Col. Oleksiy Mes, a leading Ukrainian pilot killed on Monday flying a US-made F-16 fighter jet

Thursday’s Coverage: Will NATO Members Lift Restrictions on Kyiv’s Attacks Inside Russia?

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1301 GMT:

A second woman has died in Russia’s overnight attack on Sumy city in northern Ukraine (see 0852 GMT).

The body of a 37-year-old woman was found under the rubble of a building. A 48-year-old woman died earlier in hospital.

Eight other people were wounded.

UPDATE 1253 GMT:

Hoping to avoid mass mobilization and unwilling to give up their offensive in eastern Ukraine, Russian officials are calling for groups of armed volunteers to “ensure security” against Ukraine’s 25-day incursion into the Kursk region in western Russia.

Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov said the new groups are “not only ensuring security, but also participating in life support in resettled areas in order to support the remaining people in this difficult time”.

He said participation will be for six months in the first instance.

UK military intelligence assessed:

UPDATE 0852 GMT:

Two civilians have been killed and at least 32 wounded by Russian attacks across Ukraine in the past 24 hours.

In Sumy city in northern Ukraine, a 48-year-old woman died of injuries from a Russian airstrike. Eight other people were wounded.

In the Donetsk region in the east, Russian attacks killed one person in the front-line city of Kostiantynivka and injured 11 others across the territory. Homes, apartments, and critical infrastructure were damaged or destroyed.

In the Kherson region in the south, six were injured as Russian forces attacked a post office, a shopping center, private homes, and apartments.

In Kharkiv Oblast, four people were injured by Russian strikes on the village of Novoosynove.

UPDATE 0826 GMT:

Reuters updates on the suspension of Russian transactions by Chinese banks, limiting Moscow’s circumvention of international sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine.

Chinese financial institutions began restricting the accounts of Russian companies and individuals after the US tightened secondary sanctions in December 2023.

Suspensions and delays are now leaving transactions worth tens of billions of yuan in limbo, said “Russian sources with direct knowledge of the issue”.

China, Russia’s largest trading partner, accounted for a third of Moscow’s foreign trade in 2023.

Some Russian entities are buying gold, moving it to Hong Kong, and selling it to deposit cash in a local bank account. Other businesses are using chains of intermediaries in third countries, but this has raised costs to up to 6% of transaction payments.

“For many small companies, this means a complete shutdown,” said a “source close to the Russian government”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “With such volumes and in such an unfriendly environment, it is impossible to avoid some problematic situations. However, the truly partnership spirit of our relations allows us to discuss and resolve current issues constructively.”

A banking source said payments in priority areas are still proceeding. Sources said these include bilateral arrangements for large companies, such as Russia’s commodity exporters — including of oil and grain — and China’s exporters of vital technologies.

In contrast, smaller companies trading in consumer goods have problems.

Bilateral trade between Russia and China grew by 1.6% to $137 billion in the first half of 2024, according to China’s official customs data, following a record high $240 billion in 2023.

But Russian imports from China dropped by 1% in July. “Imports will decrease in 2024 due to the strengthening of sanctions barriers related to payments and logistics,” said the Russia Central Bank said, although it declared that the situation will improve in the medium term.

Kirill Babaev, head of the China Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences, summarized, “Until issues with payments are resolved at the state level, we cannot expect a dynamic inflow of investments from China.”

UPDATE 0757 GMT:

A Russian court has condemned Sergey Mikhailov, the founder of the independent Siberian newspaper Altay, to eight years in prison for disseminating “fake news” about Moscow’s armed forces.

Mikahilov’s “crime” was publication of stories about Russia’s mass killing of civilians in Bucha, near Kyiv, in March 2022. He was first detained the following month, and his trial began in June 2023.

In a speech in court, Mikhailov said the Kremlin’s narrative of calling the Ukrainian leadership “fascist” had “created a whole virtual universe in the information space, and this fog became stronger and stronger”:

My publications were aimed against this fog, so that my readers were not seduced by lies, so that they do not take part in armed conflicts, do not become murderers and victims and so that they do not harm the brotherly Ukrainian people.

On Wednesday, a court near Moscow sentenced Anastasiya Zibrova, a staff member of the Russian Interior Ministry, to five years in prison for sharing an online post about Russia’s missile strike on a train station in Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine in April 2022. The attack killed 63 people and wounded 150.

Zibrova, a single mother with a 6-year-old daughter and caring for her grandmother, has been under house arrest since August 2023, when seucrity forces raided her home.

Her lawyer argued in court that his client had not intended to mislead the public by reposting the story, emphasizing that she had not known the information was “untrue”. He noted that Zibrova was a veteran and that her ex-husband and “numerous friends” are fighting in the invasion of Ukraine.

UPDATE 0734 GMT:

Ukraine has opened its first investigation of an Iranian military officer assisting Russia’s invasion and attacks on civilian areas.

Revolutionary Guards Brig. Gen. Abbas Moussa Sharifi Molasarei is suspected of directly assisting Russian comamanders with their airstrikes with Iran-made kamikaze drones.

The Ukraine State security service SBU says the Guards delivered at least 1,500 Shahed-136 and Mohajer-6 combat drones to Russia in August-September 2022.

As part of the operation, Gen. Sharifi Molasarei and Iranian UAV instructors came to Russian-occupied Crimea, training specialized Russian units in the combat use of the drones.

The general and instructors then coordinated the launch of the drones, with at least 20 series of attacks in September-October 2022.

The SBU served Sharifi Molasarei in absentia with notice of investigation of 1) aiding and abetting in the conduct of an aggressive war, committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons; and 2) violation of the laws and customs of war.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukrainians are paying tribute to Col. Oleksiy Mes, “Moonfish”, a senior pilot who died when his F-16 fighter jet crashed on Monday during Russia’s unprecedented missile and drone strikes.

A military official announced on Thursday that Mes perished while “repelling the biggest ever aerial attack” during Vladimir Putin’s 30-month invasion of Ukraine.

The Ukraine Defense Forces said that they do not believe pilot error was responsible for the crash. A special commission has been opened to investigate cause.

The Western Air Command later said in a statement:

Oleksii destroyed three cruise missiles and one attack drone while repelling a massive Russian combined air and missile attack.

Oleksii saved Ukrainians from deadly Russian missiles. Unfortunately, at the cost of his own life.

Ukraine military commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi posthumously awarded Mes the rank of colonel.

The Face of A Vital Campaign

After months of hesitation by Kyiv’s partners — especially the Biden Administration in the US — and more time to train pilots, the first F-16s were delivered by the Netherlands and Denmark. Up to 24 are expected by the end of the year.

Mas and his close friend Andriy Pilshchikov, “Juice”, were the faces of the Zelenskiy Government’s quest to obtain the jets. When Pilshchikov died during a combat mission in August 2023, Mas carried on the campaign.

“Andriy was the ‘ideas man’ and the main driving force behind it all,” Mas said. “And I feel responsible to him for ensuring these planes arrive.”

During training, he spoke of the magnitude and the perils of the effort to get the warplanes over the battlefield, “We would have had a lot of time to study the jet completely in peacetime, but we do not have the time.”