Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title
22:44 Ukrainian pilots will begin training on F-16 fighters in Denmark at the end of August, the Danish Ministry of Defense reported. A coalition of 11 countries will take part in the training.
22:03 Zelensky said in an evening video message that next week is "a time of important events for Ukraine." "We are preparing powerful things for Ukraine, strengthening our state, our soldiers. Today and in general this week, this is the main task. Weapons for our soldiers. New opportunities for our defense. New support packages from our partners. We are doing everything to Independence Day of our state, it could be said that Ukraine has taken another step towards the circle of the strongest states in the world," the President stressed.
He announced news for Ukraine, which are being prepared with neighbors and partners in the EU, "and also in those regions of Europe where our cooperation with states has not yet been enough."
21:25 The Russians fired at the housing sector of Kherson - one person was killed, two were injured, said the head of the OVA Alexander Prokudin.
20:12 Washington has finally approved the sending of fighter jets from Denmark and the Netherlands to Ukraine. About when to wait for the first F-16 - in the material US landmark decision .
19:51 The Russians fired artillery at the point of invincibility in Chasovoy Yar, Donetsk region, four people were injured, the regional prosecutor's office said. The park and apartment buildings were damaged.
19:08 Turkey, Russia and Qatar are preparing a new agreement instead of a grain deal, writes Bild, citing official correspondence between the Foreign Ministry and the embassies of the Russian Federation and Turkey. It follows from it that Moscow warned Ankara in advance about withdrawing from the grain deal. Now Russia, Turkey and Qatar are working on a new tripartite agreement, according to which Russian grain will be supplied to poor countries, mainly Africa. Türkiye will act as an organizer, Qatar - as a sponsor of supplies.
At the same time, in correspondence, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan asks Russia to resume the previous grain deal so that grain is also supplied from Ukraine. Ankara proposes to act under the auspices of the UN. According to Bild, a new deal could be concluded as early as this weekend in Budapest. For this, the head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov has already flown there, Erdogan will also arrive there.
18:53 Today, the sixth meeting with representatives of foreign diplomatic institutions accredited in Ukraine took place, at which environmental security was discussed - one of the points of the Formula of Peace, the Office of the President reported. The number of participants has increased: today there were already 63 diplomatic missions. In particular, for the first time representatives of the diplomatic institutions of Albania, Cyprus, Malaysia, Moldova, Malta, Slovenia, Thailand and Vietnam joined the discussion of the points of the Peace Formula.
18:42 An explosion occurred in Energodar at a meeting of the leaders of the occupying "police", the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense reported. As a result of the explosion, the head of the city department, Colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Pavel Chesanov, his deputy for operational work, the head of the investigation department, the head of the duty unit and the heads of a number of departments received numerous injuries. Immediately after the explosion, they were taken to a local hospital, and after an operational examination, three ambulances were urgently called from Melitopol. Already from there, it is planned to evacuate by military helicopters to the territory of the Russian Federation.
The building in which the explosion occurred, in addition to the location of the "police" department, was used as a quarters for the personnel of the occupiers. As a result of the explosion, the house received significant damage, the fire spread to the 3rd-5th floors. Currently, the area of ​​​​the incident is blocked, the ability to move around the city for civilians is significantly limited. The city is completely disconnected from the Internet.
18:19 "Governor" of the occupied Kherson region Volodymyr Saldo signed a "decree" banning the use of any drones until further notice.
17:47 The United States and its allies are trying to strengthen enforcement of sanctions against Russia in Turkey, which expanded trade with Russia during the war in Ukraine, writes The Wall Street Journal. According to an unnamed Western diplomat, the US has "an ongoing dialogue with the Turkish government on these issues." He added that the West hopes to "avoid a scenario in which this or that Turkish company will fall under sanctions."
17:31 Every day, 3-5 Russian servicemen surrender under the program I want to live , said project speaker Vitaly Matvienko. According to him, most of those who visited the project site are residents of Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Krasnodar Territory and the Nizhny Novgorod Region. In total, from 70 to 100 requests are received per day - despite the fact that Roskomnadzor is constantly trying to block these resources.
According to Andrey Yusov, a spokesman for the Main Intelligence Directorate, Andrei Yusov, every fifth Russian prisoner of war surrendered voluntarily, and among them are not only ordinary soldiers, but also officers.
16:55 The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense appealed to residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine on the eve of the so-called "elections" organized by Russia, with a request to provide information about them. In particular, Ukrainians are asked to send information about collaborators among local residents and their curators from the Russian Federation, the so-called "deputies" and representatives of the occupation administrations, evidence of fraud and illegitimacy of holding fake elections.
16:27 Ukraine will receive F-16 fighters after pilot training is completed , Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. In turn, The Netherlands Times newspaper writes, citing its sources, that the training will last at least until the summer of 2024, so that the fighters will be able to be sent to Ukraine no earlier than a year later.
16:22 The Russians attacked Beryslav from a drone in the Kherson region, two people were injured, the OVA reported.
15:45 The GRU of the Russian Federation recruited Ukrainian refugees in Poland through Telegram to carry out sabotage, murder and arson, writes The Washington Post. According to the newspaper, for several weeks "recruits" from Ukraine scouted Polish seaports, installed cameras on railways and hid tracking devices in military cargo. The purpose of the sabotage was to disrupt the channels for the supply of weapons through Poland, through which more than 80% of military equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine passes.
The publication notes that the performers were guided not so much by ideology as by money, although the curators paid them only a few dollars for graffiti to several hundred dollars for bombings, murders, etc.
15:04 Ukraine has committed strategic reserves on the Zaporizhia Front, according to BILD military observer Yulian Repke, based on a video of fighters from the Ukrainian 82nd Air Assault Brigade near Rabotino in the Orekhovsky direction. The brigade consists of 2,000 fighters armed with British Challenger 2 tanks, German Marder infantry fighting vehicles and American Stryker armored personnel carriers. The fighters underwent two months of training in the UK.
14:37 The Russians are building a defense line near Mariupol in anticipation of the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Petr Andryushchenko, adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, told Radio Liberty. According to him, they started building the lines two days before the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine officially announced the de-occupation of Urozhayne. In particular, they are digging trenches and dugouts, equipping full-fledged defense lines in the Nikolsky area, 20 km from Mariupol. Previously, such defensive structures were located in the area of ​​​​the administrative border of the Donetsk and Zaporozhye regions.
13:59 The Office of the President showed what the former Kakhovka reservoir looks like now:
13:45 Russia monthly sends 20,000 recruits to the war in Ukraine, Andrey Yusov, spokesman for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, said. According to him, the mobilization is forcible, mainly for those who have recently received a Russian passport.
12:53 Zelensky said that during the daily morning "synchronization of hours" they discussed, in particular, agreements with partners: "Heavy equipment, artillery, air defense systems are coming in. We continue to work on the next packages. News will be coming soon." They also discussed the situation at the front and the results of the use of drones.
"The course of the all-encompassing inspection of the VLK. As well as the work of the SBU on the "military commissars" and collaborators. Good results. Separately, closed reports by the SBU and the Main Intelligence Directorate on their special tasks. Work continues," the president added.
12:31 In Turkey, the laying ceremony of the second ship of the ADA type for the needs of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine took place.
12:06 At night, the enemy hit a residential area in Kamyshevakh, Zaporozhye region, with two guided bombs. A local educational institution was destroyed, the blast wave and debris damaged nearby residential buildings. People were not injured, said the head of the OVA, Yuri Malashko.
11:35 About 480 people, including almost 130 children, were evacuated from the Kupyansky district of the Kharkiv region, head of the regional military administration Andrei Kanashevich said. He clarified that the number of evacuees could be higher, as some local residents are leaving on their own. At the same time, six people remain in the village of Sinkovka, which is located practically on the front line and is constantly subjected to Russian attacks, who categorically refuse to evacuate.
10:58 Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lekke Rasmussen confirmed that the United States approved the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. At the same time, according to him, a final decision has not yet been made on when the planes will arrive in Ukraine.
10:32 American intelligence believes that Ukraine this year will not be able to reach Melitopol and, thus, realize the main goal of the offensive - to break the land corridor of Russia with Crimea, writes The Washington Post, citing sources. The newspaper notes that the Ukrainian command decided to reduce losses on the battlefield and switch to the tactics of moving forward in small units, despite the expectations of the Western allies. This led to the fact that in the summer Kyiv achieved only gradual successes in different sectors of the front.
10:01 Russians have begun to take to the skies more often the MiG-31K fighter, because of which Ukraine is declaring an air raid alert, Air Force speaker Yuri Ignat said. According to him, they make training flights. Ignat added that if the aircraft is fully refueled, it can stay in the sky for an hour and a half, and the enemy knows that all this time there has been alarm in Ukraine and the work of institutions and enterprises is limited.
"Aviation, in particular the flight crew, requires maintaining constant skills. This is takeoff and landing, reaching the missile launch line, and so on. Such are the tactics that are applied to this type of aircraft," the speaker explained. At the same time, he added that when the MiG-31K fighter takes off, the air forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine must react, because even in the case of training, this does not guarantee that they will not fire Kh-47 Kinzhal missiles.
09:34 Deputy Permanent Representative of China to the UN Geng Shuang said at a meeting of the Security Council that the supply of weapons to Kiev is prolonging the war, and called for peace talks: "China has repeatedly stated its position, expressing concern and concern about the serious consequences of the continuous supply of weapons on the field combat. The side effect of this continues to intensify, as a result, the hope for a ceasefire becomes even more elusive."
09:06 In the Kharkiv region over the past day, as a result of the shelling of Kupyansk, one person was killed, one was wounded. In the Donetsk region, one person died (in Bogdanovka), two more were injured, according to the IVA.
09:03 Russia is shelling Ukraine with rockets that were fired this year, writes Bloomberg. So, recently, an unexploded rocket of the Tornado C complex with a production date of May 19 was discovered in the Sumy region. Experts who studied the rocket concluded that some of the parts were soldered by hand, and the components turned out to be Russian and American-made.
08:52 Ukrainian troops are attacking to the south of Bakhmut, they are fixed on the achieved lines, Andriy Kovalev, the speaker of the General Staff, said.
08:39 The first ship that used the Ukrainian corridor arrived in Istanbul, Reuters reports. The container ship Joseph Schulte has been in the port of Odessa since February 23, 2022.
08:17 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of August 18:
- personnel - about 256,510 (+460) people liquidated,
- tanks - 4332 (+3),
- armored combat vehicles - 8410 (+12),
- artillery systems - 5193 (+24),
- MLRS - 714 (+0),
- air defense systems - 486 (+0),
- aircraft - 315 (+0),
- helicopters - 316 (+2),
- UAV operational-tactical level - 4276 (+4),
- cruise missiles - 1406 (+0),
- ships/boats - 18 (+0),
- automotive equipment and tankers - 7658 (+17),
- special equipment - 783 (+10).
07:30 Over the past day, 33 combat clashes occurred at the front, the General Staff said in the morning summary . In particular, in the Kupyansky direction, the enemy conducted unsuccessful offensive operations in the Sinkovka area of ​​the Kharkiv region, in the Limansky direction - in the Belogorovka region of the Luhansk region, in the Bakhmutsky direction - in the areas of Bogdanovka and Belaya Gora of the Donetsk region, in Avdievsky - in the area of ​​the village Keramik of the Donetsk region.
In the Maryinsky direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to restrain the offensive of Russian troops in the areas of Maryinka and Krasnogorovka in the Donetsk region. In the Shakhtyorsk direction, the enemy made unsuccessful attempts to restore the lost position in the area of ​​​​Urozhaynoye in the Donetsk region and Novodarovka in the Zaporozhye region. The defense forces continue the offensive operation in the Melitopol and Berdyansk directions.
05:02 The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced an attempt by Ukraine to attack Moscow and the Moscow region with a drone. The downed UAV fell on a non-residential building in the Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment area of ​​Moscow, there were no casualties or fires. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that the debris fell in the Expocentre area in the Moscow City area, "no significant damage was caused to the building," the facade was damaged.
00:39 The United States approved the sending of F-16 fighter jets from Denmark and the Netherlands to Ukraine immediately after the completion of pilot training, Reuters reports, citing an unnamed Washington official.
00:16 Victory in Ukraine will be the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from the country, said Deputy Speaker of the US State Department Vedant Patel.