Victory Chronicles-DAY 1338

Two Ukrainian journalists were killed on Oct. 22 when a Russian Lancet attack drone struck their car in the Donetsk regional city of Kramatorsk, a front-line population center in eastern Ukraine. Journalist Olena Hramova and cameraman Yevhen Karmazin, both from the Freedom TV channel, were documenting the war’s impact when the drone hit near a gas station.

Regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin shared photos of the wrecked vehicle and press-marked body armor on social media, calling the pair “among the first to tell the truth” about Russia’s invasion and the evacuation of civilians.

Freedom TV later confirmed their deaths and said another reporter, Oleksandr Kolychev, was injured and taken to a hospital.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said the journalists were civilians protected under international humanitarian law. He condemned the attack as another example of Russia’s “systematic war crimes against civilians,” adding that those responsible must face justice.

Ukraine retrieves bodies of fallen defenders from Russia. Ukraine has received the remains of about 1,000 soldiers from Russia, officials said on Oct. 23, as part of a coordinated exchange between the two sides. The country’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said forensic experts will identify the bodies in the coming days.

The repatriation is one of the largest since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Each exchange offers a rare moment of closure for families who have spent months, sometimes years, waiting to know what happened to their loved ones.

Police remove two unexploded Shahed drones from Kyiv apartment buildings. Bomb technicians in Kyiv have removed two unexploded Russian-made Shahed drones that struck apartment buildings in the Desnianskyi (eastern bank of the Dnipro River) and Obolon (northwestern Kyiv) districts of Ukraine’s capital, officials said on Oct. 23.

According to the Interior Ministry, police specialists disarmed the explosive parts, placed them in protective containers, and transported the drones to a testing ground for controlled detonation. The Shahed drones, which are used frequently by Russia to strike Ukrainian cities, carry payloads that are capable of causing severe damage and casualties.

Ukrainian paratroopers rescue 10 civilians during clearing of Kucheriv Yar. Ukrainian paratroopers rescued 10 civilians during the liberation and clearing of Kucheriv Yar, a village near Dobropillia in the Donetsk region, the Air Assault Forces said on Oct. 23. The group had been trapped amid fighting as Ukrainian troops cleared Russian forces from the area.

According to the military, a note with evacuation instructions and coordinates was dropped to the civilians using a drone. Despite heavy fighting and the risk of Russian soldiers disguising themselves as locals, the coordinated operation succeeded without casualties.

“Saving our people matters most. Even in the toughest conditions, we continue freeing Ukrainian land from Russian occupation,” the paratroopers said in a statement.

Key Takeaways

1. Russian forces conducted a large combined drone and missile strike against Ukraine overnight on Oct. 21-22and struck a Ukrainian kindergarten on the morning of Oct. 22.
2. The United States announced new economic and military levers in response to Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin’s persistent reticence to engage in good-faith negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
3. Western reporting indicates that the United States called off the planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin after Russia continued to demonstrate its unwillingness to compromise on its long-standing war demands in Ukraine.
4. The Kremlin is setting conditions to exculpate itself for the likely failure of future peace negotiations due to its own unwillingness to engage in good-faith negotiations.
5. The Kremlin is using pre-planned strategic missile tests to further its ongoing rhetorical effort to push the United States to agree to concessions on the war in Ukraine in return for U.S.-Russian arms control talks.
6. Ukraine and its European allies are reportedly developing a 12-point proposal to end the war in Ukraine that includes multiple points that the Kremlin has already designated as non-starters.
7. The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced plans to deploy active reservists to protect infrastructure in the Russian rear, in part to obfuscate Kremlin efforts to prepare to deploy reservists to combat in Ukraine in the future.
8. Ukrainian forces conducted long-range strikes against Russian energy and defense industrial enterprises overnight on Oct, 21-22.
9. Ukrainian forces advanced in the Dobropillya tactical area and near Pokrovsk, and Russian forces advanced near Lyman.

• Trump cancels meeting with Putin in Budapest
• European Union finally approves 19th package of sanctions against Russia
• Belgian PM sets three conditions for supporting reparations loan for Ukraine
• Moscow calls Trump’s decision to cancel summit, sanction oil giants an ‘act of war’
• Russia reports large-scale drone attack: Ryazan oil refinery targeted
• Donald Trump said he plans to talk to Xi Jinping to get him to stop buying oil from Russia
• Reuters: India poised to sharply cut Russian oil imports after sanctions