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Stay on top of Russia-Ukraine war 08-01-2024 developments on the ground with KyivPost fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated war maps.
The handover between Washington and Moscow took place at Ankara airport on the afternoon of August 1, as reported by the Turkish television channel NTV.
In what some are calling the largest prisoner exchange since World War II, Russia traded 16 hostages from Western countries for 10 of its own, two of whom were minors, on Thursday afternoon in Ankara. The swap was apparently coordinated by Turkey’s
National Intelligence Organization (MIT).
Chuck Pfarrer explains why Crimea will be coming home to Ukraine and why Russia is not coming back to the Black Sea.
Basketball player Brittney Griner and ex-Marine Trevor Reed are among those brought back to the US from Russia in recent years.
The prisoner exchange reported by US media to be underway on Thursday between Russia and the United States continues a long history of swaps between Moscow and the West.
AFP takes a look at the main prisoner swaps since the Cold War:
After Kyiv's air defenses shot down a Kremlin Shahed UAV, the debris hit the suburban home of the only Duma member who voted against Moscow’s annexation of Crimea a decade ago.
In the early morning of Aug. 1, Russian oppositionist Ilya Ponomarev was injured when his residence was hit by debris from a Russian drone brought down by Kyiv air defenses, he announced on his page on X (formerly Twitter).
Ilya Ponomarev
Disinformation and propaganda, long mainstays of war, have been digitally supercharged in the battle for Ukraine.
Disinformation and propaganda, long mainstays of war, have been digitally supercharged in the battle for Ukraine, the biggest conflict the world has seen since the advent of smartphones and social media.
In early April, some residents of Kharkiv received a series of chilling text messages from government officials telling them to flee the city before Russian forces surrounded it.
Kyiv Post correspondent Jason Smart is “honored and humbled” to have been awarded a medal by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and to receive a commendation from Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) Chief.
Within a week, Jason Smart, a political consultant, national security adviser, and a Kyiv Post correspondent, was awarded two additional commendations, something that the American journalist described as the “unique honor and privilege of [his] life,” for his ongoing work to support Ukraine during the war.
Incidents of Russians paying bribes to leave the military service are on a steep rise with the number of criminal cases for illegal deactivation tripling over the last 5 months.
En masse, Russian service members are paying exorbitant bribes to get out of military service and the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, according to a Telegram post by Kyiv’s Intelligence officials.
The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (HUR) on Thursday, August 1, said Russian soldiers trying to get out of their military duty is evidenced by the sharp increase in registered criminal cases related to bribery in the Russian armed forces.
Forgive us, German president asks Poles on 80th anniversary of the Nazi suppression of the Warsaw Uprising.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday met with Warsaw Uprising veterans and asked for their "forgiveness" during a visit to Poland on the eve of the revolt's 80th anniversary.
The armed insurgency against occupying Nazi German forces broke out on August 1, 1944 and lasted for two months before it was crushed.
Russian milbloggers indicated that the attack was carried out well behind the front lines, with an inexpensive FPV drone taking out a multimillion-dollar asset at an unprecedented range.
The Mi-8 military helicopter of the Russian forces, which was downed near Russian-occupied Donetsk, was reportedly shot down by a Ukrainian drone on Wednesday, July 31, according to Russian military bloggers and Western media.
The Voevoda veshchaet Russian military Telegram channel wrote that a Ukrainian drone attacked the helicopter when it attempted to take off on its mission.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that any F-16s delivered to Ukraine would be shot down and have little impact on the battlefield in response to reports that the first fighter jets have arrived.
The Kremlin said Thursday that any F-16s delivered to Ukraine would be shot down and have little impact on the battlefield, in response to reports that the first fighter jets have arrived.
"Their number will gradually decrease, they will be shot down... But of course, these deliveries will not have any significant impact on the development of events on the front," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
This information was provided by Jennifer Griffin, Fox News' chief national security correspondent at the Pentagon. No further details were given.
Fox News reported that Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich, who was convicted in Russia on espionage charges, may return to the United States on August 1 as part of a prisoner exchange.
"The Wall Street Journal reports that its reporter will return to the United States tomorrow as part of a prisoner exchange," the news anchor announced around midnight on July 31, local time.
Sixteen people have been killed in protests that erupted after the election, according to the opposition, which claims its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia is the rightful victor.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado called Wednesday for supporters to "mobilize" after President Nicolas Maduro vowed to hold on to power following a widely disputed election.
Machado's message comes amid deep uncertainty in the South American country, after Maduro was declared the winner in Sunday's election but with electoral authorities failing to disclose detailed results to back up the claim.
The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.
The man accused of plotting the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and two of his accomplices have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and murder charges in exchange for a life sentence rather than a death-penalty trial at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, prosecutors said Wednesday. Prosecutors said the deal was meant to bring some “finality and justice” to the case, particularly for the families of nearly 3,000 people who were killed in the attacks in New York City, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field. The defendants Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawireached the deal in talks with prosecutors across 27 months at Guantánamo and approved on Wednesday by a senior Pentagon official overseeing the war court. The men have been in U.S. custody since 2003. But the case had become mired in more than a decade of pretrial proceedings that focused on the question of whether their torture in secret C.I.A. prisons had contaminated the evidence against them. - NYT
The funeral for assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his bodyguard has been held in Tehran, with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leading the prayers. Yesterday, the UN Security Council , currently chaired by permanent member Russia, held an emergency meeting amid regional tensions after Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr were assassinated. “The international community has a choice to make – let it be for peace and security, do not let Israel drag us all to the abyss,” Feda Abdelhady Nasser, Palestine’s deputy UN representative, told the council. The assassination of Haniyeh on Wednesday risks the region spiralling into a wider conflict and could help or hurt prospects for a ceasefire deal to end Israel’s war on Gaza, several analysts told Al Jazeera.
The law, modelled on Russian legislation that stifles dissent, has triggered weeks of daily protests in Tbilisi and condemnation from Georgia's Western partners.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Wednesday, July 31, that a $95 million aid program to Georgia had been suspended.
This decision followed a comprehensive review of bilateral cooperation initiated on May 23, prompted by Georgia's adoption of the law on "foreign agents."
Countries taking part in the Games have set up pavilions across the French capital to beat the drum for their athletes and culture.
The damaged blue and yellow seats from a stadium destroyed by Russian troops stand at the entrance to the "Ukraine House" at the Paris Olympics.
Countries taking part in the Games have set up pavilions across the French capital to beat the drum for their athletes and culture.
While the Kremlin was not invited to the first gathering, now is the time for Moscow to take a seat at the table, Zelensky said.
The entire world, including Ukraine, wants Russia to join global leaders at a planned second peace summit to end the war in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has told French media including AFP.
With Russian forces gaining momentum on the front and aid from allies ebbing or in doubt, Zelensky has launched an ambitious diplomatic offensive to end the war grinding through its third year.
Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, clarified how the recent attack against an airfield containing Russian strategic bombers appeared to leave no visible signs.
Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) reported on July 27 that kamikaze drones had attacked Russia’s Olenya airfield, with one striking and damaging a TU-22M3 long-range supersonic strategic bomber and missile carrier.
The location is a base for Russian strategic aviation that lies on the Kola Peninsula within the Arctic Circle near Murmansk. It is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Russia’s border with Norway, 150 kilometers (100 miles) from Finnish Lapland and some 1,800 kilometers (1,125 miles) from Ukraine.
Born out of necessity, Ukraine’s shortage of ground-based air defense, the integration of Soviet-era launchers and radars with Western missiles proved even more successful than originally anticipated.
As Russia’s missile and drone onslaught against Ukraine intensified in 2022 and 2023 the lack of sufficient ground-based air defenses both from Ukraine’s Soviet-era assets and those available from Western allies was becoming acute.
At Ukraine’s urging the US air force put came up with the idea of integrating Ukraine’s existing launchers, radars and target acquisition systems with the US’ plentiful supply of short-range air defense missiles – which some bright spark in the Pentagon dubbed “FrankenSAM.”
Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.
Key Takeaways from the ISW:
The Czech army will receive 14 Leopard 2A4 tanks and one armored “Buffel” tank recovery vehicle, its defense minister said.
The Czech Republic will receive 15 tanks from Germany to help replace those sent to war-torn Ukraine, its defense ministry said Wednesday.
The Czech government, a staunch supporter of Ukraine as it struggles to stave off the Russian invasion, has given at least 62 of its tanks to Kyiv since the war began.
Have long-awaited US-made F-16 fighters finally appeared over Ukrainian skies? Wagner element sighted among troops in Venezuela; Ukrainian drone shoots down helicopter.
F-16s spotted over Lviv?
F-16 warplanes were allegedly spotted over the Lviv's central square on July 31 after various reports confirmed that the fighter aircraft were indeed in Ukraine.
