WAR IN UKRAINE: August 20, 2022

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 178

  • Russian leader Vladimir Putin has reportedly said UN officials will be granted permission to visit and inspect the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex. The Kremlin made the announcement after a call between Mr Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron. It came as claims of fighting near the plant continued, with four civilians reportedly injured by Russian shelling - BBC

  • Pressure on Mr. Putin to allow international inspectors likely also came from Turkish President Erdogan, I told BBC World Friday. He was in Lviv earlier meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Erdogan said he feared of another nuclear disaster on the scale of the 1986 Chernobyl accident.

  • The US pledged on Friday to send more arms and ammunitions to assist in Ukraine's war effort. It comes in the form of a new $775m (£655m) package of defence equipment and as pledges of weapons from European countries subside. The funding will pay for Himars long-range rocket launchers, ammunition for artillery, surveillance drones and anti-tank missiles. Also included for the first time: mine-resistant vehicles.

  • Overnight rocket strikes in several Ukrainian oblasts, including Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Zaporyzhzhia, reports Hromadske Radio.

  • Last night, powerful explosions rang out in the temporarily captured Melitopol, in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, announced Mayor Ivan Fedorov. According to preliminary data, one of the Russian military bases was struck, which they are trying to restore near the airfield - Hromadske Intl

  • Ukrainian strikes on Crimea are having major psychological and operational effects on Moscow's forces, Western officials have told journalists. They said that Russia's Black Sea fleet has been reduced to little more than a coastal flotilla that is now having to adopt a cautious attitude due to Ukrainian attacks. They added that Russia's ability to launch an assault on the port of Odesa in western Ukraine is highly unlikely in the short term. - BBC

  • Vice Admiral Viktor Sokolov has confirmed media reports that he has taken over as commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet after a series of setbacks. Sokolov said on August 19 that he had been appointed to take over the Black Sea Fleet for Igor Osipov, who was removed from the post earlier this week in one of the most prominent dismissals of a military official so far in Russia's war against Ukraine. The change came after a series of explosions rocked Russian-occupied Crimea, which had previously been seen as a secure rear base for Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, launched in late February - RFE/RL

  • Russia will halt gas supplies to Europe for three days at the end of the month via its main pipeline into the region, state energy giant Gazprom said on Friday, piling pressure on the region as it seeks to refuel ahead of winter - Reuters

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