Victory Chronicles-DAY 936

Since 2022, Russia and its partners have sold nearly one billion dollars worth of grain stolen from the occupied territories of Ukraine, reports The Wall Street Journal. 

This “business” has a wide network of clients, which includes the companies responsible for the Russian invasion, as well as a company associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Crimean businessman Hanaga, who cooperates with Syria and Israel through his company Agro-Fregat LLC, and a company that trades with the UAE.

In the first half of 2024, Russians sent 15 ships with 81,000 tons of wheat to Türkiye from Mariupol. Turkish authorities report that they have banned ships from the occupied Ukrainian terminals and are cooperating with Kyiv to block illegal trade. 

It is noted that the exact commercial value of the stolen agricultural products is difficult to determine. However, according to Deputy Agriculture Minister Dmytrasevych, since 2022, at least 4 million tons of grain from the occupied part of Ukraine have been sold on international markets, which is about $800 million.

According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian terrorists have used over 640 “shahids” against Ukrainian cities and villages in the first half of September. Ukrainian fighters shot th majority of them down. President Zelenskyy stated that efforts are being made to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense capabilities, including the Air Force, mobile fire groups, and all air defense units. On the night of September 16, Kyiv and several regions were put on air alert twice due to an attack by Russian drones. In total, the air defense forces were able to destroy 53 Shahid-131/136 attack drones, with almost two dozen shot down in the airspace around Kyiv alone.

Firefighting operations are continuing for the second day in Lyman, Donetsk Oblast, as a result of a forest fire caused by shelling from Russian troops. The fire spread rapidly into the forest due to strong gusty winds. Firefighters from Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia garrisons, along with forestry workers, are present at the scene. Pyrotechnic crews are inspecting routes to the fire centers, while UAVs are monitoring the situation. Emergency workers are stationed near settlements to prevent further spread of the fire. As of this morning, the fire has already consumed approximately 240 hectares of forest. The efforts to combat the fire are still ongoing.

In a coordinated effort, units of the Ukrainian Airborne Assault Forces successfully shot down a Russian BMD-4 amphibious assault vehicle in a village in the Kursk region. The Russian troops boldly entered the town, aware that Ukrainian forces controlled it. They began firing at residential areas, but the Ukrainian artillery and FPV drone crews swiftly neutralized the enemy’s equipment, preventing its further use. Although the first attack damaged the enemy vehicle with artillery fire, an attempt to strike it with a drone was thwarted by the enemy’s electronic warfare system. However, the second and third drone strikes were successful, causing the vehicle to retreat and leaving the wounded and disoriented Russian troops scattered among the ruins. 

Russia will likely face growing challenges in the production and procurement of the materiel that Russian operations in Ukraine require, and the Kremlin will likely become increasingly reliant on foreign partners to meet its materiel needs. The Russian military has extensively relied on refurbishing stocks of Soviet-era weapons and military equipment, particularly armored vehicles, to sustain the tempo of its offensive operations in Ukraine. 

The Russian government will likely have to further mobilize the Russian economy and defense industry and invest in capacity building if the Russian military intends to sustain its current tempo of operations in the medium- to long-term as Russia depletes its finite Soviet stockpiles, but it is unclear if the Russian defense industry will be able to produce enough to sustain the high level of equipment losses that Russian forces suffer in Ukraine even with further economic mobilization. ISW has previously assessed that Russia’s efforts to expand its DIB are unlikely to be sustainable in the medium- to long-term due to anticipated labor shortages and the impacts of Western sanctions.[10] Putin acknowledged on April 4 that Russia will experience a high demand for human capital and face labor shortages in the coming years. Kremlin-affiliated outlet Izvestiya reported on December 24, 2023, that Russia’s labor shortages, partly driven by the war in Ukraine, reached 4.8 million people in 2023 and would likely worsen and impair Russia’s ability to enhance domestic defense industrial initiatives.

Senior fighter Oleksandr Stepanyshchev, with the call sign SMIT, died on May 5, 2024, near the village of Hryhorivka, Donetsk region. He received fatal injuries as a result of an enemy mortar attack. The defender would have turned 44 in June.

Oleksandr was born in the village of Koliukhiv, Vinnytsia region. He received a secondary education and immediately went to work. He was a construction laborer. For about 10 years he was fond of numismatics. He is a poet and has written many poems.

During the full-scale war, in July 2022, he joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The man served in the 56th separate motorized infantry brigade. He held the position of senior rifleman. He was repeatedly honored for his service.

“I am the native niece of the deceased and a fighter of the same battalion and unit where we served together! Unfortunately, we did not fight together for long. He is gone now, but I promise to do everything to bring victory closer and wipe out the evil that destroys families, generations and everything in its path! The worst thing for me, as a doctor who believed to the last that he would live, was to take him out, accompany him and see that it was over, that he was gone, that I could not return him, not hug him, not kiss him, not hear his pleasant words and poems, not laugh so heartily with all 32 teeth. The defender was buried in his native village.

Oleksandr is survived by his mother Nelia Pavlivna, his common-law wife Vasylina, his son Tymofii, his sisters Valentyna and Olena, his nephews Oleksandr and Andrii, and his nieces Anastasiia and Bohdana.

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

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