Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 07-30-2024

Kyiv Post's Editor-in-Chief, Bohdan Nahaylo, appeared on TVP World to discuss the importance of controlling Crimea for effective warfare.

Estefania Melendez, who formerly served as Venezuela's Ambassador to Bulgaria explains what is at stake now in Caracas and what that means for Kyiv and Moscow.

Artem Sanzharaev was sentenced to prison for allegedly being a member of the Freedom of Russia Legion and opposing the current Russian political regime as a "convinced ideological opponent."

A Russian military court on Tuesday sentenced a man to 14 years in prison on treason charges for allegedly planning an attack after joining a banned pro-Ukrainian militia unit.

Artem Sanzharaev was accused of membership of the Freedom of Russia Legion, a pro-Kyiv unit made up of Russian citizens that has claimed responsibility for armed incursions into Russian border regions.

A fresh peace plan proposed by Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former Secretary of State, looks good on the surface, but raises a number of unsettling questions.

A Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article on how Trump would back Ukraine, co-authored by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, looks great. But why does it contradict what Trump has said, and why do all those involved seem to have ties to Russian oligarchs?

“A Trump Peace Plan for Ukraine,” printed Friday in the WSJ, argues that Trump would not abandon Ukraine; rather, Trump would strongly support it. How? By driving down energy prices, including by tightening relations with Saudi Arabia, revitalizing NATO, giving Ukraine a $500 Billion lend-lease-type loan, and lifting all restrictions on how Ukraine can use weapons that it gets from the US against Russia.

Wishful thinking is no crime. When it comes to Ukraine’s future, a veritable list for Santa is appropriate as Ukrainians fight well into the third year of the full-scale war.

“Christmas in July” originated at a summer camp in 1933, which dedicated two days in July to the holiday. This is a “wish list” for Santa in the hope that by Aug. 24 (Ukraine’s Independence Day), we will find these under our Christmas tree:

• The trends in polling, both in Europe and Ukraine, are not promising. Europe is increasingly skeptical of Ukrainian victory, and Ukraine is showing signs of exhaustion from the 30 months of suffering inflicted by Russia. The urgency of the situation is pressing. While President Volodymyr Zelensky is an inspiration to his nation and is doing his utmost to shore up the nation’s morale, the public is losing confidence in his government. The replacement of the very popular and highly respected Gen. Valery Zaluzhny in the midst of a war for (what seemed to be) flimsy reasons has created widespread doubts and mistrust of Ukraine’s leaders. Despite the president’s claim that he needed a reset in his military command, it is clear that the public is hoping for a reset in his civilian command. Perhaps a recall of Gen. Zaluzhny from London to advise the president as Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council would restore confidence and encourage more enlistments.

Apart from being one of Russian mercenaries’ worst defeats in Africa, the latest clashes highlighted how Kyiv can battle Moscow’s influence in Africa by aiding opposing factions.

Tuareg rebels, a group of indigenous people concentrated in northern Mali, could be seen posing for a photo with a Ukrainian flag that Kyiv Post received from military sources after the rebels’ recent clashes with Malian troops and Russian mercenaries.

In a rare statement, Wagner-affiliated groups on social media admitted suffering heavy losses in the clashes, whose casualties included one of its commanders, Sergei Shevchenko.

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• In July 2024, Russian Ground Forces (RGF maintained continuous attacks in central Donetsk Oblast. The RGF made steady advances westwards, taking control of several villages and moving closer to the logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
• The RGF also made advances northwards into the town of Niu York, which has been on the frontline since 2014. The town is almost certainly contested between the RGF and Ukrainian Armed Forces.
• It is likely that Russia will continue to make tactical advances in the coming weeks. However, its overall operational capability remains limited by several factors including a high attrition rate, limited training, and a shortage of officers.

The Russian defense ministry said it “liberated” the village of Pivdenne, on the outskirts of Toretsk – which is home to around 30,000 people.

Russian forces said Tuesday they had captured another village in their offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

The defense ministry said Russia had “liberated” the village of Pivdenne, on the outskirts of Toretsk, a larger town which Russian forces have advanced towards in recent months.

Ukraine’s top ten most successful manufacturers list for 2023 is made of heavy industry that reduced net losses despite the war: food industry, defense and agricultural enterprises.

Ukraine’s top ten manufacturing leaders earned a total Hr.317.53 billion ($8.3 billion) in profits in 2023, according to Opendatabot. For four companies, 2023 still did not bring net revenues, especially for companies in SKM Holding owned by Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov.

After Nicolás Maduro's re-election in Venezuela, violent clashes erupted between demonstrators and police. The opposition claims mass electoral fraud.

After the officially declared re-election of president Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, violent clashes have broken out between demonstrators and police. The opposition is claiming mass electoral fraud. Ahead of the elections the most promising opposition candidate, María Corina Machado, had already been disqualified from running on arbitrary grounds. The mood among Europe's press is bleak.

Clear case of rigged elections

A UAV attack on an oil depot in Russia’s Kursk Oblast caused fires but no injuries, according to Russian authorities, who also reported shooting down five drones overnight.

Ukraine launched an overnight drone attack on a Russian oil depot as well as other targets just over Ukraine’s northern border, according to Russian media reports.

Authorities in Russia’s Kursk Oblast reported that they had successfully shot down airborne targets over the region. On the morning of Tuesday, July 30, the acting governor, Alexey Smirnov, announced that at least four AFU missiles had allegedly been destroyed in the sky over the Oktyabrsky and Kurchatovsky districts of the Kursk Oblast during the night.

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

Security forces in Venezuela have fired tear gas and rubber bullets against people protesting over Sunday’s disputed election result. Thousands of people descended on central Caracas on Monday evening, some walking for miles from slums on the mountains surrounding the city, towards the presidential palace. Protests erupted in the Venezuelan capital the day after President Nicolás Maduro claimed he had won. The opposition has disputed Mr Maduro's declaration of victory as fraudulent, saying its candidate Edmundo González won convincingly with 73.2% of the vote. Opinion polls ahead of the election suggested a clear victory for the challenger. Opposition parties had united behind Mr González in an attempt to unseat President Maduro after 11 years in power, amid widespread discontent over the country's economic crisis. A number of Western and Latin American countries, as well as international bodies including the UN, have called on the Venezuelan authorities to release voting records from individual polling stations. Argentina is one country which has refused to recognise President Maduro's election victory, and in response Venezuela recalled diplomats from Buenos Aires. - BBC

In Nigeria's northern Katsina state, the number of acutely malnourished children under the age of five has more than doubled to 4.4 million in the past year, according to the World Food Programme. Many of those struggling are families that have lost their lands to bandits. - BBC

Following the July 18 meeting with President Zelensky, the UK undertook to regenerate the production of the essential gun barrels to keep Ukraine’s guns firing.

One of the results of the so-called “Peace Dividend” following the breakup of the Soviet Union was the overall reduction in defense manufacturing in Western countries. As defense forces contracted the quantities of ammunition fired by artillery systems in training reduced and so did the wear and tear on gun barrels – most howitzer barrels have a 1,500 – 2,000 round life.

The war in Ukraine that resulted from Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion very quickly became an artillery war, the intensity of which took commentators, the military and, not least, industry, by surprise.

The central bank paused interest rate decrease while investors remained calm after debt restructuring negotiations – hryvnia depreciated.

Bonds: Bond market in summer doldrums

Activity in the Ukrainian domestic bond market fell sharply last week, resulting in low-budget proceeds and tiny trading in the secondary segment.Last week, demand on the primary bond auction stood at just one-tenth of the MoF's offering. Investors were primarily interested in 14-month bills, which received UAH1.3bn of bids, while two- and three-year securities received just UAH92m of demand together. For the 14-month paper, the MoF decreased the cut-off rate by 5bp to 14.65%, which was the maximum bid rate. See details in the auction review.In the secondary bond market, trading fell by 60% to UAH3.9bn, the smallest weekly amount since February. The most traded were bills due in February and March of next year, 17% and 12%, respectively.The next and only remaining summer redemption of domestic bonds is scheduled for August 7 totaling UAH20bn.

He also called on the Iranian president "to put an end to the worrying escalation of Iran's nuclear program", pleading for a diplomatic solution.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged his new Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday to not support Russia's "war of aggression" against Ukraine, in talks between the two leaders, his office said.

Macron also told Pezeshkian that "all must be done to avoid a military escalation" between Israel and Lebanon after a deadly rocket strike in the Golan Heights blamed on Tehran-backed Hezbollah, calling on Iran to "cease its support of destabilising actors" in the Middle East.

Ukraine’s General Staff claimed Sunday to have hit the Polyova oil depot in Russia's Kursk region, just across the border from Ukraine.

Russia announced on Tuesday that it had extinguished a fire at an oil depot that burned for 48 hours following a Ukrainian drone attack.

Alexei Smirnov, the governor of Russia’s Kursk region, reported on Telegram that “rescuers have extinguished a fire at an oil depot.” He added that three fuel tanks were struck in the early hours of Sunday by a Ukrainian drone, and no one was injured.

Protesters destroyed a monument to Hugo Chavez the country’s president from 1999 to 2013, who oversaw its government develop into a military dictatorship.

AP news reports that in Venezuela, opposition supporters have begun to organize rallies to protest against the declaration that Nicolás Maduro has been re-elected as the country’s president in a ballot that many see as being corrupt in favor of the current head of state.

The report said, “As thousands of people demonstrated across Venezuela, opposition candidate Edmundo González announced Monday that his campaign has the proof it needs to show he won the country’s disputed election in which electoral authorities named President Nicolás Maduro the victor.”

Slovakia and Hungary have increased pressure since Kyiv sanctioned Lukoil last month, halting the company's oil flow to their refineries.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Monday (29 July) his country would halt diesel supplies to Ukraine if Kyiv fails to restore oil flows from Russian group Lukoil through its territory.

Slovakia and Hungary – two countries that have opposed western allies’ military aid to Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion – have been stepping up pressure since Kyiv put Lukoil on a sanctions list last month, stopping the company’s oil from passing through to Slovak and Hungarian refineries.

The arrests were made in Ukraine's Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, large swathes of which Russia captured after it launched its full-scale assault on the country in February 2022.

Russian forces have detained 25 people in occupied areas of southern Ukraine for allegedly supporting and "aiding" Kyiv, Russia's National Guard said Monday.

The arrests were made in Ukraine's Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, large swathes of which Moscow captured after it launched its full-scale assault on the country in February 2022.

A Russian mainstream news site has reported that in the first six months of 2024, 140 million Russian mobile numbers and 46 million e-mail addresses have been leaked to the Internet.

Izvestia said, citing a report produced by Russia’s data leak intelligence and darknet monitoring service (DLBI), between January and June this year alone, almost 150 separate data leaks resulted in 140 million Russian mobile numbers along with 46 million e-mail addresses, being compromised.

The July 29 article warned that fraudsters could use this information to deceive individuals, companies, and organizations and implied the authorities were getting things under control – something the DLBI statistics do not support.

This election will be a battle of wits between a former Attorney General and prosecutor and a 78-year-old convicted felon.

Days after she became the presumptive Presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris took a slight lead over Donald Trump in an early poll. Her rise to the position has been seamless. Delegates pledged within days and donations poured in. Then on July 23, she gave a speech that completely reframed the 2024 election.

She would not wage a conventional contest but was going to put Trump on “trial” for his behavior and beliefs in the court of public opinion. And voters will be judge and jury. The election won’t be about two old guys facing off against one another but a battle of wits between a former Attorney General and prosecutor and a 78-year-old convicted felon with a checkered past.

A newly released Russian video shows a new type of multifunctional drone – the “Gerbera” – which matches a previously unknown UAV shot down last week in the Kyiv region.

The Russian military drone unit “Stalin’s Falcons,” named in tribute to the Soviet Union’s World War II Eastern front flyers, released a video on X / Twitter on July 28 that is purported to show the “Gerbera” unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or drones.  

Examination of the video, which says the Gerbera drone was developed by Russia’s Gastello Design Bureau, shows it to be the same aircraft as the previously unknown type of drone that was shot down over Ukraine on July 24.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• The US Department of Defense (DoD) announced on July 29 the provision of security assistance to Ukraine worth $200 million from the authorization of a Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) package and an additional package worth $1.5 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds.
• The Kremlin is intensifying its efforts to codify desired behavioral norms within Russia by cracking down against undesirable behavior in the Russian information space and within migrant communities.
• The Kremlin is likely attempting to establish prominent standards of acceptable and unacceptable behavior among populations within Russia whose behavior has recently threatened the Kremlin.
• Much of the Russian information space response to the recent Tuareg insurgent ambush of a Wagner Group in northern Mali coalesced around the suggestion that the Russian MoD will seek to benefit from Wagner losses, highlighting the continued distrust between the Russian MoD and both the Wagner Group in the Sahel and pro-Wagner commentators.
• Ukrainian drones struck Russian energy and utility infrastructure in Oryol, Voronezh, and Belgorod oblasts on the night of July 28 to 29.
• Russian forces recently made confirmed advances northeast of Kharkiv City, in Vovchansk, near Avdiivka, and southwest of Donetsk City.
• The Russian government continues to take legislative steps to use migrants and newly naturalized citizens to fulfill Russian military personnel needs.