Ukraine at D+257: Russia processes victim reports.

Heavy fighting continues in the Donbass, where Russian casualties are reportedly heavy. The Telegraph, citing Ukrainian sources, says “hundreds” are being killed every day. Enemy casualties are notoriously difficult to assess accurately, especially in near real time, and high estimates should be treated with caution, but Ukrainian claims have received partial confirmation from Russian sources. The Washington Post reports that Russia’s hard-line war supporters (who have recently criticized some senior Russian regular army leaders as soft and incompetent) are repeating soldiers’ complaints in letters home of numerous casualties and losses. poor leadership. Official Russian sources responded that the losses, although high, were not as high as rumored. It’s a downplaying statement intended to appease public opinion, but it’s also the first time that official military sources have directly addressed reports of heavy battlefield casualties.

On the southern front, where much of Kherson’s population has been forced to evacuate, Al Jazeera reports that Russian troops are accused of widespread looting of unoccupied homes.

Ukraine rejects calls for rapid negotiations.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has indicated that Ukraine is ready to negotiate, but not until Russia withdraws from all Ukrainian territory. He said, reports the Telegraph, that under the current circumstances, “Negotiating with Putin would mean giving up, and we would never give him that gift.”

Sow dragon’s teeth.

Russian forces are digging for a defense in depth, especially around Mariupol, straddling the communication routes to Crimea. “Russia has started building defensive structures around the occupied city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine,” the UK Ministry of Defense said in the statement. morning status report. “Two factories produce concrete pyramidal anti-tank structures, known as dragon’s teeth, for this purpose. Dragon’s teeth were probably installed between Mariupol and the village of Nikolske; and from northern Mariupol to the village of Staryi Krym Mariupol is part of Russia’s ‘land bridge’ from Russia to Crimea, a key logistical line of communication. Dragon’s teeth were also sent for the preparation of defensive fortifications in the occupied regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Russia reinforces its lines in the occupied zones. On October 19, 2022, the owner of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin called for the construction of a ‘Wagner Line’ of defenses in the Russian-occupied Lugansk Oblast. This activity suggests that Russia is making a significant effort to prepare defenses in depth behind their current front line that could prevent any rapid Ukrainian advance in the event of breakthroughs.

Dragon teeth are widely used, inexpensive concrete obstacles placed to prevent the advance of armor along roads and other easily traversed terrain. (Think of them as a tighter, more difficult-to-move concrete Jersey barrier.) Most battlefield obstacles of this type are not so much intended to stop an enemy advance as to funnel an enemy advance into direct fire areas. .

Mariupol was an early target of the Russian invasion, and its history has been tragic, even by the horrific standards of this current war. Civilians suffered greatly during the Russian onslaught, with some 5,000 to 7,000 dead when their homes were destroyed by Russian shelling. The BBC reports that occupation forces continued to dig (and fill) mass graves in and around the city; the number buried there remains unknown.

Weapon supplies.

North Korea has denied reports that it sent artillery munitions to Russia, reports the AP. “We view these actions by the United States as part of their hostile attempt to tarnish the image of [North Korea] in the international arena,” a Pyongyang spokesman said, adding that the DPRK has never traded arms with Russia.

Air & Space Forces magazine reports that the first National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) have arrived in Ukraine and have been deployed to stop Russian missile and vagrant weapons attacks.

Killnet targeting and the effects achieved.

We’ve seen the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s assessment of Russia’s hacktivist Killnet helper as posing more of a psychological than a tangible threat to the networks it hits with distributed denial-of-service attacks. Yesterday, Recorded Future’s Record offered some notes on Killnet’s interests and targeting. The threat actor is primarily interested in hostile Near Abroad nations (now independent former Soviet republics, particularly Estonia and Moldova) and former members of the defunct Soviet-led Warsaw Pact (particularly Bulgaria and Poland). Officials in these countries essentially agree with the FBI: Killnet’s operations were punitive in their intent, and while the group sang loudly in its social media channels, the actual effects they achieved did not. exceeded the now familiar level of nuisance. At this point in Hybrid Warfare, these cyberattacks are best viewed as a form of influence operation, intended more to threaten and intimidate than to hinder or disrupt.

The IT Army claims to have hit the Central Bank of Russia.

The Record reports that Ukraine’s Auxiliary IT Army claims to have successfully breached databases belonging to the Central Bank of Russia. The Central Bank itself has publicly stated that the data breach was completely crazy. As quoted in Positive Technologies’ Security Lab blog, the bank said, “Not a single Bank of Russia information system has been hacked.” The material that the IT army posted online, according to the Central Bank, was only innocuous and publicly available information.

In its Telegram channel, the IT army explained its goal in hacking Russian banks: “The goal remains the same as for all banks,” the group said of an upcoming action, “to create problems in processing payments, delaying the fulfillment of financial obligations under contracts, and creating doubt among those who receive payments through it.” Thus, similar to the activities of their Russian counterparts, the IT Army is all about influence.