Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (C) with UN Secretary-General António Guterres (R) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) in Lviv, Ukraine, August 18, 2022 (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)


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Thursday’s Coverage: Russian Paratrooper — “I Don’t See Justice in This War”


Source: Institute for the Study of War


UPDATE 1832 GMT:

The Biden Administration has announce another $775 million in military aid to Ukraine.

The assistance will include long-range howitzers, ammunition, and at least a dozen portable, long-endurance surveillance drones.

The package takes the total of US military aid to Ukraine to about $10 billion during the Russian invasion.


UPDATE 1821 GMT:

French President Emmanuel Macron has appealed to Vladimir Putin to allow an International Atomic Energy Agency mission into the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Macron’s office said that, despite Russia putting up obstacles to any inspection, Putin supported the idea. It said, “The two presidents will talk to each other again in the coming days on this subject, after discussions between the technical teams and before the deployment of the mission.”

Diverting from — and possibly justifying — Russia’s use of the complex as a military base, Putin claimed without evidence that Ukraine was shelling the plant, risking “large-scale catastrophe”.


UPDATE 1341 GMT:

A “Western official”, briefing journalists, says Russia lost “more than half” of its combat naval aircraft in last week’s Ukrainian attack on the Saky airbase in occupied Crimea.

See also Ukraine War, Day 169: At Least 8 Russian Warplanes Destroyed in Attack on Crimea Base

Considering a possible Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south, the official said Russia has “low thousands” of troops west of the Dnipro River in the Kherson region, including in Kherson city. With Ukraine damaging all major bridges across the Dnipro and its tributaries, Russia has pontoon bridges and two ferry bridges, but they are “not as effective” for resupply.

The official said the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant “should be able to withstand most direct military fire” as it is “built strong enough to resist impact of a civilian airliner”. However, there are “concerns focused around whether plant suffers a loss of cooling due to loss of back-up electricity.


UPDATE 0958 GMT:

The death toll is rising from three days of Russian strikes on Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine (see 0717 GMT).

Rescuers are searching for survivors and bodies under the rubble of a demolished dormitory.

Regional police chief Volodymyr Tymoshko said 19 civilians, including a child, are confirmed dead, and 20 injured in strikes on two hostel dormitories.


UPDATE 0730 GMT:

The latest Russian attacks across the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine have killed five civilians and injured 10.

Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said two civilians were slain in Avdiivka and one each in Druzhba, Zelenopillia, and Pervomaiske on Thursday.


UPDATE 0717 GMT:

Russian forces have attacked Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv for the third straight day.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the invaders fired on three districts about 5:44 a.m. A residential building was damaged and another building caught fire.

At least 17 people were killed and 42 injured in Russian strikes on Wednesday and Thursday.


UPDATE 0709 GMT:

The latest Ukrainian operations appear to have struck an airbase in Russian-occupied Crimea and a munitions depot inside Russia.

Russia’s Belbek airbase, north of Crimea’s Sevastopol, suffered four explosions. Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev claimed Russian air defenses shot down a Ukrainian drone and insisted, “There is no damage.”

Two villages in Russia’s Belogorod Province were evacuated after “an ammunition depot caught fire near the village of Timonovo”, less than 50 km from the border, said regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

The Ukrainian military has shaken Russia this month with a series of operations setting off blasts at Russian bases and ammunition depots in Crimea, far from the frontline in southern Ukraine of Moscow’s invasion.

See also Ukraine War, Day 175: Kyiv Strikes Again in Russian-Occupied Crimea


ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has conferred with UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan about Russia’s use of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as a military base.

The three men met in Lviv in western Ukraine on Thursday. Zelenskiy reiterated after the discussions:

This deliberate terror on the part of the aggressor can have global catastrophic consequences for the whole world. Therefore, the UN must ensure the security of this strategic object, its demilitarization and complete liberation from Russian troops.

Occupying part of southern Ukraine in early March, Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia complex, the largest in Europe. They are using to shell Ukrainian-held towns and cities, such as Nikopol, across the Dnipro River.

Guterres has appealed for the Russians to allow access for a mission from the UN and International Atomic Energy Agency. but Moscow has said it will not admit any group that goes through Kyiv. Russia also rejected any demilitarization or withdrawal.

On Thursday, the Russians threatened to shut down the plant, Europe’s largest, on the pretext that it might be shelled by the Ukrainians. Ukraine military intelligence said Moscow told the Russian staff of the plant not to report for work on Friday.

Zelenskiy said he agreed with Guterres on a framework for the visit by the IAEA to inspect the complex. Expressing “grave concern”, Guterres restated:

The facility must not be used as part of any military operation. Instead, agreement is urgently needed to re-establish Zaporizhzhia’s purely civilian infrastructure and to ensure the safety of the area….

We must tell it like it is – any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide.

Erdoğan said, “We are worried. We don’t want another Chernobyl,” referring to the site in northern Ukraine where the world’s worst nuclear accident occurred in 1986.

Discussions on Grain and Deportations

The three men also reviewed progress with shipments of grain and foodstuffs from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, after a July 22 agreement — brokered by the UN and Turkey — that lifted Russia’s blockade.

About 25 ships have sailed this month.

On Friday, Guterres will travel to the Black Sea port of Odesa. Then he will visit the Joint Coordination Centre in Turkey, which is overseeing the implementation of the deal for shipments.

Zelenskiy said he and Guterres spoke about “the issue of illegal and forced deportation of Ukrainians” and “the release of our military personnel and medics from captivity”.