Up to date August 18, 2023 at 6:19 p.m. EDT|Revealed August 18, 2023 at 2:05 a.m. EDT
A Ukrainian soldier runs by means of a trench throughout a fight operation on the entrance line within the Zaporizhzhia area on Aug. 10. (Libkos/AP)
U.S. intelligence officers don’t anticipate Ukraine to achieve the Russian-occupied metropolis of Melitopol in its counteroffensive, based on folks aware of a labeled forecast. Melitopol is on the intersection of two essential highways and a railroad line that permit Russia to maneuver troops and provides from the Crimean Peninsula to different occupied territories in southern Ukraine.
In Moscow, officers reported early Friday {that a} drone was shot down. Russia’s Protection Ministry accused Ukraine of launching “one other terrorist assault.”
Ukraine and its neighbor Romania signed an accord Friday to work collectively on grain exports following Russia’s withdrawal from the U.N. and Turkey-brokered Black Sea grain deal final month. Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu advised reporters Friday that he hoped as a lot as 60 % of Ukraine’s grain exports may cross by means of Romania, Reuters reported.
Right here’s the newest on the battle and its ripple results throughout the globe.
Ukraine’s forces, that are pushing towards Melitopol from the city of Robotyne greater than 50 miles away, will stay a number of miles exterior the town, U.S. officers predicted. In the event that they fail to eject Russian troops from Melitopol, Ukraine would fall in need of attaining considered one of its key objectives within the ongoing counteroffensive: to sever the land bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow seized from Kyiv in 2014.
The drone that was shot down Friday in Russia’s capital fell on a nonresidential constructing, Russia’s Protection Ministry mentioned. No casualties or fires resulted from the interception, the ministry mentioned.
Moldova intends to assist Ukraine with grain transit, the nation’s president, Maia Sandu, mentioned in an interview with Radio France Internationale. She known as on the European Union to additional put money into Moldovan transit and export infrastructure.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday signed laws extending martial legislation till mid-November. If martial legislation shouldn’t be lifted, nationwide parliamentary elections scheduled for the autumn could be delayed. Ukraine’s structure stipulates that parliamentary elections ought to happen no later than Oct. 29 and presidential elections early subsequent yr.
(Video: Russian Emergency Ministry)
A big fireplace broke out at a cargo terminal within the Russian Black Sea port metropolis of Novorossiysk, based on Russian state information company Tass. The blaze lined some 14,000 sq. ft, the information company reported Friday. In movies that seem to have been taken on the scene and shared on social media, billows of smoke could possibly be seen rising from the positioning. The reason for the hearth is unclear. Earlier this month, Ukraine’s navy and most important inner safety service used sea drones to assault a Russian naval base close to the port, The Washington Put up beforehand reported.
A 61-year-old lady was killed in shelling in Ukraine’s Kharkiv area, based on an official. Oleh Synyehubov, the regional governor, wrote Friday on Telegram that one other lady, 60, was injured in shelling the day prior to this.
Ukraine will host a protection industries discussion board within the fall, Zelensky mentioned. “Will probably be the primary time such a large-scale occasion shall be held on the state degree,” he introduced. Ukrainian and international arms producers shall be invited, and the occasion will search to spice up arms manufacturing inside Ukraine “by means of localization with companions,” he added.
A brand new Pentagon evaluate of organic threats says Russia most likely maintains the flexibility to create lethal toxins and pathogens, The Put up reported. Moscow additionally has an energetic offensive organic weapons program, based on the report. In March 2022, the White Home warned that Russia may make use of bioweapons in Ukraine. There’s some restricted proof that Russia has used low-grade chemical assaults in Ukraine, and Zelensky mentioned final yr that Moscow has used bombs that dispersed white phosphorus, a extremely incendiary chemical. Moscow on the time denied violating worldwide conventions that outlaw organic and chemical weapons.
The household of Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine arrested in Russia in 2018 and serving a 16-year sentence, confirmed that he spoke to Secretary of State Blinken this week. Paul’s brother, David Whelan, mentioned in an emailed replace that he was “caught off guard on the degree of curiosity in what appeared to me to be a routine cellphone name” on Wednesday. “As Paul conveyed it to our mother and father yesterday, he mentioned it was a ‘good’ name and it seems like there was a frank dialogue in regards to the present standing of his detention.” He mentioned that the U.S. authorities “both can’t, or is unwilling to, make a concession that the Kremlin will settle for for its extortion,” however added the decision was “yet one more extraordinary present of the U.S. authorities’s ongoing dedication to safe Paul’s launch.”
The European Union’s pure gasoline storage capability has reached 90 %, “effectively forward of schedule,” European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned Friday, because the continent prepares for its second winter since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Households throughout the continent confronted hovering payments final yr because of the battle, as President Vladimir Putin withheld pure gasoline shipments in response to Western sanctions. “Collectively, we’re weaning ourselves off Russian gasoline,” von der Leyen wrote on X. “And we maintain working in parallel on extra numerous power provides for the long run.”
Germany unveiled a brand new safety help package deal to Ukraine. Berlin will ship Kyiv two IRIS-T SLS air protection methods, 10 floor surveillance radars and a number of other thousand rounds of smoke ammunition, based on an up to date listing of Germany’s army help to Ukraine. Zelensky expressed thanks in his nightly handle for the brand new provides. In the meantime, Sweden’s parliament additionally accredited an extra safety help package deal price 270 million euros ($294 million), Ukraine’s protection minister mentioned as he tweeted his thanks.
Russia recruited operatives on-line to focus on weapons crossing Poland: Polish authorities suspect that Russia’s army intelligence company constructed a community of amateurs to hold out espionage and sabotage missions inside Poland, Greg Miller, Loveday Morris and Mary Ilyushina report. Russia’s purpose was to disrupt a weapons pipeline by means of Poland that accounts for greater than 80 % of the army {hardware} delivered to Ukraine, Polish and Western officers say.
The foiled operation posed essentially the most severe Russian risk on NATO soil since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine final yr, based on Polish officers. “That is the primary signal that the Russians are attempting to arrange sabotage — even terrorist assaults — in Poland,” mentioned Stanislaw Zaryn, who oversees the nation’s safety companies.