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…
On Sept 1 during the night, Russia struck with Kalibr cruise missiles. The launch of 2 missiles from the Black Sea was recorded. One was destroyed, the other hit one of the private enterprises in Vinnytsia region. Property, private cars were damaged, assistance is provided to the victims.
This is how school started in Kharkiv yesterday. 60 school classes will open in the Kharkiv metro. The city is located 40 km from the border with Russia, and since the beginning of the war it has been constantly shelled. It has become unsafe for children to study in ordinary schools.
Zelenskyy’s morning remarks:"The results of our weapons, new Ukrainian weapons, are 700 kilometers. The task is more. Important news for the frontline: it has been agreed to supply a large batch of armored "medevacs" to Ukraine," Zelenskyi in an evening update.”
During the night Sept 1, Pskov was hit once again with missiles: according head of the GUR Kyrylo Budanov, the attack on the Il-76 aircraft based in Pskov was carried out from inside Russia.
Regional governors in Russia said defence systems stopped three drones in the Kursk, Belgorod and Moscow regions, the Associated Press reports.
A large fire has been reported from the South-Western district in Moscow. Mayor Sobyanin said that Russian air defense shot down a drone. The Russian authorities have closed Moscow airports to air traffic and the airports have been closed.
In the morning, Sept 1, Several explosions were reported near Heniches'k, occupied Kherson region.
White House: Ukraine's forces make 'notable progress' in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Washington has seen "notable progress" in Ukraine's counteroffensive on the southern front line in Zaporizhzhia Oblast over the past 72 hours, the White House said on Sept. 1, Reuters reported.
Combat Situation Report:
"In the direction of Novodanilivka-Novoprokopivka, Ukrainian forces were successful, they are entrenched at the reached boundaries and inflict fire damage with artillery on the identified enemy targets ," Spokesman of the General Staff, Andriy Kovalev said.
ISW: Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations near Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast and in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast and reportedly advanced in both sectors of the front, the Institute for the Study of War wrote in its Aug. 31 report.
ISW: Russian forces continued offensive operations along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line on August 31 but did not make any confirmed advances.
ISW: Russian milbloggers claimed on August 31 that Russian forces continue attempts to establish positions on islands in the Dnipro River delta while Ukrainian forces continue limited activity in east (left) bank Kherson Oblast.
Two ships have been spotted leaving port of Odesa, local lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said on Friday. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, said the bulk carriers Anna-Theresa and Ocean Courtesy had left the port of Pivdennyi through a temporary corridor for civilian vessels. The Anna-Theresa and Ocean Courtesy were, respectively, carrying 56,000 metric tonnes of pig iron and 172,000 tonnes of iron ore concentrate, Kubrakov wrote on X.
UK Defense Ministry: 25 drone attacks on Russia in August. Russia has been hit by 25 drone attacks this month alone, the U.K. Defense Ministry reported in its intelligence update on Aug. 31. The fact that many drones have struck their targets means that Russian air defense "is having difficulty detecting and destroying them."
President Zelenskyy says Ukraine needs 160 F-16 fighter jets. Kyiv has agreed with allies on the supply of 50-60 U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published on Aug. 30. However, Ukraine needs around 160 planes "to have a powerful air force that prevents Russia from dominating the airspace," Zelensky told the Portuguese public broadcaster RTP.
Behind the Lines: the Russian occupation authorities in the occupied territories are holding illegal elections, E-Stories reported yesterday. The exiled Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, told Reuters people from the city, which he escaped on 26 February 2022, two days after Russia’s invasion, had told him there were no voter lists and no candidate lists.
“It is clear that there is no trust from the people toward this process, which should be called a sham election,” he said in an interview in Kyiv, adding that he expected a repeat of what he said had happened in annexation votes last year.
Russia says Sarmat intercontinental missiles put on combat duty - reports. The head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said on Friday that the country’s Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are capable of carrying ten or more nuclear warheads, had been put on combat duty, state news agency RIA reported.
Monique: if the Russians are pulling out the Sarmat, and are ramping up the nuclear threats. When this happens, it means that the situation on the line of contact are not going well.
Russian milblogger gossip: Russian channel 'Thirtheenth' run by Russian soldier Egor Guzenko fighting in the Kherson region, claims that the Department of Military Counterintelligence in Russia received the task to detain three well known Russian milbloggers. Among them is Romanov, who recently exposed all kinds of problems in the southern occupied regions in the Russian ranks.
Russia said on Thursday it intended to develop ties with North Korea, Reuters reports. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov did not answer directly when asked by reporters if the letter exchange had taken place.
“Moscow and Pyongyang maintain good, mutually respectful relations. We intend to develop them further. Contacts are being made at various levels,” he said, calling North Korea “a very important neighbour”.
To transport the grain, the Russians used cargo vessels that passed through Turkey to the ports of Syria, Israel, Iran, Georgia, and Lebanon. Whether the buyers were aware of the Ukrainian origin of the grain is unknown.
Russia's aggression caused significant disruptions in global food supplies, raised prices, and increased the risk of food insecurity in impoverished countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
Russia will block the final declaration of this month’s G20 summit unless it reflects Moscow’s position on Ukraine and other crises, leaving participants to issue a non-binding or partial communique, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Friday.
Minsk announced that it will host the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s (CSTO) Combat Brotherhood-2023 joint strategic military exercise from Sept. 1-6.
Poland, Latvia and Lithuania are ready to close the border with Belarus entirely in the case of a critical event such as an armed conflict at its borders or the mass breaktrough of illegal migrants.
Christiane Amanpour with Fiona Hill on diplomatic efforts to bolter Ukraine: “Diplomatic support for Ukraine is crucial right now, says fmr NSC official Fiona Hill, alongside military support. “I don’t think we can talk about an actual negotiation at this stage,” but international institutions “have to step up here…pushing forward on the diplomatic front.”
Allied military support: the next Ukraine Defense Consultative Group meeting (Ramstein format) will take place on September 19.
Stoltenberg: 'Ukrainians exceed expectations again and again.' NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN on Aug. 30 that it is "even more important" to support Ukraine as its forces push through heavily defended Russian-occupied territory.
EU rep supports Ukraine peace plan as Hungary vetoes funding. After Hungary blocked an agreement on Ukrainian funding at an Aug. 31 meeting, European Union High Representative Josep Borrell reiterated his support for Ukraine's peace formula during a press conference in Toledo, Spain.
"Today we discussed this formula for peace and how we can continue to support it, how we can put it at the center of the international discussion to build a just peace in Ukraine," Borrell said.
Ukraine’s FM, Dmytro Kuleba, has hit out at critics of Kyiv’s tactics in its counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion, saying they were spitting in the faces of Ukrainian soldiers. Standing with Spain’s FM, Jose Manuel Albares, Kuleba told reporters at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Toledo, Spain:
“Criticising the slow pace of (the) counter-offensive equals … spitting into the face of (the) Ukrainian soldier who sacrifices his life every day, moving forward and liberating one kilometre of Ukrainian soil after another.”
“I would recommend all critics to shut up, come to Ukraine and try to liberate one square centimetre by themselves.”
The USA signed a contract with Raytheon Missiles and Defense worth $192 million for the purchase of advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles AMRAAM (intended for NASAMS) as part of aid to Ukraine. The transfer must be completed by November 29, 2024.
BAE Systems to produce L119 howitzers in Ukraine. The U.K.'s largest arms company, BAE Systems, has opened an office in Ukraine to launch weapons production in partnership with domestic manufacturers, the Ministry of Strategic Industries reported on Aug. 31.
The Kremlin said it saw BAE Systems opening a local entity in Ukraine “negatively”, and that any production faciliates producing weapons used against Russia would become targets for Moscow’s military.
A new World Bank project will help more than 100,000 families in Ukraine make urgent repairs to homes damaged by Russia's invasion. The Housing Repair for People's Empowerment Project (HOPE) will enable homeowners to make light repairs, such as replacing broken windows or fixing damaged roofs. It will also provide repair funds to owners of multifamily residential buildings that are moderately damaged but do not require structural repairs.
The assets, according to the agency, were frozen in early 2023 due to the alleged trade links of these companies with the Russian Alrosa, which fell under sanctions after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This is the first time that the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has taken action against Indian businesses since the start of the war in Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions, Reuters notes.
A German court on Thursday convicted a Russian man of plotting the murder of an exiled Chechen dissident on orders from a cousin of the Russian republic’s Moscow-backed strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov. The Associated Press reports:
Judges found that a cousin of Kadyrov tasked him with killing an opponent who lives in Germany, Mokhmad Abdurakhmanov. They said the aim was to silence Abdurakhmanov’s elder brother, a prominent opponent of the Chechen government who lives in Sweden and had already been targeted there.
The court found that the killing was ordered between March and June 2020, German news agency dpa reported.
Nobel Foundation invites Russia and Belarus to award celebrations. The Nobel Foundation announced on Aug. 31 that it will invite all diplomats represented in Sweden to its Nobel Prize award ceremony, an expansion that includes representatives from Russia and Belarus.
The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, paused for around 20 seconds while answering a question yesterday. He then took more questions, but his answers were stilted. Itmirrored a July moment when the Kentucky Republican abruptly stopped speaking. The incidents have raised questions about the 81-year-old’s health. Monique: I’m mentioning it because I’ve seen the footage and it does appear the McConnell has health issues.
Julia Davis: Tucker Carlson's ridiculous claim that the U.S. is getting ready to start a war against Russia is a godsend for the desperate state TV propagandists, who have been trying to sell this stale agitprop for years.
“You are Russians, they’ll give you passports.”—Mediazona
What happened to the Ukrainian prisoners from Kherson, whom Russia for some reason took with them during the retreat.
In retreat from Kherson in the fall of 2022, the Russian military took all the prisoners from local colonies with them—according to various sources—from 1800 to 2500 Ukrianian prisoners of war. Why they did this is still unclear. Human rights activists assumed that Russia wanted to replenish the number of prisoners of war to keep them for exchanges with the UAF, but not a single case of such an exchange is known so far.
After the takeover of Crimea, Russian courts formally reviewed the cases of the Ukrainian prisoners to bring them into line with Russian law. But even this did not happen to those who were taken out of Kherson - what awaited them were difficult prison conditions in the Russian colonies, accompanied by torture and humiliation.
“We don’t care what state you are in, the main thing for us is the quantity,” former prisoner Sergei Zatirko recalls the words those who transported them. Russian citizenship was imposed on the POWs, they were forced to learn the national anthem and beaten unconscious for the slogan “Glory to Ukraine”. Many at this stage ended up in the prison hospital, where they contracted tuberculosis.
Most of the abducted Ukrainian prisoners are still in Russian colonies today. Some Ukrainian POWs are released from prisoln after the end of their term, only to be placed in a deportation center, and then expelled from Russia, as a rule, to Georgia.
Mediazona correspondent Dima Shvets met in Tbilisi with several Ukrainians who went this way and told their story.
Terrific as usual. I crossposted it.