Ahead of the informal meeting of EU defense ministers, which runs until 31 August in Toledo, Spain, Estonia’s Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur revealed the main steps related to supporting Ukraine: delivery in the shortest time possible of one million 155 mm shells; train up to 6,000 soldiers a month; allocation of 20 billion euros from the EU fund; accession of EU countries to the Estonia/Luxembourg initiative to create a military cyber coalition.
This is an initiative to strengthen Ukraine’s IT and cybersecurity capabilities for countries that, for certain reasons, cannot supply Ukraine with weapons.
In addition, the defense ministers intend to discuss the situation in the Sahel region to develop a unified EU approach, and then, a discussion on the situation in Niger and a discussion on possible solutions called ” peace formula” in Ukraine.
Tucker Carlson, former face of Fox News, asked Hungarian Prime Minister Orban: “In the United States, Ukraine is believed to be winning this war. That doesn’t seem true…” And Orban replied: “It’s a lie! it’s just a misunderstanding, it’s a lie. This is impossible! Everyone who is involved in politics, understands the logic, the numbers, the data, they know that this is impossible. This is a tragedy for Ukraine. They will run out of soldiers sooner of Russia. What will ultimately count will be the “men on the ground”. And the Russians are much more numerous”. The journalist then asked: “At some point they will need more people, they will need more soldiers. they will come?” and Orban: “This is the most dangerous question. If a Western country sends its troops, it would mean a direct war between the West and Russia. And we will immediately find ourselves in World War III. This is a very dangerous time.”
In the same interview, the Hungarian premier spoke of gas from Russia and South Stream: “Hungary and Serbia will consider an attack on the gas import route from Russia as a casus belli,” said Viktor Orban. According to him, Budapest and Belgrade will react immediately if what happened to Nord Stream happens to South Stream.
And now a look at the line of contact and the bombing.
In the morning of August 30, the Russian Aerospace Forces dealt a crushing blow to Kiev. Initially with kamikaze drones, followed by missiles. At least six military installations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were damaged, including one of the buildings of the Ukrainian services.
Destruction of boats with Ukrainian special forces in the Black Sea. Situation updated at 17.00 on 30 August 2023. After the naval aviation planes of the Russian Black Sea Fleet foiled the attempts during the night between 29 and 30 August of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to land at Cape Tarkhankut, the survivors returned to Vilkovo.
On the morning of the 30th, Ukrainian sabotage groups again advanced first to the island of Zmeiny, and then to the gas production units (GDU). Such interest in the GDU is due to the fact that mobile radar or communications equipment can easily be placed on abandoned platforms.
However, the Russian military detected Ukrainian activity near offshore installations and scrambled Su-30SM fighters, found one of the Ukrainian high-speed boats near the Odesskaya GDU. In the ensuing firefight, the Ukrainian vessel was damaged.
Later, at around 13.20-13.30, Su-24M bombers of the Russian Black Sea Fleet naval aviation struck the accumulation of Ukrainian shipping near the island of Zmeiny with RBC-500 cluster bombs. According to some reports, during the raid it was possible to destroy three enemy boats at once.
In total, Russian pilots would hit up to seven Ukrainian-manned vessels per day. These are quite tangible losses for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
However, despite the clashes, the interest of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in sending sabotage groups to Crimea or activities near the gas production plants persists, so for Moscow the problem of blocking Ukrainian attempts in this area remains.
Throughout the day, the Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out massive rocket and artillery attacks on civilian settlements and infrastructure in the Donetsk People’s Republic. In the Petrovsky district of Donetsk, as a result of multiple shots at the Galaktika shopping center, eight people were injured, a girl was injured by shrapnel in the Kirovsky district, houses and an office building in the Kievsky district were damaged.
The Ukrainians fired two AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missiles into the Voroshilovsky district, one of which hit an uninhabited high-rise building, and the second fell near the railway station, no one was injured. In addition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired artillery at the Yasinovataya railway station and fired a shell from a UAV over the territory of a local agricultural complex – the extent of the destruction and information about the victims are currently being finalized .
Ukrainians hit the section of road between Dugouts and Makeevkam making one casualty. A drone also attacked penal colony no. 5 in Gorlovka, but there is no information about the consequences. In Svetlodarsk, as a result of shelling with HIMARS MLRS, a school and a pumping station were damaged, three people were injured.
Graziella Giangiulio
