Ukraine shoots down two Kinzhal missiles and 32 drones as Russia launches an overnight attack. Ukraine’s defense intelligence disables a Russian minesweeper in the Baltic Sea. Russia’s military hits a new casualty record in September, UK’s defense intelligence says.
Ukraine shoots down two Kinzhal missiles, 32 drones as Russia launches overnight attack
The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 32 attack drones and two Kinzhal missiles launched by Russia during the overnight attack on Monday.
Between 8 p.m. on Sunday and 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Russia sent into Ukraine an Iskander-M ballistic missile, a Kh-59 guided missile, two missiles of an unidentified type launched from the Russian regions of Kursk and Belgorod, and attack drones launched from Oryol, Prymorsko-Akhtarsk, Kursk, and Yeysk, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
At around 8:20 a.m. on Monday, Russia launched three Kh-47M2 Kinzhal ballistic missiles from three MiG-31K aircraft flying over the Tambov region, the message continues. The aircraft took off from the Savasleyka air field.
Radar evaluation units of the Air Force detected and accompanied a total of more than 80 aerial targets.
Two Kinzhal missiles were shot down in Kyiv region, the Air Force said. Thirty-two attack drones were destroyed in the regions of Mykolayiv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, and Kharkiv.
Several drones hit targets in a frontline area in Kharkiv region. One of the three Kinzhal missiles struck near the Starokostyantyniv air base in Khmelnytskyi region, the Air Force said.
A further 37 drones were lost on military radars, suggesting they had been disabled by electronic warfare systems. At the time of the report’s publication, one more drone was still flying.
Ukraine’s defense intelligence disables Russian minesweeper in Baltic Sea
Ukraine’s defense intelligence said on Monday that its troops had disabled a minesweeping vessel from Russia’s Baltic Sea Fleet in a sabotage operation.
The Aleksandr Obukhov minesweeper, based in the Kaliningrad city of Baltiysk, suffered severe damage, the agency said.
The vessel’s engine sustained water damage after the “mysterious appearance of a hole in the gas pipe,” the statement reads. The warship needs capital repair.
“It can become a serious problem as the damaged M-503 engine is quite rare. Repair of a key installation on a ship is technically difficult and expensive,” the defense intelligence said.
The vessel underwent repair in Saint Petersburg in July. The Aleksandr Obukhov is the second warship of Russia’s Baltic Sea Fleet that Ukraine put out of action in the past six months, the defense intelligence said.
Russia’s military hits new casualty record in September, UK’s defense intelligence says
The average daily Russian casualties (killed or wounded) in Ukraine reached a new monthly war high during September 2024, the British Defence Intelligence said in its latest update on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“The average daily loss rate was 1,271 per day, compared to the previous monthly war high of 1,262 recorded in May 2024, according to Ukrainian General Staff reporting,” it said.
Russia has likely suffered over 648,000 casualties since the invasion.
“The increase in the casualty rate since May 2024 is almost certainly due to the extension of the combat zone to include both Kharkiv and Kursk military operations, and increased intensity along the frontline,” the update reads.
Russian forces highly likely continue to attempt to stretch Ukrainian forces by utilising mass to overwhelm defensive positions and achieve tactical gains, the British Defence Intelligence said.
Russia’s casualty rate will likely continue to average above 1,000 a day for the rest of 2024 despite the onset of winter.
“To date winter conditions have not resulted in a reduction of offensive operations or attrition rates due to Russia’s reliance on dismounted tactics and a lack of manoeuvre warfare, which requires better conditions,” the report said.