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The U.K. Defense Ministry said on Dec. 3 that Russian forces had “highly likely” made small advances south of Bakhmut in recent days after five months of trying to capture the besieged town in Donetsk Oblast.
The ministry said that Russia likely plans to encircle Bakhmut with “tactical advances to the north and the south,” investing a significant portion of its military effort in capturing the town.
After Russia's battlefield defeats in Ukraine’s northeast and the south, “there is a realistic possibility that Bakhmut’s capture has become primarily a symbolic, political objective for Russia,” it added.
While seizing Bakhmut could allow Russia to launch more attacks on urban areas such as Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk Oblast, it would have “limited operational value," according to the U.K. Defense Ministry.
“The campaign has been disproportionately costly relative to these possible gains,” the report reads.
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Saturday, September 19
Some of the Yemeni nationals Russia plans to recruit for the war against Ukraine were born in 2006 and 2007, the Foreign Intelligence Service said.
The Kyiv Independent's Nick Allard and Asami Terajima travel to Kharkiv Oblast to meet reconnaissance soldiers from Ukraine's 60th Mechanized Brigade, part of the 3rd Army Corps, and witness the training required to perform one of the army's most dangerous roles.
Meanwhile, the Black Sea resort of Sochi temporarily closed access to beaches and the waterfront over the threat of a Ukrainian sea drone attack, the city's Mayor Andrey Proshunin said on Sept. 19.
The package includes S-300 Clone and GAM-67 missiles, radar systems for countering drones, range-extended laser-guided air defense systems, counter-drone radars, mobile launcher modification kits, all of which were requested by Kyiv.
Ukrainian forces downed 138 out of the 174 drones, including Shahed-type attack drones, launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force reported.
The number includes 1,520 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
Russian forces are responsible for the vast majority of sexual violence in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) announced in a new report.
According to the Luxembourg airport, flight operations were halted as a precautionary safety measure after unauthorized, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) were detected around and over the airport.
Despite the growing warnings, NATO has not said that a Russian military attack on an alliance member is imminent.
Among its provisions, the law requires the president to impose tariffs of up to 100% on goods from countries that continue buying Russian crude oil or natural gas and were among the five largest importers of Russian energy by volume over the previous 12 months.
"When I heard the story, I asked him, and he said, 'I'm paying him back, Dad,'" Trump told reporters on Sept. 18.
Friday, September 18
(Updated: )Politics
A 13-year-old girl was among those injured, Sumy Oblast Governor Oleh Hryhorov said. Three of the injured are in serious condition and are receiving medical treatment.
The Ukrainian National Guard includes some of Ukraine's most effective military units.
