TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org

Joyce Vance

https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/reading-jack-smiths-brief?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Alexander Vindman

https://open.substack.com/pub/alexandervindman/p/reflections-on-ukraines-33rd-independence?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

"We continue to advance in the Kursk area, having seized 1,294 square kilometers of territory to date. We have also replenished the exchange fund," Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian army, Syrsky, said during Zelensky’s press conference, as reported by the Kyiv Post correspondent.

📷: Kyiv Post

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Russia has announced a "review of its nuclear doctrine." President Zelensky remarked that Putin loves his life too much to press the red button:

"They always use intimidation-part of this programme involves nuclear threats. I believe that Putin loves his life too much, so I think he will hold onto his seat, his Kremlin, and the support of his actions from society."

📷: Kyiv Post

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Russia's Largest Oil Refinery Shuts Down Almost Half of Its Capacity After Explosion

An explosion that rocked the Omsk oil refinery on Monday knocked out almost half of its capacity, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the situation. According to the agency's source, the incident damaged and shut down the AVT-11 primary oil refining unit, the most productive at the refinery.

AVT-11 processes 8.4 million tons of oil and 1.2 million tons of gas condensate per year and provides 41% of the capacity of the Omsk Oil Refinery.

According to Reuters sources, the accident could completely stop the hydrocracking process at the plant, since it is supplied with raw materials (vacuum gas oil) directly from AVT-11.

Last year, the Omsk Oil Refinery processed 21.28 million tons of oil and produced 5.07 million tons of motor gasoline (11.5% of production in the Russian Federation), 8.1 million tons of diesel fuel (9.2%) and 1.63 million tons of jet fuel (15%).

Soldiers of the 22nd separate mechanized brigade shows the abandoned fortifications of the 1434th "Akhmat-Chechen" regiment in the Kursk region of russia.

It is clear that they simply bolted - ran away without bringing any of their items with them.

🤡 "We have not received official requests from Ukraine to withdraw troops from the border. We saw the statement, but only on the Internet. We would be grateful if someone could explain the logic of these statements", - spokesman of Belarussian MFA, Anatolyi Glaz.

I can only surmise that Belarussians are unable to comprehend logic

Below is the statement in question - the logic would seems pretty unequivocal:

"We call on the officials of Belarus not to make tragic mistakes for their own country under the pressure of Moscow, and its armed forces to stop unfriendly actions and withdraw troops from the state border of Ukraine to a distance that exceeds the range of fire systems available in the Republic of Belarus.
We warn that in the event of a violation of the border, Ukraine will use all necessary measures for self-defense, and all troop concentrations, facilities and supply routes in Belarus will become legitimate targets for the Armed Forces"

Night assault on a Russian position. Azov special recon team captures the occupiers

A reconnaissance unit conducted a raid on enemy positions in the Serebryansky Forestry.

The Azov fighters took advantage of their superior equipment and, under the cover of darkness, approached the Russian trenches undetected.

The enemy infantry that resisted was eliminated. The scouts offered the remaining Russians the chance to surrender in exchange for guarantees of life, health, and the provision of first aid.

The result of the operation — a cleared enemy position and two captured Russian servicemen.

The new video shows the full footage of the raid captured by the thermal imaging sights of the reconnaissance unit of the 12th Special Forces Brigade Azov.

🕯 Dmytro Shapoval's life was cut short during Russian shelling of the village of Mogrytsia in the Sumy region.

On the morning of August 8, 2024, the enemy attacked this settlement with guided aerial bombs. Dmytryk's older brother, 23-year-old Bohdan, also passed away. They were in the yard of the school, which was completely destroyed as a result of the impact.

Dmytryk was six years old. He was born in the Sumy Oblast and grew up in the village of Mogrytsia. He studied in the first grade. He was a good, positive boy. Always smiled. He adored spending time with family and friends, playing various games.

Due to shelling, the bodies of the boy and his brother were taken out of Mogrytsia by volunteers. They were buried in the village of Podlisnivka the next day, August 9.

Rest in Peace Vitaly

Vitaly Alimov worked as a firefighter driver in the Main Department of the State Emergency Service of the Odesa Region. He had the rank of master sergeant of the Civil Defense Service.

On March 15, 2024, during a Russian missile attack on Odesa, Vitaly and his colleagues, as well as policemen and medics, arrived at the site of the attack. Then the enemy struck a second time. As a result of the second "arrival", Vitaly was seriously injured and died in the hospital the next day.

"Vitaly will always remain in our memory as a good friend, a sensitive and kind person, a professional in his field," colleagues said about the deceased.

Vitaly is survived by his wife, son and other relatives.

🤡Russia - a huge country with a population of over 146 million people and plenty of natural resources - has no long term future without war, destruction and murder, according to Putin

"The successful completion of the Special Military Operation is, as I have said many times, the main, fundamental condition for the realization of Russia's long-term development plans" the dictator stated at a meeting for the economic development of the Russian Federation.

⚡️🇺🇸🧠⚠️Technology company Shield AI, in partnership with Kratos and Parry Labs, has conducted a “groundbreaking” demonstration of coordinated autonomous flight using two high-performance, jet-powered MQM-178 Firejet drones.

💻🤖The planes were flown by the company’s Hivemind artificial intelligence pilots, collaborating to execute coordinated maneuvers under realistic combat scenarios, marking a significant leap toward blended operations between crewed and uncrewed aircraft.

🗣️“In the next decade, AI pilots will command and maneuver all unmanned systems, enabling the 🇺🇸US and our 🇪🇺allies to deploy millions of intelligent, resilient drones,” said Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s President, Co-founder and a former Navy SEAL. “These Firejet flight tests represent a key milestone on our journey to bring autonomy to the world. What’s awesome is that the algorithms are not limited to the number of aircraft. For test objectives and budgetary reasons, we limited the number of Firejets to 2, but it could have been 4, 8, 16, 32, and so on.”

⚡️follow us: ➡️✅@NewEasternOutlook

SBU notifies Iranian commander visiting Crimea of ​​suspicion over UAV deliveries to russia

"The Security Service has collected evidence on Brigadier General of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Sharifi Molasarei Abbas Musa, who was involved in the russian Federation's war against Ukraine. According to the investigation, he directly helped the command of the russian occupation groups to carry out air strikes on Ukraine using Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles,"
the SBU said.

According to the service, the IRGC transferred at least 1,500 combat drones of the Shahed-136 and Mohajer-6 types to russia in August-September 2022. At the same time, General Sharifi Molasarei Abbas Musa arrived in annexed Crimea and brought with him a group of Iranian drone instructors. Under his leadership, russian military personnel were trained in the combat use of drones.

@ukrainejournal

❗Russia hit a hotel where foreign instructors were stationed in Krivoy Rog ⚡

According to Sergei Lebedev, coordinator of the pro-Russian resistance in Nikolaev, 15 English-speaking instructors had to be evacuated by military medics. @ukrainejournal

Operational information of the General Staff of Ukraine as of 08.00 on 07/27/2024 regarding the Russian invasion

Glory to Ukraine!
The nine hundred and sixteenth day of large-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine has begun.

During the past day, 170 combat clashes were recorded.
According to detailed information, yesterday the enemy launched three missile strikes against the positions of Ukrainian units and populated areas using 129 missiles, 81 air strikes, using 116 air defense systems. In addition, he carried out more than 4,500 attacks, including 156 - using rocket salvo systems.

The aggressor carried out airstrikes in the areas of Kolisnikivka, Kryva Luka, Siversk, Verkhnokamianske, Hryhorivka, Chasiv Yar, Toretsk, Druzhba, Petrivka, Oleksandropil, Selidove, Yehorivka, Vugledar, Tyahinka, Tokarivka, Sadove, Odradokamyanka.

As a result of Russian terrorist attacks, unfortunately, there are dead and wounded among the civilian population. High-rise and private residential buildings and infrastructure facilities were destroyed and damaged.

Over the past 24 hours, the aviation and missile forces and artillery of the Defense Forces hit 16 areas of concentration of the enemy's manpower, the command post of the UAV, the "Zoopark" radar, two ammunition depots, an artillery system and another important enemy object.

In the Kharkiv direction, the gresor continued offensive actions. There were three combat clashes in the area of ​​Vovchansk settlement.

In the Kupyansk direction, the number of attacks per day was 16. The defense forces repelled enemy assaults near Novoosynovo, Glushkivka, Stelmakhivka, and Andriivka.

In the Lymansky direction, our troops repelled 20 attacks in the areas of Makiivka, Grekivka, Druzhelyubivka, Nevsky, Novosadovo, and Torsky.

In the Siverskyi direction, the Defense Forces of Ukraine repelled seven assaults near Spirny, Verkhnyokamyansky, and Vyimka.

In the Kramatorsk direction, our soldiers stopped five enemy attempts to break through the defenses in the area of ​​Chasovoy Yar.

On the Toretsk direction, the enemy launched 15 attacks in the Toretsk and New York areas.

In the Pokrovsky direction, our defenders repelled 60 assaults in the areas of Kalinove, Vozdvizhenka, Novooleksandrivka, Panteleimonivka, Zelene Pole, Myrolyubivka, Grodivka, Novogrodivka, Memryk, Mykhailivka and Karlivka settlements. Ukrainian defenders are doing everything they can to hold defensive lines and positions, causing significant losses to the enemy.

In the Kurakhiv direction, the Defense Forces repelled enemy attacks near Krasnohorivka, Gostroy, Georgiivka, and Kostyantynivka, where the enemy tried to break through the defenses of our troops 18 times.

In the Vremivsk direction, the enemy carried out 22 assaults in the direction of Vodyanyi, Ugledar and near Prechistivka, actively using armored vehicles during the assaults.

Enemy units did not conduct active offensive operations in the Orichiv direction.

In the Dnieper direction, the occupiers made four unsuccessful attempts to knock out units of the Defense Forces from their occupied positions.

On the Volyn and Poliske directions, the operational situation has not changed significantly. No signs of formation of enemy offensive groups were detected.

On the border with the Chernihiv and Sumy regions, the enemy maintains a military presence, shelling populated areas from the territory of the Russian Federation.

The enemy does not stop trying to storm the positions of the Ukrainian defenders in all directions, and uses significant forces for this. Despite this, our soldiers continue to restrain the enemy and inflict significant losses on him.
In general, the invaders lost 1,280 people last day. Ukrainian soldiers also destroyed 12 tanks, 19 armored combat vehicles, 52 artillery systems, one anti-aircraft missile system, 120 operational-tactical unmanned aerial vehicles, 103 missiles, 58 vehicles and three units of special equipment.

Join the Defense Forces! The fight continues!
Together we will win!

@ukrainejournal

The tenth day of the fire atw the oil depot in Proletarsk, Rostov region in Russia. Fuel tanks keep burning. @ukrainejournal

"My son was really waiting for his dad, he watches videos and sees photos of him every day, constantly said that he misses him very much, constantly asked where his dad is," says Anastasia, the wife of Yevgeny, who was released from captivity today.

During more than two years of captivity, Yevgeny received only one letter from his wife, from which he learned that he had a daughter, Yevgenia. Today he saw her for the first time.

@ukrainejournal

The recent massive air attack on Ukraine is estimated to have cost Russia around $1.26 billion, according to EP.

- Shahed-136/131 UAVs, costing between $49,000 (domestically produced) and $290,000 (imported from Iran), with an average import price of $193,000, resulted in a $21.3 million expenditure on Shaheds alone.
- Each Kh-47M2 "Kinzhal" aeroballistic missile costs $10 million, and the release of 30 missiles amounted to $300 million.
- The Kh-22 missile costs $1 million, totaling $3 million for the missiles used.
- The Kh-101 missile, priced at $13 million per unit, contributed $1 billion to the attack's cost.
- Kalibr missiles, costing $6.5 million each, added $182 million.
- Kh-59/Kh-69 missiles cost $0.5 million each, totaling $5 million.
- Iskander-M ballistic missiles, priced at $3 million per unit, amounted to $18 million.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on four Russian and two European companies following an investigation by "Schemes" into the supply of imported electronics for Russian Su-type fighter jets. This move was detailed in the updated sanctions list released by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control on August 23, — Radio Svoboda

In total, the U.S. has sanctioned 400 individuals and entities across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East for their involvement in supporting Russia’s military and evading sanctions. Among the sanctioned firms are three Russian companies—"Display Component" and two companies named "Exiton"—as well as "Aspectrium," all of which are connected to the supply of electronics for Russian fighter jets.

These Russian firms are owned by the Altukhov family, who had been importing Western electronics into Russia even before the war through their company, Integral-Zapad. After sanctions were imposed on Integral-Zapad, the family continued their operations via other companies.

European intermediaries involved in the supply chain, such as Hungarian Matrix Metal Group and Cypriot Noratec Holdings, were also sanctioned. These firms, owned by Latvian citizen Vladimirs Boretskis, sold imported electronics to the Russian companies under investigation.

Notably, the U.S. has not imposed sanctions on the owners of these firms, focusing instead on the companies themselves.

Russia launched a nighttime attack on Ukraine with the following known details:

📍 Zaporizhzhia: Russian drones bombarded the city and surrounding district. A man was killed, and a man and a woman were injured. Private homes were damaged, and dry grass caught fire.

📍 Kryvyi Rih (video): Initial reports indicate one person was killed and four were injured. A civilian object was damaged, and there may still be people trapped under the rubble.