Endemic corruption hampering Russian military progress, says UK MoD
Many Russian reservists called up to fight in Ukraine are probably having to buy their own body armour – and its prices have soared, the latest British intelligence briefing says.
The UK Ministry of Defence also said in its daily update that “endemic corruption and poor logistics” remained a cause of Russia’s “poor performance” in Ukraine.
The ministry said the average amount of personal equipment Russia was providing to its mobilised reservists was “almost certainly lower than the already poor provision of previously deployed troops”.
It tweeted:
Many reservists are likely required to purchase their own body armour, especially the modern 6B45 vest, which is meant to be on general issue to combat units as part of the Ratnik personal equipment programme.
The ministry said the vest had been selling on Russian online shopping sites for 40,000 roubles (about US$640 or £570), up from about 12,000 roubles in April.
It said that in 2020 Russian authorities announced that 300,000 sets of the Ratnik armour had been supplied to its military – “ample to equip the force currently deployed in Ukraine”.
Key events
Summary
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The International Monetary Fund member countries issued a near-unanimous call for Russia to end its war in Ukraine, the IMF’s steering committee chair said on Friday, calling the conflict the single biggest factor fuelling inflation and slowing the global economy.
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Nearly eight months into Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, citizens in core western alliance countries show little appetite for the kind of concessions to Russia that might form part of an eventual agreement to end the fighting, according to a major survey.
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According to the Belarusian Hajun project, the Russian foreign ministry confirms the re-equipping of Belarusian Su-25 aircraft to carry nuclear weapons.
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A missile strike seriously damaged a key energy facility in Ukraine’s capital region as the Russian military strove to cut water and electricity supplies in populated areas, the country’s power system operator said on Saturday, as reported by Associated Press.
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The Kyiv Independent is reporting that Ukrainian troops have launched an offensive in Kherson Oblast, although this has not yet been confirmed by the Ukrainian government.
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Associated Press reports that Dane Partridge, a 34-year-old man from Idaho who fought as a volunteer soldier in Ukraine, died on Tuesday from injuries sustained during a Russian attack in Luhansk.
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A fuel depot in Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, caught fire after shelling on Saturday, its governor said, without specifying the origin of the shelling.
Andrew Roth
Andrew Roth, Moscow correspondent, has covered the return of the first coffins of Russian conscripts who had died in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of the country.
“Andrei Nikiforov, a lawyer from St Petersburg, was one of the hundreds of thousands of Russians mobilised since last month to hold the frontlines in his country’s faltering war in Ukraine.
On 25 September he received his call-up papers. By 7 October, just two weeks later, he was dead.
“We don’t know what happened,” said Alexander Zelensky, the head of the Nevsky Collegium of Lawyers, of which Nikiforov was a member. Zelensky and a member of Nikiforov’s family confirmed his call-up and death. “All we have is a date and a place.”
That place was Lysychansk, one of the most dangerous spots near the frontlines.
The first coffins are now returning to Russia from Ukraine, bringing the remains of ordinary Russians who at first were promised a quick “special military operation” and now have been drafted to go and fight in a war. Their deaths may mark another inflection point for Russia in this conflict, where mismanagement has led to Kremlin infighting and at least half a million men have been drafted or fled their homes to avoid it.”
You can read the full report here:
A fuel depot in Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, caught fire after shelling on Saturday, its governor said, without specifying the origin of the shelling.
Reuters reports:
Russian border regions including Belgorod have accused Ukraine of attacking targets including power lines and fuel stores since Moscow sent its armed forces into Ukraine on 24 February.
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.
“We have another shelling. One of the shells hit an oil depot in the Belgorod district. Emergency services are already battling the fire. There is no danger of [the fire] spreading,” the governor of Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on social media, posting a picture of flames and black smoke rising into the air.
The local emergency service said one of 10 tanks with residual diesel fuel had been set alight, the TASS news agency reported. Gladkov said later that the fire had been put out.
On Thursday, Russian officials said Ukrainian shells had destroyed an ammunition depot and also hit a school, an apartment block and an electricity substation in the Belgorod region.
Gladkov said a customs checkpoint had also been shelled for several days in a row, and that 14 shells had landed there on Saturday, but caused no injuries.
Reuters notes that this content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine.
Associated Press reports that Dane Partridge, a 34-year-old man from Idaho who fought as a volunteer soldier in Ukraine, died on Tuesday from injuries sustained during a Russian attack in Luhansk.
The Ukrainian government has recruited people with military experience to join the International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine. At least four other US citizens have been killed fighting in Ukraine, based on reports from families and the state department.
As a former US army infantryman, Partridge said he felt “spiritually called” to volunteer, said his sister, Jenny Corry. He flew to Poland on a one-way ticket in April, his rucksack packed with body armour, a helmet and tactical gear.
The Kyiv Independent is reporting that Ukrainian troops have launched an offensive in Kherson Oblast, although this has not yet been confirmed by the Ukrainian government.
You can read the Guardian’s reporting from Thursday, on Ukraine’s evacuation efforts from the region, here:
A missile strike has seriously damaged a key energy facility in Ukraine’s capital region as the Russian military strove to cut water and electricity in populated areas, the country’s power system operator said Saturday, as reported by Associated Press.
Associated Press reports:
Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of the Kyiv region, confirmed that the strike did not kill or wound anyone.
Electricity transmission company, Ukrenergo said that repair crews were working to restore power but warned residents about possible outages.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, also urged Kyiv area residents and people in three neighbouring regions to reduce their energy consumption during evening hours of peak demand.
After a truck bomb explosion a week ago damaged the bridge that links Russia to the annexed Crimean Peninsula, the Kremlin launched what is believed to be its largest coordinated missile attacks since the initial invasion of Ukraine.
This week’s wide-ranging retaliatory attacks hit residential buildings, killing dozens of people, as well as civil infrastructure such as power stations near Kyiv and other cities far from the front lines of the war.
In the neighbouring Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh, the governor, said the Russian military carried out strikes with Iranian-made kamikaze drones and S-300 missiles. Some experts said the Russian military’s use of the long-range missiles may reflect shortages of dedicated precision weapons for hitting ground targets.
To the north and east of Kherson, Russian shelling killed two civilians in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the local governor, Valentyn Resnichenko.
In case you missed it, Daniel Boffey reports that a City of London body whose members comprise the world’s biggest shipping insurers is embroiled in a row with Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency over enabling the export of Russian oil.
You can read the full report here:
According to the Belarusian Hajun project, here are some more details regarding the Belarusian Su-25 being equipped with nuclear weapons.
According to the Kyiv Post, Russia is to enable some warplanes to carry nuclear weapons. More soon …