Aug 12: Saturday Stories
Day 534: Kherson, Zaporizhye, Donetsk, Kharkiv Robotyne UASitRep BlackSea Moscow Zaporizhzhia Google VTB Occupation Ze USsanctions A&P UAArtHistory TuckerSOF UKDef Lautman SnitchApp AtlanticCouncil
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
Stories we’re following…
Russian strikes on August 10 in Kherson, Zaporizhye, Donetsk and Kharkiv, killing 2 and injuring 34 people. Air raid sirens were activated across Ukraine on August 11 morning, and explosions were heard in Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi and Vinnytsia. Air defence was activated. Mayor of Kyiv Klitschko reported that the fragments of a rocket fell on the territory of one of the children's hospitals. There is no information about the victims.
Main power line fails at Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The Ukrainian nuclear agency Energoatom reported on Aug. 10 that the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant lost power from the main 750 kilovolt (kV) power line overnight. The plant was then connected to the 330 kV backup line instead. The risk of this backup power line failing puts the largest nuclear plant in Europe on the verge of a blackout.
Most residents of the Kupyansky community of the Kharkiv region refuse to evacuate, which the authorities announced the day before due to increased shelling from Russia. Andrey Besedin, head of the Kupyansk city military administration, told Radio Liberty about this. The authorities have set up a hotline for those who wish to leave with buses going to Kharkiv. Most often elderly people refuse to evacuate, but there are also families with children.
The Defense Forces of Ukraine are holding back the advance of Russian troops in the Avdiivka and Maryinka directions. Overall, 25 combat clashes have been recorded on the front today.
In the Melitopol and Berdiansk directions, the Ukrainian defenders continue to conduct an offensive operation, getting entrenched in the regained positions and engaging in counter-battery fire.
In the Avdiivka direction, under heavy fire from the enemy's aircraft and artillery, the Defense Forces continue to hold back the advance of Russian troops in the area of Avdiivka in Donetsk region.
In the Maryinka direction, Ukrainian defenders continue to hold back the advance of Russian troops in the area of Maryinka in Donetsk region. More than 10 settlements came under enemy artillery attacks.
The Ukrainian State Border Guard Service has destroyed a Russian forest hideout near Bakhmut.
“The enemy set up camouflaged positions in the forest on one of the Bakhmut flanks,” the agency said in a statement. “In order to clear the forest massif from the enemy’s fortifications, the mortar fire of the border guards received the firing task.”
Ukrainian troops regularly cross Dnipro River, probing Russian defenses in Kherson Oblast. Ukrainian soldiers board a speedboat one by one. It sinks deeper into the water, weighed down by the men, their weapons, and equipment.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have entered Robotyne.
Sky News: Nearly 1,000 Ukrainian marines to return home after 'intense' training from elite UK commandos. Over 20,000 Ukrainian military personnel have been trained by UK forces since the start of 2022.
General Staff: Russia has lost 252,200 troops in Ukraine.
In yesterday’s briefing, Hanna Malyar reported that the Russians are not taking their dead soldiers back to Russia but are burying them on occupied territory. “The occupiers bring the dead from the Kherson region to the morgue of the Chaplin District Hospital in the Kherson region,” she added “and they are buried in two locations, one of which has an area of up to 100 hectares.”
I personally think that Russian casualties are much higher because of this report and others that reveal that the Russians are burning their dead in mobile crematoria. Stefania Battistini, an Italian war reporter, told me that the Ukrainians are fighting amidst the dead bodies of Russian soldiers because they’re too afraid to move them. Many of them have been mined. If the soldiers go missing, their families don’t get access to ‘coffin pay’ or other benefits as widows or children of falled soldiers.
Expert: Russia turns off sensors on its ships carrying illegal cargo in Black Sea. Ships flying the Russian flag often carry out illegal cargo transportation. Stepan Yakymiak, the head of the Navy Department of the National Defense University.
The sky over Vnukovo airport, Moscow was closed in the morning on August 11. According to preliminary information, a drone was seen in the vicinity of Kubinka and is flying towards Moscow. The Vnukovo (VKO and Domodedovo (DME) airports, #Russia's 4th and 2nd busiest airports respectively, were closed earlier this morning amid reports of yet another UAV attack. The Vnukovo Airport reopened at noon.
According to preliminary data, reportedly a warehouse on Severnaya Street is on fire in Odintsovo, Moscow region. An eletrical substation in Kaluga, Russia, has caught fire. (Video: Odintsovo fire via https://t.me/vchkogpu/40706)
A spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence said that those living in Moscow should expect more attacks, especially as Russian air defences appear incapable of protecting its citizens.
“Given the dynamics of recent months, the number, geography and intensity, it would be logical to assume an increase in daily attacks,” Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence, said.
Some 170-200 people cross into Ukraine from Russia every day through the Kolotilovka-Pokrovka humanitarian corridor on the border of the Belgorod and Sumy regions, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories reported. She said that a hub has been set up in the Sumy region, where people can receive medical, psychological and humanitarian assistance.
Google began blocking corporate Google Workspace services for companies from Russia that fell under sanctions on Aug 10. Employees of Russian companies (which ones are not specified) lost access to corporate mail and documents that were stored in DOS. One of the sources said that Google justified blocking the Workspaces because some companies were sending out “spam messages”.
State Bank VTB received a state stake in the United Shipbuilding Corporation, the main state operator of programs for the construction of the country's military and civilian fleet. The bank has lost the most since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin announced this at a meeting with the head of the bank, Andrei Kostin, on Thursday.
Behind the Lines: The head of the village in Russian-occupied Kherson oblast said that residents who haven’t got a Russian passport would not be given insulin. The village head said that citizens that Ukrainian citizens wouldn’t be given medicines purchased at the expense of the Russian government. The same rule is applicable to those who want humanitarian aid. He added that anyone who doesn’t want to accept these conditions can leave.
Russian authorities have taken Ukrainian teenagers from occupied territories to a military education camp in Russia, where they received military training, Ukraine’s Centre of National Resistance said. The Gvardeets military-patriotic camp opened in the Russian town of Penza on 1 August, the Centre said. Since then, teenagers from Mariupol, Kirovske, Yenakieve, Horlivka, Shakhtarsk, Makiivka and Donetsk were taken here, where they participated in excursions to propaganda museums and attended performances by pro-Kremlin artists.
Russian-occupied Mariupol: If you thought Russians selling properties in Mariupol at cut rates weren’t bad enough, or the travel agencies selling great vacations in the city were horrific, think again. This is a photo shoot for a fashion house in the downtown mall in Mariupol next to the Drama Theater, both utterly destroyed by the terrorist bombings.
Russians who can afford to take holidays have elected to abandon Greece in favour of Turkey. Statistics show arrivals of Russians are up dramatically in the neighbouring country, aided in part by the devaluation of the Turkish lira. Russians were warned not to go to Greece, one of their favourite stomping grounds, because “there are many Ukrainian nationalists in Greece now. This should be taken into account,” says Moscow’s ambassador to Greece, Andrey Maslov. Greece has also taken a strong position against Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Belarus’s dictator, Alykandr Lukashenka, said today that he wishes to maintain relations with European Union countries, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti is reporting.
“Now we live primarily at the expense of the East – Russia, China. But we must not forget about the high-tech West,” Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko said. “They are nearby, they are our neighbours - the European Union. And we cannot lose relations with them.”
Monique: you really can’t make this stuff up. Perhaps the recent sanctions levied against his regime and Belarusian stakeholders are starting to sway the old dictator. That said, I wouldn’t believe a word he says. Lukashenka threw in his lot with Russia, and in the process lost the sovereignty of the Belarusian people. He’ll do anything and say anything to stay in power.
President Zelenskyy announced the dismissal of "all regional military committees" following the decision of the National Security Council on Aug 10. The advice will be discussed with the MoD and Chief of Staff at a meeting in the evening August 11. Zelenskyy said that:
“This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war is treason,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram. “Instead, soldiers who have passed the front or who cannot be in the trenches because they have lost their health, lost their limbs, but have preserved their dignity and do not have cynicism, are the ones who can be entrusted with this equipment system.”
Monique: This is a big deal and a step in the right direction. Ukraine has taken great pains to root out corruption and malpractice at almost every level of government and governance. This is an example of what they’re doing. Veterans who have fought in battle know what it means to give their lives for their citizens and they will be much more loyal to the soldiers and their needs than an ineffecient paper pusher.
Biden asks Congress for $24 billion for Ukraine aid, related needs. U.S. President Joe Biden asked Congress for $40 billion in additional spending, including $24 billion for Ukraine's assistance and other international needs connected to Russian aggression, CNN reported on Aug. 10.
The United States Treasury imposed sanctions on four co-founders of Alfa Group. The sanctions list includes Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven, German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev. They were included in the SDN list, which means the most stringent restrictions. The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs also fell under US sanctions.
Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven came under EU sanctions in February 2022, shortly after the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine. The EU authorities justified their decision on restrictive measures by the connections of Fridman and Aven in Russian power circles. In March 2022, the United Kingdom also imposed sanctions against businessmen .
German Khan and Aleksey Kuzmichev were sanctioned in March 2022.
The Netherlands donated over 6 mobile medical support complexes to Ukrainian border guards. With the help of such a complex, medics can deploy a full-fledged hospital in the field with its own operating room, pre-operative room, IC ward, laboratory and sterilization room.
In a meeting Saudia Arabia, Ankara's chief adviser to the president, Akif Çağatay Kılıç, the Turkish representative said that "if Russia is not included in the search for a solution, there will be no results, no solution," according to the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet. Germany replied that it was incorrect to invite Moscow to such meetings now - "Russia must enter at the right time."
New Zealand's Main Intelligence Agency has publishe a list of major threats (.pdf) that the country may face in the coming years. They include violent extremism, foreign interference and espionage. Among the countries capable of "causing significant damage" to New Zealand are Russia, China and Iran. The report says that only a few countries can intervene, but all three countries mentioned are "persistently doing so."
Snitch app in Russia collected denunciations- Meduza
Russian Internet users have submitted more than 5,000 denunciations against their neighbors and acquaintances on a parody app called My Denunciation, according to the Telegram channel Mozhem Obyasnit, which was given access to the app’s database by its creators.
According to Mozhem Obyasnit, roughly 1,000 of the 5,000 reports submitted through the app were serious denunciations that included detailed descriptions of the “perpetrators’” actions as well as their personal information and links to their social media accounts. The outlet noted that many of the reports could serve as grounds for criminal charges under Russia’s laws against “disinformation” or “discrediting” the Russian army.
The app’s creator said that the information collected would not be given to the authorities, which I find very difficult to believe as the app itself was probably an operation run by Russia’s security services to find dissenters. I have no evidence for this claim but I know that the Russian security services has iron-clad control over the internet and collects information on all citizens. How could this app escape them?
Maksym Skrypchenko, Ukraine’s slow counteroffensive is a wake-up call for the West—Atlantic Council
In recent weeks, an unsettling narrative has begun to take shape in some segments of the international information space. With Ukraine’s much hyped counteroffensive making minimal progress, a range of commentators have started suggesting the time has come to push Ukraine to the negotiating table rather than prolong the current stalemate.
Such arguments are dangerously misleading. In reality, the slow pace of Ukraine’s counteroffensive progress should not come as a surprise. After all, Ukraine lacks modern aviation and long-range strike capabilities, while Russia has had many months to prepare formidable defenses across occupied Ukrainian territory, including complex fortifications and vast minefields. The real question is whether the West is doing enough to support Ukraine’s military efforts. The blunt answer is no.
Maxim Tucker: How Kyiv’s kill squads pick off commanders inside Russia—The Times
Ukrainian special forces take no prisoners in cross-border raids — and have grown only more ambitious
The driver of the Russian army lorry would not have noticed the rifle barrels protruding from the roadside foliage. Far from the border with Ukraine, he was speeding along a deserted country road towards the city of Belgorod.
He may not have heard the first shots clatter into the cab as the six-man Ukrainian special forces team opened fire, sending the lorry jolting off the road and into the tree line, where it came to an abrupt halt. The Ukrainians emptied their magazines into it: they were a long way from home and could take no prisoners.
They snapped pictures of the driver, bloodied and limp. They removed a map. Then they were gone, back into the undergrowth.
The men of the elite Shaman Battalion have been carrying out such raids on infrastructure behind enemy lines for more than a year. Now they have revealed to The Times a new task: assassinating senior Russian officers.
“We have an increased number of targets, missions on specific people or targets, such as buildings where a general or somebody like that is located inside Russia,” said “Intelligent”, 30, a sergeant involved in planning the missions.
He showed a video of the ambush and added: “We’ve carried out more than ten operations like this in the past six months and we’ve been successful.”
Ukraine claims to have killed 15 Russian generals since the war began. Moscow has confirmed the deaths of six, most killed near the front lines.
Shaman, which answers to the GUR, Ukraine’s military intelligence, would not name their targets but other sources have provided clues. [continue]