Recruited Russian convicts flee from war in Ukraine – General Staff report

UKRAINSKA PRAVDA -- WEDNESDAY, 19 OCTOBER 2022, 18:57 Military personnel who were recruited for the war in Ukraine from Russian prisons are leaving their units with weapons in hand and trying to return to the Russian Federation. Source: Evening report of the General Staff of Ukraine on Facebook, information as of 18:00, on 19 October

Quote: "Replenishing the losses of units of the Russian occupation forces at the expense of prisoners has caused additional problems for the command. Thus, military personnel recruited from prisons, after being issued with weapons, leave their units and look for an opportunity to return to the territory of the Russian Federation."

Details: The General Staff also reported that after the destruction of an ammunition depot in Kherson Oblast on 17 October, some soldiers of the unit deployed for its protection were injured, and the rest fled. The units of the National Guard of the Russian Federation [also known as Rosgvardiya -ed.] are looking for deserters under the guise of fighting sabotage and reconnaissance groups.

According to the General Staff, the occupiers are trying to conduct offensive actions on the Bakhmut and Avdiivka fronts. Throughout the day, the occupiers conducted four missile and 11 air strikes and carried out more than 10 attacks from multiple launch rocket systems.

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The occupiers once again launched a massive strike with cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones at civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv oblasts.

At night, the Russians also attacked Uman, Cherkasy Oblast, and Kobleve, and Mykolaiv Oblast with five Iranian-made Shahed-136 UAVs. All of them were successfully shot down by the Ukrainian defence forces. During the day, the Russian occupiers deployed nine Shahed kamikaze drones from the territory of Belarus.

Eight of them were shot down. The occupation leadership of the temporarily occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia Oblast organised the so-called inventory of housing stock and a "census" of the population. These measures are conducted to search for and alienate the homes of residents who have left the occupied territories.

The occupiers continue the practice of forced engagement of the local population to carry out fortification works near the city of Kherson, allegedly recruiting from among curfew violators and citizens disloyal to the occupation authorities. Ukraine's Air Force carried out 10 strikes during the day. The destruction of six areas of concentration of weapons and military equipment, as well as four positions of the occupiers' anti-aircraft missile systems, was confirmed.

Air defence units shot down four cruise missiles, one Ka-52 Alligator helicopter and 13 Shahed-136 UAVs.

Servicemn of the Rocket Forces and Artillery of the Ukrainian Ground Forces struck three control points, four areas of concentration of manpower, weapons and military equipment, an electronic warfare station, one bridge, and one Russian pontoon crossing.

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