Daily Briefing From Ukraine

·      Top 6 Headlines

·      President Zelensky’s Message of the Day

·      Ukraine Summer Offensive Summary

·      Infographic of the Day

Headlines

1.     President Joe Biden asked US Congress to provide Ukraine with $13.1 billion in emergency military support and $8.5 billion in humanitarian support by the end of 2023. Current US government funding related to Ukraine runs out on September 30.

2.     One of the young street singers killed by a Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday was the daughter of a Ukrainian soldier, the National Guard of Ukraine said. “As a result of the Russian shelling on August 9, there were casualties, including the death of two girlfriends who were constantly supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU),” a military spokesman said. “At the time before the shelling, they were giving a concert on the square where the Russian [Iskander] rocket hit. One of the killed girls is the daughter of a soldier of the National of the Guards of Ukraine.” Kristina Spitsyna was the daughter Oleksandr Spitsyn, who from the first days of the war has defended Ukraine.

3.     Ukraine urged civilians near the northeastern front line to evacuate as Russia ramped up assaults to capture lost territory near Kupyansk, AFP reported. Local authorities have told residents of 37 settlements wedged between the town of Kupyansk and Russian frontlines to evacuate. “The evacuation started yesterday, when the order was signed,” said the head of the Kupyansk city military administration Andriy Besedin on national television. Kupyansk and the surrounding areas of Kharkiv region were recaptured by Kyiv’s forces in September, but Moscow has been attempting to push back into the region as Ukraine’s offensive goes ahead elsewhere.

Other Topics of Interest

‘Significant Damage’ to Thermal Power Plants in Latest Attack – Ukraine’s Energy Operator

DTEK, one of Ukraine’s major energy operators, said its power plants were targeted by Russian drones and missiles, and they sustained “significant damage” in the attack.

4.     Negotiations with Moscow are possible only if Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine, but such talks will not be held with Putin, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Ukrinform reports. “Putin is not a partner [for negotiations]. He has committed too many very serious crimes. There are other diplomatic ways to deal indirectly. But it is clear to us that we will never be able to see Putin and Zelensky sitting at the same table,” Kuleba said.

5.     Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation intends to scale with unmanned aerial vehicles to other areas of military innovation. “A technological revolution has already begun in the field of UAVs over the past year,” Minister Mikail Federov said. “Within the framework of the Army of Drones project, we killed all bureaucracy for businesses, increased the profit margin to 25 percent, and streamlined all commissioning procedures. Some Ukrainian companies have increased their UAV production by hundreds of times.”

6.     The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) arrested a criminal group who were illegally transporting counterfeit drugs for cancer patients from Russia to Ukraine, UNIAN reported. “Most of the fakes were manufactured on the territory of the Russian Federation and in several countries of the Middle East. In order to illegally ‘import’ the counterfeit goods, the dealers hid it in camouflaged cavities of their cars and crossed the state border from the territory of third countries,” the SBU said.

President Zelensky’s Message

Ukraine Summer Offensive Summary

Snapshot

The war see-sawed with Russian momentum near Kupyansk in the north and Ukrainian momentum near Urozhaine in the south.

General Developments

The German Air Force has given the “green light” to the delivery of German Taurus missiles to Ukraine, German media reported.

Ministry of Defense (MoD) supply workers in the UK have voted to escalate their strike over a pay dispute, BBC reported. At this plant, Storm Shadow and Brimstone missiles are assembled for Ukraine.

Operational Aspects on the Northern Front: Kupyansk

Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Hanna Malyar said that Russia is concentrating its main efforts to break through Ukrainian defenses in the Kupyansk area of Kharkiv region.

Sergiy Cherevaty, spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern forces, confirmed to national television that Russian forces were trying to break through in the Kupyansk area. “The situation remains difficult but under control,” he said.

Operational Aspects on the Eastern Front: Bakhmut

In the Bakhmut sector, on the southern flank, our troops continue offensive operations. At the same time, as Malyar noted, the enemy troops unsuccessfully tried to restore the lost position on the outskirts of Klishchiivka.

Operational Aspects on the Southern Front: Urozhaine

“Despite extremely difficult combat conditions and enemy resistance, our troops have partial success in the area of the village of Urozhaine, Donetsk region, which is close to the previously liberated village of Staromaiorske,” Malyar reported on Telegram.

Geolocated footage published on August 10 suggests that Ukrainian forces crossed the Mokri Yaly River and advanced eastward into the southwestern outskirts of Urozhaine (9 kilometers south of Velyka Novosilka), ISW reported.

Other Operational Aspects

The Governor of the Russian region of Bryansk reported shelling and casualties.

Infographic of the Day