A representative of the NATO press service confirmed that the Ukrainian army had used ballistic missiles in the East of the country. The President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko signed the law imposing a martial tax; every Ukrainian was to pay, in addition to all other taxes, 1.5% of his salary for needs of the ATO.

At night from 3 to 4 August in Shakhtyorsk the Ukrainian army used phosphorous bombs against the militia. The building of a sanatorium burnt down but there weren’t any casualties. A breakthrough of the Ukrainian troops to Shakhtyorsk was stopped; the units surrounded near the town were destroyed. The militia went on the counter-offensive near Donetsk. The Ukrainian military were repelled from Krasnogorovka and Maryinka. On the northern frontline the Ukrainian military advanced in large forces to Pervomaysk defended by Alexey Mozgovoy’s group but they were defeated and retreated suffering losses. In Gorlovka the militia defeated a punitive column. The casualties of the Ukrainian military in manpower were several soldiers killed and about 15 injured. At night in Kharkov, in the Kotsarskaya St there was blown up a cash machine by two shots from a HPG. In Odessa members of the Right Sector tried to disrupt a concert of Any Lorak. Using tear gas and bludgeons the police dispersed them.

The authorities of Ukraine decided to stop paying unemployment benefits from October. By doing this the government of Ukraine hoped to get additional 1.5 billion UAN for the military operation in the west of the country. There were made corresponding changes in the budget. In Kiev the police arrested more than 35 people claiming to be members of the Galician Hundred of Maidan. They had come, in arms, to ‘defend the right of ownership’ of a restaurant situated near the historical centre of the Ukrainian capital. The arrested said that they had been paid for this action. They were prosecuted for extortion. In the centre of Kiev, near the building of the Supreme Rada, about 50 representatives of the Women’s movement of Kharkov held a peaceful anti-war meeting. The women were surrounded by radicals of the Right Sector throwing stones, firecrackers and insults at them. The police didn’t interfere. Having started a brawl with the women the members of the Right Sector took several flags and banners from them. Later, due to a belated police intervention, some of them were returned to the women.

The DPR government created the State Commission for Humanitarian Affairs. The Commission was to protect Donetsk being endlessly shelled from a humanitarian disaster by creating the State Reserve of the Republic. The State Commission would keep records of income, storage and distribution of humanitarian aid. The LPR militia carried out an artillery strike at the Ukrainian army’s locations near the township Metallist, 10 km northward from Lugansk. The attack resulted in a white phosphorus warehouse, a tank and a APC destroyed and about 25 Ukrainian soldiers killed. The Internal Affairs Ministry fired 5 policemen for having beaten protesters during the concert of Any Lorak in Odessa.

The Investigative Committee of Russia got proofs of using prohibited weapons against the civilian population of the South-East of Ukraine. Donbass soil samples indicated at using phosphorous bombs by the Ukrainian military. Alexey Dmitrashkovsky, the speaker of the military operation, confirmed the participation of foreigners, citizens of Italy, Georgia, Belarus and Russia itself, in the hostilities. He pointed out, though, that there wasn’t any equipment, tanks and other (foreign) weapons in the Ukrainian army. The ATO speaker didn’t confirm the information about Polish citizens fighting in the ranks of the Ukrainian military.

The Ukrainian aviation made a strike at Donetsk. The aircraft fired two missiles at the city. Both missiles fell in the Budyonovsky district; a residential house was damaged. A missile was also reported to have hit the territory of the Donetsk power transmission tower plant.

For a week of working at border checkpoints in the Rostov region the OSCE mission hadn’t registered any cases of fire from the territory of Russia or any other violations of the international law by Russia. Russia prohibited transit flights of Ukrainian airlines over its territory. Parubiy, the NSDC Secretary, announced his resignation; the President accepted it. In Kiev before a parade announced by Petr Poroshenko for the Day of Independence there started a clearing of Maidan out of the tent camp where there still stayed several hundreds of activists on duty. There were used heavy vehicles during the clearing; while working communal workers were guarded by soldiers armed with automatic guns and wearing bulletproof vests. The activists of the tent camp clashed with them and set on fire tires stored on the square. About 150 activists headed from Kreschatik towards the policemen, chanting ‘Glory to Ukraine’. At the crossroad of Kreschatik and Gorodetsky St they poured some gasoline on asphalt and set it on fire. They also threw paving stones and sticks at the policemen, firemen and communal workers. Finally activists pushed all the policemen and communal workers dismantling barricades from Maidan towards the European square. Several radicals tried to storm the administrative building of SSU in Uzhgorod in Zakarpatsky region. During the attack a policeman was injured. Four attackers were arrested; one of them turned out to be a leader of the Zakarpatye Right Sector. After their arrest about 80 men came to the town police station and tried to liberate their comrades.

The Prime Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic Alexander Boroday resigned. Alexander Zakharchenko, the commander of the unit Oplot of the Donbass militia, became the new DPR Prime Minister. Trying to seize a checkpoint of the militia in the area of the village Maryanovka near Donetsk the National Guard soldiers from one of the units of the battalion Krivbass were ambushed and the unit was eliminated. The aircraft of the Air Forces of Ukraine made an airstrike at the remains of the 79th airmobile brigade held by the Army of Novorossia in Izvarino pocket.

The President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko signed the law on increasing the age limit of military service for those in reserve who had military experience and could be used for re-completing the Military Forces of Ukraine and other military formations, up to 60 years on average and up to 65 years for senior officers. The NBU prohibited financial operations on the territories uncontrolled by the Ukrainian authorities, Donetsk and Lugansk included. At the same time nonbank institutions and the national postal operator that were payment organisation of domestic/international payment systems and/or their members were ordered to suspend operations of receiving/paying transfers from/to mentioned territories. In the centre of Kiev, on Maidan there gathered people with weapons which they didn’t even try to hide. The police weren’t seen anywhere nearby. The Mayor Vitaly Klitschko called Kiev people to come and dismantle barricades. On the European square of Kiev, near the Ukrainian House there was an explosion; some people were hurt. The newly formed battalion Ivano-Frankovsk refused to take part in the punitive operation. In Budapest there was held a Congress of Russin and Hungarian communities of Zacarpatye. At the Congress there was created a Coordinating Council of communities and accepted an appeal to the world community asking the EU, UNO, Hungary, the USA and Russia for an assistance in recognising the results of the Zacarpatye and Berezovsky regional referendums of 1991 that, in fact, meant the federal status of the Zacarpatye region within united Ukraine. In Ukraine a church of Satan was registered.

Igor Strelkov, the Chief Commander of the Military Forces and the Defence Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, signed the order ‘On the establishment of the military prosecutor's office’, a special military institution whose main task would consist in monitoring the implementation of the rule of law in the Military Forces. At night the chemical troops of the MFU were noticed near Kramatorsk, including three ECACs of chemical troops, a radio station, some cisterns and about 15 Hammers. 150 Ukrainian soldiers who had earlier passed to the Russian territory from the pocket near Izvarino asked to be accepted in the DPR militia. The border checkpoint Dolzhansky on the Ukrainian-Russian border was seized by Cossacks of chieftain Kozitsyn. In Lugansk ration cards were introduced.

Donetsk was being shelled all day. The clinic of the hospital N18 in the Kievsky district was destroyed; a shell hit started a fire that destroyed the entire first floor. Another shell destroyed the roof of a Ukrtelecom branch nearby. There also burnt down a food shop. Local civilians spent almost all day in cellars and bomb shelters. There started battles for Ilovaysk which later ended up in surrounding and destroying a large group of the MFU.

The number of Ukrainian refugees in Russia exceeded 51,000 people. There had already been opened 703 points of temporary accommodation in which 51,319 people found shelter, including 17,027 children. The CyberBerkut broke into a Facebook account of Svyatoslav Oleynik, Kolomoysky’s assistant, which contained evidence that Boeing MH-17 had been downed by the Ukrainian military. In Kiev traffic was restored on Maidan and Kreschatik. During the weekend the Kiev police received 14 reports about various objects having been mined; all the reports turned out to be false alarm. However, removing explosives from protesters on Maidan became a matter of everyday life in Kiev. A ‘Loan Maidan’ was held in Chernigov. While children were fighting in the punitive operation in Donbass, banks deprived their parents of flats.

The leaders of the Donetsk People’s Republic announced their readiness to start a large-scale offensive on all fronts. The DPR Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko announced that the militia were ready for a cease-fire in the regions where the humanitarian aid would be delivered to people in order not to let the humanitarian disaster spread. The truce was supposed to hold only for the period of this delivery. Andrey Purgin, a deputy of the Chairman of the DPR Council of Ministers, announced that the government was preparing a petition to the Russian Federation to consider the Republics as subjects separated from Ukraine in the gas matter. In the morning another shelling started in Donetsk. Judging by the sound, the city was shelled from the Donetsk airport and the township Pesky which remained under the Ukrainian military’s control; shells were launched from Grads and howitzers and landed in the Kuybyshevsky and Kievsky districts. There were also shelled the southern districts of Donetsk (Kirovsky and Petrovsky); the Ukrainian military were advancing there from towns Maryinka and Elenovka. The Gorky mine came under the threat of stopping, which could cause a man-made disaster.

The first convoy of the Ministry of Emergencies of the RF carrying humanitarian aid for residents of the East of Ukraine left suburbs of Moscow. The Administration of the President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko declared that the humanitarian convoy of Russia wouldn’t be allowed to enter the territory of the country. Ukrainian lawmakers gave the Internal Affairs Ministry officials the right to shoot to kill without a warning in the zone of hostilities in the South-East of Ukraine, as well as to use physical force, special means and weapons. From that moment in the ATO area the policemen were allowed to use weapons not only as a last resort. Besides, the Rada approved a bill allowing prosecutors to arrest residents of the DPR and the LPR for up to 30 days without a warrant.

Units of the 30th and 95th brigades of the Ukrainian army were surrounded between Red Beam and Antratsit. The Donetsk railway passed to a three-day operation mode. Residents of Lugansk had to cook their food on open fires in yards.

The government of Ukraine created an interagency group for studying the problem of defending the interests of the Ukrainian state in addressing the issue of succession of the external debt and assets of the former USSR. The Supreme Rada gave 49% of the Ukrainian GTS to investors from the USA and the EU. The Russian version of Euronews was prohibited in Ukraine. In Kiev about a thousand of protesters gathered near the Supreme Rada and demanded the lustration. The majority of the protesters were activists of the Right Sector, the Civil Position, the party Volya and the Automaidan. The protesters blocked the Grushevsky St. Alexey Goncharenko, an ex-MP candidate from the Odessa branch of the Party of Regions and a nowadays fierce fighter against “Russian threat” who was reporting on-line the events of Odessa Khatyn and boasting his organising part in it, was elected the Chairman of Odessa Regional Council.

The DPR Council of Ministers granted the request for dismissal from the post of the DPR Defence Minister to the colonel Igor Strelkov due to his transfer to another post. Vladimir Kononov was appointed the Defence Minister. The DPR Chief Commander Alexander Zakharchenko issued the order to create a post of the first deputy of the Defence Minister who would be simultaneously the Head of the General Staff. Nikolay Strelkov was appointed for this post. The Head of the LPR resigned. He was replaced with the LPR Defence Minister Igor Plotnitsky. Donetsk was shelled again; there were several volleys from the heavy artillery, about 20-30 shells were launched which hit a residential house, the Children City Hospital, the shopping centre Green Plaza and the City Prosecutorial Office. During the shelling 11 persons were killed. Due to an airstrike at the town Zugres there were killed 15 persons, including 3 children. The town Miusinsk was liberated from Ukrainian punitives. Almost 190 railway objects were destroyed in the hostilities in Donbass. According to the preliminary data, the restoration of the damaged objects would require 400 million UAN (about $30.5 million).

In the Nikolaev region there were registered two attacks at churches of the Moscow Patriarchy; Molotov cocktails were thrown into their windows. In the Kiev region, in the village Red Motovilovka a unit of radicals attacked a church of the Moscow Patriarchy. 17 Ukrainian soldiers passed to the territory of Russia to hide from the hostilities.

In Donetsk due to a shelling a large-scale bakery was destroyed; the Kuybyshevsky and Kievsky districts were hit as well as the stadium Olympic in the Leninsky district. A fire broke out on the stadium. The shells also damaged several 9-storey buildings. The town Mospino, a suburb of Donetsk, was also shelled. Two private houses and eight garages burnt down and a flat in a many-storey house was damaged. The positions of the Ukrainian military were destroyed near Snezhnoye. The battalion Goryn formed in the Rovno region was destroyed from Grads in one of the DPR regions, close to the border with Russia. The commander and several soldiers of the battalion Kiev Rus that had been participating in the ATO from the hill Karachun were destroyed eastwards from Debaltsevo. Vadim Levkovsky, one of the leaders of the Stepan Bandera Trident and a member of the Right Sector, was also killed. One of the fortifications from where Donetsk was shelled was destroyed. A number of heavy weapons, including MANPADS Uragan and mortars Tulips, were destroyed or taken as trophies. A group of Ukrainian punitives called the Hundred of Jesus Christ formed from members of Dmitry Korchinsky’s Brotherhood as a part of the IAM special battalion Shakhtyorsk was destroyed near Gorlovka. Korchinsky’s radicals were in Odessa 2 May 2014 and, together with members of the Right Sector, killed and burnt people in the Trade Union House. A battery of Grads, several armoured vehicles and a group of punitives trying to get through the town were destroyed in a battle near Miusinsk. The localities Marinovka and Stepanovka were liberated. A group of saboteurs preparing an attack at the humanitarian convoy from Russia were detained in a suburb of Lugansk. As one of the arrested confessed the provocation was to result in disrupting food delivery. The town Irmino in the LPR was subjected to a ruthless shelling which caused a number of fires and deaths of civilians. In the occupied part of the LPR, near the township Red Talovka a sabotage detachment acting in the enemy’s rear attacked a column of junta’s troops; two trucks with the punitives were blown up from a HPG. The Ukrainian military hit Lugansk with ballistic missiles Tochka-U. A Ukrainian fighter plane MiG-29 was downed in the Lugansk region; the pilot managed to escape.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine included in the list of special cargos to be protected by the National Guards launch vehicles, nuclear materials, fuel and waste.

An attack of the Ukrainian army at Ilovaysk was repelled. The Ukrainian military hit the town with incendiary shells. A breakthrough of a Ukrainian sabotage group was stopped in Makeevka. The National Guards shot a bus with passangers at the entry to the town. In Novosvetlovka the Ukrainian military shot civilians who had refused to dig trenches for them. The Kiev authorities gave the order to stop the offensive and prepare to defend Mariupol.

280 trucks of the first Russian humanitarian convoy crossed the border and arrived in Lugansk.

On the Day of Independence in Kiev there was held a parade of troops and vehicles that headed from there straight to the Eastern front.

The Kalinin hospital was shelled in Donetsk. Ilovaysk was hit with phosphorous shells. The DPR Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko announced the beginning of the counter-offensive. On the Day of Independence of Ukraine the Army of Novorossia went on a large-scale offensive in the south of Donbass and came to the sea of Azov. There were surrounded 5 thousands of Ukrainian military and a lot of armoured vehicles were captured. The militia also started an offensive at Severodonetsk and Debaltsevo; they retook a checkpoint in the direction of Mariupol and liberated Schastye. In Donetsk Ukrainian war prisoners were made to walk in the “March of shame”; on the Lenin square there was exhibited trophy armoured vehicles.

In Minsk there were held negotiations on settlement of the crisis in the East of Ukraine. In Kiev the President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko dissolved the Supreme Rada. The National Bank of Ukraine weakened the official hryvnia exchange rate to 13.66 per dollar, having renewed its historical minimum. The commander of the punitive battalion Donbass Semen Semenchenko announced the beginning of preparing partisans who would carry out terroristic acts on the territories liberated by the Army of Novorossia. In the town Shostka in Sumy region a local police station and a recruitment office were fired at from a grenade launcher.

The DPR army advanced to the south of Donbass on several fronts: Elenovka was liberated, near Stepanovka the third group of the Ukrainian punitives was surrounded, the strategic height Saur Tomb was retaken, and in Starobeshevo 139 Ukrainian soldiers and officers surrendered. A ballistic missile Tochka-U fell near Donetsk. In the Kirovsky district of Donetsk a cluster bomb exploded above the township of the Machinery plant and several people were injured. The Yasinovsky coke plant was shelled. In the DPR the beginning of school year was postponed to 1 October. In the DPR the Ministry of Coal Industry was reorganised. The President of Abkhazia invited the DPR Prime Minister to visit the Republic. Three Su-25 carried out an airstrike on the west of Lugansk; a school and residential houses were destroyed. In Lugansk there were opened 26 points of distributing humanitarian aid and free bus routes. The Lugansk engineering plant was to be evacuated to Russia. In the LPR there was created a unit of Russins of 387 people.

In the centre of Kiev there was held a meeting demanding the resignation of the President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko and the beginning of Maidan 3.0. Poroshenko cancelled his visit to Turkey and urgently gathered a meeting of the CNSD. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine initiated the abolition of non-aligned status of the country and its course for NATO membership. The Defence Council was urgently gathered in Dnepropetrovsk. Ukraine received the second tranche of the IMF stabilisation loan of $1.39 billion. In Kiev banks stopped selling foreign currency in cash. Participants of the Ukrainian interbank suspended publication of quotations. In Kiev there were detained employees of the embassy of Russia. The Odessa market Seventh Kilometre was seized by people with automatic guns and in balaclavas. In Ukraine the Kharkov CHP-5 was disabled due to exceeding the limit gas consumption. The organisation Greenpeace expressed their concern for safety of the largest in Europe Zaporozhye NPS.

Having repelled four attacks of the Ukrainian military near Mariupol, the Army of Novorossia prepared to storm the town. The militia took Novoazovsk under their control as well as several localities of Novoazovsk, Starobeshevo and Amvrosievka regions. The DPR announced its readiness to provide the Ukrainian military with humanitarian corridors to let them leave the Ilovaysk pocket on the condition of their disarming. The Ukrainian army opened fire at a bus with refugees going to Russia. Two Ukrainian soldiers that had crossed the Ukrainian-Russian border applied for asylum in Russia. In the DPR pensions and social benefits were to be paid starting from October. The DPR Foreign Affairs Minister resigned to focus on social matters.