WAR IN UKRAINE: August 20, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 543
In one of the deadliest attacks on a Ukrainian city, Russia fired an Iskander missile into a theatre in central Chernihiv yesterday, killing seven people - including a six year old child - and injuring at least 148, Ukraine's interior ministry says. Twenty-five people were taken to hospital. Among the injured are 15 children and 15 police officers. A main square, university building and a theatre were damaged in the attack. At the time a drone exhibit was reportedly being held.
Russia attacked Ukraine’s western Khmelnytskyi Oblast with drones overnight on Aug. 19, damaging nearly 400 buildings, Serhii Tiurin, first deputy head of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast Military Administration, told Suspilne media outlet - Kyiv Independent
Host of the 2023 BRICS Summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, says almost 50 heads of state - including China, India and Brazil - will be attending the summit. However Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t be participating in person: “He is going to be here in spirit and on the screen as well. Of course he is very busy,” he told members of his ruling ANC party. Putin reportedly decided to not attend in person because of the remote possibility that he’d get arrested on an active ICC warrant accusing him of war crimes in Ukraine.
On South Africa’s position on the war in Ukraine, Ramaphosa said: “Many in the world are trying to box us into a corner, where we are aligned to them, and we have chosen a path of non-alignment. We are non-aligned, but… at the same time, we are not neutral. We are on the side of peace. We are peace promoters in the world.” The South African president led a so-called peace mission with other African leaders some weeks ago to Kyiv and Moscow. The ANC and Russia relationship goes back decades, with Moscow having stood with the ANC during the apartheid years.
The most senior BRICS bloc member, China, is helping to arm Russia with helicopters, drones, optical sights and crucial metals used by the defence industry, a Telegraph investigation has found. If true, it contradict China's claims of neutrality and its promises not to provide either Ukrainian or Russian forces with weapons.
Russia said three separate drones have been downed in their airspace, resulting in some injuries on the ground. In the Rostov region, two kamikaze drones fell on a military unit.
Ukraine appears to be running out of options in a counteroffensive that officials originally framed as Kyiv’s crucial operation to retake significant territory from occupying Russian forces this year. More than two months into the fight, the counteroffensive shows signs of stalling. Kyiv’s advances remain isolated to a handful of villages, Russian troops are pushing forward in the north and a plan to train Ukrainian pilots on U.S.-made F-16s is delayed. Ukraine’s inability to demonstrate decisive success on the battlefield is stoking fears that the conflict is becoming a stalemate and international support could erode. A new, classified U.S. intelligence report has predicted that the counteroffensive will fail to reach the key southeastern city of Melitopol this year - Washington Post