10/08/2022
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 03:23 Zelenskyj: 96 settlements liberated since the end of September +++
Since the start of the latest counter-offensive at the end of September, Ukrainian forces have recaptured almost 2,500 square kilometers and 96 towns from Russian troops, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “This week alone, our soldiers liberated 776 square kilometers in the east of our country and 29 settlements, including six in the Luhansk region,” Zelenskyy said in his evening video address. In the first counteroffensive, Ukraine had regained almost 6,000 square kilometers of Russian-held territory by mid-September.
+++ 02:36 Melnyk’s family could initially stay in Germany +++
The outgoing Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, is considering returning to his home country without his family. “We’re still considering whether I’ll drive alone first,” Melnyk told Der Spiegel. His wife Switlana Melnyk speaks of a major challenge: “We have a 20-year-old son who studies here and an 11-year-old daughter who is in sixth grade in Berlin.” The biggest problem will be finding a school with a bunker for their daughter, of which there are too few. Andriy Melnyk will leave Berlin on October 14 to take up a new post at the Foreign Ministry in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. His successor will be top Ukrainian diplomat Oleksiy Makeyev.
+++ 01:33 Ukraine complains about failure of Starlink systems on front lines +++
Ukrainian troops have been complaining about communications failures via Starlink satellites from Elon Musk’s company SpaceX in recent weeks. That reports the Financial Times. Many of the problems were reported from the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions as front lines crossed into Russian-controlled areas, the newspaper writes, citing a Ukrainian government official. The front line east of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk is also affected. Some of the outages resulted in a “catastrophic loss of communications,” the official said. Space-X donated some of the Starlink terminals, some were bought by the US government or financed through crowdfunding. The coordinator of a foundation that donates satellite systems assumes a voting error. Starlink allegedly shut down the systems to prevent use by Russian troops. Musk did not comment when asked.
+++ 00:50 Strack-Zimmermann: EU should now train Ukrainians on Leopard tanks +++
The Chairwoman of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, is in favor of tank training for Ukrainian soldiers in the EU. “The Spaniards would be willing to train Ukrainian soldiers on the Leopard 2 in Latvia,” said the FDP politician during her visit to Ukraine in Kyiv. But Germany would have to give the green light for this. The current question is how Ukraine will get through the upcoming winter militarily. “Therefore, now would be the best time to train the Ukrainians on the marten or leopard, since that takes a lot of time,” says Strack-Zimmermann.
+++ 00:05 International Monetary Fund provides 1.3 billion dollars for Ukraine +++
Ukraine is getting fresh billions in aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from a new program to cushion food price shocks. The IMF Council approves the disbursement of 1.3 billion dollars. The money was intended, among other things, to compensate for the loss of income from grain exports that were lost in the course of the Russian war of aggression, the IMF said. The IMF emphasizes that the Ukrainian economy is expected to shrink by 35 percent this year and the need for financing will remain high. At the same time, he praised the Ukrainian government for maintaining financial stability under the circumstances.
+++ 23:11 Zelenskyj recognizes the Russian archipelago as part of Japan +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recognizes the Russian Pacific archipelago of the South Kuril Islands as sovereign territory of Japan by decree. The Soviet Union had conquered the areas north of Japan as the victorious power in World War II. Japan and Russia, the legal successors of the Soviet Union, still have no peace treaty because of the territorial dispute. Zelenskyy speaks in an acknowledgment of Japan’s territorial integrity and urges the world community to also recognize the territory as Japanese. “An important decision was made today. It’s fair, legally flawless. Historical,” he says in a video. The Ukrainian parliament had previously passed a corresponding resolution.
+++ 22:30 mass grave discovered in freed Lyman +++
According to the local military governor, around 200 graves and one mass grave were found in the city of Lyman in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, which was recently recaptured from Kyiv. This is what Pavlo Kyrylenko explains about his Telegram channel. He also publishes photos showing many small wooden crosses and emergency services in white protective suits. Kyrylenko writes that the exhumations have already begun. The strategically important small town, temporarily occupied by Russian troops, was recaptured by the Ukrainians in early October. According to initial findings, the dead could be both Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. How many bodies were in the mass grave has yet to be determined.
+++ 22:06 Selenskyj defuses statements about “preventive strikes” against Russia +++
In a television interview, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy softened his controversial statements about a “preemptive strike” against Russia. “You have to perform pre-emptive kicks, not attacks. We are not terrorists, we are not attacking any other territory,” Zelenskyy said in English in a BBC interview. Even after all the suffering of the war, Ukraine is still not ready “to kill people like the Russians do.” Zelenskyi caused a stir on Thursday with calls for the decisive prevention of a Russian use of nuclear weapons. During an appearance he said: “What should NATO do? Make it impossible for Russia to use nuclear weapons. But it is important – I am therefore turning to the international community as before February 24 – that these are preventive strikes, so that they know what will come to them when they use it.”
+++ 21:40 Moscow declares writers and rappers “foreign agents” +++
Moscow has declared other members of the opposition to be “foreign agents”, including the writer Dmitri Gluchowski and the rapper Oxxxymiron. Their names were released today by the Russian authorities. Gluchowski is a well-known science fiction writer wanted for “discrediting” the Russian army. Like the rapper, whose real name is Miron Fedorov, he has already left the country. The 37-year-old rapper described the Russian offensive in Ukraine at the end of February as a “disaster and a crime”. The musician, who is particularly popular with young Russians, has organized several concerts in support of Ukrainian refugees abroad.
You can read earlier developments relating to the Ukraine war here.