WAR IN UKRAINE: August 15, 2023

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 538

• Another massive Russian cruise missile attack on Ukraine overnight - striking Lviv, Lutsk, Dnipro & targeting Ivano Frankivsk, Khmelnytsky and Cherkassy region. In all 28 missiles. In Lviv Oblast, 15 people were injured, including at least one child, and about 40 houses were destroyed. More than 100 flats were damaged, many significantly. A rocket crater can be seen in the yard of a totally destroyed kindergarten.

• Video aired by CNN shows a cargo ship in international waters in the Black Sea being boarded by Russian soldiers from a hovering helicopter. It was bound for a Ukrainian port and the brazen action is seemed designed to intimidate others crews piloting ships in the region.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on August 14 said he visited troops in the Donetsk region on the front line of the war against Russia. Meanwhile, the U.S. Defense Department on August 14 announced a new, $200 million package of security assistance for Ukraine,

• The number of Ukrainian men who were detained while trying to go abroad is equivalent to five brigades of the Armed Forces. According to the Ukrainian border service, 13,600 people were caught trying to cross the border outside the checkpoint, and another 6,100 people were arrested for using forged documents at the border - Financial Times

• The Russian rouble is now at its lowest for 16 months. Pressure is growing on the Russian economy, as imports increase faster than exports and military spending grows. The dollar exchange rate had reached an eye-watering 101 roubles.