Victory Chronicles-DAY 554

Ukraine’s defense forces have made gains and are consolidating their positions near the settlements of Novodanylivka and Novoprokopivka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. “Ukraine’s defense forces have been conducting offensive operations on the Bakhmut and Melitopol fronts. They have made progress on the Novodanylivka–Novoprokopivka front, consolidating their positions, inflicting artillery fire on the identified enemy targets and carrying out counter-battery measures. The defense forces are advancing further, to the south of the town of Bakhmut on the Bakhmut front, consolidating their positions,” said Ukraine’s General Staff.

Ukraine’s defense forces killed another 610 Russian soldiers and destroyed 13 tanks and 22 UAVs belonging to the Russians over the past day. This was reported by General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook.

“The mobile fire groups of the Territorial Defense Forces have already demonstrated their effectiveness in destroying dozens of enemy air targets. First of all, this concerns attack UAVs that attack our country almost every night. However, the servicemen of the 120th Territorial Defense Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are continuously training their skills and establishing coordination for effective defense,” the statement said. Regional Directorate of the Territorial Defense Forces “South” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The police delivered food and hygiene products to four liberated villages in Luhansk Oblast, reported Luhansk Oblast Military Administration. The aid was delivered to the residents of Nevske, Makiivka, Hrekivka and Novolyubivka, who are under almost round-the-clock shelling by Russian occupation forces. The police brought hygiene and food kits from the Ukrainian Red Cross Society and bread from the Krasnorichensk territorial community.

Ukrainian forces reportedly destroyed four Russian Il-76 planes during a drone strike on a Russian airfield in Pskov Oblast on the night of August 29 to 30. Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Representative Andriy Yusov stated that the drone strike destroyed four Russian Il-76 planes and possibly damaged two other planes at the Pskov airfield but did not comment on the nature of the strike or claim responsibility for it.

Geolocated footage and Russian sources confirmed the strike and the destruction of at least two Russian Il-76 planes. Russian milbloggers claimed that over 21 Ukrainian drones struck the Pskov airfield. Russian sources, including the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD), claimed that Russian air defenses and electronic warfare (EW) systems also downed Ukrainian drones over Oryol, Tula, Voronezh, Ryazan, Kaluga, Bryansk, and Moscow oblasts.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin stated that Russian air defenses repelled a massive Ukrainian drone strike on the Central Federal Okrug (a large administrative area including Moscow but not Pskov) and that at least one of the drones was headed toward Moscow, possibly suggesting that Russian authorities may have initially believed that Ukrainian forces intended to strike Moscow or the region around it.

Russian forces may have focused their air defenses on covering Moscow and somehow missed the unusually large number of Ukrainian drones that reportedly struck the Pskov airfield. The Ukrainian drones that Russian air defenses downed over the six other oblasts were likely en route to Moscow or Pskov Oblast and likely were not part of a Ukrainian effort to strike targets in the other oblasts.

Junior Sergeant Serhii Matchenko, with the call sign “Combat,” died on July 3, 2023, in a battle with the occupiers near the city of Kreminna, Luhansk Oblast. The warrior will forever be 30 years old.

Serhii was born in Kamianske, Dnipro Oblast. In 2016, he graduated from the Prydniprovia State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture. He worked as a locksmith at the Evraz Dnipro Metallurgical Plant. In his spare time, he was engaged in apiary and agriculture. On March 2, 2022, Serhii joined the National Guard of Ukraine and went to the front. He served as a combat medic in the 16th Regiment of Public Order Protection, named after Major General Oleksandr Radievskyi.

“Serhii volunteered to go. He was not afraid of anything, a man with a capital M in all spheres of life. A man of honor and conscience,” said Daria, the deceased’s wife. The National Guard was buried in his hometown. Serhii is survived by his parents, brother, sister, wife, and daughter, who was 2 years old at the time of his father’s death. 

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• Military Administration: Invaders shell Sloviansk and Borova in Kharkiv Oblast, killing one and wounding another
• SOF: Special Operations Forces hit the Russian command post on the Bakhmut front
• WB: World Bank allocates US$232 million for urgent repairs to damaged homes in Ukraine
• UK Intelligence: Russia forced to step up air defenses at airbases amid latest drone attack