Dispatch for July 27

Incident near Troebortnoe customs point: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moldova confirmed that one citizen of Moldova was killed and two more were injured in the Ukrainian strike to the warehouse near customs point. A formal statement of the Ministry does not contain any information that these people worked at or were recruited by FSB, just a claim that civilians of this country died.

Mark Krutov, correspondent at Radio Liberty, found the cousin of the deceased Ivan Surdula, and she told his story. Ivan was originally from Transnistria but lived in Bryansk (this explains why he went exactly to Troebortnoe - this is the closest customs and border checkpoint to Bryansk). He left behind a wife and a one-year-old child in Bryansk. 

According to Strelkov, Russian troops have recaptured Bilohirka near Inhulets river in Kherson region, and fighting for Andriivka is taking place. The General Staff of Ukraine does not confirm the information about Bilohirka. 

Donetsk front line: active fighting has started. Pro-Russian telegram channels announced an assault in the Avdiivka-Pisky-Krasnohorivka-Maryinka area. This information is confirmed by various pro-Kremlin correspondents. Strelkov compares it with the Battle of Verdun. Nevertheless, he believes that it is possible to capture Avdiivka, Pisky, Krasnohorivka and Maryinka, but the time frame is not clear.

The Bakhmut-Soledar-Siversk line of defense: The General Staff of Ukraine reports pro-Russian forces

• attacking in the Rota-Semyhir’ya direction; unsuccessful so far;
• shelling districts of Soledar;
• trying to advance in the Volodymyrivka-Soledar direction, unsuccessful so far;
• attempting to advance in the Berestove direction, the attack was stopped.

We still haven’t seen the deployment of the Group of Troops “Center” along this axis. Currently the 2nd Army Corps of the LNR People’s Militia and the Wagner Group are taking part in these battles.

Izium-Sloviansk axis: Russian troops are concentrating near Izium. We are expecting especially numerous combat operations in this sector and the beginning of an offensive by Russian troops.  

Well-known correspondent and recipient of numerous international journalistic awards Simon Ostrovsky recorded a dispatch from Mykolaiv. As Ukraine receives more and more high-precision weapons, Russia has been increasing its long-range missile strikes. The overall conclusion drawn by Simon in his dispatch is that Ukraine needs more anti-aircraft defense systems and that the West and Europe must provide as many anti-aircraft systems as possible and as soon as possible. 

People of Odesa gave the last honors to the commander and other servicemen of the 28th Separate Mechanized Brigade who were killed in a Russian attack near Mykolaiv on July 23rd.

Some foreign engineers reckon that the Antonivskyi Road Bridge is out of order till the end of the war because not only the road itself is damaged but also the bearing structures. Pro-Russian public channels suggest patching up the holes with concrete or putting a steel deck on top, but it would not prevent the bridge from collapse.

A peculiar ferry started operating under the Antonivskyi Road Bridge. It consists of several pontoon sections linked to a Soviet PTS-2 Tracked Amphibious Transport. According to the locals, the transport carries civilians and military equipment at the same time. This is a violation of international humanitarian law: military equipment should be isolated from civilians as much as possible to prevent hitting civilian objects during attacks.

There are photos of a pontoon crossing near the Daryivkyi Bridge. We believe that the branches are intended to camouflage the pontoon sections not on the river, but when it's folded on the shore.

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht says that the promised three M270 MLRS, three PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers, IRIS-T air defense systems and three armored recovery vehicles have been successfully delivered to Ukraine. 

The Ukrainian military began to arrive to the United States for prosthetics. For successful restoration of functions, it is important to receive a prosthesis as soon as possible after a limb loss.   

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has approved the treatment of wounded Ukrainian soldiers at a US military hospital in Germany.

The White House says that they don’t see any indication that Iran has delivered drones to Russia. 

According to Mirakbar Razavi, an official representative of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, Iran has signed an agreement with Russia providing for the supply of aircraft parts and equipment, as well as repair and maintenance for Russian aircraft.

Referring to the UN reports, the Current Time TV reported that the recorded losses among the civilians in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions during the five months of the current invasion are higher than in the previous eight years.

There are queues of people, who want to get passes for leaving the city in Mariupol. 

The Russian Ministry of Defense  has announced about a ferry launch from Krasnodar region to Mariupol.  So we can conclude that there is no overland route from Taganrog to Mariupol now. 

The body of a killed thirteen-year-old girl was found in a park in occupied Melitopol. 

 A bomb detonated in center of Kherson: a car was damaged, two cops, who had defected to their invaders, were injured. 

We can see that Russians prepare annexation of occupied territories. According to their plans, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, “DNR” and “LNR” will be parts of Russia. Russia's government agencies and legislation will be valid in full  in these territories starting in January 2023. 

The National Bank of Ukraine has predicted high consumer prices growth (about 20%) in 2023 in Ukraine.