• Moscow: «Drone attack on one of our ships on the Black Sea foiled»
• Kiev intelligence wants to reach Putin: “He’s at the top of our list”
• The military point: American means used in the raid on Belgorod: the Pentagon distances itself
07:46 – «The high number of victims obscures the success of the Russians in Bakhmut»
According to an analysis conducted by the Institute for the Study of War, the Russian success in conquering Bakhmut was overshadowed by the high number of casualties during the long battle. Discussions of Russia’s losses at Bakhmut have dominated the media space and are overshadowing any residual positive effects. Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group, mentioned in an interview that there were 20,000 casualties among his men, half of whom were conscripted convicts, for a total of 50,000 people involved. These figures have generated online debates about Moscow’s military success, leading many Russian commentators to assume that Russian casualties are indeed very high. One observer, former Soviet officer Viktor Alksnis, pointed out that the losses are significantly higher than the army’s nine-year campaign in Afghanistan, which amounted to just over 15,000 soldiers killed.
07:41 – Kiev’s army shoots down all the Russian drones used in the attack on the capital
According to the Kyiv Independent, the Ukrainian Army Air Defense Forces shot down all the Russian drones used to attack Kiev in the early hours of this morning. This preliminary information was reported by the head of the military administration of the Ukrainian capital, Serhii Popko. Popko said Russian forces conducted the 12th mass attack on Kiev since early May, which lasted over three hours, but all potential attacks were repulsed.
07:27 am – Prigozhin: “Risk of revolution in Russia”
The Wagner chief said 20,000 of its fighters were killed in the battle for the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut and warned Russia could face another revolution if its leadership doesn’t improve its handling of the war. Prigozhin explained that 20 percent of the 50,000 inmates Wagner had recruited, and a similar number of his regular troops, were killed in several months of fighting for Bakhmut. Wagner’s leader warned of the risk of a “revolution”, after the children of the poorest families are sent to “die” at the front, while those of the “elite” are kept safe from war. “Soldiers will rise first, then their loved ones. There are already tens of thousands of them, relatives of those who were killed. And there will probably be hundreds of thousands of them, we can’t help that,’ he explained.
05:00 – Explosions in the night in Kiev and four other regions
Explosions are reported in the motte in the capital Kiev and in four other regions of Ukraine, according to local media. In addition to the Kiev oblast, explosions would have occurred in those of Kharkiv, Lviv, Rivne and Khmelnytskyi.
Russian forces carried out drone strikes overnight in Kiev, Ukrainian officials said, adding that the capital’s air defenses “destroyed all” enemy aircraft. Serhiy Popko, head of the military administration of Kiev, said in a message on Telegram that Russia “again attacked from the sky” the Ukrainian capital. ‘The enemy continues to use attack tactics in several waves, with intervals between groups of attacking drones.’ The attacks were allegedly carried out using Iranian-made Shahed drones.
04:25 am – Air raid alarm in five regions of the West
New scary night. The air raid sirens sound in these hours in five regions of Ukraine, according to local media: Volhynia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Ternopil and Chernivci.
04:03 am – Zelensky: “We are working to get the F-16s flying as soon as possible”
‘We are doing everything possible to shorten the time’ for the ‘new powerful aircraft (F-16) piloted by Ukrainians to begin flying in the Ukrainian skies’. And “the first Ukrainian F-16 will be the strongest signal from the world that Russia will lose due to its aggression, becoming weaker and more isolated”: he declared Volodymyr Zelensky in an evening speech posted by the official website of the Ukrainian presidency.
03:57 – Moscow: “Attempted sea drone attack on our ship on the Black Sea”
According to some Russian Telegram channels, three maritime drones would have attacked the Russian warship Ivan Khurs. According to Moscow, the three drones would have attacked the ship in neutral waters after it had crossed the Bosphorus. ‘We believe the drones originated from a commercial civilian vessel,’ reads the Rybar channel. ‘The attack was successfully repelled and the vessel was not damaged,’ they claim from the Kremlin.
The spokesman of the Ministry of Defense of Moscow, Igor Konashenkov, specified that the vessel ended up in the target is “engaged in missions to ensure the operations of the TurkStream and Blue Stream gas pipelines in the Turkish exclusive economic zone”.
03:06 – Moscow: «Ukrainian attack on a ship in the Black Sea foiled»
Ukrainian forces tried this morning to attack a Russian military vessel in the Black Sea carrying out surveillance activities of two Russian gas pipelines to Turkey, but the operation was thwarted with the destruction of three marine drones. This was stated by the Moscow Defense Ministry. According to the ministry, quoted by the agency Ria Novostithe attempted attack took place about 140 kilometers north-east of the Bosphorus when the three drones were launched against the ship Ivan Khurs of the Black Sea Fleet, which patrols the waters where the Turks Stream and Blue Stream gas pipelines run, in the zone of exclusive economic interest of Turkey.
02:16 am – MILITARY POINT – American vehicles used in the raid on Belgorod: the Pentagon distances itself
(Andrea Marinelli and Guido Olimpio) Belgord’s raiders would have used American means to penetrate Russian territory. The images arrived from the border areas indeed show US-made Humvees and armored vehicles in the hands of far-right militias: a significant detail that strengthened the thesis of a collaboration between the Russian partisan groups and the Kiev government, and provoked the immediate reaction of the Pentagon.
01:58 am – Mattarella: “Everyone working for a just peace”
«The need is strongly felt for everyone to work, with even greater commitment, for a just peace, which knows how to share the reasons for a fair and orderly international coexistence, now put heavily at risk with the unjustified aggression of the Federation Russia to Ukraine, an independent and sovereign country whose very life is being called into question». The head of state said, Sergio Mattarella, during the toast at the Quirinale in honor of the President of the Republic of Angola Joao Manuel Gonçalves Lourenco.
01:31 am – Belgorod, attack and reaction after the mystery of the raid
(Marta Serafini) An operation which, regardless of its actual result, would have plunged the Kremlin into panic. This is how analysts from the ISW, the US intelligence think tank, describe the incursion of anti-Putin militias into the Belgorod region that began on Monday and ended yesterday. However, many points still remain unclear about what it appears to be the largest cross-border attack from Ukrainian territory to Russian territory.
01:08 – From the USA a new missile defense system for Ukraine
New US military aid for Ukraine. The US State Department has in fact approved an agreement for the sale of an advanced surface-to-air missile defense system (NASAMS) for a value of 285 million dollars. This was announced by the Pentagon explaining that it had responded to a request by the Kiev government to “increase the security of an allied country” and thus “strengthen political stability and economic progress in Europe”.
00:25 – Kiev intelligence: “Putin is at the top of our list, he realizes we are getting close, but perhaps he is afraid of being killed by his own people”
Putin “is at the top of the list” of Kiev’s objectives. This was admitted by the deputy head of the intelligence services of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Vadim Skibitski, in an interview with Welt, according to whom the Russian president is well aware of Kiev’s intention to kill him. «He is realizing that we are getting close to him, but maybe he is also afraid of being killed by his own people – argues Skibitski – Many people in Russia still support this “special operation” but thanks to social media and telephone checks, we know that so many Russians have died that it scares people.’
And among the objectives there is also Yevgeny Prigozhin: “Our priority is to eliminate those who order their men to attack”. And Putin is at the top of the list «because he coordinates and decides what happens. But in the end everyone will have to answer for their actions. Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu planned the attack and now there is no turning back. When asked whether propagandists, oligarchs and civilians are also considered targets, Skibitsy replied: ‘We are at war and these are our enemies. If an important figure produces and finances weapons for Russia, then the elimination of him would save the lives of many civilians … According to international conventions, this is a legitimate goal.’