Russia is firing generals, creating a lack of continuity in military leadership. After Russian attacks, a reactor at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine had to be shut down. A spy ring was supposed to bring down Kyiv. All news about the war in Ukraine can be found here in the ticker.
07:31: Russian forces fired rockets at Nikopol. This was announced by Yevhen Yevtushenko, head of the military administration of the Nikopol district, according to the Kyiv Independent. According to the report, the Russian army fired multiple rocket launchers at the city in southern Ukraine around four in the morning. He did not provide any information about possible victims.
Tuesday, August 9, 1:05 a.m .: After the bombardment of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) has so far no evidence of released radioactivity. “There is no evidence that radioactive substances could have been released in Ukraine,” the office told the newspapers of the Funke media group. All available radiological readings were therefore “in the normal range”. “The BfS sees no acute danger of a release of radioactive substances, but shares the concern for the long-term safe operation of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.”
Zaporizhia is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. The facility, occupied by Russian units, has been fired upon several times in the past few days. Kyiv and Moscow blame each other.
9:01 p.m .: German nuclear experts are also extremely concerned after the renewed shelling of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. “If the Russian side seems to start toying with this situation, that’s extremely worrying,” Thomas Walter Tromm of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology told phoenix television.
The Karlsruhe scientist saw a core meltdown accident as the greatest danger, which would be associated with the release of radioactivity into the environment. “This scenario would be extremely dangerous for Ukraine, but also for the surrounding countries, depending on the meteorological situation,” Tromm continued “The plant is very well protected against smaller rocket attacks,” the nuclear expert was convinced.
A temporary shutdown of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is also possible. “But this is the largest facility in Europe and dominant in Ukraine. That would hit the country very hard,” said Tromm. It is now necessary for international nuclear experts to be given unimpeded access. Only then is it possible to get an overview and answer the question of the condition of the employees and whether they would be pressured by the Russian side.
8:55 p.m .: According to estimates by the US Department of Defense, 70,000 to 80,000 people were killed or injured on the Russian side in the Ukraine war. The Russian army has suffered extraordinary losses because the Ukrainian military is functioning well and has received a lot of support, Pentagon top official Colin Kahl said Monday. He described the war as the “most intense conventional conflict in Europe since World War II”. There is no current information from the official bodies in Russia on the number of victims.
He currently sees the Ukrainians at a clear advantage, especially because they are superior to the Russian armed forces in terms of their morale and willingness to fight, said Kahl. “There is a lot at stake for them. They are fighting for the survival of their country.” Kahl said Russian President Vladimir Putin had not achieved any of his goals. “His overriding goal was to overrun the entire country, bring about regime change in Kyiv and protect Ukraine as an independent, sovereign and to wipe out a democratic nation. None of that happened.” Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
8:50 p.m .: According to the United States, no radioactivity has been released as a result of the hostilities surrounding the Ukrainian nuclear power plant at Zaporizhia. “We continue to monitor activity closely: the power plant, the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Safety Agency are reporting that radiation sensors are continuing to provide data – and fortunately we have seen no evidence of elevated or abnormal radiation levels,” the White House spokeswoman said. Karine Jean-Pierre, on Monday.
The US asked Russia to halt all military operations in or near Ukrainian nuclear facilities and to return full control to Ukraine. In addition, the US continued to support International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) efforts to fulfill its technical safeguards mandate and to assist Ukraine in nuclear safety measures, Jean-Pierre said.
4:54 p.m .: The hostilities surrounding the Ukrainian nuclear power plant at Zaporizhia are ringing international alarm bells. Although no radioactivity was released in Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, sees the “very real danger of a nuclear catastrophe” in the war zone. Kiev’s ambassador to the IAEA, Yevhenij Tsimbaliuk, warned of an unprecedented nuclear accident: “What would then happen within a radius of 40 or 50 kilometers around the power plant would be absolutely incomparable with Chernobyl and Fukushima,” he said in Vienna on Monday. Not only Ukraine, but all of Europe will suffer serious consequences.
2:47 p.m .: Russian troops are said to have wired energy units of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant with explosives. This was announced by the Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security in the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy on Monday afternoon. The commander of the troops stationed in the power plant, Major General Wassiljew, is said to have declared that the nuclear power plant was now ready to be blown up at any time. “It will either be Russian land or scorched earth,” Vasilyev is quoted as saying.
He is said to have asked his soldiers, whom he called “liberators”, to carry out every order, no matter how difficult, “honorably”. Earlier, a representative of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense confirmed that it had received information that Russian troops had installed explosives.
Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for attacks on the nuclear facility in the south of the country. The nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia is the largest in Europe. Russian troops took control of it in March shortly after the military operation began. One reactor had to be shut down after the weekend’s attacks. UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned any attack on nuclear facilities as “suicidal”.
1:25 p.m .: Despite the war against Ukraine, which has been going on for almost half a year, the Kremlin has so far refrained from openly mobilizing the army – in the provinces, on the other hand, the authorities are forming regional volunteer battalions. “According to our calculations, more than 40 such units have already been set up in at least 20 regions of Russia,” the daily newspaper Kommersant reported on Monday. Regional authorities and veterans’ organizations have been promoting it for months.
According to “Kommersant”, the size of the units sometimes differs significantly. For example, 400 to 500 fighters are needed for a motorized rifle battalion in the Amur region in Russia’s Far East. The Perm region near the Urals is recruiting volunteers for two units; a rifle company with 90 men and a tank battalion with 160 men. The pay also varies. Perm promises the most with the equivalent of 5,000 euros per month.
Experts see the initiatives as an attempt by governors to prove their loyalty to the Kremlin. A possible general mobilization across the country is considered by many to be problematic for President Vladimir Putin, since he could then admit problems with the war, which Moscow only describes as a “special military operation” and is officially “going according to plan”. According to experts, recruiting at the regional level should help to reduce staff shortages at the front.
Monday, August 8, 6:35 a.m.: Moscow has fired several generals because of the poor performance of the Russian armed forces in the Ukraine war. According to the intelligence service of the British Ministry of Defense, six commanders have been fired since the beginning of the war.
Among other things, the commanders of Russia’s western and eastern military districts lost their posts. General Aleksandr Dvornikov, who previously had overall command of the operation in Ukraine, was also replaced. General Sergey Surovkin meanwhile would have taken command of the grouping of forces in the south from General Gennady Zhidko.
In addition to the layoffs, Russia also has personnel problems at the highest military level due to the death of generals in combat: around ten Russian generals have been killed since the beginning of the war. The lack of continuity in military leadership is contributing to Russia’s tactical and operational difficulties, according to the UK MoD.
3:31 p.m .: Russia’s army says it has destroyed tons of ammunition that NATO countries have delivered to Ukraine. A warehouse with a total of 45,000 tons of ammunition was hit in the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday. This could not be verified independently. Konashenkov also reported that five other weapons depots had been attacked – one of them in the particularly hard-fought eastern region of Donetsk.
In Donetsk, Russia’s air forces also attacked the small town of Bakhmut, killing up to 130 Ukrainian soldiers, Moscow said. That too could not be verified. Bakhmut is considered the cornerstone of a defensive wall that the Ukrainian army has built around the metropolitan areas of Slovjansk and Kramatorsk. This is coming under increasing pressure.
Sunday, August 7, 1:40 p.m.: For the second time in a few days, Moscow and Kiev have accused each other of shelling the southern Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia. The Ukrainian army fired a rocket at the nuclear power plant on Sunday night, the Russian news agency Interfax reported, citing the occupation administration in the city of Enerhodar, where the power plant is located. The Ukrainian nuclear agency Enerhoatom, on the other hand, accused the Russians of shelling the site under their control themselves.
During the attack, a spent nuclear fuel storage facility was hit and sensors for measuring radiation were damaged. Enerhoatom also reported that shortly before the explosion, hundreds of members of the Russian crew hid in bunkers. The information provided by both sides could not initially be checked independently.
Just last Friday, Moscow and Kyiv blamed each other for the shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
9:43 p.m .: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that Turkey will henceforth pay for Russian gas deliveries in rubles and will also use the Russian payment system Mir more. A new plan to strengthen economic cooperation will serve as a “source of power between Turkey and Russia in financial matters,” Erdogan said on his return flight from the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi, according to the Anadolu Agency. There he met President Vladimir Putin on Friday. The use of the Mir payment system will also make it easier for Russian tourists to stay in Turkey, Erdogan said.
You can read more reports on the Ukraine conflict on the following pages.
