Aug 3 Buonasera Mag
Day 162: Mykoliav, Kherson, nuclear power plants, US intel, Kabayeva, Skolkovo, Canada, Switzerland, Belarus, Pelosi--articles: Vogel, Kirillova, Davis, Lucas, Roth, Troy, Avdeeva
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…
Powerful explosions in Mykolaiv during the night on Tuesday. According to Oleksandr Sienkevych, after powerful explosions occurred, a fire broke out in one of the districts, and issues with electricity supply have been recorded. It is not clear what caused the explosions.
Ukraine's military liberates 7 villages in Kherson Oblast. Ukrainian troops had already liberated 53 villages in the Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast as of Aug. 2.
IAEA: Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant 'out of control.' Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that "seven indispensable pillars of nuclear safety and security are being violated" at the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Intelligence: Before executing, Russian forces tortured Ukrainian POWs in Olenivka. Defense Ministry's Intelligence Directorate reports that Russians had no intention of exchanging POWs, preferring to murder prisoners to hide the evidence of torture.
Russian MoD claims that its missiles had destroyed a depot containing weapons supplied by Poland in Ukraine's Lviv region.
Russia accuses US of direct involvement in Ukraine war over intelligence. Russia said it was responding to comments by Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence, about the way Kyiv used US-supplied long-range Himars rocket launch systems based on what he called excellent satellite imagery and real-time information.
The U.S. supply of HIMARS to Ukraine has been accompanied by security cooperation. The U.S. has a veto on intended targets and provides satellite imagery and real-time information before Ukraine uses HIMARS.
Kyiv School of Economics: Ukraine’s economy damage due to Russia's war estimated at over $108 billion. According to the KSE, the total cost of damages documented since Feb. 24 has reached $108.3 billion, requiring at least $185 billion for recovery.
Deputy chief of staff of the President's Office Ihor Zhovkva said that Germany and some other EU countries are blocking consideration of the second tranche of aid to Ukraine worth 8 billion euros.
The US has released a new sanctions package and Putin’s long-time mistress, Alina Kabayeva, is on the list. It also features sanctions on "Skolkovo" and the "Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works", the heads of the occupation administration of Mariupol Ivashchenko and Kherson region Saldo, and visa sanctions on 893 Russian officials.
Canada: more sanctions on Russia —43 military officials and 17 entities. Canada has so far imposed sanctions on more than 1,150 individuals and entities.
Switzerland adopts EU sanctions on Russia's Sberbank. This reaffirms Switzerland's compliance with EU sanctions and eliminates a potential banking loophole for Russia.
Russian defense ministry plans holding the first so-called "International anti-fascist congress" in August - to "unite efforts in fighting NeoNazism" with representatives of "74 friendly countries". The congress will probably nominate Putin for a Nobel Prize.
The Defense Department wiped the phones of top departing DOD and Army officials at the end of the Trump administration, deleting any texts from key witnesses to events surrounding the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, according to court filings.
In reaction to Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, Xi Jinping said that it was more proof of the victory of the Communist Party of China. Read all the parts to the tweet below.
Vogel on VOA, "Putin's Cook" tried to clean up the "kitchen"
“He is now in survival mode, losing money, all his foreign assets are frozen, he is being hunted internationally, and he is clearly panicking. His wife, children and major companies are on the sanctions list. More importantly, it seems that he has become a hindrance and a burden to many of his “friends”. It can be assumed that he, like Vladimir Putin, will end up in The Hague. And this is if everything goes well for him.
“All of Prigozhin's activities from the very beginning were so replete with negligence - and some of his cases ended in real disasters and all this is well documented - that you begin to wonder how the relevant Russian services could even tolerate how Vladimir Putin mocks the system ... which was transferred to subcontracting to amateur crooks like Prigozhin ,” says Natalie Vogel, Senior Fellow European Values Center for Security Policy.
NYT, Using Nuclear Reactors for Cover, Russians Lob Rockets at Ukrainians
Kirillova, Be Afraid, Russia Tells Occupied Ukraine
There have been a spate of missile attacks this month on Ukrainian cities far from the frontline, as in Vinnitsa in mid-July. Some 25 people died, including children. Whether these strikes are designed to cause terror or hit a specific target, or whether they result from wayward missiles with dodgy technology, also matters very little. Any living thing, human or not, is a target for Russia, and has been since the all-out war began on February 24.
Julia Davis reports…
Lucas, Out of Shot
Applebaum? Snyder? Belton? Or maybe some Dostoyevsky or Solzhenitsyn? Putin’s war in Ukraine has sparked a belated curiosity about Russia’s leadership and its decision-making. For background, I gladly recommend books by my friends Anne Applebaum (“Gulag”), Timothy Snyder (“Bloodlands”), and Catherine Belton (“Putin’s People”).
Maria Avdeeva reports…
Roth, ‘People are turning off’: Muscovites put the war aside and enjoy summer
As Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds into its fifth month, Moscow is a city doing everything it can to turn a blind eye to the conflict. It is a champagne-soaked summer like any other in the Russian capital, despite the thousands of dead and many more wounded in a war increasingly marked by acts of savage brutality.
Message from the Belarus government in exile
Dave Troy and Cryptocurrency
This new talk of mine is straight from the heart. How did I go from being crypto-curious to being a staunch opponent over the last 10 years? This is the story.