UKRAINE CONTINUES BLOODY ATTEMPTS TO ADVANCE

The Russian special military operation continues and damage to the Ukrainian energy infrastructure is growing. On October 20, the adviser to the Minister of Energy of Ukraine claimed that about 40% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been heavily damaged. Blackouts of light, water and heat across the country continue. President Zelensky confirmed that three more energy infrastructure facilities were destroyed on October 19. The targets included the Burshtyn TPP located in Ivano-Frankivsk region. It supplied western Ukraine, as well as Transcarpathia and the Carpathian region, with electricity. At least three Russian missiles hit the Ladyzhinskaya TPP in Vinnytsa region. As a result of the attacks, the entire southwest of the country may face a significant shortage of supplies. Since the night of October 20, Russian missiles and UAVs resumed their attack throughout Ukraine. An air alert sounded in Kiev, Cherkasy, Kirovograd, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions. At least four power supply facilities were damaged or destroyed in the Mykolaiv region. On the morning, an energy infrastructure facility and an industrial enterprise were hit in Dnipropetrovsk region. In turn, Ukrainian military continued shelling on civilian infrastructure in the Donbass and in the Russian border regions. The city of Energodar came under fire. Ukrainian forces hit the building of the city administration, the bridge leading to the city and the local energy substation with HIMARS. Ukrainian formations again shelled Donetsk, Yasinovataya, Makeyevka, Elenovka and other settlements of the Donetsk agglomeration. Ukrainian formations struck from the HIMARS MLRS at Popasnaya. In the Russian city of Belgorod, shells hit an infrastructure facility but did not cause serious damage. Meanwhile, two civilian women were injured as a result of the shelling of the village of Schebekino in the border region. The situation on Ukrainian front lines remains almost unchanged. The Armed forces of Ukraine continue their attempts to break through the Russian defenses in the Kherson region. On October 19, another massive offensive by Ukrainian forces failed and the attackers suffered heavy losses and rolled back to their original positions. Ukrainian military attempted to break towards the town of Novaya Kamenka. Forces of about two Ukrainian battalions launched an offensive on Russian positions near Sukhanovo and Polyanka. The Russian 126 Coastal Defense Brigade, 83, 11 and 80 Airborne brigades stopped the offending Ukrainian units and inflicted heavy losses on them in manpower and military equipment. At the same time, Ukrainian units attempted to break through Russian defenses near Davidov Brod but also to no avail. Constant Ukrainian attempts to achieve any gains on the Kherson front lines are expected to continue at least until the elections to the US Senate which will take place in November.