In a controversial interview, a Ukrainian intelligence officer said the US has veto power over Himar attacks. Iran has meanwhile probably delivered the first drones to Russia. All news about the war in Ukraine can be found in the ticker.
6:05 p.m .: The US apparently has the right to veto Ukrainian attacks with Himar rocket launchers. This was indicated by Vadym Skibitsky, a top official in the Ukrainian secret service, in an interview with the British Telegraph.
Skibitsky was asked how Ukraine manages to carry out such precise attacks with the Himars. His answer: “We use real-time information.” However, this does not come directly from the USA. However, Skibitsky said there were agreements with Washington before Himar missiles were fired – and that the United States had the right of veto if the specified target of the missiles did not suit them. He did not give any further details.
The Russian side took the statements as an admission of US involvement in the war. The US has delivered Himars systems to Ukraine. These are more accurate and have a longer range than the rocket launchers previously available to Ukraine.
10.18 a.m .: Ukrainian counterattacks in the Cherson region in south-eastern Ukraine are causing increasing problems for the Russian occupiers, according to British intelligence services. A Ukrainian attack on a Russian ammunition train temporarily disrupted a supply route from the occupied Crimea peninsula, the British Defense Ministry said in an update released on Wednesday. Although the Russians could repair this route within a few days, it will remain a weak point.
The Antonivka Bridge, which was damaged by Ukrainian missiles, is also making it difficult for Moscow to supply its occupying army west of the Dnipro River. The Russians would almost certainly have to use a ferry route recently established for civilians to get their troops and supplies across the river.
According to Western security circles, the Ukrainian counter-offensive in Cherson has recently picked up speed. In particular, the US-supplied Himar multiple rocket launchers are intended to inflict casualties on the attackers and cause logistical problems.
As the fierce fighting continues, the British secret services are assuming that more and more people will flee the Kherson region in the near future. This is expected to increase the pressure on traffic and transport routes and possibly lead to restrictions.
Wednesday, August 3, 2022, 7:47 a.m.: The “Institute for the Study of War” reports in its daily Ukraine briefing that the first Iranian drones may have arrived in Russia. Pilots and technicians are also said to have been sent. Sources in Iran and the United States said so. However, the information has not been confirmed.
The United States announced weeks ago that it had indications that a drone deal between Iran and Russia was being initiated.
10:56 p.m .: On Monday, Ukrainian forces fired on and completely destroyed an important headquarters of Russian occupying forces in Pervomaisk with Himar rockets. Russian officials had ruled the city from the headquarters since 2014, which was considered the headquarters of the Russian army in Pervormaisk.
The building also became known through a French documentary that reported on the torture of Ukrainian soldiers. In front of the headquarters, Ukrainian prisoners of war were tortured, humiliated and finally shot by Russian soldiers. Subsequently, Russian military had them positioned in unnatural postures along the street.
9:36 p.m .: A Russian missile has landed in the Ukrainian region of Chervonohradskyi, which borders Poland. This is reported by the Kyiv Independent. According to the governor of the affected Lviv Oblast, Maksim Kozytskyj, a military base was hit. Rescue workers were on site, but there were no injuries or deaths.
4:34 p.m.: Spain will not deliver Leopard tanks to Ukraine. As the Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles explained in an interview with “El Mundo”, tests had revealed defects in the tanks. Since they were in “unsatisfactory condition” and even posed a danger to those who operate them, the decision was made not to deliver them. Madrid initially agreed to send ten Leopard 2A4 battle tanks to Kyiv.
3:55 p.m .: The grain magnate Olekyj Vadaturskyj and his wife died in a Russian rocket attack in Mykolaiv. Accordingly, the rocket hit her bedroom on July 31st. According to the Kyiv Independent, the governor of Mykolaiv Oblast said the couple had been accidentally killed because there was a military base next to their house.
However, the Attorney General’s Office cannot rule out the possibility that the murders were premeditated. “Vadaturskyi was the target,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak told Telegram. That is why the investigation was started.
Before the war, Vadatursky’s grain logistics company, called Nibulon, had exported grain to 70 countries. He was considered the most powerful grain trader in Ukraine. President Zelenskyi described his death as a great loss.
Tuesday, August 2, 2:17 p.m.: The Russian Black Sea Fleet is in a weak position, according to Britain. The reported Ukrainian attack on the headquarters in Sevastopol on Ukraine’s annexed Crimea peninsula is “the latest setback” for the fleet, the Ministry of Defense said in London, recalling the loss of the flagship “Moskva” in April.
With reference to the alleged Ukrainian drone attack on Sevastopol, Russia had canceled its “Navy Day” celebrations in Crimea. The British Ministry of Defense commented: “Following reports of canceled parades, it is unlikely that the Black Sea Fleet will be able to hold high-profile public events alongside its wartime activities.” The Ukrainian Navy had denied the attack, saying Russia had “made up” the incident.
Tuesday, August 2, 12:31 p.m .: Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops for the city of Bakhmut continues in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk. The Ukrainian general staff announced on Tuesday that there had also been Russian advances in the direction of Soledars, eight kilometers to the north. Russian attacks in several places south of Bakhmut, on the other hand, were largely repelled, it said. This information could not be independently verified.
The Ukrainian General Staff also reported a Russian attack in the north of the Cherson region on the border with the neighboring Dnepropetrovsk region. For weeks, Kyiv has been nurturing hopes of launching a counter-offensive in this region to recapture the south.
6:06 p.m .: According to the local governor, the Ukrainian armed forces have recaptured more than 40 places in the Kherson region in the past few weeks. So far, 46 towns in the region have been “liberated,” Ukrainian governor Dmytro Butriy said on state television on Monday. According to him, most of the recaptured places are in the north of the region, others are south near the Black Sea.
For several weeks, Ukrainian forces have been waging a counter-offensive in the southern Kherson region, which borders the Crimean Peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. The region was largely taken by the invading forces in the first days of the war of aggression that Russia began on February 24.
Governor Butriy said some of the villages that have since been recaptured were “90 percent destroyed and are still under constant fire today”. He described the humanitarian situation in the region as “critical”.
In its counter-offensive, the Ukrainian army attacked Russian positions and camps behind the front line and damaged bridges on supply routes for the invading forces. Military experts blame the modern rocket launcher systems supplied from the West for the fact that the Ukrainian army is now able to conduct attacks much deeper into the areas occupied by Russia.
2:13 p.m .: After the German Mars II rocket launchers, other Himars systems have also arrived in Ukraine. “Four more Himars have arrived in Ukraine. Thank you to the US President, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the American people for strengthening Ukraine’s army,” Defense Minister Reznikov wrote on Twitter. “The sound of Himar’s punches has become the summerite on the front lines.”
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