Russia increases naval presence in Black Sea, Ukraine says
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Navy Day Parade on July, 31 2022, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Planned Navy Day celebrations in Sevastopol in Russian-annexed Crimea were canceled on Sunday after officials accused Ukraine of carrying out a drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters there, injuring five people.
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Ukraine’s military says Russia has increased its naval presence in the Black Sea. Ukrainian forces said that Russia has added at least 14 units to its Black Sea fleet. It was not immediately clear how many Russians make up a unit.
Ukraine’s military also said that Russia has at least 30 Kalibr cruise missiles on alert in the region.
— Amanda Macias
Ukrainian officials respond to FSB’s accusation of directing Dugina murder plot
Ukrainian officials responded to allegations by the Russian security service, the FSB, that Ukrainian intelligence directed the murder of Darya Dugina, the daughter of a close Putin ally, in a car bombing outside of Moscow on Saturday night.
“Ru-propaganda lives in a fictional world,” Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said via Twitter, mocking the FSB’s purported findings, which allege that a Ukrainian female agent and her young daughter entered Russia in order to carry out the attack.
Dugina’s father Alexander Dugin is known to be an ultra-nationalist and has been called Putin’s “spiritual guide” for the Ukraine invasion. Many analysts believe Dugin himself was the intended target of the attack, but was spared because he changed cars at the last minute while his daughter was driving his.
One senior Ukrainian official quoted by The Guardian asked, “What reason is there for us to do this?” adding that Dugin and his daughter were not strategically important targets for Ukraine. “Not many people here have heard of him, and nobody had heard of his daughter,” the official also said.
— Natasha Turak
Nearly 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia’s invasion, army chief says
Thirteen coffins are seen at the Krasnopilske cemetery during a mass funeral for Ukrainian military on July 1, 2022 in the Dnipro, Ukraine.
Paula Bronstein | Getty Images
Close to 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died in the fighting since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in late February, Ukrainian army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyy said. This is the first time Ukraine has publicly disclosed its military losses since the war began.
NBC has not independently verified the figures, and analysts say that to do so would be very difficult given the ongoing conflict.
Zaluzhnyy did not specify the death numbers for various branches of the military. He also said that children in particular need protection due to the fact that a large proportion of those serving are fathers.
The children “really do not understand anything that is going on and definitely need protection … because their father has gone to the front and possibly is among the almost 9,000 heroes who have been killed,” Zaluzhnyy said.
The CIA estimated in July that 15,000 Russian soldiers have died and an additional 45,000 have been wounded since the invasion began.
— Natasha Turak
Russia’s security service claims it has ‘solved’ murder of Putin ally’s daughter Darya Dugina
Investigators work on the site of explosion of a car driven by Daria Dugina outside Moscow.
Investigative Committee of Russia via AP
Russia’s state security service, the FSB, says it has solved the murder of Putin ally Darya Dugina, who was killed in a car bombing Saturday outside of Moscow, according to a report from Russian state news agency TASS.
The FSB claims the bombing was carried out by a member of Ukrainian intelligence who has since fled Russia. NBC has not independently verified the information.
Ukraine’s government vocally denied any allegations of Ukrainian involvement. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on television on Sunday, “Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state like Russia or a terrorist one at that.”
One former member of Russia’s parliament, now living in Ukraine due to being expelled for anti-Putin positions, claimed the attack was carried out by members of an anti-Putin resistance group inside Russia. NBC has also not verified this claim.
— Natasha Turak
Ukraine displays seized Russian military equipment and weapons
Ukrainians take part in an open-air exhibit in Kyiv and Lviv showing seized military equipment and weapons.
Some of the exhibits included a tank and motorized artillery systems belonging to the Russian army. The display comes ahead of Ukraine’s 31st anniversary of Independence Day.
A boy with Ukrainian national flags poses for a photo while standing on a destroyed Russian military vehicle displayed on the main street Khreshchatyk as part of the upcoming celebration of the Independence Day of Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in central Kyiv.
Oleksii Chumachenko | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Members of the public look around some destroyed Russian tanks in the city centre on August 22, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine.
Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images
Members of the public look around some destroyed Russian tanks in the city centre on August 22, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine.
Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images
Ukrainians arrive at Khreschatyk Street to see the seized military equipment and weapons including tank and motorized artillery systems belonging to the Russian army displayed by Ukraine ahead of the country’s 31st anniversary of Independence Day in Kyiv, Ukraine on August 21, 2022.
Metin Atkas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Ukrainians arrive at Khreschatyk Street to see the seized military equipment and weapons including tank and motorized artillery systems belonging to the Russian army displayed by Ukraine ahead of the country’s 31st anniversary of Independence Day in Kyiv, Ukraine on August 21, 2022.
Metin Aktas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
UN says at least 5,587 killed in Ukraine since start of war
TOPSHOT – Family members mourn next to the coffin of Ukrainian serviceman Anton Savytskyi during a funeral ceremony at Bucha’s cemetery in Kyiv region on August 13, 2022, amid the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
Dimitar Dilkoff | AFP | Getty Images
The United Nations has confirmed civilian 5,587 deaths and 7,890 injuries in Ukraine since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said the death toll in Ukraine is likely higher, because the armed conflict can delay fatality reports.
The international organization said most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as missiles and airstrikes.
— Amanda Macias
Turkey’s Erdogan to speak with Putin this week over Zaporizhzhia plant concerns
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan meets with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia August 5, 2022.
Turkish Presidential Press Office | Reuters
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week to discuss the status of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which has been under occupation by Russian forces since March. Erdogan has stressed the importance of keeping the plant stable and safe to avert a potential nuclear catastrophe.
The two are also expected to discuss the war in Ukraine generally and continued grain shipments out of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, which Russian naval ships had blocked for months. A few of the ships have been able to incrementally leave to export Ukraine’s produce, thanks to a deal brokered by Turkish officials. News of the two leaders’ forthcoming call was published by Russian state news agency RIA.
— Natasha Turak
Speculation swirls over car bomb killing of Putin ally’s daughter outside of Moscow
Blame is being cast in multiple directions following a car bombing that killed the daughter of prominent Putin ally and Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin in the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday.
Russian authorities have opened an investigation into the killing of Darya Dugina, who was in the car that was blown up. Authorities believe that the intended target was her father, an ultra-nationalist and anti-Western philosopher who was close to Putin and described as his “spiritual guide” for the invasion of Ukraine. He ended up taking a different car, while his daughter drove his car.
Dugina died on the scene when “an explosive device, presumably installed in the Toyota Land Cruiser, went off on a public road and the car caught fire” on Saturday night local time near Bolshiye Vyazemy, a village on the outskirts of Moscow.
Journalist and political expert Darya Dugina, daughter of Russian politologist Alexander Dugin, is pictured in the Tsargrad TV studio in Moscow, Russia, in this undated handout image obtained by Reuters on August 21, 2022.
Tsargrad.tv | Via Reuters
Russian authorities have accused Ukrainian intelligence of orchestrating the murder, which Kyiv has denied. Meanwhile, a former member of Russia’s Parliament who was expelled for his anti-Putin stance, Ilya Ponomarev, claimed the blast was carried out by Russian resistance members. He said the group was called the National Republican Army and its aim is to topple Putin.
“This attack opens a new page in Russian resistance to Putinism,” Ponomarev said from Kyiv, where he is now based.
— Natasha Turak
Zelenskyy warns of ‘particularly nasty’ Russian attack ahead of Ukraine’s independence day
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of especially harmful activity by Russia ahead of Ukraine’s national day on Aug. 24.
“Russia may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel” this week, the president said in his nightly address, as the country commemorates its 31st year of independence. The capital Kyiv has banned large gatherings for four days starting Monday.
Ukraine’s military warned that Russia has positioned several warships and submarines equipped with cruise missiles in the Black Sea and placed air defense systems in neighboring Belarus.
“Russia may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel” this week, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Adam Berry | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Shelling from Russian forces batters city near nuclear power plant
Russian shelling pounded the city of Nikopol overnight, which is two miles across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. International leaders have sounded the alarm over a potential nuclear catastrophe from the conflict.
Valentyn Reznichenko, the region’s governor, said the nearby districts of Kryvoriz and Synelnykiv were also heavily shelled.
“A night of shelling and casualties,” Reznichenko wrote on his official Telegram account. “Nikopol was shelled with ‘Grad’ and barrel artillery three times during the night. 42 Russian shells flew into the residential quarters.”
He added that in the city, two houses were destroyed and nearly 50 damaged. Shelling also hit “a kindergarten, shops, pharmacies, markets, a court and a bus station” and “caused five fires … Up to 2,000 people are without electricity,” he added.
— Natasha Turak
Russia likely struggling to motivate its forces, UK says
Russia is likely struggling to motivate its military forces in Ukraine, Britain’s Ministry of Defense wrote in its latest intelligence update on Twitter, suggesting the government may be resorting to financial incentives.
“Russia is likely increasingly struggling to motivate the auxiliary forces it is using to augment its regular troops in the Donbas. Commanders are probably resorting to direct financial incentives, while some combat units are deemed unreliable for offensive operations,” said the post.
“A consistent contributing factor to these problems is Russia’s classification of the war as a ‘special military operation’ which limits the state’s powers of legal coercion,” it added.
— Natasha Turak
Zelenskyy thanks Biden for latest security assistance package
Ukraine was already stocking up on U.S.-made Javelins before Russia invaded. Here a group of Ukrainian servicemen take a shipment of Javelins in early February, as Russia positioned troops on Ukraine’s border.
Sergei Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked U.S. President Joe Biden for the 19th security assistance package.
“I highly appreciate another U.S. military aid package in the amount of $775 million. Thank you @POTUS for this decision,” Zelenskyy wrote. “Ukraine will be free,” he added.
The latest weapons package brings U.S. commitment to approximately $10.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of Biden’s presidency.
— Amanda Macias
Ukraine GDP projected to fall by 35-40% in late 2022
A view of devastation after conflicts as Ukrainians trying to rebound back to life Irpin near Kyiv, Ukraine on June 21, 2022.
Metin Aktas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Ukraine’s gross domestic product in the remaining months of 2022 may fall by 35 to 40% due to Russia’s war, according to Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade.
“According to our calculations, according to the macroeconomic forecasts made by the Ministry of Economy, the curtailment of the economy by the end of the year may be at the level of 35-40%,” said Svyrydenko, who also serves simultaneously as Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister.
The National Bank also predicts that Ukraine’s real GDP in the third and fourth quarters of 2022 will contract. According to the National Bank estimates, the economy will also slip by another 19% in the first quarter of 2023.
— Amanda Macias
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Source Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/22/russia-ukraine-live-updates.html