A member of the emergency services walks through damage from Russian shelling of a residential area in the Kherson region, August 13, 2023

Sunday’s Coverage: Counter-Offensive’s “Tactically Significant” Advance of 10 to 12 Miles

Map: Institute for Study of War

UPDATE 1628 GMT:

During a visit to Kyiv, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner has announced that Berlin intends to provide Ukraine with €5 billion in military aid annually until 2027.

The funding must be approved by the German Parliament.

Lindner noted that Germany also sends humanitarian aid to Kyiv, supports Ukrainian internally displaced persons, and contributes to support for Kyiv’s economy through the International Monetary Fund.

Since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February 2022, Germany’s assistance to Ukraine has been €22 billion.

“Right now, we are talking with Ukraine not as a donor country, but as a partner country,” Lindner said.

Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal tweeted:

UPDATE 1623 GMT:

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited troops at brigade headquarters near the frontline in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

Zelenskiy spoke with troops involved in operations near Soledar, the Russian-occupied town north of Bakhmut.

UPDATE 1616 GMT:

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced another $200 million in US military aid to Ukraine.

The package includes air defense munitions, artillery rounds, anti-armor capabilities, and additional mine-clearing equipment.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy responded:

UPDATE 1604 GMT:

The Central Bank of Russia will convene an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday, with the rouble at its lowest point in 16 months.

The rouble broke 100:1 v. the US dollar on Sunday and fell to 101:1 on Monday morning. With the news of the Central Bank’s emergency session, it rallied to 98.5:1 by the end of the afternoon.

The rouble has lost about 25% this year, as Russian oil revenues have halved and the sharp increase in military spending has strained the economy.

Just after the launch of Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February 2022, the rouble plummeted to 135:1 v. the dollar. It was rescued by the Central Bank raising interest rates to 20% and putting controls on foreign currency and capital.

Putin’s economic adviser Maxim Oreshkin acknowledged that the devaluation had a “negative effect” on the “population’s real incomes” but insisted that the rouble would recover.

The current exchange rate has deviated significantly from fundamental levels, and its normalization is expected in the near future. It is in the interests of the Russian economy to have a strong rouble.

UPDATE 0831 GMT:

A Russian missile strike has killed 77-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman in the village of Stepne in the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine.

A 64-year-old woman was injured.

In the neighboring Kherson region, several civilians were injured by shelling, a day after seven people were slain — including a family of four — and 15 injured.

UPDATE 0746 GMT:

Exiled Chechen human rights lawyer Abubakar Yangulbaev says Russian authorities have taken four of his closest male relatives to the frontlines in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

The forced movement is the latest pressure by officials on Yangulbaev. In July, his mother was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison.

The lawyer posted on Monday:

The protest against us, harassment, intimidation, persecutions, relatives renouncing us publically, taking my mother hostage and taking away our motherland — all of that wasn’t enough for the government.

Activists say there are dozens of ongoing cases of persecution of the families of those criticizing the Kremlin.

UPDATE 0622 GMT:

Ukrainian open-source intelligence monitor InformNapalm claims Russia’s Defense Ministry lied about a warship firing warning shots and boarding a cargo ship in the southwestern Black Sea on Sunday.

The Ministry said troops on the patrol boat Vasily Bykov fired automatic small arms across the bow of the Palau-flagged Sukra Okan when it failed to respond to a request for inspection.

The claimed interception was the first since Vladimir Putin ripped up the July 2022 grain deal, lifting Russia’s blockade of three Ukrainian ports, on July 17.

But InformNapalm posts:

Sukra Okan did not comply with the demand to stop, but temporarily changed its course in the direction of Turkish territorial waters.

There was no helicopter and no warning shots either. There were only threats from the Russians over the radio.

UPDATE 0553 GMT:

At least three people have been injured in the latest Russian drone and missile attacks on the port city of Odesa in southern Ukraine.

“Windows in buildings were blown out by the blast wave,” Oleh Kiper reported on Telegram. Debris from downed munitions damaged a dormitory at an educational institutions, a residential building, and a supermarket, injuring three employees. Cars were damaged, and fires broke out at three facilities.

Ukraine’s Southern Command said air defenses destroyed all 15 drones and eight Kalibr-type sea-based missiles.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russian forces have killed a family — husband, wife, 12-year-old son, and 23-day-old daughter — in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

The family in Siroka Balta were among seven fatalities from Russian shelling of the region on Sunday. Another person was slain in Shiroka Balka, and two men killed in Stanislavov. Thirteen people were injured by late afternoon.

Roman Mrochko, head of the Kherson city military administration, said Russia attacked 17 times with 91 shells in 24 hours. He noted a high-voltage power line had been damaged in the city and asked residents to reduce their use of electricity as crews carry out repairs.

On Sunday evening, a Russian airstrike and artillery shelling injured a 31-year-old woman and a man and damaged at least 12 houses in the town of Bilozerka. Three guided aerial bombs damaged several houses in the village of Odradokamianka.

Region officials declared a day of mourning for Monday for the victims.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address to the nation, “There is no day when Russian evil does not receive our entirely just response. [We will] not leave any of Russia’s crimes unanswered.”