for its next mission, the military said, offering no further details on location or timing for operational security reasons.

Key Takeaways

1. US President Donald Trump’s Oct. 17 meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly ended with Trump supporting a ceasefire on the current frontlines and not Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin’s demands that Ukraine cede territory in Donetsk Oblast to Russia.
2. Kremlin voices clarified Russia’s position on negotiations following Western reporting about the Oct. 17 Trump-Zelensky meeting in order to reiterate that Russia remains committed to addressing the alleged “root causes” of the war and is unwilling to agree to a ceasefire.
3. The Kremlin is priming the Russian people for a full victory in Ukraine whatever the cost — a domestic effort that is at odds with Putin’s reported willingness to make territorial concessions.
4. The Kremlin is leaning into its cognitive warfare effort to portray Russian forces as relentlessly advancing and a Russian victory as inevitable. This effort aims to obscure the reality that Russian forces are only making minimal gains at disproportionately high manpower costs and that Russia is unlikely to obtain its strategic objectives by force in the short- or medium-term.
5. Russian officials are also attempting to falsely portray ongoing limited Russian operations in the Kherson direction as the start of a new major Russian offensive in the province.
6. The Kremlin is attempting to use all available informational avenues to convince the United States, Europe, and Ukraine to acquiesce to the Kremlin’s demands by convincing them that a Russian victory in Ukraine is certain when it is anything but.
7. Kremlin officials are attempting to present Ukraine as the obstacle to peace to obfuscate how Putin himself has been impeding the process by insisting that Ukraine cede more territory than Russian forces currently occupy.
8. Ukrainian forces recently advanced in the Siversk direction. Russian forces recently advanced in the Velykyi Burluk direction.

• Reuters: Trump promises to keep ‘massive’ tariffs on India until it stops importing Russian oil
• Zelenskyy: Ukraine is ready to provide drones to the US if it has American missiles
• WP: Trump complained about not receiving Nobel Peace Prize during meeting with Zelenskyy
• British soldiers can shoot down drones over military sites
• EU chief diplomat expects EU’s 19th sanctions package against Russia to be approved on Oct. 23 
• Ukrainian drones destroy Russian Valdai radar station in Crimea
• Kremlin rejects idea of stopping troops along current line of contact