893 days ago, Russia's invasion of Ukraine began. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that it hit a submarine of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, Rostov-on-Don, which sank on the spot. The Ukrainian army also hit a Russian military airport and ammunition depots in Morozovsk. Here's what happened in and around Ukraine over the past 24 hours.
> “In the port of Sevastopol, a submarine of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, Rostov-on-Don, was hit. “As a result of the hit, the ship sank on the spot,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces wrote on social media on Saturday afternoon. Ukraine
Russian submarine “Rostov-on-Don”Burak Kara/Getty Images
The Rostov-on-Don entered service in December 2014. “On September 13, 2023, the submarine sustained significant damage as a result of a Ukrainian missile attack, after which it was repaired. The submarine's value is estimated at $300 million,” the Ukrainian headquarters added.
> “The Ukrainian army struck a Russian military airport and ammunition depots in Morozovsk, Rostov region, and several fuel depots in the aggressor country; fires broke out in at least two of them,” the General Staff in Kyiv reported on Saturday.
Mrozowsk
The attacks took place from Friday to Saturday. The targets included ammunition depots with guided aerial bombs. “Information is being collected about the destruction of air defense systems and enemy aircraft. The task was carried out by the forces and means of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Military Intelligence Service of Ukraine in cooperation with the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the headquarters said on Telegram.
> From Friday to Saturday Russia used drones to attack nine regions of Ukraine; 24 drones were shot down, Ukrainian Air Force Commander General Mykola Oleshchuk said on Saturday morning. “On the night of August 3, 2024, the enemy attacked with two S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles from the occupied territory of the Donetsk region, two Kh-31P anti-radar missiles from the airspace over the Black Sea, and 29 Shahed unmanned attack aircraft that took off from Cape Chaud in Crimea and Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia,” Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram.
> Russian political scientist Andrei Baunov assessed in a publication by the Carnegie think tank that the exchange of political prisoners for Russian agents does not mean a relaxation of relations with the West. According to Baunov, Russia is interested in the practices of the Cold War, which it considers the height of the Soviet Union's power.
Baunow reminds us that this was the largest exchange since the Cold War, which sounds ominous “only to those who are terrified by the Cold War.” The authorities in Moscow do not belong to this category, he notes.
> Pavel Kushnir, a musician and anti-war activist who went on a dry hunger strike in protest of Russia's war with Ukraine, has died in custody in Birobidzhan in Russia's Far East, Radio Svoboda reported on Saturday. Kushnir, 39, who was a soloist in the local philharmonic, died on July 27 as a result of the hunger strike, according to the Belsat TV project Wot Tak. Dry fasting involves abstaining from both solid food and liquids. The man's death was confirmed by Olga Romanova, head of the Sitting Rus project.
> Two more people have been charged in connection with the arson attack on a warehouse in east London that was storing aid for Ukraine, the Metropolitan Police said on Saturday. Russian mercenaries known as the Wagner Group are suspected of organising the arson. Jakeem Barrington Rose, 22, and Ugnius Asmena, 19, have been charged with arson with intent, while the former has also been charged with two counts of possession of an offensive weapon.
Read: Not just “exchange of information about Wagnerites”. Ukrainians allegedly trained Malian rebels
Main image source: General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Facebook