Key occasions
In the previous couple of minutes the mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov has posted to Telegram to say:
Now Pavlovo Pole is being shelled already within the morning … minutes in the past there was an explosion. There may be undoubtedly no army infrastructure on this peaceable and densely populated space. I ask everybody to be in shelters – the shelling might be repeated.
Right here is a picture that has been despatched to us from Turkey of the ship Polarnet arriving at Derince port. It’s carrying 12,000 tons of Ukrainian corn.
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has mentioned that two folks had been killed in shelling on the area within the final 24 hours. He claimed that in a single day the roof of the executive constructing in Kharkiv’s Kyiv district had caught fireplace because of the shelling. His message ended:
As you’ll be able to see, the Russians, due to their lack of success on the entrance, are placing peaceable cities and villages within the area. However we’re stronger than their pathetic makes an attempt to intimidate us. Victory is ours!
In the previous couple of minutes he has issued a broad warning to residents in Kharkiv, posting to Telegram to say: “Residents of Kharkiv and the area, keep in shelters as a lot as doable. The Russian occupiers strike Kharkiv. Don’t depart protected locations.”
In his each day standing replace, Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv, has cautioned residents in regards to the info sources they use, saying in a single day rumours had been unfold a few failure of the air alert system. He wrote on Telegram:
On 8 August, at 2.57am, one of many Telegram channels unfold info that there was an air alert in Lviv, however because of technical causes, town and cellphone functions didn’t activate the notification. This info is just not true! There was no menace. Comply with and belief solely official sources of knowledge.
The declare has not been independently verified.
Elsewhere in his each day replace, Kozytskyi mentioned there had been one real air alert in a single day, however that “the hazard didn’t materialise”, and that 270 folks arrived in his area on two evacuation trains from the east of the nation. Seven hundred and 68 folks departed from the Lviv oblast to Przemyśl in Poland on 4 trains.
My colleague Shaun Walker not too long ago wrote a prolonged profile of Dmitry Medvedev on the previous Russian chief’s journey from liberal to anti-western hawk.
Medvedev has given an interview to Tass, which it has printed this morning, which accommodates loads of Medvedev’s anti-western rhetoric. The interview is timed to coincide with the anniversary of Russia’s assault on Georgia in 2008. which happened when he was in energy. In at present’s interview, Medvedev says:
The prison coverage of america is being aggressively pursued in Ukraine. True, with way more energetic help from the European Union, which has lastly misplaced its independence.
The aim is identical – to destroy Russia. That is the basis explanation for the extraordinarily aggressive, Russophobic geopolitical course of initiated by the west. Our reply is hard, however rigorously thought out.
If there is a chance to resolve the issue peacefully, on the negotiating desk, this needs to be finished. However when there isn’t any method out, it’s important to react by power. Sadly, each in Georgia and Ukraine, the authorities of those nations left Russia no selection, disrupting the processes of political settlement of those conflicts. And we intentionally went for army intervention.
So far as Nato is anxious, its relentless need to broaden alongside Russia’s borders, like a cancerous tumour, has grow to be a world drawback. It makes all affordable folks sick.
You possibly can learn the complete Medvedev interview with Tass right here.
Learn Shaun Walker’s profile of Medvedev right here: ‘I hate them’: Dmitry Medvedev’s journey from liberal to anti-western hawk
The self-proclaimed Luhansk Individuals’s Republic, an entity recognised as legit and official by solely three UN member states, has issued a briefing for the day through which they are saying within the final 24 hours they’ve killed “as much as 53 personnel” from Ukrainian forces, and destroyed 4 armoured personnel carriers and “seven models of particular automobiles”.
The announcement on Telegram additionally claims that because of shelling by Ukrainian forces on town of Alchevsk in occupied Luhansk, one civilian was killed and 19 folks had been injured, together with 5 kids. They declare that 13 condo buildings, 4 kindergartens and a college had been broken.
They declare that “peaceable life is being restored within the territories of the Luhansk Individuals’s Republic liberated from Ukrainian nationalists” and cite greater than 5 hectares being cleared of explosive units. In addition they declare to be delivering humanitarian support.
Not one of the claims have been independently verified.
Professional-Russian forces say Ukraine has once more struck Antonivskiy bridge in occupied Kherson
A key Russian-held bridge into the occupied southern metropolis of Kherson has been hit once more in a single day by Ukrainian forces, in keeping with experiences from the Russian-imposed administration there.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the pro-Russian administration imposed on occupied Kherson, instructed the Interfax information company:
The blow was struck on the Antonivskiy bridge. The tools of the builders who’re repairing the bridge burned down, there aren’t any important damages. However the opening of the bridge is barely delayed.
Ukrainian forces have repeatedly focused the bridge with high-precision weapons as it’s one in every of solely two everlasting re-supply routes over the Dnieper River, linking the occupied metropolis with the remainder of Kherson area and all the way down to annexed Crimea within the south.
The claims haven’t been independently verified.
Ivan Fedorov, Ukraine’s elected mayor of Melitopol, has posted to Telegram in a single day in regards to the scenario within the occupied metropolis, which he’s in exile from. He instructed his supporters on Telegram:
As we speak, high-precision Himars missiles fired on the factors of short-term deployment of the occupying forces at industrial websites in varied districts of town of Melitopol.
Final week, the occupiers redeployed a major a part of air defence from Melitopol to Kherson. Tonight is the simplest and exhibits that the prevailing enemy air defence models are now not in a position to withstand Himars. The weakening of the air defence system creates the mandatory conditions for a profitable counteroffensive within the route of Melitopol.
The claims haven’t been independently verified.
{Photograph}: Anadolu Company/Getty Photographs
Two extra grain carrying ships have sailed from Ukraine’s Black sea ports, Reuters experiences.
The Sacura, which departed from Yuzni, is carrying 11,000 tonnes of soybeans to Italy, whereas the Arizona, which left Chernomorsk, is carrying 48,458 tonnes of corn to Iskenderun in southern Turkey.
It’s extremely possible Russia is deploying anti-personnel mines to guard and deter freedom of motion alongside its defensive traces in Donetsk and Kramatorsk in japanese Ukraine’s Donbas area, in keeping with the UK Ministry of Defence.
The PFM-1 and PFM-1S mines, often known as “butterfly mines”, have the potential to inflict widespread casualties amongst each the army and the native civilian inhabitants.
The ministry calls the PFM-1 mines “deeply controversial and indiscriminate weapons”, pointing to the devastating influence the mines had within the Soviet-Afghan warfare the place they allegedly maimed quite a few kids who mistook them for toys.
Battle for Donbas
Russian forces are attempting to achieve full management of japanese Ukraine’s Donbas area because it stepped up assaults north and north-west of Donetsk metropolis on Sunday, Reuters experiences
The Russians attacked Ukrainian positions close to the closely fortified settlements of Piski and Avdiivka, in addition to shelling different areas within the Donetsk area, in keeping with Ukraine’s army.
Along with tightening its grip over the Donbas, Russia is entrenching its place in southern Ukraine, the place it has gathered troops in a bid to stop a possible counter-offensive close to Kherson.
Abstract and welcome
Howdy, it’s Jordyn Beazley again with you on the Guardian’s dwell weblog as we cowl all the most recent developments from Ukraine.
UN secretary normal António Guterres has referred to as for worldwide inspectors to be given entry to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after Ukraine and Russia traded accusations over the shelling of Europe’s largest atomic plant on the weekend.
“Any assault to a nuclear plant is a suicidal factor,” Guterres instructed a information convention in Japan on Monday, two days after attending the Hiroshima peace memorial ceremony to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing.
Right here’s a abstract of the details you might need missed:
- Russia is strengthening its positions and numbers on Ukraine’s southern entrance to prepared itself for a Ukrainian counteroffensive and is more likely to be getting ready the bottom to assault, in keeping with British and Ukrainian army authorities.
- Ukraine and Russia have blamed one another for renewed shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear energy plant, the Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy referred to as for brand new worldwide sanctions on Moscow for “nuclear terror”.
- Russian shelling was recorded on Saturday in dozens of cities alongside the japanese and southern frontlines, in keeping with the Ukrainian army. It additionally mentioned Russian forces tried to conduct assault in six completely different areas within the japanese Donetsk area, all of which did not achieve any territory and had been held again by Ukrainian forces.
- Zelenskiy mentioned on Sunday that there might be no talks with Russia if it proceeds with referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine on becoming a member of Russia. Russian forces now maintain giant areas of territory in japanese Ukraine’s Donbas area and in southern areas, the place officers have raised the opportunity of holding referendums.
- UK defence secretary Ben Wallace welcomed a choice by Sweden to affix nations contributing to the UK-led programme to coach Ukrainian personnel within the UK.
- 4 ships carrying Ukrainian foodstuffs sailed from Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Sunday. Pope Francis welcomed the departure of the ships carrying grain from Ukrainian Black Sea ports saying this might be a mannequin for dialogue to deliver an finish to the warfare in Ukraine.
