A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine August 4, 2022. (Reuters)Russia Ukraine War Highlights: Russian navy’s Black Sea fleet aviation capability has been significantly degraded after the Crimea airbase blast, said UK military in a daily intelligence update on Friday. Meanwhile, as Russia and Ukraine continued to accuse each other of shelling Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, the UN chief proposed a demilitarised zone at the site as fears of a nuclear catastrophe mounted. Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the world was being pushed “to the brink of nuclear catastrophe, comparable in scale with Chornobyl.”
Ukraine’s Energoatom agency said the Zaporizhzhia complex was struck five times on Thursday, including near where radioactive materials are stored. Russian-appointed officials said Ukraine shelled the plant twice, disrupting a shift changeover, news agency Reuters said, quoting TASS.
The Institute for the Study of War said Ukrainian officials were framing the Crimea strike on the Russian airforce base in Saki as the start of Ukraine’s counter-offensive in the south. Their report suggests that intense fighting in August and September that could decide the outcome of the next phase of the war.
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The Russian rouble weakened slightly Friday, sliding towards 61 against the US dollar, while stock indexes inched higher but lacked momentum ahead of the weekend.
At 0750 GMT, the rouble was 0.3% weaker against the dollar at 60.81, remaining in a narrow range between 59.45 and 61.45 for the ninth trading session in a row.
Against the euro, the rouble gained 0.2% to 62.52 on the Moscow Exchange. (Reuters)
Russia's pipeline monopoly Transneft said on Friday that payment for oil transit to the Czech Republic has reached the bank and that confirmation from Ukraine is expected, Russian state-owned news agency RIA reported.
Ukraine on August 4 suspended transit shipments to Europe after Western sanctions on Russia prevented it from receiving transit fees. (Reuters)
A European bank has agreed to process a payment for the transit of Russian oil through Ukraine, Slovak refiner Slovnaft and another source familiar with the matter said, removing the cause of a stoppage of oil supplies to central Europe last week.
The payment, if confirmed by all parties, would be a step to restoring oil flows to the Czech Republic after a week-long outage and also create conditions for future payments for transit to the region.
On Tuesday, Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft said supplies via the Druzhba pipeline had been suspended to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia since Aug. 4 because Western sanctions prevented the payment of transit fees from Moscow to Ukraine. (Reuters)
Russian navy's Black Sea fleet aviation capability has been significantly degraded after the Crimea airbase blast, said UK military in a daily intelligence update on Friday.
Two more ships left from Ukraine's Black Sea ports on Friday, Turkey's defence ministry said, bringing the total number of ships to depart the country under an UN-brokered deal to 14 and marking the first export of wheat.
Belize-flagged Sormovsky left Ukraine's Chornomorsk port, carrying 3,050 tonnes of wheat to Turkey's northwestern Tekirdag province, it said. Also, Marshall Island-flagged Star Laura departed from Pivdennyi and headed to Iran, carrying 60,000 tonnes of corn. (Reuters)
Ukraine aims to evacuate two thirds of residents from areas it controls in the eastern battleground region of Donetsk before winter, partly out of concern people won't be able to stay warm living with war-damaged infrastructure, deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Thursday.
According to Vereshchuk, the government plans to evacuate some 220,000 people out of around 350,000, including 52,000 children.
Late last month, Ukraine announced the mandatory evacuation of people from Donetsk to save civilian lives. Although the authorities describe the evacuation as "mandatory," residents can opt out by filling in a form declaring their intention to stay. (DW)
Russia has issued a dual message: The US will not for the time being be permitted to inspect Russia's nuclear arsenals. But Moscow would comply with the terms of the treaty and is fully aware of "its unique role" as an "important instrument for maintaining international security and stability," the Russian foreign ministry said. However, the unprecedented step to suspend inspections shows what a shadow the Ukraine war has cast over relations between the two countries.
According to Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, his county's action was triggered by Washington's notification to conduct an inspection on Russian territory in the coming days. Considering the current tensions in bilateral relations, this looked in fact like an "outright provocation," Ryabkov stressed.
It is important to know that inspections have been suspended since early 2020 not because of geo-political considerations but because of the pandemic.(DW)
Russia's Foreign Ministry on Thursday said Switzerland cannot represent Ukraine diplomatically in Russia, claiming a breach of neutrality.
"Unfortunately, Switzerland has lost the status of a neutral state and can act neither as a mediator nor as a representative of interests," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ivan Nechayev told reporters Thursday.
He confirmed that Bern had formally requested that its embassy be permitted to represent the interests of Ukraine in Russia and Russian interests in Ukraine. Kyiv broke diplomatic relations with Moscow in response to Russia's invasion. (DW)
?? The scale of damage from explosions at an air base in Russian-annexed Crimea on Tuesday and the apparent precision of an attack suggested a new capability with potential implications for the course of the war, Western military experts said. Moscow said the explosions were detonations of stored ammunition.
?? Ukrainian President Zelenskyy told government officials to stop talking to reporters about Kyiv's military tactics against Russia, saying such remarks were "frankly irresponsible". He was reacting to newspaper reports citing unidentified officials as saying Ukrainian forces were responsible for the explosions in Crimea.
?? Russia has doubled the number of air strikes on Ukraine's military positions and civilian infrastructure compared with the previous week, a Ukrainian Brigadier General said.
?? Western countries committed more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.55 billion) in cash, equipment and training to boost Ukraine's military capabilities.
?? Ukraine aims to evacuate two-thirds of residents from areas it controls in the eastern battleground region of Donetsk before winter.
?? Russian officials trained in Iran in recent weeks as part of a drone deal, Washinton said. US officials previously said Iran would provide up to several hundred drones, including some that are weapons capable, to Russia. The claim raised concerns that Iran was supporting Russia in its war in Ukraine. (Reuters)
India has expressed concern over reports of shelling near the Zaphorizhya Nuclear Power Plant, reported news agency ANI.
The UN nuclear chief warned Thursday that “very alarming” military activity at Europe’s largest nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine could lead to dangerous consequences for the region and called for an end to attacks at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia facility.
Rafael Grossi urged Russia and Ukraine, who blame each other for the attacks at the plant, to immediately allow nuclear experts to assess damage and evaluate safety and security at the sprawling nuclear complex where the situation “has been deteriorating very rapidly.”
He pointed to shelling and several explosions at Zaporizhzhia last Friday that forced the shutdown of the electrical power transformer and two backup transformers, forcing the shutdown of one nuclear reactor. (AP)
Estonia decided Thursday to bar people from neigbouring Russia with tourist visas from entering the northernmost Baltic country as a consequence of the war in Ukraine.
“Russian citizens' opportunity to visit Estonia in large numbers or to visit Europe through Estonia is incompatible with the meaning of the sanctions we've established,” Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu was quoted as saying by the Baltic News Service said.
The European Union, of which Estonia is a member, already has banned air travel from Russia after it invaded Ukraine. But Russians can still travel by land to Estonia and apparently are then take flights to other European destinations.
By imposing the sanction, Estonia wants Russia “to be unable to continue its ordinary international life also at the level of its citizens,” Reinsalu said according to BNS, the region's main news agency. (AP)
Former Russian TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova was placed under house arrest for two months on Thursday in a criminal case where she is charged with spreading fake news about Russia's armed forces, Interfax news agency quoted a Moscow court as saying.
Ovsyannikova has already been fined twice in separate cases for protesting against the war in Ukraine, including by interrupting a live national news bulletin in March, shouting "Stop the war!" and holding up a placard telling viewers not to believe state propaganda.
In the latest case, she faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of distributing information about the Russian army that differs from government accounts. (Reuters)
On a day of give and take, Western nations made more pledges to send arms to Ukraine while the European Union's full ban on Russian coal imports kicked in on Thursday amid claims sanctions against Moscow now even affected its defense exports.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged Thursday that Germany “is shipping arms — a great, great many, sweeping and very effective. And we will continue to do so in the coming time.” Germany, seen early in the war as a lackadaisical ally, has already approved military exports of at least USD 710 million. Scholz said Germany's commitment to such exports was a “massive” break with its past. He added that Berlin would also provide further financial aid to Ukraine.
In Copenhagen, Britain and Denmark also made more commitments to shore up Ukraine's defense to push back Russia's invasion which has devastated the nation and reverberated across the world, causing anything from economic damage to the depletion of food supplies. (AP)
Russia has doubled the number of air strikes on Ukraine's military positions and civilian infrastructure compared with the previous week, Ukrainian Brigadier General Oleksiy Hromov said on Thursday.
"The enemy's planes and helicopters avoid flying into the range of our air defences, and therefore the accuracy of these strikes is low," he told a news conference.
Hromov said Ukraine would send reinforcements to Pisky, a frontline town on the outskirts of the separatist-held city of Donetsk that has seen intense fighting in recent days.
"Throughout the week, the enemy has constantly assaulted Pisky, conducting 6-7 attacks a day," he added. (Reuters)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for an immediate end to military activity near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Europe's largest.
"I am calling on the military forces of the Russian Federation and Ukraine to immediately cease all military activities in the immediate vicinity of the plant and not to target its facilities or surroundings," he said in a statement. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Western nations Thursday to provide more money to help Ukraine's military keep fighting nearly 5 1/2 months after Russia invaded its neighbor.
“The sooner we stop Russia, the sooner we can feel safe,” Zelenskyy said while addressing defense leaders at a Denmark conference aimed at strengthening financing for weapons, training and demining work in his country. “We need armaments, munitions for our defense," he added, speaking via a live link from Ukraine.
The conference in Copenhagen is a follow-up to an April meeting at a U.S. air base in Germany that established the U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which coordinates international military support for Ukraine. (AP)
Latvia's parliament on Thursday designated Russia as a "state sponsor of terrorism" over the war in Ukraine and called on Western allies to impose more comprehensive sanctions on Moscow in order to bring an end to the conflict.
"Latvia recognises Russia's actions in Ukraine as targeted genocide against the Ukrainian people," the Baltic nation's parliament said in a resolution.
Western nations should increase their military, financial, humanitarian and diplomatic backing for Ukraine and support initiatives condemning Russia's actions, it added.
Millions of Ukrainians have fled their homes and thousands have been killed since Russia's invasion in February.
Moscow says it does not deliberately target civilians in what it calls its "special military operation" aimed at safeguarding Russia's security and protecting Russian speakers in Ukraine. (Reuters)
Satellite images by Planet Labs PBC shows Saki Air Base after an explosion there Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, in the Crimean Peninsula, the Black Sea peninsula seized from Ukraine by Russia and annexed in March 2014. Ukraine said Wednesday that nine Russian warplanes were destroyed in a deadly string of explosions at an air base in Crimea that appeared to be the result of a Ukrainian attack, which would represent a significant escalation in the war.
(Photos: Via AP)
Britain will supply Ukraine with more multiple-launch rocket systems that can strike targets up to 80 km (50 miles) away.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the supply of weapons would help Ukraine defend itself against Russian heavy artillery.
"This latest tranche of military support will enable the Armed Forces of Ukraine to continue to defend against Russian aggression and the indiscriminate use of long-range artillery," Wallace said in a statement.
"Our continued support sends a very clear message, Britain and the international community remain opposed to this illegal war and will stand shoulder-to-shoulder, providing defensive military aid to Ukraine to help them defend against Putin's invasion." (Reuters)
A grain-carrying ship that was scheduled to depart from Ukraine's Chornomorsk port under an UN-brokered deal Thursday was unable to set sail due to bad weather conditions, Turkey's defence ministry said.
The agreement was reached last month after warnings that the halt in grain shipments from Ukrainian ports due to the conflict could lead to severe food shortages and even outbreaks of famine in parts of the world.
"A ship whose departure from Chornomorsk Port for grain shipment was planned for today could not set sail due to bad weather and sea conditions," Turkey's defence ministry said. (Reuters)
Russia's Gazprom said on Thursday that it continues shipping gas to Europe via Ukraine, and will send 41.6 million cubic metres on Thursday, a figure unchanged from Wednesday. (Reuters)
Russia's defence industry, which is reportedly considered one of its most important export successes, is under strain due to the Ukraine war, said British intelligence in its update on Thursday.
?? Russia launched 80 Grad rockets at the town of Marhanets across the Dnipro river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Tuesday, Valentyn Reznychenko, governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region, said, adding that more than 20 buildings were damaged.
?? There was no immediate comment from Russia, which has accused Ukraine of shelling the plant, something Kyiv denies.
?? Ukraine will respond to the Russian shelling of Marhanets and needs to consider how to inflict as much damage on Russia as possible to end the war quickly, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
?? Two US newspapers cited unnamed Ukrainian officials as saying Ukrainian special forces had carried out an attack on Tuesday on an air base on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, destroying military aircraft.
?? Moscow had said the explosions were detonations of stored ammunition. Kyiv has not taken responsibility for the attacks. (Reuters)
The UK Ministry of Defence, in its intelligence assessment of the ongoing war in Ukraine, has and sounded an alarm on the possible use of PFM-1 series ‘Butterfly Mines’ by the Russian military in Donetsk and Kramatorsk.
What are these mines and what kind of damage can they afflict?
As per an intelligence bulletin put out by UK Ministry of Defence a few days back on the security situation in Ukraine, Russia is is likely to have deployed anti-personnel mines to deter freedom of movement along its defensive lines in the Donbas. (Read more)
The head of the Russian-backed separatist administration in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region said that a trial of captured personnel from Ukraine's Azov Regiment would take place by the end of the summer, likely in the city of Mariupol.
The Azov Regiment, a unit of Ukraine's national guard with far-right and ultranationalist origins, garnered international attention for its resistance to the Russian siege of Mariupol's vast steelworks.
After fighting for weeks from the bunkers and tunnels below the steel works, hundreds of Azov fighters surrendered in May to Russian-backed forces. Though the Azov prisoners have not yet been formally charged, on Aug. 2 Russia's supreme court ruled the regiment was a terrorist organisation, clearing the way for captured fighters to be charged as such. (Reuters)
Heavy fighting raged around the eastern Ukrainian town of Pisky on Thursday as Russia pressed its campaign to seize all of the industrialised Donbas region.
An official with the Russia-backed Donetsk People's Republic said Pisky, on the frontlines just 10 km northwest of provincial capital Donetsk, was under the control of Russian and separatist forces.
"It's hot in Pisky. The town is ours but there remain scattered pockets of resistance in its north and west," the official, Danil Bezsonov, said on Telegram. Ukrainian officials denied that the heavily fortified town, a key to the defence of Donetsk, had fallen. (Reuters)
Pro-Russian separatists accused Ukraine of shelling a brewery in the occupied eastern city of Donetsk on Wednesday, killing one person and triggering a leak of ammonia, Interfax news agency said.
The emergencies ministry in the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said a shell had hit an ammonia line late at night, sparking a fire that at one point covered 600 square metres.
Reuters pictures from the scene showed flames lighting the sky above one part of the city as well as firefighters donning masks. One picture appeared to show a corpse on the ground. (Reuters)
Ukraine said Wednesday that nine Russian warplanes were destroyed in a deadly string of explosions at an air base in Crimea that appeared to be the result of a Ukrainian attack, which would represent a significant escalation in the war.
Russia denied any aircraft were damaged in Tuesday’s blasts — or that any attack took place. But satellite photos clearly showed at least seven fighter planes at the base had been blown up and others probably damaged. (Read more)
After forcing a draw from the clutches of defeat against Poland’s Oliwia Kiolbasa, guaranteeing a gold medal for Ukraine in the Chess Olympiad on Tuesday, Anna Ushenina quietly walked to the side of the hall and slumped into the arms of her teammate Natalia Buksa.
There were no leaps of joy or high-fives, just tears and hugs. When millions back home, facing a brutal Russian invasion, were fleeing for life and struggling for food and shelter, the gold medal — an Olympiad gold no less — brought just fleeting relief.
Later, with a quivering voice and welled-up eyes, Ushenina put the triumph in perspective: “It’s obviously a great feeling, but the medal can’t stop a war.” There was a moment of stunned silence as her voice echoed across the packed room. (Read more)