A burned car and an apartment building damaged by Ukrainian shelling of the Kursk region in Russia, August 11, 2024 (AP)

Thursday’s Coverage: Zelenskiy Reshuffles His Cabinet

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1404 GMT:

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has announced $250 million in military assistance for Kyiv.

While challenging American refusal to allow long-range strikes into Russia (see 1359 GMT), Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed his gratitude.

I am grateful for the clear position on continuing to provide all necessary military support and for the U.S. leadership in the Ramstein format. This is the key to success on the battlefield.

Canada has announced a new defense package for Ukraine including rocket motors and warheads, machine guns, pistols, vehicle chassis, and ambulances.

UPDATE 1359 GMT:

At the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Germany, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has challenged allies to permit long-range strikes inside Russia.

Long-range capability. I’m glad that the US, the UK, and France are represented here. Thanks to our joint courage, we have implemented very important operations, in particular in Crimea.

These operations allowed us to return security to the Black Sea and our food exports. Now we hear that your long-range policy has not changed, but we see changes in the ATACMS, Storm Shadows and Scalps – a shortage of missiles and cooperation.

This applies even to our territory, which is occupied by Russia, including Crimea. We think it is wrong that there are such steps. We need to have this long-range capability not only on the occupied territory of Ukraine, but also on the Russian territory, so that Russia is motivated to seek peace.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Berlin has not lifted its objection to long-range strikes inside Russia, while maintaining that Germany will support Ukraine as long as it is necessary.

UPDATE 1121 GMT:

Russian troops gunned down a group of surrendering Ukrainian soldiers near Pokrovsk in the Dontesk region in eastern Ukraine in late August.

Drone footage, posted by CNN, shows three Ukrainian soldiers giving up after their trench was overrun. As they walk out, kneel down, and place their hands on their heads, they are shot.

Ukraine Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin said his office is investigating 28 similar incidents, killing 62 Ukrainian soldiers, during Vladimir Putin’s 30-month invasion.

Prosecutors said this week that Russian attackers executed three Ukrainian POWs near Toretsk, a town northeast of Pokrovsk.

UPDATE 0926 GMT:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced his arrival at the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany for the meeting with allies in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

Zelenskiy posted:

We need our partners’ determination and the means to stop Russia’s aerial terror. It is crucial that all the weapons from the already announced support packages finally reach the combat brigades. We also need strong long-range decisions from our partners to bring closer the just peace we are striving for.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region in western Russia had inflicted around 6,000 casualties on the Russian military and taken “a significant part of the territory” across 1,300 square km (500 square miles) and about 100 settlements.

The President cited success in preventing another Russian cross-border offensive into northern Ukraine: “Thanks to our actions, there is no threat to the city of Sumy as was the case in May against Kharkiv.”

UPDATE 0912 GMT:

The toll has risen to one killed and 55 injured — including two boys aged 4 and 11, a 9-year-old girl, and an 86-year-old resident — from Russian attacks on Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine.

Two of the hospitalized are in serious condition.

UPDATE 0720 GMT:

Ukraine air defenses forces downed 27 of 44 Iran-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight.

Eight drones disappeared from radar, presumably when they were jammed by electronic warfare and one headed for the Russian-occupied part of the Donetsk region.

Warehouses of industrial facilities in Lviv in western Ukraine were set afire by falling debris, and a kindergarten was destroyed in the Kherson region in the south.

The Russians also fired one Kh-59 guided missile and one Kh-31P anti-radar missile.

At least five people were injured in Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine.

In the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, two people were killed and 12 wounded by Russian attacks on Thursday.

UPDATE 0711 GMT:

The UK is supplying Ukraine with 650 Lightweight Multirole Missiles, worth more than $213 million, by the end of the year.

The UK has already provided hundreds of the “precision strike multi-role missile” for air defense, destroying Russian drones and other aerial threats. They can be fired from a shoulder launcher, from an armored vehicle or mobile launcher, or from the air.

UPDATE 0703 GMT:

The US has sanctioned two vessels and two individuals connected to Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project.

Arctic LNG 2, owned by Russia’s Novatek company, is envisaged as the country’s largest project for liquified natural gas. It seeks to produce almost 20 million metric tons per year, primarily for sale to Asian markets and potentially generating billions of dollars in revenue.

The US said the named entities tried to circument sanctions by shutting off the automatic identification system of ships loading LNG.

UPDATE 0643 GMT:

The US has charged five Russian military officers over cyberattacks on civilian systems in Ukraine and systems in US and NATO countries.

The FBI said the WhisperGate malware attack in January 2022 “could be considered the first shot” of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine weeks later. The operation tried to cripple Ukraine’s government and critical infrastructure by targeting financial systems, agriculture, emergency services, healthcare, and schools.

The wanted men are in Unit 29055 of the Russian military intelligence service GRU — commander Yuriy Denisov and operatives Vladislav Borovkov, Denis Denisenko, Dmitriy Goloshubov, and Nikolay Korchagin.

There is a combined $60 million reward for information leading to the capture of the five officials and of civilian hacker Amin Sitgal.

Estonia issued arrest warrants for Denisov, Korchagin, and their colleague Vitaliy Shevchenko over attempted attacks.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine’s leaders said on Thursday that the month-long incursion into the Kursk region in western Russia has shifted the balance of Moscow’s 2-1/2 year invasion, while Vladimir Putin insisted that there had been no effect.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the Kremlin has withdrawn more than 60,000 troops from its 11-month offensive in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. He told the US outlet NBC News, “The idea and one of the goals of the Kursk Oblast (operation) was diverting Russian troops… to their territory. Today, I can say that they pulled over 60,000 troops there.”

Ukraine military commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said in late August that Russia had diverted 30,000 troops. He told CNN, in an interview broadcast on Thursday, that there had been no Russian advances for six days on the city of Pokrovsk, a strategic hub in Donetsk. for six days.

“The enemy hasn’t advanced a single meter in the direction. In other words, our strategy is working,” he explained. There had been a decrease in shelling and in the offensive’s intensity in other sectors.

At an economic forum in Vladivostok in eastern Russia, Vladimir Putin denied any redeployment. He insisted that by bringing “quite well-prepared units” into Kursk, Ukraine had aided Moscow’s advance in Donetsk: “The enemy weakened itself in key areas, our army has accelerated its offensive operations.”

Zelenskiy responded to Putin’s claim, “What is more important to him: occupation of the territories of Ukraine or the protection of his population?”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine has achieved “a lot”, but noted that it is difficult to predict developments. He emphasized, “Only the Ukrainians can make the difficult choices that are needed, such as where to deploy their forces and what type of warfare is appropriate in this situation.”

Stoltenberg reiterated the need for NATO members to support Ukraine’s ability to carry out long-range strikes inside Russia. Citing the Ukrainian right to self-defence, he said, “I am glad that many NATO countries have given that opportunity, and those that still have restrictions have softened the restrictions so that Ukraine can defend itself.”

Ukraine Government’s Reshuffle

Ukraine’s Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, approved the appointment of eight ministers in Zelenskiy’s reshuffle of his Government.

Andrii Sybiha replaces Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who had been in the post since 2020.

A career diplomat since 1997, Sybiha rose to become Ambassador to Turkey in 2016. He became deputy head of the Presidential Office in 2021, and appointed Deputy Foreign Minister last April.

Olha Stefanishyna, who had resigned on Wednesday, was re-appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for European integration, and was named Justice Minister.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, Iryna Vereshchuk, whose resignation was approved with 255 votes in the 450-member chamber, will become deputy head of Zelenskiy’s office.

Zelenskiy called on the Ministers to deliver more investment into the arms sector, advance negotiations on accession to the European Union, secure financial stability and provide “more support for the frontline”.

Toll in Poltava From Monday Strikes Rises to 55 Killed

The toll in the central Ukraine city of Poltava from Monday’s Russian missile strikes rose to 55 killed and 319 wounded, as search and rescue operations were concluded.

Two ballistic missiles struck the Military Institute of Communications, partially destroying the building, and an adjacent hospital.

See also Ukraine War, Day 924: Mourning in Poltava as Russia’s Missiles Kill 51+