Aug 5 Buonasera Mag
Day 163: Mykolaiv, Pisky, grain ships, Moldova, Erdogan, Kadyrov, Canada, Amnesty Int, NATO, Finland, China, Orban, Russia Spring, UA 'nazis' report, Burgess, Weiss, prosthetics UA children, UA ballet
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…
According to Hanna Zamazieieva, head of the Mykolaiv Oblast Council, Russia shelled Balabanivka and Korabelnyi neighborhoods of Mykolaiv from the direction of occupied Kherson earlier on Aug. 5. 22 people have been injured.
General Staff: Russians unsuccessfully tried to advance near Pisky, Donetsk Oblast. Russian troops also tried to advance near the villages of Dolyna and Bohorodychne in Donetsk Oblast but they were forced to retreat, Ukraine's General Staff said.
The Russian Army is redeploying forces to regions bordering Ukraine. These redeployments of conscripts or armed forces who refused to fight in the Ukraine war are feints aimed at convincing the Ukrainians that Russia is opening up new offensive axes.
Olena Halushka: “When I think that I've seen all of russian barbarism, here comes a new update from the Mariupol officials. When people want to identify where their loved ones are buried in the mass graves, russians give them a "catalog" of ~3-4k photos of bodies taken in one of the morgues.”
The caravan of Ukrainian goods left the ports "Odesa" and "Chornomorsk". There are 57K tons of Ukrainian corn on the three bulk carriers NAVI STAR, ROJEN and POLARNET. This grain is carried for customers in Turkey, Great Britain and Ireland.
Residents of Moldova are recruited into the Russian army deployed in the Transnistrian region without the consent of Chisinau. The recruitment takes place through street announcements and messages sent on Telegram.
Erdoğan met Putin today about developments in Syria and Ukraine according to Reuters. Kadyrov was also present at the meeting, although this has not been mentioned nor why he was there.
Canada to send up to 225 instructors to train Ukrainian troops in UK. The first instructors will arrive next week, Reuters reported. Most of them will be from the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton, Alberta.
Amnesty International chief dismisses Ukrainian critics as 'trolls.' “Ukrainian and Russian social media mobs and trolls: they are all at it today attacking Amnesty investigations," Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard tweeted.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the President's Office, accused Amnesty International of participating in Russia’s disinformation and propaganda campaign to discredit Ukraine's military.
The head of Amnesty International Ukraine Oksana Pokalchuk said that the Ukrainian team wasn’t involved in the preparation of Amnesty’s report that accused Ukraine’s military of endangering civilians. According to her, Amnesty dismissed all arguments by the Ukrainian team regarding the incompleteness of the report, while the authors didn’t wait for a response from Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.
Stoltenberg: War in Ukraine is Europe's most dangerous time since World War II, Russia must not be allowed to win. Stoltenberg said on Aug. 4 that NATO and its members have two tasks: support Ukraine in its fight against a Russian invasion and prevent the conflict from spreading into a war between Russia and NATO. "If Russia wins this war, they will have confirmation that violence works. Then other neighboring countries may be next," he said.
Finland is presenting a plan to limit tourist visas to Russians. Finland has been an unwitting contributor to potential sanctions violations, as Russians have used it as a gateway to entering the EU.
In Estonia, all Soviet monuments will be removed from the streets. "Soviet monuments must be removed from the public space, and we will do it as soon as possible," said Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.
Czech anti-OC police division and UK's SO15 CT unit create a joint investigation team to investigate both the Skripals poisoning and the Vrbetice munition explosions in 2014.
China announces the suspension of talks with the U.S. on climate change, maritime security and cross-border crime.
Rula Jebreal: “Antisemite authoritarian Viktor Orban, who said: “ We do not want to become peoples of mixed race,” is speaking at CPAC in Texas—where a white supremacist slaughtered 23 Latinos. The El Paso massacre & voter suppression efforts are parts of the war on multiracial democracy.”
“The globalists can go to hell,” thundered Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “I have come to Texas.”
Meduza, ‘Russian Spring’ -who’s behind one of the major propaganda outlets covering Russia’s war against Ukraine
Elena Averkova became the CEO of Modern Information Technologies in April 2021. For years, she had worked for the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IPPO) and much of her career is connected to Dmitry Sablin — a State Duma lawmaker from the United Russia party and the leader of the movement Anti-Maidan, which ostensibly aims “to prevent color revolutions” in Russia.
Hoaxlines, Stories about "Ukrainian Nazis" were rare before 2014 when they surged at the moment when Russia's plans faltered
Hoaxlines gathered data to assess media discussions of “Ukraine” and the term “Nazi.” We searched across a decade from June 2010 through July 2022 using the Media Cloud Explorer. We found that content discussing “Ukraine” and “Nazi” surged as the 2014 Kremlin-orchestrated events in Ukraine stumbled. The Ukraine-Nazi stories also increased before and coinciding with Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
Atlantic Council, Climbing the escalation ladder in Ukraine: A menu of options for the West
After making slow but steady gains in eastern Ukraine recently, Russia has inched closer to its recalibrated goal of seizing the entire Donbas region. Even though its military has sustained heavy losses—and while the Kremlin’s current objectives are much smaller than its initial goal of capturing Kyiv and overthrowing the government—the chances of escalation in this war persist.
Burgess, The Power of Counterintelligence: The Venona Papers Identified Soviet Spies in America
For those who follow the history of the Soviet Union spying in the United States, the Venona Papers no doubt has percolated to the top of your reading list. Venona confirmed the collaboration of a number of individuals with the Soviet Union and their intelligence apparatus. In July 1995, the CIA released the first group of the Venona translations to the public, and in 1996 at a conference on the papers, the remainder of the 2900 Soviet intelligence messages were shared.
Weiss, Death from above, printed at home: Ukrainians deploy DIY weapons against Russian troops
“The volunteers that print these for the drones get a video showing them being put to good use,” Vlasyuk said with a grin. He then pulled up other videos posted to Facebook and Twitter showing grenades and mortars with 3D-printed fins hitting columns of unsuspecting Russian troops, as well as ones displaying Ukrainian hands packing their metal tubes with nails.
10News, San Diego non-profit helps Ukrainian family wounded in Russian missile attack
"She’s extremely excited that she can walk even better than just the other day," said Haywas. Yana and her mom just got fitted for their prosthetics a few days ago. Her grandmother was killed. Stepanenko's husband died weeks later while fighting the war in Ukraine.
San Diego's Right to Walk Foundation helped bring the family here. The two will spend at least a year getting rehab at Peter Harsch Prosthetics in Mira Mesa.
Serhiy Prytula’s Charity Foundation introduced the Nest project focused on helping families who lost their houses due to Russia’s ongoing war. The initiative relies on international donors to cover the costs, with the first house being covered with the money raised by American schoolchildren.
