Invasion gains pace; Plane crash in Lithuania; New Pacific missile sites?; DepSecDef candidates; And a bit more.

Russia’s invasion forces are “advancing at a significantly quicker rate than they did in the entirety of 2023,” especially around Vuhledar and Velyka Novosilka in Donetsk Oblast, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War reported in their Sunday afternoon assessment.?

In perspective: Russian forces “gained at least 1,103 square kilometers” since September 1—compared to just 387 square kilometers in all of 2023, ISW writes.?

What might lie ahead: A probable Russian “advance into the southeasternmost part of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in support of Russia's longstanding objective to seize all of Donetsk Oblast,” ISW forecasts.?

Developing: Russia’s military may be trying to split Ukraine into at least three different parts, according to an alleged Russian document reviewed by Ukrainian intelligence. Those three parts, according to ISW, include:

• “one acknowledging the full Russian annexation of occupied Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson oblasts and occupied Crimea”;?
• “another establishing a pro-Russian puppet state centered in Kyiv under Russian military occupation”;?
• “and a third part designating Ukraine's western regions as ‘disputed territories’ to be divided among Ukraine's westernmost neighboring countries.”?

New: Russia lured “hundreds” of men from Yemen to fight in Ukraine, the Financial Times reported Sunday. “When they arrived with the help of a Houthi-linked company, they were then forcibly inducted into the Russian army and sent to the front lines in Ukraine.” The men were reportedly promised jobs in “security” and “engineering,” with the first known transfers occurring this past July.?

That means Russia has now employed North Koreans, Yemenis, as well as “mercenaries from?Nepal and India” for its invasion of Ukraine, FT writes. “Yemen is a pretty easy place to recruit. It is a very poor country,” one regional expert said.?

One of the Yemeni men reportedly “said he was promised a $10,000 bonus and $2,000 per month, plus eventual Russian citizenship, to work in Russia manufacturing drones.” More, here.?

More than 140 Russian drones and missiles targeted cities across Ukraine in the early morning hours Monday, President Volodymir Zelenskyy said on social media. “So far, we know of 19 casualties” in Kharkiv, he said.?

Ten different regions were targeted, Zelenskyy said. “Combat operations are still ongoing against aerial targets that remain in the air,” he added at about noon local time.

Developing: Officials in London and Paris are allegedly considering sending troops to Ukraine, Le Monde reports, citing contingency talks for how to deal with the incoming Trump administration in Washington. Former BBC journalist Mark Urban offered his interpretation for how those troops could find their way to Ukraine, writing on social media Monday morning, here.?

Also: A top military official at NATO warned Europe’s “businesses need to be prepared for a wartime scenario and adjust their production and distribution lines accordingly,” NATO Military Committee Chief Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer said Monday in Brussels. “While it may be the military who wins battles, it's the economies that win wars,” he said. “If we can make sure that all crucial services and goods can be delivered no matter what, then that is a key part of our deterrence,” Bauer said.?

Referring to China and Russia, “Business leaders in Europe and America need to realise that the commercial decisions they make have strategic consequences for the security of their nation,” the admiral said. Reuters has more.

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