Dispatch for August 3

Strikes from the Russian side:

• At night, Russian troops fired on Mykolaiv, one of the strikes hit a grocery store; no one was hurt. Judging by the photos of munitions, the strikes were carried out with either Uragan or Smerch MLRS. 

• Russian troops fired  on the city of Chuhuiv (Kharkiv Region) using cluster rockets from an Uragan MLRS. One of the shells hit an apartment where Russian citizens lived, killing a man and injuring a woman.

Strikes from the Ukrainian side:

• Ukrainian forces hit an oil depot in Makiivka (a city near Donetsk). 

Not enough information as of yet: 

• On August 4, Donetsk was shelled: the Opera House and the Donbass Palace hotel were hit; a young woman was killed. There is no information on who carried out the attack.
• There was a powerful explosion near Chornobaivka. No details are available yet..

Researcher John Weissman has created a project that tracks GPS spoofing activity (jamming that replaces a real GPS signal with a fake one) around the world. He uses ADS-B Exchange data to detect spoofing (this service aggregates data from flying aircraft collected by volunteer receivers; these data are often used for tracking military aircraft, because many planes are hidden on the website FlightRadar24).  According to these data, it’s apparent that GPS spoofing operated near Minsk at least since February 15. Its operation stopped at the same time the Russian troops withdrew from the Kyiv direction. The detection of new GPS spoofing activity in that region may indicate the preparation of an offensive from Belarus.

The occupation administration of the Kherson region shows a report on the repair of the Antonivskyi road bridge. The video shows attempts to fix reinforcing bars in the breaches, fill them with concrete and gravel, and put iron flooring on top. We believe this method is fallible and very risky

The Atlantic Council published an article saying that "the entire Ukraine invasion hinges on the coming battle of Kherson." We and other analysts believe that it is incorrect to say so. Kherson is strategically and economically very important for Ukraine and this is the most promising direction for the counteroffensive, but it is only one section of a very long front. The Dnipro River is a natural obstacle for both sides while the Antonivskyi bridge is practically destroyed. At the moment, neither of the parties has the strength to organize a massive breakthrough, so a decisive battle shouldn't be expected in the near future.

The death toll of the attack on Vinnytsia on July 14 has grown to 27 people. Doctor Pavel Kovalchuk died in the hospital. Surgeons had been fighting for his life for 20 days, but the injuries were too severe.

In Vinnytsia and Kyiv, in case of an air alert, ground public transport will have to stop at the roadside, passengers will be required to leave the vehicles and proceed to the nearest shelter.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has announced that the UN will launch a mission to establish the facts of the shelling of the detention center in Olenivka. 

A video has appeared showing four HIMARS firing simultaneously during daylight hours. In the left corner of the video you can see a Ukrainian soldier with a MANPADS who apparently is there to defend the HIMARS in case of an aerial attack. 

Azov special operations forces published a video in which they strike a Russian supply column. We note that the column was moving within Russia’s Belgorod region near the village of Sereda.

Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported that working hours of schools and kindergartens in five municipal entities located within a five-kilometer-wide zone along the border will be limited..   

Novaya Gazeta Europe writes that employees of state-owned enterprises in the Leningrad region are being sent for military training in accordance with orders of the authorities. The employees get summons right at work places and are required to come to an enlistment office at their place of residence with documents and basic necessities. They are promised not to be sent to the front, but they can be sent to Mariupol, for example, for repairing military equipment from the front line. We have also gotten similar reports from such employees. We suppose that by using employees from state-owned enterprises for the repair work, Russian forces will free up military contractors from maintenance battalions and send them to the front.

Russian automotive giant AvtoVaz has offered employees of the Izhevsk factory, where Lada Vesta cars are assembled, from 5 to 7 monthly salaries, additional financial support, and employment assistance in the case of their voluntary dismissal. AvtoVaz calls the payments a part of an "additional support measures" complex due to the crisis in supplying components for Lada Vesta and a suspension of production of the cars.

Irpin City (Kyiv Region) has become a sister city of Miami.