Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 09-06-2024

Has Ukraine’s counter-invasion of Russia been a success? Kyiv Post’s Jeremy Dirac fills you in on some of the things to know about Ukraine’s now one-month counter-invasion of Russia.

Goncharenko asked his fellow lawmakers why they were permitting themselves to become a rubber-stamping institution.

The outspoken Ukrainian politician belonging to the opposition parliamentary faction European Initiative (led by former president Petro Poroshenko), Oleskii Goncharenko, delivered a fiery short speech in the parliament condemning the manner in which the abrupt major changes of the country’s ministers, pushed through by President Volodymyr Zelensky and his inner circle, have been pushed through the legislature.

Voicing the concern of many Ukrainians, he asked his fellow lawmakers why they were permitting themselves to become a rubber-stamping institution and not calling for a representative government for national salvation.

General Oleksandr Syrsky in a CNN interview fudged the situation on the ground somewhat. But his claims that Russia’s Donbas offensive is slowing down or stalling seem reasonable.

A claim by Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Syrsky that Russia’s forces “have not advanced a single meter in the past six days” in the critical Pokrovsk sector was innaccurate in some details but his main message that the Kremlin’s summer offensive in eastern Ukraine was running out of steam against strong resistance seems probable, Kyiv Post fact checkers found.

Syrsky, in an interview aired by the major US television broadcaster CNN on Thursday, said his forces had concentrated reserves in the Pokrovsk sector, that Ukrainian troops are holding their ground, and that the pace of Russian attacks was slowing. 

Russia regularly hits Pavlograd, home to a chemical plant that produces explosives. The city is located about 100 km from fighting raging in the neighbouring Donetsk region.

The Russian army launched a strike on the city of Pavlograd in the Dnipropetrovsk region on Friday, Sept. 6, killing one person and damaging a five-story building, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“A five-story residential building was damaged. Firefighters extinguished the fire and rescued five people,” the ministry reported.

Lifecell, one of Ukraine’s mobile operators, will conduct 5G internet trials between Sept. 9 and Dec. 7 in Lviv, though earlier reports said 5G would not be available in Ukraine until after the war.

Lifecell, one of Ukraine’s mobile operators, will conduct non-public 5G internet trials between Sept. 9 and Dec. 7 in Lviv to explore the feasibility of future 5G implementation across Ukraine.

Ukraine’s National Commission for State Regulation of Electronic Communications, Radio Frequency Spectrum and the Provision of Postal Services (NKEK) made the announcement on Wednesday.

According to Zelensky, Russia was preparing a new offensive on Sumy, but Ukraine “turned the situation around” and is now “pushing the war into Russian territory through a counteroffensive.”

Russia has lost 6,000 soldiers, killed and wounded, in the Kursk region during the month-long Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) operation, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced at the Contact Group meeting on Ukraine’s defense in Germany.

Zelensky attended the meeting at Ramstein Air Base on Friday, Sept. 6. He also stated that Russia has suffered tens of thousands of additional casualties in other war zones in Ukraine.

An energy expert said Russia’s attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure means that Ukraine would have 12 hours of power in the upcoming winter in the best-case scenario, or four hours in the worst.

Yuriy Korolchuk, an expert at the Institute of Energy Strategies, said long blackouts between 12 and 20 hours daily are expected this upcoming winter in Ukraine due to damages to the energy infrastructure.

In the best-case scenario, Korolchuk told 24Kanal that Ukrainians will likely have access to electricity for 12 hours daily if eight to nine nuclear power plant (NPP) units work under normal capacity, the winter won’t be too harsh, and if Ukraine can restore 3 gigawatts (GW) of generation capacity out of the 6 GW damaged – likely excluding those destroyed by Russian strikes.

Kyiv Post’s military intelligence sources report a successful cyberattack on Russia’s Lukoil, the traffic police, the Bank of Russia, and other government and state-run authorities.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, on Wednesday, Sept. 4, cyber specialists from the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine (HUR) along with the “Team” carried out an attack on network infrastructure within Russia.

As reported by Kyiv Post sources in intelligence, the attack resulted in the destruction of 18 servers beyond recovery and damaged the infrastructure of the company “Antenna,” which provides services to many government agencies and commercial enterprises supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The village of Niu York lies south of one of the Donetsk region’s key logistics hubs Toretsk, with the latest report following earlier rumors that Russian troops had captured the village.

Azov, Ukraine’s 12th special purpose brigade, said Friday it managed to regain positions in the village of Niu York in the Donetsk region alongside unspecified units.

Niu York lies 7 km (4.3 miles) south of Toretsk, one of Ukraine’s key logistics hubs in the Donetsk region. Moscow has intensified its offensive to capture Toretsk in recent months in its attempt to capture the entirety of the Donbas region.

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• The average daily Russian casualties (killed and wounded) in Ukraine has increased in August 2024 to 1,187 per day, according to Ukrainian General Staff reporting. Since the start of the conflict Russia has likely suffered over 610,000 casualties.
• The August 2024 increase in casualty rate is almost certainly due to Ukraine's Kursk operation and continued pressure on the Pokrovsk axis. Russia continues to rely on mass to mitigate their lack of personnel and equipment capability.
• Although Russian pressure on the whole frontline will continue over the next month, their capability constraints will likely continue to reduce their ability to exploit any tactical successes into wider operational gains. Russia's casualty rate will likely continue to average above 1,000 a day throughout September 2024 as Russia continues operations on a wide front from Kursk in the north to Robotyne in the south.

The talks, with representatives from some 50 nations, will focus on areas including bolstering Ukraine's air defences and encouraging allies to boost their defence industries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared in person at a meeting of Ukraine's international backers in Germany on Friday to rally support for Kyiv days after one of the deadliest Russian strikes of the war.

He will also meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and then head to Italy, following the meeting at Ramstein Air Base, which comes days after 55 people were killed and 300 wounded in a Russian missile strike on the city of Poltava.

Why Biden risks being remembered as ‘the protector of Russia’s war machine.’

There is a growing understanding among those following the war in Europe and all that surrounds it that a critical factor that has complicated matters.  This understanding is shrouded with disappointment, frustration and barely concealed disgust at the impedimentary leadership provided by the smiling, “…as long as it takes…”, Biden administration in Washington, DC.

I acknowledge and applaud with all due respect the $Billions worth of equipment, ammunition and intelligence contributed by the United States, during the Biden administration.  But, after two and a half years of that support, there is a continuous stream of suffering and loss being inflicted on Ukraine.  The end of which is still nowhere in sight.  To a great extent, the explanation for this can be boiled down to a single multiple-choice question:

After the president's majority in the Verkhovna Rada met with President Zelensky, ten new ministers were appointed by lawmakers – Kyiv Post gives a roll call of them all.

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s legislature, approved the resignations of Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk, and the head of Ukraine’s State Property Fund, Vitaliy Koval.

The Verkhovna Rada also appointed new Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Justice, and Eurointegration; Ministers for local communities, Environmental, Sports, Culture, and Veteran Affairs; and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources.

During a new wave of Russian aerial attacks on Aug.26, Poland scrambled its fighter jets to the Ukrainian border to protect its airspace.

The Polish military announced Thursday, Sept. 5, that it is "highly probable" no drone violated Poland’s airspace last week, revising an earlier statement about a possible intrusion.

On August 26, Poland had reported that a flying object, likely an Iranian-made Shahed drone, entered its airspace following Russian attacks on Ukraine. General Maciej Klisz confirmed the incursion based on data from three radar stations.

The first batch of Lightweight Multirole Missiles (LMM), produced by French company Thales, will be delivered by the end of the year, according to the UK government.

The UK has announced plans to send 650 new missile systems to Ukraine to bolster its air defences, following criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the slow pace of arms deliveries.

The first batch of Marlet or the Lightweight Multirole Missiles (LMM), produced by French company Thales, will be delivered by the end of the year, according to the UK government.

Zelensky and Olaf Scholz will hold "one-on-one" talks in Frankfurt, according to a German government spokesman, who did not give further details about the Ukrainian leader's programme.

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday visits Germany where Ukraine's military backers are meeting, days after one of the deadliest strikes of the war and as Russian forces make battlefield gains.

Zelensky and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will hold "one-on-one" talks in Frankfurt, according to a German government spokesman, who did not give further details about the Ukrainian leader's programme.

Ukrainian Special Operations Forces reportedly destroyed seven units of Russian military equipment, including five pontoon vehicles.

Special Operations Forces (SSO) in the Kursk region are conducting extensive strikes on Russian logistics using drones and artillery, an SSO report released on Telegram says.

“Enemy convoys, including those carrying pontoon vehicles, are being destroyed with the help of drones and artillery from friendly Defense Forces units,” the video caption reads.

War in Ukraine - Latest update, key takeaways and map from the Institute for the Study of War on September 5, 2024

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian forces have recently intensified their longstanding offensive effort to eliminate the broad Ukrainian salient west and southwest of Donetsk City and advance up to and along the H-15 (Donetsk City-Zaporizhzhia City) highway.
• Apparently coordinated Russian offensive operations from the southern flank of the Pokrovsk direction to the western flank of the Ukrainian defense around Vuhledar likely aim to increase pressure on Ukrainian forces defending in western Donetsk Oblast and set conditions for further gains in Russia's prioritized offensive effort in the Pokrovsk direction.
• Russian forces are conducting relatively intensified offensive operations elsewhere southwest and west of Donetsk City, and the intensification of Russian offensive operations near Vuhledar likely does not presage decreased Russian offensive tempo elsewhere in western Donetsk Oblast in the near-term.
• Russian forces intensified offensive operations near Vuhledar shortly after starting to widen the southern flank of the Pokrovsk salient, suggesting that Russian forces intend to conduct mutually reinforcing offensive operations along the southern flank of the Pokrovsk direction, immediately west of Donetsk City, along the 0-0532 highway, and near Vuhledar.
• The Russian military command likely aims for the intended seizure of Kurakhove and Vuhledar to allow Russian forces to make more rapid tactical gains up to and along the H-15 highway, although Russian forces will likely face challenges in leveraging the envisioned seizure of these settlements to eliminate the broad Ukrainian salient in western Donetsk Oblast.
• The Russian military command continues to prioritize the offensive effort on Pokrovsk and will likely treat the intensified effort in western Donetsk Oblast as a secondary effort. The Russian military command likely intends for this secondary effort, regardless of its success, to fix Ukrainian forces in western Donetsk Oblast and prevent Ukrainian redeployments to reinforce the defense of Pokrovsk.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to downplay the theater-wide operational impacts of the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast and continues efforts to convince the Russian people that the Kremlin's delayed and disorganized response to the Kursk incursion is an acceptable price to pay for further Russian advances in Donetsk Oblast.
• The Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast has had theater-wide impacts and these impacts will likely continue to affect Russian offensive and defensive capabilities beyond the culmination of the Pokrovsk offensive.
• Putin's informational efforts are likely intended to convince the Russian public that an ongoing Ukrainian presence in Kursk Oblast is tolerable in exchange for the Russian seizure of Pokrovsk.
• Russian offensive operations in Donetsk Oblast do not portend the imminent collapse of the frontline throughout Ukraine, despite Putin's efforts to portray the advances in Donetsk Oblast as dramatic.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Chasiv Yar, southeast of Kupyansk, and in the Kherson direction and Ukrainian forces recently regained positions north of Kharkiv City.
• Russian forces continue to forcibly redeploy mobilized Russian military personnel from occupied Ukraine to frontline positions to bolster Russia's crypto-mobilization efforts.