October 4, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

A map used by the Russian Defense Ministry in its daily briefing on Tuesday confirmed significant Russian losses in Ukraine’s Kherson region, compared to a map of the same region used during its briefing on Monday.

The map confirms reports from Ukrainian and pro-Russian officials, as well as pro-Russian military analysts, of significant Ukrainian advances towards the occupied city of Kherson, down the western bank of the Dnipro River. 

Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, who spoke while the map was shown full-screen, did not mention the losses. But he did say that the Russian military destroyed Ukrainian armor and killed Kyiv's forces in the area of several towns that are now understood to be under Ukrainian control – a tacit acknowledgement of Ukraine’s advance.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on Tuesday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Zelensky said in a statement on his official Telegram channel.

“We discussed the so-called referendums recently held by Russia on the temporarily occupied territories of our country with Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi,” Zelensky said. “We also talked about food and nuclear security, interaction within international organizations, first of all in the UN. It is important to strengthen Ukrainian-Indian partnership against the background of Russian aggression against Ukraine.”

More on India-Russia relations: Modi has publicly clashed with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his war in Ukraine, telling Putin last month that “today's era is not of war.” But the reality, analysts say, is less straightforward.

Rather than cutting economic ties with the Kremlin, India has undermined Western sanctions by increasing its purchases of Russian oil, coal and fertilizer – giving Putin a vital financial lifeline.

New Delhi has repeatedly abstained from votes condemning Russia at the United Nations – providing Moscow with a veneer of international legitimacy. And in August, India participated in Russia’s large-scale Vostok military exercises alongside China, Belarus, Mongolia and Tajikistan – where Moscow paraded its vast arsenal.

The apparent contradiction exemplifies India’s position on the war: verbally distancing itself from Russia while continuing to maintain pivotal ties with Moscow.

CNN's Rhea Mogul contributed reporting in this post.

Correspondents for Russian media are defending their dispatches on the performance of Russia's military in Ukraine as they report on Moscow's losses in the war.

Ukraine "is introducing well-prepared reserves, realizing its advantage in both personnel and intelligence data,” he said Tuesday, adding that Russia’s so-called "special military operation," meanwhile, is undergoing an “operational crisis.”

Kots, who was embedded with Russian troops in the Donetsk city of Lyman, wrote in the tabloid earlier this week that Russian forces suffered from lack of manpower, bad communications, and “mistakes” by commanding officers. Ukraine recaptured Lyman over the weekend.  

Kots reassured his followers that he saw neither “panic nor arrogance” among the Russian forces. Besides Kots, Russia 24's Evgeniy Poddubnyy is also writing similar reports.

Poddubnyy said Tuesday that “we’re going through the hardest time on the frontline” and that “for the time being it will become even harder.” 

Ukraine's forces have continued their eastern counteroffensive and pushed into the Luhansk region, pro-Russian officials said, after recapturing the key city of Lyman in the Donetsk region over the weekend.

Kyiv's forces are also breaking through Moscow's defenses in the southern Kherson region, with more areas liberated “every day," a Ukrainian official said Tuesday.

Despite not being in full control of the areas, the three regions are territories Russia has claimed it is annexing in violation of international law.

Here's how the state of control on Ukrainian territory looks right now:

The US is set to announce another $625 million aid package to Ukraine, which will include four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) as well as more howitzers and ammunition, according to a senior defense official.

The package, which falls under a Presidential Drawdown Authority and will be pulled directly from US stocks, also includes 16 155mm howitzers and 16 105mm howitzers along with the associated ammunition, the official said.

This package will give Ukraine a total of 20 HIMARS systems, which the Ukrainian military has used to great effect against Russian forces. The Ukrainians have used the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) munition, fired from the HIMARS vehicle, to carry out precision strikes against Russian logistics hubs, command posts, ammunition depots and more. 

This aid package was first reported by Reuters.

More context: Last week, the US announced a $1.1 billion security package under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which included another 18 HIMARS. The tranche of HIMARS in this package will be contracted from weapons manufacturers and will take longer to produce and deliver, but it is intended for Ukraine’s defense in the medium- and long-term. 

With the latest $625 million package, the US will have committed more than $16.8 billion in aid to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24.

Ukrainian forces have recaptured two towns in the southern Kherson region — Davydiv Brid and Velyka Oleksandrivka, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry confirmed on Tuesday.

“The Ukrainian marines are confidently advancing towards the Black Sea,” the defense ministry said on Twitter.

Yurii Sobolevskyi, the deputy head of Kherson regional council, confirmed the liberation of the town of Velyka Oleksandrivka on Telegram.

The announcements come as pro-Russian officials and analysts, as well as Ukrainian officials, say that Ukrainian forces are making significant advances towards the occupied city of Kherson, along the Western bank of the Dnipro river.

Kherson is one of the four partially-occupied territories that Russia claimed it is annexing in violation of international law.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces captured Lyman over the weekend — one of its biggest achievements for weeks and a setback for Moscow. Lyman is in the Donetsk region, one of the four partially-occupied territories Russia declared on Friday it would annex.  

Russia’s troops had withdrawn from the city in the face of the “threat of encirclement," the Russia's Ministry of Defense in Moscow confirmed on Telegram. By Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared Lyman was “completely liberated” of Russian troops. 

Lyman was a logistical hub for the Russian army, who had used it to funnel troops and supplies to the west and south.

The city’s capture would complicate Russia’s battlefield operation, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters on Saturday.

Lyman could now become a staging post for the Ukrainian troops to push further east.

Since retaking the city, Ukrainian forces have moved into the neighboring Luhansk region, pro-Russian officials and propagandists alleged on Monday. “The Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to cross the administrative border of the LPR and gain a foothold in the direction of the settlement of Lysychansk,” Andrey Marochko, a military leader in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), wrote on Telegram. 

Kyiv’s next target may be the town of Kreminna, about 24 kilometers (15 miles) east of Lyman.

Yuriy Podolyaka, a pro-Russian journalist, military blogger and analyst, wrote on Telegram Monday that he expected “a new offensive” in that direction to “begin any day [now]."

Ukrainian forces are breaking through Russian defenses in the Kherson region as they plough on with the southern offensive, with more areas liberated “every day,” Yurii Sobolevskyi, the deputy head of the regional council, said on Ukrainian TV early Tuesday.

The Russian defense ministry confirmed Monday that “superior enemy tank units” had struck Russian defenses towards Zolota Balka, a town in Kherson that sits on the western bank of the Dnipro River, but claimed Russia was responding with “massive fire.”

CNN reported Monday that Ukrainian troops had captured Zolota Balka, citing a regional official and a pro-Russian military blogger.

Overnight, Ukrainian forces attempted to go even further, towards the village of Dudchany, some 30 kilometers (more than 18 miles) south of Zolota Balka, separatist leaders claimed on Tuesday.

The Russian-backed head of the Kherson regional administration, Vladimir Saldo, wrote on Telegram, “They managed to break through… Yesterday and this morning there were quite disturbing reports about what is happening there.” But his deputy, Kirill Stremousov, later said the advance “has now practically stopped, and now aviation and artillery are finishing off all those who broke into the sovereign territory of the Russian Federation in a fire bag," according to Russian state news agency TASS, citing a video posted on his Telegram channel. 

Russian forces appear to have withdrawn to fallback positions on that southern front, according to Igor Girkin, a pro-Russian military analyst who served in the government of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic in 2014.

The successful push in the south comes as Ukrainians celebrate crucial victories on the frontline in the east after capturing the key Donetsk city of Lyman.

The UK government has added Sergei Vladimirovich Yeliseyev to its list of sanctioned individuals.

The 51-year-old is the deputy prime minister of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, as well as “head of the Russia-backed government in the temporarily controlled territory of Kherson,” according to the entry added to the UK government’s sanctions list on Tuesday.

Yeliseyev is “involved in destabilizing Ukraine or undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence of Ukraine,” the UK government says.

Ukraine's southern Kherson region, which Russia has claimed to annex, is only partially controlled by Russian forces. The Ukrainian military has been making significant advances in that region in recent days.