2023-08-17 18:15:28
Ukraine announced on Thursday August 17 that it had received new German Iris-T anti-aircraft systems to protect its skies, at a time when its regions in the south, but also in the east, are increasingly targeted by Russian long-range strikes .
“A big thank you to our partners for the Iris-T”, welcomed on X (ex-Twitter) the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Iermak. “Our skies will be more protected” with these short-range air defense systems, he argued. According to data updated Thursday on the German government website, Berlin delivered “two Iris-T SLS launchers” to kyiv. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has tirelessly asked its Western allies to help protect its skies, being largely dominated in the air by the Russian military.
Five Ukrainian soldiers sentenced for “murder” in the Donbass
It is the turn of the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine to condemn soldiers. On Wednesday and Thursday August 17, the “supreme court” of the Donetsk People’s Republic sentenced five Ukrainian soldiers for acts of war, said a statement from the Russian Investigative Committee, a body responsible for the main investigations in Russia. A separatist state controlled by Russia, which claimed its annexation in 2022, not recognized by the international community.
The Ukrainian soldiers were sentenced for “cruel treatment of the civilian population”, “use of prohibited methods during an armed conflict” and “premeditated group murder”, the statement said. On Thursday, two of those sentenced to 22 years in prison for executing a 44-year-old man in March 2022, on the grounds that the latter had seen the location of Ukrainian positions in Mariupol during the Russian siege of the city.
At the same time, another soldier from the far-right Azov regiment was sentenced to 12 years in prison for mortar fire dating back to 2018 and 2020, while two other members of this brigade were sentenced the day before to 24 years in prison for the same reasons.
Black Sea: a first cargo ship has left
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday called the departure of a first cargo ship from the Black Sea port of Odessa a “significant step”, a challenge to Russia, which has threatened to sink such vessels since it ended to the agreement allowing Ukraine to export its cereals.
The announcement of the release of the container ship “Joseph Schulte”, flying the flag of Hong Kong, took place despite a new Russian night bombardment of Ukrainian grain infrastructure on the Danube, in the Odessa region. This building “navigates along the corridor temporarily established for civilian ships”, announced Oleksandre Kubrakov, the Ukrainian minister in charge of infrastructure. In the afternoon, the “Joseph Schulte” was heading for the Turkish port of Ambarli in the Sea of Marmara.
Strikes on the Danube
The Russian army continued overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday to bombard the Danube port infrastructure, with a new drone attack. As a result, “grain warehouses have been damaged”, announced the governor of the Odessa region Oleg Kiper.
These Russian raids along this river show that Russian President Vladimir Putin “doesn’t care” about the supply of essential foodstuffs to developing countries, American diplomacy reacted on Wednesday.
Another Russian bombardment in the afternoon caused the death of an 18-year-old man and injured four in the Dnipro region, in the center-east, according to local authorities.
The gain of a village in the south of the country
Regarding the difficult Ukrainian counter-offensive underway since June, Kiev announced on Wednesday the liberation of Urozhaine, a locality in the Donetsk region, on the southern front, the main axis of attack for the Ukrainians.
Ukraine had already claimed some gains in the eastern and southern parts of its territory on Monday, particularly around Bakhmout in the east. Advances that remain modest, after two months of fighting.
The Ukrainian army recognizes a situation that has become “more complicated” in the northeast, around Kupiansk, where the Russians have been on the offensive for several weeks. “Every day, the enemy tries to break through our defense in different places,” said Land Forces Commander Oleksandre Syrsky.
Medvedev mocks ‘unsuccessful’ attempts
“It is absolutely clear that we have learned to counter” the Western weapons supplied to Kiev, for his part let go of the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, adding: “the counter-offensive attempts led by Ukraine […] are essentially unsuccessful”.
He made these remarks on the occasion of the visit of an exhibition presenting on the outskirts of Moscow “trophies” of the Russian army in Ukraine, including French tanks and British machines.
45,000 Muscovites on the front, according to the mayor of the Russian capital
A rare quantified estimate of part of the forces deployed by Russia in its neighbour, the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, meanwhile affirmed that nearly 45,000 Muscovites were currently fighting on Ukrainian soil.
Ukrainian “saboteurs” in Russian territory
Kiev, which is still demanding more and more Western aid, always ensures that its counter-offensive is progressing methodically, against Russian defense lines made of trenches, minefields and anti-tank traps. At the same time, Russian territory continues to be the target of Ukrainian strikes.
One person was killed and two others injured on Tuesday during a bombardment in the Russian border region of Belgorod, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Wednesday.
The Russian security services (FSB) on the same day claimed to have “eliminated” four Ukrainian “saboteurs” who were trying to enter from Ukraine in the Briansk region, also close to Ukrainian territory. The second incursion attempt in two days announced by Moscow.
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