Dispatch for August 17

Shelling of Kharkiv

Last night, Russian troops attacked a three-storey hostel in the Saltivka district of Kharkiv. 20 people were injured and 7 residents were killed, including a 12 year-old girl. 

Around 5 AM 8 more rockets hit the city. In the Slobidskyi district, a repair workshop of the tram depot and a four-storey hostel, which stood nearby, were destroyed. 18 people were injured, including a 13-year-old boy, and 3 people died.

The House of Culture in the Kholodnohirskyi district was also hit, which, we believe, was used by the Ukrainian military. This is confirmed by the pictures of soldiers of the Territorial Defense of Ukraine, who are standing armed next to the building. Since the building is located away from residential housing, stationing the troops there is not a war crime.

At the morning briefing of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Chief Spokesperson Igor Konashenkov announced that “a temporary base of foreign mercenaries had been hit, killing more than 90 fighters”. He made no reference to the killing of civilians. Ukrainian officials reported that the shelling was carried out using Iskander short-range ballistic missiles.

Russian forces struck a recreation facility in the town of Zatoka in the Odesa region with X-22 air-to-surface missiles launched from Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bombers. Seven buildings at the recreational facility were destroyed and 15 cottages were damaged. Four people were injured.

Russian forces shelled the city of Nikopol using Grad MLRS and tube artillery. One house was destroyed and twenty were damaged. Five people were injured

Situation at the front 

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports on a partial success of Russian forces in the direction of Opytne (after taking over Pisky, Russian troops headed north) and Novomykhailivka (an offensive in Vuhledar direction).

The pro-Russian project Lost Armor posted evidence that the 1st Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 1st Army Corps of so-called "People's Militia of the DPR" captured a (former) air defense base near Avdiivka.

CNN journalists obtained an internal report circulating among Ukrainian officials. According to it, Ukraine carried out explosions at three Russian military facilities in Crimea. This report additionally confirms that Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance teams were behind the explosions.

The report does not specify how exactly the attacks were carried out, and we still lean towards the loitering munition version.

The Russian "volunteer" reports on the consequences of the Ukrainian troops' strike on the location of the pro-Russian forces in Nova Kakhovka – 12 dead and 10 wounded.

The “Radio Svoboda” project published the aftermath of explosions at an ammunition depot near Dzhankoy, comparing satellite images.

An Eleron T28ME Russian reconnaissance drone was shot down in Ukraine for the first time. It differs from the widespread Eleron-3 by longer flight time (180 minutes versus 100), larger payload (1.5 kg) and higher flight altitude (5 km instead of 4 km).

RPG-32 rocket launchers made in Jordan were noticed in service of the AFU.

Croatia will supply Ukraine with 15 Soviet M-46 towed guns from the 1950s. They are of a rare 130 mm caliber and it is not known how many suitable shells Ukraine has.

Russian Deputy Defence Minister Aleksey Krivoruchko reported that as a result of the Army-2022 Military-Technical Forum the Ministry of Defence of Russia has signed 500 billion rubles worth of government contracts for the production of more than 3,700 pieces of military hardware and upgrade of another 100. We believe that the Russian military-industrial complex is capable of fulfilling at least a portion of these contracts in spite of the sanctions due to utilization of stockpiled components.

Rosoboronexport, Russia’s official armaments exporter, asserted that the construction of Kalashnikov rifle factories in Venezuela will be completed.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) came out with a statement on August 15th claiming that a sabotage team attempting to destroy an oil pipeline in Volgograd region has been eliminated. It was claimed that Andrey Chuenkov and Yuri Ionov, members of the Restruct movement founded by a Russian neo-nazi activist Maxim "Tesak" Martsinkevich, as well as Ukrainian Uragan and Azov Regiments, were among the dead.

Andrei Chuenkov is alive and is in Kyiv at the moment, while Yuri Ionov was killed during the seige of Mariupol in March 2022.

The Fedor (“Фёдор”) bulk cargo ship, which could not sell the stolen Ukrainian grain, will return to Sevastopol. Also, the Saint Konstantin (“Святой Константин”) bulk cargo could not sell the grain in Izmir, Turkey, so it went further to the eastern Mediterranean basin and disappeared (turned off its transponder). It probably went to Syria to sell the grain.

Russia has started a ferry service with Mariupol. The first ship, Lavrentiy (“Лаврентий”)  arrived in occupied Mariupol from Yeysk, Russia (the intention to start the service was reported back in April-May 2022).