2024-07-31 12:25:47
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday by decree doubled the lump sum paid when concluding a contract of more than a year with the Russian army. According to the Meduza server, the increase to 400,000 rubles (almost 109,000 crowns) will be valid from August 1 until the end of the year. We watch the events in Ukraine and Russia online.
Russian President Vladimir Putin | Photo: Reuters
Update the report
14:22
The Czech Republic will receive another 14 Leopard 2A4 tanks and one Büffel 3 rescue tank on a Leopard 2A4 chassis as a gift from Germany. The Ministry of Defense signed the transfer document today. The tanks are the second compensation for Czech supplies of military equipment to Ukraine. The first should arrive in the Czech Republic at the end of this year, the next by the beginning of 2026.
14:14
Russian President Vladimir Putin has today by decree doubled the one-time amount paid when concluding a contract with the Russian army of more than one year. According to the Meduza server, the increase to 400,000 rubles (almost 109,000 crowns) will be valid from August 1 until the end of the year.
The minimum monthly salary for a soldier participating in the fighting in Ukraine is set at 204,000 rubles (55,400 crowns). This is a significantly higher amount than the average salary in the country. The new decree will increase the minimum annual salary in the first year of service to 3.25 million rubles (885 thousand crowns), reports Reuters.
10:45
Ukrainian developers are working on a revolutionary technology that could change the rules of combat. Swarms of unmanned aircraft should be controlled by artificial intelligence in the future using the upcoming Styx system. The soldiers of the occupied countries are already using it in attacks beyond the borders of Russia.
10:44
Russia has begun the third stage of the maneuvers, which includes exercises to use tactical nuclear weapons. According to the Interfax agency, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced this today. The first phase of the maneuvers, which was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, began in May, and Belarusian soldiers also took part in the second phase at the beginning of June.
05:52
The Russian drone attack on Ukraine last night was one of the largest since the start of the war. This was stated by the Ukrainian Air Force in a statement on Telegram, according to which Russia sent 89 drones to Ukrainian territory. All drones were shot down by air defenses, according to the air force. No damage or casualties have been reported yet.
05:52
News from Wednesday, July 31
21:49
In the past few days, several prisoners who were sent behind bars by the courts for criticizing Russian military aggression in Ukraine or for working in the organization of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny have disappeared from Russian prisons. It is not known where the prison administration transferred them.
The agencies AP, Reuters, the Russian BBC service and the Meduza server drew attention to the unannounced transportation of people, referring to relatives or lawyers of the convicted. In this context, there have been speculations about the possibility of an upcoming prisoner exchange with the West.
19:00
Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó complains on Facebook that the EC has not taken any action even a week after the request of Slovakia and Hungary. “Despite the threat to the energy security of two EU member states… Brussels is silent,” he wrote, adding that either the commission is too weak to protect the interests of Slovakia and Hungary, or “it was Brussels, not Kyiv, who invented the whole thing.”
Hungary’s foreign minister reiterated Budapest’s earlier claim that blocking Lukoil oil transit through Ukraine is blackmail because Hungary is pushing for an immediate ceasefire and peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv.
16:26
Today, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the capture of another village in the east of Ukraine, this time in the section of the front near the mining town of Toreck. In the previous days, Moscow reported progress especially in the direction of the Pokrovsk transport hub. According to the Unian agency, the DeepState project, which is considered to be close to the Ukrainian army, confirmed the successes in this area, located roughly 40 kilometers southwest of Torecko.
Units of the Central Military District, according to the Interfax agency, gained control over the village of Pivdenne in the Donetsk region, which is located about six kilometers from Torecko.
Ukraine has not commented on the Russian authorities’ claims. In the latest reports on the situation on the front, the Ukrainian General Staff stated that Russian attacks continue in the direction of Torecko, but did not directly mention Pivdenne.
On the other hand, the Ukrainian General Staff described the situation around Pokrovsk as tense and the fighting there as fierce. According to the morning report summarizing the past day, “the enemy is most active” in this section of the front.
15:58
On Monday, the Italian financial administration confiscated real estate and other property worth approximately 41 million euros (1.04 billion crowns) from a Russian businessman. The man was investigated in Ukraine for corruption, fraud and money laundering. The Ukrainian anti-corruption prosecutor’s office requested the seizure of the castle in Tuscany. According to Reuters, the prosecutor’s office in Florence informed about the raid today.
15:22
Hungary eased entry conditions for citizens of Russia and Belarus, not long after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited Moscow. The RND media house wrote it today. According to some representatives of the European Union, the step may mean a security threat, there are concerns, for example, about Russian espionage in EU countries.
14:32
The Austrian banking group Raiffeisen Bank International will more drastically limit its activities on the Russian market in order to comply with the requirements of the European Central Bank. It announced this in today’s half-year financial results report. In the first half of the year, the bank increased its consolidated profit by seven percent year-on-year to 1.32 billion euros (31.4 billion crowns). Profit excluding Russia and Belarus increased by 21 percent year-on-year to 604 million euros (15.4 billion crowns).
Reuters reminded that although the banking group generated half of its global profit in Russia in the first half of the year, it has no way to take it out of the country due to sanctions.
11:44
Yale University history professor Timothy Snyder thinks that when US President Joe Biden is not defending the post, he has more time to think about his legacy. Therefore, the expert on Central and Eastern Europe predicts that the current US administration will do unexpected things in the next six months in the policy regarding Ukraine, which is resisting Russian aggression.
11:43
Ukraine guarantees uninterrupted oil transit for companies that are not subject to sanctions, and is ready to solve transit-related problems with Slovakia, said Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine Roman Andarak.
Ukraine recently stopped the transit of oil from the Russian company Lukoil through the Druzhba pipeline to Slovakia and Hungary, as it placed the company on its sanctions list in June. Hungary and Slovakia then called on the European Commission to resolve Ukraine’s decision regarding the transit of oil from Lukoil. According to Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár, Kyiv violated the association agreement concluded between Ukraine and the European Union.
“The Ukrainian side is ready to solve any problematic issues at the expert level – if the Slovak side activates the relevant mechanism given by the association agreement. It has not done so so far,” Andarak stated today.
11:41
News from Tuesday, July 30
11:40
Dear readers, welcome to a new online report on events in Ukraine. All older information can be found here.
Zahraničí, Reuters, ČTK
Updated 4 minutes ago
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