Dispatch for July 25

Contradictory reports have appeared regarding the Vuhlehirska Power Station:

• RT correspondent Murad Gazdiyev reports that the Vuhlehirska Power Station is now under the control of forces of the 1st Army Corps of the DNR People’s Militia and the Wagner Group; 
• RIA FAN correspondent says that the power station has yet to be captured and that Ukrainian troops have an exit route to Semyhir’ya; 
• Grey Zone Telegram channel writes that the Vuhlehirska Power Station has not been captured and that fighting is underway on the approaches to the station.

Videos from Novoluhanske published in pro-Russian groups also indicate that the Wagner Group is active along this axis.

The Ukrainian General Staff reports that on Sunday a Russian Mi-8 helicopter attacked Ukrainian positions in Ol’hyne (located to the west of Vysokopillia).

Video shows an Mi-24 helicopter in action which the Czech Republic delivered to Ukraine.

Reports from Bakhmut Telegram chat confirm the use of helicopters by Ukraine. Pro-Russian local residents write that “four Ukrainian helicopters flew along the Rostov road, did their “dirty work”, and flew away (by “Rostov road” they mean the road that runs to the south from Bakhmut, not the M-4 in Russia).

Some losses of localities can be monitored by comparing reports of the Ukrainian General Staff for different days. Probably, Russian forces occupied Vershyna and Berestove. We still can’t call it a large-scale offensive, but there are small advances of the Russian army, at least on the Bakhmut-Soledar-Siversk line.

The advisor to the head of the President’s office of Ukraine Oleksiy Arestovych said that the general Ukrainian counteroffensive can be expected closer to autumn, because the main condition of a counteroffensive is a loss of the enemy’s ability to attack.

A train with Russian military equipment with a “V” sign was seen at the Novooleksiivka railway station in Kherson region. As we reported, including in yesterday’s summary, the large-scale transfer of the Group of Forces “East” is performed firstly from Luhansk region of Ukraine to Belgorod region of Russia, then passing through Crimea to the southern regions of Ukraine. It is still unknown if it will go further to the Zaporizhia direction for an offensive or to the Kherson region for a defense of their positions.

Russian forces show a video of them shelling Ukrainian positions in the forest near Avdiivka with Grad MLRS using 9M22S rockets. This particular way of using incendiary ammunition (away from residential areas, at a military target) is not a violation of any norms.

Also, Russian forces continue to shell the Dnipropetrovsk region with MLRS and artillery from Enerhodar. Up to 40 rockets were fired in the Nikopol district; six private houses and a gas pipeline were damaged; a ten-year-old girl was injured. In the Dnipro district, two rockets hit the hangars of an agricultural enterprise; there were no casualties. There were also no casualties or destruction in the Kryvyi Rih district.

The Russian side fired upon private houses in Kramatorsk with Smerch MLRS; the rear end of one of the missiles fell into a residential building; there were no casualties.

The air defense forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine report shooting down all four Kalibr missiles launched by the Russian side from the Black Sea towards the Khmelnytskyi region past Sunday.

Poland claimed they have already delivered PT-91 Twardy tanks to Ukraine. Andrii Yermak, Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, confirms that they are in Ukraine, though we have not seen any visual confirmations yet. 

Oleksiy Reznikov, Minister of Defense of Ukraine, says that the first three Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns (SPAAG) have arrived from Germany, twelve more are expected. This SPAAG is equipped with a very good radar station, can be accurately and quickly aimed and may be used by Ukraine against drones and, potentially, low-flying helicopters. 

Pro-Russian Telegram Channel “Military Informant” (“Военный Осведомитель”) shows a tail end of a Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 drone, allegedly shot down in southern Ukraine. Many analysts noticed that the grass in the photos is bright-green, while in this part of the country it should be already faded in the sun. Tough to tell whether they show us some aged photos or carry over the wreckage from place to place again.

Fragments of a GMLRS rocket have been found in the Luhansk region.

The story of “luring out” Russian military pilots turned out not to be a special operation of the SBU  (Ukraine Security Service) or the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine, but a private initiative of former Ukrainian intelligence officers who were fired after the failure of “Wagnergate” (a botched attempt to lure out the Wagner group mercenaries in order to arrest them on the Ukrainian territory).

Changes in the position expressed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. 

April 19: Russia is not planning to change the regime in Ukraine. 

July 24: Russia will certainly help to depose the “anti-people” Kyiv regime.  

The publication “Mediazona” together with “Novaya Vkladka” published a story by a Russian artilleryman who fought near Chernihiv.

The IStories media reports that, according to sources, at least three convicts from Yablonevka penal colony, St. Petersburg recruited by the Wagner group were killed in Donbass; two more were wounded and put into hospitals in Luhansk under aliases.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid instructed the country's Foreign Ministry to prepare a series of "political measures" against Russia in the event of the liquidation of the representative office of the Jewish agency Sohnut in Russia. 

In Russia, people are being fined for discrediting the Russian military by social media likes. 

Sakhalin.info reports that “Sakhalin will repair 90 houses in Shakhtarsk in the Donetsk region” (but of course not in Shakhtyorsk in Sakhalin itself).