On the 171st day of Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops continue their attempts to capture the neighboring country’s settlements. Ukraine’s Armed Forces and their territorial defense units are resisting the aggression. It is impossible to verify the statements of representatives of both sides of the conflict from independent sources. According to the UN, about 14 million Ukrainians have already left their homes.

military actions

The two main bridges that provide access to a “pocket” of Russian-occupied territory on the west bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region do not appear to be used for military supply purposes. This was reported by the British Ministry of Defence. According to him, even if Russia manages to carry out significant repairs to the bridges, they will remain a key vulnerability. “Land supply of several thousand Russian troops on the west bank (Dnepr. – Ed.) almost certainly depends on just two ferry crossings,” British intelligence said. With supplies scarce, the volume of stockpiles previously held on the western bank of the Dnieper is likely to be a key factor, analysts say.

The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also noted that the Ukrainian military destroyed the last active bridge near Kherson, along which the Russian army transported military equipment in the area of ​​the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric plant.

As the Ukrainian TV channel Hromadske Telebachennya specified, in this way the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked all the crossings connecting the right and left banks of the Dnieper in the Kherson region: the Antonovsky car bridge, the Antonovsky railway bridge and the Kakhovka reservoir dam in New Kakhovka.

Russian troops carried out ground attacks east of Seversk and northeast and southeast of Bakhmut, the ISW noted. At the same time, the RF Armed Forces had to retreat after an unsuccessful operation in the direction of the settlements of Verkhnekamenskoye, Ivano-Darovka, Controversial, Vyemka, analysts say.

ISW estimates that the Kremlin appears to be trying to mobilize the military-industrial complex to support sustained hostilities in Ukraine. In mid-July, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that effectively puts the economy on a war footing. In particular, it allows the State to force companies – mainly in the military-industrial complex – to participate in the State’s defense order.

Ukrainian supporters are likely to hunt down representatives of the occupation authorities and collaborators preparing for near-referendums, the Institute for the Study of War said.

The Ukrainian army is not launching a counteroffensive against Kherson because it doesn’t have the weapons it needs, a Ukrainian government defense and intelligence adviser told The Washington Post.

Russia and Ukraine Accused Each Other of Bombing the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant

The Russian Armed Forces are bombing the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and are preparing a provocation under the Ukrainian flag, said the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. According to him, one of the artillery attacks by the Russian military damaged the first block of the pumping station in the underground heat and communications workshop, another led to the partial destruction of the fire department responsible for the safety of the nuclear power plant.

In addition, as a result of the bombing, a fire broke out in a nearby forest, extinguishing it was difficult due to the impact of the fire department, the GUR reported. In turn, the Russian side, as well as the occupying authorities in the Zaporozhye region, accused the Ukrainian Armed Forces of attacking the ZNPP.

The EU continues the debate on visas for citizens of the Russian Federation

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has again criticized the European Union’s policy of issuing visas to Russian citizens. “You can’t destroy the very idea of ​​Europe, our common European values, that is, you can’t turn Europe into a supermarket where it doesn’t matter who walks in and, most importantly, one person simply pays for the goods,” Zelensky said in a video message. He thanked the Czech Republic, the Baltic countries and other European countries that brought the visa issue for Russians to the level of official discussion in the EU.

At the same time, Zelensky recognized that there are individuals who are being persecuted or may be killed in Russia, they must receive help from the civilized world through refugee mechanisms.
No one is proposing to ban Russian citizens from entering the EU who need political asylum or entry for humanitarian reasons, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in turn.

Meanwhile, the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it considers it necessary to ban the entry of Russian citizens at EU level. “Lithuania has consistently advocated sanctions against aggressive states and adheres to the position that restrictions work most effectively if they are enforced at the EU level,” the ministry said. Lithuanian institutions responsible for areas such as state security, visa issuance and border control are evaluating decisions previously made in this regard by Estonia and Latvia.

Denmark is also ready to discuss visa restrictions for Russians. The announcement was made by Immigration and Integration Minister Kore Dyubwad and Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kufud. “It is necessary to create a pan-European response,” said Dubwad.

Bratislava: Ukraine received four Zuzana self-propelled guns from Slovakia

Ukraine received four Zuzana self-propelled artillery (ACS) mounts from Slovakia, Slovak Defense Minister Yaroslav Nagy said. “I am happy to confirm that 4 Zuzana Slovak artillery mounts are in the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” he wrote on Twitter.

Earlier, on August 11, Nagy did not rule out that Slovakia would transfer several MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine worth hundreds of millions of euros if it received compensation from the EU budget or weapons from NATO. The politician did not name the exact number of combat aircraft. According to preliminary data from the online publication RBC-Ukraine, we can talk about 11 or 12 cars.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister asked to send military justice experts to the country

The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksiy Reznikov, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, initiated an appeal to the participating countries of the Defense Contact Group of Ukraine (Contact Group on Defense Issues of Ukraine) with a request to send experts in military justice, specialists in investigation of war crimes to the country. Reznikov announced this on Facebook.

Podolyak: Ukraine has no basis for negotiations with Russia

Ukraine now “has no reason” to negotiate with Russia, said the adviser to the presidential chief of staff, Mikhail Podolyak. According to him, fixing a new line of demarcation with Russia will mean fixing new “criminal enclaves” for Kyiv. “Negotiations with the Russian Federation today will mean only one thing: that Russia won,” believes the adviser to the president’s chief of staff.

Two more ships carrying agricultural products from Ukraine have left Chornomorsk

Two more ships carrying agricultural products left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk. This was reported in the Turkish Ministry of National Defense, which is an intermediary in the work of the “grain corridor”. The Barbados-flagged Fulmar S dry cargo ship will transport 12,000 tonnes of maize to Iskenderun (southern Turkey), the Marshall Islands-flagged ship The will carry 3,000 tonnes of sunflower seeds bound for Tekirdag (Northwest Turkey) .

Meanwhile, the first ship arrived at the Ukrainian port of Yuzhny, near Odessa, to carry grain to African countries. We are talking about the freighter Brave Commander, flying the Liberian flag, chartered by the UN World Food Programme. The ship will carry 23,000 tonnes of Ukrainian grain and head to Djibouti. Then the cargo will be transported to Ethiopia. As the representative of the UN Secretary General, Stéphane Dujarric, noted, this will be the first deployment of a UN humanitarian aid vessel under the Black Sea initiative.

Ukraine rating downgraded to limited default

International rating agency Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings (S&P) downgraded Ukraine’s foreign currency credit rating to “selective default” – one notch above total default. S&P justified this step by deferring payments on state debt, which Ukraine received on Aug. 10. Fitch, in turn, lowered the country’s long-term foreign currency rating from “C” to “RD” (limited default).

Since the beginning of the Russian war, the volume of production in the country has fallen sharply. Kyiv has received from Ukraine’s international bondholders consent to defer payments for two years. The country’s external debt is estimated at US$20 billion (€19.4 billion).

AI report on the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be verified by independent experts

The international human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) wants the process of drafting its report, in which the Ukrainian military was accused of violating the laws of war, to be carefully vetted by independent experts. According to AI, the corresponding process is currently “initiated at the international level”.

We are talking about checking the processes and decisions that preceded the publication of a press release, the research carried out, the process of preparing the material, as well as the legal and political analysis of the report. In addition, it is important to study power decisions within the team and the dynamics of its organizational culture, according to Amnesty International.