The British suspect poor pay for Russian soldiers. On Tuesday it will be announced that Putin’s army appears to be running out of drones. Meanwhile, heavy attacks in Donbass continue. You can find all the latest news about the war in Ukraine here in the ticker.
In view of difficulties in the supply of armaments for the aggressive war against Ukraine, Russia is buying large quantities of missiles and artillery ammunition from North Korea, according to US information. It could be “millions of ammunition, rockets and grenades,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday (local time).
Citing US intelligence information, Kirby stressed that there was still no evidence that the purchase had actually taken place. There were also no indications “that this material, these weapons, are being used in Ukraine”.
According to Kirby, Russia’s purchases from the internationally isolated North Korean government, as well as Iran’s purchase of military drones, show the country’s difficult situation after months of economic sanctions by the West aimed at weakening Russia’s war machine.
It’s another indication of how “desperate” Russian President Vladimir Putin is, Kirby said.
Kirby added that there was no evidence that China was cooperating with North Korea or “taking any action to militarily support Russia.”
A US official previously said the ammunition was “intended for use on the battlefield in Ukraine.” Corresponding inquiries to Pyongyang, about which Washington has “indications”, point to “continuing serious supply bottlenecks” in the Russian military, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense in Washington. These problems are “partly due to export restrictions and sanctions” by Western countries.
“We assume that things are looking pretty bad for Russia in this regard,” added the Pentagon spokesman. With the purchase of armaments from internationally isolated North Korea, Moscow could violate UN resolutions.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has managed to target dozens of behind-the-line Russian ammunition depots thanks to longer-range missile systems supplied by Western allies. Western sanctions have also made it difficult for Russia to obtain the components it needs to manufacture spare parts, including computer chips.
7:29 p.m .: The head of administration in the southern Ukrainian port city of Berdyansk, who is loyal to Russia, was killed in an attack. This was confirmed by a spokesman for the crew administration. “Unfortunately, he died in the hospital. We have such cases regularly,” said spokesman Vladimir Rogov on Tuesday, according to the Russian state news agency Tass. According to previous reports, a bomb had exploded under the car of city commander Artjom Badrin. Gunfire was also reported in the center of the port city on the Sea of Azov. In recent weeks, several attacks have been carried out on Ukrainian officials who collaborate with the occupying power.
10:44 a.m .: The Ukrainian military claims to have destroyed four Russian ammunition depots in the Kherson region. The southern command of the Ukrainian armed forces said bridges across the Dnieper were also under fire. After little was initially known about the course of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in southern Ukraine, the authorities recently reported progress in the north of the Cherson region. The town of Wyssokopillja is said to have been liberated on Sunday. The hoisted flag should be visible on a photo.
Tuesday, September 6th, 9:31 am: The British Ministry of Defense announces that Russia’s drone inventory is dangerously dwindling. Given the combat losses, it is likely that Putin’s army will have trouble maintaining its inventory of unmanned drones.
The lack of necessary components brought about by Western sanctions exacerbates the difficulties. The limited availability of reconnaissance drones is likely to affect Russian operations.
9:34 p.m .: According to the Kiev general staff, the Russian army again fired artillery and fighter planes at dozens of locations in Donbass in eastern Ukraine on Monday. The evening report by the Ukrainian military leadership also listed eight places where Russian assaults had been repelled. This included the area around the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, where the Russian advance has been stuck for weeks. However, the military information was not immediately independently verifiable.
According to local authorities, a Russian rocket hit a fuel depot near the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih. The shelling also hit other places in the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine. A woman was killed and three were injured.
12:08 p.m .: In the Kherson region, smoke appears to be rising over the Darievsky Bridge. This is reported by the opposition Belarusian information channel Nexta. The bridge is used by the Russian troops to support their troops.
8.40 a.m .: According to British intelligence, the Russian army missed its target in eastern Ukraine. In the daily situation report, the secret service writes: “The political goal of the operation in Donbass remains the complete conquest of the Donetsk region. With this, the Kremlin could announce ‘liberation’. But it is very likely that the Russians have repeatedly missed their deadlines to achieve this to achieve goal.
Furthermore, the Russian offensive in the Donetsk region is progressing very slowly. Putin’s forces are therefore further concentrated on the main axis of Avdiivka (near the city of Donetsk) and 60 kilometers further north around Bakhmut. But the progress here is about one kilometer per week, according to the British.
Monday, September 5, 2:27 am: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opens an investigation into the explosion of a grenade launcher at a children’s event in Chernihiv. “Two people who were directly involved in the tragic incident in Chernihiv were arrested on suspicion of committing a crime,” said Zelenskyy in his nightly video address. 15 people, including eight children, were wounded in the explosion at an unscheduled exhibition of military equipment in the northern Ukrainian city on Saturday.
11:43 p.m .: In a new video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has confirmed the goal of recapturing the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia. “I believe that the Ukrainian flag and free life will return to Crimea. We are liberating our entire earth, all our people,” said Zelenskyy in the clip published in Kyiv on Sunday evening. For the liberation, the Ukrainian armed forces, military reconnaissance and special services are already taking all the necessary steps.
“And everyone can see: the occupiers have already started to leave Crimea. It’s the right choice for all of them,” said Zelenskyy. However, there is no evidence that the Russians actually withdrew from the peninsula. The head of state also recalled the “repression” against the Crimean Tatar population, whose freedom rights were being suppressed.
Russia incorporated Crimea into its territory in 2014. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin justified the war against Ukraine on February 24 by saying that he saw indications of attempts by the Ukrainian leadership to take back Crimea using military force. Russia had always emphasized that it would not allow this under any circumstances.
Recently there had been massive explosions with devastating destruction and incidents with drones in Crimea. The already extreme security measures on the peninsula were then reinforced again. “The Russian presence has turned Crimea into one of the most dangerous and unfree places in Europe,” said Zelenskyy.
9:54 p.m .: According to information from Kyiv, the Ukrainian armed forces have freed the village of Wyssokopillja from the Russian occupation in the Cherson region. The deputy head of the presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, published a photo of the hoisted flag on his Telegram news service blog on Sunday. However, as early as June there were reports of the recapture of this town in the northern part of the region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a military meeting that Ukrainian flags are increasingly returning to the places where they belonged.
“And there is no place for the occupiers in our country,” said Zelenskyy on Sunday, according to the presidential administration in Kyiv. He did not give details. According to media reports, Ukrainian troops also recaptured the village of Oserne in the Donetsk region on Sunday. This information could not be verified independently.
5:00 p.m .: According to British secret services, the lack of morale among Russian troops in Ukraine may also be due to poor pay. In addition to the high number of victims and increasing combat fatigue, the salary is one of the biggest abuses, according to a short report by the British Ministry of Defense on Sunday.
Usually, the wages of Russian soldiers consist of a basic salary, which is supplemented by various allowances and bonus payments according to a complex system. According to the British, there are likely to be significant problems with the payment of these bonuses in Ukraine. This is presumably due to an inefficient military bureaucracy, the unclear legal status of the “military operation” – as Russia calls its war of aggression in Ukraine – and, to a certain extent, corruption among the commanders.
According to the secret services, there are also problems with the provision of suitable uniforms, weapons and other supplies. This also contributes to the fragile morale in the troops.
3:11 p.m .: According to Moscow, Russian troops attacked four command posts of the Ukrainian army. The attacks on bases near Kharkiv in the east of the country and Nikolske had taken place in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday afternoon. Already in the morning the Ukrainian army reported an attack.
Regarding the counter-offensive launched by the Ukrainians in the south last Monday, it was said that Russian troops had attacked units and reserve forces from the neighboring country. 150 soldiers of the “enemy” were killed. On Saturday Moscow spoke of 230 new deaths in the offensive in the area between Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih. This information could not be independently verified.
Sunday, September 4, 9:37 am: The Ukrainian army has reported an attack on an “enemy command post” in the war against the Russian army. The army in Kyiv did not initially name an exact location on Sunday. The attack hit military equipment and destroyed a mobile radar system. In addition, Russian attacks, for example in the town of Bakhmut in the Donbass and the nearby settlement of Pokrovske, were repelled. The information could not be independently verified.
The Ukrainian army also registered more than 24 airstrikes by the “enemy” within 24 hours. Military and civilian objects were hit, the report said. No details were given. Because Russia lacks high-precision weapons, the Russian army uses “more often obsolete S-300 missile systems”. More than 500 of these rockets have already been fired into Ukrainian territory.
8:35 p.m .: Several children were killed and injured in Ukraine as a result of Russian attacks and negligent handling of ammunition. “In Zelenodolsk, the Russians killed a nine-year-old boy,” military governor of central Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk region, Valentyn Resnichenko, said on his Telegram channel on Saturday. A total of about ten people were injured by the rocket attacks, most of them seriously. Independent verification of the data is not possible.
There were also rocket attacks in the Mykolayiv region in southern Ukraine. There, an eight-year-old child is said to have been killed by the impacts, two other children and four adults were injured.
In the north of Ukraine, in the Chernihiv region, the authorities also reported numerous Russian artillery strikes, in which several buildings were damaged. Here, however, negligence on the part of the Ukrainians themselves was to blame for the injuries to several children: a shot was fired from a grenade launcher at a weapons exhibition in the regional capital of Chernihiv. Five people, including four children between the ages of two and twelve, were injured in the incident. The public prosecutor’s office has launched investigations.
Ukraine President Zelenskyy condemned the injury of several children at the arms show in the evening. The Ukrainian President promised that the incident was “unacceptable” and that those responsible for this negligent demonstration would be punished.
You can read more reports on the Ukraine conflict on the following pages.
