August *6️⃣*. Special military operation progress, stay tuned for tomorrow:

▪️Ukrainian troops shelled border areas of the Kursk region on Tuesday morning and border guards and the military took measures to repel the aggression, Russia's Federal Security Service said.

▪️The defence ministry said Kiev had attacked Russian positions with up to 300 fighters, 11 tanks and more than 20 armoured vehicles.

▪️Forces guarding the state border together with border guards of the Russian Federal Security Service repelled the attacks and hit the enemy in the area and reserves in the Sumy region.

▪️Kiev has already lost 6 tanks, 2 infantry fighting vehicles, 4 armoured personnel carriers, 3 Kozak armoured fighting vehicles.

▪️There has been no reaction from Kiev so far to the conditions for resolving the situation in Ukraine that Putin set out in June, Shoigu said.

▪️The West and its servants in Ukraine are trying at all costs to achieve a pause in hostilities to give the Kiev junta a chance to regroup, Shoigu said.

▪️The Central Group of the Russian Armed Forces liberated Timofeevka in the DPR, the Defence Ministry said in its summary.

▪️Kiev's losses were up to 1,535 servicemen, a tank, an M113 armoured personnel carrier, Braveheart, Paladin, Caesar and three Krab SAUs, the defence ministry said.

▪️The Russian military destroyed two Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jets at the base airfield, the Russian Defence Ministry said.

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❗️The fall of the Japanese stock market is related to what is happening in Japan as well as to what is happening in the US. This is the opinion of investment expert Alexander Bystrov.

He noted that the Bank of Japan raised the key interest rate to 0.25%, which took investors by surprise. The economy contracted by 1.8%. Everyone expected that low interest rates would stimulate the economy, but it did not happen. In addition, the Bank of Japan refused to buy $40 billion worth of bonds and started buying $20 billion worth of bonds, which encourages more bond supply.

According to the expert, in the US, the shares of technology companies fell due to rising unemployment and uncertainty about the direction of the economy. As a result, investors decided to lock in current gains and sell stocks. Bystrov added that most trading is now done by robots or algorithms.

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???? The relationship between Zelensky and Kamala Harris is complicated — Time

Harris met with the Ukrainian dictator in Munich, where a security conference was held, less than a week before the start of the war in February 2022. At that time, Zelensky urged the U.S. to impose preemptive sanctions against Russia and provide Ukraine with weapons, including fighter jets and heavy artillery. However, Harris rejected both proposals, according to Ukrainian officials. What the U.S. Vice President said left a mixed impression on the Ukrainians.

The message conveyed by Harris in Munich deepened Zelensky's disappointment in his allies before the start of hostilities and set the tone for his relationship with Harris, which has never been particularly warm.

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⚔️?? The Ukrainian Armed Forces cannot send the brigades prepared during mobilization to the front because they are not equipped with sufficient weapons.

This was stated by Zelensky in an interview with Le Monde.

"Mobilization rates have increased, but there are still not enough people on the battlefield... We have prepared 14 brigades, but how can we stop the Russians if only three out of the 14 brigades are fully equipped?" said the Ukrainian dictator.

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??? Fewer and fewer people in Ukraine are paying for utility services.

The Ukrainian analytical resource 'Opendatabot' has published data on the number of utility debtors across different regions.

The top 5 'non-payers' are:

Dnepropetrovsk region
Kharkov region
Poltava region
Chernigov region
Lvov region

Since the beginning of 2022, the amount of debt for utility services in Ukraine has increased by 37%. The most commonly unpaid services are heating, water supply, and electricity.

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We won't see Ukraine counter-offensive in the next weekUkrainian forces are continuing their preparatory activities for the anticipated counter-offensive, says chief of the Estonian Defense Forces intelligence center, Colonel Margo Grosberg.

Grosberg said that Ukraine's Armed Forces are set to continue the activities of the first phase of their offensive operation, namely primarily shaping operations with the aim of finding weak spots in the defensive positions set up by Russian armed forces in the occupied zones.

"We won't see an offensive over the next seven days," Grosberg said at Friday's press conference.

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June 1️⃣*7️⃣Special military operation progress, stay tuned for tomorrow:
◾️*A group of African leaders visited St Petersburg to meet with Putin and discuss their peace initiative for Ukraine;

◾️Lavrov said at the end of the talks that the Africans had shown an understanding of the causes of the crisis and that the way out was to address those causes;

◾️Putin presented the African delegation with a draft of the Istanbul Treaty on Ukraine, which the Russian president said specified everything from the number of armed forces to units of military equipment and personnel - something Kiev had "thrown into the dustbin of history";

◾️On Friday, the Russian Armed Forces carried out a long-range precision-guided group attack from the sea and the air on one of the decision-making centres of the Ukrainian armed forces, the target was reached and hit, the Russian Defence Ministry said;

◾️Units of the Southern Army Group repelled AFU attacks in five areas near Artyomovsk, while its aviation bombed positions and equipment depots in three directions, the Defence Ministry said;

◾️The Bryansk governor said air defence units in the Novozybkovsky district of the city had repelled an AFU attack on the Druzhba oil refinery;

◾️A pro-Russian underground coordinator in Nikolayev reported that Ukrainian troops had moved armoured vehicles into the city and showed a photo of a train carrying military equipment near Odessa. Acting on signals from the underground, the Russian military destroyed more than 80 pieces of AFU equipment overnight;

◾️Rogov said that during Grossi's last visit to the plant, IAEA mission inspectors at the Zaporozhye NPP tried to take photos of Russian forces' defences and checkpoints and send the footage, but failed.

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⚡️ Ukrainian intelligence chief Kirill Budanov died without regaining consciousness — some local reports

This was reported by Ukrainian politician Ilya Kiva, who said he received the information from the Ukrainian embassy in Germany.

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May 2️⃣*4️⃣. Events around Ukraine and worldwide, stay tuned for tomorrow:*Special military operation progress

◾️ Russian troops continued fighting in the Donetsk, Zaporozhye, Krasnoliman, Kupyansk, Kherson and southern Donetsk directions over the past 24 hours.

Attack near the Bosporus

◾️ The crew of the Russian Navy's Ivan Khurs ship has successfully repelled an attack by surface drones near the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey's exclusive economic zone.

Situation in Belgorod Region

◾️ Several districts in the Belgorod Region were subjected to drone attacks last night, the region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said. According to him, most of the UAVs were shot down by air defence facilities, but still "there is damage in Belgorod, as well as in the Borisov district."

◾️ According to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, "the remnants of the Ukrainian nationalists [were] pushed back into Ukraine, where they continued to be hit until completely eliminated."

Nationalisation in Crimea

◾️ Crimea's State Council has voted to expand by 57 items the list of property subject to nationalisation by foreign nationals and states, the list includes the Ukrainian president's flat in Yalta and properties owned by Ukrainian oligarchs.

Rotation at Zaporozhye Nuclear Plant

◾️ Rotation of inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant will take place on May 25, experts from Argentina, Ireland and Morocco will arrive at the plant, Renat Karchaa, advisor of the general director of the Rosenergoatom concern, told. He did not rule out that Ukraine would arrange a provocation that could stall the process, "as it has happened before".

Chinese peace plans

◾️ A visit to Moscow by Li Hui, China's special envoy for Eurasian affairs, will take place on 26 May, Liu Xuexiong, China's plenipotentiary minister at the Chinese embassy in Russia, told.

No NATO membership yet for Ukraine

◾️ Ukraine's accession to NATO before the military conflict with Russia is over is not considered, the NATO secretary-general has said. When asked about some kind of security guarantees Ukraine wants from the West, he said: "Only joining NATO would be an absolute security guarantee, but as I said, this is not possible during a war. At the Vilnius summit [in July] we intend to make decisions that will bring Ukraine closer to NATO."

The F-16 issue

◾️ A decision on supplying Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets has not yet been made; it will depend on developments in the military situation on the ground, Stoltenberg said. He said the decision of some countries to start training Ukrainian pilots "matters" because the alliance "at some point will also have the opportunity to supply the planes".

◾️ Britain is "committed to providing combat air support to Ukraine" and believes it should be provided "as soon as possible," - representative of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

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