Overview

• Ukraine’s General Staff reported 176 combat engagements on Sept. 29, including 56 Russian assaults stopped on the Pokrovsk axis, and cited 5,531 kamikaze drones, 4,463 artillery strikes and 51 airstrikes used by Russia in a single day.
• Defense officials said units have ordered nearly 17,000 UAVs and received almost 13,000 through the DOT-Chain Defence marketplace, with average delivery times of about 10 days.
• The Defense Ministry expects further fighter deliveries, including F-16s, French Mirage and Swedish Gripen, noted that initial PURL-funded U.S. supplies have begun arriving more slowly than past PDA aid, and reiterated priority requests for additional air-defense systems.
• Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said drones destroyed a radar of a Russian S-400 system in occupied Crimea, a claim not yet independently verified.
• ISW assessed that Russia’s autumn draft will call up about 135,000 conscripts and that Moscow is moving to reduce bureaucratic hurdles for future mobilization and reserve call-ups.