Russia’s war on Ukraine latest news: Putin has no regrets

Ukrainian service members prepare to shoot from a towed howitzer FH-70 at a front line, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Zaporizhzhia Region, Ukraine, on October 27, 2022. REUTERS/Stringer

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the world faced the most dangerous decade since World War Two as Western elites scrambled to prevent what he saw as the inevitable crumbling of the global dominance of the United States and its allies.

In one of his longest public appearances since he sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, Putin signaled he had no regrets about what he calls “a special operation.”

Conflict

* Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said 23 of his soldiers were killed and another 58 wounded in a Ukrainian artillery attack this week. The comments were unusual given that pro-Moscow forces have rarely admitted to major battlefield losses.

* A senior Russian government official raised the possibility that Moscow could shoot down commercial Western satellites being used to help Ukraine’s war effort, as Russia pressed ahead with its bombing campaign against Ukrainian infrastructure.

* The United States has not yet seen any indications that Russia’s ongoing annual “Grom” exercises of its nuclear forces may be a cover for a real deployment, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

* Ukraine has boosted its forces in the northern region near Belarus to counter any possible renewed Russian attack across the border, Ukraine’s General Staff said.

* The Ukrainian military said that around two dozen Iranian-made “Shahed-136” drones had targeted the south of the country after taking off from Crimea. Many were shot down by air defenses, the military said. The Ukrainian air force said on Telegram it had shot down a Russian Kas-52 attack helicopter and a Su-25 attack aircraft in the south.

* The Russian defense ministry, which said its forces had repelled attempted Ukrainian advances in the east, said it had destroyed a Ukrainian military factory producing solid rocket fuel, explosives and gunpowder near the town of Pavlograd in the Dnipropetrovsk Region. It said it had also shot down a Ukrainian air force Mi-8 helicopter.

* Reuters could not independently verify either side’s battlefield accounts.

Economy

* Russia will retaliate if its state and citizens’ assets are confiscated by the European Union, the Foreign Ministry said.

Qutoes

“The historical period of the West’s undivided dominance over world affairs is coming to an end,” Putin told the Valdai Discussion Club, a gathering of Russian specialists.

RELATED STORIES

Putin marks low-key birthday as Ukraine pressures mount

Putin finalizes ‘annexation’ in Ukraine even as troops flee front