Battle | Russia: Intercepted ATACMS missiles

Day 610: Zelensky calls for more military aid for anti-aircraft defense. Russia says it intercepted US missiles delivered to Ukraine. All information on news blog.

12:01 am: Against the backdrop of violence in the Middle East, Russian President Vladimir Putin meets the leaders of his country’s religious communities in Moscow. He thanked representatives of Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism in the war against Ukraine – “in a special military operation”, he used his language.

Religions contributed greatly to the strengthening of family values, the patriotic education of youth, and the peaceful coexistence of all ethnic groups in Russia. “We are a people, we have a homeland,” the Kremlin leader said on Wednesday.

Putin said the bloodshed in Israel and the Gaza Strip must stop. As in all his appearances, he blamed the West: it spread Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and Russophobia and tried to use this conflict against Russia. “Middle East conflicts and all religious or national conflicts in the world must be directly or indirectly connected to Russia or, more precisely, harm Russia and our society,” Putin said.

Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church also participated in the meeting. He is clearly behind the war of aggression against Ukraine at the behest of Putin and has justified it theologically.

9:55 PM: According to information from Moscow, Russian air defense shot down two long-range ATACM missiles launched by Ukraine at Russian targets. The Russian Defense Ministry announced the shooting in one of its regular reports on the war in Ukraine, which Moscow described as a “special military operation”. No further details were given. Information cannot be independently verified. According to state media, this is the first missile of its kind. Ukraine requested the missiles from the US because of their long range.

9:24 pm: After buildings were damaged at Ukraine’s Khmelnytsky nuclear power plant, President Volodymyr Zelensky called for more military aid to deter Russian airstrikes. “This attack on the nuclear power plant reminds all our partners of the importance of strengthening Ukraine’s air defense,” Zelensky said in his video address on Wednesday evening. The attack also shows how easily Russia can still bypass sanctions and hook the West into its drones and missiles.

At least 16 people were injured in a Russian drone strike in the western Ukraine region of Khmelnytskyi on Wednesday night. According to the Ukrainian Energy Ministry, the pressure wave of explosions near the nuclear power plant blew out the windows of several administrative buildings.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed the damage. “This incident once again underlines the very precarious situation of nuclear security in Ukraine as long as this tragic war continues,” said Rafael Croci, IAEA director in Vienna. Windows and buildings were not the only ones damaged. Due to power outages in the area, radiation measuring stations around the nuclear power plant sometimes have to work with emergency power.

6.45 pm: Amid a war of aggression against Ukraine, the Russian armed forces have recruited 385,000 new soldiers this year, according to official figures. Of these, 305,000 soldiers signed contracts directly with the Russian Defense Ministry, former President Dmitry Medvedev said in a video posted on the Telegram online service on Wednesday.

Another 80,000 are “volunteers”. The term is commonly used in Russia for fighters of paramilitary groups. Medvedev, currently number two in the Russian Security Council, said the recruitment of new players should continue next year. Accordingly, a new army force, seven divisions, 19 brigades, 49 squadrons and one flotilla are to be created. You can read more about it here.