[BNE intelliNews] Russia has quarantined and tested nearly 200 people following the mysterious death of a scientist at a Siberian anti-plague institute, triggering panic reporting that the Black Death has reappeared in Russia. The EU says it is “monitoring the situation very closely” and there have been calls to close the borders in case the illness spreads.
And the danger is real as the bubonic plague spores are still active in many of the former Soviet republics and there is usually an infection reported every year. Mongolia is particularly prone to outbreaks as locals hunt marmots, which are considered a delicacy, and have taken over from rats as the main carrier of the infection in modern times.
However, there is a great deal of confusion over what happened. Moscow has insisted that the victim, a labour worker at a medical institution, died from an unidentified form of pneumonia and there is no cause for alarm. But no one really trusts Moscow, especially when it comes to natural disasters. The Soviet government didn’t report the meltdown at Chernobyl for over 36 hours and hid the scale of the disaster from the public in 1986 and not much has changed since then.
Alarm bells began to ring after Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, was admitted to hospital in Shelekhov, near Irkutsk, with severe pneumonia in a just over a week ago and died days later.
Early reports claimed Shipilova had accidentally broken a test tube containing live plague bacteria while collecting samples. Russia keeps a number of deadly pathogens like Anthrax in storage in its medical institutes for research purposes, although it has signed off on the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1993 and ratified it in 1997 that preclude their use by the military and has committed to destroy what remaining stockpiles of biohazardous agents it still had soon after.
Local media described the suspected infection as pneumonic plague, the most dangerous form of the disease because it attacks the lungs and, unlike the more familiar bubonic form, can spread directly between people through respiratory particles.
The reports triggered a rapid response. At least 197 people who had been in contact with Shipilova were placed under medical observation, including 189 who were hospitalised. Of those, 114 were reportedly held in one regional hospital, 63 in another and 12 at the anti-plague institute.
“All identified contact persons have been placed under medical observation. As of today, the contacts show no signs of illness, and their laboratory test results are negative,” Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev said. Typically, the illness has a 4-7 days incubation period before the first symptoms is detectable. It is extremely lethal if not immediately treated with antibiotics, killing 98% of its victims between 18-24 hours. However, it is not particularly infectious, spreading mainly through large respiratory droplets during close contact, with a low R0 rate of only 1.2-1.3 (one infected person typically infects one more person on average.)
The Shelekhov district hospital imposed quarantine restrictions, public events were postponed and Russia’s chief state sanitary doctor Anna Popova travelled to the region to oversee the response.
The nearby Irkutsk Aluminium Smelter, operated by Rusal (HKEX: 486; MOEX: RUAL), introduced mandatory masks for its 2,154 employees.
“We have introduced a mask protocol at the facility as a precaution. God protects the cautious, so follow safety measures. If symptoms appear, seek medical help immediately,” plant director Artyom Fominykh said.
But the official story then changed.
Russia’s consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said Shipilova did not die of plague and diagnosed her instead with “pneumonia of unknown aetiology”. Tests found no microorganisms associated with the dangerous pathogens she handled at work, according to the agency, while an investigation found no evidence that a laboratory accident had occurred.
Officials said subsequent testing of Shipilova’s contacts had found two cases of Covid-19 and two rhinovirus infections, but no plague.
Gennady Onishchenko, an epidemiologist and former head of Rospotrebnadzor, said the illness was “likely not plague”, while stressing that Russia had established treatment and prevention procedures should plague be confirmed.
Occasional outbreaks
Nevertheless, the scale of the precautions — quarantines, medical surveillance, masks and the personal intervention of Popova — has attracted attention as the former Soviet Union space does see occasional outbreaks of the bubonic plague, which killed a between a third and half of Europe’s population when it first appeared in the 14th century.
WHO has identified active natural plague foci across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, covering about 1.8mn square kilometres, with sporadic cases historically registered almost every year in the region.
The European Commission said it was monitoring the situation “very closely” and was in contact with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
“We are aware of the reports concerning the laboratory incident in Russia, seemingly involving a pathogen causing plague,” a Commission spokesperson said.
“Public health is always a priority for us, so we are in touch with our experts from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control,” the spokesperson added but saying it was not in contact with Russian officials since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“We are much better prepared for any pandemics” following the coronavirus crisis, the spokesperson said, during which significant antibiotic stocks were built up.
Washington is also monitoring events. US officials have urged Moscow to provide “accurate” information “quickly and openly”, while Brussels has called for “timely and transparent reporting”.
But for the moment there is no confirmed plague outbreak. No secondary plague cases have been reported and Russia says laboratory analysis does not support the theory that Shipilova contracted Yersinia pestis.
The Black Death never disappeared
Plague is caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacterium that survives naturally in populations of wild rodents and the fleas that live on them.
The disease still exists across parts of Asia, Africa and the Americas. Most recent cases reported to the WHO have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar, but natural plague reservoirs also persist across parts of Central Asia and Siberia.
Modern medicine has also radically changed the danger posed by the disease. When it first appeared, arriving on rats travelling with merchants along the Silk Road from Central Asia and merchant ships trading with Asia, it cut through Europe’s unprotected populations like a hot knife through butter. But since then the plague can be treated effectively with antibiotics if diagnosed quickly.
WHO says untreated bubonic plague has a fatality rate of roughly 30-60%, while untreated pneumonic and septicaemic plague are effectively invariably fatal. Pneumonic plague can kill within 18-24 hours of the onset of symptoms if treatment is not started, but recovery rates are high when antibiotics are administered early.
Over the years, Russia itself has recorded sporadic human infections. The last confirmed Russian case was in 2016, when a 10-year-old boy in the Altai Republic contracted bubonic plague after helping his grandfather skin a marmot. The boy reportedly cut himself while handling the animal. Seventeen contacts, including six children, were quarantined, and the boy survived after treatment.
Russian scientific literature records human cases in the same high-altitude Altai plague focus in 2014, 2015 and 2016, all associated with handling grey marmot carcasses.
But it is Mongolia which is most prone to infections and death. Marmots — large ground-dwelling rodents similar to ferrets — are a principal natural host for plague in Mongolia.
Mongolia's National Centre for Zoonotic Diseases says natural plague foci have been identified across 28.3% of the country's territory, covering 132 soums in 18 provinces. More than half of the roughly 3,000 plague strains isolated in Mongolia since 1928 have come from Mongolian marmots, while another 27% were isolated from ectoparasites including marmot fleas.
That creates a particular problem because hunting and eating marmots remains a tradition in parts of the country despite restrictions and the locals are so keen on the meat that they routinely ignore government warnings and continue to trap the rodents.
Research into Mongolian plague cases found 73 reported human infections between 1998 and 2020, of which 59% were associated with close contact with infected marmots and 7% with eating raw marmot organs.
In July 2020, two brothers aged 27 and 16 in western Mongolia's Khovd province contracted bubonic plague after hunting and eating marmot. Authorities quarantined their contacts and restricted travel while the pair were treated, who survived.
Later that month, a 15-year-old boy died in Govi-Altai province after contracting plague following the hunting and consumption of a marmot. Fifteen people who had been in contact with him were isolated and given antibiotic treatment.
A year earlier, two people died again after consuming raw marmot organs in Mongolia.
Marmot hunting has been banned, but enforcement is difficult and the animals remain a prized food in some rural communities. Parts of the animal are also traditionally believed to possess health-giving properties.
In Mongolia the disease is often referred to colloquially as the “Marmot Plague”, a name that obscures the fact that it is caused by exactly the same bacterium associated with history's most notorious pandemic.
The connection between Central Asia and plague goes much deeper than today's occasional outbreaks.
A landmark genetic study published in Nature in 2022 traced the probable source of the plague strain behind the 14th-century Black Death to the Tian Shan region around modern Kyrgyzstan.
Researchers examined human remains from the Kara-Djigach and Burana cemeteries near Lake Issyk-Kul, the smaller sister lake to Baikal in Siberia, where an unusually large number of tombstones dating from 1338 and 1339 explicitly referred to deaths from “pestilence”.
Ancient DNA recovered from seven individuals revealed Yersinia pestis in three of them. Researchers reconstructed two plague genomes which they identified as ancestors of the enormous diversification of plague strains associated with the Black Death that swept through western Eurasia beginning several years later.
“It is like finding the place where all the strains come together, like with coronavirus where we have Alpha, Delta, Omicron all coming from this strain in Wuhan, [China],” Johannes Krause, a palaeogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and one of the study's leaders, said at the time. “It was like a big bang of plague,” Krause said.
PODTESOVO, Russia, Oct 12 (Reuters) - A brown bear bounds across the Siberian taiga before two hunters close in on their prey. Three shots ring out and the bear quickly drops dead in the long grass.
Cradling his rifle as he rests his hand on the dead animal's fur, hunter Mikhail Kondakov says he and others have heeded requests from residents in the nearby settlement of Podtesovo after a fatal bear attack on local women.
"The bear situation in the settlement is very difficult at the moment," Kondakov told Reuters.
"Bears have increasingly been coming directly into the settlement. This year we had a tragedy — two women who went mushroom picking were killed by a man-eating bear. We decided to start hunting bears because there are so many of them."
The problem is nationwide. The Russian government said last month it was drawing up urgent measures to control the population of brown bears that has spiralled out of control in some regions, with at least 22 people killed in attacks since this spring, according to state media.
The population of brown bears has more than doubled in the last three decades to 308,000 according to government data, in part due to shorter and milder winters.
Experts cited in Russian media have said bears have been forced to look further afield for food this year because an early and dry spring meant there was a lack of berries for them to feed on. People have also been blamed for leaving food waste out in the open where it attracts bears and for ignoring safety rules.
In Krasnoyarsk, the Siberian region where Kondakov is hunting and which is home to nearly 27,000 bears, investigators said last month that they had opened a criminal case into the local environment ministry, accusing it of failing to keep bear numbers under control, negligence which they said had led to the deaths of seven people in September alone.
In Podtesovo, a settlement of around 3,500 people perched on the right bank of the River Yenisei, a simple wooden cross stands on the grave of Zoya Gubanova along with a colour photograph of the late pensioner. Gubanova, 67, was killed on August 31 in a bear attack while out gathering mushrooms, a popular Russian pastime.
Chatting outside her wooden house, Yulia Markova, a local resident, says the situation has become intolerable.
"We have been living in fear for almost two months now, we cannot even go out for a walk in the evening. People are afraid to let their children go out alone. This is not a cuddly toy, it is not some soft, harmless teddy bear. It is a wild animal. And who knows what its intentions are, what kind of mood it is in when it comes here. Maybe it is simply curious, or maybe it is looking for its next victim," she said.
Markova said that locals, like bear attack victim Gubanova, had not fully understood the danger posed by bears and that people had initially felt sorry for them because they clearly did not have enough nuts and berries to eat this year.
But she said hearts had hardened after the bears started coming into the settlement in large numbers.
"We have never seen an invasion like this before," said Markova.
Watching her daughter relax at the local playground, pregnant mother Valeriya Efremova said heightened bear activity had changed locals' lives.
"When the bears started coming out of the forest, we restricted outings as much as possible, even to the park. It was really frightening because bears were even coming into the park where children play. Going out after dark was absolutely out of the question. Even now, although the number of sightings seems to have fallen, at least according to the information we have, you still walk around looking over your shoulder," she said.
Nikolai Zhilinsky, another local, said people were waiting for the weather to get colder and for the bears to hibernate, but he said people would still be worried even when that happened.
"We are not sure that all of the bears will hibernate. There are too many of them and they are hungry," he said. He was afraid to go fishing in his boat in case he was attacked by a bear, he added.
Vladimir Vagin, another local, said people feared they could be attacked in their own gardens. He pointed to an area near a raspberry bush in his own garden where he believed a bear had been.
Driving through the settlement after dark, he noted how empty the streets were.
"People don't go out because they are afraid," he said.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Korrespondent] 19.56 President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky discussed an energy truce, stunned by Donald Trump, with Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney, President of Finland Alexander Stubb and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Following Zelensky’s words, Ukraine is ready to support the current fire and expects that Russia will be able to do so for such a short time. “Ukraine is fueling the fire,” the president wrote on Telegram.
18.56 Near the town of Samar in the Dnipropetrovsk region, after a Russian attack, a fire broke out in warehouses containing agricultural equipment. The head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Administration, Oleksandr Ganzha, reported this.
Following these words, the Russian couple hit the area with drones, re-attacking that same location.
18.18 President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated that he has no information about the beginning of an energy truce with Russia, as Donald Trump announced. About the price of discovery in an interview with Axios.
Behind Zelensky’s words, Kiev is looking for specific explanations of the severity of the attacks on the energy infrastructure.
“Since President Trump is at home with Putin, please let us know if there is a fire. We are ready, and we will accept it,” the Ukrainian president said.
Earlier, Trump wrote in Truth Social that the energy truce between Ukraine and Russia was no longer in progress. He declared that the offending parties were ready for homeownership, and called on them to achieve it. However, the terms, understanding and mechanisms for monitoring the truce will become invisible.
17.15 The fighters of the “Special Forces of Timur” of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine eliminated two groups of Russian special forces during a counter-sabotage operation. One Russian military officer was taken into custody, the GUR press service reported.
The targets of the Ukrainian intelligence officers were the military services of the 10th Special Purpose Guards Brigade of the Russian Military Intelligence.
16.31 In 2026, the Defense Procurement Agency under the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has significantly increased the purchase of drones of various types and types. The legal obligation of contracting the contract is 300% equalized with the passing of fate. As reported by the Ministry of Defense, during the remaining months the Agency contracted approximately 5.5 times more drones than during the same period in 2025.
15.33 Russian troops launched a strike on the 11th week of the week with ceramic bombs in the Nemyshlyansky district of Kharkov. The incidents fell on the territory of a service station near private buildings. As a result of the attack, a 35-year-old woman died, and the number of victims grew to 10.
13.43 A drone crashed and crashed near the Novoanensky district of Moldova. There are no casualties. The Ministry of Defense and the regional police reported the incident, NewsMaker informs.
According to law enforcement officials, the drone fell near a forest on the outskirts of the village of Dzhamena. Vibukh chuli residents of Djameni and Veratika.
The police received information about the drone around 10:20 p.m. Soldiers and sappers were on the move. Nina is performing rituals there.
11.26 The defense forces of Ukraine have reduced the level of military targets of the Russian occupiers in the urgently occupied territories of Ukraine. The General Staff was informed about this within a week.
Zokrema near the Chistyakovo district of the Donetsk region was damaged by the repair department of the Russian army.
In addition, in the areas of Makiyivka in the Donetsk region and Gorodishche in the Lugansk region, the enemy’s material and technical equipment warehouses have been stocked.
Also, Ukrainian soldiers noted the presence of the Russian occupiers near the areas of Purdivka, Lysychanska and Irmino in the Luhansk region.
10.47 Russian troops began shelling Odessa again. The DSNS was informed about the consequences of the attack.
“Russia attacked Odessa again. The living quarters were destroyed: 3 apartments were destroyed, the building caught fire. The fire fighters promptly liquidated the fire,” the ritualists said.
At the same time, there are no more people suffering from the enemy’s blow.
10.09 In the Zaporizhzhya camp early in the week, the sound and ritual work was completed in response to the Russian strike on the living quarters. The State Tax Service was informed about this.
As a result of the fall of the Russian air bomb, the three-surface aircraft was destroyed, and other private buildings were also damaged.
In the process, the ritualists removed the construction of the living hut and took away approximately 320 tons of household surplus.
8.57 Russian troops attacked Ukraine with 116 attack drones for a week. To defeat or suppress most enemy targets, the rebel forces of the ZSU are calling.
First, the anti-aircraft defense destroyed/suppressed 94 UAVs and 74 jets.
At the same time, the presence of ten enemy UAVs was recorded at seven locations, as well as the fall of attacks at nine locations.
8.18 The 1691st large-scale military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine began. During the last battle, 221 combat operations were recorded. Please check with the rank of the General Staff.
7.27 On the Dnieper, as a result of the last attack of the Russian troops, the vehicle was damaged, and the vital surface was damaged. The head of the OVA, Oleksandr Ganzha, spoke about the details of the shelling.
“In the early hours, an enemy drone was detected at the door of a large surface near the Dnieper.
Having added ganja, it passed without any dead or injured.
7.11 The Russian army lost 1,930 military servicemen killed and wounded on the front in Ukraine. About this, having informed the General Staff of the ZSU in the operational rank level.
As stated, the hidden expenses of the aggressor country Russia from the beginning of a large-scale invasion are expected to reach 1,552,840 individuals
6.31 Vibukha mooned in the Russian Rostov-on-Don late in the evening, 10 June. During the attack, one of the most important bridges of the place was destroyed. This is reported by the monitoring Telegram channel DroneBomber.
5.46 Four people were injured due to the overnight attacks of the Russian military villains on the Dnieper. Among them are two 8-year-old children, one girl was hospitalized. The head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Administration Oleksandr Ganzha told Telegram about this.
5.22 Drones attacked the Volodymyr region of Russia. Apparently, the attack destroyed the local Yandex data center, and even after the vibukhs, a number of company services stopped operating. This was reported on the monitoring Telegram channel Exilenova+ and included videos of eyewitnesses.
1.59 US Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick announced the preparation of a new bipartisan bill that would block the purchase of Russian oil. I told Merezha Kh about this.
1.44 Plіtok, injuries as a result of the attack of Russian military villains on the Rivne region on the 9th of June, as little as possible through extraction, while all attempts of doctors to put down his life. About this, the head of the Rokytniv community, Grigory Targonsky, is on Facebook.
0.31 A Russian strike drone targeted the top of the nine on Saturday evening, 10 June. As a result, people suffered. About the Ceremony of the Dnieper Metropolitan Boris Filatov on Telegram.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[NewsFront] 21:46 Destroyed eleven more drones were flying toward Moscow. Emergency services are working at the site of the crash. 21:06 Air Defense Forces of the Ministry of Defense destroyed ten UAVs flying toward Moscow. Emergency services are working at the site of the crash.
20:46 Drone operators of the Vostok group burned automatic grenade launchers and mortars at Ukrainian Armed Forces positions in the Zaporizhzhia region.
20:15 During the day, from 8:00 to 20:00 Moscow time, air defense forces on duty destroyed 112 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the territories of the Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga, Kursk, Oryol, Smolensk regions, the Moscow region and the Republic of Crimea.
19:51 In the Rylsky district a woman was wounded
In the village of Malogneushevo, a drone attacked an administrative building. A 51-year-old woman was injured. She suffered lacerations. She received first aid and will be undergoing outpatient observation.
19:13 Today afternoon the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles on logistics centers, port infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, and sea vessels involved in the delivery of military cargo to Ukraine.
The strike damaged a logistics center in the village of Ternovka in Mykolaiv Oblast, which is used to store military and dual-use cargo intended for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
In addition, a dry cargo ship, which was delivering military cargo to the port of Chernomorsk, was hit during the sea crossing.
18:45 Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russiaexciteda criminal case on murder, attempted murder and intentional destruction of property (Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Article 30, Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) in connection with a massive attack by armed formations of Ukraine on civilian objects in the LPR.
Investigators and forensic experts from the Russian Investigative Committee are conducting a series of measures to collect and record evidence, as well as identify specific units and individuals among the Ukrainian militants involved in the crimes committed.
Their inhumane actions will be given a fundamental criminal-legal assessment.
17:10 Calculation of the 152mm 2S43 self-propelled gun "Giatsint-K" of the 11th Army Corps destroys surrounded enemy forces in the Volchansk Cauldron
16:40 Calculation of drone interceptors of the Center group rammed an enemy aircraft-type UAV carrier that carried out the delivery of FPV drones and served as a repeater.
14:39 Two drones flying towards Moscow,destroyed by the Ministry of Defense's air defense system. Emergency services are working at the site of the fallen debris.
14:10 Investigators from the Russian Investigative Committee will investigate crimes committed by Ukrainian armed forces against civilians in the Bryansk and Belgorod regions
According to local authorities, a man was killed and two women were injured in attacks by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the Bryansk region.
According to the operational headquarters of the Belgorod region, the Ukrainian strikes
12:58 Summary on the operational situation in the Kursk region over the past 24 hours
In total, 188 enemy drones of various types were shot down between 9:00 a.m. on October 10 and 9:00 a.m. on October 11. The enemy used artillery on evacuated areas 91 times. Drones attacked our territory 13 times using explosive devices.
A 40-year-old man was injured in the village of Belaya in the Belovsky district, and a 23-year-old man was injured in the village of Pakhonok in the Timsky district.
As a result of the attacks in the village of Peschanoye in the Belovsky District, a gas distribution cabinet was damaged, but the gas supply was not disrupted. In the village of Belaya, the roof and façade of a community center were damaged, while the balcony windows of two apartments and the entrance hall windows were damaged in an apartment building. In the village of Maloye Soldatskoye, the windows of a house, a garage, and two cars were damaged.
12:30 Summary of the Ministry of Defense on the progress of the Special Military Operation as of October 11, 2026
Units of the "North" military group in the Khar'kov region are tightening the encirclement and expanding the external control zone.
As a result of active military operations, control has been established over the settlements of Reznikovo and Kupino in the Khar'kov region within the encirclement ring.
Fighting is underway to liberate the settlements of Nikolaevka, Varvarovka, Nefedovka and Chernoye in the Khar'kov region.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost over 65 servicemen and two ground robotic systems in the encirclement ring in one day.
The external control zone is expanding. Fighting continues for the control of the villages of Prikolotne, Kotovka, and Gogino in the Khar'kov region.
Also in the Khar'kov region, manpower and equipment of four mechanized brigades, a motorized infantry brigade, an artillery brigade, an assault regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and a territorial defense brigade were damaged in the areas of the settlements of Timofeevka, Khotollya, Izbitskoye, Dergachi, Goryanoe, Revolyutsionnoye, and Velykyi Burluk in the Khar'kov region.
In the Sumy region, two mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and three territorial defense brigades were defeated in the areas of the settlements of Vorozhba, Velyka Rybitsa, Vakalovshchina, Barilovka and Khoten in the Sumy region.
In total, in the area of responsibility of the North group of forces, the enemy lost over 270 servicemen, 10 vehicles and a radar reconnaissance station.
Units of the "West" force grouping improved their position along the forward edge and defeated the manpower and equipment of four mechanized brigades, an assault brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a naval infantry brigade, and a territorial defense brigade in the areas of the settlements of Maleevka, Peski-Radkovskie, Grushevka, Novonikolaevka, Vovchiy Yar, and Kapitolovka in the Khar'kov region.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 200 servicemen, two armored combat vehicles, 12 cars, an artillery piece, and an electronic warfare station.
Units of the Southern Group of Forces occupied more advantageous positions and lines. They defeated formations of two mechanized brigades, a motorized infantry brigade, an airmobile brigade, a mountain assault brigade, and an unmanned aerial systems brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near the settlements of Druzhkovka, Novoselovka, Belokuzminovka, Semenovka, Kramatorsk, Vysokoivanovka, and Slavyansk in the Donetsk People's Republic.
The enemy lost up to 160 soldiers, 21 vehicles and a field artillery gun.
Units of the Center group of forces, as a result of active operations, liberated the settlements of Novotroitskoye and Petrovskoye in the Donetsk People's Republic.
They inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of three mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a naval infantry brigade, and two National Guard brigades in the areas of the populated areas of Novoyavlenka, Rohanske, Svyatogorovka, Belozerske, Veselaya Gora of the Donetsk People's Republic, Demurino, and Tarasovka of the Dnipropetrovsk region.
In the village of Dobropillya in the Donetsk People's Republic, assault groups of the 51st Army advanced in the central and northwestern parts of the city. Naval infantry units continued clearing the western districts of the city and the Dobropilska mine. An attempt by the enemy, using platoon-sized forces and armored vehicles to relieve encircled Ukrainian Armed Forces units was thwarted.
Within 24 hours, 137 buildings were liberated, including three industrial facilities, and up to 30 Ukrainian servicemen, two armored vehicles, and a pickup truck were destroyed.
In total, in the area of responsibility of the Center group of forces, the losses of Ukrainian armed forces amounted to 495 servicemen, three combat armored vehicles, 14 cars, and four electronic warfare stations.
Units of the "East" force group continued to advance deep into the enemy's defenses. They defeated the personnel and equipment of a mechanized brigade, an assault brigade, three airborne assault brigades, two assault regiments of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and a naval infantry brigade near the settlements of Orestopol, Ivanivka, Velykymykhaylivka, Skotovatoe, and Medichnoye in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and Volnyanka and Myrolyubivka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost over 230 servicemen, two armored combat vehicles, seven cars and a field artillery gun.
Units of the Dnipro Forces Group occupied more advantageous positions and lines. They defeated formations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' mechanized and mountain assault brigades, as well as the territorial defense brigade, near the villages of Orekhov, Preobrazhenka, and Novooleksandrivka in the Zaporizhzhia region.
More than 50 Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen, 23 vehicles and two electronic warfare stations were destroyed.
11:40 The Investigative Committee of Russia will investigate crimes committed by Ukrainian armed forces against civilians in the Donetsk People's Republic, Kursk and Belgorod regions
According to local authorities, a man was killed in the Telmanovsky District of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) when a Ukrainian Armed Forces UAV struck a tractor.
In the village of Belaya in the Kursk region, a Ukrainian drone attacked a shopping center, injuring a civilian.
According to the Belgorod Region operational headquarters, seven people were injured as a result of the latest strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
11:02 In the forest belts of the Zaporizhzhia region, scouts of the Vostok group discovered enemy UAV operators. The coordinates were sent to the "thirties."
The 122mm D-30 gun crews launched a series of strikes, destroying the targets.
10:23 Drone operators of the 49th Combined Arms Army of the Dnepr group knock down enemy heavy attack drones in the Kherson direction.
9:49 Civilian died in the Bryansk region, as a result of a Ukrainian drone strike on the village of Sluchok, Governor Yegor Kovalchuk reported.
Two women in the region were also injured in a Ukrainian drone attack.
9:20 Russian Armed Forces released Reznikovo and Kupino in the north-east of the Khar'kov region
As a result of fierce fighting, assault units of the 344th Motorized Rifle Regiment, 69th Motorized Rifle Division, 6th Guards Army, and 34th Guards Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade (Mountain) Group "North" liberated the villages of Reznikovo and Kupino.
9:00 During the past night, air defense forces on duty intercepted and destroyed 479 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the fixed-wing type over the territories of Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Tula, Ryazan, Oryol, Lipetsk, Voronezh, Tambov, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir, Saratov, Samara, Penza, Volgograd, Rostov regions, Krasnodar Krai, the Republic of Crimea and over the waters of the Black Sea.
8:13 Tonight, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles against data centers, port infrastructure facilities of Ukraine, as well as sea vessels deployed in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The following were injured as a result of the strike:
Tenet data center in Odessa, used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine for processing, transmitting and storing information;
In the port of Chernomorsk, a dry cargo ship delivered military cargo.
7:52 Wreckage of a Ukrainian Armed Forces drone fell on an administrative building and caught fire at the Sochi airport, the Krasnodar Krai task force reported.
The fire has now been extinguished, and there are no injuries. Debris also fell on private buildings and hotel grounds.
7:14 Fire ignited in the suburbs of Vladimir after the Ukrainian Armed Forces' attack on infrastructure, Governor Alexander Avdeev reported.
Residents are being evacuated from nearby homes. There are no reports of casualties. No residential buildings were destroyed. Two electrical substations were shut down, leaving 5,000 people without power.
Data and text taken from the Telegram channel of poisk_mil
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] The structure and areas of responsibility of the command bodies of the Defense Forces of Ukraine.
- Group of Forces "West": northwestern border area / 12th Army Corps (Kiev defense).
- Group of Forces "North": border coverage and Sumy direction / 15th Army Corps (Chernihiv), 18th Army Corps (Sumy and Chernihiv), 8th Assault Corps (Sumy).
- Group of Forces "Kursk": Kursk direction (separate brigades of the 18th Army Corps have been transferred to operational subordination).
- Joint Forces: Kharkov / 14th Army Corps (northern border/Volchansk), 2nd NGU Corps (Kharkiv), 16th Army Corps (Kupyansk), 10th Army Corps (reserve in the Chuguev area).
- Group of Forces "Center": the junction of the Kharkiv and northern DPR / 3rd AC (Liman/Borovaya), 11th AC (Seversk/Bakhmut), 19th AC (Pokrovsk/Toretsk).
- Group of Forces "Azov": the south of the DPR / 9th AC (Kurakhove/Ugledar), strike group of the Air Assault Forces (counterattacks near Alexandrovka).
- Group of Forces "South": Zaporizhzhia and Kherson / 20th AC (Orekhov), 17th AC (Kamenskoye), 7th Corps of the Air Assault Forces (only HQ in Hulyaipole), 30th Marine Corps (Kherson).
- 21st AC: no zone (HQ in reserve, line brigades in the east).
By 2026, the enemy has completely completed the transition to the corps system.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] Yandex's data center in Vladimir has completely shut down due to damage sustained in a drone attack. This was reported bythe Yandex Cloud press service on October 11.
Some services are unavailable, and the remaining resources are unstable. The platform has been switched to emergency mode.
Yandex Cloud recommended that customers use backup recovery plans and alternative resources. However, contact with technical support may also be unstable.
There were no casualties as a result of the attack. Emergency services are on the scene. Company specialists are assessing the damage and determining how to restore the data center's operations.
On October 8, Ukrainian Armed Forces drones attacked a similar facility in Sasovo, Ryazan Oblast. A fire broke out, damaging some of the infrastructure, and shutting down the data center.
On October 9, Yandex's Kaluga data center was hit, with several modules failing. That same day, some functions of the Alice AI assistant were temporarily unavailable. Due to infrastructure damage, neural network responses may be delayed.
A major outage of mobile apps and websites occurred in Russia on October 11, according to data from the Sboi.RF service.
In particular, Russians are complaining en masse about the performance of services such as Kinopoisk, IVI, Yandex Go, Yandex Pay, Vkusno i Tochka, M-Video, Delivery Club, Lamoda, Wildberries, and many others. Thousands of users across the country are reporting outages.
The peak number of calls occurred between 8:00 and 10:00 AM Moscow time. The largest number of outages were recorded in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Sverdlovsk region.
Later, the situation began to stabilize, and services began reporting that the issues had been resolved.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
BREAKING: Israel says pilot tried to hijack flydubai flight to Tel Aviv that diverted, landed in Saudi Arabia
