Zaporizhzhia experienced a record number of Russian FPV drone attacks on 29 October, injuring 14 people, including a 14-year-old boy, regional authorities said.

Russian forces used FPV drones and multiple-launch rocket systems to attack civilian infrastructure, targeting municipal transport and damaging residential buildings, warehouses, and cars, prosecutors said.

Zaporizhzhia reports record FPV drone attacks

Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration head Mykhailo Semikin said Zaporizhzhia had experienced a record number of FPV drone attacks on Thursday. After meeting with military officials, he said the authorities were aware of the situation and relevant services and Ukrainian defenders were responding.

He said Russian forces had “changed their tactics and modified their drones,” adding that Ukrainian military personnel were working on countermeasures to address the new threats.

Semikin urged residents to remain calm, heed air raid alerts, and exercise particular caution.

Russian forces launched a record number of FPV drone attacks on Zaporizhzhia on 29 October, repeatedly targeting civilian public transport.

Drones struck a municipal bus, a minibus, and a trolleybus. Four people were injured in the bus attack alone. Across the city, at least 14… pic.twitter.com/WfemZSh7yr

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) October 29, 2026

Russian drones target municipal transport

The attacks included strikes on a municipal bus, a minibus, and a trolleybus, according to Semikin.

In the morning, a Russian FPV drone struck a municipal bus, injuring four people.

In a separate attack, Russian forces struck 15 vehicles, a warehouse building, and a power line, sparking a fire and damaging a nearby apartment building. Two men, aged 41 and 66, were injured.

At around midday, another FPV drone hit a minibus in central Zaporizhzhia, injuring one person. 

Later, a Russian drone struck a municipal trolleybus, critically injuring a 56-year-old woman and lightly injuring two other women, aged 71 and 66.

Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia injured two men, aged 41 and 66.

The strikes set four cars and an open area on fire, damaged a warehouse, and damaged four cars and four buses.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service pic.twitter.com/oqRfYvMa7T

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) October 29, 2026

Zaporizhzhia’s proximity to the front line

Zaporizhzhia lies relatively close to the front line in southern Ukraine, leaving the city exposed to Russian attacks with weapons that can be used at shorter ranges, including FPV drones and multiple-launch rocket systems. 

The proximity allows Russian forces to threaten civilian infrastructure more easily without relying solely on long-range missiles or drones.

Prosecutors investigate suspected war crime

The Zaporizhzhia Regional Prosecutor’s Office said it had opened a war crimes investigation. Investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine’s regional directorate are conducting the pretrial investigation.

The casualty count and damage reports were preliminary, and authorities said information was still being updated as the attacks continued.

Russian attacks kill civilians in several Ukrainian cities

Zaporizhzhia was not the only major city hit by Russian attacks on 29 October. In Dnipro, a Russian strike on the railway station killed at least 14 people. 

In Chernihiv, two teenage girls were killed and 23 people injured, including four children. In Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast, three people were killed and 15 injured, including three children. 

The attacks damaged residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in all three cities.

Ukraine’s humanitarian mission to Russian-occupied Oleshky in Kherson Oblast has reached a key stage, with mine clearance along designated routes completed and a humanitarian convoy ready to depart, Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said on 29 October.

The mission aims to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians trapped in the occupied city facing humanitarian crisis, and provide a safe way out for those who want to leave. The operation is taking place under a localized ceasefire coordinated with the help of US First Lady Melania Trump.

Lubinets said the ceasefire has held for 54 hours without reported violations.

Aid convoy prepared, civilian evacuations planned

Lubinets said the humanitarian convoy was ready to leave and was expected to reach Oleshky’s central hospital. Residents would receive the assistance they need, he said.

Civilians wishing to leave the city would have an opportunity to do so until 2 p.m. local time, with security measures organized for their departure. Distribution of humanitarian aid was scheduled to begin after 2:30 p.m.

Delegations from Ukraine, Russia, and the United States had gathered to coordinate the next steps in the mission. Journalists from all three countries were also present, Lubinets said.

Lubinets travels to occupied Oleshky

Earlier on 29 October, Lubinets said he was still traveling toward Oleshky.

He said he wanted to be on the ground to see the situation firsthand and report on the mission’s progress. Lubinets also asked the public to rely on official sources and wait until he returned before raising further questions about the negotiations.

The Ukrainian ombudsman said the negotiations had been difficult and lengthy, adding that the mission had reached only the halfway point toward its goals.

“If I had to go for the sake of one person, I would go again,” Lubinets said, describing the mission as his duty to help Ukrainians in need.

US-mediated ceasefire enables humanitarian operation

The mission is being conducted jointly by Lubinets and Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova, with mediation and coordination by Melania Trump.

The localized ceasefire took effect on 27 October to allow mine clearance, humanitarian deliveries, and civilian evacuations. 

Oleshky, on the east bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast, has been under Russian occupation since 2022. Russian occupation and restrictions on access to the city have left civilians facing severe shortages of food, medicine, and other essential supplies, while access to medical care has become increasingly difficult. The humanitarian mission aims to deliver urgently needed aid and help residents who want to leave reach safety.

Lubinets thanked Melania Trump and the Ukrainians and US citizens who helped bring attention to the situation in Oleshky and support the negotiations. He said the mission’s priority remained delivering assistance and helping civilians leave safely.

Ukraine’s Defense Forces inflicted an estimated 49,040 personnel losses on Russian forces in October as of 29 October, setting a new monthly record since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s General Staff said.

The figure points to the growing human cost of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Ukraine’s military says Russian losses are rising faster than Moscow can replenish its units, making it increasingly costly for Russia to sustain its offensive operations.

October losses surpass previous record

The previous monthly record was set in December 2024, when Russian forces suffered an estimated 48,670 personnel losses, according to the General Staff.

October’s total had already surpassed that figure by 370 personnel as of 29 October, with three days remaining in the month.

The General Staff reported an average of about 1,750 Russian personnel losses per day in October so far.

Russian losses rise sharply in 2026

Ukraine’s General Staff reported 26,090 Russian personnel losses in February 2026, followed by 46,230 in September. By 29 October, the October figure had reached 49,040.

The figures indicate a sharp increase in reported Russian losses over the past several months.

Ukraine says losses exceed Russia’s ability to replenish units

The General Staff said the pace of Russian personnel losses exceeds Russia’s ability to replenish its military units. According to the Ukrainian military, the rising toll makes each month of the war increasingly costly for Moscow.

The figures refer to total personnel losses and do not distinguish between those killed and wounded. They are estimates published by Ukraine’s military and could not be independently verified.

Ukraine’s Defense Forces said they would continue inflicting losses on Russian forces until Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine ends.

Russia has started installing magnetometers in the tails or tail fins of its Geran attack drones, Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian president’s commissioner for sanctions policy, said on Facebook on 28 October.

Russia uses its Shahed-Geran series drones in massive daily attacks on Ukraine. Ukrainian forces jam Gerans’ satellite navigation to push them off course, and Russia keeps hardening the drones against it, already fitting them with adaptive antennas. The magnetometer appears designed to go further, giving the drone a heading that doesn’t depend on satellites at all. Earlier this month, Ukrainian military intelligence reported a US-made magnetometer in the upgraded Geran-4.

A new jamming device, and Western parts at the core

Vlasiuk posted photos from a site where Ukraine studies Russian weapons and their components. He said he takes the findings for Ukraine’s sanctions work. He did not say which Geran models carry the magnetometer.

At the same time, Ukraine is studying how a new jamming device works. Vlasiuk did not say where it was found or what it targets.

“Western electronics are at the core everywhere,” Vlasiuk wrote.

Geran-4 already flew with a US-made sensor

On 5 October, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) said the upgraded Geran-4 carries a new “MOKh” unit built around a PNI5GA magnetometer made by US firm PNI Sensor. The unit works with the SADRA inertial navigation module to cut gyroscope drift and make the drone’s autonomous navigation more accurate.

HUR said Russia also added an electro-optical navigation system called Susanin to the upgraded Geran-4. It compares camera images with a reference image stored in memory to keep the drone on its route to the target. The new K5 version of the Geran-5 uses a similar system.

Presidential adviser Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov warned on 28 October that if Russia starts using Susanin en masse on Geran-5s and other drones and missiles at night, Ukraine may have to go back to switching off lights, especially on roads.

Oleshky residents who choose Ukraine are to be taken through Russia and flown to Belarus, and the ceasefire agreement does not say how they will get from there to Ukrainian-held territory, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted on 28 October. ISW also warned that Russia may use the truce to rebuild its forces in Kherson Oblast.

Oleshky, a town across the Dnipro from Kherson, has been occupied by Russia since February 2022, and about 2,000 people remain there, short of food and medicine. A US-brokered truce took hold on 27 October so aid can go in and residents can leave. The mission will show whether Russia lets those who choose Ukraine actually get home.

Anapa, Homiel, and then?

Pages of the agreement, signed on 23 October by Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets and his Russian counterpart Yana Lantratova, were published by Fox News. They send the Ukrainian delegation and residents who want to go to Ukraine from Oleshky to the airport in Russia’s Anapa. From there, a Russian Defense Ministry military transport plane is to fly them to Homiel in Belarus, with the flight expected on 31 October.

The delegation includes Lubinets, two of his staff, and two Ukrainian journalists, accompanied by a representative of the Russian ombudsman’s office and of the group coordinating the mission. Russia’s Dnepr Grouping of Forces, which holds the left bank of the Dnipro, provides the escort. ISW pointed out that the pages do not explain how evacuees travel on from Belarus, and that it remains unclear whether Russia will give residents “a legitimate and duress-free choice” to return to Ukraine.

A route through Russia may also mean so-called filtration. People leaving occupied Mariupol in 2022 had to pass Russian screening, and many who hoped to reach Ukrainian-controlled territory were taken to Russia instead, Human Rights Watch documented. In Washington, the Congressional Ukraine Caucus welcomed the ceasefire but raised alarm over reports that Russia was keeping Oleshky residents from evacuating to Ukrainian-controlled territory, RFE/RL reported.

On 29 October, the Ukrainian delegation led by Lubinets arrived in Belarus, and the two delegations held their first in-person meeting at Homiel airport, Belarus’s state agency BelTA reported. Belarus has also joined the operation, BelTA said. Lubinets confirmed the same day that he had set off for Oleshky with the delegation to deliver aid and work on making sure people can leave safely.

Aid due on 30 October

The truce has held for 54 hours without violations, Lubinets said on 29 October. Routes are being demined, and an aid cargo is to reach Oleshky on 30 October, he added. The truce is set to last until 22:59 on 1 November. Across the river, the Kherson Oblast administration recorded no shelling and no civilian casualties over the past day.

Lantratova wrote that aid had been sent, saying residents need “food, fuel, medicine, hygiene products,” and that they would be able to leave wherever they wanted to go. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia expected residents to get aid within a day or two and those who wished to leave to be able to do so, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

US First Lady Melania Trump, who brokered the truce, announced that four Newsmax journalists will work in Oleshky alongside the Russian and Ukrainian humanitarian teams. Her post quoted Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who wrote that Russia “welcomes” the Newsmax journalists, rather than any Ukrainian official:

DOCUMENTING OLESHKY
Four American journalists from Newsmax will be on the ground in Oleshky, embedded with Russian and Ukrainian humanitarian leaders.

Serving as neutral observers, they will independently record and permanently document this historic humanitarian mission. https://t.co/orfhcC8URs

— First Lady Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) October 28, 2026

A pause Russia may use

On the truce’s first day, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov inspected the Dnepr Grouping and met its commander, Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky. The ministry said they discussed drone units. Ukrainian serviceman and analyst Volodymyr Molchanov told Radio NV that intelligence shows Russia rapidly reinforcing its forces in Oleshky, bringing in what Ukrainian drones had kept out.

Russian forces may use the limited ceasefire to reconstitute in Kherson Oblast, ISW assessed.

Sergio Perez turned one of Mexico City’s grandest avenues into a celebration of national pride as fans packed Paseo de la Reforma ahead of the Mexican driver’s 300th Grand Prix start this weekend.

An estimated 100,000 people gathered for the Cadillac driver’s showrun, his fourth in Mexico during his Formula One career.

Mexican flags lined the avenue along with giant images of the 36-year-old as Perez drove the Formula Two adapted car, performed tyre-smoking doughnuts and stopped near the Angel of Independence monument to greet fans.

“I know some of you were here since last night. I really appreciate it,” Perez told the crowd. “You guys are one of the main reasons I came back to Formula One.

“Thank you for all the unforgettable moments,” he added.

Perez, a six-times Grand Prix winner, returned to the grid this year with Cadillac and the team announced earlier on Wednesday that the Mexican driver had signed a multi-year contract extension until 2029.

For fans priced out of the Grand Prix or unable to secure tickets before they sold out, the free street event offered a chance to share in the spectacle.

Twenty-year-old Sebastian Perez, no relation to the driver, came dressed in a homemade replica race suit and helmet that he said cost almost 3,000 Mexican pesos ($161.26).

“I’m not going (to the race). To be honest, I couldn’t get a ticket but I would have liked to. I feel the prices are a little high; not everyone can afford to go. But also, because there are so many fans now, it sells out really quickly.”

A Perez fan for nearly three years, Sebastian said his namesake’s resilience had made him a hero.

“I started following him when he was still at Red Bull, and then I got to see his retirement and then his return,” he said. “I really like him because he has always shown that he doesn’t give up — that ‘never give up’ attitude.”

Virginia Cano, 62, who said she had followed Perez for around a decade, praised his impact beyond the track.

“It brings me joy, knowing that he is a world-class competitor — not just a national one, but a global one — and an excellent person,” she said. “Also handsome.

“As Mexicans, having someone in racing who has gone so far. It’s wonderful.”

While families and fans of all ages pressed against barriers for a glimpse of the hometown hero, children sat on their parents’ shoulders and some even climbed up trees or over monuments.

Perez signed autographs and posed for photographs before getting into a classic Cadillac convertible to wave to the crowd.

His team mate Valtteri Bottas was also invited, although the Finn did not drive, he drew cheers with an enthusiastic message in Spanish: “Amo los tacos, amo Mexico”.

Euromaidan Press has been impersonated as part of a Russian disinformation campaign. A copycat website was created, with a hyphen added to our name, which published a fabricated article alleging a Ukrainian drone had killed civilians in Kramatorsk that cites anonymous "Ukrainian OSINT channels" amid copies of our real news reports. In reality, that 8 October strike was a Russian aerial bombing of two public buses that killed 33 civilians.

The fabrication is part of a years-long Russian disinformation campaign to impersonate and clone trusted news brands, predominantly in Europe, and publish false reports under their names. The disinformation research project Gnida tied our case to Storm-1516, one of several overlapping Russian operations, alongside the older Doppelganger, and NewsGuard, which reached out to us while preparing its own debunk, attributes the fake to the same operation. The fabricated Kramatorsk report comes amid an ongoing effort to erode Western support for Ukraine, as Russia's war goes on, and to sow distrust among Western political elites.

The claim and the actual 8 October attack

The fake started circulating on 24 October, one day after the forged publication appeared on our website. It started making rounds on X together with a forged video with a version of our logo claiming that "newly obtained footage" featured the remains of a Liutyi drone that "independent OSINT channels" claimed were "quickly removed from the scene." No specific OSINT channels were named; no sources were linked.

The forged video, apparently produced with AI, and the link were spread by X accounts such as @vick55top, @indiaTales7, @TheWorld_Update, @Wonder_star21, @Theunk5555, @SilentBriefHQ1, and @Suriyakmaps, where it was subsequently removed. The videos on those accounts averaged 400,000 to 500,000 views, far more than the accounts' modest follower counts and their usual engagement would produce, a likely sign of inauthentic amplification.

On 25 October, the Russian disinformation monitor Gnida Project flagged this as a case of the Storm-1516 disinformation campaign. Other recent cases flagged by Gnida included advertisements of Russian Geran drones, claims of the Shamonda virus being leaked from a "Ukrainian biolab," smears against US Democratic candidates, and a fake on a similar copycat "toronto-sun.ca" website alleging that President Zelenskyy purchased a nuclear bunker in Nova Scotia.

The latest Storm-1516 disinformation campaign is targeting Ukraine. The campaign promotes a false narrative that a deadly strike in the Ukrainian city Kramatorsk was performed by a Ukrainian drone based on a fake "Ukrainian OSINT investigation" pic.twitter.com/Klpm9UVCf2

— gnida project (@gnidaproject) October 25, 2026

As for the actual content of the fake, the real event is one of the most thoroughly documented atrocities of the month. On 8 October 2026, Russian forces struck two public buses in Kramatorsk with an aerial bomb, killing 33 people and wounding about 18. Such attacks are, sadly, a daily occurrence in cities on the frontline. There was no Ukrainian drone and no removed wreckage. The fabrication simply reassigns a Russian mass killing of civilians to its victim, which is the entire point.

The fake site was not a single page. It scraped our entire website, mirroring our genuine articles, and injected the fabricated one among them, so the lie traveled under the credibility of real reporting. The look-alike domain was registered on 15 October, eight days before the fake appeared, according to who.is data.

Storm-1516

Gnida Project identified the fake as part of Storm-1516, a Russian influence operation that clones trusted news brands to spread fabricated stories, and NewsGuard, which contacted us about the impersonation, attributes it to the same operation. NewsGuard has documented the tactic generating some 900 false reports over three years; the same operation has targeted France and Germany and has recently impersonated other outlets, including in Ukraine, such as this fake report on a copycat website pretending to be the New Voice of Ukraine.

Storm-1516 is one of several overlapping Russian operations that impersonate real media. Since 2022, the Doppelganger network has cloned whole Western outlets and government sites, and it is still active, flooding France with more than 200 fake sites before its 2026 elections. Polish fact-checkers literally call the tactic “attack of the clones.” A second operation, Matryoshka, floods social media with cheap fake videos credited to real outlets. Storm-1516, first identified in late 2023 and later named by Microsoft, grew out of Russia's Prigozhin-era troll operations, is the most elaborate of the three, and has overtaken RT and Sputnik as Russia's main disinformation machine. Its attacks combine cloned websites and fake videos.

NewsGuard counts some 906 fabricated reports impersonating 163 outlets from 21 countries since 2023, Euronews, the BBC, Deutsche Welle, and France 24 most of all, as well as the Kyiv Independent. The fakes nearly all bend one way, to erode Western support for Ukraine. Some smear Ukraine's leaders, a fabricated story that 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers evacuated to France had deserted into criminal gangs, invented claims that first lady Olena Zelenska fled abroad. Others, like the one aimed at us, flip Russian actions onto Ukraine. A separate Storm-1516 fabrication, a false claim that Ukrainian officials bought yachts with misappropriated US aid, was repeated in 2023 by JD Vance, then a US senator.

We filed a copyright and abuse complaint with the host, Namecheap, and a phishing report with Cloudflare, and pressed the registrar. The complaints worked: the clone has been taken down.

How to take down a cloned news site

Impersonation is cheap to set up, and any outlet can be next, so here is the procedure our technical team used, which other newsrooms can follow to take a clone down quickly.

1. Cut the scraping pipeline. Run a DNS lookup (ping, nslookup, or dnschecker.org) on the cloned domain to expose the hosting IP behind any basic masking, then add a custom block rule in your Cloudflare WAF (Security, WAF, Custom Rules) targeting that IP, which cuts off the scraping scripts in real time. Watch the WAF logs over the next 48 hours in case the attackers rotate to new scraping proxies.
2. Unmask the infrastructure and send formal notices. Run an IP WHOIS lookup (ipinfo.io) to identify the host, for example Namecheap or DigitalOcean, and the registrar, then submit DMCA takedown and phishing notices to the host's legal portal or abuse address. Include side-by-side URL comparisons of the original and cloned pages, clear documentation of the brand spoofing and the injected disinformation, and a good-faith legal statement with full contact details.
3. Block access and de-index from search. Report the clone to Google Safe Browsing under social engineering and impersonation, which, once verified in 24 to 48 hours, makes Chrome, Firefox, and Safari show a full-page red warning to anyone who tries to open it. Then file a Google Search Console DMCA removal request to pull the cloned URLs out of search results.
4. Escalate to the registrar. Submit a registrar abuse complaint demanding a full suspension of the domain, a ClientHold status, on the grounds of bad-faith typosquatting and identity theft, and push your open abuse ticket IDs through your Cloudflare account to skip the standard queue.

Be sure to read the automated replies from the host and Cloudflare and answer them promptly. Those acknowledgments often ask for specific additional information, and a fast, complete reply keeps the ticket moving instead of stalling in a queue.

How to spot Russian Storm-1516 attacks

Many users on X called out the signs: a look-alike domain (our only website is euromaidanpress.com, with no hyphen), a claim sourced to unnamed "OSINT channels," and a story that reassigns a Russian attack to Ukraine.

We never publish an image or video without crediting its source, and we never cite anonymous OSINT experts: our reporting traces to a first source. Trust only reports that name the first source of a claim and label the origin of their images and video. If you cannot trace the source, you cannot trust the report.

Ukraine may have to revisit its blackout measures if Russia begins mass-using the Susanin optical navigation module on Geran-5 drones and other drones and missiles at night, Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, a defense-technology adviser to Ukraine’s president, says. Road and highway lighting will be the first concern.

Russia keeps upgrading the weapons it sends against Ukrainian cities. It has already fitted its jet-powered Gerans with machine vision that lets them recognize and track targets on their own in the final seconds of flight, which Ukraine’s electronic warfare cannot easily defeat.

Flash says Ukraine would act deliberately this time

In 2022, Ukrainians switched off lights out of fear. Flash says that if optical navigation spreads, darkness may have to become a deliberate defense.

“If our enemy begins to use the Susanin optical navigation module en masse on the Geran-5 and other drones (missiles) at night, we may have to revisit the question of light masking,” Beskrestnov says.

This especially concerns the lighting of roads and stretches of highways, where cars are especially vulnerable to drone and missile attacks, with Ukrainian rescuers named being in a vehicle during a strike as one of the most dangerous places.

Meanwhile, Beskrestnov does not say how widely Russia already uses the module.

Russia’s air war grows faster and more frequent

Jet-powered Gerans already fly too fast for the mobile gun teams and light interceptors that stop slower drones, and Ukraine is still testing jet interceptors of its own.

“Credit to the Russians. They know how to scale,” Serhii Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, said in September.

By August, Russian forces were striking Kyiv almost twice a week on average, each attack costing the city about $12 million, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Ukraine’s Economy Ministry expects losses from Russian strikes to reach up to $10 billion this year.

Starting in May, Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps began exploiting gaps in Russian lines just north of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast. Five months later, the corps and its supporting drone units had cleared Russian troops from 277 sq km of northern Donetsk, inflicting what the corps says were 8,000 Russian casualties and pushing the Russian 20th and 25th Combined Arms Armies back across a key terrain feature: the Zherebets River.

On 14 October, the 3rd Army Corps declared victory in its Operation Vivaldi. "Four seasons of Vivaldi are over. But the music plays on," the corps wrote on Telegram.

It was unclear at the time what the corps meant. Its commander, Brig. Gen. Andrii Biletskyi, has since been seconded to lead Ukraine's new Center Group of Forces. But it's clearer now. According to at least two observers, Ukrainian troops have continued attacking along the Zherebets River—and have even crossed the river at several points.

If true and confirmed, the crossings could ratchet up the pressure on the battered Russian 20th and 25th Combined Arms Armies following their hasty and chaotic retreat from their former salient north of Sloviansk. The Zherebets should have been a natural defensive barrier for the Russians.

Sheltering on the river's eastern bank, the Russians could have rested, reset, and reinforced in preparation for a renewed offensive next year. But if the Ukrainians keep attacking, rest might be impossible. And that could force the Russians to rethink any plans for a fresh push toward Sloviansk and neighboring Kramatorsk, the last two big free cities in Donetsk.

But an extension of Operation Vivaldi isn't without risk for the 3rd Army Corps. If the corps pushes too far, too fast across a difficult obstacle, it could expose itself to counterattack.

Ukraine's "Vilvadi" counteroffensive in the Lyman direction has not stopped, despite claims to the contrary.

Ukrainian forces have made new advances in several different areas over the last couple of weeks, crossing the Zherebets River onto its eastern bank at multiple different…

— AMK Mapping (@AMK_Mapping_) October 26, 2026

Continuing counteroffensive

Ukraine's Vivaldi counteroffensive in the Lyman direction "has not stopped, despite claims to the contrary," the mapping account AMK Mapping explained on Monday after noting possible Ukrainian forces on the eastern side of the Zherebets in recent weeks. "Ukrainian forces have made new advances in several different areas over the last couple of weeks, crossing the Zherebets River onto its eastern bank at multiple different locations." AMK Mapping also noted that many Ukrainian assaults over the past month had been repelled and that casualties were likely rising.

AMK Mapping isn't alone. On Monday, mapper Suriyak also logged Ukrainian troops on the far side of the Zherebets in three key settlements: Makiivka, Novosadove, and Terny. "They are establishing a significant bridgehead," Suriyak wrote.

The possible Ukrainian river crossings could defy recent expectations. "The Ukrainians have continued their push and advancement toward the Zherebets River," mapper Clément Molin wrote on 20 October. "They have reached it at several points, and Russian forces no longer control any territory west of this river—with the exception of the forest east of Lyman."

Ukrainian-Russian war. Day 1700-1704:
Situation on Luhansk front: During the last two weeks, Ukrainian army has managed to secure new positions on the western bank of the Zherebets River, including the south of Makiivka and the rest of Novolyubivka. However, military… pic.twitter.com/zfi1Txv3eA

— @Suriyak (@Suriyakmaps) October 26, 2026

But Molin didn't expect the 3rd Army Corps to force the river, a risky maneuver under the best of circumstances. "Despite various rumors, I have not been able to confirm that the Ukrainians have actually crossed the river," Molin wrote.

Instead, he expected the Ukrainian corps to do what the defeated Russian field armies were trying to do: consolidate in new positions and get ready for the next round of major fighting, potentially next year. "For the time being, I believe the Ukrainians will focus on consolidating their gains and adopting a defensive posture."

If indeed the 3rd Army Corps has crossed the Zherebets, it's a possible indication that the corps still has some combat power in reserve—and is eager to prolong its momentum for as long as possible, even if that means heavier losses in risky river crossings.

A major clash could occur if and when the 3rd Army Corps tries to seize full control of Terny, which anchors the Russian line on the east bank of the Zherebets. Two years ago, Terny was the site of intensive fighting as Russian forces fought their way across the Zherebets on their long march toward Sloviansk. That battle was a costly victory for the Russians as they sent mechanized column after mechanized column across a drone kill zone toward Terny.

The worst outcome for the outnumbered Ukrainian troops in northern Donetsk may be a mirror image of the Russian march through Terny in 2024. Yes, the Russians eventually captured Terny and secured a bridgehead on the western bank of the Zherebets. But the Russians overextended as they kept pushing toward Sloviansk, roughly 40 km to the southwest of Terny.

It's that overextension that afforded the 3rd Army Corps the opportunity to counterattack and roll back the hard-won Russian gains. To preserve its own recent victory on the western side of the Zherebets, the 3rd Army Corps may want to choose caution. Ukrainian forces "need to organize a coherent and solid defensive line," Molin advised.

That may mean not attacking across the Zherebets—despite the temptation to do so.

Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) has published the names of 49 Russian and Belarusian companies and institutions building Rassvet, Russia’s low-orbit satellite internet system, on its War&Sanctions portal, the agency said on 28 October. It needs it for its military purposes.

Russian troops ran front-line communications and long-range strike drones on smuggled Starlink terminals until SpaceX blocked them on 1 February 2026. Ukraine still flies on Musk’s network, and on 24 October it got back to full speed after a ten-day cap imposed abroad. Rassvet is meant to give Russia’s army satellite links under its own control.

HUR has said Moscow may struggle to obtain components for more satellites, and its list names the suppliers that sanctions would need to target while the network is still being built.

Terminals for Iskander-M command vehicles

Rassvet is first of all a military communications system. Russia plans to use it for command and control, strike platforms, and drones, and to install terminals in the command-and-staff vehicles of Iskander-M missile systems, HUR says.

The Central Research Institute of Automation and Hydraulics is involved in integrating Rassvet into army communications, including fitting command vehicles, Iskander ones among them, with terminals once 292 satellites are in orbit, according to the portal. The same institute produces guidance components for the Iskander-M and Kinzhal missiles.

Planned coverage takes in Ukraine and the EU first, and once it is wide enough, Russia could use the system in hybrid attacks on other countries. That is why partners should block Rassvet’s access to components, equipment, and software now, the agency said.

Roscosmos launches it, a Belarusian missile maker signs on

The lead company is Bureau 1440, part of the IKS Holding tech group. According to the portal, it is linking its flight control center to systems of the Russian Defense Ministry. Roscosmos launches the satellites into orbit, and its head, Dmitry Bakanov, personally oversees Rassvet.

Meanwhile, Belintersat, Belarus’s national satellite operator, signed a partnership with Bureau 1440 in May 2026 to bring Rassvet into Belarus’s telecom network. It is a branch of the Plant of Precision Electromechanics, Belarus’s lead missile developer and maker of the Polonez rocket launcher.

Another Belarusian firm, Aerospace Instruments, prototypes components for the system.

23 of 49 not sanctioned by Kyiv’s allies

Of the 49, 23, Roscosmos among them, are not under sanctions by any country in the sanctions coalition. The companies involved “must be included in all blacklists” of countries, banks, and businesses, the agency wrote.

32 satellites launched, seven launches to go

Russia launched its first 16 Rassvet satellites earlier this year. Stable communications would need 200–250 in orbit, Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, then adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, said in May.

By August, Russia had launched 32 Rassvet satellites and planned seven more launches by the end of 2026, a HUR official told Janes. Only 12 of them, all from the first batch, had reached a sustainable altitude by the end of August, ISW reported.

A small Russian cruise missile of an unconfirmed type came down almost intact in Odesa Oblast, Militarnyi reported on 27 October. Its box-shaped airframe looks unlike the Geran-5 variant whose name a presidential adviser gave it.

Militarnyi describes Russia’s work on the Geran-5 line as iterative: features tested on one version reappear in the next. A variant reported in late September can correct its route by images of the ground instead of satellite signals, which Ukraine jams, according to the monitoring channel Polkovnyk GSh. Official Ukrainian sources have not confirmed that system. The airframe found in Odesa Oblast looks shaped for a different problem: radar. Russia now builds 4,000 jet-powered Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones a month, Militarnyi says, most of them Geran-4. It is also building new launch sites for the Geran-5.

What the wreck shows

Local Telegram channel Odesa Info Live posted photos of the missile lying in open ground with little visible damage. Militarnyi described a compact cruise missile with a box-shaped fuselage, rounded edges, and a swept wing. The flat-sided body is probably meant to simplify production, the outlet said, and it may also cut radar visibility. A small turbojet engine exhausts through a V-shaped tail and draws air through intakes on both sides. Militarnyi read the dark composite skin as another measure against radar.

Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, the president’s adviser on defense technology, published the first photos of the new missile on 22 October. He wrote that it navigates optically and has greater range, speed, and flight altitude, and he labeled it the Geran-5 K5-K. However, Militarnyi noted that it looks substantially different from the K5-K variant already known by that name. In its 23 October overview, the outlet said Russia had started using two new small cruise missiles, probably developments of the Geran-5.

How Russia got here

Russia first used the original Geran-5 against Ukraine in early January 2026, Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) said, describing it as a jet-powered strike drone. Militarnyi now classes the whole line as small cruise missiles.

Until specialists open the airframe, its navigation, range, and speed rest on Beskrestnov’s word. What they find inside will show how much of the design is aimed at Ukraine’s radar.

A fire broke out in the area of a major Russian steel plant in Lipetsk late on 27 October, Kyiv time, as air defenses fired at incoming targets, the Ukrainian monitoring Telegram channel Exilenova+ reported. Ukrainian partisans said the strike may have hit the plant. The region’s governor denied any large industrial fire.

Whether or not it was hit, the plant matters to Ukraine. The Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant (NLMK) is Russia’s only producer of electrical steel, Ukrainska Pravda reported in April 2025. NLMK’s tax records, obtained by the outlet, showed sales of that steel to Moscow’s Avangard plant, which builds missiles for S-400 air defense systems. Russia also fires those missiles at ground targets in Ukraine.

Pantsir fires, no visible hit

The targets over Lipetsk were jet-powered, Exilenova+ wrote, citing preliminary reports of impacts and a fire toward the city’s airfield. Footage it posted showed a Pantsir air defense system firing, and the channel suggested the system may have failed to cope. It then reported the fire near NLMK, blaming air defense fire or a falling object.

We also observe a fire in the vicinity of NLMK (Novolipetsk Metallurgical Combine) resulting from air defense activity or the impact of an object. pic.twitter.com/7bBqyqCP2j

— Exilenova+ (@Exilenova_plus) October 27, 2026

The Crimean Tatar-Ukrainian partisan movement Atesh said its agents in Lipetsk reported an impact, and in a follow-up said they believe it may have hit NLMK.

Contracts and denials

A 2022 investigation by Disclose and its partners tied 18 NLMK contracts, all signed after 2014, to eight Russian defense firms, including an S-300 maker. NLMK confirmed the contracts but said only a “negligible” amount of civilian steel grades went to those firms.

On 28 October, Lipetsk Oblast Governor Igor Artamonov claimed air defenses downed 45 drones over the oblast overnight. He insisted reports of a large industrial fire were untrue, saying drone debris fell in a tree belt and sparked a fire, since contained. Debris also blew out windows in a Lipetsk apartment block, and one person sought medical help but needed no hospitalization, he added. Whether NLMK took any damage remains unconfirmed.

Earlier strikes on weapons suppliers

Earlier, UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles reportedly struck a battery plant in Yelets, in the same oblast, on 25 October. Two days before that, they reportedly hit an electronics plant in Oryol. OSINT channels described both as suppliers of parts for Russian missiles.

A test satellite for a future communications network under Ukrainian control is working in orbit, Ukraine’s Himera and Denmark’s GomSpace said on 27 October. The companies say it will work for Ukraine’s strategic security, and that the long-term aim is to rely less on foreign communications providers. Public launch records for the mission do not list a satellite by that name, though some of its objects are still unidentified.

Ukraine fights Russia on satellite links it doesn’t control, and the announcement comes two weeks after it saw what depending on an outside provider can cost. The satellite, the companies say, went up on 1 October, before that trouble began. Overnight on 14 October, Starlink and its military version, Starshield, began dropping links on fast-moving terminals, and Ukrainian officials said the cap disrupted drone missions. On 24 October, 10 days after the cap began, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reported speeds restored. Who ordered the cap remains contested. That same day, Elon Musk wrote that Ukraine’s military had violated Starlink’s terms of service and that “that loophole was closed last week,” a claim a Ukrainian presidential adviser disputed.

What the companies say, and what launch records show

Obria Nano flew on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare mission, the release said. Aalborg-based GomSpace built it on Himera’s order, Himera co-founder and CEO Misha Rudominski wrote on Facebook. He added that the team received the first signals the next day and that the satellite is now working. Its tests are meant to inform the design of the full Obria system, the release said.

No satellite called Obria Nano appears on SpaceX’s published list for the mission, The Insider found. Public tracking catalogs show one Ukrainian satellite from that launch, named UASAT-Nano. Another 26 objects from the mission are still listed with placeholder names and no confirmed owner. The outlet said it is unclear whether the two names refer to one satellite.

UASAT-Nano is the satellite network Stetman, another Ukrainian company, is building, and its founder said the network’s first test satellite would launch in October. In April, Stetman and GomSpace agreed to set up a joint venture called UASAT and planned a first launch for fall 2026. The Obria release does not mention Stetman or UASAT.

Production in Ukraine is the stated next step

Rudominski wrote that Himera’s next stage is to produce satellites and ground terminals in Ukraine. He called it important not only to use the technology but also to gradually build domestic expertise and manufacturing.

“For us, this project is about more than launching a satellite. It is an opportunity to lay the foundation for an independent communications network for Ukraine,” Rudominski said in the release.

In the long run, the network would cover all of Ukraine and complement European satellite networks, the release said. The network does not exist yet, and Himera has given no timeline.

Replacing Starlink will not be quick. Lance Hunter, a political scientist at Augusta University, told Time that Ukraine cannot quickly swap out such technology, since diversifying it “takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of resources.” Meanwhile, one Ukrainian interceptor-drone maker has begun rethinking its air-launched designs after the slowdown.

Ukraine’s military intelligence estimates that only 10–20% of the prewar population may remain in the Russian-occupied left bank of Kherson Oblast, accusing Moscow of forcing Ukrainians from their homes while relocating Russian citizens to the area.

Russia’s efforts to displace Ukrainians and bring Russian citizens into occupied Kherson Oblast are part of Moscow’s broader campaign to consolidate control over occupied territory, impose Russian institutions, and erode Ukrainian national identity. Similar practices have been documented in other occupied Ukrainian territories, including the resettlement of Russians into homes in Mariupol and efforts to replace Ukrainian education with Russian curricula.

The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry (HUR) said Russia was creating intolerable living conditions for Ukrainian residents and unlawfully seizing private property to displace them. The agency said Moscow was simultaneously using financial incentives to recruit Russian teachers, doctors, and other professionals to work in occupied areas.

Russia brings in Russian workers as Ukrainians are pushed out

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, around 500,000 people lived on the left bank of Kherson Oblast, according to HUR. The agency estimates that only 10–20% of that population may remain.

Moscow is using state-backed recruitment programs, including “Zemsky Teacher,” “Zemsky Doctor,” “Zemsky Feldsher,” “Zemsky Cultural Worker,” and “Zemsky Coach,” to attract Russian citizens to occupied Ukrainian territory, HUR said.

Under these programs, Russian teachers and doctors who agree to work in occupied areas are offered one-time payments of 2 million rubles, while junior medical staff can receive 1 million rubles. The incentives also include higher salaries and other benefits, with contracts lasting at least five years.

HUR said hundreds of Russian teachers and doctors had already been brought to occupied Ukrainian territories from regions across Russia, including Krasnodar, Khabarovsk, Stavropol, and Perm Krais, as well as Rostov, Kursk, and Leningrad oblasts.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russian medical personnel are needed primarily to serve occupying forces, while Russian teachers are being brought in to undermine Ukrainian children’s national identity.

Ukraine accuses Russia of war crimes and genocidal practices

HUR said Russia’s efforts to displace Ukrainian residents and bring in Russian citizens bore signs of war crimes and genocidal practices against the Ukrainian population.

The agency’s allegations concern both the coercive removal of Ukrainians from occupied territory and the replacement of local residents with people brought from Russia. Ukrainian authorities say these policies are part of Moscow’s broader effort to consolidate control over occupied Ukrainian land and impose Russian identity and institutions.

Kherson Oblast faces displacement, attacks, and a humanitarian crisis

Russian forces occupied much of Kherson Oblast in the early months of the full-scale invasion in 2022. Ukrainian forces liberated the oblast’s right-bank areas, including the regional capital, in November that year, but Russia continues to occupy the left bank of the Dnipro River.

Russian forces regularly attack Ukrainian-controlled areas of Kherson Oblast with artillery and drones, killing and injuring civilians. Ukrainians have described repeated drone attacks on civilians as a “human safari.” In May 2025, a UN commission of inquiry concluded that Russian forces’ repeated drone attacks on civilians along the Dnipro’s right bank amounted to crimes against humanity of murder.

The occupied town of Oleshky, on the left bank, has also faced severe shortages of food, medicine, and medical care amid restrictions on movement and continued fighting.

Russia’s occupation has also exposed residents of Kherson Oblast to major humanitarian disasters. The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in June 2023 flooded settlements along the Dnipro, including Russian-occupied communities on the left bank, damaging homes and forcing residents to flee. Russian forces’ restrictions on access and evacuation further endangered civilians in the affected areas.

While Russia occupies the left bank of Kherson Oblast, its forces continue to target civilians on the Ukrainian-controlled right bank. Across the oblast, residents face the consequences of Russia’s invasion, from forced displacement and property seizures under occupation to deadly drone and artillery attacks.

The ceasefire around Russian-occupied Oleshky in Kherson Oblast has expanded beyond the town to provide safe passage for humanitarian convoys, US First Lady Melania Trump said on 27 October. The expansion is intended to facilitate aid deliveries to civilians trapped under Russian occupation.

Ukraine and Russia are observing a localized ceasefire to enable a humanitarian mission to reach Oleshky, where residents have faced months of shortages of food, medicine, and medical care under Russian occupation. 

Trump said the ceasefire took effect at 04:00 Moscow time on 27 October, two days ahead of the original schedule, to protect civilians and facilitate the delivery of critical humanitarian aid. Russia’s chief of General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, had confirmed the arrangement, she said.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said no ceasefire violations had been recorded by 19:49 Kyiv time on 27 October, and Russian forces had made no attempts to advance. He added that he remained in constant contact with his Russian counterpart, Yana Lantratova.

THE CEASEFIRE HAS COMMENCED
The ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia took effect at 4:00am Moscow time on October 27, 2026. 
 
Timing was accelerated two days ahead of schedule to protect the safety of civilians and to facilitate the delivery of critical humanitarian aid. The…

— First Lady Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) October 27, 2026

Road to Oleshky must be cleared before aid can arrive

Lubinets said the ceasefire began at 03:00 Kyiv time and would remain in effect until 22:59 Kyiv time on 1 November. He reported no violations since it began and said Russian forces had made no attempts to advance.

The next steps are to clear mines from the road to Oleshky and deliver humanitarian supplies. Representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the United States will be present once the route is cleared and the aid arrives, Lubinets said in an interview with Ukrainian broadcaster 1+1.

He added that everyone who wants to leave for Ukrainian-controlled territory would be able to do so and that assistance would be provided to everyone who needs it.

The Financial Times earlier reported, citing sources familiar with the negotiations, that residents who agree to leave Russian-occupied Oleshky during the ceasefire would first be transported to occupied Crimea or Russia before being allowed to return to Ukrainian-controlled territory.

Humanitarian mission follows months of efforts

Oleshky has been under Russian occupation since 2022. The town has been cut off for months, with shortages of food, medicine, and medical care worsening. 

The White House announced on 23 October that Melania Trump had secured a localized ceasefire originally scheduled to begin on 29 October. Russia subsequently announced a ceasefire on the Kherson axis from 27 October, with preparations to secure a route for a humanitarian convoy.

Lubinets said efforts to address the humanitarian crisis in Oleshky began in late February 2026, but progress accelerated in September following Melania Trump’s involvement.

The expanded ceasefire area is intended to facilitate the humanitarian operation, but the route must still be cleared and supplies delivered before the mission can reach residents. The new boundaries of the ceasefire area have not been specified publicly.

Ukraine’s air defenses have been intercepting nearly 60% of Russian Geran-4 jet-powered attack drones over the past three months, with the interception rate reaching 80% during some attacks, Ukraine’s General Staff said.

Russia has increasingly used jet-powered drones in its attacks on Ukraine, adding a faster-moving threat to the Shahed-type drones Moscow deploys against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. Ukraine is working to improve interception rates while reducing the cost of countering these aerial threats amid shortages of surface-to-air missiles.

The General Staff’s update did not mention interception rates for Russia’s more advanced Geran-5 jet-powered drone.

F-16s, Mirage jets help intercept Russian drones

According to the General Staff, tactical aviation plays a significant role in destroying Russian jet-powered drones. Ukraine uses F-16s, French Mirage aircraft, and MiG-29 fighters to intercept them.

The military is also strengthening what it calls “short-range air defense” as Ukraine faces a shortage of guided anti-aircraft missiles. These systems include Gepard and Shilka anti-aircraft guns, newer Skynex, Skyranger, and Terrahawk Paladin systems, interceptor drones, and mobile fire groups deployed by different branches of Ukraine’s Defense Forces.

Mobile fire groups are equipped not only with machine guns and supporting equipment but also with man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS). Ukrainian troops have been successfully using these missiles to shoot down Russian jet-powered drones, the General Staff said.

Ukraine tests cheaper drone interceptors

Ukraine is also seeking to lower the cost of countering Russian aerial attacks by testing new interceptor drones.

According to the General Staff, some models have already downed dozens of Russian Geran jet-powered drones. The military did not provide further details about the interceptor models or the number of drones destroyed.

The rising interception rate reflects Ukraine’s efforts to adapt its air defenses to Russia’s evolving drone campaign while preserving scarce and expensive air-defense missiles for threats that require them.

Plans for a call for bids in 2027 for both phases of the Paphos – Polis Chrysochous, as well as developments regarding the Paphos Marina were presented by government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis on Tuesday.

Addressing the general assembly of the Paphos chamber of commerce and industry, Letymbiotis said that the implementation of the Paphos – Polis Chrysochous road will demand difficult decision, and that clinging to a problematic contract did not amount to progress.

“Announcing a project takes just a few minutes. Its implementation requires a solid foundation, responsible decisions, and constant oversight,” Letymbiotis said.

Letymbiotis recalled that the design work of the highway began in 1990, with studies carried out in 2007 predicting its completion by 2013. Meanwhile, the contract signed in 2021, valued at €73 million, called for the project to be delivered in 2024.

He said that by January 2023, around 48 per cent of the contractual time had passed, yet only €2.6 million of work, under 4 per cent of the contract value, had been completed.

By October 2024, progress stood at just 21 per cent, while the contractor was seeking an additional €36.2 million in compensation and a 59-month extension.

Letymbiotis said that the new design provides for a modern four-lane highway. In the first phase, from Ayia Marinouda to Stroumbi, expropriations and the environmental assessment have been completed.

Meanwhile the second phase will run from Stroumbi to Polis Chrysochous, with the government aiming to launch tenders for both phases within 2027.

On the Paphos Marina, Letymbiotis said that the project has been in planning since 1994, with the first tender held in 2006.

Letymbiotis spoke of of a high priority project for the city and said that the government was determined to finally see it implemented.

He said that the decision of the marina management committee regarding the evaluation of the call of interest is expected in early November, while concession agreement to be signed with the successful bidder in 2027.

Letymbiotis also referred to the expansion of Paphos airport and the new desalination plant in Kissonerga, which is expected to have a capacity of 12,000 cubic metres per day.

US first lady Melania Trump said on Tuesday that a localized ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia has been expanded beyond Oleshky to allow safe passage for humanitarian supplies.

“Timing was accelerated two days ahead of schedule to protect the safety of civilians and to facilitate the delivery of critical humanitarian aid,” Mrs Trump said in an X post. “The ceasefire’s geographic area has expanded beyond Oleshky, within the Kherson Region, to provide safe passage for the humanitarian convoys.”

Russia is expanding drone storage at the Hvardiiske military airfield in occupied Crimea, Ukrainian OSINT channel Dnipro Osint reported on 26 October, citing new satellite images. The channel did not say who took the images or when. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said it struck drone hangars at the same airfield in July, and the military said strikes on 13 October damaged four drone storage sites nearby.

Hvardiiske has stayed in use since then. Ukraine’s General Staff has listed it among the sites Russia launched attack drones from in every daily report since 7 October. The airfield was on the list again on 24, 25, and 27 October, the night Russia aimed its main strike at Kyiv. The new construction, as the channel describes it, adds protected storage at a base Ukraine has already shown it can reach.

Shelters and “garages”

The images show more than 20 small shelters under construction, each protected by earth berms, the channel said. It also counted about 40 smaller structures it calls “garages.” It said they are meant for storing, servicing, and preparing Geran drones for launch.

Geran is the name Russia gives the Iranian-designed Shahed drones: the Shahed-136 became the Geran-2, which Russia now builds itself. The images show at least one hangar damaged by a Ukrainian drone hit, Dnipro Osint noted.

Launched from vehicles

Hvardiiske, north of Simferopol, uses mobile launch platforms instead of fixed installations, according to Dnipro Osint. Crews load drones onto specially equipped vehicles, which then launch them from the runway.

Struck repeatedly since June

On 24 June, the SBU said it hit infrastructure at Hvardiiske and at the Saky airbase. On 3 July, the SBU reported that its drones struck two hangars at Hvardiiske that stored Shaheds and aviation equipment. Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck the airfield again overnight on 5 July, and the SBU said a day later that it hit three hangars with aviation equipment there. A strike on 3 August destroyed nine aviation-fuel tanks and damaged two aircraft hangars, the General Staff said. Strikes on 13 October damaged four drone storage sites near Hvardiiske, with signs of secondary detonation, it reported two days later.

Not the only base Russia is building up

Hvardiiske is not the only Russian drone base Ukrainian OSINT channels have flagged this month. On 13 October, the anonymous channel Absolutely Reliable Source said Russia had nearly finished the first section of a launch site for jet-powered Geran-5 drones near Millerovo in Rostov Oblast, with eight launcher positions and 32 drone-preparation spots. Hvardiiske and Millerovo were both among the launch areas the General Staff listed for the night of 27 October, when Russia launched 280 Shahed-type drones, 69 of them jet-powered, with Kyiv as the main target.

A ceasefire around Russian-occupied Oleshky in Kherson Oblast took effect at 03:00 on 27 October Kyiv time, and both sides were complying with the agreements, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said. Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that its forces had stopped firing on the Kherson axis at 04:00 Moscow time, at the same moment.

Russia has kept Oleshky cut off for months. In June, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine documented worsening shortages of food, medicine, and medical care there and in neighboring Hola Prystan. As of 8 October, Lubinets’ office still saw no practical breakthrough toward an organized evacuation, with 358 residents verified as needing help to leave. The ceasefire is the first step that has to hold before aid can go in and residents can leave, an operation Marc Beckman, the first lady’s chief adviser, expects to take five to seven days.

By 09:00 on 27 October, Russian forces were still observing the ceasefire, according to Pavlo Drohal, spokesperson for Ukraine’s 30th Marine Corps. Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Presidential Office, announced that the mission had begun and that Lubinets had gone to the site to coordinate it.

Ceasefire planned for occupied Oleshky as residents face starvation and blocked escape routes, White House announces

Ceasefire brought forward by two days

The White House announced on 23 October that First Lady Melania Trump had secured a localized ceasefire, set to begin on 29 October. The same evening, Russia’s chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov announced a ceasefire on the Kherson axis from 27 October, with engineering reconnaissance and a secured route for a humanitarian convoy. Ukraine’s General Staff followed, introducing a ceasefire in a designated area from the same hour.

Beckman told Ukrinform on 26 October that Russia had moved the ceasefire two days earlier and extended it beyond Oleshky into Kherson Oblast. Lubinets said on 23 October that the mission should effectively begin on 29 October, after demining, adding that the date was not a matter of principle for either side.

A day after the announcement, Lubinets and his Russian counterpart Yana Lantratova, who lead the two negotiating groups, confirmed the timing in an online meeting, he said. According to Lubinets, the agreement covers demining the road to Oleshky, delivering food, water, medicine, and hospital equipment, and safe movement for civilians.

Newsmax to document the operation

Meanwhile, Melania Trump said she had secured an “impartial American media organization” to accompany the Russian and Ukrainian teams. Beckman named it as Newsmax. He said he had worked directly with the channel’s owner, and that its journalists would record testimony as what he called neutral American observers.

Residents could leave for Ukraine or Russia, or stay, Beckman said. He added that Russia had assured Kyiv and Washington it would respect their choice of destination. Both governments asked him not to disclose what guarantees Russia gave or how violations would be handled, he said. He expects the operation to take five to seven days after 29 October, with an extension possible if both sides agree.

Diplomat doubts the truce will move peace talks

At the same time, Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, Ukraine’s ambassador to the EU in 2010–2015, told Radio NV the truce became possible only through the personal involvement of Donald and Melania Trump. The US president, he said, sees it as a way to show Americans he is bringing peace closer. He said he expects Russia to attempt provocations aimed at pushing residents toward the Russian side.

Yelisieiev said he does not share the optimism of those who think Oleshky could push the wider peace process forward. He compared it to the Black Sea grain corridor, a one-off arrangement that no longer works. He warned of a “diplomatic smokescreen”: Russia imitates negotiations while it keeps fighting, hoping Ukraine and its partners weaken over time.

A town under blockade

Oleshky lies on the left bank of the Dnipro, about 4 km from Kherson, and has been occupied since February 2022, Radio Svoboda reported. The White House says it had about 24,000 residents before the war and estimates 1,700 to 2,000 remain, mostly elderly, including about 50 children. Russian troops have also seized food dropped by Ukrainian drones, a local official said.