Ukraine updates: More deaths, damage after Pokrovsk strikes

 

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The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said Tuesday they had foiled an attempt by Russian hackers to access the Ukrainian Armed Forces' combat information system.

Kyiv has reported an increase in Russian attempts to hack into its computer systems, armed forces and energy sector since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Russia has flatly denied the accusations.

"As a result of complex measures, SBU exposed and blocked the illegal actions of Russian hackers who tried to penetrate Ukrainian military networks and organize intelligence gathering," SBU said on the Telegram messaging app.

Hackers tried to gain access to "sensitive information on the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the location and movement of the Defense Forces, their technical support," SBU added.

The German government said it had offered to extend the current temporary deployment of Patriot missile batteries in neighboring Poland until the end of this year.

Since January, three German Patriot squadrons have been deployed in Zamosc in south-eastern Poland to protect the country's airspace. They were originally supposed to be stationed there for just six months.

"The Patriots are making a valuable contribution to protecting the civilian population and our alliance area on the eastern flank as part of the integrated NATO air defence system," a statement by the country's Ministry of Defense read.

Berlin indicated that it would only be extended once. "An extension beyond the end of 2023 is not foreseen," the ministry said. 

Britain has announced sanctions against an Iranian drone maker and a range of other foreign businesses that it accuses of supplying weapons and components for use against Ukraine by Russian forces.

Britain, the US, and the European Union have imposed successive rounds of sanctions since last February when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. 

The UK government has now imposed 25 new sanctions on individuals and businesses in Iran, Turkey, Belarus, Slovakia, Switzerland, the UAE as well as Russia.

"Today's landmark sanctions will further diminish Russia’s arsenal and close the net on supply chains propping up Putin's now struggling defense industry," said British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

The UK sanctions apply to Iranian drone maker Paravar Pars and seven of its executives. Two Turkey-based microelectronics exporters were also among those targeted by Britain.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, whose government has been criticized for having pro-Russia leanings, branded Russia an "aggressor" as he marked 15 years since the Russo-Georgian war. 

"We have known for a long time that Russia was an aggressor, we know that and the whole world knows that," Garibashvili told reporters. 

In 2008, thousands of Russian troops occupied large swaths of territory after Georgia launched a large-scale military operation against South Ossetian separatists who had been shelling Georgian villages. Then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy mediated the conflict.

On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said expressed solidarity with Tbilisi.

"Ukrainians stand in solidarity with the people of Georgia, and I thank all Georgian citizens who are defending freedom with us," he said.

Meanwhile, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who authorized the military action in 2008, defended Moscow's actions.

"Our armed forces quickly and harshly punished the arrogant nationalists in five days," he said in a statement marking the anniversary.

"As in August 2008, our enemies will be crushed, and Russia will achieve peace on its own terms," he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that its forces had hit a Ukrainian command post in the eastern Ukrainian region of Pokrovsk, which is known in Russia as Krasnoarmeysk.

The ministry said Russian forces hit "an advanced command post" of Ukrainian troops there. 

The remarks came a day after Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles had struck Pokrovsk twice on Monday, killing at least seven and destroying residential buildings and shops. 

It was not immediately clear if the ministry's comments were in reference to the same attack.

 

Rescue workers in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk are combing through the rubble after two deadly Russian strikes.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry raised the death toll on Tuesday to seven, and said at least 67 people were injured.

Officials said the missile strikes, 40 minutes apart, damaged nine- and five-story buildings, residential houses, a hotel where foreign journalists used to stay, dining establishments, shops and administrative buildings.

Among the dead were two rescuers and one military member, according to local officials. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after the attacks that "Russia is trying to leave only broken and scorched stones." 

The British Defense Ministry (MOD) said in its regular intelligence update that the Kremlin was seeking to boost the Russian National Guard, or Rosgvardia, after no evidence suggested it helped thwart Wagner's short-lived mutiny. 

The MOD noted that Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed into law measures that allow the Rosgvardia to be equipped with heavy weaponry. 

Rosgvardia has up to 200,000 frontline personnel, and was created in its modern form in 2016, said the MOD, adding that Putin's former bodyguard Viktor Zolotov leads the Rosgvardia.

"Despite Zolotov's claim that his force performed 'excellently' during the mutiny, there is no evidence that Rosgvardia carried out any effective action against Wagner: exactly the sort of internal security threat it was designed to repress," the report said. 

"With Zolotov previously suggesting that heavy equipment should include artillery and attack helicopters, the move suggests that the Kremlin is doubling down on resourcing Rosgvardia as one of the key organizations to ensure regime security," it added.

Ukraine's security service, the SBU, said it arrested what it called an informer accused of helping Russia plot an attack on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

According to the SBU, the woman was gathering information about Zelenskyy's visit to the flood-hit region of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.

She was allegedly seeking details about  Zelenskyy's itinerary to help Russia plan "massive air strike on the Mykolaiv region," the SBU said.

Security officers caught the woman "red-handed," said the SBU, while she was trying to pass data to the Russian secret services. 

The woman lived in Ochakiv, a small town in Mykolaiv, and had previously worked in a store at a military base. 

Security services said she photographed locations and tried to get information from personal contacts in the area.

She could serve up to 12 years in prison if convicted.

fb/wmr (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)