Victory Chronicles-DAY 1345

Ukrainian commanders on Oct. 29 denied Russian claims that Pokrovsk in the easternmost region of Donetsk has been encircled, saying Moscow’s troops have failed to secure positions inside the key city despite intense fighting. 

Commander-in-Chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi and Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps of the Air Assault Forces said small Russian infiltration groups have entered the city, some disguised in civilian clothes, but are being hunted down in ongoing clearance operations. 

Russia has, for more than 18 months, tried to conquer the city to no avail due to stiff Ukrainian resistance. 

Ukrainian forces reported killing 13 Russian soldiers in Pokrovsk earlier in the week, including four near the city’s entrance monument, and said enemy losses across the sector totaled dozens more.

Syrskyi described the situation as “difficult,” noting that Russia has stepped up attacks around Pokrovsk and neighbouring Myrnohrad using infantry assaults and armored vehicles. He said he has ordered measures to strengthen supply and evacuation routes and to press the defenders’ counter-operations.

EU to provide €50 million to rebuild Ukraine’s war-damaged hospitals. The European Union will allocate about €50 million ($54 million) under its guarantees for a joint project by Ukraine’s Health Ministry and Washington–based lender World Bank to rebuild hospitals damaged or destroyed by Russia’s war, officials said on Oct. 29.

The funding, approved during a meeting of the Ukraine Investment Framework’s steering committee, will support the “HEAL Ukraine” project — short for Strengthening the Health System and Saving Lives. The initiative seeks to restore hospitals that have suffered heavy damage or are under extreme pressure, particularly those that treat large numbers of displaced Ukrainians.

As of Oct. 1, Ukraine’s Health Ministry has confirmed damage to or destruction of 2,489 buildings across 804 medical facilities. Donetsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Chernihiv and Mykolaiv regions have endured the heaviest losses. Czech support for a separate hospital renovation program is also being considered.

Russian strikes kill three in Sloviansk, damage homes and heating plant. Russian forces launched two attacks on the Donetsk regional city of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine on Oct. 30, killing three civilians and damaging homes and infrastructure, local officials said.

Vadym Liakh, head of the city’s military administration, said the shelling began around 10 a.m. when Russian troops fired multiple-launch rocket systems at residential areas, including the Lisnyi neighborhood and the streets of Olimpiiska and 95th Brigade.

Photos from the scene showed damaged high-rise apartment buildings, single-family homes, cars and a heating plant. Emergency crews were working to clear debris and assess the full extent of the damage.

Russian drone strike hits gas station in Sumy, injuring four civilians. A Russian drone struck a gas station in the city of Sumy in northern Ukraine on Oct. 30, injuring four civilians, including a 65-year-old woman, local prosecutors said. The Sumy Regional Prosecutor’s Office reported that the attack occurred around 11:15 a.m. in the city’s Zarichnyi district. Three civilian men aged 36, 38 and 54 also sustained injuries. Emergency crews inspected the site, cleared debris and secured the area against potential fires.

The attack was one of nearly 30 assaults that have been carried out by Russian forces on 24 communities across Sumy region over the past day, officials said, adding that one person was killed in a separate incident.

Key Takeaways

• A Russian official threatened to supply nuclear missiles to Venezuela and Cuba and called the United States a Russian enemy.
• Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin continues to tout new Russian nuclear missiles to threaten the United States.
• Russia continues to use Belarus to threaten Europe with the Oreshnik missile.
• Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin is performatively offering an hours-long micro-ceasefire in Pokrovsk likely in part to claim that Russia is not the impediment to the peace process.
• Russian forces continue to advance in the Pokrovsk direction but remain unlikely to immediately collapse the Ukrainian pocket.
• Russian forces will likely expend large amounts of manpower and equipment to close the Ukrainian pocket in the Pokrovsk direction, as they have during the past 18 months of fighting for Pokrovsk.
• A recent U.S. intelligence assessment reportedly concluded that Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin is more determined than ever to gain a battlefield victory in his war in Ukraine, consistent with ongoing statements by senior Russian officials.
• Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin and Russian State Duma deputies are using imperial Russian and Soviet ideologies to call for Russian society to unite against alleged internal and external threats – likely to set conditions for further repressions and intensified involuntary mobilization for the war against Ukraine or a future war against NATO.
• European officials continue to report aerial incursions in European airspace.
• Ukrainian forces advanced in the Dobropillya tactical area. Russian forces advanced in the Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical area and near Kupyansk, Pokrovsk, and Velykomykhailivka.

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