Ukraine has ceded some territory in the Donbas region to Russian forces, with Kyiv acknowledging Russia’s “partial success” in recent days. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the pressure his forces are under in the east of the country as “hell”. They have recaptured two villages near the city of Sloviansk, according to Ukrainian general Oleksiy Hromov, but have been forced to abandon a coal mine seen as a key defensive position as forces push into the outskirts of Avdiivka. Russia may launch an offensive in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region to try to wrest momentum from Kyiv and has apparently deployed forces, Khromov said on Thursday. Much of the region is already held by Russia after seizing areas at the start of its invasion, but Ukrainian forces have launched a counter-offensive to retake territory. Three more ships carrying grain were authorized to leave Ukrainian ports on Friday as part of an international deal brokered to unblock grain exports and ease the global food crisis. The ships are destined for Turkey, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Millions of tons of grain have been stuck in Ukraine since Russia invaded just over six months ago. Ukraine will receive another financing package worth about $8 billion from the European Union by September, a German government source told Reuters. Canada is sending up to 225 Canadian Armed Forces personnel to the United Kingdom to resume training Ukrainian military recruits, Canada’s defense minister has announced. Since 2015, Canada has trained 33,000 Ukrainian military and security personnel, but in February it halted some aspects of the training. Eight people were killed and four wounded by Russian artillery shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Toretsk in the Donetsk region on Thursday, the regional governor said. The bombing hit a public transport stop where people had gathered. Among the injured are three children, said the governor of the region, Pavlos Kirilenko. NATO members are working closely with defense companies to ensure Ukraine gets more supplies of weapons and equipment to prepare for a protracted war with Russia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday. He told Reuters in an interview: “We are providing a lot of support, but we need to do even more and be prepared for the long term.” A US official has accused Moscow of preparing to plant fake evidence to make it appear that the recent mass killing of Ukrainian prisoners in an attack on a Russian-controlled prison was caused by Ukraine. Kyiv and Moscow have swapped blame for strikes at the prison in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka, in eastern Ukraine, last week. Amnesty International has said that the Ukrainian military is putting civilian lives at risk by being based in populated areas. The report was rejected by Ukrainian government officials, who say it blames Ukraine for the Russian invasion. The human rights group’s researchers found that Ukrainian forces were using some schools and hospitals as bases, shooting near homes and sometimes living in apartments. Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Hana Maliar, accused Amnesty of “distorting the real picture” and not understanding the situation on the ground.
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Russia is likely undermining the security of the nuclear plant it has seized, British intelligence says
In its daily intelligence briefing, the UK Ministry of Defense focuses on the Zaporizhia nuclear power station, which has been under Russian control since March. It says that while Russia’s intentions for the plant remain unclear, “the actions they have taken at the facility have likely undermined the safety and security of the normal operation of the plant.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs adds: Russian forces are likely operating in the areas adjacent to the power plant and have used artillery units based in those areas to target Ukrainian territory on the west bank of the Dnipro River. Russian forces likely used the wider area of the facility, particularly the neighboring town of Enerhodar, to rest their forces, using the nuclear plant’s protected status to reduce the risk to their equipment and personnel from Ukrainian attacks during of the night. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan are due to meet for talks on Friday, with Ukraine and Syria expected to dominate the agenda. Erdogan will defend the diplomatic success of helping restart Ukrainian grain shipments to the Black Sea when he visits Sochi for his second talks with Putin in just over two weeks. Turkey wants to translate that success into truce talks in Istanbul between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. But there are tensions. Putin told the Turkish leader in Tehran last month that Russia remains opposed to any new offensive Turkey may be planning against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.
Inspectors begin checking a cargo ship in the Black Sea
A team of inspectors in Turkey on Friday began inspecting an empty cargo ship before it began picking up grain from the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk as part of a deal to restart Ukrainian grain exports, the Turkish Defense Ministry said. The ministry posted photos on Twitter showing the inspection team boarding a boat to head towards the Barbados-flagged general cargo ship Fulmar S, which was anchored in the Black Sea just north of Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait. The Joint Coordination Center team has started the inspection of the empty Barbados-flagged FULMAR S, which is in anchorage north of Istanbul to go to buy grain from the port of Chernomorsk, Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/hItI1XYVsb — TR Ministry of National Defense (@tcsavunma) August 5, 2022 Updated at 06.41 BST Ukraine has asked to expand the deal that eases Russia’s blockade of its Black Sea grain exports to include other products, such as metals, the Financial Times reported. “This agreement is about logistics, the movement of ships through the Black Sea,” Ukrainian Deputy Economy Minister Taras Katchka told the FT. “What is the difference between grain and iron ore?” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hit out at Amnesty International after accusing his forces of violating international law and putting civilians at risk to defend themselves against Russia’s invasion. In a report on Thursday, Amnesty listed incidents in 19 cities and towns in which Ukrainian forces appeared to be harming civilians by setting up bases in residential areas – findings that Zelensky equated to victim-blaming in his afternoon speech. The rights group, he said, had tried to offer “amnesty to (the) terrorist state and shift responsibility from the aggressor to the victim”. “There is no condition, even hypothetically, under which any Russian strike in Ukraine would be justified. Aggression against our state is unprovoked, invasive and terroristic. If someone makes a report in which the victim and the attacker are supposed to be equal in some way … then that cannot be tolerated.” Relatives of prisoners of war captured by the Russians after the fall of Mariupol gathered in central Kiev on Thursday demanding information about their husbands, fathers and sons after a strike at a prison housing POWs in a separatist region of eastern Ukraine last week which killed and injured dozens. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for the attack, while US officials believe Russia is trying to fabricate evidence to make it appear that Ukrainian forces were responsible. Relatives of prisoners of war are increasingly frustrated by the lack of information they receive about the fate of their loved ones. Because the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) acted as a guarantor of the safety of the military members who left Azovstal in May, they are looking to the commission to give them answers. “Our goal is to reach the Red Cross, to say that they are not fulfilling their duties. We trusted them with our boys’ lives,” says Iryna Yermoshyna, wife of a PoW. Olha, wife of a defender of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, at Thursday’s rally in Kyiv. Photo: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
Summary and welcome
Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These are the latest developments
Ukraine has ceded some territory in the Donbas region to Russian forces, with Kyiv acknowledging Russia’s “partial success” in recent days. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the pressure his forces are under in the east of the country as “hell”. They have recaptured two villages near the city of Sloviansk, according to Ukrainian general Oleksiy Hromov, but have been forced to abandon a coal mine seen as a key defensive position as forces push into the outskirts of Avdiivka. Russia may launch an offensive in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region to try to wrest momentum from Kyiv and has apparently deployed forces, Khromov said on Thursday. Much of the region is already held by Russia after seizing areas at the start of its invasion, but Ukrainian forces have launched a counter-offensive to retake territory. Three more ships carrying grain were authorized to leave Ukrainian ports on Friday as part of an international deal brokered to unblock grain exports and ease the global food crisis. The ships are destined for Turkey, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Millions of tons of grain have been stuck in Ukraine since Russia invaded just over six months ago. Ukraine will receive new funding…
