Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 08-05-2024

These F-16AM/BM models, previously part of the Danish fleet, come with modern upgrades and additional equipment that could significantly boost the Ukrainian Air Force’s fighter capabilities.

After a year of anticipation, Ukraine has finally received its first F-16 fighter jets, pledged by Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium, and they arrive with some new advanced  integrated self-protection equipment.

These F-16AM/BM models, previously part of the Danish fleet, come with modern upgrades and additional equipment that could significantly boost the Ukrainian Air Force’s capabilities as the conflict with Russia continues into its 29th month.

Sergei Shoigu, who now heads Russia’s Security Council, reportedly arrived in Tehran on Monday to meet top Iranian officials as Tehran’s retaliatory strikes against Israel turned imminent.

Russia’s former Defense Minister now the secretary of the Kremlin’s Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, has reportedly landed in Tehran on Monday to meet top Iranian officials as fears of major escalation mount over Iran’s threatened retaliatory strikes against Israel following the assassination of Hama’s political bureau chief in Tehran.

As reported by Russian news agency Interfax, Shoigu is set to hold talks with President Masoud Pezeshkian, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, Iran’s secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and Mohammad Bagheri, chief of the general staff of the Iranian military.

The backlash to the first set of public comments by some of those released in last week's historic prisoner exchange is a stark indication of the chasm between Kyiv and Russia's anti-war opposition.

Ukraine has reacted angrily to suggestions by freed Russian political prisoners to ease sanctions on ordinary Russians and for the two sides to sit down at the negotiating table.

The backlash to the first set of public comments by some of those released in last week's historic prisoner exchange -- including those who thought they might die in prison for opposing Moscow's invasion -- is a stark indication of the chasm between Kyiv and Russia's anti-war opposition.

70 European MEPs have signed a letter demanding the action after Budapest’s decision to ease visa requirements for Russian and Belarusian citizens.

According to an August 5 report in Politico Hungary, which currently holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), announced in early July that it was modifying its visa regime to allow Russians and Belarusians to obtain two-year work visas. This would allow them to also settle with their families and which could eventually be converted to permanent residency. The move followed the July 5 meeting in Moscow between Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The move has not gone down well with other EU member nations who believe that Budapest’s visa scheme would present an unacceptable risk to European security. Following calls last week by Tytti Tuppurainen leader of Finland’s Social Democratic Parliamentary Group to exclude Hungary from the continent-wide free movement allowed by the Schengen Zone, the EU’s Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson warned the bloc could take action.

The New York Times said on Monday that Ukraine only has about 20 pilots sufficiently trained to fly the aircraft that are being provided this year.

In 2024, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will only be able to use no more than 10 of the F-16 fighters provided Western at any one time, according to a New York Times (NYT) assessment.

The NYT said that Ukrainian pilots were currently “getting used to conducting operations on a small scale,” but have not yet engaged in combat with Russian forces.

Since November 2022, the pianist had posted four videos criticising the Kremlin and the Ukraine invasion on a YouTube channel with only a few dozen followers.

A Russian pianist imprisoned for making videos criticising the Ukraine war has died in detention in Russia, his mother said Monday.

Pavel Kushnir, 39, died in a detention centre in the far eastern city of Birobidzhan, according to multiple sources.

The UK published the warnings in the latest edition of its Field Army Threat Handbook and, while the concern is shared by other European authorities, it’s not clear if there is a current threat.

The UK has cautioned its troops over risks posed by Russian spies using drones to monitor military bases, particularly those hosting training for Ukrainian troops as part of the British-led Operation Interflex.

Operation Interflex is the codename for the UK-led training program that started in July 2022, in which recruits from Ukraine undergo a five-week training program in the UK to learn combat basics before returning to Ukraine to help defend the country.

Rolls Royce’s intranet’s design was partially outsourced to developers in Minsk and Siberia by a contractor. The manufacturer assured that no breaches were detected.

Rolls Royce Submarines, which manufactures nuclear submarines for the British military, outsourced its intranet development to a third-party vendor, who then knowingly employed developers based Belarus and Siberia, Russia without security clearance in contravention of UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) rules.

Rolls-Royce Submarines’ intranet is an internal portal that contains personal details of all its employees and the organizational structure of those working on Britain’s submarine fleet.

EU sides with Venezuelan opposition challenging the presidential election result.

The European Union heaped further international pressure Sunday (4 August) on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, joining Washington and Latin American nations in refusing to recognize the win he has claimed in the recent election marked by fraud allegations.

The latest rejection comes as Venezuela’s opposition backed outside calls for the results of last week’s disputed presidential vote to be published, as the Pope said Venezuelans must “seek the truth” and warned against further violence.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards stated that Israel killed Haniyeh with a "short-range projectile" outside his residence in Tehran while he was visiting for President Masoud Pezeshkian's inauguration.

Iran said Monday it has the "legal right" to respond to the assassination in Tehran last week of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, an attack blamed on Israel amid the Gaza war.

"No one has the right to doubt Iran's legal right to punish the Zionist regime", Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told a regular news conference, referring to Israel.

The latest imagery confirmed that the attack on Russia’s Morozovsk airfield on Saturday, destroyed a Su-34 fighter-bomber, aviation ammunition and caused widespread damage.

Ukraine’s Main Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR) reported on August 5 that satellite imagery taken over the weekend confirmed the outcome of an early morning drone attack on the Morozovsk military airfield in Russia's Rostov region on Saturday.

The images verified that a Su-34 (NATO: Fullback) fighter bomber was destroyed and indicated that two other aircraft of the same type likely suffered damage from fragmentation as evidenced by nearby craters caused by explosions. A storage depot that likely held aviation munitions was completely destroyed, with large areas of scorched earth visible on and around the airfield caused by the secondary detonations of the Russian ammunition.

The Warsaw Uprising, along with the city of Warsaw itself, serves as a significant example for present-day war-torn Ukraine and its destroyed and occupied cities

On Aug. 1, Poland commemorated the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in an event marked by symbolic gestures as well as contemporary political contexts, both domestic and international.

Let’s take a closer look at the significance of this event for us today.

After claiming victory in what observers deem to be falsified elections, Venezuela’s autocrat is benefitting from Putin’s support. It is in America’s strategic interest to defeat both of them.

Vladimir Putin said a multipolar world has become a reality. And while some, in the West, laugh off Moscow’s plans to undermine the post-World War II global order, the Kremlin is openly waging an unnervingly successful ideological war.

Putin does not need to send tanks or jets to Brussels, London, or Washington to weaken the West. Rather, by focusing on strengthening existing partnerships across the Global South Putin is garnering support for an anti-American world order.

Tsikhanouskaya, whom the democratic opposition recognizes as the actual winner of the fraudulent 2020 Belarusian presidential elections, has the status of the “National Leader” of Belarus.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of Belarus’s democratic opposition in exile, will remain the “National Leader” of Belarus until the country can hold free elections, the participants of the ‘New Belarus’ congress held in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius decided.

During the conference which lasted throughout the weekend, representatives of Belarus’s political opposition operating in exile also agreed upon and signed a protocol defining how the various democratic organizations and bodies are to cooperate.

Partisans from Atesh followed up last month’s destruction of railway tracks near Yekaterinburg transporting North Korean ammunition by setting fire to a key railway relay in occupied Donetsk.

Agents of the Atesh partisan movement set fire to a relay cabinet on the rail line that runs through the Kalininsky and Budyonivsky districts of occupied Donetsk, according to a Telegram post on Sunday, August 4.

The guerrillas had identified that the route was an important logistics hub moving ammunition, military equipment, and personnel for Russian forces towards the front line areas of Toretsk and Prohres.

The Russian army is pushing westward toward Pokrovsk and continues its offensive west of Donetsk and near the administrative border of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Over the past few days, Russian forces have made significant progress in the Donetsk region, advancing in the area of seven settlements, according to reports from Deep State.

The Russian army is pushing westward toward Pokrovsk, a crucial logistics hub for Ukrainian forces in Donbas, and continues its offensive west of the city of Donetsk and near the administrative border of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Ukrainian counterattacks involving tanks were not able to halt the Russian advance.

The US-made airplane is among the most crucial weapons systems donated to support Ukraine to date, as the country’s forces struggle to resist Russia’s invasion.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has been pleading with its Western partners to provide the country with modern fighter aircraft.

The arrival and deployment of the first batch of F-16 fighters in Ukraine, announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday, will likely be welcomed by the country and its supporters.

The country's government is accusing a senior Ukrainian official of having admitted Kyiv's role in a heavy defeat Malian troops suffered in July.

Mali announced on Sunday, August 4, that it was severing diplomatic ties with Ukraine, accusing a high-ranking Ukrainian official of acknowledging Kyiv's involvement in a significant defeat suffered by Malian troops in July.

Among those killed in the late July defeat in northern Mali were members of the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Mali's military leaders have attributed the loss to "separatists and jihadists."

The proposed McCaul-Rogers-Turner “Plan for Victory in Ukraine” makes more sense than that made by Mike Pompeo, Trump’s ally.

At one of the most critical moments for the current Biden administration (after his disastrous June debate), I proposed a strategy that would allow him to win both the US elections and  the World War, unleashed by Vladimir Putin’s Empire of Evil against the Free World.

The strategy I proposed boiled down to three decisive steps:

If the November 2024 US elections lead to diminished US military support for Ukraine, the negative consequences and ripple effect could be far-reaching.

Ever since the US entered World War II, one of the mainstays of its power and influence in the world – at least in the security realm – has been its willingness to provide military support to those governments seeking it in the face of common adversaries.

The US has done this successfully in several instances, such as in World War II against the Axis powers, during the Korean War against North Korea and its communist allies, through the Cold War generally against the Soviet Union and its many allies, in the 1991 Persian Gulf War against Saddam Hussein, and up to now in the war in Ukraine against Russia. In these instances, demand for US military support was met with supply, though in the case of Ukraine this has been limited to a US arms supply and not military intervention.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Ukrainian forces reportedly conducted drone strikes against an oil depot in Rostov Oblast and missile strikes against fuel storage warehouses in occupied Luhansk City on August 4.
• Ukraine confirmed that it has received the first batch of US-made F-16 fighter jets.
• Russian milbloggers responded to the arrival of F-16s by trying to downplay their potential battlefield effects—directly undermining Russian information operations intended to frame the delivery of F-16s and other Western weapons systems as an uncrossable "red line."
• Russian forces recently made confirmed advances east of Pokrovsk, west of Donetsk City, and in the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblast border area.
• The Russian defense industry reportedly continues to produce missiles using Western-sourced components.