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Morning Headlines
Reuters: Ukrainian forces pressed their counteroffensive through the Russian-occupied southeast on Thursday, capturing the village of Staromaiorske in a campaign to drive a wedge through Russian defensive positions.
POLITICO: U.S. Abrams tanks are likely to arrive on the Ukrainian battlefield in September, according to six people familiar with the planning, as Kyiv’s forces push to retake territory in a counteroffensive that is picking up steam.
FT: Japan has warned that deepening military co-operation between China and Russia is of “grave concern” for its security, in the country’s first defence white paper since it set out plans to expand defence spending last year.
Bloomberg: This wartime parable provides a window into the complexities and challenges of tracking illicit Russian military procurement networks.
ISW: Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations on at least three sectors of the front on July 27 and made gains in some areas, although Ukrainian forces appear not to have continued significant mechanized assaults south of Orikhiv in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
More News
Meduza: The Kremlin’s guide for covering an upcoming religious holiday instructs propagandists to push territorial claims to Ukraine and Poland.
The Kyiv Independent: Sanctioned Russian oligarchs spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury life in the U.K. thanks to numerous sanction exemptions, the New York Times reported on July 27.
CTP: Russian intercepts of US aircraft in Syria are acts of aggression that aim to expel US forces from Syria through sustained, low-grade military pressure and could disrupt the US effort to defeat ISIS by making Syria a less permissive for US operations.
Yahoo News: It is estimated that 345 million people will face hunger following the collapse of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
AFP: The Ukrainian crew of the Gepard is rather proud of the four Russian drones and two missiles daubed in white on the armoured chassis of their German-made anti-aircraft tank.
Reuters: China is helping Russia evade Western sanctions and likely providing Moscow with military and dual-use technology for use in Ukraine, according to an unclassified US intelligence report released on Thursday.
Reuters: The European Commission has no immediate money in the budget and no clear way to help finance the extra transport costs Ukrainian grain exports will face with the end of the Black Sea deal, sources told Reuters, leaving an opportunity for Moscow to cash in.
Reuters: Poland, Lithuania and Latvia could jointly decide to shut their borders with close Russian ally Belarus if there are serious incidents involving the Wagner group along their frontiers with the country, Poland's Interior Minister said on Thursday.
Meduza: Chechnya has begun refusing to issue passports to residents younger than 30 if they are not accompanied by relatives. The authorities say the policy is meant to ensure that “the goals of a trip are not contrary to the interests of the Russian Federation.”
AFP: Kyiv lacks the means to defend itself against strikes on its grain infrastructures carried out by Russia, which is blocking "virtually all" Ukrainian ports, an army spokeswoman told AFP.
AFP: Russia's decision to exit a landmark deal for the export of grain from Ukraine could push food prices higher and add to inflation, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warned Thursday.
Ukrinform reports that Ukraine’s mayor of occupied Melitopol has spoken about children being forcibly removed from the city for ‘adoption’ by the occupying Russian authorities.
The Guardian: Ukraine cannot protect all of its main cities from Russian missile threats without a significant increase in the provision of air defence systems, according to a key adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
WaPo: French magistrates have filed preliminary charges against two Chinese citizens and two other people from France in an investigation of a leading chip supplier whose advanced technology with possible military uses was reportedly smuggled to China and Russia, allegedly skirting sanctions and export controls.
AFP: Ukraine's Olha Kharlan was disqualified for not shaking the hand of her beaten Russian opponent Anna Smirnova at the Fencing World Championships on Thursday.
CNN: After two months of painstakingly slow progress on the battlefield, Ukraine appears to be ramping up its counteroffensive, deploying thousands of extra troops to the southern front and signaling a new phase of the operation, US and Russian officials said.
AP News: Switzerland, Finland and Sweden are considering joining the U.S. National Guard’s security partnership program in a further expansion of American military ties across Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
POLITICO: Russia will not rejoin the Black Sea grain deal. Speaking at the Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum, Putin said his government would "refuse to extend" the U.N.-brokered pact designed to prevent famines across the developing world.
AFP: Putin on Thursday promised to send up to 50,000 tonnes of free grain supplies to six African countries as he opened a Russia-Africa summit in his native Saint Petersburg.
FT Military briefing on how Ukrainian troops have switched tactics in recent weeks and used heavy artillery to make some gains on the battlefield, particularly around Bakhmut.
worth mentioning
Navalny team announces global protest act coined ‘Putin is a killer’
Russian helicopter crashes in Siberia, killing 4 people on board and injuring 10
Russians stage plasticine protests to oppose war
Obscure traders ship half Russia's oil exports to India, China after sanctions
Elena Isinbayeva, Aleksandr Kerzhakov, and other former Putin loyalists — how have their allegiances changed?
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