Russian Digest
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Official: Ukrainian forces break through Russian first line of defense in south
"In some places" on the southern front line, the Ukrainian military has broken through the Russian first line of defense, moving to the "intermediate one," Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar reported on Aug. 4.
"And there they are faced with concrete engineering fortifications on the dominant heights created by the enemy. This, of course, complicates the movement of our troops and the combat actions," Maliar said on national television.
According to the official, Ukraine is prioritizing its counteroffensive operations in the country's south, while for Russia, the main direction for assaults is the east.
The majority of Russian resources are currently concentrated near Kupiansk, Kharkiv Oblast, as Moscow seeks to retake the territories liberated by Ukrainian forces last fall, said Maliar. "It is important for them both from a moral and a military point of view."
Meanwhile, around Bakhmut, Ukrainian troops are "slowly but persistently" moving forward on the southern flank, she told journalists. Russia is attacking the city's northern flank, trying to regain positions previously retaken by the Ukrainian army.
"Fierce battles" also continue near Avdiivka and Marinka, Donetsk Oblast, according to Maliar.
Russia reportedly transfers its reserves, mainly professional soldiers, both to the eastern and southern front lines, where Ukraine's long-awaited counteroffensive is ongoing.
https://kyivindependent.com/official-ukrainian-forces-break-russian-first-line-of-defense-in-south/
Russian warship seen listing in Black Sea after Ukrainian sea drone attack on major base
Ukrainian sea drones attacked a major naval base in Russia on Friday, leaving a damaged Russian warship listing in the Black Sea in a brazen strike carried out hundreds of miles from Ukrainian-held territory.
Dramatic social media videos showed the vessel, an amphibious Russian landing ship, tilting badly and sitting very low in the water as it was being towed near the base at Novorossiysk, Russia’s largest port.
The incident comes against the backdrop of rising tensions in the Black Sea and stepped up Ukrainian strikes against targets across Russia after President Volodymr Zelensky pledged to “return” the war to Russian territory.
A Ukrainian source told CNN that a sea drone carrying nearly 1,000 pounds of TNT had hit the ship, and claimed there were about 100 Russian servicemen aboard.
“A big navy ship, [the] Olenogorsky Gornyak, was hit,” the source told CNN. “As the result of the attack, the Russian ship has received serious damage and is not able to fulfill its duties.”
CNN was provided with footage showing an unmanned sea drone approaching a ship that appears to match the identity of the one later seen listing in the port of Novorossiysk. The 36-second video, shot from the sea drone, shows it approaching a ship at night. The video ends just as the drone reaches its target.
The Ukrainian source said the operation was carried out jointly by the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Navy.
Read More:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/04/europe/ukraine-sea-drone-russian-warship-black-sea-intl/index.html
The SBU established that Russia wants to use the "Wagnerians" to involve Belarus in a full-scale war against Ukraine
The Security Service of Ukraine obtained intelligence that testifies to the preparation of a large-scale provocation by the Russians "under a foreign flag" at the strategic object of Belarus - the Mozyr Oil Refinery.
According to available data, the preparation of the terrorist attack is being carried out by a sabotage and intelligence group made up of personnel of the Russian Armed Forces and employees of the Russian special services, who were sent to the territory of Belarus under the guise of "Wagnerians."
This Russian DRG should commit a provocation at the refinery, pretending to be "Ukrainian saboteurs." The Russian Federation plans to blame Ukraine for what has been done, in order to once again try to draw Minsk into a full-scale war against our state.
Security Service employees received information about a planned terrorist attack in Belarus from several sources. In particular, from the testimony of a serviceman of the Soviet Union, who was taken prisoner by Ukrainian defenders in the Zaporizhzhia direction.
Cyber specialists of the SBU also recovered and analyzed the information on the mobile phone of the captured Rashist.
Among other things, it was established that he had previously taken part in hostilities against the Defense Forces in the south of Ukraine, and recently he was instructed to relocate to Belarus as a member of the private military company "Wagner."
Already at the stage of changing the place of service, the Russian military received information about a "special mission" at the Mozyr refinery. In his phone, SBU cyber specialists found deleted correspondence with other performers, pictures of the object, and separate information about the operation.
The Security Service warns the Belarusian army against participating in a full-scale war against Ukraine. Every invader who crosses the border of our state will be destroyed by our security and defense forces.
Wagner forces are trying to ‘destabilize’ NATO, Polish PM says
Russia’s Wagner Group might carry out “sabotage actions” and their threat should not be underestimated, said Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Thursday, warning that the mercenary group’s provocations are an attempt to destabilize NATO.
Morawiecki and Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda met at the Suwałki Gap to discuss the threat posed by the Wagner forces, some of whom have relocated to Belarus following the aborted mutiny in June against the Kremlin.
“Our borders have been stopping various hybrid attacks for years,” Morawiecki said. “Russia and Belarus are increasing their numerous provocations and intrigues in order to destabilize the border of NATO’s eastern flank.”
Nausėda echoed the sentiment, saying the presence of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus is a security risk for Lithuania, Poland and other NATO allies.
“We stay vigilant and prepared for any possible scenario,” Nausėda wrote on social media. Morawiecki said that the number of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus could exceed 4,000.
The Polish prime minister also thanked Lithuania for “military cooperation and for the joint promise that we will defend every piece of land of NATO countries.”
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Putin's niece turned out to be a top manager of a military bank
Relatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin prefer to work in banks and state corporations. So, the niece of the head of state, Vera Podguzova, became the senior vice president of Promsvyazbank in 2020. At that time she was 36 years old.
The credit institution is under Western sanctions because it serves the state defense order. The salary of Putin's niece is almost 2 million rubles a month. Her husband, Dmitry Podguzov, was attached as deputy director for administrative and economic issues at the Russian Railways hospital, writes Sergei Yezhov, a journalist with the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Until the age of 23, Vera Podguzova bore the name of her father, military surgeon Alexander Sokolov, who died when she was 12. However, in 2007 she decided to become Putina. It was then that her political career began.
After 2 years of work as the editor-in-chief of the party magazine "Russia United" in St. Petersburg, she was included in the party's personnel reserve. Almost immediately, Putina was elected a municipal deputy of the Central District of St. Petersburg. And already in September 2010, she became a member of the board of directors of Ganzakombank.
In April 2015, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation revoked the license from the credit institution. According to the regulator, the bank "was an intermediate link in significant volumes of dubious transit operations carried out by its clients."
After that, until moving to Promsvyazbank, Putina worked as the managing director for external relations and communications at the Russian Export Center.
Vera Podguzova is Putin's cousin-niece through her mother. In an interview, she said that she was "lucky with her parents." “They taught me a lot - each in his own way, and I understand many things over the years. Some features of my family members naturally wake up in me, I am very grateful for this,” she noted.
Podguzova also said that she was "lucky with people in her life," and she has many friends "twice as old", mostly men, with whom she can "talk about literally everything." According to her, the main thing for a woman is to “enjoy life” and “not overstrain.”
Meanwhile, several financial scandals are associated with Podguzova. Thus, the Metla publication wrote that bailiffs were looking for the president's niece because she did not pay taxes.
In addition, Putina participated in a dubious deal to buy an apartment in the elite village of Paradise in a Tent in Sestroretsk from the developer LLC Polifas. After the bankruptcy of the company, the court began. During the process, it turned out that some apartments were sold at a single price - 23 thousand rubles per m2, while other equity holders bought the same at 30-78 thousand rubles per 1 m2.
Among the "suspicious" equity holders was Putina, as well as the co-owner of "Ganzakombank" Valery Subkhankulov. Transactions with them were declared invalid. They never received an apartment.
Another niece of the president, Elena Zhidkova, is the head of RZD-Medicine, writes Yezhov. Her annual income is 20 million rubles. Her mother, Tatyana Ptashuk, is the deputy chief physician at the presidential administration's polyclinic, where officials are treated. Earlier, FBK found 7 apartments in them in Moscow, Sochi, and Vladimir, 4 houses, and land plots with a total value of over 1.7 billion rubles.
Explosions rang out in the Kerch area: the occupiers closed traffic on the Crimean Bridge
In the occupied city of Kerch on the evening of August 4, loud explosions were heard, and the occupying "authorities" of Crimea announced a "threat of attack" on the Crimean bridge, as a result of which traffic on the bridge was blocked.
Source: Oleg Kryuchkov, adviser to the so-called "head" of Crimea, Serhii Aksyonov, in Telegram
Direct speech: "The loud sounds heard by the residents of Kerch an hour ago had nothing to do with the Crimean Bridge. The threat of an attack has been announced. After it is removed, traffic (on the bridge - ed.) will resume."
Details: Kryuchkov also reported that the "alert" signal in the area of the Crimean bridge due to the threat of an attack is not being announced for the first time, and sometimes it is even announced 2-3 times a day.
The occupier added that he could not confirm the information circulating on the network about the explosions in the area of the bridge.
The Russian publication "TASS" confirmed that traffic on the Crimean Bridge was temporarily blocked.
https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2023/08/5/7414284/
US and Western officials fear Putin unlikely to change course in Ukraine before 2024 election
Top US and European officials are concerned that Russian President Vladimir Putin is factoring the 2024 US presidential election into his Ukraine war planning in hopes that a loss by President Joe Biden next year will lead the US to curtail its support for Ukraine and improve Russia’s negotiating position, four US officials told CNN.
The US does not yet have explicit intelligence about Putin’s mindset, or whether he is purposefully dragging out the war in hopes of a Donald Trump or Republican presidential victory. But next year’s election remains a key factor that top Western national security, intelligence and diplomatic officials believe will influence Putin’s decisions in Ukraine, making it even less likely the war is resolved before the end of next year. A CNN poll conducted by SSRS that was released on Friday found most Americans oppose Congress providing additional funding to support Ukraine, as the public splits over whether the US has or has not already done enough in the conflict.
One US official said they have “no doubt” that Putin is “trying to hold out” until the 2024 election. Another source familiar with the intelligence said “it’s sort of the elephant in the room” for the US, Ukraine and Europe.
“Putin knows Trump will help him. And so do the Ukrainians and our European partners,” the source said. “So even though we haven’t seen anything explicitly to that effect, you have to assume, I believe, that everyone is thinking it.”
A European diplomat told CNN that they believe trying to ride out the war in Ukraine until the US election “is exactly Putin’s plan.”
Read More:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/04/politics/putin-ukraine-2024-election-outcome-trump/index.html
Exclusive: Far-Right German Parliamentary Aide Tasked by Russia with Stopping Leopard Tanks to Ukraine
Leaked communications between Vladimir Sergienko, a naturalized German citizen, and “Alexei,” a suspected FSB operative, show the extent of Russia’s infiltration of the Alternative for Germany party. Their “active measures” included a plan to stop or slow the delivery of German main battle tanks to Ukraine using frivolous litigation against the German government. It would only cost $93,000.
Vladimir Sergienko, an aide to a Bundestag deputy, has been acting as an intermediary between the Kremlin and German lawmakers in the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, a joint investigation between The Insider and Der Spiegel can reveal. Sergienko, a staff member of AfD parliamentarian Eugen Schmidt, has helped coordinate AfD speeches, lobby for pro-Russian initiatives, and even helped trigger a lawsuit against his own government aimed at halting or slowing German weapons transfers to Ukraine – all at the instruction of a suspected Russian intelligence officer. Moreover, Sergienko personally shuttled cash between Moscow and Berlin and directed wire transfers to a German NGO sympathetic to the Kremlin to facilitate his efforts.
These disclosures are based on leaked emails and text messages between Sergienko and his presumed Russian handler, communication which The Insider and Der Spiegel have independently corroborated. They demonstrate the stunning degree to which Moscow has been able to co-opt or recruit figures in the German political establishment and task them with advancing its own war of conquest in Eastern Europe. And they come just months after Carsten Linke, a senior official in the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence service, was exposed and arrested as a Russian agent similarly tasked with spying on and aiding Russia’s military activities in Ukraine.
Read More:
https://theins.ru/en/politics/264014
Exclusive: Russia doubles 2023 defence spending plan as war costs soar
Russia has doubled its 2023 defence spending target to more than $100 billion - a third of all public expenditure - a government document reviewed by Reuters showed, as the costs of the war in Ukraine spiral and place growing strain on Moscow's finances.
The figures shed light on Russia's spending on the conflict at a time when sector-specific budget expenditure data is no longer published.
They show that in the first half of 2023 alone, Russia spent 12%, or 600 billion roubles, more on defence than the 4.98 trillion roubles ($54 billion) it had originally targeted for 2023.
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The Family of the Russian Suicide Drones’ Creator Owns Real Estate in the “Unfriendly” UK
While designer Alexander Zakharov equips the Russian army with Lancets, his son Lavrentiy Zakharov works at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research
The wife and son of the Russian combat drones Lancet creator, Alexander Zakharov — Svetlana Zakharov and Lavrentiy Zakharov — have owned an apartment worth £1.5 million (about 180 million rubles at the current exchange rate) in an elite area of London since 2018. The UK has imposed sanctions on the drone manufacturer, LLC CST, but not on the Zakharov family.
Alexander Zakharov is a Russian designer who has been developing and manufacturing drones for more than 15 years. Today, his most famous invention is the Lancet suicide drone (loitering munition), which delivers a warhead directly to a target — a tank, artillery installation, radar, etc. The drone was used in Syria and is now widely used in the war with Ukraine. Military officials and experts recognize the effectiveness of Russian Lancets; Ukrainian expert Oleksandr Kovalenko calls these drones “the scourge of the war zone.”
In propaganda pieces (here and here, for instance) about the power of the Lancets on the Rossiya-1 TV channel, Zakharov is referred to as “the second Kalashnikov.” His company CST is indeed part of the Kalashnikov concern, but Zakharov owns the controlling stake. In 2022–2023, the structures of the Ministry of Defense bought 5.3 billion rubles worth of drones from CST. Zakharov’s family — wife Svetlana, son Nikita, and daughter Maria — is involved in the drone production business. Of course, the production of Lancets uses foreign components, which are forbidden to supply to Russia because of sanctions — IStories reported about this before.
Putin’s elite has a tradition of making money in Russia on patriotism and war with the West while investing and spending their earnings in the same “hostile” West. This elite does not want to recognize the contradictions here, and the Zakharov family is no exception.
According to the UK real estate registry, the Zakharovs bought an apartment in London, in the Westminster district, about a kilometer from Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. The real estate agency’s website still has a listing for this apartment with photos and a floor plan. The apartment is small, just 1000 square feet, it has three bedrooms, a living room, a combined kitchen-dining room, and a balcony. There is a gym in the building and views of Big Ben from the roof.
Lavrentiy Zakharov is the youngest son of Lancet drone designer Alexander Zakharov. He is a good student and has successfully embarked on his career, but neither of these gives a possibility to suggest that he could have earned an apartment in London.
According to LinkedIn, Lavrentiy Zakharov has been living abroad since at least 2015, since the age of 16. In the UK, he graduated from high school, earned a bachelor’s degree in Politics, Sociology, and East European Studies from University College London, and then a master’s degree in Conflict Studies and Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics.
Since July 2021, Lavrentiy has worked at United Nations agencies in New York and Rome, and since May 2023 at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva, Switzerland. Lavrentiy Zakharov’s research interests, according to UNIDIR’s website, are “strengthening weapons and ammunition management, and de-mining and humanitarian access.”
Svetlana and Lavrentiy Zakharovs did not respond to IStories questions.
> A CNN poll conducted by SSRS that was released on Friday found most Americans oppose Congress providing additional funding to support Ukraine, as the public splits over whether the US has or has not already done enough in the conflict.
Support was split pretty evenly. I believe Americans are persuadable about the importance of support to Ukraine. It’s just not on their radar.
Of course, the treason caucus of the Republican Party advocates for what the Kremlin wants.