WAR IN UKRAINE: August 25, 2022
On the 31st anniversary of Ukrainian independence yesterday, young men while away their time on Odesa’s beachside at this outdoor gym.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 183
More than 20 people have been killed in a Russian strike on a railway station in eastern Ukraine. About 50 people were injured in the strike in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukraine says five of the victims of the attack in the eastern town of Chaplyne burnt to death in a vehicle. An 11-year-old boy was also killed, according to BBC.
President Biden said on Wednesday that the United States would deliver nearly $3 billion worth of arms and equipment to Ukraine, its largest single package of military aid aimed at helping the nation battle Russian forces. In a statement, Mr. Biden said the latest financial assistance would allow Ukraine to purchase “air defense systems, artillery systems and munitions, counter-unmanned aerial systems, and radars to ensure it can continue to defend itself over the long term” - NYT. Crucially, the package includes the VAMPIRE counter-unmanned aerial system, or counter-drone system that uses "small missiles essentially to shoot missiles out of the sky.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi says his inspectors will be on the ground at the Russian-occupied Zaporyzhzhia nuclear power plant within days and not weeks. “We are seeing the stars aligning for the first time,” he told PBS The Newshour
Turkish presidential spokesman: Crimea should become a Ukrainian territory again if Russia and Ukraine sign a corresponding agreement.
NATO has assured that the allies would support Ukraine for years in the fight against Russia’s military aggression. The Secretary-General rejects the West’s war fatigue and says that the price he would pay if Russia won would have been much higher. “The price for NATO and the EU for supporting Ukraine is measured with money. However, Ukrainians pay for European security with their lives,” says Stoltenberg. He further stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made a huge miscalculation in the war against Ukraine. NATO is ready to support Ukraine as much as necessary. “NATO can support Ukraine for years. But it will have consequences not only in the military sphere, but also in industry. We need to increase production. We need a strong defence to prevent wars," says the Secretary-General.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine is likely to achieve any decisive military action in Ukraine this year, the UK's head of military intelligence has told the BBC. But we should be wary of thinking in binary terms - that people are winning or losing - or thinking it is a stalemate, says Gen Sir Jim Hockenhull. Russia, he says, is clearly trying to generate more forces after suffering significant losses. It's also having to redeploy some of its troops from the Donbas to the south, where he says it is under significant pressure from Ukrainian forces in and around Kherson. But Hockenhull still says it is unrealistic to expect a decisive shift in the south in the coming months.
Ukraine’s health system faces a challenging winter ahead, says the World Health Organization. “ We’re already seeing severe challenges and shortages in many areas, with rising inequalities in access to health and other essentials, impacting, as always, the most vulnerable – women, children and the elderly. Even as we look to a time when peace is restored, we must focus on the here and now – the next six months could test Ukraine’s health system as never before.”
As Russia’s war with Ukraine drags on, some Canadian charities say individual cash donations to aid campaigns are declining. One of those charities is the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF). “In the days, weeks and months that followed the invasion on Feb. 24, CUF saw an overwhelming outpouring of support across Canada, for which we are sincerely grateful,” said Orest Sklierenko, president and CEO of CUF, in an email - Global News
