Artillery barrels forged in Sheffield, Britain, are being delivered to Ukraine’s military. Steel company Sheffield Forgemasters has sent four barrels to Ukraine out of a planned 150 under a £61m deal announced last year. It is the first time in almost 20 years that forged artillery barrels have been produced in the UK. The barrels have been produced by Forgemasters and the nearby BAE Systems artillery factory, opened in Sheffield last year. Under the contract, the two companies will produce 105mm and 155mm barrels for Ukrainian artillery.
Artillery barrels eventually wear out on the battlefield and need to be replaced. Sheffield is producing eight barrels a month, and the first four shipped are expected to help Ukraine test its own manufacturing facilities. Production of British-made artillery barrels comes as the UK and its European allies attempt to increase their ability to manufacture weapons domestically. Forgemasters was nationalised in 2021, with the Ministry of Defence saying the purchase was necessary to secure “critical” British defence programmes.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Sergiy Koretsky, the CEO of state energy firm Naftogaz, is “best prepared” to become Ukraine’s next prime minister in a government reshuffle. The Ukrainian president meanwhile was greeted with uproar after sacking his defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, as part of a government overhaul. Luke Harding writes that allies and Ukrainian civil society pleaded for Fedorov to keep his job. His six months in office coincided with a dramatic improvement in Ukraine’s position on the battlefield. Fedorov’s removal has outraged his supporters, and comes amid rumours of a feud with Ukraine’s top military commander, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi. For our European desk, Shaun Walker takes a snapshot of Ukraine’s complicated domestic and international political situation.
Zelenskyy characterised his choice of Koretsky as related to Ukraine’s energy needs, with its electricity grid and gas supplies battered by Russian attacks and expected to come under huge pressure in the colder months. Koretsky had provided “effective leadership” in an “extremely complex sector”, Zelenskyy said. “If we are entering winter, then we must prepare … After all the consultations, Sergiy Koretsky is probably the best prepared person for the position of prime minister of Ukraine.” Parliament is expected to vote on the succession on Thursday.
Explosions rang out and lit the sky as Kyiv came under ballistic missile attack early on Thursday morning. The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said a warehouse was hit while “missile debris fell on non-residential buildings”. At the same time, Kharkiv, the main city in north-east Ukraine, was hit by drones, its mayor said. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he expects Ukraine to acquire by the end of this year the knowhow to produce missiles for US Patriot defence systems.
Moscow accused Ukrainian forces of killing the chief engineer of the illegally Russian-occupied and shut down Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP). Aleksandr Yakovlev and a driver were killed when “a drone belonging to the Ukrainian armed forces” hit a service vehicle near the plant, said the head of Russian nuclear conglomerate Rosatom – which seized control of the NPP after the full-scale invasion, precipitating a continuing crisis over the safety of Europe’s largest nuclear plant. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the allegations.
Russian forces killed three people and injured 15 when they attacked the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday, said Ivan Fedorov, the regional governor. Fedorov said the region remained under the threat of aerial bombs through the evening.
Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday it had struck a power plant in Sevastopol which accounts for nearly 50% of electricity generation in Russian-occupied Crimea. Special operations forces said the Balaklava thermal power station was hit on Tuesday night.
Ukraine’s successful campaign to knock out oil refineries means Russia is being forced to seek gasoline from Indian refiners as Moscow grapples with its worst ever fuel crisis. Top Russian energy companies have approached Indian refiners for more gasoline, two sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters. India is the biggest buyer of Russian seaborne crude oil, but now at least one cargo of Indian gasoline is said to have sailed to Russia with more expected – possibly by risky ship-to-ship transfers at sea.
Reuters sources at three Indian state refiners said Russian companies had approached them for more gasoline but they had no surplus volumes to export. The Indian oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said this month that Indian companies were not selling fuel to the Russians but it was possible they bought Indian-origin fuel from traders. Nearly 40% of Russia’s refining capacity is unlikely to return for at least two months, and that would only be if there were no further attacks, one of the sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Russia and Ukraine stepped up their battle over the Black Sea and key trade routes on Wednesday. Odesa region governor Oleh Kiper said a “massive” Russian drone and missile attack on the southern region continued for a fifth day, with civilian, industrial and port infrastructure coming under attack. Three people were killed and at least three more injured after a Russian missile strike on a seven-storey residential building in Odesa, Ukrainian authorities said.
Ukrainian drones hit 20 Russian vessels in the Black Sea, Kyiv’s top drone forces commander said on Wednesday. The Ukrainian attacks have forced Russia, the world’s top grain exporter, to restrict shipping in the Sea of Azov.
A Russian attack killed at least three people and wounded seven in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, regional governor Oleh Hryhorov said on Wednesday. Hryhorov said Russia carried out six strikes with guided aerial bombs. One struck near medical facilities and others, according to preliminary information, hit infrastructure.