Russian military command likely ordered Russian forces to conduct relatively high-tempo mechanized attacks in Ukraine to make significant tactical progress before the scorched ground in the fall of 2024 limits their maneuverability.
Poor weather conditions in the fall of 2024 and early winter of 2024-25 are likely to complicate and limit both mechanized and infantry maneuver, but Russian forces may seek to maintain their consistent offensive pressure in the Eastern Ukraine despite these difficulties.
This is predicted by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Commander of US European Command (EUCOM) and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) General Christopher Cavoli announced that the United States is withholding and not handing over to Ukraine several US weapons systems and other military communications networks , which could aid Ukraine's military efforts.
On October 8, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said that a limited number of North Korean troops were likely operating near the occupied city of Donetsk.
Russian arms dealer and Ulyanovsk MP Viktor Bout reportedly helped broker a deal for Russia to sell $10 million worth of weapons to Yemen's Houthi rebels in August 2024 amid the frequent reports of potential Russian arms transfers to the Houthis and deepening of Russian-Iranian cooperation.
On October 8, Russia banned the partially encrypted communications platform Discord, which is likely to impair real-time communications for some frontline Russian forces in the short term.
Russian forces continue to use chemical weapons in Ukraine in clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), to which Russia is a party.
Russian forces have recently advanced near Kremina, Siversk, Toretsk, Pokrovsk and Robotine.
Ukraine's Kharkiv Group of Forces spokesman Vitaly Sarantsev said on October 8 that Russian forces may have exhausted their available stockpile of aerial bombs for surface-to-air strikes.
Russian occupation troops may have captured the Volchan Aggregate Plant in Kharkiv Oblast and may have occupied Verkhnekamenske in Donetsk Oblast. The Institute for the Study of War (IIW) informs.
"Russian forces recently advanced deep into Volchansk amid ongoing offensive operations in northern Kharkiv Oblast on October 7, 8 and 9.
Geolocation footage released on October 7 showing a Russian soldier raising the Russian flag on the building of the Volchan Aggregates Plant indicates that Russian troops may have taken over the plant," the analysts report said.
Enemy troops also recently advanced near Seversk in the Donetsk region amid ongoing Russian offensives in the area on October 7, 8 and 9.
Geolocation footage released on October 7 and 8 shows that Russian forces have recently advanced east of Grigorievka (northeast of Seversk) and in the western part of Verkhnekamenskoe (east of Seversk).
According to ISW analysts, this indicates that Russian forces are likely to have captured Verkhnekamenskoye.
At the end of September, it became known that fighters of the Main Intelligence Directorate had liberated a plant for aggregates in Volchansk from the Russian invaders. The territory of the plant came under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces after all 30 buildings of the facility were cleared.
It is worth noting that the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate Kirilo Budanov personally participated in the operation to liberate the aggregates plant in Volchansk.
Vitalii Sarantsev, a representative of the Kharkiv Task Force, noted that after clearing the site, the Russians tried to destroy the aggregates plant in Volchansk. They hit it with a flamethrower system and guided aerial bombs.