🔺With your weapons we can beat Russia, says Ukrainian officer

British weapons are giving Ukrainian troops the “confidence” to win the war against Russia, an army major training in the UK has said.

Soldiers from the war-torn country have travelled to Salisbury Plain, where they are being taught how to fire weapons including long-range rockets. During a course this week, Ukrainian troops were singing Rule, Britannia! as they learnt.

The Ukrainian officer, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said his troops were “really tired”, but learning to use the new kit was motivating them for the next fight.

More than 400 Ukrainian soldiers are at the training ground in Wiltshire. Some had been manning tanks on the front line but have turned their hand to artillery after their vehicles were destroyed. They are being taught to use the M270 multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) to defend themselves from long-range artillery.

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🔺Ukraine celebrates recapture of Snake Island

Ukrainian forces were celebrating victory today after Russian troops retreated from the strategic Black Sea outpost of Snake Island following days of bombardment with long-range weapons donated by western allies.

Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian president, wrote on Twitter: “KABOOM! No Russian troops on the Snake Island anymore. Our Armed Forces did a great job.”

Ukraine’s southern military command wrote on Facebook that missile and artillery attacks had forced the evacuation from Snake Island, also known as Zmiinyi island, in two boats. It said that the island was “covered in fire, explosions are erupting” and posted a dimmed photograph of what appeared to be the island with billowing clouds of smoke.

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🔺Russian missiles kill at least 18 in attack on children’s centre and apartments

Russia rained down missiles on apartment buildings and a recreation centre for children close to the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa this morning.

It is the latest in a wave of deadly missile attacks since western allies pledged new military and financial support for Kyiv.

At least 18 people were confirmed dead and dozens wounded in the strikes, hours after Ukrainian forces celebrated the recapture of the totemic Black Sea outpost of Snake Island from Russian occupation.

The island, which Russia claimed to have vacated in a goodwill gesture, was recaptured with heavy assistance from western long-range weapons whose supply has enraged the Kremlin, prompting threats of retaliation.

One cruise missile struck a nine-storey building in the town of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi in the early hours, killing at least 16.

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🔺Latvia to tear down hundreds of Soviet monuments

Latvia is to demolish nearly 300 Soviet monuments, including the giant victory memorial looming over the capital, in an emotionally charged gesture that is likely to anger the Kremlin and many members of the Baltic nation’s large Russian-speaking minority.

Since President Putin invaded Ukraine numerous sites commemorating the Red Army’s defeat of Nazism have been dismantled across central and eastern Europe. Yet no country has set about obliterating these lingering traces of Soviet occupation as systematically as Latvia, where virtually every single memorial will be torn down over the next four months. Historians finished compiling the list this week.

By far the largest and most controversial of these is the memorial in Victory Park at the heart of Riga, consisting of a 79-metre obelisk, a female statue representing the Soviet motherland, and three triumphant Red Army soldiers.

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🔺 Severodonetsk’s last stand: brilliant manoeuvre or reckless waste of life?

The conflict is becoming a tale of two fronts: a grinding artillery war of attrition with Russia gaining ground in the east, against a gradual pushback from Ukrainian forces in the south

Even the password allowing reinforcements into Severodonetsk sounded like a bad omen. “Valhalla,” said Vortex, the commander of a rapid reaction infantry battalion, the phrase that cleared their path into the battlefield.

The name of the warrior afterlife of Norse legend “set off all my superstitions”, he said. “I thought what a stupid choice, now we will not come back, even though it would be a heroic defence.”

Days later, with his forces depleted and survivors vomiting and stumbling from the constant artillery barrage, the order came from Kyiv for them to withdraw. Under cover of night they retreated to the river, crossing at dawn in rubber dinghies hauled across with ropes to the Ukrainian-held bank on the other side.

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🔺Moscow protesters vow to rage against the regime

It was about 11pm when Georgy Vorontsov, an opposition activist in Moscow, returned home to find four men waiting for him outside. “They called me a traitor and a dreg of society,” he said. “And then they attacked me.”

Two of the assailants were armed with a type of gun that fires rubber projectiles. Vorontsov, 42, was hit several times at close range in the leg, back and chest and lost consciousness. When he came to, covered in blood, the men had fled.

A neighbour said he saw the unknown assailants run up the street and get into what looked like a police car. When Vorontsov went to hospital, a doctor told him: “This is your own fault. If you hadn’t gone against the system, you wouldn’t have been hurt.” Police refused to open an investigation into the attack.

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🔺Flee the front line, Ukrainians told as key city falls

The Ukrainian authorities pleaded with residents to flee the city of Slovyansk after intense shelling from Russian rocket launchers killed “many” civilians, hours after Moscow’s troops declared victory over Lysychansk yesterday.

The artillery assault on Slovyansk, to which many of the troops previously defending Lysychansk have now retreated, set ablaze a market and struck residential buildings, killing at least six and wounding dozens more.

Slovyansk and its sister city Kramatorsk lie in the path of Russian forces after they moved unopposed into Lysychansk, the last city in Luhansk province still in Ukrainian hands. Russia said it was a step closer to its “absolute priority” of taking the entire Donbas region.

Ukraine’s military said the withdrawal was necessary to preserve life and troops as “the continuation of the defence of the city would lead to fatal consequences” in the face of Russia’s superiority in numbers and equipment.

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🔺Ukrainian reserves ‘sent in their own cars’ to take on Russian tanks

Ukrainian reserve forces are so short of equipment that they have been sent to fight against Russian tanks in their civilian cars, according to Canada’s former chief of defence staff after visiting the country.

Rick Hillier, a retired general, said that the territorial defence force of civilian volunteers had been left with “nothing” and desperately needed equipment to take on the Russians.

One unit had been told to move to a frontline position in their cars to meet attacking Russian tanks and armoured fighting vehicles.

“They were getting into position to be able to fight against those Russian tanks and vehicles and they were using their own civilian cars,” he said.

Hillier said the initial remit for reservists had been to defend their own villages but President Zelensky had recently signed an order saying they had to deploy anywhere in Ukraine to defend the country.

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🔺Ukraine urges West to seize Russian assets to pay for rebuilding

Ukraine called on western allies to confiscate frozen Russians assets and redirect the money to fund the rebuilding of the country as Kyiv prepares to take its case for compensation from Moscow to the United Nations.

It will ask the UN general assembly meeting in September to establish a binding international mechanism to force Russia to pay for the destruction caused by its invasion, Iryna Mudra, a deputy justice minister in Ukraine, told The Times.

Kyiv made its proposal as western leaders gathered in Switzerland to discuss a “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine, similar to the American scheme that funded European reconstruction after the Second World War. Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister, told the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano that Russia’s invasion had caused damage that it would take $750 billion to repair, including more than $100 billion for direct damage to infrastructure and private property.

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🔺Putin’s troops switch sides to join Ukraine military’s legion of Russians

Gripping an assault rifle with both hands, the masked woman urged the Kremlin’s troops to switch their loyalties to a Ukrainian military unit made up of Russian citizens.

“We all need to stop the war together and bring true freedom to Russia,” the unnamed woman said in a short video that was posted online yesterday. “The Putin regime must be overthrown. Stop tolerating the tyrant. Join our legion.”

The Freedom for Russia legion was formed in Ukraine in March and is believed to boast hundreds of Russian and Belarusian citizens among its ranks, including some Russian troops who have already switched sides.

The woman said she had crossed into Ukraine in May after her husband, a Russian sergeant, was killed over his refusal to lead his men “to slaughter”. She said he had been shot dead by forces loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-installed leader of Chechnya. “I am here to take revenge,” she said.

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🔺The Ukrainian drone pilots out to halt Putin’s war machine

A small team of remote operators is waging a highly effective campaign to starve the Russian advance of vital fuel and ammunition supplies, writes Maxim Tucker.

Cruising high above dense Ukrainian forest, the combat drone spotted the long Russian column winding down the road from the Belarusian border. Its pilot, operating from afar, used the on-board cameras to scan the treeline for signs of anti-aircraft defences, then selected his target.

The bombs struck the spine of the column and one after another the fuel tankers erupted in a chain reaction of fireballs that illuminated his screen. “I think this was my greatest achievement,” the pilot, with the call sign Odesa, told The Times. “It stopped the offensive in the Chernihiv and Kyiv directions because the enemy had equipment but no fuel.”

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🔺War in Ukraine hasn’t started in earnest, warns Putin

The invasion of Ukraine has yet to start “in earnest”, President Putin said as he dismissed the impact of economic sanctions on Russia and the prospect of defeat.

He made the statement in a speech to senior politicians yesterday, claiming that the West wanted to see the war continue until Russia was fighting “the last Ukrainian”, which he said would be a tragedy. There was still a possibility of a peace agreement, several weeks after talks between the two sides broke down, he added. “We don’t reject peace talks. But those who reject them should know that the further it goes, the harder it will be for [the Ukrainians] to negotiate with us. We hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. What can you say. Let them try.”

While accepting that western sanctions were causing problems at home, Putin argued that it was “not at all what the initiators of the economic blitzkrieg against Russia were counting on”.

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🔺Ukraine has one million ready for fightback to recapture south

Ukraine is massing a million-strong fighting force equipped with western weapons to recover its southern territory from Russia, the nation’s defence minister has revealed to The Times.

In his first interview with a British newspaper since the invasion began, Oleksii Reznikov said President Zelensky had ordered Ukraine’s military to retake occupied coastal areas which are vital to the country’s economy.

“We understand that, politically, it’s very necessary for our country. The president has given the order to the supreme military chief to draw up plans. After that the general staff are doing their homework and say to achieve this goal we need XYZ,” he said. “This is my job. I’m writing letters to counterparts in partner countries, the generals talk about why we need this kind of weaponry and then we get the political decisions.”

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🔺Britain could end up buying Russian fuel after embargo

Loopholes in sanctions rules mean that British motorists could continue buying fuel from Russia even after an import ban comes into effect.

Most fuel in Britain is not imported from Russia, but a lack of domestic refining capacity means imports of Russian fuel make up a fifth of the diesel used in the UK every year. This has raised concerns that after a ban the Kremlin could still profit from the continued British use of Russian fuel imported from third party countries.

The UK has imported seven million barrels of diesel worth £800 million from Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, according to data from Refinitiv. British ports received five shipments in April, four in May and one last month. The government has promised to phase out imports of Russian oil by the end of the year.

India’s imports of discounted Russian crude oil have soared since the invasion of Ukraine.

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🔺Germany faces ‘nightmare’ winter as Russia shuts down Nord Stream 1

Germany is threatened with significant energy shortages after Russia shut down one of its biggest natural gas pipelines to western Europe this morning, with ministers in Berlin warning of a “nightmare scenario” if the taps are turned off indefinitely.

Russia, hit with extensive western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, has sharply curtailed gas supplies to Europe in recent weeks, prompting accusations that it is using the continent’s reliance on its energy as a tool to pressure states and drive divisions between them. Poland, Bulgaria and Finland have been cut off from Russia’s gas networks and deliveries to Italy and Austria have been reduced by as much as 70 per cent.

There are fears that without the Nord Stream 1 pipeline — shut down today for ten days, ostensibly for maintenance on components — Germany will not have enough gas to get through the winter. The pipeline normally carries up to 55 billion cubic metres of gas across the Baltic each year, accounting for well over a third of Germany’s imports, although the volume has already been throttled back by 60 per cent since the start of the summer. The German government regards the route as essential for its plan to amass enough gas in underground storage facilities to see the economy through the coming winter without having to ration the supply to manufacturers or households.

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🔺Iran sends killer drones for Putin’s war machine in Ukraine

President Biden will arrive in Israel today to try to bolster a Middle East alliance against Iran amid concerns that it is sending armed drones to help Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.

Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said US intelligence believes that Iran will provide President Putin’s army with several hundred drones that were originally intended to help rebels in Yemen to fight the Saudi-backed government there. He told a White House briefing: “Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use these UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles].”

Biden, who is hoping to boost relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, will fly on to Jeddah after two days, but he has been condemned by his fellow Democrats at home for his decision to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman there, along with his father, King Salman.

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🔺Russia stymies UN bid to get tons of wasted grain shipped out of Ukraine

Hopes of a deal to resume grain exports from Ukraine were dealt a blow yesterday as talks with Russian military officials ended without a breakthrough, heightening fears of a global food crisis.

The talks, the first for months between delegations from the warring countries, focused on a United Nations-backed proposal for Ukrainian vessels to escort grain ships through mined waters around Odesa.

Under the plan, Moscow would agree to a ceasefire during the shipments and Turkey, with the support of the UN, would inspect ships to ease Russian fears of arms smuggling.

Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports has left more than 20 million tonnes of grain stuck in silos. Ukraine, one of the largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, has accused Russian troops of setting fire to fields.

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🔺Families urged to flee southern Ukraine before counter-attack

After three months of occupation, with supplies running dangerously low, a new edict came down to the people of Kherson from their Russian overlords: teachers were to report for duty and sent for retraining in a new Russian curriculum to be introduced in schools from the start of the September term.

Tanya knew the ways out of occupied Kherson were few, with the occupiers eager to keep residents in place to accept the Russian passports being pressed on them as plans were readied for a referendum on joining the Russian federation. Her family set off anyway — she and her husband and two teenage children, along with her parents — waving white flags with “children” written in Russian on the car bonnets, in the direction of Ukrainian-controlled Mykolaiv, some 30 miles distant.
Russian guards pointed them along a dirt track through a field — but as they drew within reach of Ukrainian territory the Russian shells began to rain down.

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🔺How Vladimir Putin is turning Russia’s children into propaganda pioneers

With their red neckties and Vladimir Lenin badges, members of the Young Pioneer youth organisation were a common sight in the Soviet Union.

For some they were loyal Soviet citizens, whose motto was “Always ready!”.

For others they were victims of Kremlin propaganda who were encouraged to denounce their own parents. Members were expected to “build communism, labour for the welfare of the motherland, and prepare to be its defender”.

The Pioneer movement was disbanded with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Now, in another indication of Russia’s lurch back to the Soviet past, the Kremlin has announced plans to establish a new nationwide youth organisation. Vladimir Putin’s official role as head of its supervisory council will give him complete control over the movement.

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🔺Zelensky fires security chiefs for failing to stop officials colluding with Russia

Ukraine’s president fired two senior internal security chiefs last night for failing to weed out collaborators who colluded with Russia’s invasion.

President Zelensky sacked Ivan Bakanov, head of the security service, and the prosecutor-general, Iryna Venediktova, who led efforts to prosecute Russian war crimes.

Zelensky said more than 60 officials from the SBU security service and prosecutor’s office were working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territories, and that 651 separate treason and collaboration cases had been opened against law enforcement officials.

The number of treason cases reveals the huge challenge of Russian infiltration during the nearly five-month long invasion.

“Such an array of crimes against the foundations of the national security of the state ... pose very serious questions to the relevant leaders,” Zelensky said. “Each of these questions will receive a proper answer.

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