WAR IN UKRAINE: August 28, 2022

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 186

  • About half-a-million people face evacuation in central & eastern Ukraine - specifically some regions of Kharkiv, Zaporyzhzhia and Mykolaiv oblasts, said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. The steps are being taken not only due to hostilities, but also over worries of the inability to provide heating in these areas in winter

  • At the Russian-occupied Zaporyzhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the world "has no idea how serious everything is, how much everything hangs on a thin thread." Read the exclusive reporting by CNN here.

  • Separately, images obtained by RFE/RL show fires burning near the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant a day before the flames prompted Ukrainian authorities to disconnect the plant from the country’s electricity grid. Ukrainian authorities have begun distributing iodine tablets to residents near the plant to provide protection against potential radiation poisoning in the event of a disaster at the facility.

  • Russia has blocked the adoption of a joint declaration by a United Nations conference on nuclear disarmament. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is reviewed by its 191 signatories every five years, aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Russia objected to a draft text citing "grave concern" over military activities around Ukraine's nuclear plants, in particular the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant - BBC

  • Belarus leader says his warplanes have been modified to carry nuclear weapons
    Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that his military's SU-24 warplanes had been modified to carry nuclear weapons and that Minsk would react immediately if the West caused it any problems - Reuters

  • Three ships with Ukrainian agricultural products had left the ports of Odesa region on August 27, reported the Ministry of Defense of Turkey.

Required reading…

The war in Ukraine, six months on

Open Democracy’s regular Ukrainian contributors write about the main issues facing the country after six months of war.

Read their thoughts here

Michael Bociurkiw