Victory Chronicles-DAY 1363

Russian forces used civilians as human shields during their Nov. 10 assault on the southeastern outskirts of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, according to Ukraine’s Security Service and regional prosecutors.

Investigators said that at about 2:30 p.m., a commander from Russia’s 506th Motor Rifle Regiment ordered troops over the radio to push forward with detained civilians. A man, a woman and a 13-year-old child were in front of them as they “cleared” residential blocks. Using civilians to shield advancing troops is a grave violation of international humanitarian law.

The regiment was attacking Pokrovsk’s southeastern neighborhoods as part of a broader push to infiltrate the city. Ukrainian authorities are now working to identify those involved and to determine what happened to the three civilians. 

Russia has forcibly mobilized over 46,000 Ukrainians from occupied territories. Russia has forcibly conscripted 46,327 Ukrainian citizens from territories it occupies, according to Dmitry Usov, secretary of Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

Speaking at the Crimea Global conference, Usov said Ukrainian military intelligence collated the data that was later confirmed by Russian sources, which covered the period from February 2022 to July 2025. Among those mobilized, 35,272 were taken from the occupied peninsula of Crimea, 5,368 from Sevastopol, 5,368 from Donetsk region, 4,650 from Luhansk, 560 from Zaporizhzhia and 478 from Kherson.

“These people are being forced to fight against us,” Usov said, adding that 16 percent of Russian POWs held in Ukraine are actually Ukrainian citizens, including 6 percent who are Crimean residents.

Russian drone attack on Dnipro shatters rail station windows, damages TV tower and media offices. A large Russian drone strike on the southeastern city of Dnipro overnight caused widespread damage, delaying trains, shattering windows at the central railway station and knocking out power across parts of the region, local authorities reported Nov. 18.

Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukraine’s state railway operator, said two long-distance trains departed with delays of about two-and-a-half hours as passengers and crew sheltered in the station during the attack. Several railcars and parts of the station had sustained blast damage. Crews switched to backup locomotives to restore service.

The strike also hit the buildings of state broadcaster’s Suspilne Dnipro bureau and Ukrainian Radio Dnipro, sparking fires that damaged the roof, interior walls and dozens of windows. No staff were inside at the time. Later, Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov confirmed that the city’s TV tower was also heavily damaged.

Drone commander shows strikes on two power plants in occupied Donetsk. Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine’s newly formed unmanned systems forces, released video footage of drones attacking two thermal power plants overnight in Russia-occupied Donetsk. The drones targeted the Zuivska plant in Zuhres, which supplies about one-third of the region’s electricity with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts. The Starobeshivska plant, near Novyi Svit, also came under attack; it has 2,300 megawatts capacity. These strikes caused blackouts and fires, and disrupted power to occupied towns including Donetsk, Makiivka, and Ilovaisk. Brovdi described the drones as persistent, causing physical and psychological discomfort with outages of light and heat. The attacks are part of Ukraine’s efforts to undermine Russian military logistics by targeting critical energy infrastructure in occupied territories. The damage affects civilian residents while hitting the occupiers’ strategic assets.

Key Takeaways

1. Russian forces may be attempting to fix Ukrainian forces within Pokrovsk itself while also encircling Ukrainian forces in the Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad pocket from the west, likely because Russian forces have found such an encirclement more feasible than an encirclement from the east.
2. Russian forces may attempt to use vehicles to transport troops, likely under the cover of fog, in order to speed up the clearing of Pokrovsk itself.
3. Russia is reportedly continuing to struggle to replace its battlefield losses with new recruits.
4. Saboteurs recently damaged at least two segments of a Polish railway en route to Ukraine.
5. France agreed to sell Ukraine weapons systems, such as fighter jets and air defense systems.
6. Ukrainian forces recently advanced in Novopavlivka.

• US Treasury says sanctions on Rosneft, Lukoil cut Russia oil revenue
• Spanish foreign minister: we will allocate 1billion euros in support of Ukraine this year
• Trump ready to back sanctions bill against Russia but with one condition 
• Russian secret services may be behind railway sabotage in Poland
• Number of firefights increasing in Pokrovsk, Russians stepping up attempts to infiltrate nearby Myrnohrad