05:22 am
Next city in eastern Ukraine before Russian onslaught
The industrial city of Pokrovsk is the next important target for the Russian advance in eastern Ukraine. The enemy is now just seven kilometers from the city in the Donetsk region, which had around 50,000 inhabitants before the war, said the head of the city administration, Serhiy Dobrjak. At the moment, around 12,000 people are still holding out in Pokrovsk, including children, even though around 80 percent of the infrastructure has already been destroyed.
The Ukrainian General Staff in Kiev said there were 28 Russian attacks on the Pokrovsk sector of the front on Wednesday. There were 134 battles along the entire long front in the east and south.
Meanwhile, Washington, New York and Brussels are discussing how to deal with the support of the Russian armed forces from an estimated 10,000 soldiers from North Korea. The US Department of Defense was “increasingly concerned” about the possible use of these soldiers in the war against Ukraine. Some of the North Koreans sent to Russia have already been moved closer to Ukraine. In the UN Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya justified military cooperation with North Korea. This is not directed against third parties.
Ukrainian defenses in Donbass are crumbling
For more than two and a half years, Ukraine has been fending off a large-scale Russian invasion intended to bring the country back under Moscow’s control. In the south of the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian defenders have had to evacuate several towns in the past few days and weeks. Major General Dmytro Marchenko spoke of a collapse of the front.
Pokrovsk has been under fire for a long time. The access to the threatened city is not yet completely closed, said city boss Dobrjak. But individual streets would be cordoned off in order to build defenses. The Ukrainians recently lost the town of Selydove near Pokrovsk. This means that attacks on Pokrovsk can also come from the south.
According to Ukrainian information, Russian troops are exerting just as much pressure on the front line in the city of Kurakhove. There were also 28 attacks there, the military said. It still reported fighting around the outlying town of Kurachivka. Ukrainian military blogs see the place already under Russian control.
EU calls for North Korea to reverse course
EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell called on North Korea to stop supporting Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. “The presence of several thousand soldiers working with the Russian military represents a blatant violation of the UN Charter and several UN Security Council resolutions,” said Borrell in Brussels. It is a unilateral, hostile act by North Korea with serious consequences for peace and security in Europe and worldwide. Borrell announced an “appropriate reaction”. He will travel this week for consultations with Japan and South Korea.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in Washington that he was increasingly concerned that the Kremlin wanted to use the North Koreans to support its troops in the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine. “We see that they are wearing Russian uniforms and are equipped with Russian equipment,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin does not deny the presence of North Korean soldiers. He points out that Ukraine also relies on personnel from NATO countries. Moscow intends to further develop cooperation with North Korea in the future, and no one can stop us from doing so, said UN Ambassador Nebensja in New York.
Russian air strikes with missiles, bombs and drones
Since the evening hours of Wednesday, Russia has been attacking Ukraine again from the air – with missiles, glide bombs and combat drones. According to regional authorities, around ten rockets were fired at the port city of Odessa and its surrounding area alone. Explosions were heard. But this was outside the city, said Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov. Ukraine’s grain exports go through Odessa and its neighboring ports. That’s why the coast is repeatedly attacked by Russia.
Rescue work in Kharkiv after Wednesday’s glide bomb attack.
Photo: Keystone
According to media reports, glide bombs struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, injuring 17 people. As dawn broke on Thursday, there was alarm in many parts of northern and central Ukraine about Russian drones in the air.
Ukraine wants tomahawks as a deterrent
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed a report in the New York Times that he had asked the USA for Tomahawk cruise missiles to deter Russia in the future. This is what it says in the secret appendix to his “victory plan,” which he recently presented in Washington, he told journalists in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik. His plan includes arming Ukraine to deter Russia from aggression.
Zelensky was disappointed and viewed the leak of the information as a breach of trust. «How should one understand this message? “So that means there is no confidential information between partners,” he noted. Tomahawks have a maximum range of a good 2,400 kilometers and can theoretically reach major Russian cities such as St. Petersburg, Moscow and even Yekaterinburg in the Urals from Ukrainian soil.
Ukraine is expecting another meeting of its military supporting countries in the so-called Ramstein Group soon, Zelensky said in his evening video message. He did not give any details or a date. A meeting at the US military base Ramstein in Rhineland-Palatinate was actually supposed to take place in mid-October as a summit with the US President. Joe Biden canceled due to a hurricane in the USA. He later made up his visit to Germany, but not the Ramstein meeting.
