It was well until they were blown, but didn’t fly
Ukraine’s Air Force Command says the explosions at the air base near the village of Novofedorivka in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea damaged an aviation weapons depot and about ten aircraft were destroyed.
Yuriy Ihnat, the spokesman for Air Force Command, speaking on Ukrainian national television on Aug. 10, said Saky’s military airfield was a base for Russian Su-30SM, Su-24, Il-76 and other warplanes.
“The occupiers’ planes were constantly taking off from this airfield,” Ihnat said. “They are in the sky around Ukraine practically around the clock. Without flying to Snake Island, they patrol the Black Sea constantly, only changing planes and crews. Disabling the airfield is a good thing, and if a dozen more planes were destroyed there, that’s a small victory.”
The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said the Kremlin does not attribute the destruction of the airdrome in Crimea to Ukraine because this would be a proof of the inefficiency of the Russian air defense systems, as it happened in the case of the sinking of the Moskva cruiser.
The powder barrel is called Zaporizhzhia nuclear power facility
Foreign ministers from the G7 group of nations say Russia must immediately hand back control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to Ukraine. They accused Moscow’s forces of putting the entire region in danger. The facility and its surrounding area saw shelling last week, which Russia and Ukraine blamed on each other.
Ukraine says Russia has turned the site into a military base, launching attacks from there knowing that Ukrainian forces are unlikely to retaliate.
Petro Kotin, the head of Enerhoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power operator, told the BBC earlier this week that about 500 Russian soldiers were at the site, using it as a nuclear shield. Mr Kotin said the threat was grave, but that the plant remained safe.
The G7’s warning echoed statements from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which called for an end to “all military activities that endanger nuclear security”. However, the chances that Russia will take heed appear extremely remote at best, say analysts.
The G7 also said Russia’s actions undermined the IAEA's ability to monitor the safety of nuclear activities in Ukraine. For its part, Russia has accused Ukraine of creating “artificial obstacles and difficulties” to a potential IAEA mission to the nuclear power plant.
Russians aim to destroy Bayraktar drones
Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey, Vasyl Bodnar, announced on Monday that a Turkish company, Bayraktar, is building a factory for producing attack drones on Ukrainian territory. “The factory will be built. Just a week ago, the government approved the bilateral agreement and sent it to the parliament for ratification, the agreement on the construction of the plant itself,” Bodnar stated.
In reply, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said: “The fact of creating such an object there, of course, immediately falls under the topic of demilitarization – this must be understood. This will only prolong the suffering of Ukrainians, but will not help to avoid what is the goal of a special military operation”.
Ukrainian wheat stolen at sea
87 Russian and Syrian vessels are involved in a criminal scheme to export stolen Ukrainian grain, said Ambassador of Ukraine to Lebanon Ihor Ostash. According to this scheme, stolen Ukrainian grain is constantly transported through Turkey or directly to Syria or other countries in the Middle East.
87 vessels are on the list of sea transport that export stolen grain from Ukraine. The Ukrainian embassy received information that the Syrian-flagged ship Laodecia ship is on this list. This is the ship that was transporting stolen grain and flour from the occupied Crimea, but thanks to the efforts of Ukrainian diplomats, it was detained in Lebanon.
The ambassador of Ukraine believes that this decision is a victory for Ukraine because dealers were not allowed to do business in Lebanon on goods stolen from Ukraine.
You give them visas and they come with tanks!
Ukraine on Wednesday called on the European Union and G7 countries to stop issuing visas to Russian citizens, citing what he said was their support for the war in Ukraine.
“Russians overwhelmingly support the war on Ukraine. They must be deprived of the right to cross international borders until they learn to respect them,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter.
The ban on the issuance of Schengen visas to Russians is one of the priority goals of the new package of EU sanctions, head of the President’s Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak said on the Telegram channel on Wednesday. “A real inhabitant of the USSR should be isolated from the civilized world. The ban on issuing Schengen visas to Russians is one of the priority goals of the,” he wrote.
Stay with what you have, Amnesty...
The co-founder of the Swedish branch of Amnesty International, Per Vestberg, announced that he was leaving the organization due to disagreement with the report on the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “I have belonged to the organization for almost sixty years. It is with a heavy heart because of Amnesty's statements regarding the war in Ukraine that I am ending my long and fruitful collaboration,” Westberg said.
Russian war machinery asks for cannon fodder
The K intelligence said Russia establishes new ground forces formation to wage war in Ukraine. The formation, called the 3rd Army Corps (3 AC), is based out of Mulino, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, the U.K. Defense Ministry said. Recruitment is open to men up to 50 years old and with only middle-school education.
“A Russian army corps typically consists of 15,000 - 20,000 troops, but it will probably be difficult for Russia to bring 3 AC up to this strength, given very limited levels of popular enthusiasm for volunteering for combat in Ukraine,” the ministry added.
