Victory Chronicles
-DAY 188

ORC INCOMPETENCE: BOMBING DECOY HIMARS; BAD IRAINIAN DRONE DELIVERY, PANIC IN BELGOROD

Above: Monday night at the Belgorod train station, hundreds waited for the midnight train to moscow.  Photo via TSN

• In recent weeks, enemy propaganda machines have been pumping out the glorious destruction of Ukraine’s HIMAR inventory – even more than Ukraine has received from the US.  In fact, the Ukrainian military is building wooden HIMAR decoys to demilitarize enemy forces of their $6.5 million Kalibr missiles. The Washington Post reported that, “After a few weeks in the field, the decoys drew at least 10 Kalibr cruise missiles, an initial success that led Ukraine to expand the production of the replicas for broader use.”

• US government officials have confirmed that Iran is supplying the Kremlin with combat drones.  Another Washington Post story explained how Russian cargo planes have picked up the first of many expected shipments of hundreds of Iranian-made combat drones for use against Ukraine.” Deep intelligence revealed that the Kremlin is an unhappy customer since the first batch of drones are plagued with operational problems and software bugs.

• Video has emerged of missile strikes near Belgorod, Russia overnight.  The kremlin regularly fires missiles into Ukraine from Belgorod and Ukraine has hit the area several times since the start of hostilities.  However, this time the local population appears much more worried as videos have also appeared showing large crowds at the Belgorod train station trying to get on the midnight train to Moscow.

RUSSIAN WAR CRIMES: ZAPORIZHZHYA NPP

Above: Aerial view of fires burning around ZNPP last week.  Photo via The Guardian

• The good news is that a mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency is headed to Enerhodar in Zaporizhzhya Oblast to inspect Europe’s largest nuclear energy plant.  On August 29, Ukraine announced that it had invited the IAEA to form a mission to visit the besieged plant to assess the security situation.

• The bad news is that the enemy is shelling the travel corridor leading to the plant.  Presidential advisor Podolyak Tweeted, “Everything is predictable. ru is deliberately shelling corridors through which IAEA mission must reach the ZNPP.  All to propose passage through Crimea/ORDLO. UA’s position is unchanged. Access only through UA-controlled territory. Demilitarization of nuclear power plants. Immediate withdrawal of ru-troops. Only UA personnel are at the station.”

• Even worse news are reports that the enemy has increased attacks near the plant, blaming them on Ukrainian forces.  US intelligence reported Tuesday that ru is firing artillery from around and in the vicinity of the ZNPP while Ukraine is “going out of their way” to avoid striking the area. The EU has pledged the delivery of thousands of iodine tablets for public distribution in the area surrounding the plant.

SOUTHERN COUNTEROFFENSIVE UNDERWAY

Above: British Defence Intelligence released this map Tuesday of Ukraine’s thrust into Kherson.  Map via Ministry of Defence

• It appears that Ukraine has begun the southern counteroffensive the government has been promising for weeks.  Ukraine’s open declaration of a coming southern counteroffensive caused the enemy to redeploy troops from illegally occupied Donbas to the Kherson region.  Experts estimate that as many as 25 thousand enemy troops may be on the northern bank of the Dnipro River, largely cut off from resupply and evacuation due to Ukraine’s ongoing destruction of transportation infrastructure.

• The Armed Forces of Ukraine has requested that everyone stop posting any information on the southern theater.  That is all we will say about it.