Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised his country’s military for attacking military targets in Russia after his country reported multiple attacks on military targets inside Russia, including an airfield and an oil depot. “I want to thank every single soldier and all those working in the defense industry for attacking Russian airfields, oil refineries and logistics facilities,” Zelenskiy said in his daily statement. Kiev has stepped up air strikes on Russian territory, saying the attacks are in retaliation for the bombardment Ukraine has faced since Russia invaded more than two years ago. He added: “Every attack that responds precisely to Russian bombs and destroys Russian logistics facilities, Russian bases, makes it more difficult for the occupiers to stay in our country. Every such attack brings the end of the war closer.” Russian officials did not address the claims about the destroyed airfield, but local governor Vasily Golubev said in Telegram that authorities had declared a state of emergency in the Morozovsk district.
Russian officials said Ukrainian forces targeted several Russian regions in a major drone attack last night. The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that it had “intercepted and destroyed” a total of 75 drones over areas near or not far from the border with Ukraine, including Belgorod, Krasnodar, Kursk, Oryol, Rostov, Voronezh and Russia’s Ryazan region. Rostov Oblast Governor Vasily Golubev said his region had come under attack by a total of 55 drones, but did not say how many of those were intercepted or how many hit their targets, saying only that “warehouse facilities” in the Morozovsk and Kamensky districts were damaged in the attacks.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched an overnight attack on its territory with 29 Shahed drones and four missiles. Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleschuk said in an online statement that the country’s air defenses shot down 24 drones over nine regions of the country. His statement did not make clear whether missiles were also intercepted or what damage the attacks caused.
Ukraine is calling for an urgent investigation after images that appear to show Ukrainian prisoners of war being killed and dismembered by Russian forces have been widely shared online.. Dmytro Rubinet, the country’s leading human rights official, “In light of these horrific images, I urgently call on the ICRC and the United Nations to document further human rights violations by the terrorist state,” Rubinets said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said an urgent investigation had been launched. “Russia has consistently repeated Nazi crimes and shown complete contempt for all norms of the civilized world,” Kostin said. Russia denies torturing or other ill-treatment of prisoners.
One person was killed and two were wounded in Russian artillery fire on a residential area in a strategic logistics base in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the regional governor announced. “Russian forces deliberately and regularly attack civilians,” Donetsk Oblast Governor Vadim Filashkin wrote on the messaging app Telegram. Rescue workers continued to fight the fire two hours after the crash, which police at the scene determined was caused by a UMPB D-30 glide bomb. Russian forces have been making steady advances on multiple fronts in Donetsk, launching particularly heavy attacks near Pokrovsk.
According to the UK Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence report, the average daily casualties of Russian forces in Ukraine have fallen from more than 1,262 in May, at the height of the conflict, to 1,140 in July 2024.Despite this reduction, the Ukrainian General Staff reported that the past three months were the costliest for Russian forces since February 2022. The drop in the daily average is likely a sign that Russian forces are strengthening their positions on the Kharkiv axis. As Russian forces continue their offensive operations on a wide front stretching from Kharkiv in the north to Lobotoyn in the south, Russian casualty rates will likely remain at an average of more than 1,000 per day throughout August 2024, the Defense Ministry said.
