Here is the situation on Friday, August 11, 2023.
Fighting
- Ukrainian authorities ordered the evacuation of nearly 12,000 civilians from 37 towns and villages near the northeastern front line in the Kupiansk region as Russia ramps up efforts to recapture territory in the area that it had seized and lost earlier in the conflict.
- The Russian army reported improved positioning of hits troops around Kupiansk, where Kyiv has reported increasing Russian attacks. Ukrainian military officials said they are facing intense combat on front lines near Kupiansk.
- Ukraine’s foreign minister played down the possibility that his country’s slow-moving counteroffensive against Russian forces could dampen Western military support and force Kyiv into negotiations with Russia.
- At least one person was killed and nine wounded in a Russian missile attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
- Ukrainian shelling killed one person and injured at least two in Russia’s border region of Bryansk. A civilian was also killed in a Ukrainian attack on the Russian-held town of Nova Kakhovka in southern Ukraine, Russian-appointed authorities said on Telegram.
- Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant lost connection to its last remaining main external power supply overnight and was switched to a reserve line, state power firm Energoatom said.
- A Russian air attack destroyed a fuel depot in the western Rivne region of Ukraine.
- Russia said it downed 13 Ukrainian drones seeking to attack the largest city in Russian-annexed Crimea, and the Russian capital Moscow.
Military aid
- United States President Joe Biden said would send to Congress a request for about $40bn in additional spending, including $24bn for the war in Ukraine and other international needs related to the war against Russia.
- Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to continue military support to Kyiv but noted that his government will act “responsibly” to avoid a confrontation between NATO and Russia.
Peace
- Last weekend’s Saudi-hosted talks to bring an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine was a “breakthrough” moment for Kyiv on the world stage, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said. Officials from more than 40 countries – including China, India, Brazil, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia – took part in the talks, which were seen as an attempt by Kyiv to build a broader coalition of powers to support its vision of peace.
Politics
- Russia’s prosecutor declared the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) an “undesirable” organisation, criminalising its work to document and investigate armed conflicts involving Russian forces.
Trade
- Ukraine’s navy said a new temporary Black Sea “humanitarian corridor” had started working and that the first ships were expected to use it within days. Oleh Chalyk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Navy, said the corridor would be for commercial ships blocked at Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and for grain and agricultural products.
- Russia said it planned to deliver a small amount of grain to African countries in the “near future” without charge. “We are talking about six countries and supply volumes from 25,000 to 50,000 tonnes, this is being worked out now,” Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev told journalists. Patrushev said Russia exported 60 million tonnes of grain last year and expected to export about 55 million tonnes this year.
Regional security:
- Poland plans to move up to 10,000 additional troops to the border with Belarus to support the country’s border guard, amid the arrival of thousands of battle-hardened Russia’s Wagner mercenary forces in the neighbouring country in recent weeks.
