Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 09-01-2024

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• Russian Ground Forces (RGF) have accelerated their advance towards the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk over the last seven days. RGF are highly likely within ten kilometres from the edge of the city. The rate of advance is likely to slow as Russian ground forces enter Pokrovsk's built-up areas. 
• Pokrovsk serves as a key logistics hub for the Donetsk oblast and, if taken, is likely to lengthen and divert existing Ukrainian supply lines. This will likely make it more difficult for Ukrainian Armed Forces to resupply and manoeuvre resources quickly to several key strongholds between Chasiv Yar and Vulhedar.
• The operational tempo of military activity has remained low on all other frontlines in eastern and southern Ukraine with no major significant changes in territorial control.

Moscow goes through the motions of commemorating an attack in 2002 by Russian forces on Chechen fighters holding hostages in a school which left hundreds dead, half of them children.

Russia on Sunday marked the 20th anniversary of the Beslan school massacre, when over 330 people -- more than half of them children -- died in a hostage siege in the country's deadliest attack in modern history.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was already in power at the time of the attack, visited the school last month for the first time since the massacre, comparing it to the ongoing Ukrainian military offensive in Russia's Kursk region.

For the first time, Russian jamming of GPS over Eastern Europe now seems to have interfered with a high-altitude surveillance mission of an RQ-4B Global Hawk UAV in Estonian airspace.

A US Air Force RQ-4B Global Hawk UAV performing a reconnaissance flight near Estonia overnight on Friday,suddenly began to perform unpredictably after apparently coming under Russian electronic warfare (EW) attack. The drone had taken off from its base at Royal Air Force (RAF)Fairford in England.

For several months there have been reports of Russian forces repeatedly attempting to jam satellite navigation signals of both military and commercial aircraft operating over Eastern Europe, Poland and the Baltic states. In the first four months of 2024, almost 500 instances of GPS interference were reported.

India is performing a delicate balancing act as it tries to be friends with both Ukraine and Russia. Modi’s visit to Kyiv came replete with gestures and kind words.

Travelling around 10 hours from Poland, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi arrived in Kyiv on August 23, 2024, on the invite of Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, a day before Ukraine’s Independence Day, with a message of peace, aboard the “Rail Force One” train under tight security and made history when he touched down on Ukrainian soil. This was the first ever visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Ukraine since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Modi’s visit on Ukraine’s National Flag Day – August 23 – highlights the importance of this meeting.

Amid escalating global tensions and an ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, Modi’s visit signaled India’s evolving role on the world stage, as various international media outlets highlighted. The trip saw the signing of key agreements and the delivery of critical humanitarian aid from India. Modi also highlighted India’s commitment to peace, balanced diplomacy and global cooperation.

The proposal, put forward by the Ministry of Defense’s working group, comes in response to heightened security concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A Swiss government expert group has recommended reconsidering the country’s longstanding neutrality in favor of increased military cooperation with NATO and the European Union.

The proposal, put forward by the Ministry of Defense’s working group, comes in response to heightened security concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that Iskander missiles and S-300/400 missiles were used in the attack.

Russian forces launched a missile assault on Kharkiv on Sunday afternoon, Sept.1, targeting civilian infrastructure in the city.

The attack, involving approximately ten ballistic missiles, was confirmed by Oleh Sinehubov, the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration. At least 41 people were injured, including five children, with several in serious condition.

The Kara-Dag Brigade, consisting of around 2,000 soldiers, has been shifted from its usual position in southern Ukraine to the eastern front.

According to Forbes, Ukraine has urgently deployed the Kara-Dag Brigade, a key offensive unit, to reinforce defenses around Pokrovsk, a crucial logistics hub in eastern Ukraine.

This deployment highlights the critical situation as Russian brigades, having successfully besieged Avdiivka in February, push towards Pokrovsk, which has become a vital distribution point for Ukrainian forces in Donetsk region, making its defense essential.

The remembrance ceremony on Sunday was traditionally held in Westerplatte, on Poland's Baltic coast, where a Nazi German battleship had opened fire on a Polish fort 85 years ago to the day.

Poland on Sunday marked 85 years since the outbreak of World War II during annual commemoration ceremony held at dawn to remember Nazi Germany's first attacks that triggered the deadly conflict.

Nearly six million Poles died in the conflict that killed more than 50 million people overall, including the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust, half of them Polish.

In a gesture demonstrating sincerity, solidarity and compassion, Serbia has once again shown that true friendship transcends politics.

Recently, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska posted on her X account that Serbia had donated 5,000 laptops to Ukrainian school-age children. This remarkable act comes as Ukraine continues to suffer the horrors of Russian aggression. It is not just another headline – it is a powerful statement of support for a nation under siege.

The donation is more than just technology. It is about hope, education, and the future of the youngest generation of Ukrainians. It's about giving children the tools they need to learn, grow, and thrive, even in conflict. Serbia's commitment to helping Ukraine runs deep, and this latest move is another chapter in the friendship between the two countries.

Opinion polls have the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) ahead in Thuringia and a close second in Saxony, while also predicting a strong showing for the upstart far-left BSW.

Voters in two former East German states began casting ballots Sunday in elections expected to deal a blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government and deliver big gains for the far-right AfD.

The contests in Thuringia and Saxony come just over a week after three people were killed in a suspected Islamist attack, which has fuelled a bitter debate over immigration in Germany.

Russian Telegram channels have shared images of a train carrying armored vehicles and tanks, with the letter "B" painted in white on the turrets.

New footage has surfaced online allegedly showing the transfer of Belarusian military equipment to the Ukrainian border.

Russian Telegram channels have shared images of a train carrying tanks, with the letter "B" painted in white on the tank turrets. The same marking appears on armored infantry vehicles loaded onto the train.

Russia experienced its largest drone assault, with 158 Ukrainian drones targeting multiple regions. The scale of the strike suggests a significant escalation in Ukraine's drone capabilities.

Russia experienced its largest drone assault since the full-scale invasion began, with 158 Ukrainian drones targeting multiple regions, according to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The true number of drones may be even higher, as suggested by reports from regional authorities.

Sidebar Stories: In the vein of “literature is news that stays news,” Kyiv Post presents some not necessarily factual narratives that offer added insight into Ukraine’s realities.

The night before

That night, Olena went to bed in the early morning hours. There was no need to get up to work, and she, a real night owl from a young age, wandered around the apartment, as women tend to, reaching for one thing or another. She did some laundry, put some things more neatly in the closet, washed a small pile of dirty dishes, dusted the silver-colored casing of the ancient Sony TV and its screen.

Russian state-owned polling agencies have registered rising Russian domestic discontent towards after the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast.

The Public Opinion Foundation, a Russian state-owned polling institution, published a poll on Aug.30 that it conducted on Aug. 25 showing that 28 percent of respondents expressed outrage or dissatisfaction with the actions of Russian authorities over the past month.

This is up from 25 percent and 18 percent in polls that the Public Opinion Foundation conducted on Aug. 11 and July 28, respectively.

Enable us to defend ourselves properly by taking the fight into Russia, Zelensky pleads with Western supporters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky increased pressure on the United States to let Kyiv strike military targets deep inside Russian territory after his representatives met senior US officials in Washington on Saturday (Aug. 30).

Washington has provided Ukraine with more than $50 billion worth of military aid since 2022, but has limited the use of its weapons to Ukrainian soil and defensive cross border operations.

The Wagner Group is a perfect example of how the weaponization of propaganda can catastrophically backfire and why one should always caution from believing conjured hype.

If surrogate propaganda – the outsourcing of state Influence Operations to third party enterprise – were a product, its label would read: “Caution: May not always operate as intended.” Case in point the PMC Wagner Group, created 10 years ago with the dual benefit objective of offering Russian terror dissemination non-accountability with Kremlin humiliation non-attribution when things go wrong.   

The PMC has carefully fashioned a reputation as a formidable and fearsome Russian private military organization. Wagner, however, like Putin himself –whose talent for deception has never translated into effective kinetic warfare prowess – are more about power projection than power itself.

Ukrainian armed forces launched a surprise offensive into Russia's Kursk region on August 6, with Kyiv saying its goal is to create a "buffer zone" to protect civilians living near the border.

Hastily evacuated from their home in Russia's Kursk region in the face of Ukraine's offensive, Galina Tolmacheva and her husband Andrei endlessly checked their phone for news.

"We don't really know where to go," said Galina, a 50-year-old postwoman.

To deal effectively with Putin, the US and the West need to share his understanding that the Russo-Ukrainian War is part of a broader Russia-West conflict.

While the US and other Western governments have strongly supported Ukraine after it was attacked by Russia in February 2022, American and Western leaders do not seem to have fully grasped that Vladimir Putin sees Russia as being at war with what he calls the “collective West” as a whole. In order for American and Western leaders to deal with Putin effectively, then, they have to reciprocate Putin’s understanding that the war in Ukraine is actually part of an ongoing Russian-Western conflict.

Neither Putin nor Western leaders want an all-out war. But if America and the West are going to persuade or coerce Russia to halt its war against Ukraine, then they are going to have to do more to persuade either Putin, or the Russian military and security force chiefs best placed to oust him, that continuing the war in Ukraine will only weaken Russia, and not strengthen it.

Since the start of its offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has cracked down on dissent and protest, leaving Russians without independent news outlets or access to Western social media.

France's arrest of Telegram chief Pavel Durov has raised fears in Russia that the popular messaging app -- used both by the Kremlin and its opponents -- could be blocked, depriving them of one of the last sources of critical, uncensored news.

Since the start of its offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has cracked down on dissent and protest, leaving Russians without independent news outlets or access to Western social media such as Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter.

The F-16's crash was a high-profile setback for Kyiv, which had lobbied the West for months to send the advanced fighter jet.

In an interview with CNN, Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov addressed Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk's recent resignation, clarifying that it is unrelated to the recent F-16 fighter jet crash.

"It's a rotation," Umerov explained.