August 9, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

The US believes Russian officials have begun training on drones in Iran over the last several weeks, the latest sign that Russia intends to purchase the systems as the war in Ukraine continues.

CNN?first?reported?last month that a Russian delegation had visited an airfield in central Iran at least twice since June to?examine weapons-capable drones, according to national security adviser Jake Sullivan and satellite imagery obtained exclusively by CNN.?

Iran began showcasing the Shahed-191 and Shahed-129 drones, also known as UAVs or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, to Russia at Kashan Airfield south of Tehran in June, US officials told CNN. Both types of drones are capable of carrying precision-guided missiles. Sullivan said in July that the US believes Iran intends to sell Russia hundreds of the drones that Russia can use in its war in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military has primarily been deploying Turkish-built Bayraktar UAVs to destroy Russian command posts, tanks and surface-to-air missile systems, while the?Russians?have been using homemade Orlan-10 drones for reconnaissance and electronic warfare.?

But the?Russians?have been struggling to replenish their supply, leading them to turn to Iran for the equipment, the US believes. US officials have also argued that the growing relationship between Iran and Russia exemplifies why the US needs to maintain its presence and influence in the Middle East.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has pleaded with the US to provide more powerful armed drones like the Gray Eagle, but the US has been reluctant to provide them for fear that Russia could view it as overly escalatory.??

CNN has reached out to the Russian embassy in Washington, DC, for comment. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov previously said Russia had “no comments on the matter” when asked about the drones?by journalists last month.?

Russia’s war against Ukraine began with Crimea and “must end with Crimea” and the liberation of the peninsula, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday.

“Today it is impossible to say when this will happen. But we are constantly adding the necessary components to the formula for the liberation of Crimea,” he added.?

“(…) Crimea is Ukrainian, and we will never give it up,” he said.

Zelensky also said the Russian occupation of Crimea constitutes a “threat” to the entire continent and global stability.

“The presence of Russian occupiers in Crimea is a threat to the entire Europe and to global stability. (…) There will be no stable and lasting peace in many countries on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea as long as Russia is able to use our peninsula as its military base,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian president went on to recall the historical significance of the peninsula for Ukrainians, saying: “Our state is home to peoples whose national cultures and aspirations were formed in Crimea. Therefore, when we work for the liberation of the peninsula, we are fighting for the restoration of the territorial integrity of our state, and for the return of home to the indigenous peoples of Ukraine.”

On Tuesday, a series of explosions were reported in the area of a Russian air base in Crimea. There has been no word from the Ukrainian side about any attack in the area. Ukraine is not known to have struck the territory of Crimea since the Russian invasion began.

Russia invaded and subsequently annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

US Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Ambassador Mikko Hautala, of Finland, right, look on as US President Joe Biden hands a pen to Ambassador Karin Olofsdotter, of Sweden, during a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 9.

US President Joe Biden celebrated the United States’ decision to ratify Sweden and Finland’s application to join NATO on Tuesday, saying their addition to the alliance would make it “stronger than ever.”?

“Sweden and Finland have strong democratic institutions, strong militaries, and strong and transparent economies,” the President said from the East Room of the White House. “They’ll meet every NATO requirement – we’re confident of that – and will make … our alliance stronger and will make America and the American people safer in the process.”?

The United States is “committed to the transatlantic partnership,” Biden said, especially in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.?

When the invasion started, “Putin thought he could break this apart” and “weaken our resolve,” Biden said.

“When Finland and Sweden bring the number of allies to 32, we’ll be stronger than ever. Stronger than ever,” Biden said.?

The US State Department intends to provide $89 million in support of demining efforts in Ukraine as the nation faces “one of the largest landmine and unexploded ordnance challenges in decades” due to the war, a State Department official said Tuesday.

The assistance will go toward funding 100 demining teams who will work “in areas where there’s the greatest amount of contamination” over the next year, the official said in a call with reporters.

The United States will provide training and equipment to the demining teams, the official said. They declined to say specifically where the training will take place but said “it’s going to be an area that makes it as easy as possible for Ukrainian government employees, Ukrainian government deminers to receive that training as efficiently as possible and return to where they’re needed most as quickly as possible.”

The $89 million will not go directly to the government of Ukraine, but rather to non-governmental organizations and contractors who work with the government teams.

“We are aware that Russia is using a bunch of different types of cluster munitions,” the official said, noting the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s claim that “Russia’s forces deliberately hid explosives in toys and shiny objects to attract children’s attention.”

“This horrific use of improvised explosive devices by Russia’s forces is reminiscent of ISIS tactics back in Syria,” they said.

The official also referenced the Ukrainian government’s estimate that 160,000 square kilometers of territory “may be contaminated by land mines and unexploded ordnance,” noting “that’s an area roughly the size of Virginia, Maryland, and Connecticut, combined.”?

However, the official noted the exact scope of mine contamination is difficult to determine as the war with Russia is ongoing.”

“I think it’s safe to say that this is a challenge that Ukraine will face for decades,” they said.

Asked about the fact that the Biden administration has sent Claymore mines to Ukraine, the official said the ones provided by the US are configured to have a person who needs to pull the trigger, and as such the US does not consider them to be anti-personnel mines.

“They’re provided so that there’s a soldier making the decision on whether it’s deployed,” they said. “It’s not just simply left out there for a child to stumble upon.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call on Tuesday said their countries’ aid?to the Ukrainian military is “making a significant difference” in the war against Russia.??

“They agreed that UK and French efforts to train and equip Ukrainian troops were making a significant difference in the war,” according to a readout provided by Downing Street.?

The statement added that the two leaders also agreed that “western war fatigue cannot be allowed to set in.”

Both sides reiterated the determination to support Ukraine for “as long as necessary,” according to a statement from élysée Palace.??

The readouts said that the pair also discussed other issues including the food crisis “caused by the Russian aggression against Ukraine.”?

Smoke rises after explosions were heard from the direction of a Russian military airbase near Novofedorivka,?Crimea?on Aug. 9, 2022.

One person has died following explosions in the area of a Russian military airbase in Crimea on Tuesday, according to Sergey Aksenov, the head of the so-called Republic of Crimea.

“The situation is localized and is under control. I repeat once again: there is no general evacuation in the district. Only residents of houses located very close to the military airfield will be resettled,” Aksenov said on Telegram.?

About 30 people were evacuated from their homes,?said Oleg Kryuchkov, adviser to the head of the Crimean region. A cordon perimeter has been set up around the perimeter of the airfield, Kryuchkov said on his Telegram channel.

Earlier on Tuesday, Minister of Health of the Republic of Crimea Kоnstantin Skorupsky said five people were injured following the explosions.

The number of injured has increased to nine people, according to the Ministry of Health of Crimea.

In a statement on Telegram, the ministry said seven people injured received treatment at Saki Regional Hospital. Among them were two children. Six of the seven who were treated at the hospital received outpatient medical treatment while one person received in-patient treatment.?

Two additional injured people were treated at Simferopol City Clinical Emergency Hospital No. 6 with mild injuries and were sent home following treatment.?

The statement added one person is known to have been killed “on the spot” following the explosion.

Citing the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian state media RIA Novosti earlier reported the blasts had been caused by detonated aviation ammunition “on the territory of the airfield ‘Saki’ near the settlement of Novofedorivka.”

Aksenov said he is at the scene in the village of Novofedorivka in the Saki district and “there is a dispersion of fragments.”

Emergency crews are working the site, he added. “Measures were taken to set up a cordon perimeter in a 5-kilometer zone: fences, traffic police crews and foot patrols in order to prevent injuries to local residents.”

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said it cannot determine the cause of the explosions.

“The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine cannot determine the cause of the fire, but once again reminds of the rules of fire safety and the prohibition of smoking in unspecified places,” the ministry statement said. “The fact of a fire can be used by a terrorist country in an information war.”

The US State Department has sanctioned two high-ranking Belarusian officials “for involvement in gross violations of human rights, namely the arbitrary detention of peaceful protesters,” and will move to impose visa restrictions “on 100 regime officials and their affiliates for their involvement in undermining or injuring democratic institutions or impeding the transition to democracy,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday.

The measures were announced on the second anniversary of the election in Belarus – a fraudulent election and one in which longtime strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory. It?sparked massive protests throughout the country.

“The Belarusian people have demonstrated remarkable resilience in sustaining the pro-democracy movement for two years at great personal sacrifice.?These calls for democracy are voiced by Belarusians exiled abroad, over 1,200 political prisoners unjustly detained inside the country, and countless ordinary Belarusian citizens,” Blinken said in a statement.

“Their peaceful calls for democracy have been met with unprecedented brute force and a consolidated crackdown by the Lukashenka regime,” he said.

The two individuals sanctioned Tuesday — Mikalai Karpiankou, the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Commander of the Internal Troops, and Dzmitriy Balaba, the Commander of the Special Task Police Force (OMON) of the Minsk City Executive Committee of Internal Affairs — “played a significant role in the repression surrounding the fraudulent August 9, 2020 presidential election,” Blinken said.

According to Blinken, the new tranche of those facing visa restrictions includes “those holding high-ranking positions in the Administration of the President, Ministry of Interior, State Security Committee (KGB), the Central Election Commission, the Prosecutor General’s Office, Central Office of the Investigative Committee, Ministry of Transport and Communication,?Main Directorate for Combatting Organized Crime and Corruption (GUBOPiK), the National State TV and Radio Company ‘Belteleradio,’ the Second National Television Station, and the Air Force and Air Defense Forces,” as well as “members of Parliament, district judges, security officials, members of executive committees, and state university administrators.”

“Individuals subject to the proclamation have been implicated in torture; violent arrests of peaceful protesters; raids of homes and offices of journalists, members of the opposition, and activists; coerced confessions; electoral fraud; politically motivated sentences of political prisoners; expulsion of students for participation in peaceful protests; passage of legislation impacting the enjoyment of fundamental freedoms; and acts of transnational repression,” Blinken said.

Smoke rises after explosions were heard from the direction of a Russian military airbase near?Novofedorivka, Crimea on August 9.

There has been a series of explosions in the area of a Russian air base in Crimea.

Social media images and video showed a large plume of smoke rising from the vicinity of the air base at Novofedorivka, on Crimea’s west coast.?

Oleg Kryuchkov, adviser to the head of the Crimean region, confirmed several explosions had occurred near the village of Novofedorivka.

“So far, I can only confirm the fact of several explosions in the Novofedorivka area. I ask everyone to wait for official messages and not to produce versions,” Kryuchkov said on his Telegram channel.

The series of explosions was caused by detonated aviation ammunition, Russian state media?RIA Novosti reported Tuesday.?

“Around 3.20 pm, several aviation munitions detonated on the territory of the airfield ‘Saki’ near the settlement of Novofedorovka, on a bunded storage site,” a Russia defense ministry statement said, according to RIA Novosti.?

State media reported there were no injuries due to the explosions, and aviation equipment at the airfield was not damaged, citing the defense ministry.?

Separately,?Sergey Aksenov, the head of the so-called Republic of Crimea, said he visited the scene and that “the circumstances are being clarified.”

Ambulance crews and an air ambulance were sent to the site of the explosions, according to the Ministry of Health of the region.

There has been no word from the Ukrainian side about any attack in the area. Ukraine is not known to have struck the territory of Crimea since the Russian invasion began.

Russian firm Transneft said Tuesday that Ukrainian operator?Ukrtransnafta?suspended the pumping of Russian oil through the southern line of the Druzhba oil pipeline on Aug. 4. Transneft said it could not receive transit fees due to European Union sanctions restrictions, Russian state news agency TASS reported, quoting the firm.?

Oil supplies via the southern line of Druzhba to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have been suspended, while the transit through Belarus toward Poland and Germany continues, according to TASS.

Supplies were carried out on a prepaid basis, but Transneft could not pay for transit services due to the European Union’s sanctions, the company said.?Transneft?made a payment on July 22 but it was returned to the company’s account, it said.?

“As of now the European banks (correspondents) are no longer authorized to independently decide on the possibility of this or that transaction. To confirm the fact that the transaction is not among those banned it is necessary to obtain a permit from the national authorized state body. The fact that European regulators have not yet articulated a consensus on the algorithm of actions for banks in various jurisdictions, as well as the order of providing such permits, makes things even more complicated,” Transneft added, according to TASS.?

To resolve the issue, Transneft has submitted a request to the authorized bank to transfer information to the European regulator to obtain a permit to carry out payments, according to TASS, while alternative options for making payments are also being developed.

The Ukrainian military has carried out what appears to have been their deepest strike yet into Russian-occupied regions of the country.

“This morning there was a good news, there was a very powerful detonation in Henichesk region,” Serhii Khlan, adviser to the head of Kherson Civil Military Administration, said on Ukrainian television Tuesday.

Henichesk is in southern Kherson region, close to Crimea, and about 200 kilometers, or about 125 miles, from the nearest Ukrainian front line.

Khlan suggested that the target had been on the railway between Henichesk and Melitopol.

“We are still waiting for the official confirmation of our Armed Forces, from the General Staff, but it’s a very pleasant news. The detonation was heard during 1.5-2 hours on this railway station, which connects Crimea and Melitopol,” he said.

Fighting continues around the town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, while Moscow has called for dialogue with the US after suspending inspections under a key nuclear weapons treaty.

Here are the latest headlines:

The Russia-backed leader?of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, said they are negotiating with North Korea to bring in construction workers “to restore the territory of the Republic.”

On Russian television on Tuesday, Pushilin also announced that “fair” tribunals will be held soon “over the war crimes of Ukraine,” with one of the first being held in Mariupol.

“From the testimonies of the Azov fighters and the data that investigators receive after studying their positions, command posts, a complete picture of what is happening is being formed,” he said.

Some context: On the battlefield, Pushilin said Russian forces and their allies are advancing northwards into Donetsk, with “ongoing combats” on the outskirts of Bakhmut and Soledar. He also claims Ukrainian forces have sustained heavy losses in the sweeping operations in Pesky, also in Donetsk.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said that Russia was keeping up the offense in Bakhmut, but “Ukrainian soldiers inflicted fire damage and forced the invaders to flee.”

He added that their forces had also rebuffed Russian attacks on the outskirts of Donetsk.

Russia and the US need to continue dialogue on the START nuclear weapons treaty, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday, following Moscow’s announcement that it will temporarily suspend inspections of its facilities under the treaty.

Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Peskov refused to comment directly on Russia’s decision and referred questions to the country’s foreign ministry, which issued Monday’s official statement.?

Asked whether Moscow is ready to present to Washington further proposals on START, or is instead waiting for the US to make the first move, Peskov said: “Time will tell. We haven’t received any specific proposals on this yet. But once again we repeat: dialogue is necessary.”

On Monday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Russia?“is compelled to resort to this measure due to Washington’s stubborn striving to achieve, without prior arrangement, the resetting of inspection activities on conditions that do not take into account existing realities and are creating unilateral advantages for the United States, and are de facto depriving the Russian Federation of the right to conduct inspections on American territory.”

A US State Department spokesperson said Monday that “the principles of reciprocity, mutual predictability, and mutual stability will continue to guide the US approach to implementation of the New?START?Treaty, as they have since the?treaty?entered into force in 2011.”

“We keep discussions between the parties concerning?treaty?implementation confidential,” added the spokesperson.

A serviceman with a Russian flag on his uniform stands guard near the?Zaporizhzhia?Nuclear Power?Plant?outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar in the?Zaporizhzhia?region, Ukraine on August 4.

On Tuesday, the head of the Ukrainian state-owned nuclear power company Energoatom warned that Ukraine and Europe could face another Fukishima if the power supply to the massive Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power plant is further disrupted.?

Speaking to CNN on Tuesday in Kyiv, Petro Kotin said that only one power line to the massive complex was now operational after shelling damaged the lines in the past few days.?

“If there is no connection to the grid, then you cannot provide electricity from the outside, then the diesel generators will start. But everything will depend on the reliability of those generators. … This is a dangerous situation, because if those stop you could have a disaster of melting nuclear materials,” he said, comparing the potential fallout to the Fukishima disaster in Japan.?

The Fukishima plant’s reactor overheated when the backup power supply failed after the impact of the Tsunami in 2011.?

Kotin said that Energoatom has supplies ready to go into the facility for repairs, but they haven’t been able to enter the site.?

The Zaporizhzhia plant occupies an extensive site on the Dnipro River. It has continued operating at reduced capacity since Russian forces captured it early in March, with Ukrainian technicians remaining at work.?

OSunday, Ukraine’s Energoatom released a statement that said that one worker had been injured by Russian shelling around the facility on Saturday.

Kotin said that Russian soldiers have not been firing from inside the large complex, but close to its outskirts. He said Russia continues to occupy Zaporizhizhia with around 500 soldiers and hardware and that Russian soldiers moved assets into two special blast bunkers in recent days.?

There are around 1000 employees still on the site, according to Kotin, who have kept communications lines open but are working under constant stress of the occupying force including beatings and threats.??

“If the situation worsens, we need to think about our population at the plant. We are planning on how, during war conditions, we will be able to evacuate the personnel.”

“Great release of radioactivity could happen from there. There could be a cloud, a radioactive cloud,” he said, adding that the international community needs to work quickly to demilitarize the zone.?

Kotin told CNN that the ultimate plan of the Russians is to disconnect the plant from powering Ukraine and connect it to the grid to power occupied Crimea.?

Like other Ukrainian officials, he blames Russia for shelling the complex – he said the distance of the incoming strikes suggested Russian positions.?

Russia blames Ukraine.?

Russia’s Foreign Ministry?spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, accused Ukraine of “taking Europe hostage” by shelling Zaporizhzhia?nuclear?plant, according to?Russian?state news agency TASS.?

Visiting Ukraine right now to experience what’s it like living in the middle of a war, seeing its bombed cities and feeling the danger isn’t likely to be high on many people’s travel wish list.

But six months after Russia invaded the country, unleashing a wave of death and destruction, one organization is inviting tourists to come visit Ukraine.

Online platform Visit Ukraine.Today last month launched guided day tours of the so-called “Brave Cities” that have defied and continue to resist Russian invaders, offering travelers a look at how the country is living amid conflict.

“Set off on a journey to awesome Ukraine right now,” the?tour company’s website implores.

Despite international alerts warning against travel to Ukraine, the company says it’s so far sold 150 tickets, while its website offering information on safely traveling to and from Ukraine is receiving 1.5 million hits a month, up 50% on pre-invasion numbers.

Read the full story here.

The largest cargo of grain to leave a Ukrainian port since last month’s agreement has departed the port of Chornomorsk.

The bulk carrier Ocean Lion left Tuesday with nearly 65,000 tonnes of corn destined for South Korea.

A UN document obtained by CNN on Monday sets out technical details for the corridor through which merchant ships exporting agricultural products can travel.

“No military vessel, aircraft or UAVs will close to within 10 nautical miles of a merchant vessel transiting the Maritime Humanitarian Corridor, excluding territorial seas of Ukraine,” it said.

The High Seas Transit Corridor itself is 111 nautical miles long and 3 nautical miles wide.

Some context: Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement in Turkey last month to resume Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea ports, which was a global breakthrough amid the world food crisis sparked by the war.

Since the invasion in late February, the World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that 47 million people have moved into a stage of acute hunger as a consequence of the war, and Western officials have accused Russia of using food as a weapon during its invasion.

The first shipment of grain following the agreement left the port of Odesa on August 1 but was rejected by its buyer in Lebanon due to delayed delivery, according to the country’s Ukrainian Embassy.

At the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) Change of Command Ceremony at the Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany, the US Defense Secretary said Russia is seeking to expand their footprint on the African continent.

Austin also mentioned China’s desire to expand into Africa, saying they want to “build bases in Africa and to undermine US relations with African peoples, and governments, and militaries.”?

But Austin assured that the United Sates is “committed to ensuring that Africa enjoys the protections of the international rules and norms that advance all of our safety and prosperity,” adding that US?Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in South Africa to launch a new US “strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Some context: Austin will travel to Latvia later Tuesday, while Blinken is heading to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he will meet with?President Felix Tshisekedi and Foreign Minister Christophe?Lutundula.

On Monday in Pretoria, South Africa, Blinken made a case for a partnership between the the US and African nations, saying that they cannot achieve any of their “shared priorities” unless they work together as equal partners.

Blinken’s Africa tour also includes a stop in Rwanda, and comes after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov traveled to Ethiopia, Uganda, the Republic of Congo, and Egypt at the end of July following Russia’s alienation from Europe amid the war in Ukraine.

Read more here.

Russia has notified the US that it will temporarily suspend inspections under the START nuclear weapons treaty, the country’s foreign ministry announced Monday.

“The Russian Federation is now being forced to resort to this measure as a result of the persistent desire of Washington to achieve a restart of inspection activities on short notice under conditions that do not take account of existing realities, creating unilateral advantages for the United States of America and effectively deprive the Russian Federation of the right to conduct inspections on American territory,” read a statement from the ministry.

The New START?Treaty allows for 18 on-site inspections every year that allow Russia and the US to keep a close eye on each other’s nuclear weapons.

The treaty, which was extended in early 2021 for five years, limits both nations to deploying 1,550 nuclear warheads over 700 delivery systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and bombers.

According to the ministry statement, Russia is fully committed to compliance with all the provisions of the START?Treaty?and the suspension of inspection measures are “temporary.”

The aim is “to ensure that all the mechanisms of the START?Treaty?function in strict accordance with the principles of parity and equality of the parties, as was implied when it was agreed and put into force,” it said. “Now these principles are not being upheld.”

Inspections will restart “once the current problematic issues relating to the resumption of?Treaty?inspection activities are resolved,” said the ministry.

CNN has reached out to the US State Department for comment.

The treaty is the only one left regulating the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law extending the treaty for five years on January 28, 2021, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that Washington had extended the treaty on February 3 that year.

In a statement, Blinken said the extension of the New START Treaty allowed for verifiable limits on Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine launched ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers until February 5, 2026, and the treaty’s “verification regime enables us to monitor Russian compliance with the treaty and provides us with greater insight into Russia’s nuclear posture, including through data exchanges and onsite inspections that allow U.S. inspectors to have eyes on Russian nuclear forces and facilities.”

Russian forces are keeping up the pressure on the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region as they try to take more territory in Donbas.

The Ukrainian military said Tuesday that the Russians were conducting?offensive battles in the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka and trying to displace Ukrainian units with artillery fire.

It said that the Russians had tried to conduct “battle reconnaissance” in a string of towns and villages close to the main highway from Bakhmut towards the further eastward Luhansk region.

Down south: The General Staff said that efforts by the Russians to advance on the outskirts of Donetsk city had also been rebuffed.

Along the front lines in the Kherson, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, the General Staff said Russian forces had carried out air strikes against a number of settlements.

The southern town of Nikopol, across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, came under attack again overnight, according to?Yevhen Yevtushenko, head of Nikopol district military administration.

Yevtushenko said 40 shells had been fired, seriously damaging industrial sites.?He said the Russians were firing from under the cover of residential areas on the other side of the river.

In its latest assessment of the battlefield, the UK’s Defense Ministry says that over the last month, “Russia’s assault towards the town of Bakhmut has been its most successful axis in the Donbas,” but also noted that Russia “has only managed to advance about 10km during this time.”

Russian forces endured a “night of hell” in Melitopol, the occupied southern city’s mayor said, adding that residents reported hearing about 10 explosions overnight and further blasts at dawn.?

“We cannot clearly name the places of explosions for now, but we know there are dead and injured,” Mayor Ivan Fedorov said.

Smoke was rising from a military base that had been struck four times previously, he added.

Russian referendum:?Fedorov also dismissed Russian plans for a referendum in occupied parts of the Zaporizhzhia region, where Melitopol is located, saying the date and format of the proposed vote on joining Russia had been changed multiple times “as they understand they would not have any support of local residents.”

On Monday a Ukrainian politician cooperating with the Russian occupation signed a decree in support of preparations for the referendum.

The deep scars on Serhii's back are a permanent reminder of his survival.

Fourteen-year-old Serhii Sorokopud is still haunted by what happened when Russian tanks rolled into his village five months ago. He lifts his T-shirt to show the deep scars across his back — a reminder of a trauma both hidden and visible.

Russian troops set up a military camp in the small farming community of Yahidne, northeast of the capital Kyiv, on March 3, on their advance toward the capital. Serhii and his family were taken captive with hundreds of others in the basement of his school. Ten days later, as he stood in line for food in the playground, there was an explosion and he was struck by shrapnel.

Read the full story here.

The cargo ship Razoni, which departed from Odesa within the framework of the grain shipment agreement, is pictured in Istanbul, Turkey on August 3.

A buyer in Lebanon has rejected the cargo of the first grain ship to leave Ukraine since the early days of the war due to delayed delivery, according to a statement from the Ukrainian Embassy in the Middle Eastern country.?

The M/V Razoni departed the Black Sea port of Odesa on August 1, carrying more than 26,000 metric tons of corn under a UN-brokered deal aimed at easing the global food crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion.

Some context: Ukrainian officials say they aim increase grain shipments to three to five vessels per day within the next two weeks. Shipments continued Monday, with two vessels carrying 60,000 metric tons of agricultural products to international markets departing from ports in southern Ukraine.

Between 70,000 and 80,000 Russians have been killed or wounded during the war in Ukraine, Colin Kahl, Defense Department undersecretary for policy, said during an on-camera briefing at the Pentagon on Monday.

Kahl said that number of casualties from Russian forces is “remarkable” considering Russia has “achieved none of Vladimir Putin’s objectives” since invading Ukraine at the end of February.

“The Ukrainian morale and will to fight is unquestioned, and much higher I think than the average will to fight on the Russian side, so I think that gives the Ukrainians a significant advantage,” Kahl added.

The US Defense Department Monday announced a $1 billion package of additional weapons and security assistance for Ukraine in the latest round of military aid.

It is “the largest single drawdown of US arms and equipment” since August 2021, according to a Pentagon statement. This marks the eighteenth drawdown by the Pentagon.

What the package includes: The package for the first time will have munitions for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), a US-Norwegian air defense system the Ukrainians need for shooting down Russian cruise missiles aimed at population centers.

The transfer of NASAMS itself could still be some days away according to US defense officials. The first system to arrive is expected to be from Norway, which can get it to Ukraine quicker than the US.?

This package focuses heavily on additional ammunition and weapons that Ukrainian forces have used successfully against Russian forces in eastern Ukraine. There is additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), 75,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition and 1,000 Javelin anti-tank weapons among key items. This is the first transfer of Javelin’s announced since June. There are also hundreds of AT4 anti-armor weapons included.?

The Zaporizhzhia?Nuclear?Power?Plant?on August 4.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described recent artillery and rocket fire around the?Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant?in central Ukraine as “suicidal,” further adding to fears of an accident at the plant, which is the largest of its kind in Europe.

The Zaporizhzhia plant occupies an extensive site on the Dnipro river. It has continued operating at reduced capacity since Russian forces captured it early in March, with Ukrainian technicians remaining at work.

On Sunday, Ukraine’s state energy company Energoatom said that one worker had been injured by Russian shelling around the facility on Saturday.

Energoatom claimed that three radiation monitoring sensors were also damaged, saying “timely detection and response in case of aggravation of the radiation situation or leakage of radiation from spent nuclear fuel casks are currently impossible.”

Speaking on Ukrainian television, Energoatom’s chairman Petro Kotin said one strike Sunday was up to 20 meters away from the processed fuel storage area.

“If they had hit the containers with the processed fuel, it would be a radiation accident,” he said.

Read the full story here.