[Korrespondent] 23:14 The International Committee of the Red Cross said that it did not guarantee the safety of Ukrainian prisoners of war leaving Azovstal - the parties to the conflict are responsible for this. The organization stressed that during the withdrawal of the military from Azovstal, the ICRC was a "neutral intermediary."
23:07 Zelensky, in an evening video message, commented on Moscow’s new propaganda activity and Schroeder’s statement: “New propaganda activity has begun from Moscow. They suddenly decided to define the Azov people as terrorists, although when a terrorist state does this, this is obviously absurd. They activate various emissaries with theses that the terrorist state allegedly wants negotiations... If Russia really wanted the end of the war, it would not be pulling reserves to the Ukrainian south now and would not produce mass graves of murdered innocent people on Ukrainian territory. when the former leaders of powerful states with European values work for Russia, which is at war against these values.
22:56 Zelensky said in an evening video message that the world needs a new global security architecture that would guarantee that no state can ever again resort to terror against another state: "The other day there were a lot of messages about conflict situations and threats occurring in other geographies.First the Balkans, then Taiwan, now maybe the Caucasus... All these situations seem different, although they have one factor in common, namely, the global security architecture has not worked.And this is actually what Ukraine draws attention not only 161 days from the start of a full-scale war, but already for years. Since Russia completely ignored international law, the interests of humanity as such."
21:32 The next ships with Ukrainian grain are already ready and will soon depart from Ukrainian ports according to the agreed schedule, Kuleba said during a joint briefing with his Estonian counterpart Urmas Reinsalu in Kiev. The Ukrainian minister stressed that, as of today, the agreements reached under the grain agreement are being implemented, and recalled that Ukraine was the first of all the participants in this agreement, which was fully prepared to fulfill all the points.
20:45 The UN is launching a mission to establish the facts of the tragedy in the Yelenovskaya colony , Secretary General António Guterres said.
20:41 The International Criminal Court cannot apply the article on aggression specifically to Russia's war against Ukraine, Kuleba said in an interview with Ukrinform: "It is written in its charter that one of the crimes for which it can judge is aggression. But in practice, purely for legal reasons, it cannot apply this article specifically to the case of Ukraine and Russia."
20:32 Kiev will break diplomatic relations with Minsk if Belarusian troops enter Ukraine, Kuleba said in an interview with Ukrinform: "Belarus is an accomplice in the crime of aggression against Ukraine, this is beyond any doubt. Therefore, there are no excuses for them and there will not be."
20:04 Gazprom said that the sanctions of Canada, the EU, the UK and the "inconsistency of the situation with the obligations of Siemens" make it impossible to supply a turbine for Nord Stream.
19:43 The Armed Forces of Ukraine repelled all enemy assaults in the Bakhmut direction and did not allow the invaders to advance in the directions of Maryinka and Belogorka, the General Staff said in the evening report .
19:28 The Cabinet of Ministers issued an order on the mandatory evacuation of the population of the Donetsk region. According to the document, residents are going to be taken out to safe areas of Vinnitsa, Volyn, Zhytomyr, Transcarpathian, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kirovograd, Lviv, Poltava, Rivne, Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy and Chernivtsi regions. The reason for the evacuation was the destruction of gas pipelines in the region and, as a result, the inability to heat it in the winter.
19:02 Baykar Director Haluk Bayraktar and Turn Back Alive Foundation Director Taras Chmut signed a partnership memorandum in Istanbul. The parties have not yet disclosed all the details of future interaction, however, the fund reported that the partners had agreed on the introduction of best practices and international standards for the development of cooperation and the involvement of other representatives in such cooperation.
18:41 In the south of Ukraine, Russian troops are accumulating forces and planning actions to reach the administrative border of the Kherson region, OK Pivden reported: "The enemy continues to conduct hostilities along the occupied defense line. plans counter-offensive actions to reach the administrative border of the Kherson region.
18:36 According to the UN, 10.35 million people have left Ukraine since the beginning of the war, most of them are in Russia - 1.86 million. In second place is Poland, which received 1.26 million Ukrainian citizens. At the same time, almost 4 million more people went to other countries in transit through Poland. 915 thousand Ukrainians moved to Germany.
18:05 In Ukraine, 60% of internally displaced persons have lost their jobs. In total, 6.6 million people are considered IDPs in Ukraine, the International Organization for Migration reported. At the same time, 35% reported that their family's monthly income does not exceed UAH 5,000, which is UAH 1,500 less than the minimum wage in Ukraine.
17:46 The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that it was Kiev who allegedly insisted that the prisoners of war be placed in the detention center in Yelenovka, which they themselves then struck. According to Moscow's "data", Kyiv "wanted to remove the witnesses and perpetrators of its crimes against its own people" by attacking Yelenovka.
Also, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Russia and Ukraine have already carried out 27 operations to exchange prisoners of war and the bodies of dead servicemen; the repatriation of the Ukrainian military "is carried out in a timely manner, 18 people have already been transferred to Ukraine." In addition, Moscow accuses Kyiv of non-compliance with international law in relation to Russian prisoners of war.
17:35 Zelensky met with Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsal and thanked him for his assistance in restoring critical infrastructure - schools and kindergartens. According to the president, construction of a kindergarten was launched yesterday in the border town of Ovruch in the Zhytomyr region.
17:15 Ukrainian military intelligence has established some circumstances of the deliberate murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Yelenovka. According to the GUR MOU, interrogations of prisoners were carried out by investigators of the so-called. "MGB DPR" together with representatives of PMC Wagner and the FSB of the Russian Federation. During interrogations, physical torture and beatings were actively used. The purpose of such "interrogations" was not to obtain confidential information, but to mockery, humiliation, demoralization.
If the plan was implemented, the FSB representatives planned to involve Ukrainian prisoners in filming pro-Russian reports, in which they had to admit "the crimes they committed, atrocities against the local population", as well as renounce their views and condemn the actions of the Ukrainian leadership.
Interrogations were carried out in a pipeline on a regular basis, but were not successful. Ukrainian prisoners showed exceptional courage and willpower. The Russian side had no intention of exchanging the prisoners and, in order to hide the improper conditions and forms of interrogation, deliberately destroyed them. According to intelligence, the mining of the place of detention of Ukrainian fighters was carried out by Wagner PMC militants using a flammable substance, which led to the rapid spread of fire in the room.
17:04 Avdiivka direction, Peski in particular, has become the hottest area on the front. The occupiers cover the Ukrainian positions with heavy artillery fire. About what is happening with the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Donetsk - in the material Hell in Avdiivka .
16:41 Sweden has declared that in case of joining NATO it will not deploy nuclear weapons on its territory.
16:27 Canada provides $40 million to provide granaries in Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, this initiative will allow for the storage of an additional 2.4 million tons of grain in 2022-2023. The project complements a $17 million recent aid provided by the Japanese government to secure the storage of 1 million tons of grain.
16:08 The monument to the liberators of Riga will be completely destroyed after the demolition, Mayor Mārtiņš Stakis said: "The monument complex will be demolished in parts. Since the Occupation Museum did not recognize any of them as artistic value, the entire monument will be completely disposed of."
16:06 Switzerland has joined the seventh package of EU sanctions against Russia. According to the government of the country, first of all, we are talking about a ban on the purchase, import or transportation of gold and products from it from Russia. Services related to these items are now also prohibited.
The assets of Sberbank will also be frozen. The Bank is prohibited from providing funds, economic resources or technical services. This also applies to subsidiaries of Sberbank.
16:02 This afternoon, the enemy fired twice with cluster shells from Hurricanes in the Krivorozhsky district of the Dnepropetrovsk region, said the head of the UVA, Valentin Reznichenko. One person was injured in the Zelenodolsk community, several dozen private houses were damaged in Maryansky and Velikaya Kostromka.
15:58 Shooting lessons will become an obligatory part of the educational process in Polish schools with the start of the new academic year, the Ministry of Education and Science of Poland reports: "The growing threat to the security of the state requires supplementing the goals of education with the acquisition of the ability to shoot and preparing students for actions caused by military conditions."
15:55 Podolyak commented on Schroeder's statement about Moscow's "readiness" for negotiations: "With one hand, Russia raises the degree of terror with new barbaric crimes, with the other, it invites surrender. Schroeder is a well-known herald of the empire and a voice at the royal court of the Russian Federation. If Moscow wants dialogue, the ball on its field. First, a ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops, then a constructive one."
15:51 The RF Armed Forces fired at Ochakov of the Nikolaev region from heavy cannon artillery, OK Pivden reported. According to the command, an electrical substation was damaged during the shelling, as a result of which part of the city was left without electricity.
15:44 The Center for Counteracting Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council says that Russian propaganda is inciting Ukraine to negotiate, including through foreign politicians. Among the latest examples of such manipulations are the statements of the wife of the President of Ireland that "the conflict in Ukraine will continue until Moscow and Kyiv agree on a ceasefire", as well as Gerhard Schroeder that Russia is ready to sit down at the negotiating table. Such manipulations with the statements of individual speakers are an element of the information and psychological operation of the Russian Federation, the purpose of which is to create an image of a peace-loving country around Russia, emphasize the NSDC CPD.
15:19 The Russians fired at Chuguev from the MLRS. As a result of falling into a residential five-story building, one person died, two were injured, Kharkiv OVA reported.
15:06 In Ukraine, 30% of schools are ready to switch to full-time education, Minister of Education and Science Serhiy Shkarlet said. According to him, together with the State Emergency Service, almost 30,000 inspections were carried out.
15:04 Ukrainian citizens who carried out a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo as part of KFOR - the NATO-led International Peacekeeping Force in Kosovo - will be recalled, the command of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.
15:00 Peskov said that Russia "was and remains ready to solve the Ukrainian problem through diplomacy on its own terms." He again stressed that these conditions were agreed in Istanbul, but then the Ukrainian side refused to negotiate. "Russia is ready, our conditions are well known to the Ukrainian side. One way or another, they will be provided," Peskov added.
14:51 The Planet Labs satellite recorded that the Russian military began to use a separate ferry crossing to transport equipment across the Dnieper near occupied Kherson. According to Radio Liberty, this is the second crossing that the Russians built after the attacks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the Antonovsky automobile and railway bridges.
14:22 The situation at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant is completely out of control. According to the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, all the principles of nuclear safety were violated at the ZNPP, and contact with the plant personnel is unstable.
14:00 Zelensky, during a conversation with Australian students, called the difference between the Russian Federation and terrorists: "The only difference between terrorists and Russia is that the former take responsibility for their deeds, while Russia does not have the courage to do this and has the audacity to blame others for their crimes - some countries and the whole world ... And now this world is facing a choice: long overdue, uncomfortable, unpleasant for some, but inevitable for everyone. For many countries, the time has come when their own interests must give way to the interests of the planet. Because otherwise both the former and the latter will be threatened by the actions of a global terrorist."
13:36 Ex-Chancellor of Germany Schroeder said after a meeting with Putin that he is ready for negotiations on Ukraine. In an interview with Stern magazine, Schroeder said that Russia wants to find a diplomatic solution to Ukraine, and the agreement reached in Istanbul on the supply of grain "can continue the way forward."
At the same time, he called Kyiv's statements about the return of Crimea absurd and added that an alternative to NATO membership for Ukraine "may be military neutrality, as in Austria."
13:12 The head of the Kharkiv OVA, Oleg Sinegubov, commented on the reports spread by the occupiers about a possible re-offensive on Kharkiv: “Without success at the front, the occupiers not only spread fakes, but also continue terror against civilians out of impotence. There is information that in the coming days the enemy will intensify missile attacks on the city of Kharkov and districts of the region. Therefore, I ask the residents of the Kharkov region not to neglect the alarm signals, not to be on the street unless absolutely necessary, but to be in shelters during the alarm."
At the same time, Sinegubov assured that the Ukrainian defenders are ready for any actions of the enemy, "hold the defense securely, do not allow the enemy to move forward, although he is trying."
13:07 Russia has no scenarios for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Alexander Trofimov, a representative of the Russian delegation on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, said at the UN. According to him, the Russian doctrine on this issue is "well known and extremely clear." Moscow allows the use of nuclear weapons only in response to a nuclear strike or to aggression using conventional weapons, "when the very existence of Russia is endangered."
13:04 It will take ten years to clear the Ukrainian sea. According to Roman Primush, Deputy Head of the State Emergency Service, Ukraine turned out to be the most mined country in the world. Ukrainian sailors are already being trained on specialized ships. The crews will be ready for work in a few weeks.
12:56 The vessel RAZONI with Ukrainian grain passed the inspection of the Joint Coordination Center and is ready to head to its destination , the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine reported.
12:39 FlyEye reconnaissance drones, which are used by NATO countries, have arrived in Ukraine. More than 20 DJI Matrice multicopters and, probably, Warmate kamikaze drones also arrived. According to the Minister of Digital Transformation Mikhail Fedorov, this is the first delivery under the contract for 260 million hryvnias. The Ministry of Digital Development is now considering the purchase of Ukrainian drones SKIF, Skyton and Ukrjet.
12:13 The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that a missile attack on Radekhiv in the Lvov region allegedly destroyed "a base with weapons and ammunition of foreign production that came from Poland."
11:42 The first cargo ship with Ukrainian grain is already being controlled in Istanbul, according to the Turkish Ministry of Defense. A ship flying the flag of Sierra Leone is heading to the port of Tripoli in Lebanon. On board - 26 thousand tons of corn.
11:38 Last night, the Ukrainian military shot down seven out of eight Russian Kh-101 (X-555) cruise missiles. Forbes calculated that it cost Russia 91 million dollars: X-101 - 13 million, Caliber - 6.5 million, Iskander - 3 million, Onyx - 1.25 million, X-22 - 1 million, Tochka-U - 0, 3 million
11:07 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the enemy on the morning of August 3. The enemy suffered the greatest losses in the Bakhmut and Donetsk directions.
- personnel - about 41,350 (+180) people liquidated,
- tanks - 1774 (+6),
- armored combat vehicles - 4022 (+8),
- artillery systems - 939 (+3),
- MLRS - 259 (+0),
- air defense systems - 118 (+1),
- aircraft - 223 (+0),
- helicopters - 191 (+0),
- UAV operational-tactical level - 740 (+1),
- cruise missiles - 180 (+6),
- ships/boats - 15 (+0),
- automotive equipment and tankers - 2922 (+8),
- special equipment - 83 (+1).
10:52 Since the start of martial law, 6,400 conscripts have been detained at the border who illegally tried to leave the country, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported. More than 4 thousand of them were detained outside the checkpoints, the rest tried to deceive the border guards at passport control: they disguised themselves as women, hid in cars (even in baby boxes), bought fake documents about their children or illnesses. There was even a man who, according to the entry in the document, was dismissed due to a difficult birth.
10:09 A powerful agency of Ukraine is working in Russia, Vadim Skibitsky, a representative of the GUR MOU, said. According to him, many Ukrainians managed to make a serious career in the public service during the years of their life in the Russian Federation. The environment makes it "very easy" to work with the enemy, spies were introduced back in 2015. Skibitsky noted that it was the agents who informed Kyiv that a full-scale attack on Ukraine was being prepared for February 15, but Putin's decision was postponed to February 24.
09:47 Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Alexei Danilov criticized men who want to leave the country during the war: "Go help those guys who are now at the front. There is a lot of work in the country. There is no need to hide behind a woman's skirt and flee the country. We need to help "You can't fight, you can't take up arms - help in another way. Find an opportunity to help."
09:33 Two-thirds of the residents were evacuated from the Donetsk region, now there are about 250 thousand residents left in the region, said the head of the OVA Pavel Kirilenko.
09:16 British intelligence reports that the railway connection between the Kherson region and the Crimea is probably not working after the APU hit the Russian echelon with ammunition. The Russians can repair the railway line within days, but it will remain a vulnerable point for Russian forces and their supply routes from Crimea, analysts say.
Intelligence also writes that the Russians will use the ferry crossing, recently built to replace the damaged Antonovsky Bridge in the suburbs of Kherson, to transfer troops and equipment, despite statements of intention to use it for civilian purposes. Analysts believe that the number of civilians trying to leave Kherson and its environs will increase in the near future, as fighting continues and food shortages worsen. This will put pressure on transport hubs and routes, which will likely lead to the implementation of traffic control measures.
08:57 Ukrainian refugees will be able to return to the EU at any time if they decide to go back to Ukraine, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs Ylva Johansson said during a visit to Kiev. She clarified that when returning home from the EU, Ukrainians must waive the status of temporary protection, but it can be renewed at any time.
08:48 The Pentagon denied Shoigu's statements about the destruction of six HIMARS installations in Ukraine. "We are aware of these latest statements by Minister Shoigu, and they are clearly false again," the acting minister said. Pentagon Representative Todd Bressail.
08:36 As a result of hostilities in Krasnohorivka, Donetsk region, four civilians were killed, seven more people were injured, said the head of the OVA Pavel Kirilenko.
08:09 The Russians attacked the Krivoy Rog district of the Dnipropetrovsk region at night, the head of the OVA, Valentin Reznichenko, said. In particular, the Zelenodolsk and Apostolovsk communities came under fire, people were not injured.
08:03 The Armed Forces of Ukraine forced the Russians to withdraw with losses in the Kharkov, Avdeevsky, Bakhmut directions, and in the Slavyansk direction, the Ukrainian army neutralized the enemy reconnaissance group, the General Staff reports in the morning report .
07:05 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports that Iran may have sent the first batch of drones to Russia and sent pilots and maintenance personnel to train on the Russian Su-35. Meanwhile, Russian troops were conducting unsuccessful offensive operations to the northeast and northwest of Kharkov. The occupiers also made limited ground attacks northwest of Slavyansk and east of Seversk.
The enemy forces made minor gains southeast of Bakhmut and continued offensive operations northeast and southeast of Bakhmut. Russian troops have been gradually advancing around Avdiivka and continue to attempt to advance southwest of Avdiivka. In addition, they launched two assaults in the north of the Kherson region and continue to redeploy troops to the southern axis.
Russia is forming new "volunteer battalions" in the Novosibirsk, Saratov, Ulyanovsk and Kurgan regions, and is also changing the timing of payment of monetary compensation.
06:23 The Russians attacked Kharkiv at night - one blow fell on the Kholodnogorsky district, the second - on the Novobavarsky district, where an infrastructure facility was damaged. In both cases, there was no fire, there were no casualties, Mayor Igor Terekhov said.
06:14 In Nikolaev around 5:00 powerful explosions have thundered, in one of districts of the city there was a fire, in another - the supermarket is destroyed, mayor Alexander Senkevich reported.
03:10 The Russians began the creation of a strike force in the Krivoy Rog direction, OK Pivden reports. The command also reported that rocket and artillery units of the Ukrainian army hit Chernobaevka, where the occupation troops are based.
00:08 In the occupied Kherson region, they began to accept applications from Ukrainian citizens for obtaining Russian citizenship without a local residence permit. Documents are accepted from residents of all regions of Ukraine on the basis of Putin's decree on simplifying the acquisition of Russian citizenship for Ukrainians, said "deputy head of the VGA" Ekaterina Gubareva.