We are closing this blog now. You can read all our Ukraine coverage here.
A summary of today's developments
Vladimir Putin’s agreement to allow independent inspectors to travel to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to the French president, comes as concerns grow over fighting near the Russian-occupied site.
Olaf Scholz has praised Alexei Navalny on the second anniversary of the jailed Russian opposition politician’s attempted poisoning.
The US is planning to buy about 150,000 metric tonnes of grain from Ukraine in the next few weeks for an upcoming shipment of food aid from ports no longer blockaded by war, the World Food Programme chief has said.
Multiple children have reportedly been injured following a Russian strike on a residential building in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine.
The US deputy treasury secretary, Wally Adeyemo, told Turkey’s deputy finance minister, Yunus Elitas, that Russian entities and individuals were attempting to use Turkey to bypass western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, the US treasury department said. In a phone call, the department said, the two also discussed efforts to implement and enforce sanctions against Russia, Reuters reports.
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, has praised the “moving” sight of Ukrainian wheat headed for eastern Africa as part of an operation by the World Food Programme.
Ukraine has launched a fresh strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters at Sevastopol, where officials in the annexed Crimean peninsula said that at least one drone had been shot down by air defences.
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Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the minister of internal affairs of Ukraine, posted this uplifting tweet:
Oleksandr, a Warrior from National Guard proposed to his love right on the block post.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) August 20, 2022
His comrades in arms cheered during the proposal!
May they have many happy years together!
🎥: @ng_ukraine pic.twitter.com/x4CTxGhDBD
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Shortly before his two-day trip to Canada, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, received support for his interest in Canadian liquid natural gas to help replace Russian gas imports from an unexpected ally, Ukrainian state-owned gas company Naftogaz.
Kyiv has been at loggerheads with Berlin over its deal with Moscow to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and more recently over its deal with Canada to get a repaired turbine for the Nord Stream 1 delivered back to Germany.
But the prospect of LNG deliveries to Europe from Canada is something that Naftogaz has also been working on itself.
Naftogaz’s CEO, Yuriy Vitrenko, told Reuters that Canadian gas had many advantages.
“Canadian suppliers do not have dominance in the German market, do not abuse it, as Gazprom, who is artificially decreasing supplies, ‘cornering the market’, and ripping off its customers,” he said.
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Ukraine’s ambassador to Ireland said her country had proved itself a “reliable partner” under a UN-backed deal allowing grain exports, as a shipment arrived in the southern Irish port of Foynes.
The vessel, the Panama-flagged Navi Star carrying 33,000 tonnes of grain, arrived in Ireland after leaving southern Ukraine’s main port of Odesa two weeks ago.
The shipment was one of the first to leave the war-torn country under a landmark deal struck with Russia and brokered by Turkey and the United Nations.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Ireland, Larysa Gerasko, told AFP her country had proved itself a “reliable partner and reliable global grain exporter”.
She said the continuation of shipments ultimately “depends on Russia, on Russian actions”, adding: “We expect Russia to keep to its commitments under the Black Sea grain initiative.”
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A message from António Guterres, the UN secretary general, on the World Food Programme effort.
Today in Istanbul, I saw, with great emotion, the @WFP vessel Brave Commander, transporting much-needed food products from Ukraine to the Horn of Africa.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) August 20, 2022
It’s an enormous contribution to making sure that children, women & men do not die of hunger. pic.twitter.com/6z5zVC9Mux
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The destroyed Russian military vehicles have been on display in Kyiv ahead of Ukraine’s Independence Day on Wednesday.
The US deputy treasury secretary, Wally Adeyemo, told Turkey’s deputy finance minister, Yunus Elitas, that Russian entities and individuals were attempting to use Turkey to bypass western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, the US treasury department said.
In a phone call, the department said, the two also discussed efforts to implement and enforce sanctions against Russia, Reuters reports.
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Summary
Vladimir Putin’s agreement to allow independent inspectors to travel to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to the French president, comes as concerns grow over fighting near the Russian-occupied site.
Olaf Scholz has praised Alexei Navalny on the second anniversary of the jailed Russian opposition politician’s attempted poisoning.
The US is planning to buy about 150,000 metric tonnes of grain from Ukraine in the next few weeks for an upcoming shipment of food aid from ports no longer blockaded by war, the World Food Programme chief has said.
Multiple children have reportedly been injured following a Russian strike on a residential building in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine.
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, has praised the “moving” sight of Ukrainian wheat headed for eastern Africa as part of an operation by the World Food Programme.
Ukraine has launched a fresh strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters at Sevastopol, where officials in the annexed Crimean peninsula said that at least one drone had been shot down by air defences.
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Russia has claimed that Ukraine poisoned some of its servicemen in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia in late July.
However, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry said in response that the alleged poisoning could have been caused by Russian forces eating expired canned meat.
This has not been independently verified by the Guardian.
Reuters reports:
The Russian defence ministry said a number of Russian servicemen had been taken to a military hospital with signs of serious poisoning on 31 July. Tests showed a toxic substance, botulinum toxin type B, in their bodies, it said.
“On the fact of chemical terrorism sanctioned by the Zelenskiy regime, Russia is preparing supporting evidence with the results of all the analyses,” the ministry said in a statement.
It did not say how many servicemen had suffered or what their condition was now. It did not say what the “supporting evidence” was.
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Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has tweeted the following thread on the two-year anniversary of his poisoning with the nerve agent Novichok.
1/10
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) August 20, 2022
August 20. This is the second time I celebrate my second birthday. The day they tried to kill me, but for some reason I didn't die.
Just for memory's sake, as a dry statement. After two years:
2/10
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) August 20, 2022
1. No criminal case was ever opened, no matter what Putin claimed. There was no official investigation.
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The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said that governments and the private sector should cooperate to bring Russian food and fertilisers as well as Ukrainian grain to world markets under a deal agreed last month.
Speaking to a news conference in Istanbul, Guterres said:
“The other part of this package deal is the unimpeded access to the global markets of Russian food and fertiliser, which are not subject to sanctions.
“It is important that all governments and the private sector cooperate to bring them to market.
“Getting more food and fertiliser out of Ukraine and Russia is crucial to further calm commodity markets and lower prices for consumers.”
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A Russian missile hit a residential area of a Ukrainian town, wounding 12 civilians and heightening fears of a nuclear accident during the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said.
Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv, said on the Telegram messaging app that four children were among those wounded in an attack that damaged several private houses and a five-storey apartment building in Voznesensk.
Reuters reports:
The town is about 30 km (19 miles) from the Pivdennoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plant (PNPP), the second largest in Ukraine.
State-run Energoatom, which manages all four Ukrainian nuclear energy generators, described the attack on Voznesensk as “another act of Russian nuclear terrorism”.
“It is possible that this missile was aimed specifically at the Pivdennoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plant, which the Russian military tried to seize back at the beginning of March,” Energoatom said in a statement.
The town of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhia plant – Europe’s largest – is located, has come under repeated shelling, with Moscow and Kyiv trading blame for the attacks.
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Emma Graham-Harrison, senior international affairs correspondent at the Guardian, has tweeted this photo from Kyiv of a child posing on a tank.
This kid posing on a tank in downtown Kyiv — where families have flocked to see a ‘parade’ of destroyed Russian military equipment — somehow summed up for me both the hope and utter heartbreak of Ukraine’s battle for survival, nearly six months into the war pic.twitter.com/B1JiFs0HL2
— Emma Graham-Harrison (@_EmmaGH) August 20, 2022
You can read the Guardian’s full report of Ukraine’s strikes on Russia’s Black Seat Fleet headquarters here:
Ukraine has launched a fresh strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters at Sevastopol, where officials in the annexed Crimean peninsula said that at least one drone had been shot down by air defences.
The reported attack on Saturday morning – a day after explosions erupted near military bases in Russian-held areas of Ukraine and Russia itself – came amid cautious optimism elsewhere as two more grain ships left a Ukrainian port.
The shipments, from Chornomorsk port, brought the total number to leave Ukraine’s Black Sea under a UN-brokered deal to 27.
A £65m superyacht of a Russian oligarch hit by sanctions will be auctioned off by the Gibraltar government on Tuesday, becoming the first of the luxury vessels to be sold off since restrictions were imposed on hundreds of rich Russians after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
However, the 72.5-metre Axioma is not being sold for the benefit of the Ukrainian people but for a US investment bank, JP Morgan, which claims the yacht’s billionaire owner, Dmitry Pumpyansky, owes it more than $20m (£17m).
The vessel, which features six luxurious guest cabins, a swimming pool, a 3D cinema room, gym, jacuzzi and a fully equipped spa, was detained after docking in Gibraltar in March.
Pumpyansky, the owner and chairman of the steel pipe manufacturer OAO TMK, a supplier to the Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom, was subjected to sanctions by the UK, EU and the US after the invasion of Ukraine. The UK said the billionaire, who it said had built up an estimated £1.84bn fortune, was one of the oligarchs “closest to Putin”.
Robert Neate’s full report is below:
Lloyd J. Austin III, US secretary of defense, has tweeted regarding the $775m support package the country is providing for Ukraine.
We just announced another Ukraine 🇺🇦 security assistance package.
— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) August 20, 2022
It includes a mix of capabilities — some new, some the Ukrainians have been using very effectively. As Russia’s unprovoked invasion enters its sixth month, our commitment to Ukraine remains unwavering. pic.twitter.com/uQqexjqAju
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António Guterres, the UN secretary general, has praised the “moving” sight of Ukrainian wheat headed for eastern Africa as part of an operation by the World Food Programme.
So moving to see in Istanbul the @WFP ship Brave Commander loaded with tonnes of Ukrainian wheat destined for much needed hunger relief in the Horn of Africa. I salute all those involved in this amazing humanitarian operation. pic.twitter.com/MqUuK98sCY
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) August 20, 2022
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Ukraine is “trolling” Moscow with a parade of Russian military vehicles in Kyiv on Saturday, reports senior international affairs correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison:
Ukraine continues trolling Moscow.
— Emma Graham-Harrison (@_EmmaGH) August 20, 2022
Putin reportedly expected a rapid victory parade through Kyiv. Ukraine's military said some Russian soldiers deployed with formal uniforms to prepare.
Today Russian military vehicles finally lined up down main street of Ukraine's capital... https://t.co/UgvXUQUlIg
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Multiple children reportedly injured following attack on residential building in Mykolaiv region
Multiple children have reportedly been injured following a Russian strike on a residential building in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine.
One girl’s eye was torn out by shrapnel, according to Nexta, following the attack on the five-story building in Voskresenske.
A BBC Ukraine journalist, who tweeted a picture of the damaged building, said four children aged three to 17 were seriously injured and five adults were injured:
Four children aged 3-17 are seriously injured as a result of Russia’s rocket strike on a residential building in Voznesensk, Mykolaiv region. A girl lost her eye and is being transferred to Mykolaiv. Five more adults got injured. Here’s what’s left of what used to be their home pic.twitter.com/qTPr1cgq7i
— Myroslava Petsa (@myroslavapetsa) August 20, 2022
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Olaf Scholz has praised Alexei Navalny on the second anniversary of the jailed Russian opposition politician’s attempted poisoning.
The German chancellor also criticised Russia’s clampdown on freedom of speech.
“The war that Russia started against Ukraine is a war that also has consequences for Russia,” Scholz said in a video message on Saturday.
“Freedom and democracy were already endangered before. But now, freedom of expression is much more endangered and many fear to say their own opinion.”
He said it was important to remember Navalny because he was fighting for his belief that “one lives in a democracy and state governed by the rule of law”.
The US is planning to buy about 150,000 metric tonnes of grain from Ukraine in the next few weeks for an upcoming shipment of food aid from ports no longer blockaded by war, the World Food Programme chief has told the Associated Press.
The Associated Press reports:
The final destinations for the grain are not confirmed and discussions continue, David Beasley said. But the planned shipment, one of several the U.N. agency that fights hunger is pursuing, is more than six times the amount of grain that the first WFP-arranged ship from Ukraine is now carrying toward people in the Horn of Africa at risk of starvation.
Beasley spoke Friday from northern Kenya, which is deep in a drought that is withering the Horn of Africa region. He sat under a thorn tree among local women who told the AP that the last time it rained was in 2019.
Their bone-dry communities face yet another failed rainy season within weeks that could tip parts of the region, especially neighbouring Somalia, into famine. Already, thousands of people have died. The World Food Programme says 22 million people are hungry.“I think there’s a high probability we’ll have a declaration of famine” in the coming weeks, Beasley said.
The keenly awaited first aid ship from Ukraine is carrying 23,000 metric tons of grain, enough to feed 1.5 million people on full rations for a month, Beasley said. It is expected to dock in Djibouti on Aug. 26 or 27, and the wheat is supposed to be shipped overland to northern Ethiopia, where millions of people in the Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions have faced not only drought but deadly conflict.
Ukraine was the source of half the grain that WFP bought last year to feed 130 million hungry people. Russia and Ukraine signed agreements with the U.N. and the Turkish government last month to enable exports of Ukrainian grain for the first time since Russia’s invasion in February.
But the slow reopening of Ukraine’s ports and the cautious movement of cargo ships across the mined Black Sea won’t solve the global food security crisis, Beasley said. He warned that richer countries must do much more to keep grain and other assistance flowing to the hungriest parts of the world, and he named names.
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The UK’s Ministry of Defence has posted its latest defence intelligence update.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 20 August 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 20, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/9EDrOaMxXc
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/4xXGVhHrl2
In case you missed it last night, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gave a video address to the nation, vowing that every Russian strike on the country would be answered.
Zelenskyy said: All those who experience this constant horror of the destruction of life and the destruction of everything that gives life normality. We will not leave any of these strikes unanswered. We will establish the identity of every occupier who gives orders and executes these strikes at cities. And we will bring them all to justice in one way or another. No murderer will hide.
You can listen and read a transcription of the full address here.
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Ukraine’s defence ministry say that in total they have killed 44,900 Russian personnel, an increase of 200 on the previous day. These figures have not been independently verified by the Guardian.
"There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy."
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) August 20, 2022
George Washington
Total combat losses of the enemy from Feb 24 to Aug 20: pic.twitter.com/cZZxfSlQb0
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Explosion reported at HQ of Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea
There have been multiple reports of an explosion in Crimea on Saturday morning, with an unmanned aerial vehicle striking the Black Sea fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol.
IZ.RU reports on Telegram that, according to the governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, a drone flew into the roof of the headquarters of the Black Sea fleet, before being shot down over naval headquarters.
He posted a picture online, saying nobody was hurt.
Razvozhaey added that no one was hurt. Ukraine has not commented on the reported attacks.
The Guardian has not independently verified this report.
A UAV struck the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol, according to Crimean officials. https://t.co/njijUYUFfKhttps://t.co/Nn4DSUP7Sh pic.twitter.com/ddBTNbAysL
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) August 20, 2022
Another video. 2/https://t.co/njijUYUFfK pic.twitter.com/uMF80iohpW
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) August 20, 2022
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Here is a roundup of what we know as of yesterday regarding the Russia-Ukraine war.
Turkey has said that two more ships carrying grain have left Ukraine’s Chornomorsk port, bringing the total number of vessels to leave Ukraine’s Black Sea ports under a UN-brokered grain export deal to 27.
Reuters reports:
The Zumrut Ana and MV Ocean S, which are authorized to depart on Aug. 20, were loaded with 6,300 tonnes of sunflower oil and 25,000 tonnes of wheat respectively, the joint coordination centre set up to enable safe passage said in a statement.
Ukraine’s Sea Ports Authority said on Saturday three Ukrainian seaports had begun loading food onto seven ships, which would deliver 66,500 tonnes of wheat, corn and sunflower oil to consumers.
Ukraine’s grain exports have slumped since the start of the war because its Black Sea ports – a vital route for shipments – were closed, driving up global food prices and prompting fears of shortages in Africa and the Middle East.
At the end of July, three Black Sea ports were unblocked under a deal between Moscow and Kyiv, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
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Frequent explosions behind Russian lines hitting logistics, says UK
In its daily intelligence briefing, the UK’s Ministry of Defence says:
The last week has seen only minimal changes in territorial control along the frontline. In the Donbas, after small advances from early August, Russian forces have approached the outskirts of the town of Bakhmut, but have not yet broken into the built-up area.
Russia has not made any major efforts to advance in the Zaporizhzhia or Kharkiv sectors.
In the south-west, neither Ukrainian nor Russian forces have made advances on the Kherson frontline.
However, it adds the “increasingly frequent explosions behind Russian lines are probably stressing Russian logistics and air basing in the south”.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 20 August 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 20, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/9EDrOaMxXc
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/4xXGVhHrl2
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Russia has reported fresh Ukrainian drone attacks, a day after explosions erupted near military bases in Russian-held areas of Ukraine and in Russia.
The latest apparent displays of Kyiv’s growing ability to pummel Moscow’s assets far from frontlines occurred on Friday evening, Reuters reported, and followed huge blasts last week at an air base in Russian-annexed Crimea.
In a new assessment, a western official said the earlier explosions had rendered half of Russia’s Black Sea naval aviation force useless.
Russia’s RIA and Tass news agencies, citing a local official in Crimea, said it appeared Russian anti-aircraft forces had been in action near the western Crimean port of Yevpatoriya on Friday night. Video posted by a Russian website showed what appeared to be a ground-to-air missile hitting a target.
Tass cited a local official as saying Russian anti-aircraft forces knocked down six Ukrainian drones sent to attack the town of Nova Kakhovka, east of the city of Kherson. Ukraine says retaking Kherson is one of its main priorities.
Separately, an official in Crimea said defences there had downed an unspecified number of drones over the city of Sevastopol.
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Vladimir Putin’s agreement to allow independent inspectors to travel to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to the French presidency, comes as concerns grow over fighting near the Russian-occupied site.
The UN nuclear watchdog’s chief, Rafael Grossi, “welcomed recent statements indicating that both Ukraine and Russia supported the [International Atomic Energy Agency’s] aim to send a mission to” the plant, Agence France-Presse reported.
The Kremlin said after Putin and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, spoke by phone on Friday that the two leaders had agreed that the IAEA should carry out inspections as soon as possible to “assess the real situation on the ground”.
A flare-up in fighting around the Russian-controlled nuclear power station – with both sides blaming each other for attacks – has raised the spectre of a disaster worse than in Chernobyl.
The Kremlin said Putin stressed that shelling of the plant “creates the danger of a large-scale catastrophe”.
The warning came a day after the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, and the Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and sounded the alarm over the fighting. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, urged the UN to secure the site.
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Summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine. As it approaches 9.30am in Kyiv, here is a summary of the latest developments on this Saturday 20 August 2022.
Vladimir Putin has agreed to inspectors visiting the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine. According to the office of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the Russian leader had “reconsidered the demand” that the International Atomic Energy Agency travel through Russia to the site, after Putin himself warned fighting there could bring about a “catastrophe”. The office said Putin had dropped his demand that the IAEA team travel to the site via Russia, saying it could arrive via Ukraine.
The UN secretary general has asked Russia not take the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant off grid. António Guterres asked on Friday that the Russian-occupied facility not be cut off from Ukraine’s electrical grid after Ukrainian reports that Moscow was planning to do so, saying the plant used “Ukrainian electricity”.
Western officials say there are growing concerns over concerns over water cooling at the Zaporizhzhia plant. Its existing reactor cooling system is critical to the safety of the site and relies on the maintenance of the electricity supply to ensure operation, but officials are anxious that Russia may disconnect the supply if it tries to cut off the plant from Ukraine’s grid.
More than half of Russia Black Sea naval aviation has been knocked out, according to a western official in Ukraine. The Ukrainian raid on the Saky airbase in occupied Crimea last week knocked out “more than half” of Russia’s combat naval aviation in the Black Sea, western officials have said. However, overall “combat stasis” remains.
The US has announced a new $775m (£655m) package of defence equipment and ammunition for Ukraine, including various types of missiles, drones, artillery and mine-clearing systems. The US has previously sent Ukraine more than $9bn in weapons systems, ammunition and other equipment.
Russia’s media watchdog said it was taking punitive measures against TikTok, Telegram, Zoom, Discord and Pinterest. Russia has repeatedly threatened to fine sites – including Google – that violate harsh new laws criminalising the spreading of “false information” about the Russian army. On Tuesday, Russian courts fined the US-based live streaming service Twitch 2 million roubles ($34,000) and messenger service Telegram 11 million roubles for violating military censorship laws.
A former Russian mayor has been appointed head of Russian-occupied Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. It is the latest in a string of such appointments, which Kyiv says are part of attempts to annexe its territory.
Ukraine’s economy minister has said the country’s economy could contract 35-40% by the end of the year. Hit by Russia’s 24 February invasion, the economy contracted 15.1% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022.
The Kyiv Independent reported that rescuers are searching for people and bodies under the rubble of a dormitory destroyed in attacks on Kharkiv.
The Chinese and Russian leaders, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, will attend the G20 summit in Bali in November, Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, told Bloomberg News. “Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” he said. As hosts of this year’s summit, Indonesia has faced pressure from western countries to withdraw its invitation to Putin. The country has also invited the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Kharkiv has been one of the most consistently shelled cities since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to British intelligence. Sitting around 15km from the Russian frontline, Kharkiv has suffered because it remains within range of most types of Russian artillery, the latest report from the UK’s ministry of defence reads.
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