Home › Security › Hroza, Patriots and ammunition: the days before 11 October 2023
Hroza, Patriots and ammunition: the days before 11 October 2023
Summary
A look back at the security news that preceded 11 October 2023, from a deadly missile strike in Kharkiv Oblast to new Western support for Ukraine.
What had Ukraine's security picture looked like in the days leading up to 11 October 2023? The reports from the preceding week, to 5 October, pointed in several directions: a mass-casualty strike on civilians, fresh pledges of air defence, a transfer of seized ammunition and a Russian weapons announcement.
A strike on a village shop
On 5 October 2023, Ukraine said Russia had hit a store and cafe in Hroza, in Kharkiv Oblast, with a ballistic missile. The initial toll was at least 51 civilians killed. Later accounts put the death toll at 59, with at least seven others injured. They described an Iskander missile fired at residents gathered for a memorial service in Hroza, in Kupiansk Raion. Among the dead was a six-year-old boy.
Air defence and ammunition
The same day, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged a second Patriot air defence system to Ukraine. Ukraine had just reported the Hroza strike, and the pledge added to the Western military aid then being discussed.
Also on 5 October, the United States transferred 1.1 million rounds of Iranian ammunition to Ukraine. The U.S. Navy had seized the rounds in December from a shipment en route to Yemen.
Moscow's announcement
Russia, for its part, announced on 5 October the successful test of the Burevestnik, a nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable cruise missile with a potential range of thousands of miles.
Taken together, the reports from that week show the war's stakes on several levels: civilians killed in a village in Kharkiv Oblast, allies adding to Ukraine's air defences and ammunition, and Russia publicising a long-range nuclear-capable weapon.
