Weekly Ukraine war summary: Urban fighting in Vuhledar, Russian forces rush to the Oskil River, AFU recaptures aggregate plant in Vovchansk

In addition, the Russian Armed Forces damaged a crossing and a bridge in Kharkiv Region and launched precision strikes with Lancet loitering munitions against Ukraine’s Dunai radar station and the “Yaroslavets” boat. Civilian deaths and injuries were reported in the Dnipropetrovsk (1, 2), Kharkiv (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Donetsk (1, 2, 3), and Sumy regions, among others. Nikopol, in Dnipropetrovsk region, was hit with aerial heat traps launched from an FPV (first-person view) drone as incendiary munitions.

The Russian Ministry of Defense, in turn, reported on the repulsion of the following raids:

On the night of Sep. 21, 101 Ukrainian fixed-wing UAVs were “destroyed and intercepted” over Russian territory. Ammunition depots in Tver Region and Krasnodar Krai came under attack.
On the night of Sep. 22, 15 UAVs were destroyed. One of the strikes presumably hit a facility at the Kapustin Yar missile range in the Astrakhan Region.
On the night of Sep. 23, Russian air defense intercepted 8 UAVs. A rocket fuel plant in the Rostov region was hit, with the attack damaging one of its gas supply pipes.
On the night of Sep. 24, 12 UAVs were destroyed.
On the night of Sep. 25, two UAVs.
On the night of Sep. 26, seven UAVs.
On the night of Sep. 27, nine UAVs.

Overall, according to the cited data, this past week Russia attacked Ukraine with a total of 329 Shahed UAVs and 26 missiles, while 154 Ukrainian fixed-wing UAVs were destroyed during night raids over the territory of Russia (the Russian Ministry of Defense does not disclose the total number of detected enemy drones).

Losses

The Russian independent publication Mediazona jointly with BBC Russian Service and a team of volunteers have established the names of 71,057 combatants killed on the Russian side in its war with Ukraine. Among Russia’s regions, Bashkortostan now ranks first in terms of overall war losses, replacing Krasnodar Krai. It is noted that many obituaries also come from Tatarstan.

According to a Financial Times report citing commanders of AFU units, 50-70% of Ukrainian infantry recruits are killed or wounded before their first rotation. According to the commanders, the freshly mobilized lack basic combat skills and motivation and often abandon their positions after being fired upon. In addition, 55,000 Ukrainians (mostly military personnel) have been reported missing, and more than 100,000 Ukrainian servicemen have gone AWOL since the beginning of 2022.

Weapons and military vehicles

During Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the United States, the American government announced multiple substantial military aid packages. The first, allocated under the Presidential Drawdown Authority for Military Assistance (PDA), features JSOW glide bombs compatible with F-16 multirole fighters. The next day, President Joe Biden announced $5.5 billion in military aid under the PDA program. As The Insider columnist Colby Badhwar previously explained, if the allocation had not been made in time, the funds would have simply “expired” at the end of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. In addition, a $2.4 billion arms order was announced under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) — it included SAMs, sea drones, air-to-ground munitions, UAVs, and drone and munitions production equipment. President Biden also promised to expand the training program for Ukrainian F-16 pilots and confirmed the previously announced delivery of another battery of the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system.

This week, the German Bundestag agreed to allocate an additional €400 million in military aid to Ukraine in 2024, and the UK increased the number of AS90 self-propelled howitzers planned for delivery from 12 to 16 (10 of which have already been delivered). It also became known that, in addition to the F-16s and French Mirage fighters, which were promised earlier, Ukraine is negotiating the delivery of Swedish JAS 39 Gripen and European Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft.