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Ukraine ‘corrodes’ Russian forces in southern counteroffensive

August 4th 2022

Ukraine has deepened a counteroffensive in the south of the country in the 23rd week of the war, striking Russian garrisons and ammunition stockpiles, forcing Russia to bring in reinforcements and weakening other fronts as a result. Ukraine also scored a diplomatic victory: Russia has agreed to lift its blockade of Black Sea ports to allow Ukrainian grain exports, which Ukraine estimates will bring in $10bn in much-needed revenue. Ukraine likely lost territory on its eastern front, including a key defensive position near Donetsk city; while an explosion in a Russian prisoner of war camp in occupied Donetsk killed an estimated 50 Ukrainian soldiers, in what Ukraine describes as a war crime.

Even before August 2, Ukraine claimed to have liberated 46 settlements in southern Kherson province and it says the number now liberated has risen again over the past week. Britain’s defence ministry said the Kherson counteroffensive was “gathering momentum” after Ukrainian-operated HIMARS rocket artillery systems struck three Russian-controlled resupply bridges on the Dnieper river between July 20 and 27. On July 30, Ukraine struck again. Its southern command said it had damaged a railway bridge over the Dnieper, rendering the movement of freight impossible. These strikes have jeopardised Russia’s ability to resupply forward positions in the south, and Ukraine’s general staff have reported that Russian forces are trying to repair the damaged bridges.

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SOURCE = Al Jazeera

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NATO members working with defence companies to boost weapons supplies to Ukraine

August 4th 2022

UTOEYA, Norway, Aug 4 (Reuters) – NATO members are working closely with defence companies to ensure Ukraine gets more supplies of weapons and equipment to be prepared for the long haul in its war with Russia, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday. “We are providing a lot of support but we need to do even more and be prepared for the long haul,” Stoltenberg told Reuters in an interview. “Therefore we’re also now in close contact and working closely with the defence industry to produce more and to deliver more of different types of ammunition, weapons and capabilities,” he said. In recent months, the United States and other Western countries have begun shipping more advanced conventional weapons systems to Ukraine, including high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) that offer a longer range and more precision. 

Stoltenberg said separately in a speech in Norway to local Labour party activists on Thursday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”, had created the most dangerous moment for Europe since World War Two and that Russia could not be allowed to win. He also accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of engaging in “reckless and dangerous” rhetoric regarding the potential use of nuclear arms. While NATO members are not directly involved in the war, NATO is closely involved in coordinating the Western response to the invasion. Stoltenberg reiterated his position that the war would likely end only after negotiations. “We know most wars end at the negotiating table. We also know that the outcome of those negotiations will be totally dependent on the strength on the battlefield,” he told Reuters.

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SOURCE = Reuters

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Status of Canadian deal to buy artillery shells for Ukraine is uncertain

August 4th 2022

Canada is in discussions with arms companies to obtain further equipment for Ukraine but it’s unclear whether a critical deal to purchase 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition for that country will proceed. anadian officials have been talking with their counterparts in South Korea to acquire the 155-millimetre artillery ammunition, this newspaper reported in late May. Canada would then provide those 100,000 rounds of ammunition to Ukraine, which has been warning for the last month that it is running out of artillery shells. The Liberal government has already provided Ukraine with Canadian Forces M777 artillery guns that can use the 155-mm ammunition. Defence Minister Anita Anand said Thursday that Canada is talking to a number of defence firms about equipment for Ukraine. That nation is fighting off a Russian invasion that started Feb. 24. But Anand declined to say whether the Canadian government would actually proceed with the South Korean deal, which could cost Canadian taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. “It would be imprudent for me to announce any transaction before it is finalized,” she noted. “It is not my style.”

Ukrainian government officials say a continued supply of artillery shells is critical to their war effort. “This is an artillery war now,” Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence told the Guardian newspaper June 10. “And we are losing in terms of artillery.” Russia has large stocks of artillery and ammunition for those guns. Ukraine is firing between 5,000 and 6,000 artillery rounds a day at Russian positions, its military officials say. But Ukrainian officials and defence analysts estimate Russia is firing an estimated 20,000 artillery rounds a day. Some Ukrainian government officials claim that figure is as high as 60,000 rounds but those numbers can’t be confirmed. Canadian taxpayers have already financed the donation of $626-million worth of weapons and other military equipment to Ukraine. That has included anti-tank systems, .50-calibre sniper rifles equipped with silencers, 60-millimetre mortars, grenade launchers, pistols, C6 and C9 machineguns, thermal-imaging binoculars, cameras, scopes and medical supplies.

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SOURCE = National Post

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‘There’s no path out of economic oblivion for Russia’: New report reveals how corporate exodus has already wiped out decades of post–Cold War growth

August 4th 2022

Over the past six months, Russia has fortified its economic defenses after Western countries pummeled it with sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Despite the crackdown, the Kremlin continues to rake in billions in oil and gas revenues, which helped the ruble rally to become the world’s best-performing currency this year. But all is not well with the Russian economy. The Western sanctions and widespread corporate exodus from Russia since Feb. 24 have ravaged the Russian economy—and its future prospects look even bleaker, according to a new report from Yale University researchers and economists led by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Yale School of Management professor and senior associate dean for leadership studies. It’s now become clear that the Kremlin’s “finances are in much, much more dire straits than conventionally understood” and that the large-scale “business retreats and sanctions are catastrophically crippling the Russian economy,” the researchers wrote. As of Aug. 4, over 1,000 companies, including U.S. firms like Nike, IBM, and Bain consulting, have curtailed their operations in Russia.

Though some businesses have stayed, the mass corporate exodus represents 40% of Russia’s GDP and reverses 30 years’ worth of foreign investment, says the Yale report. The international retreat is morphing into a larger crisis for the country: a collapse in foreign imports and investments. Russia has descended into a technological crisis as a result of its isolation from the global economy. It’s having trouble securing critical technology and parts. “The domestic economy is largely reliant on imports across industries…with few exceptions,” says the report. Western export controls have largely halted the flow of imported technology from smartphones to data servers and networking equipment, straining its tech industry. Russia’s biggest internet company, Yandex—the country’s version of Google—is running short of the semiconductor chips it needs for its servers. At the same time, Russia’s “domestic production has come to a complete standstill—with no capacity to replace lost businesses, products, and talent,” the Yale report said. Russian producers and manufacturers are unable to fill the gaps left by the collapse of Western imports. Russia’s telecom sector for instance, now hopes to lean on China, India, and Israel to supply 5G equipment.

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SOURCE = Yahoo News

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Kuleba slams Amnesty International’s accusations

August 4th 2022

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba believes that the statement of Amnesty International that the Ukrainian army allegedly endangers the civilian population of the country is not aimed at finding and reporting the truth to the world, but at creating a false balance between the criminal and his victim. “I, like you, have seen the statement of Amnesty International. I am just as outraged by it as you are, I consider it unfair,” Kuleba said in a video message on Thursday. He noted that in response to criticism of this statement, the organization is likely to say that it criticizes both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian war. “But let’s clearly agree on the understanding of simple things. This behavior of Amnesty International is not about finding and bringing the truth to the world, but about creating a false balance between the criminal and his victim. Between a country that kills civilians by hundreds and thousands, destroys cities, territories. And a country that defends itself by saving its people and the entire continent from this invasion,” Kuleba stressed.

The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called on Amnesty International to stop “creating a fake reality in which everyone is a little guilty of something.” “Get involved in delivering the truth, the systemic and large-scale truth about what Russia is today. Do it at least in the name of civilian victims, citizens of Ukraine, who were covered by Russian shells at a public transport stop in the town of Toretsk, Donetsk region today,” the minister summed up. Earlier, Amnesty International published a statement saying that the Ukrainian army allegedly endangers the civilian population of the country due to the fact that it creates its bases in populated areas.

SOURCE = Kyiv Post

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Ukraine nuclear power plant remains stable, says western official

August 4th 2022

Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant is functioning safely, despite dire warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a Western official has said. At a briefing on Thursday, they described the circumstances at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility, which now lies in Russian-controlled territory, as “okay”. “We are tracking that power plant, that facility, very closely. We all remember the inherent risks around nuclear sites,” they said. “What I would say, talking more broadly about the nuclear situation, is that I don’t think it’s as dire as it’s being painted in the media at the moment.” Speaking anonymously, the official was alluding to comments made by Rafael Grossi, the head of the IAEA, who said earlier this week that the situation at the site was “completely out of control”.

While admitting that operating levels had degraded since Russia captured the area, the official insisted that the plant was still working “effectively”. “We have seven pillars against which we score for safety and security of a nuclear site. At various times during a conflict all of those pillars have suffered. But none of them all at the same time,” they said. “So we think overall, the circumstances of that site are still okay.” The official also sought to play down the risk of the nuclear facility being damaged in a potential Ukrainian advance, saying that the area was so small that it could “be surrounded or bypassed” by Kyiv’s forces. “I would bear in mind that nuclear power plants are designed to withstand terrorist attacks, including aircraft hitting reactors et cetera,” they added. “So please don’t think that we’re looking at a Chernobyl-like situation. That’s not the case.”

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SOURCE = The independent

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Enemy makes futile attempts to break through near Marinka, advance in Pisky area

August 4th 2022

The Russian troops attempted to break through the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Marinka but suffered losses and retreated. The enemy again tried to advance in the area of ​​Pisky but failed. In Slovyansk direction, Russian offensive attempts in Dolyna and Bohorodychne regions ended in failure and retreat. This is stated in the latest report of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine published on Facebook. As noted, the Russian troops focus their main efforts in the east of Ukraine to establish full control over Donetsk and Luhansk regions within their administrative borders. Hostilities continue to hold the temporarily captured districts of Kherson and part of Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Mykolaiv regions. “The situation has not undergone any significant changes in Volyn, Polissya, and Siversky directions. No signs of the creation of offensive groups of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus were observed. In order to demonstrate their presence and restrain the Defense Forces of Ukraine, the enemy fired tube and rocket artillery on civilian and military infrastructure in the areas of Medvedivka, Mykolaivka in Chernihiv region and Krasnopillia, Myropillia, Mykhailivka, Velyka Rybnytsia in Sumy region. The aerial reconnaissance was conducted,” the report says.

In Kharkiv direction, the enemy opened fire from tube and rocket artillery in the areas of Kharkiv, Lebyazhe, Borshchova, Dementiyivka, Korobochkyne, Velyki Prokhody, Ruski Tyshky, Staryi Saltiv, Pryshyb, Tsyrkuny, Mospanove, Bezruky, Karasivka. Attempts are made to break through the defenses of Ukrainian troops near Husarivka. Hostilities continue. In Slovyansk direction, the enemy uses tanks, tube and rocket artillery to shell the areas of Bohorodychne, Mazanivka, Husarivka, Adamivka, Kurulka, Khrestyshche, Sulyhivka, Dovhenke, and Velyka Komyshuvakha. The enemy attempts to assault the areas of Dolyna and Bohorodychne areas ended in failure and retreat thanks to the skillful actions of the Ukrainian troops. In addition, in Donetsk direction, the enemy tries to push the Ukrainian units back using tanks, tube and rocket artillery. In Kramatorsk direction, shelling was recorded near Siversk, Mykolaivka, Starodubivka, Spirne, Kryva Luka, Verkhniokamyanske, Hryhorivka, Serebrianka, Raihorodok, and Kalenyky.

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SOURCE = UkrinForm

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Ukraine war: No sleep in Ukraine’s relentlessly bombed city

August 4th 2022

The first night is always the hardest in Mykolaiv. Sleep is near impossible in a Ukrainian city that has been under almost constant Russian bombardment since the start of the war in February. Your mind is either racing – frantically trying to work out how close the latest explosion was, whether it was a missile or a rocket, a one-off or part of a salvo – or wondering how long it might be before the windows shudder again and the screaming blare of the air raid siren sounds. But if visitors like me, on my third trip to the city since the war began, find the long nights challenging, how do local people – who reckon they have had just 20 or so quiet nights since the war began – possibly cope? “Sleep? Not much,” said the manager of our hotel one morning last week. She had seemed irrepressibly energetic in March, racing past the boarded-up windows to show guests the makeshift bomb shelter in the cellar. But now her face betrayed the exhaustion that appears to be overwhelming much of Mykolaiv. “I don’t have my own cellar at home. It’s flooded. So, we’ve nowhere to hide. We just lie there in the dark. Last night the explosions were the closest yet – a couple of blocks away,” she said.

Once ordinary noises, like a slammed door, or a growling truck, are now loaded with terror, as people brace themselves, instinctively, subconsciously, and permanently, to react to anything that might sound like a missile, or a plane. “Me? I’ve been trying to go to bed early. Around 7 or 8pm. That way you get a few hours before the booms begin, if you’re lucky,” said Gela Chavchavadze, 60, the owner of a café that delivers free cooked meals, most mornings, to neighbourhoods bombed the night before. The explosions usually start soon after midnight. Artillery fire from Russian positions to the south, rockets from behind the frontlines further east, jet-launched bombs, and devastating cruise missiles thought to be launched from ships in the Black Sea and beyond. Sometimes there’s a specific target, but – whether by accident or design – the blasts mostly occur in residential neighbourhoods and with a blitz-like randomness that turns every night into a nerve-shredding mind-game. Over the past week the Russian bombardment – including several day-time attacks – has reached a new level of ferocity.

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SOURCE = BBC News

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Russian teacher sentenced for telling students about war crimes in Ukraine

August 4th 2022

A school teacher in a provincial Russian city has received a suspended sentence for speaking out in class against the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. A court in Penza, 500 kilometres southeast of Moscow, on Thursday found Irina Gen guilty of “discrediting the Russian armed forces” under a new law that has banned any criticism of the war in Ukraine and gave her a five-year suspended sentence. The 45-year-old English teacher will also be barred from working in state schools for three years. The court in Penza found that she “disseminated false information” by telling her students about the siege of Mariupol and Russian airstrikes killing children in Ukraine.

Ms Gen was slapped with charges in March after one of her students posted online a recording of her explaining to the class why they could no longer travel to Europe for a sports competition. The teacher told her teenage students that Russia “will not be welcome anywhere until it starts behaving in a civilised manner” and that Moscow was trying to topple a legitimate government in Ukraine and killing civilians there. She was heard criticising the new war censorship law and said that any public display of dissent will now trigger a prison sentence: “All of us will be thrown to jail for 15 years.”

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SOURCE = The Telegraph

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NATO Secretary General on Utøya: we must stand for our values, support Ukraine

August 4th 2022

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg addressed the Workers’ Youth League (Arbeidernes ungdomsfylking, AUF) on the Norwegian island of Utøya on Thursday (4 August 2022), underscoring the importance of continued support for Ukraine.

He noted that Russia’s advance has stalled again, and that Ukraine has demonstrated the ability to strike back and take back territory from the invading Russian forces. He also welcomed swift progress in Finland and Sweden’s path to NATO membership, with 23 Allies ratifying the accession protocols to date. Read the Secretary General’s speech

SOURCE = NATO

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