Jul 30: Sunday Stories
Day 521: Dnipro UASitRep Kupiansk RUSitRep NorKor Crimea Donetsk Grain Zapo Blinken Kerch China UK BRICS UN Poland Romania Qatar IOC RUAfricaSummit A&P ISW UKDef Times Weiss U24 KyivIndie
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.
Via the Kyiv Independent: A Russian missile attack in Dnipro late Friday afternoon. 9 people have been injured, including 2 children. There are no casualties. A total of 6 buildings (3 residential) destroyed from the 9th to the 13th floor.
Stories we’re following…
Russian attacks injure at least 14 civilians over past day. Russian forces attacked nine Ukrainian regions over the past day, regional officials reported on July 29.
Ukraine’s Counteroffensive: Kyiv has intensified its campaign against Russian, hoping that mile-by-mile gains could bring its weapons closer to Russian supply lines.
ISW: Ukrainian forces continue counteroffensive operations in 3 sectors of front line, advance near Bakhmut. The Institute for the Study of War said in their latest assessment that Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations on the northern and southern flanks of Bakhmut.
New Lines Magazine essay by Michael Weiss and James Rushton: Broadly, they warn against a negative impression of Ukraine’s efforts, writing:
“The Hollywood-tailored excitement of the Battles of Kyiv and Kharkiv may have unduly raised the bar for what Ukraine can accomplish in short order. Yet the Battle of Kherson, begun in August 2022, was a long, hard slog, the bulk of which garnered comparatively little contemporaneous front-page coverage—until all of a sudden it did. … This was before the Ukrainians had U.S. or European main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, cruise missiles and cluster bombs.”
Russia rotating in Kupyansk direction to resume assault operations. In Kupyansk direction, the offensive pace of the Russians has abated, they conduct rotations and recovery to resume assault operations. Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv Reg Mil Admin, reported that
“Regarding offensive operations: the enemy's pace has decreased slightly. The reason is that the enemy suffered quite serious losses in manpower, weapons and equipment. Now they conduct rotations and replenishment. And this indicates that they intend to resume assault operations. Our positions there are quite strong. Yes, indeed, when such active military operations began a month ago, the grey zone, the zone of shelling, expanded. However, no positions were lost there.”
FT: Ukrainian artillery crews have been firing AK-47 of MLRS (grads) made in North Korea. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence says that the Ukrainian forces have captured tanks and equipment, and it would be logical to seize munitions as well. He added that the Russians were buying arms in Iran and North Korea. The Ukrainian troops complain that the North Korean munitions have a high dud rate, and were manufactured in the 1980s and 1990s according to the markings they found.
One Ukrainian Grad unit member warned the FT not to get too close to the rocket launcher when the crew fired the North Korean munitions because “they are very unreliable and do crazy things sometimes”.
Top Russian proxy claims Ukraine attacked railway connecting occupied Crimea, Kherson Oblast. Russia-installed proxy in Kherson Oblast Volodymyr Saldo claimed that Ukrainian forces attacked the railway connecting Dzhankoi in occupied Crimea and Hehichesk in Kherson Oblast with cruise missiles overnight on July 29.
Official: Occupation government building in Donetsk damaged in strike. The so-called "interior ministry" of the Russian occupation government in Donetsk had been damaged in a strike, Petro Andriushchenko, an advisor to the exiled mayor of Mariupol, reported on July 28.
Russian governor: 'Second missile' shot down over Rostov Oblast near Taganrog. A second missile was shot down on July 28 over Russia's Rostov Oblast near the city of Taganrog, where an explosion was reported earlier today, Rostov Oblast Governor Vasily Golubev claimed on his Telegram channel.
Ukrainian intelligence: Saboteurs blow up warehouse in occupied Crimea. The ammunition warehouse explosions in Crimea on July 28 were the result of sabotage, Ukraine's military intelligence said.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine have taken measures to protect Ukrainian ports, said the speaker of the operational command "South" Natalia Gumenyuk on the air of the telethon. According to her, these measures should ensure the maximum operation of air defense.
Explainer: Russia’s weaponisation of grain exports, which increases their revenues.
A Zaporizhzhia NPP engineer has been held illegally by Russia since his “abduction” last month and is being subjected to torture, the Ukrainian state nuclear energy company has claimed. Energoatom said on Telegram:
More than a month ago, on 23 June 2023, invaders abducted Serhiy Potinga, an occupational safety engineer of the Central Aviation Safety Agency of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, who was staying in Enerhodar and working at the station.
Serhiy, being in real captivity of the Rashists, is regularly subjected to torture and physical violence. And after the torture, the invaders send the engineer to the hospital every time so that he does not die.
Behind Occupied Lines: Russia kidnaps, tortures Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant engineer. Russia illegally holds Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant engineer Serhii Potynh since June and subjects him to torture, Ukraine's state nuclear energy company Energoatom reported on July 28.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has announced the relocation of a group of mercenaries from the Wagner Group to the Suwałki Gap, which connects the country with the Baltic States and also separates the territory of Russian Kaliningrad Oblast and Belarus.
A group of a hundred Wagner soldiers have moved closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno near the Polish border, Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said.
The situation is getting increasingly dangerous ... Most likely they (the Wagner personnel) will be disguised as the Belarusian border guard and help illegal migrants get to the Polish territory (and) destabilise Poland.
They will most likely try to enter Poland pretending to be illegal migrants and this poses additional threats.
TASS: Russia is ready to look of ways to achieve the peaceful resolution of the situation around Ukraine, despite the Western course towards acting solely in their own interests in any international conflict, Putin said.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said Washington believes that Russia’s defence minister is in North Korea to secure supplies of weapons to aid the stalled invasion of Ukraine. After Sergei Shoigu’s arrival on a rare trip to Pyongyang, Blinken said Russia was scrambling to buy arms from allies across the world.
“We’re seeing Russia desperately looking for support, for weapons, wherever it can find them to continue to prosecute its aggression against Ukraine,” he said.
“We see that in North Korea, we see that as well with Iran, which has provided many drones to Russia that it’s using to destroy civilian infrastructure and killed civilians in Ukraine.”
The passage of small boats in the Kerch Strait is prohibited - Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation This affects all "small vessels and watercraft in the Temryuk region between Capes Khroni and Achilleion and north of the line between Capes Takil and Panagia and the coastline," the Krasnodar Territory Operational Headquarters said in a statement, citing the Russian Defense Ministry. The restriction does not apply only to ships, boats and vessels of the navy, border authorities and troops of the national guard of the Russian Federation.
Raiffeisenbank in May and June was among the leaders in the Russian market in terms of the inflow of cash, precious metals and stones, follows from the turnover sheets of banks, writes RBC. It reports that in two months Raiffeisenbank received assets worth 30 billion rubles through cash desks and ATMs. Raiffeisenbank is a Russian subsidiary of the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International, which continued to work in Russia after the Russian army invaded Ukraine.
The Russian government could be moving closer toward outlawing abortion, experts and activists have told The Moscow Times, as its wartime stifling of freedoms spreads to sexual and reproductive health rights.
British Ministry of Defense accidentally sends classified information to Kremlin ally. The UK Ministry of Defense has launched an investigation after officials accidentally sent emails with classified information to Mali, a Russian ally. British officials a small number of messages to an address ending with the west African country's ".ml" domain, rather than the US military's ".mil". Last week it was revealed the same error in the US had resulted in millions of military emails going to Mali.
"We are confident they did not contain any information that could compromise operational security or technical data. All sensitive information is shared on systems designed to minimise the risk of misdirection.”
The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has criticised Russia’s “handful of donations [of grain] to some countries” which he said does not offset the consequences of the end of the Black Sea initiative.
It is clear that when taking out of the market millions and millions of tons of grain, it is clear that, based on economic laws, that it will lead to higher prices than the ones that would exist with the normal access of Ukrainian grain to international markets. And these increases of prices will be paid by everybody, everywhere, and namely, by developing countries and by the vulnerable people in middle-income and even developed countries.
NATO to open repair center in Poland for Ukrainian equipment. NATO plans to set up a logistics and repair center for Ukrainian military equipment near Polish Rzeszow, roughly 100 km from Ukraine's border, the Globe and Mail reported on July 28, citing Polish and Canadian officials.
"We are going to establish a maintenance facility in partnership with the U.S. and the U.K. No intent to have a large Canadian presence," one of the Canadian officials reportedly said.
The UNESCO mission was in Odesa on Saturday to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the damage caused by Russian missile strikes. The mission participants will evaluate the damage caused to the city's cultural and religious sites as a result of Russian shelling on July 19-23.
President Ramaphosa has called for the reopening of the Black Sea grain initiative at a summit with Putin.
We proposed to implement the Black Sea Grain Initiative, we talked about the need to open the Black Sea, we said that we would like the Black Sea to be open to world markets. And we did not come here to ask for some ‘gifts’ for the African continent.
Of course, we understand that out of generosity you have decided to donate grain to some African countries that are facing certain difficulties. We treat this with great respect and celebrate it. However, this is not our main goal here, this is not our main task – to achieve some kind of supplies of this nature.
Bloomberg: Romania to expand capacity for Ukrainian grain transit. Romania plans to expand its capacity for transiting Ukrainian grain as Russia's unilateral termination of the Black Sea Grain Initiative blocked the sea corridor for Ukraine's exports, Bloomberg reported on July 28.
Zelensky says Qatar joins Ukraine's Peace Formula. Qatar will join Ukraine in the efforts to implement the so-called Peace Formula proposed by President Volodymyr Zelensky. The plan envisages preventing ecocide in Ukraine, punishing those responsible for war crimes, withdrawing all Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine, restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, and the release of all prisoners of war and deportees.
DW: Spreading disinformation - EU imposes sanctions on seven Russians and five organizations. Citizens of the Russian Federation and legal entities are engaged in the manipulation of digital information in order to distort the facts and spread propaganda in support of Russian aggression against Ukraine, according to a press release from the EU Council. The EU penalty list, in particular, includes LLC IA INFOROS, AHO Dialog, LLC GK STRUKTURA, the Agency for Social Design and the Institute of Russian Abroad. Personal sanctions are imposed on Ilya Gambachidze, Alexander Starunsky, Anastasia Kirillova, Nina Dorokhova, Sergei Panteleev and Denis Tyurin.
Ex-head of Russian jail charged over abuse of Ukrainian POWs. The ex-head of the Russian prison in the occupied village of Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast, and one of his subordinates have been charged over physical, sexual, and psychological abuse of Ukrainian soldiers held there, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office reported on July 28.
One could end up going to prisooooooon…..
The IOC president, Thomas Bach wrote in person to Olha Kharlan to make a “unique exception” to Olympic qualifying procedures, in an unusually emotional letter.
“As a fellow fencer, it is impossible for me to imagine how you feel at this moment,” Bach said. “The war against your country, the suffering of the people in Ukraine … all this is a roller coaster of emotions and feelings. It is admirable how you are managing this incredibly difficult situation, and I would like to express my full support for you.”
Iulia Mendel: “The photo shows 7-year-old gymnast Oleksandra Paskal from Chornomorsk, who lost her leg due to shelling in Odesa region. She was fitted with a prosthesis and returned to competitions. I wouldn't be surprised if another "neutral flag" representative demands to shake hands at one of them.”
Third day of the Africa-Russia Summit
The Russia-Africa summit signals the Kremlin’s effort to bolster ties with a continent of 1.3 billion people.
Africa’s 54 nations make up the largest voting bloc at the UN and have been more divided than any other region on general assembly resolutions criticising Russia’s actions in Ukraine, AP reported.
Only 17 heads of state were at the summit, compared to 43 at the first Russia-Africa summit in 2019, a sharp drop in attendance that the Kremlin has attributed to what it described as western pressure to discourage African countries from showing up.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, hailed Africa’s role in the emerging “multipolar world order”:
The era of hegemony of one or several countries is receding into the past, albeit not without resistance on the part of those who got used to their own uniqueness and monopoly in global affairs.
Russia and Africa are united by an innate desire to defend true sovereignty and the right to their own distinctive path of development in the political, economic, social, cultural and other spheres.
On Saturday moring, the Eritrean president, Isaias Afwerki, launched a blistering attack on Nato, accusing the military alliance of stoking the conflict in Ukraine – a classic Russian talking point used to deflect from its war of aggression. Afwerki’s regime, which has been subject to US sanctions after Eritrean forces entered Ethiopia in support of the government’s military campaign and whilst it does not host Russian troops like Mali but it remains one of the most pro-Russian governments in Africa.
Four African heads of state will attend Russia’s annual Navy Day parade in St Petersburg tomorrow, the Kremlin has said, with five more African countries also sending other representation.
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group is ready to increase its presence in Africa, its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, told an African news outlet in an audio interview published online earlier this week. “We aren’t reducing [our presence]; moreover we’re ready to increase our various contingents,” Prigozhin told Cameroon-based Afrique Media.
