Dispatch for August 1

The Russian forces try to advance toward Avdiikva and Marinka, however without much success. They hit Avdiivka including residential infrastructure with Uragan MLRS, which is a war crime. 

The General Staff of Ukraine reports that the enemy had no success at Pisky. Denis Pushilin, the head of the so-called DPR, claims that: “Pisky is ours”, although it’s hard to believe. 

The Russian soldiers are being withdrawn to Henichesk district of the Kherson region and stationed at the Arabat Spit bases instead of Crimea or the territory of Russia. They are eligible for a couple-week rest there, and then are put into battle again. The generals understand that if the soldiers are withdrawn to Russia for rotation, many will submit a refusal from participation in the “special operation”.   

Mykolaiv: The Russian troops continue missile attacks. 

The first-aid station of the emergency care hospital has been hit. Once again, we emphasize that an attack on a medical facility is a war crime. Moreover, seven people were killed when they hit a bus stop last Friday.

Kharkiv: A bus stop and the Saltivskyi district have been shelled. Two wounded, one of them died later. 

Dnipropetrovsk Region: The Nikopol District is under fire again. In the town of Marhanets, a Grad rocket hit a residential building.

According to the head of the military administration of Kryvyi Rih, Oleksandr Vilkul, Russian forces near the village of Dovgovo “shot at point blank” an evacuation minubus, killing two people.  

An improvised ferry crossing the Dnipro in Kherson: Russian troops arranged a press-tour for pro-Russian journalists. We can see that the infrastructure is used by both civilian and military vehicles at the same time, which is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.  We also noticed a VW Transporter minibus similar to the ones we saw in 2014 in the convoy that contained the Buk missile system that later shot Flight MH17. Possibly, these Volkswagens could be used by the FSB forces, which are present in Kherson carrying out their “special operations”.

The Russian troops are building up the grouping in the Krivy Rih axis. If we assume that they will go on to an offensive in this axis then their goal may be to push the Ukrainian troops as far away from Kherson as possible in order to ensure the security of the logistic infrastructure (although GMLRS is able to reach the Antonivsky bridge even directly from Mykolaiv).

Ukraine's 93rd Mechanized Brigade is successfully counter-attacking on the Izyum axis, gradually liberating settlements, and has captured a Russian BTR-82 with parade decoration.

Oleksiy Reznikov, Minister of Defense of Ukraine says that MARS II MLRS from Germany and 4 more HIMARS launchers from the United States were delivered to Ukraine.

The Russian side reports the destruction of two more HIMARS launchers, although without any supporting evidence yet again. 

Razoni, the first dry-cargo vessel with Ukrainian corn, left the port of Odesa for Lebanon under the flag of Sierra Leone.The vessel will be inspected by the Joint Coordination Center prior to entering the Bosphorus. 

In Bashkortostan, a way to postpone a one-time payment of 200,000 rubles to volunteers for up to 90 days from the date of signing the contract has been devised.

Servicemen of the Chuvash volunteer battalion write a complaint to the head of the Chuvash Republic and the Cabinet of Ministers of the Chuvash Republic that they had not received the promised payments of 200,000 roubles upon signing the contract and had not been receiving the promised daily payments. 90% of the battalion are willing to break the contract in order to solve their financial problems in a different way (you may fight in Ukraine by enlisting into the Wagner group or into the Chechen National Guard). They threaten to contact the Supreme Commander-in-Chief via social media (which he does not have).

A pro-Russian war reporter Rudenko spoke with Serhiy Volynsky (callsign "Volyna"), a captured brigade commander of the 36th Marine Brigade, which had defended Azovstal and Mariupol, and whose servicemen had been captured along with the Azovites.

We have paid attention to his words that "a yellow light and an explosion could be seen from our barracks." Thus, from his words it follows that for some reason the Azov regiment had been settled separately in the hangar, which was later attacked.

Once again, pro-Russian Telegram channels are attempting to expose Western-supplied Ukrainian weapons as inaccurate and inefficient by claiming that Brimstone missiles used by AFU to bombard Russian positions in Zaporizhzhia region have failed to detonate. However, a rocket with that serial number was already showcased in May. The same thing happens with pieces of Bayraktar wreckages and HIMARS ordnance fragments.

Yevhen Zhukov (callsign “Marshall”), head of Kyiv’s Patrol Police, shed some light on “Russian tanks” in Kyiv while giving a comment regarding the events in Obolonskyi District and around Beresteiska metro station. This refers to a string of videos featuring a Strela-10 surface-to-air missile system haphazardly driving around and running over a passenger car. According to Zhukov, there was no Russian armor in Kyiv and the incident was an unfortunate case of friendly fire.

This Sunday Anton Herashchenko, advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, claimed that a HIMARS strike on Brylivka railway station resulted in 80 Russian soldiers dead with over 200 wounded and many vehicles and rail tank cars destroyed. Today, he published satellite images of the strike’s aftermath.