A Ukrainian serviceman jumps from a military vehicle near a frontline in Mykolaiv region, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, Ukraine, August 10, 2022. (Reuters)Russia Ukraine War Live Updates: Latvia’s parliament named Russia 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, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, a ship which carried grain and was scheduled to depart from Ukraine’s Chornomorsk port under a UN-brokered deal Thursday was unable to set sail due to bad weather conditions, Turkey’s defence ministry told Reuters. The deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey between Russia and Ukraine has allowed 12 ships to depart from Ukraine’s Black Sea port since August 1.
Russia is attacking scores of civilian and military targets in its bid to establish full control over the east Ukraine regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, with 120 rockets hitting the area around the town of Nikopol overnight, Ukrainian officials said. Heavy fighting raged around the eastern Ukrainian town of Pisky on Thursday, while to the west, Ukraine accused Russian forces of using a nuclear plant to shield artillery.
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.
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➡️ 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.
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.
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.