🇮🇹🇮🇱 Italy’s Defense Minister has posited sanctions on Israel, calling the situation in Gaza “unacceptable” and contrary to the “founding values of our civilization.”

“What is happening [in Gaza] is unacceptable. We are not facing a military operation with collateral damage, but the pure denial of the law and the founding values of our civilization.”

🔗 AF Post

🇺🇸🏢 Data centers vs. office construction. This chart perfectly illustrates where we are heading.

🔗 Michael A. Arouet

🇷🇺🇺🇦 In the Bilozerske direction, Russian forces continued to exploit their breakthrough and advanced even deeper through Ukrainian lines, physically cutting the Dobropillya - Kramatorsk Highway.

After securing a deep wedge between Dobropillya and Shakhove, Russian assault detachments continued to follow behind DRGs, who at that point were operating as far as 10km ahead, causing massive disruption amongst Ukrainian units. This, combined with poor Ukrainian coordination, incompetent commanders, disorganisation, and catastrophic levels of manpower shortages, resulted in the Ukrainians being completely unable to carry out any form of containment operations, despite more than two new brigades being redeployed here.

As for DRGs, they have begun to turn west, infiltrating through the fields around Rubizhne, Stepy, Novyi Donbas, Vilne, Novovodyane, Vesele Pole, and Nove Shakhove, where they entered the cities of Dobropillya, and Bilozerske. Dobropillya is seeing more DRG activity than Bilozerske as Russian forces don't have to go as far through the wedge to reach the city.

Meanwhile, further south, Russian forces continued to clear positions northeast of Bilytske. They re-established control over the forest west of Nykanorivka, and advanced along the treeline to northern Dorozhnje. They also made further progress in the treelines south of Nove Shakhove.

🔗 AMK Mapping

🇷🇺🇺🇦 The situation near Pokrovsk opens a rare window of opportunity for Russia.

If Russian troops push the breakthrough to its logical conclusion, the strike may not go northeast — towards Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, as expected and prepared for in Kyiv — but westward, towards Pavlohrad. And this is a completely different operational scenario.

In such a scenario, the front breaks in two directions at once: part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is encircled around Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, losing supply lines (as happened in Artemivsk, Avdiivka, and many other places). At the same time, a large Russian strike group gains the opportunity to reach Pavlohrad, creating a threat to the strategic rear of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Dnipropetrovsk region. For the Ukrainian command, this is almost checkmate: stretching the defense in both directions without critical losses is already impossible, and Russia’s advance to Pavlohrad would effectively collapse the entire eastern front line.

And the main question here is not even whether the Ukrainian Armed Forces can hold the defense, but whether they have the forces and reserves at all to meet the strike in this direction. And whether they were prepared for this from the start.

Carrying out and delivering such a strike will be difficult for Russia as well, since it will require a completely different level of planning and resource support. However, it is necessary to understand that the conditions for its implementation are currently favorable.

🔗 https://xn--r1a.website/Warhronika/9447

🇺🇸🇷🇺 Why does the US suddenly want negotiations right now?

History teaches us a lot here.

"Minsk-1" was signed around the same time the remnants of the Ukrainian army were burning out in the Ilovaisk cauldron. "Minsk-2" — also under the thunder of the cauldron lid, but this time the Debaltseve one.

In both cases, the West rushed to save Kyiv, promising Moscow anything just to stop the militias (at that time) and prevent the complete defeat of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Both then and now, there was fear that after the frontline units of the Ukrainian army were crushed, the militias' offensive would continue.

The very fact that "Minsk-2" appeared stems from the fact that the Armed Forces of Ukraine violated "Minsk-1" and again decided to push into Donbass to take it by force. That is, the "first Minsk" was signed knowing in advance that the document was worthless.

The sudden desire of the US right now, not a minute later, to "negotiate" with Russia and "resolve" all vital issues (for which, for some reason, there was no time earlier, even during Trump's first term) looks like an attempt to slow down the pace of the offensive, knock the operational initiative out from under Russia's feet, and freeze everything on terms favorable to Washington. This is happening largely because the US is monitoring the situation on the battlefield, particularly near Pokrovsk, and sees where everything is heading.

There is a feeling that for this reason, on August 15, they will offer any "carrots" in the most tempting forms, but their only goal is to prevent the army from pressing the front where it is already cracking. And the real price of all these promises has long been clear.

🔗 https://xn--r1a.website/Warhronika/9450

🇷🇺🇺🇦 NYT reports that at least 12 foreign volunteers were killed in the July 21 missile strike on a training base near Kropyvnytskyi.

Victims include citizens of the US, Colombia, Taiwan, Denmark, and others. The strike hit as volunteers were having lunch. The International Legion has not confirmed the toll pending investigation.

🔗 NoelReports

🇷🇺🇺🇦 New Russian advances in the past hours:

🔶 Russian troops captured much of the villages of Udachnoe and Kotlyne to the west of Pokrovsk, after ~two months of a stalemate in these sectors.

🔶 Russian DRGs and sabotage groups have crossed the Rodinskoe-Dobropolye railway line and moved westward towards the towns of Shevchenko and Novoalexandrovka. Capturing Novoalexandrovka and/or Gryshyne would effectively encircle Pokrovsk and sever the last road that goes out of the city.

🔶 The village of Zolotim Kolodez was fully captured by Russian troops solidifying the Russian breakthrough of the New Donbas Line

🔶 East of the town of Bylitskoe, the village of Dorozhnoe was captured.

🔶 The village of Leontovich and the houses on the Privolna street in Pokrovsk have been captured.

🔶 East of Myrnograd, the town of Novoekonomichne was captured.

📝: The fact that Ukraine war updates have switched from "daily" to "hourly" should reveal the extent of Russian breakthrough of the past few days.

🔗 Map by AMK Mapping

🇬🇧❌🇪🇺 British officials are telling EU leaders to "shut up" and "stop annoying Donald Trump" with their comments on how peace in Ukraine should look like.

The Telegraph writes:

British officials have encouraged European Union leaders to stop an “unhelpful running commentary” on looming peace talks between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Officials are increasingly concerned about public comments on the future of Ukraine by the likes of Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat.

They fear that issuing public demands to the US president may backfire and cause him to cut Europe out of talks altogether.

It comes as Mr Trump and his Russian counterpart prepare to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine at face-to-face talks in Alaska on Friday.

Insiders have pointed to the fact that Sir Keir Starmer has made no public comments on the discussions since a joint statement on Saturday evening, choosing instead to influence from behind the scenes.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman did not explicitly call for Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President, to be present for the talks in Alaska during a briefing with journalists on Monday, despite EU figures publicly making the request.

Downing Street figures have long argued in private that the best way to sway Mr Trump is to use access and influence behind closed doors rather than publicly challenging him into adopting a position.

@CIG_telegram

🇺🇦🇦🇪 Turkish newspaper, Aydinlik, uncovered a scheme where close associates of Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, transfer monthly, 50 million USD to two companies controlled by oligarch, Andrey Gmyrin, based in the United Arab Emirates.

This discovery is related with the raids by Ukrainian cops on the offices of the two anticorruption bodies, NABU and SAPO, which were investigating two former members of the Ukrainian government, former defense minister, Rustem Umerov and former deputy prime-minister, Alexey Chernyov.

The raids happened on the orders of Andrey Yermak, Zelensky's chief advisor and chairman of the presidential office. NABU and SAPO were absorbed into the General Attorney's Office, attorney named directly by Zelensky himself by decree, a move clearly meant to shut down any investigations into the corruption at the top of Ukraine.

The EU cut funds as a result of the move against NABU and SAPO but the risk of this happening didn't deter Yermak or Zelensky from dissolving NABU and SAPO. Why? Because NABU and SAPO were about to uncover a high profile organised crime network which transfers 50 million USD/month from Ukraine's self-defense fund, paid mostly by the United States, the EU, UK, Canada, Norway and other countries, to two companies owned by an oligarch close to the Zelensky regime, Andrey Gmyrin.

Gmyrin is the owner of several properties and flats in France and the United Arab Emirates, spending 14 million USD from 2021 to 2023 through two companies, Gmyrin Family Holding and GFM Investment Group. Gmyrin is the target of a French criminal investigation which alleges that he caused a 23 million EUR hole in the French budget through tax evasion and corruption. The French have confiscated some of his properties.

Research shows that Gmyrin and his relatives declared official income only 8.2 million gryvnia (approximately $220,000) during the period of 1998 to 2022. This figure does not match the purchases of millions of property and yachts in Dubai and France.

Investigators question how stolen funds were quietly transferred abroad and how he left Ukraine, despite an order to detain Gmyrin. Ukrainian medias are insinuating "high-level protection".

By liquidating NABU and SAPO, Zelensky strengthened his position as the de-facto dictator of Ukraine, getting rid of those who threatened the dealings of his cronies, from which he too personally benefits, siphoning Ukraine's wealth to offshore bank accounts, while ordinary Ukrainians are being sent to the frontlines to die for what?

@CIG_telegram

🇵🇱❌🇺🇦 Poland expelled 57 Ukrainian citizens and 6 Belarusians after a concert where Ukrainian nationalists hoisted the flags Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army, responsible for ethnically cleansing the regions of Galicia and Volynia of its Polish population during WW2.

The massacres of the Polish population in Galicia and Volynia are remembered well in Poland and such actions caused outrage among the Polish public, many who have lost family members in those massacres.

@CIG_telegram

🇧🇪 'Anyone in Brussels can be hit a by a stray bullet'

The General Attorney of Brussels, Julien Moinil, complains about the lax stance of Belgian and EU politicians over gun violence in the Belgian and EU capital. There have been 20 shootings in Brussels from June 1st to August 11th which left two people dead and 8 wounded.

Moinil, who is himself under police protection after having received threats from drug dealers, hit out at politicians who he said are listening to him but are too lax in their approach and when it came to attributing resources.

“I get nothing, no extra resources. They have listened to me, but apart from the 30 extra people at the FGP [Federal Criminal Police], I see nothing,”

“It was 2 p.m., in the middle of the day. A bullet went through the windshield of a car where a mother and her 9-year-old child were sitting. She was nearly killed,” he fumed. “Are we going to wait until innocent civilians are killed before we get the necessary resources?”

Moinil said current policy to tackle drug users was insufficient, and that surveillance cameras were broken or lacking altogether in some parts of Brussels. Even when caught, he said, criminals just continued their business with a mobile phone from within prison.

Seven shootings took place last week alone, with the latest incident on Sunday night, bringing the total number of incidents this year to 57. The districts most affected in the latest wave were Anderlecht, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean and Schaerbeek, according to data from the public prosecutor’s office.

Authorities have linked most of the gunfire in the Belgian capital to drug trafficking and disputes between gangs attempting to gain territory. Crime fueled by the illegal drug trade has long been a problem in Belgium, due to the vast quantities of cocaine and other illicit substances arriving through the port of Antwerp in the country’s north.

Brussels happens to host one of the largest non-European populations as a percentage of the city's population. As of 2020, 74.3% of the population of the Brussels-Capital Region was of foreign origin (non-Belgian) and 41.8% was of non-European origin (including 28.7% of African origin). Among those aged under 18, 88% were of foreign origin (non-Belgian) and 57% of non-European origin (including 42.4% of African origin)

Islam is the 3rd biggest religion in Brussels, with 23% of the population adhering to one Islamic sect.

@CIG_telegram

🇺🇦🇷🇺Zelensky refused to withdraw troops from Donbass.

“We will not leave Donbass. If we leave Donbass voluntarily or under pressure, we will start a third war,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian president also refused to discuss any possible territorial exchanges with Russia, while indirectly requesting a meeting with Putin and Trump.

“During the call, I said that I am not ready to discuss Ukraine’s territories, as this is exclusively a matter of our Constitution. And honestly, with all due respect, I am not ready to discuss these issues over the phone. These are serious matters that are resolved at the leaders’ level,” Zelensky told journalists.

Given this rhetoric, it is unlikely that any breakthroughs should be expected from the meeting between Putin and Trump in Anchorage, Alaska.

🇺🇸🇮🇱❌🇮🇷 — Netanyahu brags about dragging the US into war with Iran while laughing about it, even though the US had no internal pressure to join the war.