Victory Chronicles-DAY 596

The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, said the Russians wanted to create a man-made disaster at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and “carry out a controlled release of radiation.”

“They wanted to artificially create a man-made disaster. It’s not about blowing up a nuclear power plant in the sense that everyone understands that there is a bang and radiation scattered in all directions. They wanted to do something much more interesting: artificially overload the system and release radiation in a controlled manner. That is, localized in place. All such games always end very badly. In our understanding, this would definitely lead to a real nuclear disaster. It is still a threat because we all have to remember that the station remains occupied. In principle, nothing has changed globally there. The only thing is that, thank God, we have passed the crisis moment. I will not disclose to you how and what was done for this. But we had passed it by then. However, this does not remove the question that if Russia wants to do something like this again, it will have every opportunity to do so,” Budanov said.

Law enforcement officers have identified all 59 people killed in the Russian attack on the village of Hroza on October 5th. “Police forensics identified all those killed in the missile attack on a café in Kharkiv Oblast. A total of 59 people were killed by the Russians by a direct hit from an Iskander [missile system] in the village of Hroza. All the victims are local residents. Seniors, doctors, farmers, teachers, businessmen. All are civilians. Whole families in several generations died,” said Ihor Klymenko, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

The Public Relations Service of the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade published a photo of the artillerymen’s training. “Continuous training and self-improvement! The fighters of the 47th separate mechanized brigade are honing their skills between battles and passing on their own combat experience gained in fierce battles to new recruits,” the press service said.

Ukrainian fighters destroyed an enemy tank in Donetsk Oblast. “In combat, we use everything we have in service. And we have already become aces in piloting FVP drones,” the fighters say. They add that the more time passes, the more fires the occupiers will have.

Geolocated footage shows that Russian gains around Avdiivka are concentrated to the southwest of Avdiivka, and Russian forces have not completed an operational encirclement of the settlement and will likely struggle to do so if that is their intent. 

Avdiivka is also a notoriously well-fortified and defended Ukrainian stronghold, which will likely complicate Russian forces’ ability to closely approach or fully capture the settlement. Russian forces additionally already control segments of the critical N20 Donetsk City-Kostiantynivka-Kramatorsk-Sloviansk highway and other routes that run near Avdiivka, so the hypothetical capture of Avdiivka will not open new routes of advance to the rest of Donetsk Oblast. 

As ISW previously assessed, Russian forces likely intend attacks in the Avdiivka area to fix Ukrainian forces and prevent them from redeploying to other areas of the front. However, Ukrainian officials have already identified the Avdiivka push as a Russian fixing operation, and they are unlikely to unduly commit Ukrainian manpower to this axis.

Fighter Vladyslav Shulha, with the call sign Molfar, was killed while performing a combat mission on the outskirts of the village of Andriivka near Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast. The defender was fatally wounded as a result of an enemy mortar attack. On September 15, he would have turned 26 years old.

Vladyslav was born in the village of Samotoivka, Sumy Oblast. He studied at a local school. Then he graduated from the Sumy Chemical Technology Center for Vocational Education. After that, he worked at the Khimprom plant until 2018. He has been involved in sports since school. He was fond of military affairs. When he resigned from the plant, he decided to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In recent years, he lived with his family in Lebedyn, Sumy Oblast.

From 2018 to 2023, Vladyslav served in the 27th Artillery Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He participated in the ATO. From the first day of the full-scale invasion, he continued to defend Ukraine from the invaders. In March 2023, he transferred to the 3rd separate assault brigade. He was a gunner of the 1st assault platoon “Medoid” of the 1st assault battalion. Together with his comrades, he participated in assaults and successfully destroyed the enemy.

During his service, Vladyslav repeatedly received awards, including the Cossack Cross medal of the Joint Forces Command, second class (2021) and the commemorative award of the 27th Artillery Brigade named after the Cossack Ataman Petro Kalnyshevskyi (2022).

“In 2020, we met in the service. I was 19 at the time, and he was 23. We went through the ATO together and made plans for the future. And in 2022, we had a son, whom he and I wanted very much. Vlad always said that his son would be proud of his father. And so it happened, but now our Sviatik will remember his dad only in photographs. Vlad was a selfless and very reliable friend, kind and sincere, never hiding his intentions and always ready to help. But most of all, I loved him for the truth. He always loved the truth and fought for it,” said Daryna, the deceased’s wife.

The fighter was buried in the town of Lebedyn, Sumy Oblast. Vladyslav is survived by his mother, wife, son, brothers, sisters, father-in-law and mother-in-law, friends and fighters-in-arms.

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• Czech Republic, Denmark, and the Netherlands sealed an agreement in Ramstein on supplies of weapons to Ukraine
• Zelenskyy states that Ukrainian defenders hold positions in Avdiivka