I thought I’d find some interesting articles/news since Annieli is temporarily unavailable.
Sorry, I can’t copy pictures from these articles.
www.kyivpost.com/…
Unknown Drones Spy on Ukrainian Training Grounds in Germany
A German officer said they assumed some flew with “unfriendly intentions” but decided to simply incorporate them into the training to caution Ukrainian troops of the real dangers on the battlefield.
Politico noted that as the German troops trained the Ukrainian soldiers for the fighting raging 2,000 kilometers to the east, they too are utilizing that knowledge for their own training, camouflaging their troops and separating them on the field to minimize the chances of being targeted by drones.
Kyiv Post recently reported on a drone pilots academy for Ukrainians, where volunteers – including civilians and military personnel alike – received training on how to build, fix, arm and fly first-person view (FPV) drones into buildings, through the hatches of vehicles and how to carry out kamikaze attacks.
www.kyivpost.com/…
Member of N. Korean Delegation Reportedly Drowned in Moscow
According to the Russian Telegram channel SHOT, the deceased was 64-year-old Kim Geum Chol, a representative of a Korean agricultural enterprise. It said Kim stayed at the North Korean embassy in Moscow and went for a swim in a lake in Zelenograd, a suburb some 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of Moscow, due to the intense heat and disappeared.
His colleagues reportedly initiated a search for him with help from local police but to no avail. His body later surfaced on a lake the next day, where SHOT said Kim’s identity had been identified and an investigation was underway.
I guess no window were available and Russia didn’t want to take the time to arrest him for corruption. /s
www.kyivpost.com/…
Russia Enforces Strict Access to Belgorod Villages: Only Armed, Armored Men Allowed
Access to 14 villages in the Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine, will be restricted due to “Ukrainian shelling,” according to a Telegram statement by the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
“We intend to limit access to 14 areas where the operational situation is extremely difficult,” Gladkov wrote, emphasizing the need to “take maximum security measures.”
“Only adult men will be allowed according to strict regulations: in armored vehicles with electronic warfare equipment, in personal protective equipment—body armor and helmets—and accompanied by the military and local officials, including self-defense forces,” Gladkov wrote.
meduza.io/...
Russia’s payments to soldiers and their families amount to eight percent of federal spending, study finds
The Russian Government is developing a system to prevent potential draftees to the Russian military from leaving the country. On 11 July 2024, the Russian independent media organization Meduza reported that the Russian government is implementing an 'information exchange system' between the Ministry of Defence and the Federal Security Service (FSB\ to pass details of potential conscripts to the FSB Border Guard Service and prevent them fleeing the country.
meduza.io/...
The Kremlin says its plan to create a ‘buffer zone’ on Ukrainian territory hasn’t failed. So why does Russia’s Belgorod region keep coming under fire?
Russia’s Belgorod region has been coming under fire practically since the beginning of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — and the shelling and drone attacks have only intensified over time. Four months ago, Vladimir Putin called for the region to be protected by a new “buffer zone” on Ukrainian territory, and in May, Russian troops began a new offensive in the Kharkiv region with the aim of seizing territory for this purpose. But the Belgorod region has continued to come under fire, and on Tuesday, its governor announced that entry to 14 border villages would be restricted — effectively creating a “buffer zone” on Russian territory. Nonetheless, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has insisted that the plan to create such a zone in Ukraine hasn’t failed and is still in progress.
www.ukrinform.net/…
Ukrainian power engineers have received 80 power equipment shipments from the Republic of Lithuania since the Russian full-scale invasion started.
“Since March 2022, Ukraine has received 80 power equipment shipments from Lithuania, totaling more than 1,445 tonnes, in particular powerful autotransformers, current and voltage transformers, power transformers, backup power plants, and other equipment for repairs,” the report states.
The newly announced humanitarian aid shipment from Lithuania, totaling over EUR 50 million, consists of more than 300 essential equipment units, namely those from Vilnius CHPP-3, which will help restore Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
www.ukrinform.net/…
www.ukrinform.net/...
Some 112 combat engagements have been recorded on the front lines in the past 24 hours, with Ukrainian forces repelling 24 enemy attacks on the Pokrovsk axis.
"According to detailed information, yesterday the enemy launched four missile strikes against the positions of Ukrainian units and populated areas, using six missiles, as well as 71 airstrikes, dropping 119 guided aerial bombs. In addition, he carried out more than 4,300 shelling attacks, including 121 of them using multiple rocket launchers," the update said.
On July 16, Ukrainian aircraft and missile and artillery forces launched nine strikes on Russian troops and equipment concentration areas and hit a UAV command center and a Buk air defense system.
www.ukrinform.net/...
Russian troops beginning to feel pressure of Ukrainian counterattacks - ISW
The Ukrainian military is trying to seize the initiative on the battlefield in limited and localized counterattacks at the tactical level, as the current state of positional warfare along the front line is not stable for an indefinite period.
Analysts note that the arrival of Western-provided aid to the frontlines has allowed Ukrainian forces to stabilize critical areas of the front, and Ukrainian forces have conducted tactically significant and successful localized counterattacks in northern Kharkiv region and towards Kreminna (in the Donetsk-Luhansk region border area) starting in mid-May 2024.
www.understandingwar.org/…
Ukrainian drone strikes deep within Russia continue to pressure Russia's air defense umbrella and force the Russian military command to prioritize allocating limited air defense assets to cover what it deems to be high-value targets.
Satellite imagery collected on May 6 indicates that Russian forces have concentrated at least seven Pantsir-1 medium-range air defense systems around Russian President Vladimir Putin's residence in Valdai, Leningrad Oblast.[1] Ruslan Pukhov, the head of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies and a member of a Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) civilian advisory board, stated on July 16 that such "focal" air defense coverage (static coverage of a singular target) is meaningless at scale because it allows Ukrainian drones to bypass Russian air defense coverage and strike from uncovered directions.[2]
The Russian military apparently lacks the required conventional air defense systems to protect all critical facilities within western Russia and has even struggled to cover important potential targets in reportedly well-defended areas within Russia.[3]
Ukrainian forces continue targeting Russian air defense systems in occupied Ukraine and in Russia’s border areas to set conditions to field F-16 fighter jets following their anticipated Summer-Fall 2024 arrival to Ukraine.
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi reported on July 16 that Ukrainian forces struck an S-300 position in occupied Donetsk Oblast and that Ukrainian forces have destroyed 20 S-300 launchers and 15 radar stations total in an unspecified time period.[8] Syrskyi published geolocated footage showing Ukrainian forces using cluster munitions to strike Russian air defense systems located east of occupied Manhush, Donetsk Oblast (west of Mariupol).[9]
Syrskyi stated on July 16 that Ukrainian forces were systematically destroying Russia's air defense capabilities to set conditions for Ukraine's successful use of strike aircraft and noted that F-16s are arriving "soon."[12] Founder of the Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) "Kraken" Regiment Kostyantyn Nemichev stated on July 12 that Ukrainian forces destroyed four Russian S-300 systems that Russian forces used to strike Kharkiv City within an unspecified period of time.[13] The Council of Deputies of Krasninskoye, Volgograd Oblast claimed that the Russian S-300 battery commander killed on July 12 had noted in a recent letter that Ukrainian strikes against Russian air defense assets had killed two Russian battery commanders, likely air defense batteries, in the past two weeks (likely referring to some time in June-early July 2024).[14]
The Russian 235th Garrison Military Court released former 58th Combined Arms Army (CAA) Major General Ivan Popov from pre-detention on July 15 and placed him under house arrest until October 11.[18]
Russian authorities arrested Popov on fraud charges on May 17, but ISW assessed that the real reason behind Popov’s arrest is likely tied to his leaked audio message in which he revealed that former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu dismissed him for expressing persistent grievances about problems in western Zaporizhia Oblast during the Ukrainian Summer 2023 counteroffensive.[20] Russian political bloggers speculated that First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Russian Presidential Administration Sergey Kiriyenko may have influenced the court’s decision to transfer Popov to house arrest and that this transfer occurred during Russian Chief of General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov’s leave.[21]
An investigation by Russian opposition outlet The Bell found that approximately 650,000 people left Russia following the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and have not returned.[29]
The Bell found that the majority of these Russian citizens went to countries that have visa-free regime agreements with Russia, including Armenia (which took 110,000 Russians), Kazakhstan (which took 80,000 Russians), and Georgia (which took 74,000 Russians). Israel and the US took 80,000 and 48,000 Russian citizens, respectively. The actual number of Russian citizens who left Russia is likely greater than 700,000 given that The Bell reported that countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Greece, and Cyprus did not provide Russian immigration data and that some countries such as Portugal lack updated Russian immigration statistics beyond 2022.
tvrain.tv/…
European Parliament condemns Orban's visit to Russia with his "so-called peacekeeping mission"
The European Parliament has adopted a resolution condemning the visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Russia. This was reported by the press service of the European Parliament.
The document speaks of Orban's "flagrant violation" of EU treaties and common foreign policy. The deputies note that the Hungarian prime minister's "so-called peacekeeping mission" was followed by Russia's missile strike on the Kyiv hospital "Okhmatdet". This speaks of the "inappropriateness" of his visit.
tvrain.tv/…
In the southern regions of Russia, annexed Crimea and Buryatia, there were massive power outages due to accidents at power plants, the Ministry of Energy reports.
According to the Ministry of Energy, a failure in the operation of generating equipment occurred at the Rostov Nuclear Power Plant. Because of this, rolling blackouts were introduced in the southern regions.
The problem affected Krasnodar Krai, Rostov Oblast, and also annexed Crimea.
At the same time, more than 115 thousand people were left without electricity in Buryatia. This happened due to an accident at the Gusinoozerskaya GRES, where one of the three power units was switched off. In Ulan-Ude, several microdistricts were left without power.
tvrain.tv/…
Central Bank executives offered to be issued a submachine gun
The Russian National Guard has proposed granting the right to carry combat firearms to the Central Bank's management, according to a draft resolution developed by the agency. The Agency was the first to draw attention to the document.
The weapons will be available to the heads of the rank of deputy chairmen of the Central Bank, their advisers, branch managers, department directors and their deputies. According to the document, they will be able to receive a service pistol or a submachine gun.