Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told officials to stop talking to reporters about Kyiv’s military tactics against Russia, saying such comments were “frankly irresponsible.” The president’s comments come after news organizations cited unidentified officials as saying Ukrainian forces were responsible for explosions that destroyed a Russian air base in Crimea on Tuesday, although Kyiv declined to say whether it was behind the blasts. .
The devastation at the Russian air base in Crimea suggests that Kyiv may have gained a new long-range strike capability with the potential to change the course of the war. The base is well beyond the range of advanced rockets Western countries have acknowledged sending into Ukraine so far, with some Western military experts saying the scale of the damage and apparent precision of the attack suggest a powerful new capability with potentially important implications.
The UN has called for a demilitarized zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as Russia and Ukraine trade accusations of further bombing of the plant on Thursday. Ukraine’s nuclear power company said it had been shelled five times by Russian forces on Thursday, leaving staff unable to change shifts. However, Russian news agency Tass reported that Russian-imposed local authorities in occupied Zaporizhzhia said Ukrainian forces had fired at the plant. Ukraine’s Energoatom agency said the plant was operating normally.
The United States supports calls for a demilitarized zone around the Zaporizhzhia plant after clashes with Russian and Ukrainian forces in the vicinity of the plant, a State Department spokesman said Thursday. “Fighting near a nuclear plant is dangerous and irresponsible, and we continue to call on Russia to cease all military operations at or near Ukraine’s nuclear facilities and return full control to Ukraine, and we support Ukraine calls for a demilitarized zone around the nuclear power plant.” said the spokesman.
The British Defense Secretary has said that Vladimir Putin is now unlikely to succeed in occupying Ukraine. Ben Wallace said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had “failed” and was “starting to fail” as he pledged more financial and military support for the eastern European nation’s defence.
Russia has doubled the number of airstrikes against Ukrainian military positions and civilian infrastructure compared to the previous week, Ukrainian Brigadier General Oleksiy Hromov said on Thursday. “The enemy’s planes and helicopters avoid flying within range of our air defenses, and therefore the accuracy of these attacks is low,” he told a news conference.
Ukraine aims to evacuate two-thirds of residents from areas it controls in the eastern Donetsk region before winter, partly out of concern that people will not be able to stay warm amid damaged infrastructure by the war, the deputy prime minister said on Thursday. The government plans to evacuate about 220,000 people out of about 350,000, including 52,000 children, Iryna Vereshchuk told a news conference.
Ukraine expects a ship to arrive on Friday to load grain for delivery to Ethiopia under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, Reuters reports.
Ukraine expects $3 billion in US financial aid to arrive in August and another $1.5 billion in September, its Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said on Thursday. Marchenko said the payments were part of the $7.5 billion financial aid package agreed by Ukraine and the United States earlier this summer and would be used to finance “critical expenses” such as health and pensions
Belarus has said explosions heard overnight at one of its military bases 19 miles from Ukraine were caused by a “technical incident”. At least eight explosions were heard after midnight near the Zyabrovka military airport, according to Telegram messenger reports. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
McDonald’s will begin reopening some of its restaurants in Ukraine in the coming months, in a show of support after the American fast food chain pulled out of Russia. The burger giant closed its Ukrainian restaurants following Russia’s invasion nearly six months ago, but has continued to pay more than 10,000 McDonald’s employees in the country.