The first Russian bulk carrier has entered the temporarily occupied port of Mariupol. It docked at the berth of the Shipyard.

Petro Andriushchenko, advisor to the mayor of Mariupol, reported on this.

“And this is very bad news. This is what the dredging was for. Now it has happened – the first sea-class vessel (not a river-sea vessel) docked at the Shipyard’s berth yesterday. The bulk carrier has its own cranes, and its gross tonnage or DWT is much more than 5,000 tons, as in RM 3 vessels,” said Andriushchenko.

According to him, it is currently unknown what the bulk carrier is filled with, and it is most likely delivering something to Mariupol and unloading it.

“It’s not hard to guess what exactly. Definitely not houses for Mariupol residents. The military-logistics map is starting to change. On the other hand, this definitely brings the season of explosions in the Primorsky district of Mariupol closer,” wrote the mayor’s advisor.

The first Russian bulk carrier calls at the port of Mariupol. Photo credits: Petro Andriushchenko

Andriushchenko added that the presence of enemy ships in the port is likely to bring the season of explosions in the Primorsky district of Mariupol closer.

Dmytro Zabavin, a deputy of the Mariupol City Council, told Suspilne.Resistance that the invaders use the port to transport weapons they hide, unload construction materials, and so on.

Previously, the Russian invaders were deepening the bottom of the port of Mariupol.

The Ukrainian Navy explained this by saying that the aggressor wanted to continue exporting loot from Ukraine, such as metal and grain.

“I think it has more to do with civilian shipping. Because when it comes to logistical support for the military, they have large landing ships that do not require great depth and can actually go ashore. And they have eight more of these ships. Therefore, it is still connected with the need to continue to take the loot from Ukrainian territories,” said Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy.

Mariupol port

The National Resistance Center reported that Russia wants to deploy a “branch” of its Black Sea Fleet in Mariupol.

In addition to work in the port, the enemy is trying to establish a direct railroad connection between the occupied Mariupol, Volnovakha and Donetsk.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan referred the protocol on Sweden’s NATO Accession to the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye.

Erdoğan’s press service reported on this.

The report says that the Turkish President signed a protocol on Sweden’s NATO Accession on October 23, 2023.

The document was submitted to the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye for consideration.

Türkiye and Hungary remain the only NATO countries that have not ratified Sweden’s membership application.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Erdoğan said last month that Sweden “did not fulfill the promises made to Türkiye” and would not receive its support for joining NATO.

As previously reported, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO.

In April 2023, Finland officially became a member of the Alliance, but there are certain nuances with Sweden’s accession to the organization.

This country’s application was blocked by Türkiye and Hungary.

Türkiye demands that Sweden take more steps to suppress the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

PKK fighters. Photo credits: rfi.fr

Erdoğan issued an ultimatum and said that Türkiye would approve Sweden’s request only if Stockholm extradited 130 “terrorists” to Ankara.

In September, the Swedish government decided to increase the country’s defense budget to reach NATO’s common spending guidelines.

A clandestine organization of Russian special services that was adjusting attacks on the city was neutralized in Kherson.

The Security Service of Ukraine reported that all three members of the enemy group were detained.

“Based on their coordinates, the invaders destroyed two private residential buildings in the regional center and damaged five more at the end of September of this year,” the SSU reported.

About 10 civilians received injuries of varying severity as a result of enemy shelling.

According to the investigation, the organizer and head of the local anti-Ukrainian insurgence was a former entrepreneur who defected to the enemy after the capture of the city.

Then he got a job as a “technician” of the occupation “Kherson Railway of the Russian Federation,” where he carried out technological work for the movement of echelons with military equipment.

Working for the invaders, their accomplice came to the attention of the Russian FSS, which soon recruited him.

After the liberation of the city, the traitor “laid low” for a while but later remotely got in touch with his “curator” from the temporarily occupied left bank of the Kherson region and was receiving tasks from him.

On the instructions of the aggressor, he created his own group of informants, which involved two pro-Russian residents of the regional center.

One of them participated in the filming of staged news reports during the capture of the city.

Documents of the detainee. Photo credits: SSU

After the creation of the enemy group, its members started to determine the coordinates of buildings and residences in Kherson. The information was transmitted to the aggressor via anonymous messenger apps.

During a search of the detainees’ residences, the SSU found binoculars, mobile phones, and computers used in their criminal activities. The law enforcement also seized pro-Kremlin symbols and Russian rubles, which they received for cooperation with the invaders.

The Swedish government claims that an ‘external force’ damaged the submarine telecommunications cable connecting the country to Estonia.

The statement was published on the website of the Swedish government.

“It was confirmed that the cable was damaged due to ‘external force’ or tampering. The damage did not affect the cable’s function. The incident happened within the Estonian economic zone,” the statement said.

It is noted that over the past few days, Swedish government agencies have received information about damage to a telecommunications cable between Sweden and Estonia.

It is not yet known what caused the damage.

It is believed that this might be related to two other incidents: damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline connecting Estonia and Finland and to the communication cable between these countries.

Balticconnector on the map

As reported, the accident on the Balticconnector subsea gas pipeline connecting Estonia and Finland occurred on the night of October 8.

The gas pipeline was shut down due to a leak caused by an intentional external force.

The damage to the communication cable between Estonia and Finland was also reported.

Finland is investigating the causes of the gas pipeline damage, while the Estonian authorities are investigating the damage to the communication cable.

The Estonian-Finnish Balticconnector joint gas pipeline was opened in December 2019. The length of the Balticconnector underwater section from the Estonian port city of Paldiski to Inkoo in Finland is 77 km. The onshore part covers 55 km in Estonia and 21 km in Finland.

Compressor station of the Balticconnector subsea gas pipeline. Photo credits: REUTERS

The purpose of the Balticconnector was to ensure gas transportation between Finland, Estonia, and Latvia at no additional cost and to reduce the dependence of local markets on Russia’s Gazprom.

New ‘Vidsich’ (Pushback – ed.) unmanned aerial vehicle will be mass-produced in Ukraine.

The development was handled by First Contact, a company that has been working with UAVs since 2014.

The drone is designed to attack Russian positions and can carry a 2-3 kg warhead to a distance of up to 40 km under the control of an operator.

“One of the advantages of this model is its discreetness: it is basically invisible and not heard in the sky during operation,” the Army of Drones reported.

The drone has already been tested in combat conditions. The developers specified that the new UAV operates in tandem with reconnaissance drones.

Technical characteristics of ‘Vidsich’ UAV:

• payload weight: 3 kg;
• range: up to 40 km;
• speed: up to 100 km/h;
• flight altitude: up to 2 km.

Earlier, it was reported that ‘Vidsich’ has a brushless DC motor with a power of 1100 watts. The battery capacity is 2Х10000 mA hour.

The drone can be deployed within 15 minutes. It is a remotely piloted aircraft that has the ability to program the flight route.

Ukrainian ‘Vidsich’ UAV. Photo credits: First Contact

The ‘Vidsich’ UAV was assigned a code in the NATO codification system in 2023 and is designed to deliver targeted equipment to institutions of various types and subordination.

“The UAV, which is part of the system, is a tactical strike fixed-wing aircraft,” the developers shared.

The remote control panel of the ‘Vitsich’ drone. Photo credits: First Contact

The system is operated day and night without exceeding operational restrictions.

Recently, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a decision to simplify the import of materials for the production of ammunition and warheads for UAVs.

The U.S. Department of State has approved a possible sale of JAGM guided missiles to the UK for nearly a billion dollars.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced this decision on October 23.

It regards the supply of up to three thousand AGM-179A Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) class “air-to-ground” missiles.

The estimated total cost of a potential order is $957.4 million.

Potential sales, in addition to the supply of combat missiles, include the transfer and layouts of missiles, technical assistance from the American side, documentation, integration support, and other related logistics and software support elements.

It is noted that the supply of missiles will support the foreign policy and national security purposes of the United States by improving the security of NATO, which is a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe.

The proposed sale of AGM-179A (JAGM) will improve the UK’s ability to face current and future security threats.

The AGM-179A guided missile should replace the AGM-114 Hellfire and AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missiles in service. Its base version has a firing range of 8 kilometers.

JAGM (Joint-Air-to-Ground Missiles) missile. Illustration by Lockheed Martin

In addition, an improved version of the JAGM-Medium Range (JAGM-MR) missile is currently being developed in the United States with twice the range, up to 16 km. During tests in November 2022, this missile was tested with a three-mode homing head.

In April 2023, Militarnyi reported that the U.S. military had contracted with Lockheed Martin to supply the U.S. Army and foreign customers under the Foreign Military Sales program, JAGM missiles, and AGM-114 Hellfire.

JAGM missiles (Joint-Air-to-Ground Missiles) on the AH-1Z Viper helicopter of the US military, 2021. Photo credits: T. A. O’Brien

The order value is $439 million. The deal also contains three more options, and with their implementation, the contract value will increase to $4.5 billion over the next four years.

Work on the contract is expected to be completed by September 30, 2025.

The Come Back Alive Foundation has handed over a PD-2 reconnaissance system to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Foundation reported about this on Tuesday, October 24, on its social media pages.

This is the fifth PD-2 unmanned aerial system that the Foundation has transferred to Ukrainian defenders this year.

Contributions from donors allowed the Foundation to transfer a system of two reconnaissance UAVs, a mobile control post based on a four-wheel drive minibus with everything necessary for the comfortable work of operators, a ground station, and spare parts to the aerial reconnaissance unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

PD-2 reconnaissance UAVs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. October 2023. Photo credits: Come Back Alive Foundation

The cost of this set is UAH 29,921,679.04.

With its help, the Armed Forces will be able to conduct reconnaissance of the positions of the Russian invaders to a depth of 180 km and adjust the work of Ukrainian long-range artillery and rocket systems, including HIMARS, at the rear posts and equipment of the invaders.

PD-2 reconnaissance UAVs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. October 2023. Photo credits: Come Back Alive Foundation

Each drone has an optical sensor with a 30x zoom for the daytime mode and a 5x one for thermal imaging.

The PD-2 drone can clearly identify the target coordinates in the frame at a distance of more than 5 kilometers.

The operator controls the reconnaissance drone from a mobile control post.

PD-2 reconnaissance UAVs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. October 2023. Photo credits: Come Back Alive Foundation

The Come Back Alive Foundation emphasized that four previously donated Ukrainian-made PD-2 systems are already operating at the forefront. The next step is to transfer six more such reconnaissance systems to the aerial reconnaissance units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine.

Last year, the Foundation purchased 11 such systems: 10 were purchased for over UAH 300,000,000 at the expense of donations to the general accounts of the charity, and the DOU IT community raised funds for another one.

Representatives of Uklon also joined the DOU fundraising and donated UAH 1 million to the PD-2. In October of this year, the Come Back Alive Foundation transferred two PD-2 reconnaissance drones to the Special Operations Center “A” of the Security Service of Ukraine.

The U.S. Department of State has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale of AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to the Government of Lithuania.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced this on October 23.

These missiles will replenish the ammunition of the Lithuanian military’s NASAMS air defense systems.

The Government of Lithuania has requested to purchase 36 AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) and related equipment.

The possible Foreign Military Sale also includes the provision of spare parts and consumables, as well as engineering, technical, and logistics support.

Equipping NASAMS with AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles

The principal contractor for the future AIM-120 missile deal will be Raytheon Missiles and Defense in Tucson, AZ.

AIM-120 AMRAAM

AIM-120 AMRAAM missile

The AIM-120 AMRAAM is an all-weather, medium-range, air-to-air guided missile developed by the US defense company Raytheon Technologies. The missile is equipped with an active radar homing head system. The AIM-120 is the main missile of the NASAMS air defense system produced by a consortium of the US corporation Raytheon Technologies and the Norwegian group Kongsberg.

The NASAMS air defense system in service with Lithuania. Photo credits: Armed Forces of Lithuania

The missile entered service with the US Army in 1991. It is the main medium-range missile for American and European fighter jets.

The AIM-120C-8 is the eighth generation of the C version missile, with upgrades aimed at improving the radar homing head system, communications and data transmission systems, and the engine. The missile’s launch range has been increased by 30%, which has increased the effective distance at which an air target can be hit.

In May of this year, a unit equipped with NASAMS air defense systems participated in military exercises in Lithuania for the first time.

The SL-AMRAAM missile for the NASAMS air defense system. Photo credits: Lithuanian Armed Forces

The intention to acquire NASAMS was first announced on October 20, 2016, when a technical agreement was signed. The value of the deal was estimated at €100 million. The contract to supply these air defense systems to Lithuania was signed on October 26, 2017.

Reloading of the NASAMS air defense system. Photo credits: Lithuanian Armed Forces

In October 2020, an air defense battalion officially adopted the Lithuanian NASAMS. These systems arrived in the country in June of the same year.

The German defense concern Rheinmetall and Ukroboronprom have formed a joint venture to repair Western equipment.

Denys Shmyhal, Prime Minister of Ukraine, announced this on his official Telegram page.

The joint venture is primarily aimed at repairing and maintaining combat equipment provided by Germany and other Western partners.

In addition, in the future, there will be an opportunity to localize the production of some military equipment at the facilities of this enterprise.

Repair of the Leopard 2 tank at the Rheinmetall enterprise in Germany. Photo credits: Rheinmetall AG

Rheinmetall – Ukrainian Defense Industry LLC was registered on October 18, 2023. The Prime Minister announced this during the German-Ukrainian business forum in Berlin.

“The creation of the joint venture is, without exaggeration, a landmark event that brings cooperation between our countries to a qualitatively new level and will allow us to build the arsenal of the free world together,” Denys Shmyhal shared.

The new joint venture can significantly increase the volume of military equipment repair and provide additional jobs for the local population.

In addition, two more companies will be established to specialize exclusively in arms production.

The first reports of the joint venture appeared in the spring of 2023. Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger made the announcement in an interview with the German Handelsblatt.

According to him, the cooperation would initially cover the maintenance and repair of armored vehicles in Ukraine, while the production of tanks would be prepared in parallel.

Rheinmetall. Photo from open sources

On September 28, 2023, the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) gave the go-ahead to Rheinmetall to establish a joint defense venture.

“The joint venture is to be based in Kyiv and engage in service and maintenance as well as the assembly, production, and development of military vehicles,” the German Federal Cartel Office said in its press release.

The Bundeskartellamt added that the company will initially operate exclusively in Ukraine.

The militaries of Moldova and Romania are conducting Joint Combined Exchange Training-2023 (JCET).

The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Moldova reported on this.

The international training started on October 23 and will last until November 3.

The training takes place at the military training base of the National Army of Moldova.

During this period, Moldovan and Romanian servicemen will perform firing from various types of infantry and artillery weapons, improving their command and patrolling skills.

Servicemen of the Armed Forces of Moldova

The soldiers will also practice defusing ammunition and providing medical assistance, as well as other skills.

According to the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Moldova, Joint Combined Exchange Training-2023-2023 is being conducted in accordance with the National Army’s training plans for 2023. The Moldovan military has been participating in JCET exercises since 2009.

In October of this year, the Moldovan authorities, in a new national security strategy submitted to parliament, called Russia a “national security threat” that wants to eliminate the country’s statehood.

Flags of Moldova

“The Russian Federation and its proxies in the Republic of Moldova are the most dangerous and constant source of threat, which, if left unchecked, could have grave consequences for the statehood, democracy, and prosperity of our country.”

Maia Sandu, President of Moldova

In her statement, Moldovan President Maia Sandu noted that Russia had invaded Ukraine with the intention of “creating a military land corridor to the Republic of Moldova, which would create preconditions for an immediate violent change in the constitutional order and the elimination of our statehood.”

Ground Master 200 radar. Photo from open sources

In early October, Militarnyi reported that Moldova planned to purchase a French Ground Master 200 three-coordinate radar by Thales Group with related equipment for about €14.5 million.

Piranha III armored personnel carrier of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Moldova. Photo credits: Ministry of Defense of Republic of Moldova

In mid-October, the Moldovan Army received another batch of Piranha IIIH armored personnel carriers from Germany.