President Volodymyr Zelensky visited frontline soldiers in Vovchansk district of the Kharkiv sector on Monday, delivering awards and congratulating troops on Special Operations Forces Day.
“Today, I had the honor to be there to congratulate our Special Forces warriors on their professional day and to present them with state awards,” the President posted to social media.
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In officiating the frontline ceremony, Zelensky emphasized the importance of the locale: “Kharkiv sector. The advanced command post of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; Vovchansk district.”
Zelensky stressed that the special forces units (SSO) have been deployed to one of the most difficult sectors of the front, as Kharkiv continues to face growing pressure from the latest invasion of Russian forces from the northeast.
SSO fighters are engaged in the hottest areas of the front and have been successfully conducting special operations and fulfilling their duties as soldiers, Zelensky said.
“Please take care of yourselves,” the President said. “Today you are on this path; it’s probably one of the most difficult. The whole country is counting on you.
“We will definitely win,” concluded Zelensky.
Ukrainian UAVs set ablaze power plant in Russia’s Belgorod region among other energy grid targets
Meanwhile, Ukraine launched waves of attack drones at targets within Russia on Monday, resulting in damaged energy facilities in several towns.
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The governor of Russia’s Oryol region, Andrei Klychkov, claimed that Russian forces shot down two drones in Glazunovsky district in the early hours of Monday, and that falling debris damaged a power plant.
His counterpart in the Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev, claimed that air defenses knocked down a drone and, similarly, parts of it reportedly landed on a utility infrastructure facility in Gazoprovod.
On the ground sources and Russian independent media Astra reported that Ukrainian drones struck a power substation in Tomarovka, Belgorod region, and started a fire there.
ISW connects the dots between growing North Korean economy, Iranian satellite projects and lethal aid to Moscow
Washington-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), assessed over the weekend that Moscow has been strengthening its bilateral agreements with Iran and North Korea in exchange for the provision of military aid to Moscow for use in its war against Ukraine.
Iranian state media outlet Mehr News Agency reported last week that Iran will launch its “Hod Hod” and “Kosar" satellites into orbit from an unspecified Russian station in October 2024, and analysts from the ISW draw a link between Russia’s participation and the supply to Moscow of Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 drones and components.
The Bank of Korea estimated that North Korea’s gross domestic product grew by 3.1 percent for the year in 2023 after annual contractions since 2019. “North Korea’s heavy and chemical industries, particularly the production of iron, steel, copper, nickel, and aluminum, grew the most in 2023 by 8.1 percent,” the analysts said.
State media service Ukrinform noted that South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonsik previously stated that “Russia’s provision of food to North Korea in exchange for weapons helped North Korea stabilize prices and likely boosted North Korean domestic manufacturing,” while “North Korea has reportedly transferred as many as 4.8 million artillery shells to Russia, and Iran has supplied Shahed-136/131 drones and components to Russia.”
Italian PM meets with President Xi about “international priorities”
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday in Beijing to discuss the war in Ukraine and other “priorities”, her office said.
The leaders addressed the “priority issues on the international agenda from the war in Ukraine to the risks of a further escalation of the situation in the Middle East. They also discussed the growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific,” a statement from her office read.
“Prime Minister Meloni and President Xi discussed some of the most important global governance issues of common interest, from artificial intelligence to the fight against climate change and the UN Security Council reform process,” the statement added.
Neither side offered specifics of what was discussed regarding Ukraine, but a primary motivation for the Italian delegation for the trip was to revamp economic relations with Beijing ever since Rome pulled out of an infrastructure joint venture with China.
After Meloni met with US President Joe Biden last year, Italy pulled out of Xi’s Belt and Road infrastructure investment project, as did select Eastern European invitees. Now, her administration is eager to boost the sputtering Italian economy by participating in an Italy-China business forum, which includes tire-maker Pirelli, energy group ENI, defense group Leonardo, wine producers and several Italian luxury fashion groups.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba’s visited Beijing on July 23, his first trip to China since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
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