Ukraine war latest: Russia's largest oil terminal in occupied Crimea is still on fire
Editor's note: This was Ukraine war latest for Oct. 14. You can find Ukraine war latest for Oct. 15 here.
Hi, this is Jared Goyette reporting from Kyiv on day 1,329 of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Today's top story:
Russia's largest oil depot in occupied Crimea is still burning a day after being struck by Ukrainian drones, with a huge column of smoke visible from more than 25 kilometers away, local media reported on Oct. 14.
A source in Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) confirmed to the Kyiv Independent on Oct. 13 that drones had struck the facility in the city of Feodosia, sparking a "large-scale fire."
Pictures posted on social media the next day show Russian occupation authorities were yet to get it under control.
"Poisonous smoke floats over the city, which can be seen even from Stary Krym (25 kilometers away). The smell can be felt even 10 kilometers from the place of the fire," the Crimean Wind Telegram channel reported.
It added that more than 800 people had been evacuated from the area.
Ukraine advances 1.6 km in Pokrovsk sector
Last updated: 8:00 p.m. Kyiv time
Assault units with Ukraine’s Armed Forces advanced up to 1.6 kilometers (about 1 mile) in parts of the Pokrovsk sector of the front line, according to Ukraine’s top general.
Ukrainian commander in chief Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote in an Oct. 14 Facebook post that his forces had repelled Russian attacks and cleared Russian troops out of an area of 3.4 square kilometers (1.3 square miles) in Pokrovsk over the past day.
Pokrovsk, a key supply hub in the Donetsk Oblast, remains one of the hottest sectors of the front line, with dozens of Russian assaults daily. Russian forces have been trying to take the city for about 20 months, since February 2024.
US expects 'big' NATO spending pledges for Ukrainian weapons purchases, envoy says
Last updated: 6:59 p.m. Kyiv time
The U.S. expects NATO allies to announce "big" spending pledges for Ukrainian weapons purchases on Oct. 15, U.S. envoy to NATO Matthew Whitaker said on Oct. 14, Bloomberg reported.
The pledges will be made under the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), a procurement program that enables European NATO members to buy U.S. weapons for Kyiv.
Ukraine urges UN to condemn Russian attack on UN aid convoy in Kherson Oblast
Last updated: 5:38 Kyiv time
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged U.N. member states to condemn Russia’s Oct. 14 attack on a U.N. aid convoy in Kherson Oblast, which left one truck destroyed and another badly damaged.
Sybiha wrote that the four trucks from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs were delivering "food and vital aid."
A new Tomahawk missile launcher just dropped
Last updated: 12:51 p.m. Kyiv time
U.S. defense company Oshkosh Defense on Oct. 13 revealed a new mobile, ground-based missile launcher capable of carrying Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Tomahawks are currently at the center of geo-political discussions as U.S. President Donald Trump mulls sending them to Ukraine in order to pressure Russia to the negotiating table.
But one potential issue has been hovering over the debate — usually launched from specially-adapted ships or strategic bombers, how would Ukraine launch Tomahawks?
The Extreme Multi-Mission Autonomous Vehicle (X-MAV) could solve that problem — according to Oshkosh, the X-MAV launcher was designed to operate autonomously and transport heavy weapons over long distances.
Sybiha urges U.N. member states to condemn Russian attack on humanitarian aid convoy
Last updated: 3:57 p.m. Kyiv Time
Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha urged U.N. member states to condemn Russia’s Tuesday morning attack on a U.N. aid convoy in Kherson Oblast in a post on X. He wrote that the four trucks from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs were delivering “food and vital aid.”
Russia struck a UN @OCHA_Ukraine humanitarian convoy in the Kherson region. Two @WFPUkraine trucks, within the convoy, delivering food and vital aid, were damaged by a deliberate drone attack. Luckily all staff are alive.
— Andrii Sybiha 🇺🇦 (@andrii_sybiha) October 14, 2025
Trucks carrying food for people in need, clearly marked… pic.twitter.com/x3X9Hapza0
According to local authorities, two out of four trucks in the convoy were hit, with one destroyed and the other badly damaged.
Chinese shipments of fiber-optic cable to Russia up nearly tenfold, WP reports
Last updated: 3:22 p.m. Kyiv time
Chinese shipments of key components used in drones to Russia have surged, The Washington Post reported, citing China’s customs data.
Exports of fiber-optic cable rose nearly tenfold from July to August after record highs in May and June, and lithium-ion battery shipments also increased over the summer, the Post said.
Syrskyi: Drone kill zone now extends to more than 6 miles
Last updated: 2:55 p.m. Kyiv time
The “kill zone” at the front line — the area under constant threat from first-person-view (FPV) drone attacks — now extends to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), which complicates the logistics of evacuating wounded troops from the battlefield, Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote in an Oct. 14 Facebook post.
To adjust to the threat, Syrskyi said medical personnel with the 106th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade are using devices called Field Medical Consults (FMC). RBC-Ukraine reported that the devices allow “remote consultations between hospital doctors and service members performing combat missions.”
The constant threat of FPV drones has made supply and evacuation difficult for both sides in Russia’s war against Ukraine. The Economist reported on Aug. 4 that the “kill zone” can extend up to 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) on either side of the front line in some sectors.
Ukraine struck an energy facility in central Russia, according to a Russian media outlet
Last updated: 2:02 p.m. Kyiv time
Russian media outlet Astra reported on Telegram that a Ukrainian drone strike caused a fire at a power station in central Russia.
NASA’s FIRMS service, which is used to track temperature anomalies, recorded a fire at the Arzamas substation in the Lesogorsk area of the Nizhny Novgorod region, according to the report. Local authorities said that “falling debris” from the strike caused a short-term power outage, but electricity has since been restored.
Nizhny Novgorod is in central Russia on the Volga River, roughly 540 miles from the Ukrainian border and about 260 miles east of Moscow.
Belgorod resident says life in Russia is 'simply hopeless' amid Ukrainian drone strikes and power outages
Last updated: 1:17 p.m. Kyiv time
A resident of Russia's Belgorod region has complained that life in Russia is "simply hopeless" amid Ukrainian drone strikes and power outages, according to a call intercepted by Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) and posted on social media on Oct. 13.
In the call, a resident of Belgorod Oblast, which borders Ukraine's Sumy, Kharkiv, and Luhansk oblasts, claims that she witnessed a large Ukrainian drone attack.
"Dozens of (strike drones) were launched somewhere. Can you imagine?! I look and it's flying. Where will it fly, and what will it do, what is it targeting? It's simply hopeless," a woman said.
'Surprising' drop in military aid to Ukraine in recent months, report says
Last updated: 7:01 a.m. Kyiv time
Military aid to Ukraine has fallen dramatically in recent months, a report by the Kiel Institute published on Oct. 14 has found.
Military aid to Ukraine fell in the months of July and August despite the introduction of the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), which allows Ukraine's European NATO allies to purchase weapons for Kyiv from the U.S.
The first delivery of military equipment under the PURL program arrived in Ukraine a month prior, Suspilne reported on Sept. 18, citing an unnamed NATO official.
(T)he decline in military aid in July and August is surprising. Despite the NATO PURL initiative, Europe is scaling back its overall military support. What will be crucial now is how the figures evolve in the autumn," Christoph Trebesch, head of the Ukraine Support Tracker and Research Director at the Kiel Institute, said.
Hospital damaged in Russian strike on Kharkiv, 6 people injured
Last updated: 10:47 a.m. Kyiv time
Russia attacked Kharkiv with KAB guided bombs on Oct 13, damaging a hospital and injuring at least six people, local authorities reported.
According to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office, Russia launched an air strike on the Saltivsky district of Kharkiv at around 9:50 p.m. on Oct. 13.
As a result of the strike, a hospital was damaged injuring six patients, Kharkiv Oblast Police reported.
At least 3 people killed, 17 injured in Russian attacks in Ukraine over the past day
At least three people have been killed and 17 others injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine over the past day, local authorities reported on Oct. 14.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down or suppressed 69 out of 96 Shahed-type attack drones and other drones launched by Russia overnight, according to the Air Force. Twenty-seven drone strikes were recorded at seven locations, with drone fragments striking another location, according to the report.
The worst attack occurred in Kharkiv, where local authorities reported that Russian forces destroyed a utility building at a hospital in a glide bomb attack. Six patients were injured, according to the Kharkiv Oblast Police. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram that 57 patients had to be moved to a different facility.
Terekhov, in an interview with Suspilne, added that transmission lines were also hit, leaving nearly 30,000 residents without power.
In Kherson Oblast, eight civilians were injured in Russia attacks, which damaged 11 apartment buildings, 24 houses, a school, a store and a botanical garden, as well as civilian vehicles, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.
Russians also attacked a convoy of trucks carrying aid from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Kherson Oblast — the four trucks were white and clearly marked, according to Prokudin. He wrote that one truck was destroyed, another badly damaged, and the remaining two managed to escape.
In Odesa Oblast, one person was injured after strikes on a warehouse ignited a large fire, according to Governor Oleh Kiper.
In Donetsk Oblast, Russian forces attacked villages and towns 30 times, killing two people in Kostiantynivka and injuring one in Lyman, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin.
In Chernihiv Oblast, a 29-year-old resident was killed in Semenivka when a Russian FPV drone struck a local store. The attack also injured a 71-year-old woman, who is now in stable condition, according to a Telegram post by Governor Viacheslav Chaus.
General Staff: Russia has lost 1,125,150 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022
Russia has lost around 1,125,150 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported on Oct. 14.
In the past day, Russia lost five tanks (for a total of 11,256 since the start of the full-scale invasion), 29 artillery systems (33,628 total), 145 vehicles and fuel tanks (64,188 total), and 390 tactical drones (69,632 total).
The rest of the loss statistics remained the same as the previous day: 1,520 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,225 air defense systems, 427 airplanes, 346 helicopters, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.
