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(machine translation, emphasis added) The Russian Defense Ministry said that the APU lost more than 1,200 people in an attempt to attack The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), while trying to conduct an offensive in Mykolaiv-Krivoy Rog and other directions, suffered heavy losses, more than 1,200 soldiers were destroyed. This was reported to journalists by the Ministry of Defense of Russia. According to the ministry, Russian troops destroyed 48 tanks, 46 infantry fighting vehicles, 37 other armored combat vehicles, 8 pickups with heavy machine guns. In addition, while repelling the enemy’s offensive, the Russian military defeated the units of the...

President Joe Biden wants to spend $13.7 billion more in aid to Ukraine as his massive slush fund already approved by Congress earlier this year is running dry. Biden’s request to Congress is part of an overall $47.1 billion emergency spending package of more funds to fight the coronavirus and monkeypox, according to the Associated Press, citing anonymous sources.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hit out over the UN visit to Europe's largest nuclear power plant. He's upset the nuclear watchdog inspecting the Zaporizhzhia facility, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has not yet called for the demilitarisation of the site, which has been occupied by Russian troops since early on in the six-month war. Zelenskyy also scolded Russia for allegedly obstructing journalists from accompanying the IAEA on its visit to the plant. "The key thing that should happen is the demilitarisation of the territory of the plant," said Zelenskyy. "This is exactly the goal of Ukrainian and international...

According to Yanushevich, Ukrainian strikes have completely decommissioned almost all the major bridges in the region - Antonivskyi (road and railway), as well as the Nova Kakhovka Dam Bridge. “As a result of these actions, the Russian army was cut off from the supply of weapons and personnel from the territory of Crimea and the left-bank part of Kherson Oblast,” Yanushevich explained. He also confirmed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have launched an offensive in all directions in southern Ukraine, but added that the authorities can only provide official information from the military. “We must remain calm and not...

Summary/Overview Ukraine says an offensive in the Kherson region has begun – with some initial successes. Russia agrees and says offensive actions have been beaten back and substantial losses in men and materiel have been inflicted. Thick fog of war, thicker of propaganda. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission to investigate the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant complex, will reach the city of Ernegodar on August 31 after a stopover in Kiev. Artillery shelling of the six-reactor area in Russian-controlled territory south of the Dnepr River continued on August 30. Natural gas pumping over the Nord Stream...

The Biden administration announced that Ukraine would receive $3 billion in military assistance — the largest amount it has sent since Russia began its invasion in February. The Department of Defense said that it was meeting both Ukraine’s “immediate and longer-term security assistance needs.” Among the 245,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and the laser-guided rocket systems listed in the Pentagon’s security assistance for Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) were the VAMPIRE Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems. VAMPIRE is an acronym for “Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment.” In short, the system transforms pickup trucks and other vehicles into mobile...

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu is being 'side-lined' by Vladimir Putin and is constantly mocked by his own soldiers, the British ministry of defence has revealed. In its daily briefing, the MoD said the veteran politician who has held the defence post for 10 years is no longer the confidant and ally he previously was to the leader. Russia's failures in Ukraine after sustaining huge losses to personnel and equipment without making major inroads into the country have led to his ousting from Putin's inner circle. The head of the Russian military is no longer briefing Putin directly, with the...

Ukrainian forces have begun "shaping" operations in southern Ukraine to prepare the battlefield for a significant Ukrainian counteroffensive, two senior US officials briefed on the intelligence told CNN. Shaping operations are standard military practice prior to an offensive and involve striking weapons systems, command and control, ammunition depots and other targets to prepare the battlefield for planned advances. The US believes the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which has long been anticipated, will include a combination of air and ground operations. Ukraine indicated Monday morning that the actions were underway.

KYIV, Aug 29 (Reuters) - The Ukrainian military on Monday started a long-awaited counter-offensive against Russian forces in the country's south, its southern command said on Monday.Command spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk confirmed the offensive in a news briefing and said it included the Kherson region.Ukraine has regularly stated its intention to retake its south, and in particular the city of Kherson, the only regional capital that Russia has been able to capture from Ukraine since it invaded six months ago.The region lies north of the Russian-held Crimean peninsula and has coasts on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

Ukraine has started a long-awaited counter-offensive in the country's south, its southern military command said on Monday.

A shocking video of a Russian mercenary playing with the skull of a Ukrainian fighter while declaring the objective of killing as many Ukrainian soldiers as needed to "de-Ukrainize Ukraine" was published by Ukrainian journalist and writer Denis Kazansky on Sunday. The fighter, identified as Moscow native Igor Mangushev by Kazansky, gave a speech in what appeared to be a club, holding the skull in the fashion that William Shakespeare's Hamlet held the skull of Yorick. "We're alive, and this guy's already dead," Mangushev reportedly said. "Let him burn in hell. He wasn't lucky. We'll make a goblet out of...

Russian troops utilizing a commercial drone for reconnaissance while filming a quick propaganda film find themselves embarrassed after Ukrainian forces hijack their drone. We've known about the electronic warfare happening in Ukraine since pretty much day one of the conflict. It's been no secret that both sides are engaging in this style of warfare, both from a propaganda perspective and from a cyberwarfare perspective. That said, this may be the first time we're seeing footage of that cyberwarfare happening in real-time, and in a manner that directly impacts troop movements on the battlespace. It's likely that after this drone was...

Fears continued to mount over the possibility of a nuclear accident at the embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Sunday. Meanwhile, the United States has confirmed the death of a third U.S. citizen in Ukraine. Here’s the latest on the war and its impact across the globe. 1. Key developments Local authorities in Zaporizhzhia are distributing potassium iodide tablets in the event of a radioactive leak, and residents are lining up. The tablets help counteract the effects of radioactive exposure by blocking the body’s absorption of the radioactive form of iodine. Over the weekend, Russia and Ukraine accused each other...

In a solemn ceremony held at the RF Northern Fleet submarine base in Gadzhievo, Murmansk region, two portable iconostases were consecrated and handed over to crews of two nuclear submarine strategic missile cruisers: Knyaz Oleg and Novosibirsk, the fleet's press service reported. An iconostasis is a wall of icons, used to divide the Altar from the rest of the church space. Portable iconostases for sailing warships are made of wood, but for submarines, they use fabric. Such icons do not take up much space in the very limited space. On church feast days, canvases with icons are unpacked and mounted...

Mercouris explains the reason for the slow and deliberae pace of the Russian rescue operationAside from everything else, this conflict is going to kill the basic business model for the US MIC. Nobody is going to want to buy US weapons after this.

KYIV, Ukraine — Mykhail Podolyak barely flinched as air raid sirens wailed in Kyiv, signaling incoming Russian missiles. Sitting in his office at the heavily fortified presidential administration building in Ukraine’s capital, the adviser to the head of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the sirens have become a normal part of life six months into the war with Russia. “We’re getting used to this new lifestyle — we are used to the wailing sirens now and to the bombardments, because the Russian Federation is mostly aiming at the civilian population and civilian infrastructure,” he said in an...

A hail of shrapnel from kamikaze drones ripped through the tent where off-duty Ukrainian border guards were sleeping near a crossing with Belarus, three hours north of Ukraine’s capital. Viktor Derevyanko woke to scalding pain, his body burning. Blood spilled from his hand as he tried to wipe his face. A piece of metal had traveled through his arm and stomach and into the muscle around his heart. “I couldn’t get my bearings,” said Derevyanko, the deputy head of the unit. “Only on the third explosion did I manage to fall out of bed and try to find at least...

On July 21, members of the Ukrainian parliament decided to increase their salaries by 70 percent raise. After the bill for this decision had only been submitted on July 18, the parliamentarians were able to carry out the vote unusually quickly, reported the Overton magazine. According to the magazine, this decision, which was unanimously approved by all the remaining parties, would have been possible so quickly in the absence of a lack of opposition. Instead of 28,800 hryvnia as before, the “servants of the people”, as Vladimir Zelensky’s party is called, now earn 49,600 hryvnia per month. Since July 15,...

The United States may begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-15 and F-16 fighter jets. "Ukrainian pilots are going to be taught to fly F-15 and F-16 fighters in the USA. This amendment to the bill on the U.S. defense budget for fiscal year 2023 was supported by the House of Representatives. It is planned to allocate $100 million for this," head of the Pesident’s Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak wrote on the Telegram channel on Friday.

A petition in Ukraine calling for same-sex marriage to be legalised has gained enough signatures for the president to consider the proposal. The petition has more than 28,000 signatures, meaning President Volodymyr Zelensky now has 10 days to respond. Homosexuality is not illegal in Ukraine, but same-sex marriages and civil partnerships are not recognised. This has caused particular problems for LGBT people signing up for the military following Russia's invasion. For example, under Ukrainian law if someone in a same-sex relationship dies, their partner cannot collect their body or bury them. The online petition says: "At this time, every day...