Ukraine Counteroffensive Update for Oct 6 (Europe Edition): Russia Enlists Help of an Actual Shaman

Overview:

• UK PM calls Russia “depraved” after attack on village wake
•  AFU units advance in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions
• Tempo of attacks steps up on the Kupyansk-Kreminna line
• Zelensky promises more air defenses on the way from Western Europe
• Kara-ool Dopchun-ool puts the “sham” back in Russian shamanism
• More drones target western Russia, no injuries on the ground reported
•  VIDEO: See trench warfare up-close

Russia says it shot down eight drones over its territory

The Russian Ministry of Defense claims to have shot down eight Ukrainian UAVs late Thursday, following similar attacks and power outages in Kursk the night before.

Thursday’s drone attacks targeted the border city of Belgorod, with seven reported interceptions, and one in Kursk. The Russian Ministry described them as “terrorist attacks” a day after its own missiles killed 51 civilians in the Kharkiv region.

“Kyiv regime's attempt to carry out a terrorist attack by an aircraft-type UAV on objects on the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted,” it said on Telegram. AFP reported that the Ministry claimed one drone was destroyed over Kursk at around 8:30 p.m. local time and seven were shot down over the Belgorod vicinity a few hours later.

Helmet cam shows troops engaged in trench warfare

A video on Twiter shows a rifle battle, reportedly near Lyman, in the Donetsk region.

Operations: Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions

Elements of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) continue to attack Russian positions in the Melitopol area, the AFU General Staff reported Thursday, as well as near Bakhmut. The Ukrainian forces made some reported gains just east of Andriivka (10 km southwest of Bakhmut), as well as partial success west of Robotyne (10 km south of Orikhiv).

Operations: Luhansk region

Other Topics of Interest

Zelensky Meets CIA Director William Burns in Ukraine

Zelensky said he had met Burns on multiple occasions throughout the war, but their meetings had been undisclosed.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that “Russian forces reportedly increased the intensity of combat operations along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line” on Thursday. The AFU General Staff reported that its troops had repelled a number of Russian attacks east of Makiivka and northwest of Dibrova, while Ukrainian Eastern Group of Forces Spokesperson Captain Ilya Yevlash also underscored those towns as the focus of his units’ actions, with a total of eight engagements with the Russians on Thursday.

Russian military bloggers made unsubstantiated claims that Moscow’s forces made some minimal advances in those skirmishes.

Russia’s supreme shaman toes the Kremlin line on Ukraine

AFP reported that Kara-ool Dopchun-ool, Russia's top shaman, has given his blessing to Moscow’s brutal invasion of Ukraine on the same day as Russian missiles killed more than 50 civilians there.

Denouncing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as an “enemy”, state media reported Thursday that the head of Russia’s shamanist community, a form of spiritualism very prominent among indigenous people in Siberia, proclaimed that “if the Ukrainian people realize that Zelensky is already an enemy of the Ukrainian people, if there is a choice next year, depose him, if a new person comes, everything will stop.”

“I call for happiness, health and prosperity for the Russian people,” said Kara-ool Dopchun-ool in a video posted by state agency RIA Novosti, as he banged on a drum. “We always ask the Sun, the stars, the Moon to protect them,” he said.

According to AFP, “Kremlin critics say that ethnic minorities from some of Russia's poorest regions have been disproportionately affected by the offensive in Ukraine… The post of a supreme ‘elected shaman’ is a recent innovation that has drawn criticism from some believers, who have called it an unnecessary bureaucratic role.

Dopchun-ool was first elected in 2018 by a group of spiritual leaders in Siberia.

Sunak offers condolences for the deceased in Hroza

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called out the Kremlin’s “depravity” through a spokesperson on Thursday, after an  airstrike on the village in the Kharkiv region killed at least 51 people, including a 6-year-old girl.

“The Prime Minister offered his deep condolences for the terrible attack on a funeral in Ukraine earlier today, saying it demonstrated the depths of depravity Russian forces are willing to sink to,” a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement.

Sunak met with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday in Spain at a meeting of the European Political Committee and shared a hug.

Zelensky says Hroza massacre was “no blind strike”

In his nightly address on Thursday, President Zelensky said the attack that killed 51 in the village of Hroza earlier in the day was “no blind strike,” as “Russian troops “could not have been unaware of what they were hitting.”

He went on to promise the nation that better aerial defense systems were coming, thanks to “clear agreements” with European partners at a summit in Granada, Spain.

“This is very important before winter. Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Great Britain -- thank you!” he said. “There will surely be more justice for Russian evil.”