German Chancellor Friedrich Merz “harshly criticized” the idea of financing a “drone wall” with European funds during the defense meeting in Copenhagen, Politico reports, citing a source. The governments of Italy and Greece have also publicly disapproved of the project. According to Politico, Poland and the Baltic states support the project. Countries further from Russia’s borders question its necessity.
Romania will not shoot down drones in its border zone if they are located on Ukrainian territory, the country’s Defense Minister, Ionuț Moșteanu, said.
A French court will examine the case of the captain of a Chinese oil tanker belonging to the alleged Russian “shadow fleet” early next year, following its hijacking off the French coast, prosecutors announced today. Macron responded to Putin: “The seizure of a Russian ‘shadow fleet’ oil tanker and the arrest of part of its crew are part of a new European strategy to increase pressure on Russia and cut off the revenues that finance its war machine.” The Chief of Staff of the French Land Forces, General Pierre Schill: “The army must be ready for combat at any time, starting October 3.”
The Polish president rejected Zelensky’s call to close the Baltic Sea to Russian shadow fleet vessels. He stated that he would not base his policy on the Ukrainian president’s words. Poland will extend the NATO oil pipeline from the border with Germany, announced Deputy Minister of National Defense Cezary Tomczyk. On October 3, a signing ceremony was held at the Military Education Center in Warsaw to sign a preliminary agreement on the integration of the Polish and NATO oil pipeline systems. “This project involves the construction of a 300-kilometer pipeline from the German border to the PERN (Polish pipeline operator) base in Bydgoszcz,” Tomczyk said. He noted that the project will cost approximately 20 billion zlotys (about $5.5 billion).
“The Hungarian people do not want to die for Kiev’s interests; the country does not want to share Ukraine’s fate,” said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. “We do not want to share their fate. […] If we accept Ukraine [in the EU], we will find ourselves in a state of war with Russia. We do not want to die for Ukraine,” Orbán said, quoted by Zoltán Kovács, State Secretary for International Communications and Liaison at the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office, on his social media page. The EU is preparing to lift sanctions on assets linked to Oleg Deripaska to compensate Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International for damages it was forced to pay in Russia, the Financial Times reports, citing European officials.
185 Russian military personnel have been repatriated from Ukrainian-controlled territory, and 185 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been transferred in exchange, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. Additionally, 20 civilians have been repatriated.
And now, a look at the frontline, where we report on the final days before the fall of Kleban-Byk. The significant Russian advance began on September 26, when the Russian Ministry of Defense also provided an update on the Kostyantynivka direction: “During an attempt to break free from the encirclement south of the Kleban-Byk reservoir, two Ukrainian groups were destroyed.”
On September 27, Russian social media sources spoke of a “cauldron” near Kleban-Byk. Indeed, a unique event occurred. For the first time since the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, such significant forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were encircled.
By the spring of 2022, Mariupol and the “extraction procedure” were already known. The Mariupol group was trapped in the city. Subsequently, blockades by Ukrainian garrisons, followed by their destruction, were repeated after the assault on Marik. Suffice it to mention Vuhledar, Velyka Novosilka, and others. But in the case of the Kleban-Byk reservoir, the encirclement occurred for the first time in a field. Of course, technically, this is a semi-encirclement; Russian troops surrounded Ukrainian forces only from the east, west, and south. To the north, Ukrainian forces are facing the reservoir. The northern bank of the reservoir is in the hands of Ukrainian troops. Ukraine attempted to send aid to its encircled comrades via boats and rafts. But Russian troops destroyed these “life-saving packages” with FPV drones and artillery fire. On October 2, Russian forces captured Kleban Byk, trapping the Ukrainians along the reservoir to the east.
Graziella Giangiulio
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