Day 246 Roundup: Fresh Strikes on Kyiv, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia Amid Russia and NATO Nuclear Drills

Facts

• Russia launched renewed strikes in the regions of Kyiv, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday, adding that a missile was shot down in the Dnipropetrovsk region. There have been no reports of casualties.¹
• However, Ukrainian officials said five civilians have been killed and 11 more were injured in Russian attacks over the last 24 hours. Three were killed and three injured in the Donetsk region, one was killed and one injured in the Zaporizhzhia region, and one was killed and seven injured from a mine blast in the Kharkiv region.²
• Meanwhile, Ukrainian attacks in the Donetsk region struck a railway station in the village of Shakhtyorsk, sparking a fire in railway cars used to transport fuel. Officials from the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) reported that one civilian was injured in Ukrainian attacks in the past day.³
• The attacks came as Russia and NATO held separate nuclear drills on Wednesday. According to Russia's defense ministry, a land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was test-fired from the northern Plesetsk launch site while a nuclear submarine test-fired an ICBM at a firing range on the far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.⁴
• NATO's 'Steadfast Noon' drills commenced on Oct. 17 and will run until Oct. 30. NATO said the drill involved 60 aircraft including fighter jets, surveillance and refueling assets, as well as long-range B-52 bombers from the US; no live weapons are planned to be used.⁵
• Elsewhere, the UN's cultural and satellite agencies — UNESCO and UNOSAT — said they joined forces to document the impact of Russia's invasion on architecture and historic buildings, using satellite imagery to assess the damage. While they said 205 sites were identified as damaged or destroyed, none of Ukraine's seven 'World Heritage Sites' have been affected so far.⁶

Sources: ¹Ukrayinska Pravda, ²UKRINFORM, ³DAN, ⁴NBC, ⁵Newsweek and ⁶MSN.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by CBS. Putin has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons. Any nuclear attack would be met with severe consequences. For now, a show of strength from NATO in terms of what it's capable of is the best form of deterrence.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Caitlinjohnstone. In this current political environment, anyone who promotes compromise and de-escalation is attacked for allegedly appeasing Putin and making the world more dangerous. However, history has shown de-escalation is the only way out of this mess — people who argue the opposite are profoundly misguided.