Daily Briefing From Ukraine

Headlines

1.     As a result of falling fragments from downed Russian drones last night, several fires broke out in Odesa. Houses were destroyed and three people were injured, the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration reported. Explosions were also recorded last night in Zaporizhzhia.

2.     A Russian warship forcibly stopped and searched a civilian cargo ship en route to the Izmail port in Odesa region, ISW reported. The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) stated that the Russian Vasily Bykov patrol ship forcibly stopped and searched a dry cargo ship sailing under the flag of Palau after it allegedly did not respond to demands for inspection. The Russian MoD stated that Russian forces conducted small arms warning fire near the civilian ship before a Ka-29 helicopter landed on the vessel.

3.     Several Ukrainian civilians were killed yesterday as Russian soldiers fought among themselves, an aide to the exiled Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol reported. Two teenage girls, four young men and a woman were among the dead in the “shoot-out” in the village of Urzuf, Petro Andryshchenko said in a Telegram post. He said the gun battle followed an argument between Chechen troops and personnel from the local Russian commandant's office.

4.     Russian occupational forces are preparing to hold so-called “elections” in the occupied Ukrainian territories in September this year, said the head of the Severodonetsk District Military Administration.

Other Topics of Interest

Xi Calls For ’More Voices’ to Work for Peace in Ukraine

Beijing and Brasilia have advanced a joint roadmap for peace in Ukraine that has been endorsed by Moscow -- China’s ally -- but rejected by Kyiv.

5.     In Brussels, an EU spokesman said the bloc has delivered 223,800 shells to Ukraine out of a planned one million artillery rounds due by next spring to help Kyiv's fight against Russia. EU have a $2.18-billion plan to raid their stockpiles and place joint orders for shells in a bid to deliver Ukraine a million shells over 12 months.

6.     In Kyiv, a District Court extended the pre-trial term of the former governor of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Pavlo Lebed by two months. This follows the Russian Orthodox leader, who is charged with promoting Russia’s war on Ukraine, being released from house arrest last week. Yesterday, his followers organized a clash with police at the Lavra site by disrupting a Liturgy.

7.     Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, said American lawmakers are questioning aid to Ukraine more than ever. “We support transparency and accountability. Whatever additional measures your people come up with, we are open and ready,” the ambassador said.

President Zelensky’s Message

Ukraine Summer Offensive Summary

Snapshot

Ukraine looks to have taken Urozhaine, the 10th town of its summer offensive, as well as made further progress at Robotyne, which is also on the southern front.

General Developments

Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov stated that, during its counteroffensive, the Ukrainian military sometimes encounters five enemy mines per square meter of territory, The Guardian reported. “Today, Ukraine is the most mined country in the world. Hundreds of [square] kilometers of minefields, millions of explosive devices, in some areas of the front, up to five mines per square meter,” he said. “We have qualified sappers and modern equipment, but this is absolutely not enough for the front, which stretches for hundreds of [square] kilometers in the east and south of Ukraine.”

Operational Aspects on the Southern Front

Urozhaine in the Donetsk-Zaporizhzhia regional border area in the country’s south appears to have been de-occupied or partially liberated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), based on geolocated images and pro-Russian milblogger claims.

Geolocated images released by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense showed Russian forces fleeing on foot from the village while being shelled with deadly cluster ammunitions.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar posted on Telegram that “our troops have partial success in the direction of Urozhaine, further south and south-eastern Staromaiorske.”

While pro-Russian milbloggers have said the town is either fully or part “surrendered,” the well-regarded Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in its daily report on the evening of Aug. 13 said it “has not observed confirmation that Russian forces have completely withdrawn from Urozhaine and Russian forces likely currently maintain positions in at least the southern part of the settlement.”

The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces conducted offensive operations in western Zaporizhzhia region and achieved partial success near Robotyne (13 kilometers south of Orikhiv), according to ISW.

·       Ukrainian partisans claimed to have attacked a Russian military base in occupied Mariupol on Aug. 13, according to ISW.

Operational Aspects on the Northern Front

Ukraine and Russia exchanged assaults in the areas of Svatove, Kupyansk and Kreminna, according to ISW.

Operational Aspects on the Eastern Front: Bakhmut

Ukraine and Russia exchanged assaults in the Bakhmut zone, according to ISW.

Other Operational Aspects

Ukrainian forces continue to hold a bridgehead at Kozachi Laheri on the left-bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson region, according to pro-Russian milbloggers. One wrote: “The enemy continues to hold a bridgehead around Kozachi Laheri, bringing in boats to replenish personnel. Heavy fighting is also taking place near the Antonivsky Bridge.”

Several Telegram channels and monitoring groups reported explosions on the Kerch Bridge yesterday. The Russian-installed head of temporarily occupied Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, claims air defense forces shot down two Ukrainian missiles in the Kerch Strait area.

Explosions and damage to residential buildings were recorded in Belgorod, according to the governor of the Russian region.

A fire broke out at a fertilizer warehouse in Ramenskoye in the Moscow region, the prosecutor’s office said.

Infographic of the Day