The Ukraine war has been raging on for 525 days. The Russian army launches its eighth attack on Kyiv with Iran’s Shahed drones.
Donald Trump tells his supporters he can face over 560 years in prison on all indictments combined.
Four cargo train cars derail, three capsize in Russia’s Zabaikalye.
The demand for cash among Russians reached almost 390 billion rubles (€3.8 billion) in July, almost four times higher than last year.
Read about the biggest overnight news on 3 August in Novaya-Europe’s round-up.
Kyiv targeted by Shahed drones for eighth time in a row
Head of the Kyiv city administration Serhiy Popko reported that Ukraine’s air-defence systems downed around 15 Iranian Shahed drones launched by the Russian army while they were approaching the Ukrainian capital.
According to the latest reports, no one was injured and no damages were inflicted in Kyiv. “By the way, the latest round of air-raid sirens in the capital lasted exactly three hours. It marked the 820th such occasion in Kyiv since the full-scale invasion began,” Popko said.
In the early hours of 3 August, Ukraine’s military warned about the threat of the use of strike drones, air-raid sirens were sounding off in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions.
Trump says he can face more than 560 years in prison
Ex-US President Donald Trump told his supporters that all the indictments he is facing at the moment combined can land him in prison for 561 years, The Hill reports.
“With Crooked Joe’s corrupt DOJ having unlawfully INDICTED yours truly yet again, reports indicate that I could now face a combined 561 YEARS in prison from the Left’s witch hunts,” Trump wrote in an appeal to the donors of his election campaign.
The Hill notes that the US rarely sentences people to the maximum possible terms on charges. Sentences can be served simultaneously, cutting down on the total time in jail.
Earlier, Trump was indicted on four counts for his alleged role in the US Capitol attack on 6 January 2021. CNN reports that Trump is set to be arraigned at a Washington court on 3 August.
Four cargo train cars derail in Russia’s Zabaikalye
Four cargo train cars derailed, three capsized in Russia’s Zabaikalye late on 2 August, the East Siberia transport prosecutor’s office reported.
Repair works are underway now. “The reasons and causes of what happened are being investigated now. No train delays are observed,” the office noted.
On 11 June, 15 cargo train cars derailed in Russia’s Belgorod region. No one was injured. The empty train was travelling to the station of one of the businesses, head of the region Vyacheslav Gladkov said. On 21 May, 11 cars of a cargo train derailed in the Zabaikalsky Krai, two suburban trains were cancelled and the Vladivostok-Moscow train was delayed.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian region authorities reported various subversive acts on railroads.
Russians seek almost 390 billion rubles in cash in July
In July, the volume of cash in circulation in Russia reached almost 390 billion rubles (€3.8 billion), the RBC reports, citing the Russian Central Bank’s statistics. This number is almost four times higher than that a year ago (97.7 billion rubles).
The RBC notes that the cash demand was particularly high in June because of the Wagner Group’s rebellion attempt — on that day, 23 June, Russians withdrew more than 100 billion rubles (€976 million) from banks. Therefore, the flow of money into cash slowed down compared to July but experts still believe that this number for July is still atypically high.