[Kurdistan24] In a call with Trump, Putin demanded Ukraine surrender the entire Donetsk region to end the war, a condition that could derail nascent peace efforts.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] According to law enforcement agencies, the jet bomb traveled approximately 130 kilometers.
Russian forces struck Lozova in the Kharkiv region with a new-generation KAB aerial bomb. This marks the first time Russia has bombed the city.
The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office announced this on its Telegram channel on the evening of Saturday, October 18.
According to law enforcement, the incident occurred on the evening of October 18 at approximately 5:40 PM. The attack targeted a private residential area, resulting in damage to residential buildings and outbuildings.
According to the prosecutor's office, five people were injured (previously four were reported ). Among the victims are a man with injuries and an 80-year-old woman who suffered an acute stress reaction. The victims are receiving the necessary medical care.
According to the report, the enemy launched the bomb from temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. Investigations into its modification and precise characteristics are ongoing, but the prosecutor's office has already clarified that it is a new version of the UMBP-5R guided rocket bomb. This marks the first time this type of bomb has been used in the city of Lozovaya.
In parallel, a pre-trial investigation into the war crime is being conducted.
As Vadim Kushnikov, a columnist for the publication "Military," noted in a commentary for Suspilne, the unified inter-service glide vehicle was created on the basis of the FAB-250.
According to him, the UMBP-5 warhead contains 99 kilograms of explosive. Regarding range, while standard FABs equipped with UMBP payloads have already demonstrated the ability to travel 60 kilometers or more, this modification has an additional low-power jet engine. This engine significantly increases the munition's effective range.
It's also worth recalling that several days earlier, the Russians launched their first KAB strike on the outskirts of Mykolaiv.
Vitaly Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Special Operations Forces, reported this on October 16, emphasizing the scale and innovative nature of the weapons' use. Information circulated on social media about the probable long-range range of the bomb—approximately 150 km—confirming Russia's shift in its approach to weapons.
Earlier on Saturday, it was reported that Russian forces struck a gas station in Sumy with a drone. Two women were injured. The enemy also attacked community elders with drones and guided bombs.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] Two-thirds of all attacks by Russian invaders are concentrated on the Pokrovsky and Aleksandrovsky directions of the front.
Since the beginning of the current day, 74 combat clashes between the Ukrainian army and Russian invaders have occurred on the front. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported this in an operational report on Saturday, October 18.
Thus, two military clashes with enemy troops took place in the Severo-Slobodskoy and Kursk directions.
In the Yuzhno-Slobodskoy direction, five attacks were repelled near the settlements of Odradnoye, Kamyanka and Bologovka.
In the Kupyansk direction, the occupiers attempted to break through six times in the area of the village of Stepovaya Novoselovka and in the direction of Peschanoye.
In the Liman direction, the invading army carried out one attack near the village of Novy Mir.
In the Slavyansk direction, five enemy attacks were stopped in the areas of the settlements of Yampol and Dronovka.
In the Kramatorsk direction, the enemy attacked twice in the Orekhovo-Vasilyevka area.
In the Konstantinovsky direction, the enemy carried out seven assaults in the areas of Shcherbinovka, Pleshchievka and Rusiny Yar.
In the Pokrovsk direction, Russian invaders launched 31 attacks near the settlements of Vladimirivka, Rodynskoye, Mirolyubovka, Novoekonomicheskoye, Krasny Liman, Rodynskoye, Lisovka, Pokrovsk, Zvirovoye, Kotlin, Udachnoye, Molodetskoye, and Kotlyarovka. The defense forces repelled all assaults.
In the Aleksandrivske direction, the enemy attempted to breach Ukrainian Armed Forces defenses 11 times near the villages of Sosnovka, Voronye, Novomikolaevka, Novogrigoryevka, and Malinovka. Two combat clashes are ongoing.
In the Orekhovsky direction, the enemy once attacked the positions of our defenders in the Stepovoye area.
In the Dnieper direction, the enemy tried three times unsuccessfully to approach the positions of our defenders in the direction of the Antonovsky Bridge.
As a reminder, Russia lost over 1,100 soldiers killed and wounded in the 24 hours of October 18. The total number of Russian casualties is approaching 1.2 million.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces effectively destroyed a Russian MLRS and five tanks.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 20:54 Russian assault groups are becoming increasingly active in the city, especially in the western part of Pokrovsk, and have even been spotted in the area of the railway.VIDEO 20:24 UAV operators of the Vostok group of forces liquidated enemy forces located in trenches and shelters in the Zaporizhzhia region. As a result, the fighters disrupted the completion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' engineering work on their positions and their attempt to consolidate their position.
Strike UAV crews from the special forces unit of the "Center" group of forces are destroying antennas and repeaters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Krasnoarmeysk direction.
FPV drone crews from the Rubicon Center destroyed equipment, ground-based robotic systems, elements of communications and electronic warfare systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as temporary deployment points and personnel of Ukrainian Armed Forces units.
20:20 Investigative Committee of Russiawillto investigate further crimes committed by Ukrainian armed groups in the Belgorod and Kherson regions
As a result of the attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on settlements in the Belgorod region, three people, including a minor, were injured.
In addition, as a result of an attack by an unmanned aerial vehicle of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the head of the Mokroorlovskaya territorial administration of the Graivoronsky district of the Belgorod region was wounded.
A Ukrainian drone strike on the village of Zhelezniy Port in the Golopristan district of the Kherson region killed a married couple.
Investigators from the Russian Investigative Committee will thoroughly investigate the circumstances of the incident and provide a criminal assessment of the actions of all those involved.
19:30 Russian assault groups started to enter Krasny Liman from the east.
Leading Ukrainian military analysts, including DeepState, acknowledge this. Consequently, the area between Torske and Liman has been reclassified as a gray zone on Ukrainian maps.
18:40 In the period from 14:00 Moscow time to 18:00 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty destroye dsix Ukrainian aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles:
Four over the territory of the Belgorod region,
One over the territory of the Kursk region,
One over the territory of the Bryansk region
. 18:12 Change in the situation in the Dobropillya direction, –MAP.
17:51 Russian army assault groups have reached the Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) railway station. Significant areas in the rear still require clearing, but overall, this doesn't change the situation. MAP.
16:16 Crew of the 122mm BM-21 Grad MLRS of the 150th Motorized Rifle Division of the Southern Forces Group destroyed two control points for Ukrainian Armed Forces drones on the northern shore of the Kleban-Byk Reservoir in the DPR.
Artillerymen from the "East" force group suppressed enemy firing positions near the village of Poltavka in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The actions of the Grad rocket crews paved the way for the subsequent advance of assault groups deep into the enemy's defenses.
15:40 Russian aviation aligns from the ground position of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Volchansk.
15:16 Liman direction. Russian troops reached the northern outskirts of Drobyshevo –MAP
14:31 A precise VOG drop destroyed a combat group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Vovchansk direction,video. VOG is a 40mm launchable high explosive grenade. 13:58 Servicemen of the assault unit of the Center group of forces continue intensive combat training at one of the training grounds in the rear area of the Special Operation zone.
13:29 In the period from 10:00 Moscow time to 13:00 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty destroyed eight Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the aircraft type over the territory of the Belgorod region.
12:36 Summary of the Russian Ministry of Defense on the progress of the special military operation as of October 18, 2025:
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to conduct a special military operation.
Units of the "North" force group improved their tactical position. They defeated formations of the infantry, airborne assault brigades, assault regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, territorial defense brigade, and border detachment of the Ukrainian Border Service near the settlements of Korchakivka, Sadki, Andriivka, Sennoe, Streletskaya Pushkarka, and Proletarske in Sumy Oblast.
In the Khar'kov direction, units of the mechanized and infantry brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were defeated in the areas of the settlements of Volchansk and Dergachi in the Khar'kov region.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 205 service members, an armored combat vehicle, 12 vehicles, and five artillery pieces, including two Western-made ones. An electronic warfare station, two ammunition depots, and two supply depots were destroyed.
Units of the "West" force group occupied more advantageous positions and lines. They defeated the personnel and equipment of four mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near the settlements of Kupyansk and Monachinovka in the Khar'kov region, and Drobyshevo and Yarovaya in the Donetsk People's Republic.
The enemy lost over 230 troops, a tank, four armored combat vehicles, 23 vehicles, and three artillery pieces, including two Western-made ones. Five electronic warfare stations and five ammunition depots were destroyed.
Units of the Southern Group of Forces, as a result of active offensive operations, liberated the village of Pleshcheyevka in the Donetsk People's Republic.
Formations of two mechanized, mountain assault, assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a special forces brigade and a territorial defense brigade were defeated in the areas of the settlements of Druzhkovka, Konstantinovka, Svyato-Pokrovskoye, Pazeno and Berestok of the Donetsk People's Republic.
The enemy lost up to 195 service members, four armored combat vehicles, 13 vehicles, and four artillery pieces. Two electronic warfare stations, four ammunition depots, and three supply depots were destroyed.
Units of the Center group of forces occupied more advantageous lines and positions, inflicting losses on the manpower and equipment of four mechanized, airborne assault, and assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a territorial defense brigade, and three National Guard brigades in the areas of the settlements of Artemovka, Toretskoye, Shevchenko, Novoaleksandrivka, Petrovskoye, Udachnoye, and Krasnoarmeysk of the Donetsk People's Republic.
The losses of the Ukrainian armed forces amounted to 580 servicemen, an armored combat vehicle, five cars and an artillery piece.
Units of the "East" force group continued to advance deep into the enemy's defenses. They defeated formations of three mechanized brigades and an assault regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near the settlements of Uspenovka and Poltavka in the Zaporizhzhia region, and Podgavrilovka and Pokrovskoe in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
The enemy lost more than 280 servicemen, a tank, an armored combat vehicle, 14 vehicles, a multiple launch rocket system, a Western-made artillery piece, and two electronic warfare stations.
Units of the Dnepr group of forces inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of two mechanized brigades, two coastal defense brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and two territorial defense brigades in the areas of the populated areas of Novoandriivka, Stepnogorsk, Primorskoye in the Zaporizhzhia region, Sadovoe and Lvovo in the Kherson region.
More than 75 servicemen, an armored combat vehicle, 13 vehicles, three electronic warfare stations, an ammunition depot, and a supply depot were destroyed.
12:24 Units of the Southern Group of Forces as a result of active offensive actions released the settlement of Pleshcheyevka in the Donetsk People's Republic.
10:54 In the period from 8:00 Moscow time to 10:00 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty destroyedr ive Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the aircraft type:
Four over the territory of the Belgorod region and
One over the territory of the Kursk region.
10:11 Crews of the Molniya aircraft-type UAV of the 1st Guards Tank Army of the West group of forces destroyed armored vehicles and camouflaged temporary deployment points with enemy manpower in the Khar'kov region.
09:50 Footage of the destruction of a Ukrainian T-72 tank by FPV crews of Sever group, –MAP.
07:33 Changes on map over the past 24 hours:
Advance east of Konstantinovka
Privolnoye was liberated
Avance between Pereezdny and Vyemka
Tikhoye was liberated
Peschanoye was liberated
Advance in Pokrovsk
Expansion of the control zone in Pokrovsk
07:20 During the past night, air defense systems on duty destroyed 41 Ukrainian fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles:
12 over the Bryansk region,
Six UAVs were destroyed over the Black Sea
Five UAVs each over the Kaluga region and the Republic of Bashkortostan,
Three over the Moscow region,
Two UAVs each were shot down over the Belgorod and Oryol regions,
One each over the Volgograd, Kursk, Ryazan, Tambov, Tula, and Samara regions,
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Malek Dudakov
[REGNUM] Volodymyr Zelenskyy's third visit to the White House to meet with Donald Trump ended no less strangely than the first two.
Preparations for the Ukrainian "landing" in the United States had been underway for a long time. Trump was strongly urged to side with the "hawks" and stage a military escalation against Russia. But at the last minute, he upended all the cards.
For many weeks, the main topic around Ukraine has been the discussion of the possible delivery of Tomahawks.
The Pentagon was actively planning to use these long-range missiles in Ukraine, although the technical complexity of such a task was obvious to everyone. The US has very few ground-based launchers for Tomahawks, and deploying them "on the fly" in a combat zone would have been extremely difficult.
Nevertheless, at one point it seemed the White House was leaning toward delivering the missiles. Hawks on both sides of the Atlantic tried to trap Trump and were ready to immediately accuse him of capitulating to Russia if the Tomahawks weren't provided to Kyiv.
At the same time, he can be held responsible for any future failures of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the battlefield – saying that they are losing only because of the lack of missiles.
Trump tried to escape this trap by intensifying the negotiation process with Moscow.
Announcements of a new meeting with Vladimir Putin, and in Hungary at that, have caused shock and confusion among European elites. They were clearly unprepared for this. However, this is a major success for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has long proposed establishing a platform for de-escalation talks in Budapest.
Hungary will hold elections next spring, where Orbán's party faces challenges. Therefore, he needs to demonstrate significant foreign policy successes to strengthen his position both domestically and within the EU.
In this case, Trump is helping his old ally, whose support he also enjoys in his confrontation with the European bureaucracy.
Trump showed no sign of affection during his interactions with Zelensky. Zelensky blushed when asked about his views on the intensification of US-Russia negotiations and the prospects for constructing a tunnel across the Bering Strait.
As a result, talk of providing Tomahawks has been put on hold—at least until the summit in Hungary. The Ukrainian delegation is leaving Washington literally empty-handed. They are afraid to criticize Trump again, as things could end even worse than they did in the spring, when intelligence transfers to Kyiv were cut off.
So Zelenskyy is forced to try to mimic and adapt to Trump's agenda, calling for negotiations with Russia after the conflict is frozen and hostilities cease. Kyiv has long since forgotten about the "1991 borders."
The routine of Zelensky's visits to the American capital has also changed significantly.
They always followed a well-established pattern: first, closed briefings with representatives of the Pentagon and the US intelligence community, followed by a visit to Congress, where he was hosted by leading pro-Ukrainian hawks in both parties. They acted as a kind of support team. Only then did Zelenskyy visit the White House, where he met with the US President.
Now the visit to Congress never happened. It's currently mired in the chaotic state of the shutdown—the paralysis of the American government has been ongoing for three weeks now. Lawmakers are still unable to agree on a new budget, and Republicans and Democrats are unable to find consensus.
In this context, the agenda of supporting Ukraine is relegated to the background. No one is interested in it, basically.
Trump's team now has room to maneuver to try to achieve at least some progress on the Ukrainian issue. Trump is already calling on both Russia and Ukraine to declare victory and end the conflict.
He's trying to employ a strategy similar to the one recently employed in the Middle East. Specifically, he's imposing a ceasefire plan on all sides that won't fully satisfy anyone. But he's also presenting a choice: either this less-than-ideal escalation plan or a continuation of endless war.
But even in the Middle East, Trump's current approach may not work if the ceasefire doesn't hold. As for the Ukrainian crisis, such a strategy certainly won't work. But the White House hasn't been able to come up with anything else yet.
Although he still has two weeks left before the summit in Hungary, he can use this time to propose more realistic approaches to resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy's cold reception at the White House was in some ways even worse than the altercation six months ago. Emotions were running high back then, but there was a chance the pendulum would swing the other way. As we know, there's only one step from love to hate.
Now Zelensky has been met with complete indifference and even irritation. The American administration is clearly fed up with him. But they have to tolerate him while the negotiations with Russia continue.
Trump's team would be happy to stage an operation and install someone more manageable in Kyiv. However, they are likely wary of Ukraine's complete destabilization, the collapse of the front, and a sharp weakening of their negotiating position. So, for now, they are forced to negotiate with Zelenskyy, even though they are demanding obvious political and military concessions from him.
Incidentally, it's no coincidence that the topic of corruption scandals related to the allocation of funds to Ukraine has resurfaced right now. Zelenskyy may well be required to provide evidence of embezzlement of funds allocated during Joe Biden's term.
This information could very well be used as dirt on the Democrats ahead of the upcoming midterm congressional elections in the fall of 2026.
At the same time, Zelensky is being blackmailed with demands to show at least some success on the battlefield and carry out that notorious “counteroffensive.”
But here, Ukrainian lobbyists have driven themselves into a dead end with empty boasts about the supposed hundreds of square kilometers of Donbas territory they have managed to seize recently.
And now the White House is setting a condition for them: any money will only come after real victories on the front lines. Otherwise, it's not worth the effort.
Kyiv can only hope for the support of its allies among the European "hawks".
London has already begun offering its services to draft the future peace agreement. Jonathan Powell, Keir Starmer's national security adviser and a protégé of Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister and current Labour power broker, will be handling this work.
He has already attempted to mend fences with Trump through the Middle East deal. However, Labour's position is currently very shaky, and Powell himself is embroiled in a major scandal involving pressure on the court to defeat the case against several British experts who spied for China.
This is the whole difficulty of the current European elites' situation: they live from crisis to crisis, their approval ratings are near zero, and they have few opportunities left to influence the White House's position.
It's no wonder that even European support for Ukraine is quietly shrinking: they can't sustain the war on their own without Trump's help. And that help is now in question.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
[ColonelCassad] October 17th was a record-breaking day.
On that day, 268 KABs were dropped on the enemy in one day. This is a record for the entire duration of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine.
According to enemy statements, there were 109 airstrikes on that day, with a simply enormous number of guided aerial bombs dropped in various directions. It's worth noting that Russia entered the war with a relatively small percentage of guided bombs, often conducting bombing runs the old-fashioned way (which led, among other things, to the loss of valuable materiel).
As the war progressed, the production and use of KABs increased exponentially, and the UMPK system was widely deployed, with kits now even being installed on the FAB-3000. The days of relying on free-fall aerial bombs are practically a thing of the past. Now, guided aerial bombs are dropped on the enemy daily, allowing Su-34 pilots to generally avoid enemy air defense engagements or remain there for only a short time. Therefore, the enemy still lacks a comprehensive countermeasure against KABs.
The number of downings is vanishingly small; sometimes they can be diverted using electronic warfare, but usually everything hits its targets. This remains one of the main tactical problems for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In this regard, the Air Defense Forces effectively facilitated the Russian Aerospace Forces' final transition to guided and precision-guided weapons. In this regard, war is truly an engine of progress.
General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: Russia carried out a record number of KAB strikes in the special operation zone.
Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft used 268 guided aerial bombs (GABs) to strike Ukrainian military targets in the past 24 hours, a record for the entire duration of the war. This data was published on October 18 by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).
General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: Russia carried out a record number of KAB strikes in the special operation zone.
"According to updated information, yesterday Russian troops carried out 109 airstrikes on Ukrainian territory, dropping 268 guided bombs," the department's report notes.
It is also reported that over the past 24 hours, the Russian army deployed 6,024 kamikaze drones to carry out strikes.
On June 30, Kyiv's Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that the Patriot air defense systems delivered to Ukraine were ineffective against Russian guided bombs. He added that the Russian Armed Forces use thousands of KABs, and shooting them down with Patriots is too expensive.
#1
I haven't studied Russian since college but isn't Special Military Operation better translated as "Land-grabbing Invasion of a Neighboring Country that Admittedly Hates Your Guts"?
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.
