The Russian Ministry of Defence reportedly contacted the US DoD, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkvo asking Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to ensure Ukraine would not attack Russia on its "Navy Day." Hmm.
Russia has sold Iskander missile systems and EW systems to Iran, in further moves which may encourage Israel to send decommissioned equipment stocks to Ukraine (as the US has urged for some time).
Ukraine is redoubling its overseas charm efforts in Africa, today sending the Foreign Minister to visit Malawi. Some neutral-ish African countries seem to be moving to a slightly more pro-Ukraine stance as Russia's efforts continue to stall. Not Mali, though, which has cut official ties after Ukrainian spec ops troops aided Tuareg rebels in killing 80 Wagner fighters.
With Russian ground forces halted outside Toretsk, the air force is bombarding the town into rubble, using 1.5-ton bombs to completely level the place. This was after Ukrainian forces moved back into smaller villages near the town, possibly as a prelude to a counter-offensive.
The Russians mounted a concerted attack on the 79th Ukrainian Air Assault Brigade. In the morning, an armoured column was destroyed. A second attack was mounted a few hours later with similar results, totalling 26 wounded and six killed.
Russia launched a series of missiles purchased from North Korea into Ukraine with poor results, with several hitting empty countryside and one exploding mid-flight near Kyiv.
Ukraine is working on a deal to purchase cruise missiles in the JASSM/AGM-158 class from the United States. Given these cruise missiles have ranges up to a thousand kilometres and could hit Russian installations far behind the lines, something the US has been nervous about, I'll believe this when I see it.
A rare Ukrainian armored assault, with Abrams tanks leading an assault on Russian positions around Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast. Russia has made some gains in this sector recently, but Ukraine may be seeking to undermine their advances by trying to cut off the advancing forces with a flanking thrust, the type of dynamic armoured warfare we have not seen in some considerable time. Risky.
Russia has also refreshed its forces for a new assault on Chasiv Yar. Their previous thrust into the Zhovtnevyi district was defeated in a furious battle at the canal. Their new attack is further south and seems to involve trying to take a bridge over the canal zone, but this is creating a chokepoint the Ukrainians have zeroed.
Some indications the 41st Mechanized Brigade may be mounting a counter-attack in the New York (not that one) area, or at least has been going around destroying abandoned Russian equipment.
Nine Russian FSB agents operating in Ukraine were detained in a simultaneous operation launched by Ukrainian intelligence and police. The agents were feeding intelligence on energy infrastructure targets to Russia.
Update on Morozovsk: one Su-34 destroyed, two Su-34s significantly damaged.
Kadyrov has re-emerged in public, looking like he's lost about three stone recently. His health has been speculated about for some time, with rather more credibility than most such claims.
Sergei Kobzev, the Russian railways deputy head, has called an emergency meeting with staffmembers where escalating technical failures on the network were discussed. A lot of Russia's rail network is dependent on technology placed under sanctions two years ago, particularly the bogeys used for their trucks which come from Japan and are high-maintenance with a huge churn rate. Russia has tried to get around this with various schemes (including third-hand buying deals via China), but a lot of these loopholes have now been closed. The Russians have been steadily cannibalising some trucks and engines to repair others
Apparently Kobzev said "the complete collapse of the entire railroad network" could happen in the near future, which seems a bit extreme. You'd normally be expecting a gradual decline until large-scale failures happened over a long period of time, but maybe two and a half years is time enough.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian analysis of those prematurely crashed KN-23 North Korean ballistic missiles has found they, er, have rudder bearings from Toyota cars that have nothing like the tolerance needed for heat and flight.
There's been repeated panic in Rostov of a radiation leak at the Rostov-on-Dom nuclear plant, where one of the two reactors has been offline for weeks. The rolling blackouts in Rostov are preventing them from cycling water into the reactors which is kind of important. They have been working on a solution, so the radiation leak stories are probably fearmongering, but you never know.
Crimea is experiencing cholera outbreaks. We've seen these before on the Dnipro front, especially in areas where Russian soldiers are camping on boggy ground inundated from the flood when the dam blew, but Crimea's problem seems to be a collapse of the water supply through the middle of the peninsula. Three cities, a logistics centre and several military bases are impacted.
This post has been edited by Werthead: 05 August 2024 - 10:43 PM