Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 09-07-2024

Russian researchers are reported to be working on new anti-aging treatments on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is reportedly consumed by the idea of eternal life.

In early 2024 Russian President Vladimir Putin, who turns 72 in October, demanded a “national project” to “preserve the health” of the country. A few months later Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova announced the “New Health Preservation Technologies” initiative.

Research institutes have been ordered to report on efforts to combat cellular ageing and osteoporosis, cognitive and sensory disorders and to boost immune systems. Investment is being made in technology to “prevent cellular ageing, neurotechnology, and other innovations aimed at ensuring longevity.”

Kyiv Post offers a wide-ranging in-depth conversation with a man whose contacts in Moscow prior to the full-scale invasion and over the course of the years have given him a unique insight.

Marko Mihkelson, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament, built up decades worth of senior contacts during his years working as a journalist in Moscow. Mikhelson provides unprecedented insight about what senior Russian and NATO officials thought would transpire just hours after the full invasion of Ukraine began.

The US charged two RT employees on Wednesday with money laundering who were attempting to hire an American firm to produce content to sway voters to vote for Trump.

Russia’s state media outlet RT is using American and other media personalities to persuade American voters to choose Republican candidate Donald Trump over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, a US intelligence official told a briefing on alleged foreign interference, Reuters news reported Friday.

The US government charged two RT employees on Wednesday with money laundering who were attempting to hire an American firm to produce content to sway voters to vote for Trump.

Moscow claims to have taken the village of Kalynove, about 25 km from the Ukrainian logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

Russia said on Saturday it had seized another village in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s troops are continuing to advance. 

The defense ministry said Russian forces “have liberated the village of Kalynove” in the Donetsk region, which lies around 25 km (16 miles) southeast of the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk, held by Kyiv’s forces.

Estonia has revealed that Moscow was behind a series of cyber attacks targeting several Estonian ministries in 2020.

Estonia has revealed that Moscow was behind a series of cyber attacks targeting several Estonian ministries in 2020, in a rare move that publically accuses another state actor of a cyber attack.

Four years after Estonian ministries’ IT services, including the foreign ministry, were hit by cyberattacks, Tallinn identified the members of Unit 29155 of Russia’s military intelligence service (GRU) as the perpetrators, the prosecutor’s office stated in a press release on Thursday (5 September).

The ISW said that Iran seeks to obtain economic and military benefits from cooperation with the Russian Federation – particularly money for its economy and for Su-35 fighters.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned Iran that there would be “devastating consequences” for Ukrainian-Iranian relations should Iran go forward with a transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia, as has been reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Analysts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that the provision of arms to the Russian Federation is part of the deepening of the strategic partnership between Tehran and Moscow. 

Zelensky had on Friday addressed the European House-Ambrosetti forum, hours after pressing for more weapons at a meeting of allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reaffirmed her strong support for Ukraine Saturday after talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, as he visited allies to press for more weapons to fight Russia.

“We must not give up on Ukraine,” Meloni said after the meeting on the sidelines of an economic forum in Cernobbio, northern Italy, which focused on reconstruction and efforts to end the war with Russia.

Madrid responded to President Zelensky’s pleas for more air defense assets at Friday’s Ukraine Contact Group meeting in Ramstein, Germany.

Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said that it would be arranging for the immediate dispatch of an entire battery of MIM-23 Hawk anti-missile defense system, which includes six launchers during the Contact Group meeting for Ukraine, held in Ramstein, Germany on Sept. 6.

Robles confirmed the equipment, which had been pre-positioned in Poland where it had been repaired and upgraded, would be immediately forwarded to Kyiv. This latest shipment will bring the total number of Hawk launchers provided by Spain to twelve. Robles said this would be a “full battery” that includes all essential equipment for operation.

Russian authorities announced evacuations of the area

Video shows flame visible from a distance of several miles after Ukrainian drone reportedly dove or fell into an ammunition and equipment depot near the Russian city of Voronezh setting off a chain of loud explosions.

The warehouse was “demilitarized” by Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) drones, a source in Ukrainian intelligence told Kyiv Post in a written statement.

A high-rise building, an administrative building, a shop, a pharmacy, six cars and three power lines were also reportedly damaged.

Three men between the ages of 24 and 69 were killed by Russian artillery shelling in the Donetsk region town of Kostyantynivka, Governor Vadym Filashkin said on his Telegram Saturday afternoon.

A high-rise building, an administrative building, a shop, a pharmacy, six cars and three power lines were also damaged, he said.

The director said that she wanted to show the “absolutely ordinary guys” who are fighting for Russia

Ukrainian politicians and cultural figures on Friday slammed a screening of a Russian-Canadian filmmaker’s war documentary as propaganda, a claim the director denied.

Anastasia Trofimova presented at the Venice Film Festival “Russians at War,” in which she embedded with a Russian battalion as it advanced across eastern Ukraine after Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022.

The strikes come at the end of a devastating week of Russian aerial attacks across Ukraine.

Ukrainian air defense reportedly shot down 58 Russian kamikaze drones over Ukraine in an early morning attack Saturday, Sept. 7 that saw drone debris fall near the capital’s parliamentary building in the Pechersk district.

At around 3 a.m. many in Kyiv were awoken to the sounds of an air alert and then explosions.

Ukraine’s previous credit rating was upgraded from 'CCC-' to 'CCC+', though the Long-Term Foreign Currency IDR remains at 'RD' (Restricted Default).

Fitch Ratings has upgraded Ukraine's Long-Term Local-Currency (LTLC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'CCC+' from 'CCC-', and affirmed the Long-Term Foreign-Currency IDR at 'RD' (Restricted Default), the agency reported.

This means Ukraine is no longer in default in local currency, but is still in a formal default position in foreign currency. A Foreign Currency Credit Rating also means how the country can act to access the foreign exchange needed for timely servicing of the rated obligation before the creditors.

Hundreds of people came out on to the streets of the city for the ceremony, which was followed across the nation.

Four white coffins – one slightly smaller than the others – were placed into a family grave in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Friday.

Dressed in black, with cuts across his face, Yaroslav Bazylevych looked on as the caskets containing his wife and three daughters were lowered into the pit, then covered with dirt and buried.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

"The country needs a fresh start," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said explaining his latest, comprehensive government reshuffle, but what's really going on.

"The country needs a fresh start," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said explaining his latest, comprehensive government reshuffle. Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba tended his resignation on Wednesday. According to media reports, he will be responsible for supervising Ukraine's integration into Nato in future. Three other ministers and several top officials also resigned or were given new responsibilities. The reshuffle elicits a mixed response from Europe's press.

No place for doubters

The IMF softens ties with Russia – appointing a new executive director who is under US sanctions and sending its first mission to Russia since Moscow's full-scale Ukraine invasion.

Ksenia Yudaeva, an adviser to Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina, will become Russia's new Executive Director from the Russian Federation at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Moscow's current representative said on Tuesday, Reuters and Bloomberg reported.

The United States imposed sanctions against Yudaeva after the start of invasion against Ukraine, on April, 20, 2022, adding her to OFAC's list of Specially Designated Nationals. 

Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was impressive, but it can never be more than a sideshow, while the main “play” requires urgent attention.

President Zelensky, in his strategic decision to deploy Ukraine’s Armed Forces into Kursk, has achieved several important objectives and demonstrated his readiness to “think outside the box” in military tactics. This foresight is a reassuring sign of his leadership, as wars have been won (or lost) by taking strategic risks that enemy forces had not anticipated.

However, with every such risk, care must be taken to ensure the enemy is deprived of any opportunity to turn the table and take advantage of openings from such unanticipated troop deployments. The annals of war are filled with textbook examples of military leaders winning territory but losing wars. Napoleon’s, Hitler’s, and Sweden’s Charles XII’s invasions of Russia are prime examples of Russian territorial “concessions” in allowing the enemy to move with little resistance across Russia until the distance and the frigid weather significantly weakened and destroyed their armies, causing irreplaceable losses and leading to ultimate defeat.

Even though Russia admits it is fighting a war against the “collective West,” leaders in the West prefer to dismiss such statements rather than muster up the political will to ensure Russia’s defeat.

For years, Western public opinion has explained political, social and other events related to the Central and Eastern European region and Russia without considering local realities, perspectives or contexts. To be precise, the countries of “Old Europe” and the Anglo-Saxon world ignored the voices of those nations that had empirically experienced the Russian neighborhood and the nature of Moscow. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine became a catalyst in the discussion about so-called “eastsplaining.”

Kyiv Post discusses this, as well as the difference in perception between Western European countries and the so-called Eastern flank, and Moscow’s cognitive actions towards the West, with Agnieszka Bryc, PhD, from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland.

The Pentagon chief said on Friday that there was “no one capability” that would turn the war in Ukraine.

US Defense Secretary said on Friday that there was “no one capability” that would turn the war in Ukraine in Kyiv’s favor after Ukrainian president urged the West to let his forces use its long-range weapons to strike Russia.

At a regular meeting of Ukraine’s allies at Ramstein US Air Base in Germany, Volodymyr Zelensky repeated his plea for Western nations to supply more long-range missiles and lift restrictions on using them to hit targets such as airfields inside Russia.

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing.

The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 06 September 2024.

As Ukraine celebrates the Day of Military Intelligence, Kyiv Post has compiled the top five daring operations of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (HUR).

Established in 1992 following Ukraine’s independence, the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (HUR) has been pivotal to national security. It has gained a solid reputation through its successful and audacious operations both within Ukraine and beyond. Its dedication and courage is enough to inspire anyone who values freedom and independence.

Russia’s on-going war in Ukraine is a vivid example of how critical a role high-efficiency intelligence plays in resisting an aggressor. According to HUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov, the directorate’s operatives have been involved in the toughest and most important areas of battle against the enemy.

Zelensky in Germany and Italy pleading for more weapons and the right to strike defensively into Russia itself.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky made a fresh appeal Friday for more weapons to counter the threat from advancing Russian forces in the east of the country and Moscow’s devastating missile strikes.

He pressed his nation’s case to allies meeting at the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where Washington unveiled a new $250 million in military aid for Ukraine, and later in the day at an international forum on the Italian Lakes.