Over Time, Ukraine Should Achieve Maximum Defense Independence – Address by the President

23 July 2024 – 20:30

I wish you good health, fellow Ukrainians!

Today I held a meeting of the Staff. Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi and Chief of the General Staff Barhylevych delivered reports on the front – our actions, our steps, and the real situation with the occupier’s intentions and capabilities. Our task is to ensure by all means and with all our strength the constant effective destruction of Russian troops, their logistics and their important positions not only directly on the frontline, but also in all available depths. Available to our long-range capability. We are working with our partners to increase this level of defense. But while we are waiting for our partners’ decisions, we are looking for our own solutions, our own options. In this case, the key is our drones, our flexibility in the use of drones. Ukrainian warriors have already proven to be real innovators in many areas of drone use. And it is worth continuing, and we will continue this. I am grateful to everyone who helps with this – those who produce drones, those who supply them, those who train drone operators and those who generally promote this issue. Ukrainian leadership in this technological aspect, it is really tangible. Today, at the Staff meeting, we did a detailed analysis of our electronic warfare capabilities – the things that are already being done, the things that show real combat success. As well as the things we need to do on top of that. Plus, the missile program. Our missile program is showing good dynamics, and although it is a challenging task, we are gradually approaching the possibility of using our own missiles, and not just relying on missiles supplied by our partners. Over time, Ukraine should achieve maximum defense independence, as such states always find effective allies and realize their interests more easily.

The second thing for today. There have been several international meetings. Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, paid a visit to Ukraine. I am grateful for this signal. This is the signal of support for Ukraine, for Ukrainians, and for our desire to live in our own state, and to live truly peacefully. We also appreciate that Cardinal Parolin visited not only Kyiv, but also Odesa, Berdychiv, Lviv. He saw our people’s mood, the objective needs of this time. We discussed what exactly can be done this year to bring closer a just peace for Ukraine. It is very important for us and for the cause of peace as such that the Vatican takes an active role in defending life and helping us to implement the Peace Formula and its points, especially those related to the release of prisoners. It was a good meeting, and I hope that the results will follow. I also spoke with the new Prime Minister of Estonia. I thanked him for the support, for our multi-level cooperation. We agreed to meet, and of course, we will continue all our cooperation, both political and defense. And today, the Head of the Office, Andriy Yermak, spoke with Phil Gordon, the National Security Advisor to the U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. It was at the Vice President’s level that America participated in the first Peace Summit, and it is important that the momentum of our joint work for a just peace does not diminish. All our partners at all levels know and will know in the future what the prospects are and that the just peace can indeed be restored as soon as possible.

And one more thing. I thank the warriors of our 110th separate mechanized brigade for their precision. They shot down another Russian Su-25 in the Donetsk region. This is exactly what we need. Well done, guys!

Glory to Ukraine!

Latvia:

Latvia has started installing defensive barriers on its border with Russia.

The so-called ‘dragon’s teeth’ were spotted near the easternmost Latvian town of Zilupe. https://t.co/tyywkjbe4K pic.twitter.com/2KgZ5itvVC

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) July 23, 2024

Pokrovsk:

Yuriy Butusov says the situation on the Pokrovsk front is “critical” after Russia advanced 6km over the past seven days. He says Russia deliberately focuses its assaults on the most vulnerable brigades with poor command and control. He also notes a lack of coordination of UAVs… pic.twitter.com/BpQ7auNNQ9

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) July 23, 2024

Yuriy Butusov says the situation on the Pokrovsk front is “critical” after Russia advanced 6km over the past seven days. He says Russia deliberately focuses its assaults on the most vulnerable brigades with poor command and control. He also notes a lack of coordination of UAVs and EW, which leads to UAV losses from EW fratricide.
https://facebook.com/butusov.yuriy/posts/pfbid02bReTHGpWHbw8VWzJSeQfhYdHRLnk1AT1QkgzR2LYzXJQ9CDBnKktiAquFL2KaLcxl

Here’s the image run through the machine translator:

Donetsk Oblast:

A “no-analogue” russian Yastreb-AV radar was destroyed by HIMARS strike in the Donetsk region.

📹: 14th UAS Regiment pic.twitter.com/iesqv3WvRF

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) July 23, 2024

russian planes continue to fall.
The warriors from the 110th Mechanized Brigade shot down a russian Su-25 jet in the Donetsk region.
Great shot! pic.twitter.com/15pKgdFUH3

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) July 23, 2024

pic.twitter.com/TP1d5MeCuk

— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) July 23, 2024

I think that’s somewhere around 10 Su-25s that the Ukrainians have brought down in the last three months.

Lviv:

In January, Russia-linked hackers used a new form of malware to sabotage monitoring equipment in a heating utility in Lviv, Ukraine, turning off heat and hot water to 600 buildings for close to 48 hours in the midst of freezing winter temperatures. https://t.co/TrdlBHcaig

— Andy Greenberg (@agreenberg at the other places) (@a_greenberg) July 23, 2024

Wired has the details:

As Russia has tested every form of attack on Ukraine’s civilians over the past decade, both digital and physical, it’s often used winter as one of its weapons—launching cyberattacks on electric utilities to trigger December blackouts and ruthlessly bombing heating infrastructure. Now it appears Russia-based hackers last January tried yet another approach to leave Ukrainians in the cold: a specimen of malicious software that, for the first time, allowed hackers to reach directly into a Ukrainian heating utility, switching off heat and hot water to hundreds of buildings in the midst of a winter freeze.

Industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos on Tuesday revealed a newly discovered sample of Russia-linked malware that it believes was used in a cyberattack in late January to target a heating utility in Lviv, Ukraine, disabling service to 600 buildings for around 48 hours. The attack, in which the malware altered temperature readings to trick control systems into cooling the hot water running through buildings’ pipes, marks the first confirmed case in which hackers have directly sabotaged a heating utility.

Dragos’ report on the malware notes that the attack occurred at a moment when Lviv was experiencing its typical January freeze, close to the coldest time of the year in the region, and that “the civilian population had to endure sub-zero [Celsius] temperatures.” As Dragos analyst Kyle O’Meara puts it more bluntly: “It’s a shitty thing for someone to turn off your heat in the middle of winter.”

The malware, which Dragos is calling FrostyGoop, represents one of less than 10 specimens of code ever discovered in the wild that’s designed to interact directly with industrial control-system software with the aim of having physical effects. It’s also the first malware ever discovered that attempts to carry out those effects by sending commands via Modbus, a commonly used and relatively insecure protocol designed for communicating with industrial technology.

Dragos first discovered the FrostyGoop malware in April after it was uploaded in several forms to an online malware scanning service—most likely the Google-owned scanning service and malware repository VirusTotal, though Dragos declined to confirm which service—perhaps by the malware’s creators, in an attempt to test whether it was detected by antivirus systems. Working with Ukraine’s Cyber Security Situation Center, a part of the country’s SBU cybersecurity and intelligence agency, Dragos says it then learned that the malware had been used in the cyberattack that targeted a heating utility starting on January 22 in Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine.

Dragos declined to name the victim utility, and in fact says it hasn’t independently confirmed the the utility’s name, since it only became aware of the targeting from the Ukrainian government. Dragos’ description of the attack, however, closely matches reports of a heating outage at the Lvivteploenergo utility around the same time, which according to local media led to a loss of heating and hot water for close to 100,000 people.

Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi at the time called the event a “malfunction” in a post to the messaging service Telegram, but added, “there is a suspicion of external interference in the company’s work system, this information is currently being checked.” A Lvivteploenergo statement on January 23 described the outage more conclusively as the “result of a hacker attack.”

More at the link.

Vuhledar-Novomykhailivka axis:

By far, 68 Russian tank losses were documented by WarSpotting in July 2024. 16 of which are T-62 tanks – 23,5% of total Russian tank losses in July.https://t.co/CbKgjMgzY2 https://t.co/K4TZFJ7s0e

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) July 23, 2024

Somewhere in the Donbas:

Another Russian T-62 was destroyed by the ‘Birds of Magyar’ unit.
First FPV cleared the pass for other drones, second failed to detonate, third destroyed the tank.https://t.co/UPeH8mj319 https://t.co/iGjZuiKEQv pic.twitter.com/9b5lx4DOWZ

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) July 23, 2024

The Kreminna front:

Interception of the Russian Zаla reconnaissance UAV on the Kreminna front.https://t.co/UOW7OMClXB https://t.co/vDDdpDaZrR pic.twitter.com/OyBLKb0yMY

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) July 23, 2024

 

Kavkaz, Russia:

The ferry “Slavyanin” used by the Russians in the port of “Kavkaz” has been significantly damaged by Ukrainian Defense Forces. This ferry was used for transporting railway wagons, vehicles, and containers for military purposes. It is the third and last railway ferry Russia had in… pic.twitter.com/6U6CP3y6w9

— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) July 23, 2024

The ferry “Slavyanin” used by the Russians in the port of “Kavkaz” has been significantly damaged by Ukrainian Defense Forces. This ferry was used for transporting railway wagons, vehicles, and containers for military purposes. It is the third and last railway ferry Russia had in the region.

/2. The vessel SLAVYANIN is a Ro-Ro Cargo Ship built in 1984.

As said, the last Russian train ferry in the Kerch strait area. At the end of May 2024 two other Russian train ferries were damaged by missile strikes in the Kerch Strait.

General information about Slavyanin ferry:… pic.twitter.com/QmKzEj09MJ

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) July 23, 2024

⛴️Official statement General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces regarding the strike on the Russian ferry crossing in the Kerch strait:

“Another result of the coordinated actions of the Defense Forces: in the port “Kavkaz” Russian ferry was seriously damaged.

Today, the grouping of forces and means of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, together with other units of the Defense Forces, caused significant damage to the enemy ferry “Slavyanin” in the port “Kavkaz”. Russians used this ferry to transport railway wagons, motor vehicles and containers for military purposes. “Slavyanin” is the third and last railway ferry that the Russian Federation had in the specified region.

We continue to destroy the enemy, his equipment and military infrastructure.
To be continued…

Glory to Ukraine!”
https://t.me/GeneralStaffZSU/16318

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

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Traffic on a highway in Kyiv was halted because a mama duck and her babies needed to cross the road (Dnipro river is close to there). pic.twitter.com/YEnoIn0YkL

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) July 23, 2024

Open thread!