The Russian military IS pushing a effort in the North of the Ukraine while the Ukraine is pushing in the South….
Ukraine drone’s are not causing much damage in Russia, but bringing the war there…
The Ukraine is cracking down on draft dogers and the money in it….
Putin is trying to get the Wagner troops to join the Russia military….
Dutch Defense Minister thinks the Ukraine could be up and running with F-16’s as early as just 6-8 months, something I think American President Biden is gonna be nervous about…
Where is Belarus now with Russia/Putin and the Wagner troops?
Turkey is NOT happy with getting shut out of the Ukraine grain deal…One would think this is lost revenue to them….
The Ukraine is still shut out of exporting grain to several East European countries whose farmer fear a dump of more grain would depress their grain’s market value…..
Moldova is told to NOT get too close to the Ukraine by the Russians….
In recent weeks, Ukrainian officials have called for the evacuation of Kupiansk as Russian forces edge closer and shelling continues far behind the front lines. On Saturday, two civilians were killed in shelling in a small village just east of the city, according to local officials.
Ukraine took the city back from Russian control last September after it had been under occupation since the war’s early months, and losing it again would be a major blow. It appears unlikely, however, that Russian forces would try to retake the city, since that would put them in the position they faced before they were forced to retreat from Kherson last year, holding a city with a river at its back and limited supply lines.
Russian forces could instead try to push to the Oskil River, which runs north and south, and then use the waterway as a natural barrier against further Ukrainian attacks.
“Kupiansk will not be occupied anymore under any circumstances,” Andrii Besedin, the head of the Kupiansk city military administration, said on Telegram.
Here’s what else is happening:
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Drone Attacks: Russia said it had shot down a Ukrainian drone in the Moscow region early Saturday morning, the latest in more than a dozen attempted drone attacks at the Russian capital and surrounding areas in August. The drone was destroyed by air defenses in near the town of Istra, northwest of Moscow, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
U.S. officials said Kyiv’s more frequent unmanned attacks were intended to demonstrate to the Ukrainian public that it could strike back in the midst of the slow-moving counteroffensive. Ukraine has not directly claimed responsibility for the drones.
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Gershkovich Appeal: Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal who has been held in Russia since March, has appealed the three-month extension of his pretrial detention ordered by a Moscow court this week, the Russian state news agency Tass reported.
Mr. Gershkovich has been detained in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison on espionage charges that he, the U.S. government and The Journal have vehemently denied. The United States has said he is wrongfully detained. Mr. Gershkovich’s pretrial detention, which had previously been extended to Aug. 30, will now continue until at least Nov. 30.
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Corruption Crackdown: The Security Service of Ukraine announced on Saturday the detainment of four more officials in military enlistment offices and military medical commissions on charges they were taking payments to help people evade the draft. The employees were accused of helping conscripts to “evade mobilization on the basis of fictitious documents on their medical unfitness for military service” for a fee of up to $10,000 per person. The arrests were the latest in a crackdown on draft evasion schemes that started earlier this month when all the officials in charge of regional military recruitment centers were dismissed…..
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Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe:
Aviation experts said the plane crash points away from a mechanical problem or human error, but they cautioned in interviews with The Washington Post that not enough evidence is available to draw a definitive conclusion. Early assessments by U.S. officials suggest the possibility of an onboard explosion, The Post reported.
The Kremlin dismissed speculation that Prigozhin was likely assassinated at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin, without confirming the Wagner leader’s death. “It’s all lies,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday, adding that all the speculation in the West is “from a certain angle.” However, many among Russia’s elite also believe the crash was instigated by the Kremlin, The Post has reported.
Journalist Evan Gershkovich has appealed a Moscow court’s decision to extend his detention through November, according to Russian state news agency Tass. He is being held before trial on espionage charges that the United States and Gershkovich’s employer, the Wall Street Journal, have called baseless. The Journal said this week that it was “deeply disappointed he continues to be arbitrarily and wrongfully detained for doing his job as a journalist.”
Putin signed a decree ordering paramilitary fighters to swear an oath to the nation, according to Russian news agencies. The decree, signed Friday, takes effect immediately and applies to fighters from the Wagner mercenary group. It says the formal oath of allegiance includes pledging to follow the orders of commanders and senior leaders.
Three Ukrainian pilots were killed in a midair collision during a combat mission Friday, government authorities said. The two L-39 combat training aircraft collided near Zhytomyr, according to the Ukrainian air force, and the State Bureau of Investigation is looking intowhether their flights violated any laws. One of the pilots killed, who had the call sign “Juice,” described to The Post in April 2022 how Ukrainian fliers were fending off Russian invaders.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lauded the pilot “Juice,” whom he identified as Andrii Pilshchikov, for his help in defending against the Russian invasion. “He was a Ukrainian officer, one of those who helped our country a lot,” Zelensky said in a Telegram video offering his condolences to the pilots’ friends and family.
Moscow’s mayor said air defenses destroyed a new drone approaching the capital Saturday, the latest in a spate of attempted drone attacks that the Kremlin has blamed on Kyiv. Russia’s Defense Ministry said a second drone was intercepted in the Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine.
It could take six to eight months for F-16 fighter jets to be delivered to Ukraine, Netherlands Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said in an interview with European Pravda. Several conditions have to be met, including pilot training and spare parts supplies, before the transfer can take place, she said.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed he warned Prigozhin about a threat to his life if the Wagner boss continued his march to Moscow during a short-lived mutiny in June, according to Belarusian state news agency BelTA. Lukashenko claimed credit for brokering a truce that allowed Wagner personnel to move to Belarus.
Turkey sees no alternative to the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a news conference during a visit to Kyiv on Friday, Turkey’s TRT World reported. He said alternative ways are being sought, but they involve risks and cannot replace the original agreement, which was brokered by Ankara and the United Nations to allow the flow of Ukrainian grain exports to the world.
The Foreign Ministry in Kyiv criticized a proposed moratorium on importing Ukrainian grain to some European Union nations. Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia have said an E.U.-approved ban on Ukrainian grain should be extended beyond the Sept. 15 deadline because those nations want a favorable market for their agricultural products.
Russia warned Moldova against deepening its support to Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Friday. Maria Zakharova warned Ukraine’s neighbor “against getting too involved in the process of supporting Ukraine,” according to Russian news agency Tass, adding that this would “jeopardize stability and security in the region.” Russia’s war in Ukraine raised fears of a spillover into Moldova, a post-Soviet nation with a pro-Western government. Moscow has long supported — and has troops stationed in — Moldova’s breakaway enclave of Transnistria.
Yevgeniy Prigozhin, Russian mercenary leader who became Putin foe, is believed to have died: Prigozhin, a onetime ally of Putin who amassed oligarchic wealth by building a mercenary army that served the Russian state, only to gamble it all with a stunning but short-lived mutiny in June amid the war in Ukraine, is presumed to have died Wednesday in a plane crash northwest of Moscow. He was 62.
The U.S. intelligence community believes Prigozhin “likely” died in the crash and is exploring the possibility that an explosion brought down his plane.
In an ascent that he owed almost entirely to the favor of Putin, his longtime patron, Prigozhin represented an unlikely case study in rebellion. For years, he was denounced by the West as a Kremlin henchman and hailed by Russian state media as a patriot. With his weathered features and bulldog demeanor, he fit well into both narratives….