Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 05-08-2024

It has been reported that Russia’s largest aircraft show, the MAKS International Aviation and Space Salon, timetabled for this summer has been canceled again.

The Russian Interfax news agency cites three well-placed sources within the country's aviation industry that say the MAKS bi-annual airshow, which was first held in1993 and granted federal status in the mid-2000s, will be postponed for the second year in a row even though the cancellation has yet to be formally confirmed by the government or the organizing company Aviasalon JSC.

The event is held every two years and was programmed to have been held in July at the 2023 at the airfield of the MM Gromov Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky, 40 kilometers southeast of Moscow, was “postponed,” less than a month before the due date and rescheduled for the July 23-28, 2024. That was the first-ever cancellation of the event in 30 years that has been traditionally attended by President Vladimir Putin, other high-ranking officials and members of the Moscow elite.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that if Paris sends troops to Ukraine, the Russians will consider them legitimate targets. Medvedev threatens Armageddon again.

If French President Emmanuel Macron sends troops to Ukraine, they will inevitably become targets of the Russian Armed Forces, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

“It is characteristic that Macron himself explains this rhetoric by his desire to create some kind of ‘strategic uncertainty’ for Russia... We have to disappoint him – for us, the situation looks more than certain,” Zakharova told reporters.

Reports said the US Army Staff Sergeant traveled to Vladivostok through China without authorization to meet a Russian woman he met while stationed in South Korea who filed the theft claim.

A US Army servicemember, after traveling without authorization through China to Russia’s Far Eastern port city of Vladivostok to meet his Russian girlfriend, has been detained by Russian authorities in early May on theft charges filed by the woman.

The press service of Russia’s Pervomaisky District Court of Vladivostok said the US servicemember is under pre-trial detention until at least July 2.

Russian milbloggers accuse Kyiv of the indiscriminate use of anti-personnel mines, some of which they claim are fitted with motion detectors. Kyiv Post examines the veracity of those assertions.

Following an almost six-month hiatus, the US announced on April 24 that it would resume deliveries of military assistance to Ukraine, with a particular priority being air defense and 155mm artillery ammunition. On Monday May 6, President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the materiel was on its way but little had arrived.

Reports from the battlefield suggest that some munitions have begun to reach the front lines and that Kyiv’s long-running heavy ammunition shortage could be easing. On May 1 some Ukrainian milbloggers began to report that artillery units had received slight increases in artillery munitions while a week later others were still complaining of severe shortages.

Yields on UAH bonds continues to decline.

The MoF continued to reduce interest rates for UAH bonds, sold the planned amount, and received UAH9.4bn of budget proceeds. Investors and traders tried to reinvest funds from last week's redemption, allowing the MoF to reduce rates by 6-20bp.

A new 12-month paper received UAH9.4bn of demand in 34 bids with interest rates from 15.25% to 15.39%. Much of the demand was at the lowest rate, so the MoF sold the planned UAH3bn of bills at this rate. The cut-off rate declined by 20bp, and the weighted-average rate slid by 14bp to 15.25%. The total interest rate decline for 12-month bills in two weeks is 75bp.

Kolomoisky, perhaps Ukraine’s most well-known oligarch, allegedly ordered the murder of a law firm director 20 years ago.

Ihor Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian oligarch who at one point, was among the most powerful men in Ukraine, is now being held on suspicion of ordering a contract killing on a stubborn law firm director who refused to play along.

On Wednesday, May 8, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office reported that a “well-known businessman suspected of legalizing property obtained fraudulently, was notified of the suspicion of having committed another crime related to the organization of a contract killing.”

In occupied Dzhankoy, the partisans also surveilled the transfer of a train loaded with Russian BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems en route to the Kherson region.

The Atesh partisan movement reported via Telegram the arrival of numerous killed and wounded Russian soldiers in occupied Dzhankoy, Crimea.

“At the station, we noticed massive transportation of the wounded and ‘200’ [killed] from the left bank of the occupied Kherson region,” the report read.

Independent Ukraine has chosen to celebrate VE-Day with the rest of Europe in order to differentiate herself from the current fascist scourge threatening her existence.

Today, those democratic states that were part of the alliance that defeated Nazi Germany and its allies in Europe in 1945 observe Victory in Europe  – VE – Day. And today in Ukraine, the sacrifice and heroism this involved are also being remembered.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has reminded the world that “on the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism… we commemorate the millions of Ukrainians who fought and gained victory together with other nations.”

Tuesday’s video of the duel at sea between a Russian Ka-29 helicopter and a Magura V5 marine drone equipped with R-73 air-to-air missiles has got the technophile community asking why and what’s next?

In an interview with Ukrainska Pravda in March, Kyrylo Budanov, the Head of Ukraine’s  military intelligence directorate (HUR), said Ukraine was actively working on developing both the offensive and defensive capabilities of the Magura V5 unmanned surface vessel (USV) or, more colloquially, the marine attack drone. He said one option was to use it as a seaborne platform for air defense equipment.

The video and images that appeared, initially on Russian milbloggers’ social media, seemed to show that Budanov’s prediction had been made flesh.

If Europe cannot provide enough troops, Russia will prevail on the battlefield and Russian military power will have victoriously returned to Central Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron shocked the world on Feb. 26 by suggesting that Europeans may have to send troops to help Ukraine. Then on May 4, he doubled-down and said French troops would go to Ukraine if Kyiv requested their help. He also described Europe as “mortal” and said that “things can fall apart very quickly” because the US is no longer guarantor of Europe’s security. “I have a clear strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine,” Macron said.

“If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe. Who can pretend that Russia will stop there? What security will there be for neighboring countries, Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania and the others?” His clarion call was echoed by the leader of Europe’s other nuclear power, Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said “if Putin is allowed to succeed in this war of aggression, he will not stop at the Polish border.”

NBU significantly eases FX restrictions.

Bonds: UAH bond rates fall sharply

The NBU's decision to reduce its interest rates by 1pp resulted in an immediate and sharp decline in interest rates on UAH bonds.

The official salaries shy in comparison to their Western counterparts, though like their Western counterparts, some ministers too have other sources of income.

In Ukraine, the prime minister’s salary is lower than some IT specialists – but there’s more to it.

On Monday, the Ukrainian government published official salary figures of its top ministers in April. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal received Hr.77,404 ($1,969), approximately $2,446 before tax.

Vilnius acknowledges Russia may see it as a provocation but says that if they always considered Moscow’s views, they wouldn’t be able to support Ukraine because of the frequent nuclear threats.

Lithuania’s Prime Minister, Ingrida Šimonytė, has stated that her country is prepared to send its soldiers to Ukraine on a training mission, according to a May 8 Financial Times (FT) report.

Šimonytė mentioned that she had received parliamentary approval to send troops to Ukraine for training purposes, a proposal previously considered by her government. However, she said that Kyiv had not yet requested such assistance.

Ukrainian Intelligence intercepts another Russian soldier’s family conversation violating Kremlin operational security and revealing the decay in Moscow’s military morale.

Carefully monitoring unprotected communications, Ukraine’s military intelligence routinely collects information on Kremlin plans for upcoming operations and Moscow’s underlying problems with morale within soldiers’ families and military units, and among the general Russian population.

In a newly intercepted conversation, a Russian soldier’s wife complains to her husband that Moscow can’t destroy the Ukrainian capital and doesn’t value the Russian population, yet no citizens will rise up against the regime.

The Russian embassy in Warsaw said it had not been informed of the matter and questioned the truth of the announcement.

Polish border guards said Wednesday they had detained a Russian deserter who illegally crossed into Poland, a staunch Ukraine supporter, from the territory of Moscow ally Belarus.

The Russian embassy in Warsaw said it had not been informed of the matter and questioned the truth of the announcement.

Electricity restrictions are expected between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Wednesday following Russia’s overnight strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure across the country.

Ukraine’s energy operator, Ukrenergo, has warned of nationwide power outages between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Wednesday following the overnight Russian missile and drone strikes.

Ukrenergo said specific blackout schedules would be released later in the day.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy recorded an address in the village of Yahidne, Chernihiv region, on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy recorded an address in the village of Yahidne, Chernihiv region, on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II.

During the occupation in March 2022, Russian invaders held all the villagers in the school basement for almost a month. 350 adults and children were left without food, water, and medicine. There was less than a square meter for each person: they had to sleep seated or standing.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

Vladimir V. Putin was inaugurated for a fifth term as president on Tuesday in a ceremony filled with pageantry and a televised church service, as the Russian leader tried once more to depict his invasion of Ukraine as a religiously righteous mission that is part of “our 1,000-year history.” Mr. Putin took the presidential oath — he swore to “respect and safeguard the rights and freedoms of man and citizen” — with his hand on a red-bound copy of Russia’s constitution, the 1993 document that guarantees many of the democratic rights that he has spent much of his 25-year rule rolling back. Mr. Putin claimed his fifth term in March in a rubber-stamp election that Western nations dismissed as a sham. If he serves the full six years of his new term, he will become the longest serving Russian leader since Empress Catherine the Great in the 19th century. “Together, we will be victorious!” Mr. Putin said at the end of a speech after he took the oath in the Kremlin’s gilded St. Andrew’s Hall. - NYT

The Ukrainian security service (SBU) says it has foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and other high-ranking Ukrainian officials. Two Ukrainian government protection unit colonels have been arrested.The SBU said they were part of a network of agents belonging to the Russian state security service (FSB). They had reportedly been searching for willing "executors" among Mr Zelensky's bodyguards to kidnap and kill him. Ever since Russian paratroopers attempted to land in Kyiv and assassinate President Zelensky in the early hours and days of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, plots to assassinate him have been commonplace. - BBC

The attack is part of a series of AFU strikes on oil refineries in both Russia and the occupied territories of Ukraine since the beginning of 2024.

Luhansk, a city in eastern Ukraine, was hit by a missile strike late on Tuesday, May 7, causing a fire at an oil depot within the city limits. According to Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LNR), the attack was carried out by the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU).

In total, in the early morning of May 8, Russian forces launched a combined strike using 76 air attack assets, including 55 missiles and 21 drones.

Russian forces launched yet another mass aerial attack against Ukraine on Wednesday morning, May 8, firing missiles from at least eight strategic bombers, targeting Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.

The assault targeted key infrastructure facilities, with hits reported in several regions. Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko confirmed the details of the strike, stating that energy infrastructure, including electricity generation and transmission systems, was hit.

Ukraine’s largest grain trading company suggested irregularities on the part of the State Tax Service, which blocked more than $15 million in invoices.

Prometey, an agricultural company in Ukraine with a land bank of 20,000 hectares and Hr.123.3 million ($3.14 million) taxes paid in 2023 alone, will delay repayment of bank loans because of what it claims are irregularities on the part of the Ukrainian tax service.

According to the company’s statement, published by Ukraine’s news agency Interfax, the State Tax Service blocked tax invoices worth almost Hr.600 million ($15.3 million), disrupting the company’s sustainable cash flow. If the tax invoice is blocked, firms in Ukraine are unable to get the VAT refund until they send the necessary information regarding their trade to the tax service.

China has poured billions into Serbia and neighbouring Balkan countries, particularly into mining and manufacturing, and last year Beijing and Belgrade signed a free trade agreement.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold talks with his Serbian counterpart in Belgrade on Wednesday, as Beijing seeks to deepen its political and economic ties with friendlier countries in Europe.

China has poured billions into Serbia and neighbouring Balkan countries, particularly into mining and manufacturing, and last year Beijing and Belgrade signed a free trade agreement.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin began his fifth term as Russian President on May 7 and stressed Russia's need for unchallenged autocratic rule while indirectly calling for victory in Ukraine.
• Russian ultranationalists lauded the start of Putin's fifth term as a historic event and explicitly approved of the autocratic tradition in which Putin is casting himself, with one of them hailing him as "imperator," the formal title of the Russian tsars since the time of Peter the Great. Russian ultranationalists also expressed hope that Putin will continue to deepen an anti-Western ideology that the Kremlin has been heavily developing since the start of the full-scale invasion.
• The current Russian cabinet of ministers and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin formally resigned on May 7 as constitutionally mandated, and the ministers who return to service and the ones whom Putin replaces will indicate who has Putin's favor and signal his political priorities for his fifth term
• Belarus has announced a surprise nuclear readiness inspection likely as part of the Kremlin's re-intensified reflexive control campaign targeting Western decision-making.
• Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) reported on May 7 that it exposed a network of Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) operatives who were planning to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other high-ranking Ukrainian intelligence and military officials
• The Russian Prosecutor General's Office declared US non-governmental organization (NGO) Freedom House an "undesirable organization" on May 7, likely as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate control over the domestic information space and further deprive Russians of access to civil society organizations and independent assessments of Russian civil and political rights.
• Russian forces recently made confirmed advances near Avdiivka, Donetsk City, and in western Zaporizhia Oblast.
• Russian occupation officials continue efforts to forcibly recruit Ukrainian civilians into the Russian military in occupied Kherson Oblast.
• The Kremlin is working with occupation administrators to strengthen Russia's control over the child welfare system in occupied Ukraine.