❗️Russia's Tsentr Battlegroup liberated the village of Mikhailovka in the Donetsk People's Republic.

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❗️Ukraine lost up to 615 militants and a depot in the Russian Yug Battlegroup’s combat zone

🇷🇺🪖More statements from the Russian Defense Ministry's daily briefing on the special military operation's progress:

▪️The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 510 militants in the Russian Zapad Battlegroup’s combat zone.

▪️In the Russian Vostok Battlegroup’s combat zone, Ukraine lost up to 130 militants.

▪️The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 40 militants and four artillery pieces in the combat zone of the Russian Battlegroup Sever in the area of the village of Liptsy and the city of Volchansk.

▪️Russian air defenses shot down five HIMARS rockets, two Neptune missiles and 36 Ukrainian drones.

▪️Russian forces struck the infrastructure of a military airfield and Ukrainian drone storage facilities.

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Israeli PM warns UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to withdraw peacekeepers from the war zone in southern Lebanon for their own safety.

“Mr Secretary General, get the UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon) forces out of harm's way. It should be done right now, immediately,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted in a video message released by his office.

The UN force in Lebanon has nearly 11,000 soldiers and civilian staff from 48 countries. They are deployed under the UN Security Council resolution of March 1978.

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❗️🇷🇺 Latest updates from the Russian Ministry of Defense on the combat operations in the Kursk region:

◻️ During the past 24 hours, the Russian Battlegroup Sever repelled five Ukrainian counterattacks in the direction of the settlements of Zeleny Shlyakh, Nizhny Klin and Pokrovsky, as well as one attempt to break through the Russian border towards the settlement of Novy Put.

◻️ As a result, Ukraine lost up to 80 militants, either killed or wounded. Three tanks, a US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, an armored combat vehicle and four other vehicles were destroyed.

◻️ Tactical aviation and missile forces struck areas of Ukrainian militant and reserve concentrations in the Sumy region.

◻️ Ukraine’s losses for the day totaled more than 300 militants. 10 armored vehicles were destroyed, including seven tanks—two of them, German-made Leopard tanks—an infantry fighting vehicle, two armored fighting vehicles, a British-made AS-90 self-propelled howitzer, two mortars and 11 vehicles. Eight Ukrainian militants surrendered.

◻️ Since the beginning of combat operations in the Kursk region, Ukraine has lost more than 22,600 militants.

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🇮🇷 Iran hasn't supplied Russia ballistic weapons—Iranian FM

💬 ''I clearly said and reiterate once again: We've not provided ballistic missiles to Russia. If Europe needs a case to appease Israel's blackmail, better find another story.'' — Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote on his X account, referring to his meeting with EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrel and his Chief of Staff Enrique Mora.

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Now everyone knows what 'second-hand embarrassment' feels like

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova couldn’t help commenting on a video from the Spanish Foreign Ministry meant to celebrate their national heritage – which begins with footage of Moscow’s Gorky Park.

The video was posted to mark Spain’s national day, which is celebrated on October 12.

But the slip-up didn’t escape the sharp eyes of social media users, who were quick to point out the “geographical” error.

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📹 A Russian Su-34 jet struck a stronghold and a concentration of Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel in the border area of the Kursk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The targets were destroyed.

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Serbia is considering joining the BRICS group of emerging economies as an alternative to European Union membership, Vice Premier Aleksandar Vulin revealed in an interview with Berliner Zeitung.

Serbia will definitely attend the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan this month, Vulin said, adding that it would be irresponsible not to explore all possibilities, including BRICS membership.

If BRICS is attractive to other countries like the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia or Turkey, why should Serbia's situation be any different, he asked, stressing that there was no doubt that BRICS had become a real alternative to the EU.

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Ukrainian recruiters’ mass raids on public venues sign of serious problems at the front – expert

“Their problems are traditional: they don’t have enough personnel. They’re grabbing everyone, even those with an official exemption from service – which isn’t always possible to prove,” Institute of CIS Countries senior researcher Alexander Dudchak told Sputnik.

That's how the expert commented the much-publicized video and images coming out of Ukrainian cities over the past two days of draft officers engaging in mass raids on malls, nightclubs, concerts and other venues searching for fresh recruits.

The thuggish methods on display are par for the course, but the scale of the recent raids is a first, says Dudchak, who is also an expert with ‘Another Ukraine’ – a political and social movement consisting of Ukrainian politicians, journalists and others seeking to end the NATO-sponsored proxy war with Russia.

Desperate times may be calling for desperate measures, and the mobilization raids seem to be a sign of mounting problems on the battlefield, according to the observer, who pointed to the Russian military’s push to drive Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk region, and advances in Donetsk and Kharkov.

“Of course, we should not rejoice too early, because despite their serious failures, including places where some units are leaving the front line altogether, with such measures [mass raids and forced mobilization, ed.] they will be able to gather a crowd and hold the defense for some time. I can’t say for how long, but now they will have the opportunity to ‘solve’ their current problems at the expense of the crowd they recruit in this way,” Dudchak said.

More broadly, Dudchak expects an overall shift in Kiev’s tactics, saying both the Zelensky regime’s rhetoric and practice will shift “from attempts to organize a counteroffensive to blind defense. It’s quite possible that this will suit them, and the West, well – holding on to what they have and freezing the front line.”

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What’s THAAD and why might Israel want them? Part 1 👉 Part 2

The US may be planning to deploy a THAAD missile defense system, along with the troops to operate it, on Israeli soil. A US defense official has told Sputnik no final decision has been made. Is the THAAD the missile defense holy grail Israel is looking for to guard against further Iranian missile attacks? And what about Tel Aviv’s own much-vaunted defenses?

◻️ Introduced into service with the US Army in 2008, the THAAD (‘Terminal High Altitude Area Defense’) is an anti-ballistic missile defense system designed to intercept short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the reentry phase.

◻️ Developed by Lockheed, THAAD destroys projectiles using kinetic force alone, with its $12 mln apiece 900 kg, 6.17 m-long interceptors powered by a solid-fuel Pratt & Whitney motor with thrust vectoring and the ability to accelerate to speeds up to Mach 8.2. The THAAD has a 150-200 km range (including up to 150 km from the ground).

◻️ Each THAAD HEMTT-LHS launch vehicle carries eight interceptors, and along with launchers and a C&C vehicle, batteries feature a Raytheon AN/TPY-2 X-band search & track radar with a 1,000 km detection range. A THAAD battery costs $800 mln, although the price for foreign clients has been known to top $1 bln.

◻️ Promotional materials boast the THAAD’s superior lethality and hit-to-kill ratios in testing, high firepower for sustained defense, and powerful radar.

◻️ But combat use has proven a mixed bag, with the system reporting its first combat kill in January 2022 during a Houthi missile barrage, but failing to intercept all enemy projectiles, which set infrastructure at Abu Dhabi’s airport on fire and destroyed oil tankers near a military base hosting US, French and Emirati troops. Abu Dhabi’s possible dissatisfaction with THAAD’s performance may have led it to buy Rafael SPYDER short-to-medium range air defense systems from Israel.

👉 Part 2

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