Victory Chronicles-DAY 1260

US approves $203 million support package for Ukraine’s M777 Howtzers

The U.S. State Department has approved a $203.5 million support package for Ukraine’s M777 howitzers that are critical to Kyiv’s defense of Russia’s invasion. 

According to a Pentagon news release, the package for the lightweight, long-range artillery guns includes two contracts: the first, worth $104 million, covers maintenance, repair, and technical support for the artillery systems, with British defense company BAE 

Systems named as the primary contractor. The second, valued at $99.5 million, involves logistics and transportation services, with a U.S.-based contractor to be determined.

The U.S. Defense Department said the deal supports U.S. policy by bolstering Ukraine as a stabilizing force in Europe. 

Russian airborne strike hits vacation resort in Zaporizhzhia, killing 2 civilians, injuring 12 more. Russian forces launched an airstrike early on Aug. 5 on a vacation resort in in the southern Zaporizhzhia district ofUkraine, killing two civilians and injuring at least 12, including four children, local officials said.

According to Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration head Ivan Fedorov, the attack damaged at least nine small one-story cabins where civilians had been vacationing. Some of the injured were hospitalized in serious condition, including two children,one of whom is in critical condition.

Emergency crews evacuated people from the area, extinguished fires that were sparked by the blasts, and transported the wounded. The strike occurred between 5:55 and 6:10 a.m. local time and involved guided aerial bombs.

Fedorov said that six of the seven hospitalized adults had suffered severe blast injuries and were undergoing emergency surgery.  “These people were resting near home, not on a battlefield,” he said on social media.

Ukrainian airborne troops repel Russian assault along Donetsk regional salient. Russian forces failed to attempt a surprise assault on positions held by Ukraine’s 81st Separate Airmobile Brigade on the Siversk axis of the Donetsk region but were repulsed with heavy losses.

According to the brigade’s communications unit, Ukrainian troops quickly responded to the attack, and destroyed one Russian tank while damaging another, taking out one infantry fighting vehicle , and eliminated  more than 10motorcycles that were used for rapid movement. Enemy personnel were also eliminated or wounded during the failed assault.

Key Takeaways:

• Private and public Kremlin statements indicate that Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin continues to demand the entirety of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts before he will initiate a peace agreement.
• Helping Ukraine inflict battlefield setbacks on Russian forces remains essential to efforts to persuade Putin to reevaluate his position on the war and negotiations.
• Kremlin insider sources likely leaked this information in an attempt to obfuscate Russian ruler Vladimir Putin’s actual, more extreme war aims.
• The Kremlin also likely intends for these leaks to Western media to advance its ongoing effort to break Ukrainian and Western morale.
• Putin has intentionally put himself in a position where he cannot present any peace settlement that falls short of his original war aims as a victory to the Russian military or people.
• Russia announced on Aug. 4 that it will withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, likely as a rhetorical response to US President Donald Trump’s August 1 announcement about the redeployment of US nuclear submarines toward Russia. Russia’s INF Treaty withdrawal does not portend a shift in Russia’s use of shorter- and intermediate-range missiles, however.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Chasiv Yar. Russian forces recently advanced near Lyman, Siversk, and Toretsk.

• Donald Trump readies fresh US sanctions against Russia’s covert  fleet
• Drones attack Russia’s Bryansk, home to oil depot: over 10 explosions reported
• Russia attacks gas transmission facility in Odesa region, hits Ukraine gas supply rout
• NATO to start deliveries of US weapons to Ukraine in coming weeks
• Trump imposes additional 25 percent tariffs on India for buying oil from Russia