[Korrespondent] 22:58 Ukraine can independently choose targets for strikes against Russia, although Washington does not encourage strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
22:13 The counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Defense Forces not only does not frighten the Kremlin, moreover, Putin is preparing for an even bigger and longer war, writes the Financial Times. Read more in the material Putin's plan for the war.
22:09 The US State Department confirmed that the start of negotiations with Ukraine on security guarantees will take place this week. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller clarified that the guarantees would relate to defense commitments, and negotiations would take place online.
21:56 According to the Ministry of Economy, there are currently about 6.2 million Ukrainians abroad who left after the start of a full-scale war.
21:12 Zelensky, in an evening video message, confirmed that Russia had attacked Krivoy Rog with two Iskander ballistic missiles from the area of ​​the Crimean city of Dzhankoy.
20:47 An Israeli ship was the first to break through the grain blockade of the Russian Federation, writes the Ukrainian edition of the Military. According to him, on the night of July 30, three civilian ships Ams1, Sahin 2 and Yilmaz Kaptan (Israel, Greece and Turkey/Georgia, respectively) passed the Turkish straits. The destination was determined to be Ukraine. And already today Ams1 entered the Ukrainian branch of the Danube. Passage security is provided by the American P8 anti-ship aircraft, and additional information is provided by the Forte12 RQ-4 reconnaissance drone.
20:24 Mexico will not participate in peace talks in Ukraine, which will be held in Saudi Arabia, if Russia is not invited to them, said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. "We don't want to continue the irrational Russian-Ukrainian war," he said.
20:21 "Governor" of the occupied Zaporozhye region Yevgeny Balitsky said that Ukrainian troops allegedly fired at the village of Basan, three people were killed, 15 were injured.
19:36 Russia continues to bomb houses of peaceful Ukrainian cities. This time, Krivoy Rog was subjected to rocket fire. One rocket hit a residential high-rise building, the second hit a four-story university building. Six dead and 75 injured are reported. Read more in the material Terror in action .
19:33 The Parliament of Moldova ratified the intergovernmental agreement with Ukraine on the construction of a bridge across the Dniester in the area of ​​Yampol and Koseuts. It is assumed that Ukraine will finance the technical design of the bridge, in particular, its construction and infrastructure construction on its territory, and Moldova - on its own. The bridge should be operational in 2025 and will provide Ukrainian exporters with the shortest route from the center of Ukraine to the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe.
19:28 Russian aircraft hit residential buildings in Kazachy, Kherson region, one person died, the OVA reported.
19:14 In Krivoy Rog, a search and rescue operation has been completed: six people were killed, 75 were injured , including six children, said the head of the Dnepropetrovsk OVA Serhiy Lysak. Of the 22 hospitalized, two are in serious condition. Tomorrow the city is in mourning. One of the dead is an employee of the laboratory of an educational institution, which was hit by a second Russian missile.
18:56 Only in the first nine days after withdrawing from the grain agreement, Russia destroyed 180,000 tons of Ukrainian grain with its shelling, the Foreign Ministry said. In addition, 26 port infrastructure facilities and five civilian ships were damaged.
18:31 At the end of this week, Saudi Arabia will host a peace summit organized by Kiev. At first, information about this meeting was closed, and there was no permission for its public discussion. But news of the talks leaked to the Western media, and as a result, Yermak was forced to confirm the information. For more details, see the Big Summit article .
18:05 The Russian army has been shelling Kherson all day today, hitting residential areas - the Ship District and the central part of the city suffered the most. At the moment, four dead and 17 injured are known, including a 16-year-old teenager, the President's Office said.
17:48 Events on the battlefield indicate that today Russia cannot completely occupy and destroy Ukraine, Zelensky said in an interview with the Brazilian broadcaster Globo: "Their desires are the same, but they all already realize that they are incapable of more. Ukraine will act. I believe that the generation of this war, all of us, while we are alive, will not let them become as strong as they were at the beginning."
17:13 Ukraine has agreed with Croatia on the use of its ports on the Danube and in the Adriatic Sea for the transit of grain, Kuleba said.
17:09 The Ministry of Defense announced that it had concluded an agreement with the Turkish company Baykar Makina on the construction of a service center for the repair and maintenance of drones in Ukraine. The center is planned to be established "in the near future".
17:04 According to preliminary information, Russia today hit Krivoy Rog with two ballistic missiles, Zelensky said. Completely destroyed from the fourth to the ninth floors of a residential building. The rescue operation continues, more than 350 people are involved in it.
16:46 In Krivoy Rog, there are already five dead as a result of a Russian strike on a residential building, including a child. It is also known about 64 victims , including five children from four to 17 years old, said the head of the Dnepropetrovsk OVA Serhiy Lysak.
16:15 In the "elections" organized by Russia in the occupied part of the Kherson region, it will be possible to "vote" on a Ukrainian passport issued before September 30 last year, as well as on a driver's license and a number of other Ukrainian documents, said the head of the "regional election committee" Marina Zakharova. According to her, "the goal is to give everyone the opportunity to come to the polling station."
And in the occupied settlements of the Zaporozhye region, located near the line of contact, "elections" will be held ahead of schedule, from August 31 to September 7, the "regional election commission" said.
15:53 ​​Russia has begun to spread propaganda in video games and related services, the journalists of The New York Times found out. In particular, the researchers recorded military and pro-Russian narratives in various games and services - Minecraft, World of Tanks, World of Warships, Fly Corp, Armored Warfare, War Thunder, Roblox, Discord and Steam.
So, in Minecraft, the battle for Soledar and the day of Russia on June 12 were reproduced, in World of Tanks - a parade in Moscow in 1945, and in Roblox, lego men in the form of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation marched on the day of Russia. The head of threat intelligence at Microsoft, Clint Watts, spoke about Wagner PMC propaganda on Discord and Steam. Propaganda is spreading Russia's version of the war in Ukraine and has probably been recruiting for PMCs.
15:17 Ukraine has received another $1.25 billion grant from the United States, the Finance Ministry announced. The funds will be directed to priority spending in the social and humanitarian spheres.
15:14 China will introduce export controls on some equipment related to drones from September 1. In particular, without special permission, it will be prohibited to export engines for UAVs with a power higher than 16 kW. The restrictions also include devices for creating infrared images, radars, communications equipment that can be used for drones.
15:11 In early August, Slovakia should transfer to Ukraine two Zuzana 2 self-propelled artillery mounts, which were jointly purchased by three European countries, writes Dennikn. We are talking about a contract for 16 cars, which was announced in October last year.
14:55 Restoration of the Kakhovskaya HPP after its de-occupation will take six years, said Ihor Syrota, General Director of Ukrhydroenergo. According to him, they plan to make the station modern and much more powerful than the destroyed one. And now, for two years, they have been developing a pilot restoration project. The main task of the project at this stage is to ensure the operation of the DneproHES station. At the first stage, it is also planned to design temporary dams of the reservoir, said Sirota.
14:52 More than 700,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia, Russian children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova said. According to her, since February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation has "accepted" about 4.8 million Ukrainians in total. Lvova-Belova claims that most of the children came to Russia with their parents or other relatives, but there are also pupils of institutions for orphans.
14:47 Ukraine has restored almost 100% of thermal generation enterprises damaged as a result of missile and drone attacks in the fall and winter, said Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov.
14:44 The Russians hit the Korabel microdistrict in Kherson: one person was killed, another was injured, the OVA reported. The invaders also attacked the gymnasium in Belozerka, people were not injured. As a result of the morning inspection of Kherson, one employee of the utility company died, four more were injured.
14:37 The shelling of Zmeiny Island is part of the naval blockade of Ukraine, said the speaker of OK Pivden Natalya Gumenyuk: "It is near the Serpentine Island that the ships change orientation and start moving towards the ports of Ukraine. And therefore it is important for the Russians to send messages about their strength. The bombardments around the island are just may be aimed at demonstrating their own presence, strength and control of the situation.
14:10 The British authorities have postponed the inclusion of PMC Wagner in the list of terrorist organizations due to Prigozhin's attempted rebellion and Putin's subsequent statements, The Times writes, citing sources. We are talking about the fact that after the rebellion, Putin publicly admitted that PMCs are fully funded by the Kremlin, so the inclusion of mercenaries in the list of terrorist organizations would be tantamount to a ban on the activities of a Russian official institution. This would be highly unusual and involve a number of diplomatic and legal complexities, the sources added.
13:49 Zelensky signed a law on combating the illegal use of drones. According to the document, any drone flights are prohibited over the border strip, border checkpoints and entry-exit checkpoints, objects of the State Border Service. At the same time, the SBU, the National Guard and the police are given the right to shoot down such drones.
13:28 Poland has deployed snipers on the border with Belarus, the command of the country's armed forces has reported. According to Stanislav Zharin, Commissioner for the Security of the Information Space of Poland, Belarus brings illegal migrants to the border and provides them with equipment that allows them to cross the fences, as well as stones, bricks and paving stones to attack the Poles. The situation on the border remains tense, with groups of aggressive foreigners daily attacking Polish border guards, he added.
13:11 The "DPR" announced the shelling of Donetsk, four people were killed, ten were injured. Another person allegedly died during the shelling of Gorlovka.
12:52 The death toll from the strike on Krivoy Rog has risen to four, including a ten-year-old child, said the head of the OVA, Serhiy Lysak. Search and rescue work continues. According to the State Emergency Service, 43 people were injured.
12:35 The drone that fell on the evening of July 30 near Taganrog belongs to the Russian Defense Ministry, Astra reports, citing sources. It was a multifunctional reconnaissance and strike drone of the middle class Inohodets-RU. Local authorities and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation did not report the ownership of the drone.
11:43 The released commanders of Azov will participate in the war, there is no ban, Alexander Pivnenko, commander of the National Guard, said in an interview with the UP. According to him, the defenders of Mariupol are preparing and will carry out tasks, like everyone else. In particular, the participation of Denis Prokopenko (Redis), depending on the situation developing at the front, is possible within a month.
11:26 The death toll as a result of the Russian strike on Krivoy Rog has increased to two, another 20 people were injured , Interior Minister Igor Klimenko said. About five or seven more people are being searched under the rubble.
11:03 In the occupied territories of Ukraine, Russia forcibly mobilized from 55,000 to 60,000 men, Andrei Chernyak, a spokesman for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, told Radio Liberty: "This is a forced mobilization: the occupiers caught people on the street, they came to those numerous enterprises that were still working, took people away "They simply changed clothes and sent them to the front. They promised that they would be on the second, third line, but in fact people ended up on the front line."
He also said that the Russians are mobilizing students from the occupied Ukrainian territories: “A man went to class in the morning and two days later he is already at war. Russia does not consider the inhabitants of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions people, so the occupiers absolutely do not care, the laws do not apply. The only real opportunity to survive - immediately, at the first opportunity to surrender.
10:39 Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets showed the consequences of a Russian missile hitting a nine-story building in Krivoy Rog:
10:24 The Russians fired rockets at a residential building in Krivoy Rog , Interior Minister Igor Klimenko said. One rocket hit the four-story building of the educational institution - there are probably people under the rubble. The second rocket destroyed the section from the 4th to the 9th floors of an apartment building. A fire broke out, as of 10:15 one person died, ten residents asked for medical help. Rescuers put out the fire and sort out the rubble, under which there may be people.
09:38 The Crimean bridge was additionally protected by anti-sabotage booms, Russian media write, citing sources. It is assumed that such barriers will help protect the bridge from surface and underwater drones.
09:33 In the Donetsk region over the past day, as a result of Russian shelling, one person was killed (in Predtechino), seven more were injured. Five people were injured in the Kherson region, one in Zaporozhye, according to the IVA.
09:30 In the morning, the Russians fired at the central part of Kherson from the MLRS Grad, an employee of the city utility company was killed, the OVA reported.
09:18 Russia can make a powerful shelling of Ukraine in the near future, said the speaker of OK Pivden Natalya Gumenyuk. According to her, this is evidenced by several factors. So, closer to the borders of Ukraine, the Russian Federation is pulling up strategic aviation, preparing for maneuvers. The activity of tactical enemy aviation in the southeast direction has also increased - probably the enemy is collecting intelligence. Rocket carriers are located at base points and are ready for combat use within an hour or strikes immediately from bays.
08:43 In the South, the Defense Forces continue their offensive operation in the Melitopol and Berdyansk directions. In the direction of Malaya Tokmachka, Robotino, Zaporizhia region, they were successful, and they are gaining a foothold on the achieved lines. The vacated area is 204.7 square meters. km, in a week it increased by 12.6 sq. km, said Anna Malyar.
Meanwhile, the Russian army is concentrating its main efforts on the Kupyansky, Limansky, Bakhmutsky, Avdeevsky and Maryinsky directions, there are heavy battles. In the Kupyansk direction, the enemy stormed and looked for weaknesses in the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, actively tried to advance in the areas south of Novoselovsky, trying to force Ukrainian units beyond the barrier line of the Oskol River. Unsuccessful, however, the Defense Forces hold back the enemy troops.
In the Limansky direction, the enemy also tried to advance in order to displace the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of ​​the Serebryansky Forest, all the actions of the enemy were unsuccessful. In the Bakhmut direction, the enemy tried to stop the offensive for a week, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine gradually advanced. The liberated area in the Bakhmut direction is 37 square meters. km, 2 sq. km.
On the Avdeevka and Maryinsky directions, the enemy concentrated his main efforts on conducting offensive operations in order to establish complete control over Maryinka and the encirclement of Avdeevka - he was not successful.
08:27 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of July 31:
- personnel - about 246,190 (+490) people liquidated,
- tanks - 4211 (+6),
- armored combat vehicles - 8188 (+10),
- artillery systems - 4816 (+21),
- MLRS - 699 (+1),
- air defense systems - 460 (+1),
- aircraft - 315 (+0),
- helicopters - 311 (+0),
- UAV operational-tactical level - 4017 (+6),
- cruise missiles - 1347 (+0),
- ships/boats - 18 (+0),
- automotive equipment and tankers - 7292 (+17),
- special equipment - 715 (+4).
08:10 Russians on July 30 fired from artillery the territory of the Kutsurubsky community of the Nikolaev area, one person is wounded, the house and agricultural equipment is damaged, the head of OVA Vitaly Kim reported.
08:04 At night, the Russians launched a missile attack on the Novobavarsky district of Kharkov - according to preliminary information, with two S-300 missiles from the territory of the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation, the Office of the Prosecutor General said. As a result of the shelling, the warehouses of a commercial enterprise were damaged, and one person was wounded.
In addition, on the evening of July 30, as a result of enemy artillery shelling, a house in the village caught fire. Sheykovka Borovskoye OTG, one person died, two more were injured.
07:30 During the day, more than 20 clashes took place at the front, the Geshtab reported in the morning report . In particular, in the Kupyansk direction, Ukrainian troops hold the line, repelled enemy attacks east of Berestovo, Kharkov region. In the Maryinka direction, the Defense Forces continue to hold back the advance of Russian troops in the areas of Maryinka and Pobeda.