Victory Chronicles-DAY 938

Drones from the Security Service of Ukraine, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, and the Special Operations Forces have successfully destroyed a large warehouse belonging to the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense in the village of Toropets, Tver region. The facility stored various missile systems and ammunition. This is part of Ukraine’s ongoing efforts to reduce Russia’s missile potential, which is used to target Ukrainian cities. The attack caused powerful detonations and a massive fire, leading to the evacuation of civilians. Ukrainian authorities are aiming to replicate this success by targeting other Russian military facilities that support the war against Ukraine. The public in the area has reported hearing the explosions and witnessing the resulting fire.

On the night of September 17-18, 2024, Russia launched an attack on Ukraine using air-launched guided missiles and kamikaze drones. The attack involved three guided missiles and 52 attack drones. Ukrainian air defense forces were able to intercept and destroy 46 of the drones, while five others disappeared from radar due to electronic warfare. The Ukrainian Defense Forces responded to the attack with aviation, mobile fire groups, and electronic warfare units.

A man has been killed and a woman injured in a drone attack in the city of Kropyvnytskyi in Ukraine. The attack, which was carried out by a Russian drone, also caused a fire that engulfed a garage, a house, and 19 other buildings in the area. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported the incident on Telegram. According to their message, the fire covered an area of 30 square meters in a residential area of the city. Rescuers discovered the body of a 41-year-old man and an injured 66-year-old woman at the scene of the fire. 

On September 18, six attack drones targeted ammunition depots in Toropets, Russia. Local residents reported a loud explosion and a bright flash, which was followed by a fire. The attack targeted military unit 541690, also known as the 107th Arsenal of the State Armed Forces of Ukraine. Drones have previously attacked this facility. The depot stored a significant amount of ammunition, including missiles for Iskander systems, Tochka-U tactical missile systems, KABs, and artillery ammunition. The extent of the damage caused by the attack was recorded by NASA satellites.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office opened an investigation into another case of apparent Russian abuse and execution of a Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW). Graphic social media images circulated on September 16 shows the body of a Ukrainian servicemember whom Russian forces evidently executed with a sword bearing the inscription “for Kursk.”

X (formerly Twitter) users geolocated the images to Novohrodivka, Donetsk Oblast. Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov recently confirmed that elements of the Russian 30th Motorized Rifle Brigade (2nd Combined Arms Army, Central Military District) and 1435th Motorized Rifle Regiment (likely a mobilized regiment) seized Novohrodivka in early September — potentially implicating members and command of these two formations with the execution. The footage shows the Ukrainian servicemember clearly disarmed, wearing no protective equipment, and with remnants of duct tape around his wrists, suggesting that Russian forces captured, disarmed, and forcibly detained the servicemember. 

The Geneva Convention on POWs prohibits the “mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture” of POWs, as well as the execution of POWs or persons who are clearly hors de combat. The apparent circumstances of this particular execution, particularly the use of a sword with an inscription that implies that Russian forces executed the POW in some sort of retaliation for Ukraine’s Kursk operation, likely fall firmly into the category of mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture of an unarmed POW. This most recent report of Russia’s abuse of Ukrainian POWs is consistent with the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU)’s March 2024 report, which documented and verified widespread abuse and executions of Ukrainian POWs at the hands of Russian forces.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office announced that it started an investigation into violation of the laws and customs of war and intentional murder in regard to the apparent execution of the servicemember. Ukrainian law enforcement is also currently investigating 84 cases of potential Russian execution of Ukrainian POWs. ISW has reported on apparent Russian executions of Ukrainian POWs in August 2024, July 2024, June 2024, May 2024, and several different incidents in February 2024 alone and has routinely assessed that Russian commanders are either complacent or enabling their subordinates to engage in such atrocities in clear violation of international law.

Defender Serhii Khryshcheniuk died on May 23, 2024, while performing a combat mission in the city of Vovchansk, Kharkiv region. The fighter was 47 years old.  

Serhiy was born in the village of Kordyshivka, Vinnytsia region. He studied at school No. 1 in the city of Kozyatyn, and then at the Zhytomyr Road Technical College. After graduation, he worked at the Kozyatyn Interdistrict Gas Management Department and studied at the Kyiv National University of Architecture and Construction. A year and a half before he graduated, his father died, so he was forced to leave his studies to be with his mother. 

For 15 years, the man worked at the Koziatyn locomotive depot of the Southwestern Railway regional branch, where he held the position of a sixth-degree repairman. 

In March 2024, Serhii was mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He was trained in the Kirovohrad region. Later, he served in the Kharkiv sector. 

“Serhii was a man of word and deed. There was no task he could not handle. He knew his way around equipment and enjoyed repairing it. He also had a personality that combined a good heart and a steadfast character,” said colleagues and friends of the deceased. 

His neighbors said of him: “Here comes Serhiy, the sun, not a smile,” because he was always smiling. The fighter was buried on the Walk of Fame at the local cemetery in Kozyatyn. He is survived by his son, mother, aunts, uncle and nephews.

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

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