Russia launches more than a hundred drones at Ukraine overnight on Monday. Pentagon chief makes an unannounced visit to Kyiv. Six-in-ten Ukrainians report high levels of stress, a survey finds.
Ukraine shoots down 59 of 116 drones that Russia launches overnight, 45 more go off radar
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Monday that it shot down 59 out of 116 drones launched by Russia overnight. Forty-five drones disappeared off radar after likely being disabled by electronic warfare systems. Two more hit civilian infrastructure sites, the Ukrainian Air Force said. At 10 a.m. when the report was released, 10 drones were still in the Ukrainian air space, the military added.
The Air Force and other branches of the Ukrainian military deployed aircraft, surface-to-air missile troops, electronic warfare units and mobile groups to repel the attack. The intercepts took place over the regions of Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, Kropyvnytskyi, Kyiv, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia, and Zhytomyr, Ukraine’s air force said.
Russia also sent into Ukraine an Iskander-M ballistic missile, a Kh-31P and a Kh-35 air-launched cruise missiles overnight on Monday. The missiles were not intercepted.
Russia also struck a residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia with missiles on Monday morning. Two people were killed and the number of wounded rose to 15, head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov said. More than 30 houses, a kindergarten and passenger cars were damaged in the attack.
U.S. Secretary of Defense makes unannounced visit to Kyiv
U.S. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin arrived in Kyiv on Monday morning. Austin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov while in Kyiv to discuss Ukraine’s weapons needs and how the U.S. can continue to support the country’s military over the next year, the secretary told a small group of reporters traveling with him to Kyiv, according to CNN reporting.
In his meeting with Zelenskyi, Austin announced a new USD 400 million Ukraine military aid package consisting of “additional munitions, armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons.” Yet there was no agreement to allow Ukraine use long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia, The Wall Street Journal said.
Ukraine expects decisive action of the U.S. in response to North Korea’s growing support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, an unnamed Ukrainian official told The New Voice of Ukraine in light of Austin’s visit to the country on Monday.
Speaking to the Ukrainian Parliament on October 16, Zelenskyi said, citing Ukraine’s intelligence data, that North Korea dispatches troops to support Russia’s war effort and sends workers to Russian factories.
There are now nearly 11,000 North Korean infantry troops training in eastern Russia to fight in Ukraine, Head of the Main Intelligence Department of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov told The War Zone on October 17.
South Korea’s spy agency said on October 18 it believes North Korea has already begun deploying four brigades totaling 12,000 troops, including special forces, to the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to Politico.
Six-in-ten Ukrainians report high levels of stress, survey finds
Ukrainians’ mental health is deteriorating, Ukrainian MP Viktoria Vagner said in her opinion piece published in The New Voice of Ukraine on Monday, citing two recent surveys.
Two thirds of employers operating in Ukraine said their workers are facing mental health challenges with one-third describing the situation as extreme, an opinion poll conducted by Advanter Group in autumn of 2024 found. In the first year of the invasion, sizable shares of Ukrainians felt depressed and anxious, Vagner said. By 2023, Ukrainians learned to cope with war-time challenges and maintain a positive outlook, she added.
Sixty-four per cent of Ukrainians report experiencing high levels of stress, a survey commissioned by the Center of Social Change and Behavioral Economics at an unspecified time found. Sixty-three per cent reported anxiety symptoms, and 60 per cent reported depression symptoms. The pollster warned that the answers were subjective and that the interviewees did not have a formal diagnosis. Half of the polled said they suffered sleep problems.
Vagner says permanent war-time stress, lack of positive change and negative forecasts for the future are the three major reasons behind the deterioration of Ukrainians’ mental health.
She is confident, though, that a majority of Ukrainians could reverse back to normal as soon as there is good news. There could be narrow shares of Ukrainians suffering from clinical depression or PTSD that would require professional assistance, Vagner added.
