Timeline: day 189 of Ukraine’s defense against russia’s aggression

Today is August 31. russia's military attack on Ukraine has been going on for 189 days. We're reporting on the current news. The article will be updated.

What about today?

Key points

The secret of the russian reports about them "having destroyed dozens of Hymars" has been revealed. It turns out that the Ukrainian forces "baited" russian missiles with wooden HIMARS models, The Washington Post reports. Wooden replicas of jet systems are almost indistinguishable from real ones. Thanks to this, in several weeks of field tests of such decoys, at least 10 Kalibr missiles were "decoyed," as russian drones notified missile carriers in the Black Sea about fake HIMARS. According to the publication, the production of wooden replicas increased after such success on the battlefield. But our soldiers skillfully destroy actual russian equipment. 

During the day, Ukraine's Air Force carried out 15 strikes on the positions of the occupiers. Ukrainian fighter jets, bombers, and attack aircraft launched rocket-bomb attacks on ammunition warehouses, armored combat vehicles, anti-aircraft defense equipment, multiple-launch rocket systems, crossings, fuel and lubricant stocks, and accumulations of manpower and equipment of the occupiers.

During the counteroffensive in the south, the Ukrainian forces pushed back the front line to some distance in some locations, British intelligence says. russia will most likely now try to close the gaps in its defense line using pre-assembled mobile reserve units. Among them will probably be representatives of the Eastern Group of Forces.

The counteroffensive of the Ukrainian forces the russian army to change its priorities—the Institute for the Study of War develops the opinion that:

• russia is preparing for Melitopol's defense, an important logistical hub between Rostov Oblast and south of Ukraine.
• The russian federation reinforced the group in the Donetsk direction with elements of the Central Military District, which previously operated in the Lysychansk-Siversk region. In this way, the Kremlin is trying to maintain the tempo of the offensive in the Donetsk direction.
• The russians are trying to reinforce the Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions with poorly trained and inexperienced volunteers from the Third Army Corps.

However, this will not help the occupiers. "Throughout the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, from Crimea to the Kharkiv region, the russian army does not have and will not have a safe base, a quiet place. Our defenders will destroy all warehouses, headquarters of the occupiers, and their equipment, no matter where they are located. The occupiers can only do two things: run away or surrender. We leave them no other options," Zelensky emphasized in his daily address.

"The Ukrainian counteroffensive is thus a cohesive process that will require some time to correctly execute. The Kremlin will likely exploit the lack of immediate victory over Kherson City or Ukrainian operational silence on the progress of the Ukrainian counteroffensive to misrepresent Ukrainian efforts as failing and to undermine public confidence in its prospects," the ISW added.

So, we remind you again: believe only official messages from the Ukrainian authorities and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and do not spread rumors and unverified "hot news"!

Humanitarian missions  

The Ukrainian authorities are developing and preparing evacuation routes for residents of russian-controlled Crimea who want to leave the island during its active liberation, Mykhailo Podoliak, an advisor to Ukraine's Chief of Staff, said on Twitter on Tuesday, August 30. "For Ukraine, the life of every citizen is an absolute priority. Therefore, we are developing evacuation routes for the residents of occupied Crimea who wish to leave during active deoccupation. For now, we ask everyone to stay away from military facilities and to check the bomb shelters," Podoliak wrote.

Atomic objects 

The International Atomic Energy Agency mission went to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. As The New York Times wrote yesterday, experts will stay at the station for four days: from August 31 to September 3.

At the same time, the occupiers said that the mission at the Zaporizhzhia NPP would work for one day. The so-called "head of the occupation administration," Balytskyi, said it should "get to know the station's operation."

But the IAEA mission prepared for a visit to the ZNPP. Just look at that armor!

Over the past day, on the eve of the arrival of the IAEA mission, the russian army has made more than 60 strikes at Enerhodar and the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

Who's coming to Ukraine?

On financial and information aid, weapons, and politicians

In August, Ukraine received a record monthly amount of foreign financial aid—4.6 billion dollars. Minister of Finance Serhii Marchenko announced this on the air of the telethon. "We are expecting to receive $1.5 billion in grant aid from the US in September—this is the last tranche, and we are also expecting macro-financial aid from the EU in September, and early October," the head of the Finance Ministry said.

The latest weapons supplies from the USA are intended for the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian forces in the south. A representative of the White House stated this, CNN reports. Ukraine had been asking the US for weapons suited explicitly to their planned southern counteroffensive in the months leading up to the launch this week, the official says. The official said that the US fulfilled many of those requests — including additional ammunition, artillery, and Javelins—over the course of several presidential drawdown assistance packages provided to Ukraine over the last two months.

News from partners

Ukraine and Poland plan to jointly build a pipeline for transporting vegetable oil. The project concerns a cross-border pipeline for the transportation of vegetable oil from Ukraine to the port of Gdansk. There will be a memorandum, then working groups presenting possible pipeline route options. The Council of Ministers of Poland expects that implementing the directive will contribute to the partial unblocking of Ukrainian exports and increase food security in developing countries threatened by hunger.

Lithuania has completed the construction of a 4 m high steel fence along the entire length of the border with Belarus.

A mural dedicated to Ukraine was inaugurated in Chicago's Ukrainian Village.

Sanctions against the aggressor!

Following Germany and Luxembourg, France opposed a complete visa boycott of russia. On the eve of the meeting of EU ministers in Prague on this issue, the head of the French Foreign Ministry, Catherine Colonna, said that the visa boycott should affect only the russian authorities. According to her, ordinary citizens, including journalists and students, should retain the right to travel to Europe.

However, Poland, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia have declared that they will independently introduce restrictive measures for the entry of russians if such a decision is not taken at the EU level. Free entry of russian citizens to Europe, in their opinion, can become a severe threat to public safety.

Finnish Nokia closed its office and finally left russia. By the end of the year, the vast majority of employees in russia will leave Nokia, and the company's offices will be vacated.

Life considering hostilities

The Ukrainian parliament adopted the draft law "On Media" as a basis. The approval of this law is one of the criteria necessary for starting negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU. The bill is supposed to replace several existing media laws, but even though the law was "dragged" in the parliament for more than two years, it still came out unbalanced. The civil movement Vidsich points out that the law destroys the legislative mechanisms for protecting the Ukrainian language and the informational and cultural space.

The number of places in the IT Generation project was almost doubled. Now there are 1,830 of them instead of 1,000. "At first, we calculated the number of places based on the maximum cost of the course, which is $1,000. But many students chose courses with an average cost of $600. Thanks to this, we can train more people in IT specialties. We will start training in the fall," said Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Digital Transformation.