Russia Ramstein meeting: Zelensky expects historic week

In view of the upcoming meeting of Ukraine's partners in Ramstein, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expects a historic week.

Ukraine as well as the USA and other partners are preparing "important decisions" for this meeting on October 12, Selensky reported in his evening video. "This week can be positive for our defense, for our vision of how the war should end."

He assumed that the meeting at the invitation of US President Joe Biden at the American base in Rhineland-Palatinate would be "historic in many respects", said Selenskyj. The aim was to guarantee lasting peace and security for Ukraine. "This is only possible on the basis of international law and without any trade in sovereignty or trade in territory," he said.

Shortly before, the "Financial Times" had speculated about a possible peace deal with a "land for Nato membership" trade. According to this, Russia would continue to leave its troops in the occupied territories and the solution to this issue would be postponed to a later date. Ukraine would in turn receive immediate membership of Nato, with a limited mutual assistance clause. However, the paper emphasized that it was unlikely that either Zelensky or Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin would agree to this.

Selenskyj pointed out that the Ukrainian soldiers on the front line were also making their contribution to the meeting in Ramstein. "In other words, they are demonstrating what Ukrainians can do when they have enough weapons and enough range," he said, highlighting the deployment of the drone force in particular.

Every destroyed Russian military base, every destroyed Russian airfield, every destroyed warehouse with bombs means the saving of Ukrainian lives and "real support" for the front. However, Ukraine wants to convince its partners "that drones alone are not enough". He thus indicated that Kiev would continue to ask for permission to use long-range weapons from Western suppliers against military targets on Russian territory. Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian war of aggression for more than two and a half years.

Russian drone swarms cover Ukraine

Late in the evening, Russia's military once again covered parts of Ukraine with swarms of combat drones. Attacks by Shaheds were reported from Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernyhyv as well as from Kherson, where the air defense also went into action. In the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, a man was killed by a drone strike, the regional military administration reported. Four people were injured in another drone strike.

Russian attacks expected near Zaporizhia

Meanwhile, according to the Ukrainian military leadership, Russian troops are preparing for an imminent attack on the large city of Zaporizhia. The military representative responsible for the region, Vladislav Voloshin, speculated on television that this advance was intended, among other things, to cut the supply lines to the eastern defensive sections around the Donbass.

"The fact that the so-called counter-battery warfare and the shelling of our positions and attacks on our lines are continuing alone shows that the situation there is very difficult," he said. Counter-battery warfare refers to artillery fire on recognized enemy artillery positions. There are also heavy air and rocket attacks on this section of the front south of Zaporizhia. "The situation there is quite turbulent."

Russian units have recently conquered further villages and settlements around the Donbass in eastern Ukraine. Moscow annexed the occupied territories in Ukraine in violation of international law and integrated them into Russia's territory, but does not fully control these regions within its administrative borders.

In the Zaporizhzhya region, Russian troops have occupied the south of the region with the nuclear power plant of the same name, but not the large city itself.

No respite in Russian attacks until the end of the year

Following the territorial conquests of recent weeks, Russian troops are likely to continue their attacks in the coming weeks, according to a Ukrainian military expert. "We should not expect the enemy to stop before winter and these numerous infantry attacks to cease," said Olexander Musiyenko, head of the Center for Military Law Studies in Kiev.

After the conquest of Wuhledar, the Russian military will now certainly move in the direction of Kurakhove, and also against Pokrovsk and Kupyansk. "A slowdown in the enemy offensives before winter is not to be expected," said the military expert. The Russian military's greatest asset at the moment is its infantry, which is attacking the Ukrainian lines in non-stop waves and with heavy losses.