The situation as of 11:00 a.m. on October 10, 2022
OPERATIONAL SITUATION
On the morning of October 10, almost all major cities of Ukraine, including the capital, Kyiv, were subjected to massive missile and kamikaze drone strikes from different directions. Main target – energy infrastructure. 11 important infrastructure facilities were damaged in eight regions and Kyiv. Many missiles hit civilian objects. As a result of a missile attack at least 10 civilians died and 60 were injured. In total Russian Federation launched around 100 missiles on Ukraine, half of them have been shot down.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces continue counteroffensive operations in northern Luhansk and Kherson regions. Russian troops are conducting intensified attacks near Bakhmut and on the western outskirts of Donetsk. The shelling of Zaporizhzhia has become particularly heavy. As a result of the destruction of residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, 43 civilians were killed over the past week.
On October 8, an explosion damaged the bridge across the Kerch Strait, a symbol of Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and an important logistical route for supplying the Russian military. The Russian leadership accuses Ukraine of orchestrating the attack on this infrastructure site.
Luhansk direction
After the successful liberation of most of the territories of Kharkiv region, the AFU continue counteroffensive actions in the direction of Svatove, located in the north of Luhansk region. According to the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, Serhii Haidai, seven settlements in the Svatove district have been retaken over the past few days. The Ukrainian military blocked the Svatove-Kreminna highway, which served as one of the logistics support routes for the Russian grouping in the Rubizhne-Sievierodonetsk-Lysychansk agglomeration.
Donetsk direction
Russian troops continue periodic offensive operations near Bakhmut and Avdiivka. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, it is in the Bakhmut direction where the fiercest fighting continues, but Ukrainian units are successfully defending themselves.
Intensive shelling of the Donetsk region by Russian forces is ongoing, leading to the destruction of civilian infrastructure and casualties among civilians. On October 8, there was a strike on Kurakhove, causing damage to apartment buildings. In total, during October 6–9, at least 14 civilians were killed and 45 people were injured in the territory of Donetsk region.
Zaporizhzhia direction
Russian troops continue shelling the residential infrastructure of Zaporizhzhia. In recent days, massive missile strikes have hit the city almost every day; attacks using Iranian Shahed-136 UAVs have also been recorded. Several apartment buildings have been badly damaged. As a result, at least 34 people were killed and more than 100 people were hospitalized over the past three days in Zaporizhzhia. On the night of October 10, residential areas of the city were shelled again. It should be noted that this is not the final number of casualties, as search operations and debris removal of destroyed houses are still underway.
Southern direction
Ukrainian troops continue to carry out counteroffensive operations in the Kherson direction. Over the past few days they have managed to liberate a number of settlements in the north of the region. At the same time, the Russian military managed to straighten their front line defenses in the north of the Kherson region. The AFU are preparing conditions for further attacks, including by conducting strikes on Russian strongholds and areas of concentration of Russian forces.
In the morning of October 8, an explosion damaged the bridge across the Kerch Strait. Several spans of the road section of the crossing were rendered inoperable. A fire broke out on the railway section of the facility, as a train with combustible materials was on board at the time of the explosion. The Russian side reports three deaths as a result of the incident and accuses Ukraine of organizing an attack on a key infrastructure facility through which the Russian grouping in the southern direction is supplied.
Shelling of Ukrainian territory
In the morning October 10, Kyiv city center was bombed with several missiles. Another missiles hit Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv, Rivne and Khmelnitskiy.
The shelling of the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk region continues. More intense strikes are carried out by Russian troops in the areas of Nikopol and Marhanets on the Dnipro River coast.
On the morning of October 6, Russian troops struck the territory of Khmelnitskyi region; one of the two rockets fell near an infrastructure facility.
On the night of October 8, a missile strike hit the central part of Kharkiv. As a result, a fire broke out in a hospital. In recent days, 18 people have been injured in the Kharkiv region.
The shelling of the border areas of Chernihiv and Sumy regions from the Russian territory continues. 1 person was killed in the Sumy region as a result of a UAV strike on October 9.
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION
According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, as of the morning of October 9, the number of affected children in Ukraine rose to 1,219 (421 children killed, 798 wounded) as a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. According to the government platform Children of War, as of October 9, 7,992 children had been deported and 239 were missing.
Ukrainian law enforcement agencies continue to record evidence of war crimes committed by Russian troops in the territories that have been liberated. The exhumation of mass graves in the recently liberated town of Lyman in the Donetsk region is underway. Excavations continue at two locations: according to preliminary information, about 200 civilians are buried at one site and the other is a mass grave of AFU servicemen. There are children among the first 20 exhumed bodies. In the urban-type settlement of Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi in Kharkiv region, the bodies of 6 people were found in different graves, some of them with their hands tied and signs of torture. In total, police investigators have initiated more than 35,000 criminal proceedings for crimes committed by the Russian military and their collaborators in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war with the Russian Federation.
Because of the large number of casualties resulting from the indiscriminate rocket attacks on Zaporizhzhia, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on the international community to strongly condemn Russia for its attacks against civilians and to increase sanctions pressure. He also noted the need to speed up deliveries of air and missile defense equipment to Ukraine.
The Russian military continues provocations and shelling of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. On October 8, they completely de-energized the Zaporizhzhia NPP. After almost two days of operation of emergency cooling pumps of the active zones of the reactors, Ukrainian personnel resumed feeding the plant’s own needs from the Ukrainian power grid. However, the threat of a nuclear catastrophe due to the actions of Russian troops remains acute.
Due to regular shelling by Russian troops for provocative purposes, the temporarily occupied city of Enerhodar (Zaporizhzhia region) where the ZNPP is located, has been without electricity and water for several days. The Ukrainian side has repeatedly attempted to deliver humanitarian shipments of food and hygiene products to Enerhodar, and to organize the prompt delivery and distribution of drinking water in Enerhodar. However, the relevant initiatives are blocked by the Russian military, which does not allow humanitarian cargoes through.
Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets stated that on October 7, Russian military from an airplane shelled a civilian convoy in the Kherson region. As a result of the shelling, at least 5 people were killed and 5 were wounded. The exact number of dead and wounded is still being determined.
The head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, Serhii Haidai, reported that in the temporarily occupied territories of Luhansk region, the Russian military is forcibly mobilizing men, conducting illegal passportization of the population, and deporting children to the Russian Federation. In addition, the removal of new equipment from local hospitals and schools has been recorded.
The Russian military is preventing the evacuation of civilians to Ukrainian-controlled territories. The mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, indicated that there are about 6,000 cars waiting to be allowed to leave in Vasylivka (Zaporizhzhia region) at the checkpoint. Some people are forced to live in cars for more than 10 days.
Ukrainian officials said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is accompanied by the destruction and looting of historical and cultural heritage sites. The Mariupol City Council reported that Russian troops stole more than 2,000 exhibits from the city’s museums, including paintings by Arkhip Kuindzhi and Ivan Aivazovsky, ancient icons, a unique handwritten Torah scroll, a 200-year-old Bible and more than 200 medals. According to the management of the Melitopol museum, Russian troops took out a priceless Hun diadem and other valuables. UNESCO claims that the hostilities damaged 199 cultural heritage sites in 12 regions of Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian government, the number of destroyed and damaged religious buildings is at least 270.
Resistance
The mayor of temporarily occupied Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, reported that on the morning of October 6, there were explosions in the northern part of the town.
ECONOMIC SITUATION
The Verkhovna Rada appointed Andrii Pyshnyi to the position of the head of the National Bank of Ukraine. Prior to that, he headed the state bank Oshchadbank (2014-2020), since the beginning of the war he worked in Yermak-McFaul international sanctions group.
The press service of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine informed that using indirect methods of calculation and modeling tools, it estimates a 30% reduction in Ukraine’s GDP for the three quarters of 2022.
Ukraine’s international reserves also continue to shrink. Due to a decrease in the total amount of financial aid in September, they decreased by $1.5 billion. According to preliminary data, as of October 1, Ukraine’s international reserves amounted to $23.9 billion.
The IMF Executive Board supported the allocation of about $1.3 billion to Ukraine. The total financing from the Fund in 2022 will amount to $2.7 billion. In all, international partners have disbursed about $19 billion to Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war. Ukraine needs an additional $16 billion to cover all budgetary needs by the end of the year.
POLITICAL AND DIPLOMATIC EVENTS
On October 6 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi met with Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Raphael Grossi. He said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to transfer the Zaporizhzhia NPP to Russian federal ownership should be condemned by the IAEA, since it was an international raid. According to Zelenskyi, the only possibility to ensure radiation safety of the plant, Ukraine and Europe is a complete demilitarization of the Zaporizhzhia NPP territory. As the president of Ukraine stressed, up to 500 Russian military personnel are still stationed there. For his part, the IAEA Director General stressed that the decision of the Russian president to transfer ownership of Zaporizhzhia NPP to Russia is a violation of international law. The IAEA will communicate exclusively with Ukraine on all issues related to the plant.
Ukraine continues to receive military and technical assistance from foreign partners. Slovakia transferred to Ukraine two more self-propelled artillery systems of Slovak production Zuzana-2. Germany announced the supply of an IRIS-T air defense system and the transfer of 100 armored vehicles to be delivered from Greece and Slovakia. Finland announced the ninth package of military assistance to Ukraine. The Finnish Ministry of Defense does not disclose the content of the aid, the method or schedule of delivery for security reasons, but it is now known that the cost of the last package is €11.8 million. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of a special fund of €100 million, through which Ukraine could receive the necessary weapons and buy equipment from French manufacturers.
France transferred to Ukraine more than a thousand tons of aid, including pontoon bridges more than 200 meters long – they will allow to restore civilian infrastructure and provide communication and transportation, including in the de-occupied territories. Ukraine will also receive firefighting and rescue vehicles, ambulances to allow for examination in the field, medical equipment, rescuers’ equipment and foodstuffs. Spain also sent another batch of aid to Ukraine (8 off-road vehicles, 2 ambulances and 5 tons of medicines), which should help the logistics and medical needs of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
The EU finally approved the eighth package of sanctions against Russia. It includes new bans on Russian trade, which should deprive the Russian economy of $7 billion in revenues. It also lays the legal groundwork for limiting the price of Russian oil, as proposed by G7 countries. The new sanctions package includes an expansion of the sanctions list –restrictions are imposed on an additional 30 Russian citizens and seven Russian companies that support Putin’s regime.
Japan also expanded sanctions against Russia because of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine – 80 individuals and 9 organizations from Russia fell under the new restrictions.
Ukraine backed Japan’s claims to the Russian-controlled Kuril Islands. The Verkhovna Rada supported the resolution, and the President of Ukraine signed a decree according to which Ukraine reaffirms its respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Japan, including its Northern Territories, which continue to be under occupation by the Russian Federation.
The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to organizations and figures fighting against war crimes, human rights violations and abuses of power in Russia and Belarus. The laureates were the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties, Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, and the Russian organization Memorial.
The information in the digest is collected from official sources — reports of state authorities of Ukraine, Ukrainian and international news agencies. The accuracy of the data is carefully checked by the project team and corrected in case of fake news.