Day 554 of the Invasion of Ukraine: Orban thinks Kyiv has no chance against Russia and that only Trump can Stop the War

Ukraine | August 31, 2023, Thursday // 11:35|  views

@novinite.com

Day 554 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

  • Orban: Ukraine has no chance against Russia. Only Trump can save the West
  • The terrorist Girkin has announced that he will run for president against the weak Putin
  • Lukashenko described as "stupid" the demands for "Wagner" to leave Belarus
  • Six Ukrainian soldiers were killed during missions with two helicopters
  • A Ukrainian drone was shot down in the Moscow region, the Russian authorities announced
  • Ukraine destroyed 4 Russian Il-76s in the attack on Pskov
  • Ukrainian military showed the German “Gepard” in action
  • New video with Prigozhin immediately before the crash
  • ISW: Moscow is worried about Prigozhin even after his death
  • Kadyrov: I am Putin's foot soldier. I don't belong to myself


Orban: Ukraine has no chance against Russia. Only Trump can save the West

"Ukraine has no chance against Russia. Trump is the West's only hope".

This was announced by the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in an interview with the American TV presenter Tucker Carlson, who since the beginning of the war has been firmly in the camp of Vladimir Putin. The Prime Minister pointed out that the victory of Kyiv against Moscow is "impossible" because the Ukrainians "will finish earlier".

"What will ultimately count will be the boots on the ground, and the Russians are much stronger," Orban points out.

He adds, seemingly regretting that a historic opportunity for Ukraine to join NATO was wasted, and insists confidently that Russia is getting "stronger and stronger".

Accepting Ukraine into the alliance "is not a realistic proposition at this point, so forget about it," the leader said authoritatively.

However, in the next moment, the Hungarian Prime Minister contradicts himself, underestimating the power of the Russian army. Because, in his words, "only the United States can end the war."

But for this purpose, the country must be governed by a head of state responsible for "the best foreign policy in the last few decades" - Donald Trump.

"Call Trump! Because you know, you can criticize him for many reasons… but… the best foreign policy of the last few decades belongs to him. He didn't start any new war, he was good with the North Koreans, and with Russia, and even with the Chinese... and if he was president at the time of the Russian invasion, the Russians would not have been able to do that," the prime minister noted, adding: "Trump is the man who can save the Western world."

Orban announced that if someone attacks the Turkish Stream and "does to the southern corridor what was done to the northern corridor, we will consider it a cause of war, a terrorist attack and we will immediately retaliate. So don't do it!"

Orban's warning is not aimed at Moscow. What's more, in the next moment, Carlson, who earned his reputation as one of Donald Trump's staunchest admirers (although in leaked emails he calls the former president a "moron"), blames Biden for sabotaging Nord Stream without meeting any resistance on the part of the Hungarian Prime Minister.

Orban never specified what exactly he would do if someone actually attacked Turkish Stream. Later in the conversation, he mocks the German reaction after the attack on Nord Stream, from which we can conclude that his dire threat was intended to do just that - to draw attention to Berlin's toothlessness.

Tucker Carlson was the most-watched TV anchor on the ultra-conservative US Fox News channel, with an audience of nearly 3 million, before he was suddenly fired in late April 2023. It was initially speculated that his ouster was entered into as part of an out-of-court settlement between the media and voting machine company "Dominion", which sued Fox News for spreading Donald Trump's lies that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. (In the end, Fox News paid Dominion $787 million).

Carlson, who in private communications with colleagues acknowledged that Biden won the election fair and square, has daily supported the former president's erroneous claims.

In early May, the New York Times reported another reason for the journalist's dismissal. Carlson sent a message to a Fox News producer in which he was outraged by a white Trumpist attack on a representative of the far-left Antifa movement:

"To attack a man like that is obviously dishonorable. White men don't fight like that."

Carlson's comment startled the producer, who introduced Lachlan Murdoch (son of Rupert Murdoch and CEO of Fox News) to its content. Fearing the Dominion lawsuit would leak the message, Carlson was fired before causing more media headaches.

Carlson is currently campaigning on the platform of his great admirer, Elon Musk.

The terrorist Girkin has announced that he will run for president against the weak Putin

Russian terrorist Igor Girkin-Strelkov, who is currently in pre-trial detention in Moscow for insulting the Russian army, intends to run for president of the Russian Federation in next year's elections.

Girkin is a former commander of Russian forces in Donbas and a former defense minister of the puppet quasi-state DPR. He has a life sentence handed down by a Dutch court for terrorism for the downing of a Malaysian Boeing over the Donbas in July 2014.

However, the Russian extreme nationalist is also a thorn in his side, as he does not spare his criticism of the military leadership in Moscow and Putin. Some time ago, he called his head of state a "rag" and predicted that he would follow the fate of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and "end up with a bayonet stuck in his ass."

On Telegram, Girkin explained that he has many advantages compared to Putin that make him more suitable for the post.

"The president refuses to take part in military action, he is considered incompetent in military affairs. I believe that I am more competent in military affairs than the sitting president and certainly than the sitting secretary of defense, so I could fulfill the duties of commander in chief, as it should be according to the Russian constitution," declared the terrorist.

As another valuable quality, Girkin-Strelkov notes that Putin is an overly trusting person.

"For 8 years, he was led by the nose by Obama, Trump, Macron, Merkel, Poroshenko and Zelensky. They led him in Minsk, and in the Norman format, and in Istanbul, and in many other places. He called them dear and respected partners, and they led the current president by the nose. I, unlike him, on the contrary, never trusted them at all," the terrorist emphasizes.

He also promised to purge the security, intelligence and military-industrial complex of incompetents.

"It turned out that neither the country, nor the army, nor the industry of Russia is ready for war, and the so-called Ukraine is not at all a straw man militarily. However, all the heads of these structures (as well as others, such as the Central Bank ) remained in place and continue to amaze us with their incompetence," Girkin said.

According to him, unlike Putin, he is not dependent on oligarchs.

"Our president has many billionaire friends and other businessmen to whom he cannot refuse anything (due to the aforementioned kindness and breadth of soul). As a result, the export of capital from Russia continues, military production grows much more slowly than the capital of friends of the president. I don't have a single friend who is even a millionaire, I don't have many entrepreneur friends, I don't have many friends at all, and most of all they are not rich people. Accordingly, I will not have to conform to the wishes of my friends at a disadvantage of the Russian economy," Strelkov said.

Lukashenko described as "stupid" the demands for "Wagner" to leave Belarus

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that the demands of Poland and the Baltic states to withdraw the Russian mercenary group "Wagner" from Belarus are "baseless and stupid", the Belarusian state news agency BelTA reported, as quoted by "Reuters".

BelTA quoted Lukashenko as saying that opposition to the presence of "Wagner" in Belarus is unjustified, while foreign troops are stationed in Poland and the Baltic countries, which are members of NATO.

Wagner, whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash in Russia last week, moved some of its fighters to Belarus under a deal brokered by Lukashenko to end the mercenary group's brief rebellion against the Russian leadership of defense in June.

Poland and its neighbors see Wagner's presence in Belarus as a security threat, and in response, Warsaw has moved some of its own troops east to the Belarusian border.

BelTA quotes Lukashenko as saying that Poland and the Baltic countries have no right to complain about "Wagner" in Belarus while they have "even one foreign serviceman" on their territory.

"Meanwhile, these are baseless and stupid requests," he stressed.

Belarus said in late July that members of Wagner had begun training its special forces at a military training ground just a few kilometers from the border with Poland.

Lukashenko said his army would benefit from training from the Wagner, which fought for Russia in some of the most intense battles of the war in Ukraine and completed the capture of the city of Bakhmut after months of fierce fighting in May.

Six Ukrainian soldiers were killed during missions with two helicopters

Ukraine says it has lost servicemen in a helicopter crash amid an ongoing offensive in the country's southern regions. On the Russian side, there were again reports of drone attacks.

Ukraine's armed forces said six Ukrainian servicemen were killed while carrying out missions with two helicopters in eastern Ukraine. A statement by the armed forces on Telegram said that the servicemen were carrying out missions in the area of the eastern city of Bakhmut, which is under the control of Russian forces.

Kyiv also reported fierce fighting in the direction of Tavria on the occupied Crimean Peninsula. According to the Ukrainian High Command, more than 20 units of Russian combat equipment and 2 ammunition depots were destroyed.

Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said successes of the counteroffensive in the area could help push the Russians into Crimea and cut the land link to the peninsula. In this way, Kyiv will divide the territories occupied by Russia in two and will significantly complicate the supply operations of the Russian army.

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that negotiations for the supply of additional air defense systems are ongoing.

"Step by step we will succeed," Zelensky emphasized in his traditional video message.

At the same time, Russian air defenses said they shot down two Ukrainian drones over Bryansk region in southern Russia. There are no reports of casualties or damage. And according to the authorities in the annexed Crimea, anti-aircraft units have shot down a cruise missile fired towards the peninsula.

A Ukrainian drone was shot down in the Moscow region, the Russian authorities announced

Russia claims to have destroyed a Ukrainian drone today in the Moscow region, whose attack did not cause casualties according to the mayor of the capital, AFP reported.

This morning, a drone "was destroyed by (...) air defense over the territory of the Voskresensky district of the Moscow region," located southeast of the capital, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Telegram, which accused Kyiv of carrying out the attack.

According to the mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, the drone was "flying in the direction of Moscow".

"According to initial information, there are no victims and no material damage," added Sobyanin, pointing out that emergency teams are on the scene.

Moscow's “Vnukovo” International Airport was closed this morning for departing and landing planes, TASS reported, citing the airport's press service.

Drone attacks on Russian territory and the annexed Crimean peninsula have become almost daily in recent weeks, targeting the Russian capital in particular amid a counteroffensive from Kyiv that began in early June, AFP noted.

Yesterday, a drone destroyed or damaged several military aircraft at Pskov airport, an attack that is rare in northwestern Russia. The Russian military also said it had neutralized numerous drones over the western regions of Moscow, over Bryansk, Oryol, Kaluga and Ryazan, as well as in Crimea.

Ukraine destroyed 4 Russian Il-76s in the attack on Pskov

Ukrainian forces destroyed four Russian Il-76 aircraft during a drone strike on a Russian airport in the Pskov region on the night of August 29-30.

Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine's General Directorate of Military Intelligence (GUR), said the attack destroyed four Russian planes and possibly damaged two more at the Pskov airport, but did not comment on the nature of the strike or claim responsibility for it. Geolocation footage and Russian sources have confirmed the strike and destruction of at least two Russian Il-76 jets, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in a report today. Russian military bloggers claim that over 21 Ukrainian drones have struck the Pskov airport. Russian sources, including the Russian Defense Ministry, claim that Russian air defense and electronic warfare systems have also shot down Ukrainian drones over Oryol, Tula, Voronezh, Ryazan, Kaluga, Bryansk and Moscow regions.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that Russian air defenses had repulsed a massive Ukrainian drone strike in the Central Federal District (a large administrative region that includes Moscow but not Pskov) and that at least one of the drones was headed for Moscow, which may suggest that Russian officials may have initially believed that Ukrainian forces intended to strike at Moscow or the region around it, the analysis said. It's possible that Russian forces focused their air defenses on covering Moscow and somehow missed the unusually large number of Ukrainian drones reported to have hit the Pskov airport. The Ukrainian drones that Russian air defenses shot down over the remaining six oblasts were likely en route to Moscow or Pskov Oblast and were likely not part of Ukrainian efforts to strike targets in the remaining oblasts.

Russian propagandists and military bloggers have criticized Russian forces for their failure to protect Russian territory and military installations, while criticizing the Russian Defense Ministry's recent censorship efforts.

At the same time, on the night of August 29-30, Russian forces carried out large-scale missile and drone strikes, mostly directed at Kyiv, possibly in response to Ukrainian strikes earlier on Moscow and the Pskov region.

On August 30, Ukrainian light infantry - probably reconnaissance units - penetrated east of the Russian field fortifications near Verbove. Geolocation footage released on August 30 showed Ukrainian infantry on the northwestern outskirts of Verbove, indicating that Russian control over the outskirts of the settlement has weakened. However, the footage does not show that Ukrainian forces have established control of the area at this point, and Russian military bloggers claim that Ukrainian forces have not yet breached the defense line around Verbove, today's analysis said.

Ukrainian military showed the German “Gepard” in action

It has been 18 months since Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv's latest counteroffensive is being waged with a combination of old Soviet equipment but also with weapons provided by Western allies. Germany gave the Ukrainian army 45 “Gepard” (Cheetah) tanks. Deutsche Welle correspondent Mathias Bolinger tells how Ukrainian fighters use them. Germany's military industry names its war machines after animals. "Cheetah" catches drones and shells in Ukraine.

In the Kyiv region, they protect the capital from cruise missiles and Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones. However, they were originally intended for another purpose. The idea was to shoot down helicopters and planes at close range from the front line. Their range of action is up to 4 kilometers.

"The first seconds take your breath away. When you've been waiting a month or two for a goal to appear and suddenly you see it right in front of your eyes, you can't go wrong. And when it comes to missiles, you only have a few seconds to act," said Commander Roman.

"Gepard" is managed by three people - a commander, a driver and a gunner. It has two radars and two guns, which together can fire up to 1100 rounds per minute. The turret and guns are controlled by a computer. The commander fires after the gunner has electronically engaged the target. "You operate a joystick like in a computer game. As soon as you see the target, you mark it with a small circle and follow it", explained the shooter Oleksei.

“Gepard” production began 50 years ago. In 2012, the German army took them out of service. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Berlin refurbished its old tanks and handed them over to Ukraine. As Russia increases its airstrikes against the Ukrainian state, the “Cheetah” tanks are finding many uses. This is certainly proof that there is no need for retirement of “obsolete machines”.

New video with Prigozhin immediately before the crash

A new video with Yevgeny Prigozhin is circulating on Telegram. The Gray Zone channel, believed to be linked to the private military company Wagner, claims the video was recorded shortly before Prigozhin’s death.

In it, he is dressed in camouflage clothing and makes an address from a moving car.

In the video, Prigozhin says he is in Africa and is fine.

The leader of "Wagner" died in a plane crash on August 23 in the Tver region, and the video was published on Telegram two days earlier.

ISW: Moscow is worried about Prigozhin even after his death

Moscow is worried about Yevgeny Prigozhin's popularity even after his death, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote in its analysis of the war's developments today.

The Kremlin has made efforts to silence or obfuscate reports of the funeral of the head of the Wagner private army, possibly indicating that the authorities in Russia continue to worry about Prigozhin's influence in the country and among the Wagner forces even after his death.

Two current Russian government officials told The Moscow Times that the presidency and the Federal Security Service (FSB) deliberately kept Prigozhin's funeral secret to avoid further martyring him. They note that the Russian president's first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, officers from several intelligence services and FSB officials met to develop a plan to prevent any possibility of public protest or outrage and to mislead the public about the location at Prigozhin's funeral.

The Moscow Times adds that there have been many conflicting reports about the location of Prigozhin's burial on August 29. Some Russian channels on Telegram noted that Russian federal channels largely ignored Prigozhin's funeral, possibly also as part of the Kremlin's planned "coverage" of the funeral.

ISW continues to observe that some Russian Telegram channels are baselessly speculating that Prigozhin survived the crash, which may also have been an information operation to flood the Russian news space with misleading messages and divert attention from the funeral.

Kadyrov: I am Putin's foot soldier. I don't belong to myself

“I am Putin's foot soldier and I do not belong to myself”.

This was announced by the Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov in a post on Telegram, in which he ridiculed the "reasonings of unfinished political scientists" who predicted his imminent demise. The leader's statement was probably provoked by the death of Putin's close friend and head of the Wagner military group Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a plane crash in the Tver region on August 23.

Among the main suspects is the Russian president, and the reason for the assassination attempt could be the Prigozhin-organized rebellion on June 23-24, which proved to be the biggest challenge to the Putin regime since he came to power in 1999.

In his publication, Kadyrov assures that he is willing to carry out "every order of Vladimir Vladimirovich, even if the result is death."

Novinite is still the only Bulgarian media that publishes a summary of events and highlights related to the conflict, every single day. Our coverage began on day one - 24.02.2022 and will not stop until the war has concluded. Despite the pressure, our independent media will continue to provide its readers with accurate and up-to-date information. Thank you for your support! #stayinformed

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Tags: Ukraine, Russia, Prigozhin, Kyiv

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