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Friday’s Coverage: India’s Modi in Kyiv

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1714 GMT:

Hackers of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency HUR carried out a mass cyber-attack on servers of Russian Internet providers, blocking “dozens” of online platforms of industrial facilities in Russia, said a military intelligence official.

The official said the attack affected at least 33 servers and 283 office computers, took down 21 websites, and destroyed 15 cloud and file storages. The hackers left pro-Ukrainian messages on the affected platforms.

Russian users complained about malfunctions of Rostelecom, a digital service provider, and unstable Internet connections at MTC and Beeline mobile operators and the multi-national technology company Yandex.

UPDATE 1708 GMT:

Ukraine has given more details of the 115 POWs freed in an exchange with Russia.

The men were swapped for the same number of Russians, captured in Ukraine’s 18-day incursion into the Kursk region, in a deal brokered by the UAE.

The Ukrainians were from the army, navy, national guard, and border guards. Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said 82 defended the port of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine against 12 weeks of Russian bombing, ground assaults, and siege before surrendering in 2022.

The Russian soldiers are now in Belarus before their return home for medical treatment and rehabilitation.

UPDATE 1213 GMT:

Five civilians have been killed and five wounded by Russian attacks on Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

Vadym Filashkin, the head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration reported the casualties.

On August 9, a Russian missile strike on a supermarket in Kostiantynivka killed 14 civilians, including two girls aged 9 and 11, and injured 43.

see also Ukraine War, Day 899: Russia’s Mass Murder At A Supermarket In The East

UPDATE 1203 GMT:

An overnight Ukrainian drone attack set off explosions in an ammunition depot in the Voronezh region in western Russia.

Governor Aleksandr Gusev said air defense destroyed several UAVs. Fragments from the falling drones caused the detonations.

No casualties were reported.

UPDATE 1146 GMT:

In his Independence Day address, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spoken of the 18-day incursion into Russia’s Kursk region as an important response to Vladimir Putin’s 2 1/2-year invasion:

Whatever the enemy was bringing to our land has now returned to their home. And the one who wanted to turn our land into a buffer zone should think about preventing his country from becoming a buffer federation.

This is how independence responds. It retaliates for our civilians, who are targeted by guided aerial bombs and Kinzhals [missiles], for our parents who have turned gray, for our children who are forced to study underground….

Sooner or later a Ukrainian response will reach any point in the Russian Federation that is a source of danger to the life of our state and our people.

UPDATE 1123 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced another prisoner swap with Russia, with 115 Ukrainian POWs freed.

Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine’s cross-border incursion into the Kursk region in western Russia, capturing hundreds of Russian troops, has given Kyiv leverage for further exchanges.

I am grateful to each unit that replenishes our exchange fund. This helps to advance the release of our military personnel and civilians from Russian captivity.

UPDATE 1114 GMT:

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has marked Ukraine Independence Day with a series of posts on social media.

Ukraine. Our land. Given by God. Kissed by the sun. Rocked by the winds. Tempered by fire. Defended by its sons and daughters.

It cannot be mistaken for anything else.

It can never be given away to anyone.

Happy Independence Day of Ukraine!

He paid tribute to defenders against Russia’s invasion — “We will always remember our heroes” — and assured, “Ukraine will always remain independent—this is beyond question.”

UPDATE 1108 GMT:

The supply of electricity to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has resumed via a high-voltage line, says Ukraine State nuclear power firm Energoatom.

Russia’s Rosatom said earlier on Friday that automatic systems of the plant, the largest in Europe with six reactors, had switched off one of the lines.

The Russian military has occupied the complex since the first days of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, using it to shell Ukrainian territory across the Dnipro River.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine is marking its 33rd anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union amid its incursion into western Russia and more US military aid.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke with US counterpart Joe Biden, who reaffirmed “unwavering” American support for the resistance against Russia’s 2 1/2-year invasion.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who called Ukraine counterpart Rustem Umerov, confirmed the $125 million US aid package. It includes air defense missiles; ammunition for HIMARS rocket systems; Javelin anti-tank missile systems and other anti-armor missiles; counter-drone and counter-electronic warfare systems and equipment; 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition; and vehicles and other equipment.

The US also imposed new sanctions on almost 400 individuals and companies supporting the Russian invasion. Among those designated are 60 defense and technology firms “critical for the sustainment and development of Russia’s defense industry”, said the US Treasury.

After the discussions, Zelenskiy expressed gratitude but emphasized the need for quick delivery, both to bolster the incursion into Russia’s Kursk region and to protect Ukraine against Russian aerial attacks and Moscow’s offensive in the east of the country:

Ukraine urgently requires the delivery of weapons from the announced packages, particularly additional air defense systems, to reliably protect our cities, communities, and critical infrastructure.

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Ukraine continued to press its 18-day cross-border incursion on Friday. The military confirmed the use of high-precision US glide bombs against targets in Kursk, including a strike with a GBU-39 bomb on a Russian platoon base.

The General Staff also said a counter-offensive recaptured about 2 square km (0.77 square miles) in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine, where Russia attacked across the border in May.