The fighter jet went down during a major Russian attack on Ukraine One of the F-16 warplanes that Ukraine received from its western partners to help fight Russia’s invasion has crashed Ukraine’s Army General Staff said on Thursday The fighter jet went down on Monday during a major Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine a military statement posted on Facebook said Four of those Russian missiles were shot down by F-16s The crash was the first reported loss of an F-16 in Ukraine, after they arrived at the end of last month At least six of the warplanes are believed to have been delivered The defence ministry has opened an investigation into the crash The Ukrainian air force in a Facebook post identified the pilot as Col Oleksii “Moonfish” Mes who “saved Ukrainians from deadly Russian missiles A US defence official told Reuters that Monday’s crash did not appear to be the result of Russian fire and possible causes from pilot error to mechanical failure were still being investigated The EU’s top diplomat on Thursday ramped up pressure on Ukraine’s international backers to lift restrictions on the use of weapons they provide to allow its armed forces to strike targets inside Russia “The weaponry that we are providing to Ukraine has to have full use and the restrictions have to be lifted in order for the Ukrainians to be able to target the places where Russia is bombing them the weaponry is useless,” Josep Borrell told reporters as the bloc’s foreign ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Thursday he had spent several days on the eastern Pokrovsk front and described fighting there as “exceptionally tough”. Russia has been pressing hard towards the strategic hub of Pokrovsk in recent months The enemy throws into battle everything that can move and advance trying to break through our defences,” commander Syrskyi said on Facebook He said the most intense clashes were taking place in the area of Krasnyi Yar 10 km (6.2 miles) from the city of Pokrovsk Ukraine’s military said on Thursday it had attacked an artillery depot and two oil storage facilities in Russia causing a fire on Wednesday at the Atlas oil depot in the southern Rostov region The military said it had also attacked the Zenit oil facility in Russia’s Kirov region 1,500 km (930 miles) north-east of the border with Ukraine A field artillery depot in the Russian region of Voronezh was also attacked it added in the same message on the Telegram app IAEA director general Rafael Grossi will travel to Ukraine next week to hold high-level talks and assess developments at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the IAEA said on Thursday. The UN’s nuclear watchdog warned earlier this month that the safety situation at the plant was “deteriorating” after a nearby drone strike At least one person died and six sustained injuries during Russian shelling of the eastern Ukrainian town of Kostiantynivka on Thursday is one of the most affected cities in the region Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin wrote in a statement on the Telegram messaging app “It comes under enemy fire almost every day,” he said One person has been killed and two injured in strikes on Russia’s Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that “the town of Shebekino was targeted by Ukrainian forces” and “unfortunately This article and picture caption were amended on 13 September 2024 to correct the spelling of the first name of Oleksii “Moonfish” Mes Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker "The 220mm Bureviy MLRS can fire all current Uragan missiles, as well as new ones being developed by the Pivdenne Design Bureau under the Typhoon 2 program, with a range increased from 35 to 65 kilometers," the report reads The new system is equipped with a digital fire control system including a battlefield information exchange system "We have fully developed and manufactured the entire package of guides and guidance system They are integrated on a new high-pass chassis that will be further equipped with a fully armored cab," Director of Shepetivka Repair Plant Oleh Turinsky said The Bureviy system is based on the chassis of the Czech-made Tatra T815-7T3RC1 8x8 military truck While citing and using any materials on the Internet links to the website ukrinform.net not lower than the first paragraph are mandatory citing the translated materials of foreign media outlets is possible only if there is a link to the website ukrinform.net and the website of a foreign media outlet Materials marked as "Advertisement" or with a disclaimer reading "The material has been posted in accordance with Part 3 of Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine "On Advertising" No 1996 and the Law of Ukraine "On the Media" No 2023 and on the basis of an agreement/invoice Online media entity; Media identifier - R40-01421 Russian forces recorded advances to the south-east of Avdiivka where they took up positions in the built-up area of the town; according to some sources reaching the main line of Ukrainian fortifications in the area They also repulsed counterattacks by the defenders on the northern outskirts of Avdiivka The Russian troops are located about 3.5km north and 5km south of the only Ukrainian-controlled road to the town (via Orlivka) six civilians (out of 1595 who remain) were persuaded to leave and evacuated within three days Subdivisions of mercenaries from the Wagner Group were allegedly brought into the Avdiivka area Kyiv and its Western partners stress that the invaders have suffered heavy casualties in the fighting for the town and in recent days have reduced their use of armoured weapons in favour of artillery-supported attacks by infantry groups US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby estimated the total Russian losses at Avdiivka between 11 and 26 October at “more than a battalion” and said that 125 vehicles had been destroyed in the process Ukrainian sources claim that 200 enemy armoured vehicles were destroyed The Russians – without much success – have continued their operations to the north and south-east of Kupyansk (the authorities of Kharkiv oblast decided to forcibly evacuate a further 10 villages) as of 25 October the invaders have halted their attacks in the remaining directions and they are now expected to try and regroup the total number of assaults on the defenders’ positions has fallen slightly The Ukrainian side’s renewed attacks south of Orikhiv and their attempts to expand their bridgeheads on the left bank of the Dnieper also failed to produce results although on 25 October the General Staff reported partial success west of the village of Verbove Russian kamikaze drones struck the Shepetivka raion of Khmelnytskyi oblast; their target was most probably the 47th Arsenal of the Main Rocket and Artillery Directorate southeast of Slavuta (according to Kyiv’s account an infrastructure facility there was damaged) There was a powerful shock and a series of subsequent explosions and a shockwave was created which reached the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) 20 km away The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that the impact of the wave damaged windows in several buildings at the unit (as a result of falling debris from drones The military administration of Khmelnytskyi oblast announced that a total of 1760 sites of various types had been damaged and to a lesser extent in the nearby power plant town of Netishyn The Ukrainian General Staff announced that the enemy had used 11 Shahed-136/131 drones in the attack Russian missiles struck the Pokrovsk raion of Donetsk oblast while drones struck Mykolaiv and Odesa oblasts According to a communiqué from the Ukrainian side a total of six Shahed-136/131 drones were used by the enemy in the 27 October attack on 26 October three Ukrainian kamikaze drones were said to have unsuccessfully attacked the Kursk NPP one of them exploding over a radioactive waste dump Meanwhile some Ukrainian media reported powerful explosions in Sevastopol on the evening of 24 October the Pentagon announced the US’s 49th military support package for Ukraine It included missiles for the NASAMS and HIMARS systems AIM-9M air-to-air missiles (for use as surface-to-air missiles) missiles for the Stinger man-portable air-defense systems and Javelin & TOW anti-tank systems and more than 2 million rounds of small-arms ammunition Denmark presented its 13th military support package It includes ex-Czech T-72 tanks and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles another military aid package (worth $20 million) was announced by Australia; it includes 3D industrial printers and drone combat systems a spokesman for the US Air Force reported that “a small group of Ukrainian pilots” had begun learning the basics of flying F-16 fighter jets Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal reported that Rheinmetall and Ukrainian Defense Industry (UDI formerly Ukroboronprom) joint-stock company had established a joint venture in Kyiv on the 18th of the month is to overhaul and service armaments and military equipment transferred to Kyiv On the same day the world’s largest drone maker denied Shmyhal’s statement of 8 October in which he claimed that Ukraine was buying 60% of the entire global production of Mavic drones DJI’s communiqué noted that the Prime Minister could have no knowledge of the scale of the company’s production Bloomberg reported that the EU has so far fulfilled only 30% of its plan to supply artillery ammunition to Ukraine (1 million rounds within 12 months and that several member states are proposing to extend the deadline The main problems include a significant increase in the price of the shells exceeding the funds budgeted for them (the day before Germany’s Die Welt reported that Rheinmetall had raised the price of a 155-mm calibre cartridge from €2000 in 2022 to €3600) Lithuania’s foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis contrasted the EU’s deliveries to Kyiv to date (300,000 missiles) with the alleged scale of North Korea’s deliveries to Russia (350,000) On 26 October the UK Ministry of Defence reported that artillery shell deliveries from North Korea to the Russian Federation had been ongoing since September although according to the British they have not yet reached the front line a member of the parliamentary Committee on National Security admitted that after the president dismissed all the heads of conscription commissions and introduced anti-corruption controls the scale of mobilisation in some regions had fallen from 80 to 10 per cent involving officers in the activities of these bodies has proved to be an ineffective move as they are not ready to work in a bureaucratic system The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has announced the neutralisation of Russian groups engaged in sabotage and espionage members of a cell that had been operating since April this year preparing terrorist attacks on behalf of the Federal Security Service were detained in Kyiv and Chernihiv The agents were collecting explosives and weapons to be used in the destruction of military and critical infrastructure The SBU said the group’s priority targets included infrastructure used by the General Staff and the Ministry of Defence To determine the location of the facilities the agents obtained information from acquaintances serving in the military and used drones for reconnaissance the SBU captured three people in Sumy oblast who had been collecting data on the location of Ukrainian units near the border with Russia in order to guide artillery shelling and air attacks it announced that enemy special services had made unsuccessful attempts to engage Ukrainian minors in anti-Semitic speeches in Zhytomyr Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Anton Demokhin stated that Russian cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are aimed at destroying critical infrastructure Hackers are still attacking government agencies in an attempt to obtain personal data and disrupt IT systems these incidents have become more coordinated: several people in different locations attack different parts of the same infrastructure simultaneously Hackers are also introducing dormant ‘time-bomb’ viruses into various systems 3974 cyber-incidents were recorded in Ukraine between January 2022 and September this year the head of information services of Operational Command ‘South’ reported that Russian air force activity had been registered in the area of the shipping corridor for ships sailing to and from Odesa enemy aircraft dropped four suspected payloads into the sea that could have been sea mines Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said that Russia would seek to increase the threat to civilian shipping in the Black Sea and disrupt grain supplies using Ukrainian mines captured in Crimea On 26 October Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) revealed that four FSB officers had been killed in occupied Berdyansk in a bombing three days earlier The HUR leadership described the incident as ‘revenge’ carried out by the Ukrainian resistance movement the press service of the Territorial Defence Forces announced the creation of an experimental unit for the protection of cultural heritage sites It will record the destruction and condition of monuments in the frontline zone and organise the evacuation of works of art deep into Ukraine Specialists in the protection of cultural heritage sites will be engaged to work in the Ukrainian army’s area of operations Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej According to a video published on the Telegram account on June 8 the Ukrainian army has deployed its new Bureviy 220 mm MLRS (Multiple Rocket Launcher System) to conduct combat operations against Russian troops Ukrainian company Shepetivka Repair Plant going to launch the production of Bureviy 220 mm MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) based on Tatra T-815-7 8x8 truck chassis from the Czech company Excalibur Army The Bureviy is a 220mm MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) fully designed and developed by the Ukrainian company Shepetivka Repair Plant according to a request of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to replace the old Soviet-made BM-27 220mm MLRS The Bureviy is based on the 8x8 military truck chassis T815-7T3RC1 manufactured by the Czech company TATRA This is the latest generation of military trucks in the Tatra T815 family The Tatra truck is fitted with a double doors armored crew cabin that provides protection against the firing of small arms as well as mine protection According to the video published on the "Ukraine Weapons Tracker" Twitter account this version seems to be fitted with a new armor cab The Bureviy 220mm MLRS is equipped with a digital fire control system including an information exchange system on the battlefield This allows the Bureviy to be included in a single reconnaissance and strike circuit when information from reconnaissance vehicles is transmitted online to the means of destruction This minimizes the time from target detection to destruction in minutes The rockets launched by the BM-27 MLRS can reach a firing range from 35 to 40 km while the Bureviy has a firing range from 35 to 65 km The Bureviy can fire all the 220mm rockets including 9M27F HE-Frag (High Explosive Fragmentation) and the unguided rockets 9M27K loaded with fragmentation sub-munitions