Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 07-31-2024

Sources told Bloomberg that a small batch of F-16s multirole fighters have arrived in Ukraine just in time before the set deadline.

An unspecified number of Western F-16 multirole fighters have arrived in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.

Bloomberg, citing sources “familiar with the matter, who spoke under condition of anonymity,” said the number of fighters transferred is small, and the delivery made it just in time before the set deadline, which was the end of July.

Since the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, Russia has taken 65,776 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory.

Russia consolidated its territory gains in eastern Ukraine in July, taking control of almost 200 square kilometers (77 square miles), according to an AFP analysis on Wednesday.

The analysis, based on data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), shows an increase over the previous month but a big slowdown compared to May, when Russian forces launched a ground offensive in the border region of Kharkiv, which has since been stopped.

Lt. Col. Glen Grant, who served with the British Army talks about the risks the West faces from Russia's intelligence operations and what can be done.

Ukrainian runner Tetiana Melnyk said constant explosions, nightly alarms and power cuts caused by Russian attacks on power stations had created incredibly tough conditions for training.

Ukrainian athletes may not win many Olympic medals in athletics but for 400-meter runner Tetiana Melnyk it is a triumph just to be in Paris.

At times “it seemed there was no point in continuing,” Melnyk told AFP.

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Russia’s defense ministry said the third stage of its drills involves training on the Iskander-M missile systems as well as various types of aircraft.

The Russian defense ministry announced on Wednesday that it has launched the third stage of drills focusing on the use of tactical nuclear weapons, which also involves forces currently engaged in its so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.

“The third stage of non-strategic nuclear forces exercises has begun,” the statement read.

The targeted assassination of Hamas leader is expected to lead to an escalation in the Israeli-Hamas War, potentially spreading into Lebanon and inviting attacks from Iran.

Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Hamas group in Palestine, was killed in Tehran alongside his bodyguard in a suspected missile strike.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the country’s elite military force, confirmed Haniyeh’s death in a statement.

Ukrainian HUR cyber specialists carried out a massive DDOS attack on Russia, paralyzing banks, government websites, telecommunications, and social networks.

On the evening of Tuesday, July 30, hackers from Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) completed one of the largest Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attacks in history, derailing Russia’s internet infrastructure, hitting critical resources and gaining access to a vast array of confidential data, sources in Ukrainian intelligence told the Kyiv Post on Wednesday morning.

According to a Ukrainian intelligence source, the attack lasted continuously for a week. It affected the online services of all major Russian banks, including the Central Bank, telecommunications service providers, national payment systems, social networks and messengers, government resources, and dozens of other services.

Between now and September the equivalent of a US Armored Brigade Combat Team will move through the Polish Lubuskie and Greater Poland voivodeships en-route to Powidz.

Poland’s Radio ZET has been reassuring the citizens of the Lubuskie and Greater Poland voivodeships that the marked increase of US military moving east since the end of June is part of a planned operation not a signal of something untoward.

The US Army is currently moving equipment and vehicles from a military storage depot in Mannheim, Germany to warehouses in Powidz near Poznan. The location is adjacent to a military airfield which would allow equipment to be rapidly redeployed by air if necessary.

Russian attacks on Toretsk have intensified since July, causing the local population to plummet by about 90%, from 34,000 before the war to 3,400, according to the local administration.

Buildings in flames, burnt-out cars, deserted streets strewn with debris -- the once peaceful city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine has been transformed into an inferno of ruins and ashes.

Fewer than five kilometres (three miles) from the front line, the former industrial hub has seen fighting intensify in the past month as Moscow's troops push forward, capitalising on the Ukrainian army's dwindling manpower and ammunition.

Beijing casts itself as neutral on the Kremlin’s 29-month-old invasion of Ukraine but maintains close ties with Moscow and sat out a Kyiv-organised peace summit in June.

Ukraine has invited China’s foreign minister to visit amid growing dialogue that could eventually lead to a meeting between the two countries’ leaders, Kyiv’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday (30 July).

Beijing casts itself as neutral on the Kremlin’s 29-month-old invasion of Ukraine but maintains close ties with Moscow and sat out a Kyiv-organised peace summit in June.

Exclusive footage from Kyiv Post sources shows HUR special forces carrying out a complex strike on a Russian airbase in Syria, destroying military equipment a day after the Putin-Assad meeting.

Kyiv Post has obtained several exclusive videos and photos showing the continuation of a special operation by the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) units to degrade Russian military assets in Syria.

According to Kyiv Post sources within the intelligence agency, the Khimik group carried out another complex strike against the positions of the Russian forces in Syria at the end of July 2024.

Prison transfers in Russia are often opaque, with families and lawyers kept in the dark, and prisoners losing contact for weeks. High-profile prisoner moves are rare and typically follow convictions.

At least seven Russian political prisoners were reported to have been moved from jails and prison colonies in recent days, raising speculation of an imminent prisoner exchange.

Russia has sentenced dozens to lengthy prison terms for opposing the Kremlin and Moscow's military offensive against Ukraine, drawing scorn and demands for them to be freed by the West.

The Kyiv City Military Administration reports that this attack was the most massive for the Ukrainian capital this year in terms of the number of UAVs used. There are no casualties or damage.

Russian troops carried out one of the most massive drone attacks in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion early on Wednesday, July 31, with Kyiv being the main target, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration (KMVA) via Telegram.

“This was already the seventh attack on Kyiv by enemy drones in July! It became the most massive for the capital in 2024 in terms of the number of UAVs used,” the report read.

Once close allies, Poland and Hungary's relations have soured over Budapest's warm ties with Russia and its blocking of EU refunds for member states providing munitions to Kyiv.

Hungary’s foreign minister on Monday (29 July) accused his Polish counterpart of lying, as simmering tensions concerning Warsaw and Budapest’s differences over Ukraine erupted into a diplomatic spat.

Once close allies, relations between Poland and Hungary have soured over Budapest’s decision to maintain warm economic and diplomatic ties with Russia, and more recently its blocking of European Union refunds for member states that gave munitions to Kyiv.

Images of the North Korean Bulsae-4 long-range anti-tank missile system appeared on Telegram after being spotted by a Ukrainian drone.

Ukrainian forces have reported the first sighting of a North Korean Bulsae-4 M-2018 self-propelled long-range anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) system somewhere in the Kharkiv region. It was spotted by a Ukrainian reconnaissance drone, with an image of the vehicle being posted on the @KUPua01 Telegram channel on July 30.

The Bulsae-4 launcher consists of a rotating package of eight missile containers mounted on the chassis of the North Korean M-2010 wheeled armored personnel carrier with its distinctive 2+4 all-wheel drive configuration.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian forces conducted five platoon- to battalion-sized mechanized assaults in western Donetsk Oblast on July 29 and 30. Such localized mechanized pushes are likely the manifestation of Russia's forecasted summer offensive—Russian forces likely lack the wider operational capacity to mount a separate renewed offensive operation in Donetsk Oblast or elsewhere on the front this summer.
• The Russian military command's willingness to accept costly armored vehicle losses without conducting a large-scale, multi-directional offensive operation or making operationally significant advances in western Donetsk Oblast will likely burden the Russian military in the long-term. The ongoing Russian offensive operations are also costly for Ukrainian defenders and are likely meant to degrade Ukrainian capabilities through attrition whether or not they gain much ground.
• North Korea may be expanding the volume and variety of weapons it is providing to Russia.
• The Kremlin is likely attempting to corral Russian information space actors onto social media sites that the Kremlin can more directly influence to directly control their rhetoric, prompting some backlash from Russian ultranationalist milbloggers and opposition journalists.
• Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil depot in Vozy, Kursk Oblast on the night of July 29 to 30.
• The Russian government continues to support educational programs on "information and hybrid warfare" aimed at training Russians to conduct and counter information operations, use open-source research methodology, and to effectively analyze and counter hybrid threats for the Kremlin.
• Russian officials and Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) representatives are advocating for the Kremlin to codify a state ideology premised on the idea that the sovereign Ukrainian state should not exist, into Russian federal law.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Chasiv Yar and southwest of Donetsk City.
• Authorities in St. Petersburg have joined other Russian regional authorities in increasing financial incentives for recruits to sign military service contracts.
• UK newspaper The Times published a story on July 29 detailing how Russian authorities are indoctrinating deported Ukrainian children through military-patriotic education programs.