Victory Chronicles-DAY 1006

Russian troops launched a missile attack on the central part of Odesa, injuring 11 people and causing extensive damage to civilian infrastructure. 

The head of the regional administration, Oleh Kiper, reported that the attack damaged residential buildings, cars, a dentist, a beauty salon, shops, flower shops, and people’s cars. Additionally, two educational institutions, a school, and a university gym, were damaged, with windows and doors smashed. 

Fortunately, teachers and students were in shelters during the attack. Kiper initially stated that six people were injured, with one woman in serious condition and the others in moderate condition. However, the number of victims later increased to 11. Two individuals were treated on the spot, eight others remained hospitalized, and one received outpatient treatment. 

The United Kingdom has imposed new sanctions on 30 ships from Russia’s shadow fleet. These ships have transported billions of pounds of oil and oil products in the past year. This move is considered the most extensive sanctions package the UK has implemented. The British government stated that half of the targeted ships had carried oil and oil products amounting to more than $4.3 billion in the past year alone. This action is aimed at limiting the Kremlin’s ability to finance its illegal war in Ukraine and its global malign activities.

Ukraine has reportedly launched ATACMS ballistic missiles with cluster warheads at a Russian military airfield in the Kursk region. GEOINT analysts from the Ukrainian project Cyberboroshno confirmed the missile strike. The analysts provided video and photos showing the detonation of submunitions from the missiles on the airfield’s territory. The analysts also geolocated the approximate areas of impact.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces StratCom released a video of the destruction of a Soviet RBU-6000 Smerch-2 bomber by a Ukrainian FPV drone. The video shows the work of UAV operators of the 5th separate assault brigade of Kyiv.

The Russian military command is likely planning on how to advance into the southeasternmost part of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in support of Russia’s longstanding objective to seize all of Donetsk Oblast. 

The Kremlin’s stated objective of seizing all of Donetsk Oblast very likely presupposes ground operations in southern and eastern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to interdict Ukrainian ground lines of communication that support Ukrainian positions in Donetsk Oblast and envelop these Ukrainian positions. Russian forces are geographically close to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and may advance north into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to envelop Ukrainian forces in southwestern Donetsk Oblast. (The Russian Forward Line of Own Troops near Novodarivka is eight kilometers from the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast administrative boundary as of November 24, for example.) Such a Russian advance, if successful, could eventually force Ukrainian forces from the areas southwest of Pokrovsk, west of Kurakhove, and west and northeast of Velyka Novosilka. The Russian military would likely first have to successfully envelop or bypass Velyka Novosilka in order to interdict the T0518 Bahatyr-Velyka Novosilka highway – a significant undertaking that Russian forces may not be able to achieve. Russian forces may attempt to leverage water features as natural barriers to advance north along the Vorona River (just west of Velyka Novosilka) toward Velykomykhailivka, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (just east of the Donetsk-Dnipropetrovsk Oblast border) from the Rivnopil area (just east of the Vorona River). Russian forces may also try to advance along the Mokri Yaly River, which runs through and north of Velyka Novosilka, toward Novopavlivka, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast following a potential future Russian envelopment of Velyka Novosilka. Russian forces could leverage these advances into the southeasternmost parts of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to support operations to seize territory in southwestern Donetsk Oblast. Such a development would likely not be part of a direct drive against the interior of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in the short-to-medium term, though the Kremlin likely seeks to eventually seize significant territory in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast as well. Russian milbloggers have recently reignited calls for Russian forces to advance toward southeastern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast from the Velyka Novosilka area in order to pressure the Pokrovsk-Kurakhove area from the west.

Potential Russian efforts to secure the Kremlin’s objective of seizing the entirety of Donetsk Oblast by occupying at least part of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast are consistent with Russia’s commitment to pursuing Ukraine’s total capitulation and destroying Ukraine’s independence and territorial sovereignty. Ukrainian outlet Interfax Ukraine, citing Ukrainian intelligence sources, reported on November 20 that Interfax Ukraine viewed a Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) document outlining Russia’s objectives of partitioning Ukraine into three different parts: one acknowledging the full Russian annexation of occupied Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson oblasts and occupied Crimea; another establishing a pro-Russian puppet state centered in Kyiv under Russian military occupation; and a third part designating Ukraine’s western regions as “disputed territories” to be divided among Ukraine’s westernmost neighboring countries. 

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast is notably not one of the four Ukrainian oblasts that the Kremlin has illegally annexed – for now. The Russian military may leverage limited advances into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to set conditions for future operations to militarily occupy Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and other regions of eastern and central Ukraine in the long-term.

Fighter Oleksandr Rudnevskyi fought his last battle on 12 April 2024 near the town of Vuhledar in Donetsk region. The warrior received fatal injuries as a result of mortar fire while performing combat missions to hold his position against the enemy. In March, the defender turned 38 years old.

Oleksandr is a native of Sumy. He graduated from school No. 26. Then he received a degree in computer typing at a local technical school. At the age of 18, he started working and earning a living, learning everything himself. His profession was furniture making. Alongside his main job, he worked at SMNVO-ENGINEERING JSC as a security guard.

During the full-scale invasion, in February 2023, the man was mobilised into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He served in the 58th Separate Motorised Infantry Brigade named after Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi. He was a driver of a rifle company of communications. He was wounded in Donetsk region and returned to the frontline after recovery.

‘He was the best father and husband. He was kind, took care of his family, sensitive, sincere, hardworking. All his life he dreamed of having a strong family, buying an apartment and seeing his children grow up. He was a role model and always put his best foot forward in his children and tried to give them everything he could. We loved each other very much and supported each other, tried to do everything together and spend every spare moment with our family. I am proud of my husband and grateful to life for the fact that we lived happily together for 6 years. It is very little, because we dreamed, as they say, ‘to die in one day’. But I know that he is always with me and we will meet in heaven someday, and for now I will fulfil our dream and raise our children with dignity,’ said Iryna, the wife of the fallen soldier.

Oleksandr was buried on the Walk of Fame at Baranivka Cemetery in his hometown. At home, his wife, son and daughter, whom he had dreamed of so much but never had time to see, were waiting for him, as she was born after his death.

*Oleksandr’s story on the Heroes Memorial – a platform for stories about the fallen defenders of Ukraine.

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