The Kremlin is mobilizing industry to support the protracted invasion of Ukraine, reports the US Institute for War Research. Employees of some defense companies have been banned from taking holidays, and the defense minister visits tank factories. The Russians have started shelling the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant – said the mayor of Enerhodar. Moscow accuses Kyiv of these attacks. Ukraine has a problem with paying soldiers and relies on the central bank. The most important information from the 171st day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine can be found in our report on August 13, 2022.
By the end of this year, neither Russia nor Ukraine will achieve a breakthrough in the war, General Jim Hockenhull, chief of British military intelligence, announced on Saturday in an interview with the BBC.
The general assessed that the strength of Western unity and the resistance of Ukraine exceeded expectations, as did the defeats of the Russian army, which was characterized by “weak” command and logistics. According to him, the actions of the Russian side were affected by political interference, both on the strategic and tactical levels.
According to Hockenhull, Russia is clearly trying to gather more forces after suffering serious losses. In his opinion, the Russian army will have to move some of its troops from Donbass to the south, where Russian soldiers are under considerable pressure from Ukrainian forces.
However, General Hockenhull assessed that a decisive change in the distribution of forces in southern Ukraine is unrealistic in the coming months. He added that a long-term conflict should be taken into account.
Ukrainian soldiers made a self-propelled anti-tank artillery system using captured Russian equipment, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine informed on Facebook on Saturday, presenting a recording with the constructed vehicle.
The staff reported that the artillery system was assembled from an armored personnel carrier MT-LB and anti-tank cannon Rapira’s MT-12 by the soldiers themselves according to their own design.
“The system has already been tested and is in the combat zone.”
The Slovak Ministry of Defense informed that the first Zuzana 2 self-propelled howitzers ordered by Ukraine have been delivered to the recipient. According to Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad, thanks to the transaction, Slovakia joined the countries with the most visible support for Ukraine.
The international humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders has transported 25 patients from the combat zone who require hospitalization to the Volyn region in western Ukraine, the head of the district authorities Yuriy Pohulajko informed on Telegram on Saturday.
People who could not evacuate on their own were transported in a special medical train with its own generator, oxygen devices, respirators and all other necessary equipment.
Our journalist Bogdan Frymorgen writes about the war in Ukraine. We recommend his blog!
By the end of 2022, Ukrainians want to create 25 modular cities for residents who have lost their homes as a result of Russian aggression, said the Minister of Development of Communes and Territories, Oleksiy Chernyov. So far, 9 such facilities have been built.
Negotiations with Russia today will only mean one thing – that Russia has won. It would be a defeat for Ukraine, a defeat for Europe, a defeat for democratic values– said the advisor to the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podoliak in an interview with the babel.ua portal.
The Russians accuse the Ukrainians of shelling Enerhodar and the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. According to the governor of the occupation, Vladimir Rogov, “explosions are heard” in the area.
Earlier, the Ukrainian side accused the Russians of the attacks.
At the entrance to the city of Enerhodar near the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, the Russian military set up the Pion self-propelled cannon, on which they hung the Ukrainian flag; these weapons can be used for provocation, warned the Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR).
According to the intelligence services, there was also another artillery fire, in which the technical infrastructure of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant was damaged. The attack came from the village of Wodjane. For weeks, the Ukrainian side has been accusing the Russians of artillery shelling in the vicinity and on the premises of the gym.
The Security Service of Ukraine informed about the detention of a Kiev resident who allegedly provided the Russian side with data on the Ukrainian army.
The woman also reported on strategically important critical infrastructure facilities in Kiev.
The Russians are shelling the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant again. Residents of Enerhodar are not to go to the streets – said the mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov.
On Saturday, two more ships with agricultural products sailed from Ukrainian ports, Fulma S transporting 12 thousand. tons of corn and Thoe, which carries 3 thousand. tons of sunflower seeds. Both are headed to ports in Turkey, said the Turkish Defense Ministry.
Fulma S sailing under the flag of Barbados will go to Iskenderun, the largest Turkish port on the Mediterranean Sea, in the south of the country, and Thoe, under the flag of the Marshall Islands, will call at the port of Tekirdag on the Marmara Sea, the ministry said in a press release.
Sooner or later, after the victory, we will catch up with all the Russians responsible for the crimes and abuses, said Oleksiy Reznikov to the defense of Ukraine.
I have no doubt that after Ukraine’s victory in this war, in one way or another, we will “catch up” with everyone who is involved in barbaric murder and abuse. Representatives of the Ukrainian defense forces have spoken out on this subject many times and very clearly. will happen – Reznikov threatened.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced the capture of the village of Pesky in the Donetsk region, for which there was fierce fighting.
Ukraine has problems with paying salaries to the military and is forced to print money, which weakens the hryvnia, writes The Wall Street Journal, citing Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko and vice-president of the National Bank of Ukraine Serhiy Nikolaychuk.
Every day and night is a constant headache – said Marchenko.
Tax revenues cover only approx. 40 percent. government spending. In turn, the war consumes over 60 percent. budget. The central bank appeals to the authorities to raise taxes and cut spending. The Ministry of Finance argues that there is nothing to cut.
Maxar Technologies has published satellite images from the Ziabrowka airport in Belarus, which is currently used by the Russians. Two days ago, there was information about the explosions at that place, the Belarusian defense ministry said that the plane’s engine caught fire. You can see a large stain in the photos of the runway.
Analyst Oliver Alexander wrote that a “T-72 or similar” tank appeared to have exploded or burned down there. This is also indicated by the presence of the BREM-1 crane and rescue vehicle.
Following the recent Ukrainian shelling, the two main bridges leading to Russian-occupied areas in the Kherson Oblast are not currently used for the transfer of significant military supplies, according to the British Ministry of Defense.
Even if Russia manages to make major repairs, the bridges will be a key weakness. Deliveries by land for several thousand Russian troops on the west bank of the Dnieper are almost entirely dependent on just two ferry crossings – assesses the ministry.
Employees of the Russian water company Moswodokanal complain to Vladimir Putin that they have been sent to work in the Lugansk People’s Republic and are not receiving a salary.
We did not even suspect that we might be deceived – they say.
In the occupied cities of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, Russian military offers food products to pensioners in exchange for information about men of draft age, the head of the region’s administration, Serhiy Hayday, announced on Saturday.
The Russians are resorting to new methods of forced mobilization. They walk around blocks of flats, gain the trust of the elderly by offering them small amounts of money or food products in exchange for information about men of conscript age – wrote Hajdaj on the Telegram messenger.
The mobilization leaders “also order the military to be on duty at the closed staircases. They wait there until some male tenants leave the house or come back to it” – he added.
Estonia expelled two journalists from the pro-Kremlin Russian daily Izvestia. The authorities canceled their visas and banned them from entering for three years.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 361 children have been killed and 711 injured, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine reported.
Russia lost 43.4 thousand. soldiers during the war with Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported.
In a hospital in the center of occupied Melitopol in south-eastern Ukraine, in the Zaporizhia oblast, the Russians have deployed a military base, the mayor of the city, Ivan Fedorov, announced on Saturday on TV Hromadske.
Ukrainian forces repelled the Russian attack on the direction of Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, Nowopawłowska, Zaporozhye and South Buzan, the general staff of the Ukrainian army said.
The enemy carried out offensive operations in the Bakhmuck direction (…), but was not successful, withdrew. In the direction of Avdiivka, the occupiers led an attack (…), but they were repulsed. In the directions of Novopavlovsk and Zaporizhia Novoselka, our soldiers successfully stopped the enemy’s offensive and pushed the invaders away. In the South Buzhany direction the enemy tried to launch an offensive (…), but to no avail and withdrew – we read in the announcement.
The Kremlin is mobilizing industry to support the protracted invasion of Ukraine, reports the US Institute for War Research. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu probably visited the Uralvagonzavod factory, the largest tank manufacturer in Russia. The company is struggling with financial problems due to sanctions. According to the Institute for Foreigners, this may mean that the Kremlin will expand the activities of the military-industrial complex.
In turn, at Rostec, at the beginning of August, a holiday ban was introduced for all management and a significant part of employees.
Russia also intends to increase state defense spending in 2022 by another several hundred billion rubles.
The Russians shot at Kharkiv at night, damaged several buildings and public transport vehicles, said the mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov.
The Russians fired 30 rockets at Nikopol during the night, informed the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentin Rezniczenko. More than 20 buildings were destroyed, as well as the gas pipeline and the power line. Nobody was hurt.
The number of people killed as a result of yesterday’s shelling from Kramatorsk has increased to three, informed mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko.
The Russians focus their efforts on the complete occupation of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, as well as the maintenance of the conquered areas of the Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and Mykolaiv oblasts, said the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.