Richi

I can see with my mind's eye the headlines about Luna-25:

"Russian Ministry of Defence announces the testing of the world's first interplanetary kamikaze drone. Ministry officials confirmed early sunday that the advanced prototype had successfully hit a mock-up hospital on the surface of the Moon."

Yes, this is a terrible tragedy.  All this money should've been flowing into the bank accounts of needy oligarchs and corrupt politicians, and is instead being lost in this war.  Ohhhhhh, you mean the money should've helped regular people?  Ha ha ha that's a good one, Comrade!

I guess we will find out. But I would rather plan against the something in between. Could the US even move 40 M1s a month into Ukraine from storage? Don't forget the sad state of the maritime logistics the US has fallen into. I will look into that and report back. 

I think properly exploring that question would require modeling...wait for it....infantry riding on top of vehicles

Zelenskyy fired all the heads of the regional recruitment centers. @Haiduk - could you maybe comment on this?
 

Eliot Higgins Retweeted Ukrainians advance 16-20 kilometers in 'tactically significant' move. Ukraine made a "tactically significant" advance along two lines of attack towards the southern coast, according to the Russian and Ukrainian sources.  
 

It is about a big piece of the foriegn policy blob, and the Russians of course, wanting to panic the West into settling. What we need to do is demonstrate we are on a short steep path to producing 250,000 rounds of 155 a month, and a great deal else besides. Let the Russian ponder there losses going to a thousand a day, every day, as Ukraines go to 25. They are about to forcibly conscript virtually every person in the Russian prison system who can walk a couple of laps of the prison yard. 
Ukraines answer needs to be "So what are you going to do in three months when they are all dead?" 
Edit: It will be very funny if the next batch of meat for the grinder is newly unemployed prison guards.

Whoa, there buddy.
Both my wife and I are lifelong runners. She once described my legs to someone else as dangerously sexy. The same can be said of her. Even today at age 68, she has the legs of a 30 year old. (I'm 66 and we both still run). Last week I was halfway through a 5 mile run, passed a lady on the sidewalk, as I moved out into the street to pass her (I don't like brushing past people as they seldom here you coming and you can scare them half to death by saying "On your left"). Got about 50 feet past her, hopped back on the sidewalk, and she yells out "Great legs!!!"  
Still got it. 🙂
So, engineers CAN be sexy. Even retired ones.
Funny thing was I was right near my turnaround point so I got to run back past her face-to-face this time. She did not seem embarrassed in the least, just smiled and waved. 
Dave
PS - Our first date was a lunchtime run. We worked at adjacent companies. I ran to her front gate, we went for a nice run down by Long Island Sound, and chatted a lot along the way. Very public, so very safe. 

The plot twists in the story of Wagner are just hilariously bad writing... 
 

Who in their right mind manufactures ammunition at the same plant that is making precision optics? What the actual fudge?!
The Russian strategic reserves of stupidity are not at any risk of running out, it seems.

Meanwhile, in Russia:
That is a chunky, visible, photogenic mushroom cloud.

Adding a face to this tragic story.
This being a wargaming forum we mostly focus on the AFU personnel and their heroic deeds. But this is a good moment to remember the heroic work that Ukrainian emergency services personnel have also being doing during the course of this war.

Various tids and bits in addition to what Haiduk already posted.
Fighting in area of Robotyne is reported in the form of Russian counterattacks from Verbove direction, e.g. east south east direction. Artillery battles ongoing with more active Ukrainian than Russian. More importantly several trenches are claimed captured in direction of Novoprokopivka, directly south of Robotyne. Appears the fighting is continuing in south western direction from previous Ukrainian positions east of Robotyne. Cutting road between the two settlements rather than direct assault on their respective communities.
In yet other news
And as always the all important Tom Cooper on Staromaiorske-Staromlynivka area.
https://xxtomcooperxx.substack.com/p/ukraine-war-8-august-2023-staromlynivka?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

Pretty blatant double tap.  Exactly what they would do in Syria against the White Helmets. 
Goddamn scumbags. 

I think China is dumbfounded as the rest of the world with Putin.
But, they do think the war he has waged is a good thing to distract the US from its other intentions. More economic dominance and a general shift in the order of Taiwan and Asia Pacific in general. Unfortunately the economy of China has hit a major road bump and well the Military is seemly to be undercut by recent events like the Japan exposures of being hacked.
Putin will never negotiate a settlement. Someone else maybe, but no way Putin is in power at that point.
 
 

As I can understand, Plan B is classified, but likely this will be council. According to peace time law the head of Rada have to be acting president until new will be elected. An article in Politico about this: https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraines-plan-volodymyr-zelenskyy-dies-russia-war/?fbclid=IwAR0pzoicNVfYNlRraFrkYXkMYZtJMjXBGLqDnW-W0eb5AlPcJb1rF4Tzhds
 

Would be nice if true... 
 

Half of Russia’s Elite Paratroopers Killed or Wounded in Ukraine – British MoD - https://www.kyivpost.com/post/20254
 

I think behind the scenes some talk is going on. We can only guess. They thought the Kaiser was bad after WW1. It is a case of better the devil you know.

I realize this is probably the correct answer, but I am not sure it is the right question. I would argue, from a couch in Seattle so feel free to tell me I am full of it, that the right question is whether a northern front hurts Russia worse than Ukraine? Or not? To a first approximation the entire Russian army is strung out from Luhansk to Kherson with virtually nothing in reserve. The Belarusian army appears to barely deserve the name. So there is an argument, maybe not a good argument, but an argument, That Ukraine ought to take advantage of Russia mining most of the current front line into impassability, and go take Minsk. Declare Tsikhanouskaya the rightful president, and start setting up drone launchers within 300k of Moscow. Just a  fun thought. At a minimum Ukraine should try to feint hard enough in this direction to give the Russian MOD one more problem. If it is just Lukashenko being annoying by demanding more Russian troops, that wouldn't be useless.

The interviewed Lt. col. mentioned this recent Russian switch of targets.
The Russians have adapted their tactics to avoid Patriot batteries, he said, focusing on striking cities far from the capital, such as Odesa, which are not yet covered. They are also upgrading old missiles with advanced technology and radar-absorbent skins. In recent weeks Moscow’s focus has been trying to take out the Ukrainian airfields from where British Storm Shadow missiles are launched, hitting command and logistical centres deep inside occupied territory.
“The strikes on airfields are a tribute to Storm Shadow. Thank you very much, UK, because they really proved to be very effective. With Storm Shadow, you launch a trap missile and an anti-radar missile. All at the same time in the same direction. So the Russians, if they try to intercept Storm Shadow, get an anti-radiation missile hit on their radar. Plus traps. Very, very effective stuff.”

Civilian and cargo are not equal. Civilian is a passenger cruise liner, for example. Any "civil" cargo ship can potentially carry military or dual purpose cargo. Russian civil freighters for example, were involved in so-called "Syria express" along with military auxiliary vessels and landing ships, carring vehicles, ammunition and fuel.   
Since 21st of July, according to decision of National Security Council     A N Y   cargo ship, heading to Russian ports or to ports on occupied Ukrainian territory can be considered as those, which carry military-related cargo with all risks for them. Also since 20th of July, due to the same decision, Ukraine prohibited any shipping in Kerch strait as potentially dangerous and this statement was shared to all ship-operators. 
Also together with this decisions Zelenskiy made a statement that Ukraine will be more and more to transfer a war on Russian territory. Most of Russian population support the war or indiffrent and think this is "too far" from them.
This is not a border conflict, not a conflict with civilized opponent, where both sides stick to different rules of war and conventions. This is the same existential war on annihilation as WWII. We can't win this war wearing a "white coat" in order not to make nervous different lefist organizations like HRW and some western governments representatives, expectng in horror nukes because of each UKR strike on Russian territory. Of course, we can't do retaliation carpet bombing like on Drezden in 21st century, but we will strike enemy economical infrastructure and significant objects like Moscow towers (by the way only two "broken windows" caused start of exodus from these towers some commercial tenants and appartment leesess - and this is also economical losses for towers owners)
Video of strike on the tanker:
 

From the Ukraine. 
 

ISW:
Russian authorities are continuing to deport Ukrainian children to Russia under the guise of summer camps.
Has there been any reporting/analysis on the potential of Russia using these kids as barter in negotiations if/when they start? It's a very hard subject to discuss. I would rather not bring up my views on the matter except to say this one issue might prolong the conflict beyond the current kinetic fighting more than any other. Unless these kids are allowed to disappear in the fog of war forever and forgotten.