News blog about the war in Ukraine
Fire at oil refinery in Russia
From afp, Portal, dpa, t-online
Updated on October 29, 2023 – 5:10 pm Reading time: 35 min.
Numerous burning tanks: Russian troops suffered a disaster near the city of Avdiivka. (Source: t-online)
Day 613: According to British information, Russia suffered massive losses at Avdiivka. Moscow reports drone strikes in Crimea. All information on the news blog.
The most important things at a glance
Ukraine no longer wants to send Russian gas to Europe from 2025
Putin deploys new “super drone”.
3:20 pm: Russia is reportedly deploying a new “super drone” with autonomous targeting. The drone, called Izdeliye-53, is produced by the Kalashnikov company and, according to information from the American think tank Institutes for the Study of War (ISW), is currently being tested in Ukraine.
The drone is the so-called kamikaze drone. Compared to conventional drones, these can only be used once as they attack the intended target and then explode with it. What’s special about this new drone is that it should be able to select its targets independently and distinguish between military and civilian targets. Only the operating area must be selected manually, the drone will do the rest completely autonomously. You can read more about the drone here.
“The images are recorded in the collective memory”
1:59 pm: Every day we are bombarded with images of deaths, bombings and suffering in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip and Israel. What do these images of war do to us? Folkwang photography professor Steffen Siegel believes people are less likely to want to deal with such images.
In an interview with t-online, Siegel explains a dilemma: if the media doesn’t show images, a piece of reality is missing. When the media shows images of terror, they further fuel the logic of terror. Here you can read more about it.
London: Open political discussions in Russia are becoming increasingly difficult
12:15 p.m.: According to British intelligence services, the Kremlin continues to work to further restrict freedom of expression in the country. The Russian Ministry of Education and Science reportedly ordered universities in mid-October to avoid open discussions about any “negative political, economic and social developments” in Russia in academic activities. The British Ministry of Defense wrote this on Sunday in its daily intelligence update on the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
According to the British, this represents an additional restriction on the information space in Russia and makes it more difficult to openly discuss political issues. In the long term, this is likely to reinforce the tendency for Russian politics to be shaped in an echo chamber of politically acceptable, pro-Kremlin perspectives. Most likely, the Kremlin intends for negative opinions about the war in Ukraine to be further limited ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s expected re-election bid in March 2024.
Fire at oil refinery in Russia
8:09 am: A fire broke out at the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region in the early hours of the morning. The fire was extinguished immediately, the region’s civil protection authority said. “There were no injuries, the infrastructure was not damaged and there is no danger to the company or residents of nearby settlements,” the official wrote on Telegram. Russian authorities have said nothing about the cause of the fire.
Baza and Shot, two Russian media outlets with good security sources, said the fire at the refinery, located 80 km east of the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, a major Russian oil export gateway, was caused by an attack of drone. Portal news agency was unable to independently verify the reports.