August 24, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

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

President Volodymyr Zelensky says the death toll has risen to 22 people in Wednesday’s attack on the Chaplyne train station in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. 

“Chaplyne is our pain today. As of this moment, there are *22 dead, five of them burned in the car, a teenager died, he was 11 years old, a Russian rocket destroyed his house. Search and rescue operations at the railway station continue. We will definitely make the occupiers answer for everything they have done. And we will certainly throw out the invaders from our land,” he said. 

The attack occurred on the Chaplyne train station and at least 50 people were injured. Earlier in the day, Zelensky said he expects the number of injured to increase.

The US will provide Ukraine VAMPIRE counter-unmanned aerial system, or counter-drone system that uses “small missiles essentially to shoot missiles out of the sky,” Department of Defense undersecretary for policy Dr. Colin Kahl told reporters on Wednesday. The VAPIRE counter-UAS systems are included in the latest $3 billion US security assistance package for Ukraine announced Wednesday. 

The US continues to “train Ukrainian forces on all systems” that the US and NATO allies are providing, Kahl said. This training has been happening on a “rolling basis,” he added.

For training on systems included in the latest package of security assistance, the US believes there is “time to train the Ukrainians on whatever system they are not familiar with,” Kahl added.

Because the latest security assistance comes from Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding — meaning it will be sourced and produced by industry partners and not directly from DoD stockpiles of weapons — it could take “months to get on contract and one, two, three years in some instances to arrive in Ukraine,” Kahl said. 

An 11-year-old was among those killed in Wednesday’s attack on the Chaplyne train station in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk said on Twitter.

He wrote, “Just recently, 15 people, including an 11-year-old child, were killed during a rocket attack on the Chaplyne railway station. About 50 more were wounded. What else is needed for the world to recognize this ersatz country as a terrorist? We will not forget. We will not forgive.”

The regional office of the State Emergency Service in the Dnipropetrovsk region tells CNN rescuers are still working on the scene.

See the Ukrainian parliament speaker’s tweet:

A Ukrainian Premier League (UPL) football match in Lviv was halted four times on Wednesday as a result of multiple air raid sirens at Skif Stadium in Lviv, according to the UPL. The match, between Rukh Lviv and Metalist Kharkiv, was the only league fixture impacted by the sirens on Wednesday.

In an email to CNN, the UPL stated “Safe and security measures is the main priority for us, so both teams had to go to the shelter every time, according to the available safety protocols. The overall time of the match was indeed 4 and half hour(s).”

Social media accounts posted videos showing the events at the stadium, including what reportedly happened when the first siren went off, and of the players returning to the pitch after one of the stoppages.

Metalist Kharkiv won the match 2-1.

Read more about the league’s restart and its protocol surrounding air raid sirens here. 

Russia has conducted “missile strikes across Ukrainian territory” on Wednesday, according to Yuriy Sak, an adviser to the Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.

“The aggressor … proved the expectations that we had and is conducting today missile strikes across the Ukrainian territory,” Sak told CNN’s Sara Sidner on “Amanpour.”

He said that Ukraine had “been receiving warnings about the possibility of massive missile strikes” on Ukraine’s Independence Day for nearly a week.

Wednesday marks six months since Russia’s invasion and 31 years since Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union.

Sak added that Ukraine had been prepared for strikes because it had been living in an “atmosphere of missile terror for six months.”

“In Kyiv today … we’ve already had eight air raid sirens. In other major cities of Ukraine, even those which are far away from the battlefield, there have been explosions, there have been missile strikes,” Sak said.

Sak said that an 11-year-old child in the Dnipro region had been killed and that residential homes had also been destroyed.

“The number of strikes, the number of regions of Ukraine which are targeted, the number of air raid sirens…this is abnormal, even by our standards,” he said.

After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, its currency — the ruble — crashed, with Moscow scrambling to prevent financial meltdown.

Tough sanctions: The United States, European Union and other Western allies imposed sanctions on much of the country’s banking system, including freezing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of reserves Moscow had been stockpiling for years to shield the economy.

In response, Russia’s central bank introduced policies to prevent investors and companies from selling the currency and other measures that force them to buy it. Russia has also demanded that European countries make energy payments in rubles, cutting off gas supplies to customers who refused to do so.

But the ruble has stabilized in recent months. Despite the early impact of the sanctions, they have largely failed to cripple Russia’s economy, as surging energy prices have padded the country’s coffers.

Meanwhile, Russia’s currency soared to a seven-year high against the US dollar, thanks to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to support the ruble.

And although the country defaulted on its foreign debt in June, global markets barely reacted —  the move had been widely expected, and the market had been bracing itself.

US President Joe Biden will speak Thursday with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky to update him on US arms shipments and congratulate him on Ukrainian Independence Day, according to the White House.

John Kirby, the communications coordinator at the National Security Council, said the US would continue to “rally the free world” and “galvanize allies and partners” to support Ukraine as the Russian invasion hits the six-month mark. 

He said the phone call between Biden and Zelensky would reaffirm those commitments.

“The President’s looking forward to that,” Kirby said, while saying there were no travel plans to discuss for Biden to visit Kyiv. He said if a “trip makes sense,” it would come under consideration.

Biden today announced a nearly $3 billion security assistance package to Ukraine.

Warning of a potential next step in the Russian invasion, Kirby said the US has information showing Russia is preparing to hold “sham referenda” in regions of Ukraine, potentially within days.

He said an announcement could come before the end of the week. The potential regions where a referenda could occur include Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, along with Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

He said the US expects Russia to manipulate the results of the votes and falsely claim the Ukrainian people want to join Russia.

“It will be critical to call out and counter this disinformation in real time,” he said.

He said the US information shows Russian officials are concerned there would be low voter turnout in the upcoming votes.

The threat of nuclear calamity has hung for months over Russia’s half-year war in Ukraine.

Those fears were renewed in the last two weeks after shelling intensified around the massive Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, which has been under Russian control since March.

Attacks at the complex, which have ramped up as fighting flares in Ukraine’s south, have sparked concerns about the specter of nuclear disaster, leading the United Nations’ watchdog and world leaders to demand that a mission be allowed to visit the site and assess the damage.

There’s been a barrage of accusations made by each side about security and military action at and around the plant. The lack of independent access to the plant makes it impossible to verify what is happening there. Over the past month, a number of rockets and shells have landed on the territory of the plant, according to satellite imagery analyzed by CNN.

So just how real is the risk that the fighting poses?

Nuclear experts are keen to defuse some of the more alarmist warnings, explaining that the main threat is closest to the plant itself and doesn’t justify Europe-wide alerts. Experts are particularly wary of any comparisons to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, a repeat of which is incredibly unlikely, they said.

“It’s not very likely that this plant will be damaged,” Leon Cizelj, president of the European Nuclear Society, told CNN. “In the very unlikely case that it is, the radioactive problem would mostly affect Ukrainians that live nearby,” rather than spreading throughout eastern Europe as was the case with Chernobyl, he said.

Russia’s invasion triggered fears about nuclear safety at the start of the war

In late February and March, the Russian occupation of Chernobyl in northern Ukraine triggered fears that safety standards inside the exclusion zone could be compromised.

During the first week of the war, the plant and its surrounding territory fell into the hands of Russian troops. They withdrew on March 31, according to Ukraine’s nuclear operator.

Ukraine’s government said that Russian forces had looted and destroyed a lab close to the abandoned nuclear plant, which was used to monitor radioactive waste.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed its government on Wednesday to pay 10,000 rubles ($613) to families with children in the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, according to the Kremlin.

According to the Kremlin’s readout, the payments will be administered to families with children aged 6 to 18 living in Zaporizhizhia, Kharkiv and Kherson regions, as well as the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic.

The money amounts are scheduled to be paid by Sept. 15 to families whose children go to school in the Russian-occupied territories. 

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that Ukraine’s health system has managed to survive, despite Russia’s invasion.

“Six months of war have had a devastating impact on the health and lives of Ukraine’s people, but despite many challenges the health system has managed to survive and deliver care where and when it is needed most,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement.

The head of the WHO went on to say that “though shaken, the health system has not collapsed. WHO continues to support the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to restore disrupted services, displaced health workers, and destroyed infrastructure, which is essential not only for the health of Ukraine’s people but for the country’s resilience and recovery. But no system can deliver optimum health to its people under the stress of war, which is why we continue to call on the Russian Federation to end this war.” 

Six months into Russia’s invasion, the WHO said it has helped deliver more than “1,300 metric tonnes of critical medical supplies to Ukraine in coordination with the Ministry of Health and partners, with more on the way.”

The agency said this includes “power generators, ambulances, and oxygen supplies for medical facilities; supplies for trauma and emergency surgeries; and medicines to help treat noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). However, attacks on health continue unabated, with 473 WHO-verified attacks recorded this past half-year, resulting in at least 98 deaths and 134 injuries.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the UN Security Council virtually Wednesday, urging that the organization’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), take permanent control of the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant as soon as possible. He also called on Russia to completely withdraw from the plant.

“Russia has put the world on the brink of radiation catastrophe. It is a fact that the Russian military has turned the territory of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, into a war zone. … Now Europe and neighboring regions face the threat of radiation pollution,” Zelensky said.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres also said he is “gravely concerned” by the situation at Zaporizhzhia.

“The warning lights are flashing. Any actions that might endanger the physical integrity, safety or security of the nuclear plant are simply unacceptable. Any further escalation of the situation could lead to self destruction,” Guterres said while speaking at the UN Security Council.

The UN secretariat is in close contact with the IAEA to support any mission to the power plant from Kyiv provided both Russia and Ukraine agree.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has claimed the lives of 133 Ukrainian athletes and coaches, the Ukraine Ministry of Youth and Sports announced on Tuesday.

“The flag will no longer be raised and the anthem will no longer be played in honor of the sports victories of the deceased athletes,” Minister of Youth and Sports Vadym Gutzait wrote. “Russia invaded Ukraine and took their lives. 133 athletes and coaches have died on the battlefield and from enemy shelling.”

CNN is not able to independently confirm the number of deaths of Ukrainian athletes and coaches.

Ukraine’s Independence Day this year marks six months exactly since Russia invaded and began a bloody war which continues to rage across the country.

The website “Sports Angels” details the lives of each sportsperson killed during the war — some on combat missions, some in their homes destroyed by shelling.

Among those killed is Ivan Bidnyak age 36 who died while fighting in the Kherson region. He represented Ukraine at the World Championships and was the first Ukrainian to compete in shooting at the London 2012 Olympics. Eleven-year-old gymnast Kateryna Diachenko was reportedly killed when a shell hit her house in Mariupol on March 10 along with her father, mother and brother.

CNN’s Ben Morse contributed reporting to this story.

Prominent opposition leader Yevgeny Roizman was detained by Russian police Wednesday for allegedly “discrediting” the Russian army, the country’s state-run media reported.

A criminal case has been opened against Roizman based on a video posted on his YouTube channel, according to TASS news agency, citing a law enforcement source.

Roizman — who is also the former mayor of Yekaterinburg, a city east of the Ural mountains — has been detained for 48 hours, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. He is due to be taken to Moscow for further investigation, a source told RIA Novosti.

A video shared by the pro-Kremlin Mash Telegram channel showed police officers in flak vests and black balaclavas, storming Roizman’s apartment on Wednesday morning. Another video showed Roizman leaving his apartment with police when asked by bystanders he said he was arrested for using the word “invasion.”

“We already know everything about our country. This is nothing new,” Roizman said in a video while leaving his apartment.

According to Russian state media, the searches took place at three addresses: at his home, in Roizman’s foundation — where he regularly hosted meetings with local residents — and in his private museum, the Nevyansk Icon Museum.

Earlier this year, Roizman was fined three times for “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces on social media. 

In May, Roizman was fined another 85,000 rubles ($1,412) for a comment on Twitter in which he used profanities in response to a statement from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.  

Some background: Following the arrest of Ilya Yashin, Roizman remained the last prominent Russian opposition public figure openly speaking out against the war in Ukraine. Roizman was well-known for calling out Russian officials on Twitter and remaining in Russia despite the widespread crackdown on the opposition.  

Last month, Roizman tweeted a photo of himself alongside Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin with the caption: “I am the only one still free.”  

Roizman came to prominence as a mayor of Yekaterinburg from 2013-2018 and for his anti-Kremlin stance. Roizman’s popularity and his opposition views resulted in authorities abolishing direct mayoral elections in Yekaterinburg in 2018.

Despite the loss of public office, Roizman continued to be one of the most influential voices in Russian opposition and was a close friend of jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny. 

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a $66 million (54 million pounds) aid package for Ukraine during a surprise visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, telling the country that it “can and will win” the war against Russia. 

The UK called the package “a step up in the Ukrainian’s current capability, improving their long-range surveillance and defensive targeting ability,” according to a Downing Street news release. 

Here’s what is in the package: It comprises of 2,000 state-of-the-art drones and loitering munitions which will “enable Ukraine to better track and target invading Russian forces,” the news release said. 

It also contains 850 hand-launched Black Hornet micro-drones, which are “specifically designed for use in towns and villages, and are deployed to detect approaching enemy forces,” according to the news release. 

Johnson said he came to Ukraine “to deliver the message that the United Kingdom is with you and will be with you for the days and months ahead, and you can and will win.”

According to Downing Street, during the visit, Johnson and Zelensky held talks “on the challenges of the winter ahead for the country,” during which the prime minister reiterated the “UK’s all-encompassing and unwavering support for the Ukrainian people, from humanitarian aid to supporting the investigation of war crimes and rebuilding the country’s economy.” 

Correction: An earlier version of this post included the wrong number of drones provided in the aid package. There were 2,000 drones.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded British Prime Minister Boris Johnson the Order of Liberty during a ceremony in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The award is “reflecting the work that Boris has been doing for our country and all of Europe,” Zelenksy said while giving it to Johnson.

“I want to thank you and the people of Ukraine for the incredible honor that you’ve done me which is, I think, really a recognition of the efforts of the UK,” Johnson said after he received the award.

The British prime minister made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Wednesday as the country marks its Independence Day.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in Kyiv to mark Ukraine’s Independence Day, Downing Street said via Twitter Wednesday.

Today marks 31 years since Ukraine voted for independence from the Soviet Union. It is also the six-month anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

Johnson has been one of the most vocal supporters of Ukraine as it tries to defend itself against Russia’s unprovoked assault, and the trip on Wednesday was his third visit to the Ukrainian capital since the war started in late February.

He became one of the first foreign leaders to make the precarious trip to the Ukrainian capital in late April, then returned on another surprise visit in June.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on his Telegram channel: “I am happy to meet Boris Johnson, a great friend of Ukraine, on Independence Day.” 

“Boris, thank you for the uncompromising support for our country from the first days of the full-scale Russian aggression, for steadfastly defending the interests of Ukraine in the international arena! Ukraine is lucky to have such a friend!”

As Russia’s war in Ukraine reaches the six-month mark, officials across Europe are worried that the Western consensus to supply arms to Ukraine could fall apart amid the real possibility of economic recession.

The continent is now facing a bleak winter of rising food prices, limited energy to heat homes, and a growing fuel crisis.

Western officials and diplomats spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe sensitive conservations among governments.

“At the start … it was politically quite easy to rally behind Ukraine and make the case for donating weapons and cash,” a NATO official told CNN. “Over time, the types of weapons we are sending have got more complicated, as has the training required to use them effectively.”
“The good news is, these arms are helping the Ukrainians hold out. The bad news is, the longer the war goes on, the shorter on supply these weapons will be.”

War fatigue: On top of the economic and military costs, there is also serious concern that war fatigue could influence foreign governments’ contributions as the conflict stagnates.

“Back in February, it was easy to jump on the anti-Putin bandwagon. Now the war is in the boring strategic stage. There are fewer daily gains and losses and there are fewer photo opportunities,” according to a NATO diplomat.

Of course, this won’t be as straightforward as countries simply withdrawing their support. But it might involve countries changing the parameters of exactly what outcome they support.

Shifting end game: Some Western European countries, most notably Germany and France, have said publicly that dialogue will have to exist between the West and Moscow.

“Do we all still have the same view of the end game? Is it just getting back to the borders of before Russia invaded? Or is it back to pre-2014, before Russia annexed Crimea? And will we deal with Putin after the war or will he need to stand down?” a European diplomat said.

Read the full analysis here.

Leaders from around the globe marked this year’s Ukrainian Independence Day and pledged continued support amid Russia’s invasion via messages on Twitter:

US President Joe Biden

President of the European Council Charles Michel

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith

US President Joe Biden marked Ukraine’s Independence Day Wednesday by reiterating the United States’ commitment to Ukraine — six months after Russia began its invasion — with a new $2.98 billion investment in security assistance.

“I am proud to announce our biggest tranche of security assistance to date: approximately $2.98 billion of weapons and equipment to be provided through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. This will allow Ukraine to acquire air defense systems, artillery systems and munitions, counter-unmanned aerial systems, and radars to ensure it can continue to defend itself over the long term,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday.

Because this package falls under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), it will not be drawn from existing US inventories. Instead, it will come from contracts with arms manufacturers, according to a US official. 

Last week, the US announced a $775 million package that included HIMARS and 105mm howitzer ammo, anti-armor missiles, mine-clearing capabilities and more. That package came through Presidential Drawdown Authority, which means it will be pulled directly from US stocks.

Biden also congratulated the people of Ukraine on 31 years of independence, noting that the country has “inspired the world,” and added that the US “looks forward to continuing to celebrate Ukraine as a democratic, independent, sovereign and prosperous state for decades to come.”

CNN’s Oren Liebermann and Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.

Portugal’s Foreign Minister João Gomes Cravinho has arrived in Kyiv as Ukraine marks its Independence Day on Wednesday.

“It’s an honour and a privilege to be here on such a significant day for Ukraine. Count on Portugal’s full solidarity and support!” he tweeted.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also tweeted about Cravinho’s visit.

“On Independence Day, I welcomed Portuguese Foreign Minister @JoaoCravinho in Kyiv. Grateful to Portugal for consistently supporting Ukraine. We stand united to stop Russia from attacking not only Ukraine, but all of Europe — with energy blackmail, rising prices, and propaganda,” he said.

Ukraine’s Independence Day this year is a somber one, with President Volodymyr Zelensky, first lady Olena Zelenska and other dignitaries paying tribute to those who have been killed in military action since Russia invaded the country six months ago.

For all that the West can reasonably pat itself on the back for its initial response to the crisis, things are about to get much harder.

Across Europe, citizens are starting to feel the cost-of-living crunch across the continent — which comes as many European countries have already played host to thousands of Ukrainian refugees.

Against this backdrop, it is hard for political leaders to justify spending money and energy supporting a country far away, especially when some of their citizens may feel that they’ve been generous enough as it is.

Multiple Western officials told CNN of their concern that at some point, political leaders might decide the best thing is to broker for a peace deal and undercut the Ukrainian preferred end game, which is forcing Russian forces back to the previous borders.

“There is growing concern in some quarters that if Ukraine appears to be losing ground to Russia this may accelerate calls for a negotiated settlement,” Theresa Fallon, director at the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies, told CNN.
“As soon as people sense that (Kyiv) is on the losing side, they may start to ask, ‘why do we continue to supply costly weapons to Ukraine at a time of economic stress?’ ‘Why are we throwing good money after bad?’”

Political upheaval in the West: This will be critical, she pointed out, as many key allies also go through turbulent political periods at home. Italy will hold an election, the United Kingdom will have a new Prime Minister and the United States will hold midterm elections that may determine the rest of President Joe Biden’s first term in office.

Most officials acknowledge that no one has a clue on how this conflict ends. And while most would like to see Ukraine achieve its goals of standing up to Putin and forcing him out of their country, their true resolve has yet to be fully tested.

Data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics shows that June marked the first month on record in which the United Kingdom did not import any fuel from Russia

Britain vowed in March to phase out all imports of Russian oil by the end of the year, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, in the hopes that the move would help choke Moscow of a key revenue stream it needs to keep its economy afloat and its war effort humming along.

Russia was the UK’s largest supplier of refined oil in 2021, accounting for 24.1% of all imports. Moscow also supplied 5.9% of the UK’s crude oil and 4.9% of the the country’s gas imports.

The national statistics office said that there were no imports of refined oil, crude oil, gas or coal, coke and briquettes from Russia

Imports down too: June also marked the lowest level of Russian imports to the UK since records began in 1997, falling to $39 million from more than $2 billion in January 2022.

While sanctions likely contributed to the plummeting number of Russian goods heading to the UK, authorities said “self-sanctioning, whereby traders voluntarily seek alternatives to Russian goods,” may have also contributed to the decline.

At least 972 children have been killed or injured since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, according to UNICEF.

“And these are just the figures the UN has been able to verify. We believe the true number to be much higher,” UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

Russell pointed to the deep distress that many children across Ukraine may be experiencing in the wake of violence, plus the devastation the war has brought on the country’s education system.

“The start of the school year in just over a week’s time is a stark reminder of how much children in Ukraine have lost. Ukraine’s education system has been devastated by the escalation of hostilities across the country. Schools have been targeted or used by parties, resulting in families not feeling safe to send their children to school,” she said Monday.

Russell called for a ceasefire, saying children need safety, stability, and support. “All children need to be in school and learning, including children caught up in emergencies,” she said. “But more than anything, Ukraine’s children need peace.”

Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports pushed grain prices to record highs this year, with more than 20 million metric tons of wheat and corn trapped in the port city Odesa for months.

Amid a worsening global food crisis, Moscow and Kyiv signed a grain export deal brokered by the UN and Turkey in July. Since August 1, dozens of ships loaded with grain have left Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.

On Thursday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said there were signs that global food markets were beginning to stabilize in the wake of the agreement.

Here’s a look at the fluctuation in wheat prices since the war began:

Six months have passed since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, a war that by any conventional measure has been a calamity.

Cost to Russia: By the Pentagon’s latest reckoning, the invasion has cost Russia between 70,000 and 80,000 troops killed and wounded. Even if that estimate is on the high side, it’s fair to extrapolate that Russia has probably seen more troops die in half a year’s fighting in Ukraine than the Soviets lost over a decade of war in Afghanistan.

Public approval: But any comparisons of Putin’s Russia to the waning days of the USSR are premature. The majority of Russians have — if not overtly — supported the war, or have silently acquiesced to his campaign of imperial restoration.

The Kremlin leader’s ratings have been unaffected by the war. Both state pollster WCIOM and the independent polling agency Levada-Center routinely put Putin’s approval ratings above 80% since February 24. A WCIOM survey in June found that 72% of Russians were likely to support Putin’s “special military operation,” the official euphemism for the war in Ukraine.

Censorship and support: Some of the numbers could reflect the power of Russia’s state propaganda — and the government’s swift censorship, shutting down the remnants of Russia’s free press after the invasion.

But that doesn’t mean no information is getting out about Russia’s disastrous losses in Ukraine; it’s just that the country’s relatively well-off middle classes have likely been insulated from the war’s toll.

The regions with the highest numbers of documented casualties are the poorer, so-called “ethnic republics” of Dagestan and Buryatia, according to the Russian independent news site Mediazona, which was labeled a “foreign agent” last year by Russian authorities

By contrast, casualties from Russia’s two wealthiest and most populous cities — Moscow and St. Petersburg — have been relatively low, it reported.

Read the full analysis here.

The head of Ukraine’s military urged the country’s troops to continue fighting in an Independence Day video published on his Facebook page.

“Independence is possible only when there are people ready to fight for it,” said Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces. “Independence is a responsibility that rests on your shoulders. You lead into battle and you know that not everyone will return from it.”

In the video Zaluzhnyi asks: “How can one feel independence? Those who fight for it know its taste. It is the taste of the soil that eats into the skin. The taste of blood and death permeates the air.

“Independence has a voice. This is the voice of the ancestors. They died in battles, in gulags, bloated from hunger, and paved the roads of empires with their bones. It is the cry of mothers who are burying their children … the voice of our children, who did not choose the time and place of birth, but who had to live during the great war.”

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday issued a message congratulating the people of Ukraine on their Independence Day.

“I am convinced that today’s contradictions will not be able to destroy the centuries-old foundation of sincere good-neighborly relations between the peoples of the two countries,” Lukashenko said in a message on the presidential website. “Belarus will continue to stand for the preservation of harmony, the development of friendly mutually respectful contacts at all levels.”

Lukashenko wished the Ukrainians “a peaceful sky, tolerance, courage, strength and success in restoring a decent life.”

Some context: Belarus is an ally of Russia and the country was used as a launch point for the invasion of Ukraine in February. The country is host to a wide variety of Russian weaponry and Ukrainian officials have reported an increase in the deployment of Russian missiles at an airbase in Belarus in recent weeks.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says the country was “reborn” on the day Russia invaded six months ago.

Speaking in an emotional video message to mark Ukrainian Independence Day on Wednesday, Zelensky harked back to Feb. 24, when he said Ukrainians had to “prove our words with deeds.”

“On this day, the second all-Ukrainian referendum actually took place. Again — the main question. Again — a decisive choice. But this time it was necessary to say “yes” to independence not in the ballot, but in the soul and conscience,” he said.

Independence Day: Zelensky paid tribute to Ukrainians celebrating Independence Day, listing the various ways they have mobilized to assist their country from fighting on the front lines to raising funds for the war effort.

He had previously warned Ukrainians to take extra caution on Independence Day, emphasizing in his nightly address Tuesday that “hideous Russian provocations and brutal strikes are possible.”

Long war: In his address Wednesday, the President spoke to the lengthy nature of the war, remarking that Ukraine has been “holding on for six months.” 

“Every new day is a new reason not to give up. Because, having gone through so much, we have no right not to reach the end,” he said.

Crimea vow: Finally, Zelensky vowed to restore Ukrainian rule in Crimea — which was annexed by Russia in 2014 — and the Russian-occupied Donbas region “whatever the path may be,” reiterating undertakings given during Tuesday’s Crimea Platform summit. 

A pro-Russian official in occupied Ukraine has been killed by a car bomb, Russian-backed authorities said Wednesday.

Ivan Sushko, head of the military-civil administration of the village of Mikhailovka, was killed after an explosive device was planted under his car, according to a Telegram post by Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian-appointed council in occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia.

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) said it has received reports that a soldier on leave has been killed in Ukraine.

In a statement Wednesday, NZDF said the “soldier was on a period of leave without pay at the time and was not on active duty with the NZDF.”

“At this early stage, there is still more information to be gathered in order to understand the circumstances fully,” the statement said. “The New Zealand Army will work closely with the family of the soldier to offer support at this deeply sad time.”

Norway and the United Kingdom will jointly supply micro-drones to Ukraine to aid in its fight against Russia’s invasion, the Norwegian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. 

The Norwegian-developed Black Hornet drones from manufacturers Teledyne FLIR are worth up to $9.25 million, the ministry said in a statement.

The package includes Black Hornet units, spare parts, transportation and training, which will be financed by a British-led fund to which Norway has contributed, according to the ministry. 

“The drone is used for reconnaissance and target identification. It is easy to operate, robust, difficult to detect and particularly well suited for combat in urban areas,” Norway’s Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram said.

The ministry added that Ukraine had asked for this type of equipment to help fight the war.

Six months after Russia’s unprovoked invasion, the war in Ukraine hasn’t gone away despite being overtaken in US headlines by former President Donald Trump and inflation.

The stakes have not changed; they are as important now as ever. And if anything, the war is more brutal and bloody and may be primed for an escalation that could again test American policy.

But as a conflict that has evolved multiple times reaches another possible pivot point, a familiar question is being raised with new urgency — especially by Ukrainians: How long is the West willing to stay engaged?

Foreign aid to Ukraine: US and European money and military aid remain critical to Ukraine’s capacity to stave off Russia’s invasion. But senior figures in Kyiv are sufficiently concerned that they are again warning of the massive stakes for the democratic world as they face down President Vladimir Putin’s troops half a year into the conflict.

“I call it fatigue syndrome, and for me it’s one of the main threat(s),” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told CNN in an exclusive interview. “We need to work with this threat, because we need to … communicate, to ask people, don’t be (in) on this fatigue. Because this is very, very dangerous for us.”

Fears of attacks: Questions about the longevity of Western commitment is coming at a perilous moment.

The State Department on Tuesday advised Americans to leave Ukraine immediately, warning of potential Russian attacks on Wednesday’s 31st anniversary of independence, to which Putin says the country is not entitled.

There are also fears that the capital’s return to a pale imitation of normality could be shattered by Russian strikes after the daughter of influential, ultra-nationalist philosopher and war propagandist, Alexander Dugin, was killed in a car bomb near Moscow.

Ukraine has denied responsibility and the hasty Russian investigation offers little confidence in its claims that an operative from Kyiv’s special services was to blame. But the murder has sparked chilling Russian demands for vengeance and total warfare against Ukraine.

Read the full analysis here.

Six months of war in Ukraine has seen relentless attacks and devastation in cities including Kharkhiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson and many more.

Ukrainian forces are battling a grinding Russian offensive in the east, which is largely under Russian occupation, and launching counteroffensives in the south of the country.

The Donbas: The Russian military has kept up a persistent barrage of artillery and missile strikes across the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions, capturing the last Ukrainian-held city in Luhansk in July. Ukrainians still hold a significant chunk of Donetsk, but are under pressure from three directions.

Intense shelling: Valeriy Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, acknowledged earlier in August that Russian forces “continue to advance” in the east and sometimes shell Ukrainian positions up to 800 times a day.

But, he added, the “intense” situation is “fully controlled.”

Six months since the outbreak of war, Ukraine’s children are preparing for a new academic year, while armed forces battle a Russian offensive in the east and the country’s economy lies in tatters.

As schools prepare to open their doors in September, many educators are grappling with the fact that they don’t have the ability to provide safety to pupils or peace of mind to parents if their schools come under attack.

Child casualties: At least 972 children have been killed or injured since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, according to UNICEF.

A June survey by the Ukrainian government estimated that 5.7 million children between the ages of 3 and 18 have been affected by the war, with 2.8 million estimated to be internally displaced.

Impact on schools: The fighting has damaged 2,300 of Ukraine’s 17,000 schools, according to education officials. Some 59% of all schools and universities will not be ready to resume in-person classes in September, said Education Minister Serhiy Shkarlet, and no one knows how many students will attend in-person classes.

The war has also caused a brain drain of teachers, with 22,000 of Ukraine’s 434,000 educators (most of whom are women) having left the country, while many more remain internally displaced, he added.

“The academic year will be very difficult,” Horbachov said. “It will begin in unpredictable and very difficult conditions, when there is actually no safe place in Ukraine, since (Russian) missiles can hit anywhere.”

Read the full story here.

Ukraine’s Independence Day, which on Wednesday marks 31 years since the country broke with the Soviet Union, is set to be a somber affair as officials warn that Russia may carry out missile attacks against Ukrainian cities.

While previous years have been marked by celebrations and parades, Wednesday’s commemoration comes exactly six months after Russia’s invasion of the country began.

The head of Kyiv’s Military Administration, Maj. Gen. Mykola Zhyrnov, said events have been banned in the capital and other cities so that security forces can respond more efficiently to potential Russian attacks.

In lieu of a parade, wrecked and captured Russian military vehicles including tanks were placed on Khreshchatyk, Kyiv’s main street, as a testament to Moscow’s failed attempt to capture the capital in the early weeks of the war.

“The enemy planned to hold a ‘parade’ on Khreshchatyk in three days, but it didn’t work out. Our armed forces answered back,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian President’s office, wrote on Telegram Saturday, when the vehicles were placed on the road with a crane.

On the eve of Independence Day, crowds of people were seen in Khreshchatyk, inspecting the display. Some children crawled up the rusty metal carcass of a tank, while others posed for pictures by the mangled vehicles.

Liubov, who asked for her last name to not be published, said she turned up to show the “scrap metal parade” to her 8-year-old son, Illia.

As Illia climbed on a Russian combat vehicle, Liubov described the parade as “symbolic,” saying “a lot of people in Kyiv (have forgotten) about war, so I think this is a good reminder.”

Read more here.

Ukraine’s “worst scenario” in its war with Russia has already passed, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Tuesday.

“We are in a stage of stabilizing all the battlefield or battle lines with the small moving of the units, and we made a lot of good deterrents there.”

Reznikov added he believes Ukraine is on the verge of a “new stage” of the war by starting its counteroffensive campaign “in a different direction.”  

When asked if he is afraid the international community will begin to get tired of the war, Reznikov said “fatigue syndrome” could hurt Ukraine’s fight against Russia.

“I call it fatigue syndrome, and for me it’s one of the main threats,” he said. “We need to work with this threat, because we need to speak like with you, to communicate, to ask people, don’t be on this fatigue. Because this is very, very dangerous for us.”

As of Aug. 17, a total of 6,657,918 refugees from Ukraine have been recorded across Europe, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Millions of people have been uprooted from their homes in Ukraine and are in need of humanitarian assistance, in what has become the largest and fastest displacement crisis since World War II, according to the International Rescue Committee.

The UN estimate of refugees in Europe includes the sum of registrations for temporary protection or a similar national protection scheme and the number of asylum applications lodged by refugees from Ukraine.

Some context: The UNHCR figure is a conservative estimate of the total number of refugees from Ukraine across Europe. This could be because updated official estimates may not be available for every country, or not all countries currently hosting Ukrainian refugees have or take part in official temporary protection programs, according to Christopher Boian, a UNHCR spokesperson.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday reiterated Turkey’s position that Ankara supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity and rejects Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, according to the state-run Anadolu agency.

Erdogan said in a video message to the Second Crimea Platform Summit in Kyiv that Crimea must be returned to Ukraine. 

“The return of Crimea to Ukraine, of which it is an inseparable part, is essentially a requirement of international law,” Erdogan said

Erdogan said Ankara will continue to support the Crimean Platform, which was established to resolve the Crimean issue through peaceful means.

“Turkiye does not recognize the annexation of Crimea and has been openly stating since the first day that this step is illegitimate and illegal. This is a principled stance that has not only legal but also moral foundations,” he said.

Erdogan added that protecting Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and political unity is “critical,” not only for regional but also for global security and stability.

“Ensuring the safety and well-being of our Crimean Tatar compatriots is also among Turkiye’s priorities,” he said.

The US is set to announce a security assistance package of up to $3 billion for Ukraine on Wednesday, according to a US official, which is the country’s Independence Day and marks six months since the beginning of the war. 

This package, first reported by the Associated Press, is far larger than any single previous US package since the start of the war. 

The package falls under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) and will include Western air defense capabilities, a large quantity of ammunition, as well as training and maintenance, the official said.  

More background: Because this package is part of the USAI, it will not be drawn from existing US inventories. Instead, it will come from contracts with arms manufacturers. 

The official said the package has not been finalized and details could still change.

Last week, the US announced a $775 million package that included HIMARS and 105mm Howitzer ammo, anti-armor missiles, mine-clearing capabilities, and more. That package came through Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which means it will be pulled directly from US stocks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged to restore Ukrainian rule in Crimea during an international online summit on Tuesday. 

Speaking on a panel alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda, Zelensky outlined his country’s ambitions to regain power in the peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

“In order to overcome terror, to return predictability and security to our region, Europe and the whole world, we need to win, to win the fight against Russian aggression. And therefore, we need to free Crimea from occupation. It started in Crimea, and it will end in Crimea, and this will be an effective revival of the international legal order,” Zelensky told the Crimea Platform summit.

The President stressed that for Ukrainians, Crimea is “not just some territory” or even a “figure in the geopolitical game.” 

Zelensky added that Crimea has become “a military platform for aggression and the spread of grief,” referencing the 750 cruise missiles he said the Russians have launched from the peninsula since the invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24.