Victory Chronicles-DAY 945

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has said that Ukraine’s desire to force Russia into peace is an “absolutely fatal mistake” because it is impossible to do so. Peskov’s response came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated at a UN Security Council meeting that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had violated numerous international norms and could only be forced into peace. 

Peskov’s stance aligns with the Kremlin’s position that Russia supports peace as long as its security is ensured and its military objectives are met. He also reiterated the threat of “consequences” for the Ukrainian authorities, a tactic often employed by the Kremlin.

The United States is set to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $375 million, the largest aid package sent by the US to Kyiv since May. The package, which is still being finalized, is expected to include air-to-ground munitions for F-16 fighter jets, allowing Ukrainian pilots to operate further away from the front lines and Russian air defense. It will also include ammunition for HIMARS, patrol boats, armored vehicles, 155-mm shells, 105-mm shells, and anti-tank missiles. The aid package will be sent through the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) mechanism, which allows for the transfer of weapons from US warehouses. The announcement of this aid package comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Russian troops launched an air strike on a school in the Milivska community of Beryslav district in the Kherson region. The attack involved two guided aerial bombs, causing significant damage to the school building, including the roof, classrooms, windows, and doors. However, thankfully, there were no reported injuries among the local residents. The head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, provided this information. 

According to the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU), Ukrainian reconnaissance successfully liberated and cleared the territory of the Vovchansk Aggregate Plant in the Kharkiv region. In a complex and successful operation, DIU units were able to destroy the occupants in all buildings of the plant. The operation was completed on Tuesday, September 24, at 14:40, and the DIU special unit commander, Timur, reported to the Chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, about the successful completion of the mission. The press service of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine provided this information.

Recent Ukrainian strikes against Russian rear ammunition depots demonstrate the extent to which Russian military logistics still benefit from Western-provided sanctuary that secures Russia’s rear. Maxar collected satellite imagery demonstrating dramatic damage to three large Russian ammunition depots in western and southwestern Russia following Ukrainian strikes in September 2024.

 The imagery of the damage at the Oktyabrskii and Toropets depots in Tver Oblast and the Tikhoretsk depot in Krasnodar Krai depicts the destruction of dozens of ammunition storage buildings, rail cars that Russian forces likely used to transport ammunition to the depots, and masses of probable rocket canisters and other material that Russian forces had haphazardly left in the open. Such a crowded disposition of massed materiel underscores the lack of operational security in Russia’s rear supply depots, demonstrating the extent to which Western restrictions prohibiting Ukraine from firing Western-provided weapons into Russia has granted the Russian command flexibility to not properly protect its rear areas. This flexibility has granted Russia the ability to optimize large rear staging facilities to marshal massed materiel to Ukraine at scale.

The Russian military’s continued use of known large-scale logistics facilities is a considerable vulnerability that Ukraine could exploit if Western states removed restrictions against Ukraine. A Russian milblogger wrote a short essay on September 24 in which he complained about the lack of concealment of Russian military facilities, including warehouses and airfields. The milblogger bemoaned how open sources such as Google Maps and Yandex show all Russian facilities and that private space companies provide regularly updated high-resolution imagery of Russian military objects.

The blogger also complained that Russia has not yet created a system for partitioning its ammunition deliveries to ensure that when Ukrainian forces interdict Russian ammo supplies, they would only destroy small caches of ammunition as opposed to strikes that cause catastrophic and widespread damage. ISW continues to assess that Western states can degrade Russia’s ability to leverage mass materiel at scale by eliminating restrictions on Ukraine’s use of precision fires in Russia and by forcing the Russian command to partition ammunition depots into smaller and less efficient facilities, some of which will be further away from Ukraine.

38-year-old fighter Oleh Ahafonov, with the call sign iPhone, died on July 3, 2023, near the village of Klishchiyivka, Bakhmut direction, Donetsk region. While performing a combat mission, he received fatal shrapnel wounds.

Oleh was born in the village of Svydnyk, Lviv region. He lived in the village of Vasylkiv, Cherkasy region. He graduated from the Shpolyansky Professional Lyceum and received a driver’s license. He worked as a thermist at the Shpola Spare Parts Plant. For the last 7 years, he worked in Kyiv at Agrobut LLC. He devoted his free time to his family.

The man joined the ranks of the defenders on March 1, 2022. He served in the 118th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He was a rifleman in the 59th battalion.

“My husband loved his family very much and always said: “My family comes first”. He loved his children very much, and the children loved him! For us, this is a very big loss of our dearest person. He was attentive, fair, cheerful, hardworking. He wanted to achieve a lot in life, he wanted a happy future for his children, he wanted to teach them… he planned a lot of things, but, unfortunately, he did not have time…” said Lyubov Ahafonova. Posthumously, the defender was awarded the Order “For Courage” III degree, which was presented to his wife. Oleh was buried in the village of Iskrene in the Cherkasy region. He is survived by his wife Lyubov, son Dmytro, and daughter Anna.

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

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