💢Ukraine reports that Germany will supply Taurus KEPD-350 cruise missiles. The Taurus is a stealthy, air launched cruise missile with a range in excess 500 km.  It is especially effective against hardened and deeply buried targets

💢British defense ministry: Russian Air Force continues to consistently deploy considerable resources in support of land operations in Ukraine, but without decisive operational effect. Over the summer, Russian tactical combat aircraft have typically carried out over 100 sorties a day, but these are almost always restricted to operating over Russian-controlled territory due to the threat from Ukrainian air defences. Russia has attempted to overcome this issue by increasingly using basic free-fall bombs with range-extending glide attachments. Aircraft can release these many kilometres from their targets, but they have yet to demonstrate consistent accuracy. At the start of Ukraine's southern counter-offensive from June 2023, Russian attack helicopters proved effective. However, in recent weeks Russia appears to have been less able to generate effective tactical airpower in the south. On 4 August 2023, President Putin signed into law a measure which will allow Rosgvardia, the Russian National Guard, to be equipped with heavy weaponry. A sprawling organisation of up to 200,000 frontline personnel, Rosgvardia was created in its modern form in 2016 and is led by Putin's former bodyguard Viktor Zolotov. The decision to strengthen the force follows the abortive Wagner mutiny of June 2023. 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. 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 organisations to ensure regime security.

💢ISW: Russian forces and occupation administrators continue to seek to mitigate the impact of recent Ukrainian strikes on logistics nodes along key Russian ground lines of communication (GLOCS) connecting occupied Crimea with occupied Kherson Oblast. Ukrainian Southern Operational Command Spokesperson Captain First Rank Nataliya Humenyuk noted that Ukrainian strikes on the Chonhar and Henichesk bridges were intended to specifically target Russian plans and strategies and inhibit the ability of Russian forces to bring supplies and personnel to the front. Humenyuk also emphasized that Russian forces must now route supplies and personnel through Armyansk, directly on the border between Kherson Oblast and Crimea and within 80km of the frontline. Kherson Oblast occupation head Vladimir Saldo reported that his administration has temporarily changed the logistics and vehicle crossing routes between occupied Kherson and Crimea due to damage to the Chonhar Bridge, including the suspension of bus traffic between Simferopol, Crimea and Henichesk, Kherson Oblast. Russian milbloggers notably did not comment on the aftermath of the strikes on August 7, further supporting ISW's previous assessment that Russian officials may have directed Russian correspondents to not offer commentary on Ukrainian strikes on Russian logistics nodes in Crimea to avoid generating panic within the information space.

💢Poland deploys 2,000 soldiers in the Belarus border

💢Iran continues to send its proxy forces into Syria. 10 buses and 30 trucks carrying troops and equipment from Iraq entered Deir Ezzor, Syria

💢UAE exercise with China air force started in the Persian Gulf

🚨French army fighter jets attacked several military bases in Niger.

🚨Niger army has now announced in a press release that the alert level of the armed forces has been raised. This decision follows a terrorist attack on a guard post, and the CNSP is now accusing France of having released terrorists in the region. (Similar speeches by the juntas of Mali and Burkina Faso). The junta also accuses the French army of having sent an A400M from Chad to Niger, cutting off all communications as it entered the country's airspace (Niger's airspace had previously been closed).

🚨France rejects Niger's accusations of violating airspace and releasing terrorists