Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 08-02-2024

A total of 24 people were freed in Thursday's exchange -- 16 headed to the West and eight to Russia -- in the biggest prisoner swap deal since the Cold War.

When eight Russian citizens including a convicted hitman touched down in Moscow on Thursday in a historic prisoner swap with the West, President Vladimir Putin greeted them like heroes.

"I want to congratulate you all on your return to your Motherland," Putin beamed, assuring the group that also included cybercriminals and spies that Russia had not forgotten them for "even a minute".

A Ukrainian unmanned ground vehicle, guided by an airborne drone in the air, transported 200 kilograms of hydrogen and plastic explosives to the Russian position before detonation.

Soldiers from the Khorne group of Ukraine’s 116th Separate Mechanized Brigade reportedly conducted a successful special operation, during which an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) drone delivered a combined hydrogen and plastic explosive warhead into a Russian position in the city of Vovchansk, in the Kharkiv region, where it destroyed a Russian observation post.

Ukrainian military journalist Andriy Tsaplienko released a video of the operation on his Telegram channel, stating: “With the help of a ground drone and 2 hydrogen-filled containers with [a charge of] plastic explosives, the fighters of the brigade destroyed the observation point of the Russian troops [positioned] at an aggregate factory.”

The two sides regularly exchange soldiers' bodies as well as captured prisoners of war in rare diplomatic dealmaking between Moscow and Kyiv.

Ukraine said Friday it had received the bodies of 250 killed soldiers in one of the largest exchanges of remains since Russia invaded in February 2022.

The two sides regularly exchange soldiers' bodies as well as captured prisoners of war in rare diplomatic dealmaking between Moscow and Kyiv.

Research shows 57 percent of Ukrainians support negotiations with Russia for peace; 35 percent would end the war with the de facto border of Feb. 23, 2022; 38 percent think Kyiv should not negotiate.

According to a recent nationwide research poll, 57 percent of Ukrainians support negotiations with Russia to try to facilitate peace, though only 35 percent (out of the total population) support ending the war with the new border where the de facto border was on Feb. 23, 2022, ceding lands Moscow had unilaterally taken before its full-scale invasion.

Lands surrendered in the poll’s scenario would include certain parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, an administrative division of Ukraine until illegally and unilaterally annexed on Feb. 27, 2014, following the Revolution of Dignity, that began in late November 2013.

As Russia brings more tactical all-terrain vehicles to Ukraine Kremlin’s Minister of Defense announced plans to establish all-terrain vehicle training courses.

The military issues website Defense Express reported on comments made by Russia’s Minister of Defense, Andrey Belousov during a visit to a training area in the Leningrad Military District earlier this week, that plans were being made to establish buggy and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) tactical driving courses at military training centers.

Despite evidence that assaults on Ukrainian defensive positions employing motorcycles, ATVs and Buggies are being decimated Moscow still seems to see their use as a positive development.

There were official talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in 2022 in the weeks following the start of Russia's offensive but there have been none since then.

The Kremlin on Friday said possible talks over the conflict in Ukraine were based on "completely different principles" from negotiations over a prisoner swap deal that saw 24 people freed on Thursday.

"If we talk about Ukraine and more complex international problems, there are completely different principles," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked whether the prisoner exchange could lead to negotiations over Ukraine.

The EU Commission Vice President said analysis shows sanctions Kyiv imposed on Lukoil don’t affect transit operations carried out by traders via the Druzhba pipeline – if Lukoil isn’t the owner.

The European Commission rejected Hungary and Slovakia‘s request for urgent consultations regarding Ukraine’s introduction of sanctions against the transit of crude oil from Russian supplier Lukoil because it doesn’t affect pipeline use by other trading companies, Bloomberg reports.

The European Commission rejected the requests of Hungary and Slovakia regarding oil transit

Trump suggested that the American government might have paid for the deal and asked about the specifics, suggesting he would have done things differently.

Former President and current US presidential candidate Donald Trump called for the White House to provide detailed information on his TruthSocial site about the August 1 prisoner exchange deal involving Russia, the US, Germany, and other Western nations.

Trump alleged that the American government might have paid for the deal and then went into “attack mode.”

The video showcased a series of successful hits by Ukrainian drones on Russian armored vehicles.

Ukrainian paratroopers from the 46th Brigade of the Airborne Assault Troops have reportedly destroyed three Russian tanks with welded roofs, known as “brazier tanks,” according to the troops’ report on Telegram.

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

Three US citizens freed in a Russian-West prisoner swap are back on American soil after landing in Maryland. Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan, and Alsu Kurmasheva were greeted by US President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris and reunited with their families. Biden thanked his allies - especially Germany - who he said made the "toughest call" to release the prisoners. The deal frees 24 detainees from seven countries. Ten people, including two minors, were relocated to Russia. It had been more than 18 months in the making and is believed to have hinged on Moscow's demand for the return of hitman Vadim Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany - BBC

Krasikov had been jailed in Germany since 2019 for the murder of a Chechen former separatist fighter in a park in Berlin. He was the prize most sought by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who had publicly praised the killing as an act of patriotism and for years had insisted that Mr. Krasikov be part of any swap - NYT

Russian forces have evacuated their casualties, rotated personnel, and supplied their forward positions with ammunition and provisions.

The situation in the Kharkiv region remains critical as Russian forces continue their attempts to seize new territories. Ukraine's Kharkiv operational-tactical group reported that Russian troops are focusing their efforts on the settlement of Vovchansk.

According to the command of the group, Russian forces are actively attacking Defense Forces positions, with the highest activity observed around Vovchansk.

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris discussed “the release of other Russian political prisoners” with the widow of Putin opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in prison.

US Vice President Kamala Harris called Russian opposition figurehead Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, to discuss Thursday’s massive Russia-West prisoner exchange, Navalnaya’s spokesperson said.

Harris called her “to discuss the exchange and express her support, noting Alexei and Yulia’s contribution to the fight for a democratic Russia,” the spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, said on X (formerly Twitter).

The dispute over the election results has sparked protests in Venezuela. The country’s electoral council proclaimed Maduro the winner of the July 28 election with 51% of the vote.

The United States on Thursday (1 August) recognised Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s opponent and opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner of Venezuela’s disputed presidential election, rejecting Maduro’s claim of victory.

“Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Thursday.

The historic prisoner swap with Russia that freed US journalist Evan Gershkovich and 15 other Westerners was the fruit of painstaking secret talks and one crucial phone call from President Biden.

The historic prisoner swap with Russia that freed US journalist Evan Gershkovich and 15 other Westerners was the fruit of painstaking, secret talks -- and one crucial phone call from President Joe Biden an hour before he dropped his reelection bid.

Biden welcomed the families of the three US citizens and one US resident to the White House Thursday, just as the release was taking place in Ankara.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban signed a decree earlier this month extending Hungary's fast-track visa scheme to eight countries, including Russia and Belarus.

The European Union on Thursday demanded Hungary respond to fears that a decision by Budapest to relax visa rules for Russian and Belarusian nationals heightens the risk of spying in the bloc. 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban -- the only EU leader to have maintained close ties with the Kremlin since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 -- signed a decree earlier this month to extend its fast-track visa scheme to eight countries, including Russia and Belarus.

The film premiered on July 31 on the British comedian's YouTube channel.

On July 31, British actor, writer and comedian Stephen Fry released a documentary on his YouTube channel about his visit to Kyiv last year.

On Sept. 5, 2023, Fry visited Kyiv to participate in the Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen. His stay in Ukraine became the basis for the film, featuring a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky, artist Nikita Titov and military personnel from the Azov brigade. The movie also shows Fry's first reactions to an air alert.

Guerrillas suggest that the arrival of F-16 fighters in Ukraine may have prompted Russia to move additional air defense systems closer to the front line.

The Atesh guerrilla movement reported discovering a Russian Buk-M2 anti-aircraft missile system in the Volnovakha district of the Donetsk region, describing it as being “for hunting F-16s.”

The guerrillas provided coordinates and a photo of the missile system in their Telegram report: 47.5337226, 37.2052414.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian forces continue to make slow, steady advances in the Pokrovsk direction (west of Avdiivka), largely enabled by Ukrainian manpower shortages and the terrain in the area immediately northwest of Avdiivka. Russian advances will likely slow further as Russian forces advance into a line of larger and more urban settlements.
• Russia's current rate of tactical advance towards Pokrovsk will likely not continue indefinitely, however, as Russian forces are approaching a line of larger and more urban settlements.
• Russia's Central Grouping of Forces appears to be more rapidly redeploying and committing forces between different sectors of its recently expanded area of responsibility (AOR) in Donetsk Oblast than has been the norm in most of the theater recently.
• The Central Grouping of Forces may have established a more flexible command and control (C2) structure and may be responding more quickly to potential Ukrainian tactical vulnerabilities than other Russian groupings of forces in Ukraine.
• A limited number of F-16 fighter jets have reportedly arrived in Ukraine, but it will likely be several months before Ukraine will be able to field the jets at scale.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine will not compromise its sovereignty and territorial integrity in exchange for a diplomatic resolution to Russia's invasion.
• Russia, Belarus, the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Turkey, and Norway conducted a high-profile prisoner exchange involving 26 prisoners from multiple countries on August 1.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Svatove, Chasiv Yar, and Donetsk City.
• Russian opposition outlet Vazhnye Istorii reported on August 1 that the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) may have significantly overstated the number of contract soldiers it claims to have recruited between Fall 2022 and April 2024.