RIGHT SPEAK: 135 C-Clashes F-Line: 53 Pokrovsk Sec, 12 Toretsk Sec; UKR Moves to Encircle RU Troops in Kursk, Digs In for Long Fight; UKR Drones Hit RU Mil Air Base as UKR Escalates Long-Range Strikes; Putin On Kursk Failure: Not My Fault; 46th Brigade Thwarts 3 Waves of RU Attacks on Kurakhove; UKR Slows RU Advance Near Pokrovsk, LIVE UPDATES, DETAILS, and LOTS MORE

General Staff: 135 combat engagements in the frontline, major attacks were registered in the Pokrovsk sector

There were 135 combat engagements in the frontline. The enemy is concentrating its main offensive efforts in the Pokrovsk sector, where 53 attacks took place

There were 135 combat engagements in the frontline. The enemy is focusing its main offensive efforts on the Pokrovske direction. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, UNN reports.

Details

The terrorist state launched one missile strike and 49 air strikes, downing 56 UAVs. In addition, the invaders used 556 kamikaze drones for attacks and fired over 3,300 times at the positions of our troops and populated areas
- General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Situation on the routes

In Kharkiv sector: Ukrainian Armed Forces repelled 2 terrorist attacks near Vovchansk.

In Kupyanske: The invaders attacked the positions of the Defenders 14 times, where near the settlements of Stelmakhivka, Sinkivka, Hlushkivka, Lozova and Andriivka, the Defense Forces repelled 9 attacks.

In the Limansk sector: the aggressor attacked the Ukrainian Armed Forces 11 times in the areas of 8 different settlements. The largest number of firefights took place near Makiivka and Novosadove.

In the Siverske sector: enemy forces attacked 5 times in the areas of Vyymka, Bilohorivka and Spirne, but all attempts were repelled.

In Kramatorsk: Ukrainian Armed Forces repelled 11 enemy attempts to advance.

In Toretsk: occupants attacked 12 times near New York, Nelipivka, Toretsk and Druzhba. --->READ MORE HERE

Svet Jacqueline for WSJ

Ukraine Moves to Encircle Russian Troops in Kursk and Digs In for Long Fight

Kyiv’s forces are taking control of more territory along the border as Russia ramps up counterattacks

Ukrainian troops said they are moving to encircle an estimated 3,000 Russian troops that are hemmed against a river in Russia’s Kursk province, seeking a fresh blow against Moscow in the third week of a surprise incursion.

Ukraine’s military said it used U.S.-supplied Himars rocket systems and explosive drones to strike pontoon crossings and bridging equipment as Russia scrambled to prevent the encirclement of its forces between the Seym river and the Ukrainian border.

Ukraine’s Aug. 6 incursion has embarrassed Russian President Vladimir Putin by seizing dozens of towns and villages across a territory as large as any Russia has captured in a year of offensives in Ukraine. Kyiv’s forces are now expanding their control along the border and striking Russian supply routes, as Moscow is ramping up counterattacks using massive glide bombs and troops rushed in from Ukraine and other parts of Russia.

The incursion hasn’t, so far, shifted the dynamic on the war’s main battlefields in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is advancing in toward Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian logistical hub, and Toretsk, a city on strategically important high ground.

Meanwhile, Ukraine used aerial drones to attack an air base in Russia’s Volgograd region early Thursday in an escalating campaign of long-range strikes seeking to damage Russia’s war machine. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had repelled drones over five other regions overnight.

In Kursk, Ukraine is stretching the breadth of its incursion rather than seeking a deeper advance that would be easier to cut off, said Mick Ryan, a military strategist and retired major general in the Australian Army.

“They are holding more-defensible terrain that’s closer to Ukraine and easier to support,” said Ryan.

Ukraine’s intent to hold what officials have called a buffer zone poses a dilemma to Putin as to whether to try to oust forces in what could be a costly operation. Such an effort would require pulling sizable forces from Ukraine, weakening promising offensives against strategic targets in the east and potentially opening gaps for Ukrainian troops to exploit.

For now, Russia appears mostly to be transferring forces from reserves and areas in Ukraine where fighting isn’t as intense, such as the south or the northeast.

“There’s a case for the Russians to see how this develops and to throw just enough at it to slow the Ukrainians down,” said Ryan.

For Russia, recapturing all of the Kursk region may be a secondary goal to the more strategic aim of advancing farther into the eastern Ukrainian province of Donetsk, which Putin has declared part of Russia. Moscow has been recruiting some 25,000 men a month but suffers from a shortage of experienced soldiers of the kind needed to push the Ukrainians out. --->READ MORE HERE (or HERE)