Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine is looking forward to a chance to talk directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping to end its war with Russia. The Ukrainian leader is urging China to use its enormous political and economic influence over Russia to end the conflict. The Russians report that Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners and soldiers killed in the conflict 27 times since the start of the war. The prisoner exchange talks are one of the last remaining diplomatic channels between Moscow and Kiev after talks on a peace deal broke down.
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British Defense Minister: Russia actively defends Dnieper river crossings
Update 10:41 In Thursday morning’s analysis of the Ukrainian Front, Britain’s Ministry of Defense reports that Russia is aggressively defending the crossing of the Dnieper River that connects the Russian-occupied city of Kherson with the rest of the southern part of the Kherson region.
London says Ukrainian troops continue to fire missiles at Russian military locations, personnel groups, logistics support bases and ammunition depots, which could affect Russian military logistics resupply and pressure combat support of Russian military elements.
British notes that on August 3, 2022, the first Ukrainian grain ship crossed the Black Sea from Odessa and arrived in the Bosphorus Strait. It is almost certain that the success of this traffic will lead to frequent traffic in both directions. London says overcoming delays caused by the blockade, which will be in place from February 2022, will be a logistical challenge.
The British Ministry of Defense indicates that Russian forces have certainly placed pyramid radar reflectors in the water near the recently damaged Antonievsky Bridge and the recently damaged railway bridge crossing the Dnieper River in Kherson, southern Ukraine.
Radar reflectors are probably used to hide the bridge from artificial borehole radar images and potential missile sighting equipment. This highlights the threat Russia feels from the increased range and accuracy of Western delivery systems, the British assessment added.
ISW: Russians use Zaporozhye nuclear power plant to stop West from arming Ukraine
Update 10:30 Estimated Wednesday night through Thursday morningAccording to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in Washington Russian forces may use its positions at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Enerhodar to heighten Western fears of a nuclear disaster in Ukraine in an attempt to reduce Western willingness to provide military support for a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
ISW says the Russian military may have set fire to a prison where Ukrainian prisoners of war were being held at Olenivka in the occupied Donetsk region, but Ukraine blamed a precision strike with Western-supplied military equipment, adding to U.S. reluctance to proceed. Deliver HIMARS to Ukraine.
Moscow is likely to use its relationship with Tehran to acquire drones for use in Ukraine, ISW experts also say.
Some other ISW takeaways:
- Russian forces launched a ground offensive northwest of Sloviansk and continued their efforts to advance toward Pakmut from the northeast, east, and southeast.
- Russian forces prioritized frontal assaults on Avtivka and failed to gain ground on Pisky.
- Russian forces are reportedly forming a strike group to deter Ukrainian counterattacks or a counterattack in the northern Kherson region.
- Kremlin-installed authorities in the occupied territories may allow traditional and online voting in future mock referendums on the annexation of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, allowing for outright vote fraud.
Zelensky responded after former German chancellor Schröder said Putin wanted a “negotiated solution”: This is simply disgusting.
Update 9:10 p.m Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described former German Chancellor Hegard Schröder’s behavior as “disgusting”. Russia wants a “negotiated solution”. He reports about the war Reuters.
Herhard Schroeder, who is friends with President Vladimir Putin, said he met the Kremlin leader last week and said there was a possibility a ceasefire could be easily reached.
“It is very disgusting that former leaders of major countries with European values are working for Russia, which is at war against these values,” President Zelensky said in a video intervention on Wednesday night.
Ukraine is seeking an opportunity to speak directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping
Update 7:56 p.m Ukraine is seeking an opportunity to speak directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping to end its war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published in the South China Morning Post on Thursday. Reuters.
In the interview, the Ukrainian leader urged China to use its enormous political and economic influence over Russia to end the conflict.
“It’s a very powerful state. It’s a powerful economy. So it can influence Russia politically and economically. And China is (also) a permanent member of the UN Security Council,” Ukraine’s president said.
Russia says it has exchanged 27 prisoners with Ukraine
Update 7:00 p.m A Russian official said Wednesday that Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners and soldiers killed in the conflict 27 times since the start of the war, dpa reported Thursday.
“With the participation of the Red Cross, we managed to organize a dialogue with Kiev on the exchange of prisoners and dead soldiers. So far, 27 such actions have been carried out,” Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin told a meeting. According to the Interfax news agency, quoted by Akerpress, foreign military connections.
The largest exchange took place in June, when each side exchanged 144 prisoners of war.
The prisoner exchange talks are one of the last remaining diplomatic channels between Moscow and Kiev after talks on a peace deal broke down. Recently, there have been several plans to use these channels to restart peace talks in an effort to end the fighting that began in February when Russian troops invaded Ukraine.
The evacuation of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, when more than 3,000 people, including hundreds of civilians, were released, was agreed through this channel, Fomin said.
However, shelling of a prisoner-of-war camp in eastern Ukraine left dozens of Azov militants ambushed in the Mariupol compound and besieged for weeks before surrendering in May.
Moscow and Kiev blamed each other for the attack on the Olenivka camp in territory claimed by separatist groups.
Some highlights from the previous day:
- Russia says it is “impossible” to get a turbine for the Nord Stream gas pipeline due to economic sanctions.
- UN to investigate Olenivka prison attack
- Kiev’s reaction to Russia’s willingness to negotiate: a “call for surrender”.
- Zelensky said after the first grain ship left Ukraine: “It doesn’t mean anything. The economy is in a coma.”
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