WAR IN UKRAINE: September 8, 2022
People line up for food handed out on September 6 by volunteers in Saltivka, one of the most damaged residential areas in Kharkiv, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 197
US officials said Ukraine was making "slow but meaningful progress" against Russian forces. Ukrainian soldiers have launched an offensive south-east of Kharkiv, towards the eastern region of Donetsk, over which Russia has maintained substantial military control since the war began six months ago. Defense for Policy - suggested that Ukrainian forces were performing better than Russian troops in some areas. "It is early days. I think the Ukrainians are making slow but meaningful progress. And we'll see how things pan out," he was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying. "But I certainly think things are going better on the Ukrainian side right now in the south than is true on the Russian side." The situation, however, remains fraught. In its nightly update, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Wednesday that it had "repelled all Russian attacks" in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions - but that both sides continued to exchange artillery and air strikes, damaging a dozen different places. Some reports suggest Ukrainian forces may be a few dozen kilometres from the city of Izyum, an important link in Russia's military supply chain - BBC. (See the map below for the direction of fighting)
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin is defying pressure to halt the war in Ukraine and insisting Moscow will forge ahead. He spoke at a forum in Vladivostok and mocked western sanctions. He has also threatened to cut off energy supplies to Europe if they impose a price cap on natural gas, and suggested abandoning a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey which lifted a blockade on Ukrainian agricultural products.
The Ukrainian military has for the first time admitted that it carried out missile strikes that hit Russian military bases in Crimea. Ukraine carried out the strike that hit Saky air base in Crimea on August 9, according to an article co-written by Ukrainian commander General Valeriy Zaluzhniy and Mykhaylo Zabrodskiy, first deputy chairman of the parliamentary Committee on National Defense and Intelligence. It was published on September 7 by the state-run Ukrinform news agency. The strike on Saky destroyed at least nine military aircraft, including Su-30SM fighters and Su-24M bombers. The Russian-appointed head of Crimea said at the time that one person was killed. Several buildings on the base that may have stored ammunition were also destroyed - RFE/RL
At a UN Security Council meeting on Sept. 7, Deputy Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN Khrystyna Hayovyshyn said that 2.5 million people have been forcibly deported from Ukraine to Russia's “isolated and depressed regions of Siberia and the far east," including 38,000 children, CNN reports.
Deputy Minister Hanna Malyar assures that the Ministry of Defense does not intend to put all women on the military register; the Armed Forces only need certain specialties, so there is no need to panic ahead of time. According to her, for now, until October 1, this postponement does not apply at all. And since October 1, “we have already worked hard, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that there is no mandatory (military) registration from October 1," Malyar added.
Required Viewing..
Millions have fled Ukraine in the six months since Russia's invasion started. Among them, hundreds of elderly Holocaust survivors who are refugees once again in their lives. As Nick Schifrin discovered, some are finding refuge in a most unlikely place.
Watch the PBS Newshour report by Nick Schifren here