Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 08-07-2024

As Ukrainian forces move closer to the Kursk NPP Moscow is finally taking steps to protect it and its all-women guard force, but will it be too little, too late.

The independent news site “Important Stories,” citing employees from the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, says that the facility has been put at risk by negligence and hubris. As the Ukrainian Armed Forces move further into the Kursk region and are now less than 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the plant, Moscow is apparently moving Pantsir self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air defense systems into the area.

According to an anonymous source from within the plant nearly all the male security staff have been mobilized following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine thus the site is currently guarded by women. Until the last two days the NPP management have largely ignored any threat even though the nearby city of Kurchatov has already been attacked by UAVs.

Former SEAL Team Six Squadron Leader Chuck Pfarrer reviews and comments on a clip taken from a Ukrainian airstrike conducted southwest of Kherson City.

Russian ships are generally banned from entering EU ports due to the sanctions.

French authorities allowed the Russian sailing frigate the Shtandart to dock in a French port despite sanctions over Moscow's war against Ukraine, a port source said on Wednesday.

The Shtandart arrived in La Rochelle, on the southwest coast, to replenish supplies and refuel from Monday to Tuesday, said the source, asking not to be named. Russian ships are generally banned from entering EU ports due to the sanctions.

After apparently sending a raid of 300 infantry soldiers and a few dozen armored vehicles into Russia itself, the largest incursion by Ukrainian forces to date, Kyiv officials are still silent.

Multiple sources report Ukraine sent its largest incursion force of regular Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) troops into the Russian Federation beginning Tuesday morning with continued drone attacks through Wednesday, and Kyiv’s strict silence on the operations has only thickened the fog of war.

Russian sources claimed that on Aug. 6, the AFU “executed a series of incursions into Russia’s Kursk Oblast,” according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Situational increase in demand.

There was a situational increase in the demand for UAH bonds yesterday, which allowed the Ministry of Finance to attract UAH12.8bn to the budget.

Yesterday, 12-month bills received the smallest demand, less than UAH200m. However, since they came in at the usual interest rates, the MoF accepted all of them, which provided the state budget with UAH210m of proceeds.

In addition to the typical criticism of Kyiv, the Russian president didn’t comment on potential responses and said he would meet later with military and intelligence officials.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Ukraine’s successful incursion into the neighboring Kursk region in Russia on Aug. 6 a “large-scale provocation” but did not mention how Russia would potentially respond to the situation.

Putin also accused Ukraine of attacking civilian objects and said he would have a meeting with military and intelligence officials later today.

The incursion began on Tuesday morning, with the Russian defence ministry announcing it had deployed air and artillery firepower to try to quash Ukrainian troops breaking into the Kursk border region.

Russia was battling a major cross-border incursion from Ukraine for a second day on Wednesday, with authorities evacuating several thousand civilians due to fighting, officials said.

The incursion began on Tuesday morning, with the Russian defence ministry announcing it had deployed air and artillery firepower to try to quash Ukrainian troops breaking into the Kursk border region.

Tuareg representatives responded on Aug. 7 to accusations its armed forces had attacked members of Mali’s armed forces at the end of July.

The Permanent Strategic Council for the Protection of the Azawad People (CSP-DPA), one of the Tuareg rebel groups in Mali, responded to accusations made by Senegal and spokespersons of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) following armed clashes that took place from July 25 to 27 near the border town of Tinzaouaten in northern Mali, near the Algerian border.

The three-day battle was between Tuareg rebels and Malian government forces supported by a large number of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner private military company. The rebels were victorious and inflicted severe casualties on the government forces, killing more than 80 of Moscow’s mercenaries.

In what may be a historic first, a Ukrainian FPV drone appears to have hit a Russian attack helicopter in midair during active combat operations – and over Russian territory, no less.

Kyiv Post's sources in SBU (The Security Sevice of Ukraine) have confirmed that soldiers from the M2 unit of the SBU Special Operations Center successfully struck a Russian Mi-28 helicopter with a long-range FPV drone over the Kursk region on Tuesday, Aug. 6.

The drone video was posted on the Sternenko Telegram channel belonging to Ukrainian activist Serhii Sternenko. Kyiv Post's sources in SBU confirmed the authenticity of the footage. 

As F-16s arrive in Ukraine, a video published on social media shows the Russian pilot dangling from a parachute as his fighter aircraft falls far below, but just who “they” are is not clear.

Video footage published over the weekend on the Telegram channel of the pro-Kremlin milblogger Kirill Fedorov and shared by Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko on Monday shows a stricken Russian fighter aircraft falling out of the sky towards a blanket of thick clouds, an engine apparently on fire.

The aircraft is too far away to definitively identify the type, but its silhouette is characteristic of the Sukhoi Su-27 multirole fighter (NATO: Flanker) or one of its modernized and upgraded derivatives, the Su-30 / Su-35 fighter or Su-34 tactical bomber; all of which have been deployed during Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian special forces launched a raid on the Tendra Spit, destroying Russian fortifications and equipment, and causing significant enemy losses. Operation video released.

Ukrainian special forces attempted a daring amphibious raid of Russian occupied territory at the mouth of the Dnipro River in the early hours of Tuesday, Aug. 6.

The Artan Active Action Unit and the Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) carried out an operation on the temporarily occupied Tendra Spit in the northern part of the Black Sea. During the operation, according to HUR, the Ukrainians destroyed Russian forces, their equipment, and fortifications. A video of the operation was posted on the intelligence agency’s social media page.

Tuareg separatists claim to have killed 84 Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers in northern Mali. Mali accused Ukraine of involvement and cut diplomatic ties on August 5.

Russia on Wednesday said Ukraine was opening a "second front" in Africa after Mali and Niger broke off diplomatic relations with Kyiv, accusing it of support for "terrorist groups".

"Unable to defeat Russia on the battlefield, the criminal regime of Volodymyr Zelensky has opened a second front in Africa," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the RIA Novosti news agency.

Ukraine’s State Customs Service said the new system could reduce waiting time for cars and trucks and is expected to be implemented at remaining vehicle checkpoints in the next two weeks.

Ukraine’s State Customs Service has installed a new, centralized and automated system for registering car and cargo traffic at eight border checkpoints, starting Aug. 1, to replace the existing “Inspector” system.

The new system could reduce border waiting time by integrating State Border Service and the International Road Transport Union (IRU) procedures with other domestic and international protocols.

Understanding and countering Russia's covert digital campaigns exploiting ethnic and religious tensions to fuel social unrest in the UK is crucial to protect the country’s social fabric.

Foreign interference in domestic politics is not a new phenomenon, but the methods and impact of such interference have evolved significantly in the digital age.

Recent events in the UK have highlighted the extent to which external actors, particularly Russia, are leveraging disinformation through social media against existing societal tensions to foment unrest. This tactic, particularly aimed at creating racial strife between religious and ethnic groups, poses a significant threat to the UK's social fabric and stability.

The Russian dissidents who were released in last week's prisoner swap have called for Russians not to be sweepingly condemned as war enthusiasts and Putin supporters.

The Russian dissidents who were released in last week's prisoner swap have called for Russians not to be sweepingly condemned as war enthusiasts and Putin supporters. Vladimir Kara-Murza also criticised the Western sanctions as unfair, saying they hit ordinary Russians. These statements have sparked a lively debate, particularly in Ukraine.

What about collective responsibility?

The announcement came as YouTube in Russia reached unusable speeds following the Kremlin’s decision two weeks earlier to throttle access to the site over censorship rows.

ONS24, an internet provider based in Moscow, has published and later retracted an announcement that access to all Google services would be completely restricted in the future after YouTube slowed down to “unusable speed” following the Kremlin’s restrictions imposed two weeks ago.

The original announcement claimed that all Google services would be restricted in Russia in the future and called on locals to prepare for alternatives.

Posted in the ravaged cities of Irpin and Bucha, 27-year-old Filip Siman stole from civilians and dead soldiers, Czech media said.

A Prague court on Tuesday ordered a seven-year prison sentence for a Czech volunteer found guilty of looting as a member of the Ukrainian army battling Russia's invasion, the court said.

The soldier, identified by Czech media as 27-year-old Filip Siman, went to Ukraine in March 2022 and underwent training before joining the Ukrainian army.

The decision to sever ties with Ukraine followed heavy losses suffered by the Malian army in late July, which they partly blamed on Ukraine.

Niger said Tuesday it was cutting diplomatic ties with Ukraine "with immediate effect", accusing Kyiv of supporting "terrorist groups", two days after Mali took a similar step.

The decisions to break relations with Ukraine come in the wake of heavy losses suffered by the Malian army in late July at the hands of jihadists and separatist forces, which they blamed in part on Ukraine.

Atesh partisans have told Ukrainian Defense Forces of two Russian landing ships concealed in Sevastopol, including the Konstantin Olshansky, which was stolen from Ukraine in 2014.

The Crimea based Atesh partisans have carried out more reconnaissance around Sevastopol during which they spotted two Black Sea Fleet Project 775 landing ships, one of which had previously been targeted by the Defense Forces and the other which previously belonged to Ukraine. The group reports that Russian forces have hidden their ships in bays among cranes and port infrastructure, hoping to save them.

“We have detected two Project 775 landing ships in Kilen Bay, one of which is the Konstantin Olshansky, stolen from Ukraine in 2014,” the partisans said in a statement published on Tuesday, August 6.

Officials said the fake sites, likely developed by Russia to collect Ukrainian data, were in the development stage and have not been distributed.

Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Defense Kateryna Chernohorenko said the ministry detected three fake web applications that mimic the country’s Reserv+ application used for military registration.

“The Cyber Incident Response Center of the Ministry of Defense detected three fake Reserv+ web applications. The sites were detected at the stage of creation, distribution has not yet started,” Chernohorenko said on television.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces conducted a series of cross border raids into Kursk Oblast on August 6.
• Russian milbloggers largely dismissed the supposed Ukrainian raids into Kursk Oblast, and Ukrainian officials have largely yet to comment on the raids.
• Russian Security Council Secretary and former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu heavily overexaggerated Russian advances in Ukraine since mid-June 2024.
• Russian officials continue coordination and military cooperation with Iran ahead of the Iranian retaliatory strike against Israel out of concern for Russian interests in the region. NOTE: a version of this text appears in ISW-CTP's August 6 Iran Update.
• Armenia continues to abstain from the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
• Russian forces advanced east of Toretsk.
• The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) reportedly issued a formal reply denying a request from the wives of the mobilized Russian personnel to meet with Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov.