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Europe
Hungary
21 August 2024 Under the new government decree 134, only Ukrainians whose last official address in Ukraine was in an area directly affected by military operations remain eligible for state support. The UN refugee agency said the law change will mean an estimated 2,000-3,000 refugees will lose access to subsidised accommodation. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)
by ’Thorpe’
Russia
21 Aug 2024 Ukraine targets Moscow in ‘one of largest ever’ drone attacks. Assault on the Russian capital launched as Ukraine presses on with incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday that air defence forces shot down 11 drones over Moscow and its surrounding region, with some reportedly downed over the city of Podolsk some 38km south of the Kremlin. No damage or casualties were reported. The barrage was part of a broader attack on Russia, with the Ministry of Defence saying its air defence units destroyed 45 Ukrainian drones in total overnight. 23 drones were downed in the border region of Bryansk, six in the border region of Belgorod, three in the Kaluga region, which borders the Moscow region to its northeast, and two in the embattled Kursk region, the ministry said. Russia’s state news agency RIA reported that two drones were destroyed over the Tula region, which borders the Moscow region to its north. Following the assault on Moscow, temporary restrictions were imposed overnight at Moscow’s Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports, but all three returned to normal operations later on Wednesday. Hundreds of prisoners were taken and tens of thousands of civilians were forced to evacuate following Ukraine’s lightning raid on Kursk on August 6. Ukraine now claims to control 1,263sq km of Kursk territory, including 93 settlements. Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces have taken control of the settlement of Zhelanne in the Pokrovsk district of Donetsk, as part of an overall drive to capture the entire Donetsk region. Russian President Putin met Chinese Premier Li in Moscow, the Kremlin said. After meeting Putin in July, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Kyiv on Friday to meet Zelenskyy, and said he will be discussing ending the war with Russia. India has avoided condemning Russia’s invasion and is the world’s largest buyer of Russian weapons. (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)
8/21/2024 In the spring of this year, Moscow’s new military appointee overseeing security in the Kursk province dismantled a council tasked with protecting the vulnerable border region. Col. Gen. Lapin said the military alone had the strength and the resources to protect Russia’s border. Earlier this month Ukrainian troops executed a lightning offensive across the border into Kursk, and now say they occupy more than 400 square miles of Russian territory. Now, Moscow seeks to oust Ukrainian forces from its territory. „Russia is still pulling together its reaction to this incursion by Ukraine. There has been a fairly slow and scattered reaction to it,’ said Gen. Cavoli, commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday. The Russian defense ministry hasn’t publicly issued an explanation for how it allowed Ukrainian forces to cross into Russian territory. Hours after Ukraine’s incursion, Russia’s chief of general staff, Gen. Gerasimov, said Lapin’s forces and border guards were working to destroy the enemy in areas directly adjacent to the Russian-Ukrainian border. In the days leading up to Ukraine’s invasion, Russia’s military correspondents have said, Lapin’s command had sent reports to Moscow warning that Ukrainian forces were building their numbers on the front line. Troops under Lapin’s command still failed to act by enforcing defensive lines or laying mines. When Ukrainian soldiers entered the no-man’s-land between Ukraine and Russia, they were met with no resistance and, inside Russia, no territorial defense forces to help slow them down. ’In Moscow, they simply were not pondering that a scenario like this could happen,’ said Muzyka, director of Poland-based Rochan Consulting, focusing on the Russian military. Likewise, when the Ukrainian soldiers drove into Russia, their first armed resistance was from the 488th motor rifle regiment of the 144th motor rifle brigade, a unit consisting almost entirely of conscripts, who according to Russian policy aren’t supposed to fight inside Ukraine. Under normal circumstances, they would have had around 120 armored vehicles, including tanks and armored personnel carriers. In their first armed encounter, the conscripts likely had between 10 and 20, said Muzyka. ’It wasn’t the first time” poor planning and a lack of men had come together under Lapin’s command. In early September 2022, Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack in northeast Ukraine. Without the Russians having sufficiently fortified their thin front-line positions, Ukrainians blew past them using fast-moving field vehicles, followed by heavier armored echelons. Russia’s offensive line crumbled and Ukraine managed to reclaim thousands of square miles in northeastern Ukraine. Following the debacle, Chechen strongman leader Kadyrov called for his resignation. The officer was soon removed from his post and later reappointed as deputy commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine. ’It has certainly demonstrated the creativity and the battlefield prowess of the Ukrainians,’ said Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Ryder. (Source: MSN / The Wall Street Journal = U.S.)
Asia
China
August 21, 2024 China is seriously concerned about a report that said the United Stated approved a nuclear strategic plan to focus on China's rapid expansion in its nuclear arsenal, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday. An annual report by the Pentagon last October said China had more than 500 operational nuclear warheads in its arsenal, and will probably have over 1,000 warheads by 2030. According to a report by the New York Times, U.S. President Biden approved in March a highly classified nuclear strategic plan that focused on China's quickly growing arsenal, but also seeks to prepare the U.S for possible coordinated nuclear challenges from China, Russia and North Korea. The White House said on Tuesday that the classified nuclear strategic plan approved by Biden this year is not a response to a single country or threat. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)
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