Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s a quick roundup of what’s been happening today:
Russia has accused Ukraine’s intelligence services of carrying out the murder of Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue. Dugina was killed on Saturday evening when a bomb blew up the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving, Russian investigators said. The Guardian has not been able to verify the accusations made by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
Ukraine has vehemently denied involvement in Dugina’s killing. A senior Ukrainian official said they believed that Dugin was the target, not the daughter, but argued the victim and her father were not strategically significant figures. Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak described the FSB’s accusations as Russian “propaganda” living “in a fictional world”.
Russia’s FSB has claimed the suspect responsible for the killing of Dugina had fled to Estonia. Russian state media reported Moscow was seeking her extradition from Estonia, but a spokesperson for the Estonian police and border guard said they had not received any request for information from the Russian authorities.
The FSB’s claims have raised fears of violent retaliation, with Ukraine bracing itself for an intensification of Russian missile attacks to coincide with its independence day on Wednesday. The country’s military warned that Russia had put five cruise missile-bearing warships and submarines out in the Black Sea and that Moscow was positioning air defence systems in Belarus. Large gatherings have been banned in Kyiv for four days from Monday.
A senior Russian diplomat has ruled out a diplomatic solution to end the war in Ukraine. Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, told the Financial Times that there would be no direct talks between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy, adding that Moscow expects a prolonged conflict.
Ukraine’s army chief, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said almost 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February. This is the first time Ukraine has revealed the scale of its military losses since the war began. It has not been possible to independently verify the figure put forward by Zaluzhnyi.
The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said he opposes a complete ban on visas for Russians. EU foreign ministers are set to discuss banning travel visas for Russian tourists in Prague, with countries such as Estonia, Latvia and Finland calling for a bloc-wide ban in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is finding it difficult to motivate and add “auxiliary forces” to its regular troops in the Donbas, the latest British intelligence update said. The MoD report added that Russia is finding it difficult to motivate its auxiliary forces to join its regular troops in the Donbas. This is leading to commanders likely resorting to using financial incentives to get troops into combat.
Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is planning to speak with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, this week to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and the war in Ukraine, Russian state media agency RIA Novosti has cited a diplomatic source as saying.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has warned Russia against putting Ukrainian soldiers captured during the siege of Mariupol on trial. In his latest video address, Zelenskiy said that if the “absurd and disgusting trial” of Ukrainian soldiers takes place in Mariupol it will eliminate the possibility of talks with Russia.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and from the Russia-Ukraine war blog today. Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow, see you then.
Updated
The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said he opposes a complete ban on visas for Russians, ahead of talks between the bloc’s foreign ministers next week.
Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, said at a conference in Spain earlier today:
To forbid entrance to all Russians is not a good idea. We have to be more selective.
He added that the EU shouldn’t open its doors to oligarchs but that “there are many Russians that want to flee the country because they don’t want to live in this situation”.
Borrell added:
More than 300,000 Russians have [fled] their country because they don’t want to live under the rule of Putin. Are we going to close the door to these Russians? I don’t think it’s a good idea.
EU foreign ministers are set to discuss banning travel visas for Russian tourists in Prague, with countries such as Estonia, Latvia and Finland calling for a bloc-wide ban in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Estonia has said it would pursue a blanket Schengen visa ban on Russian nationals if the EU doesn’t reach an agreement.
The Irish embassy in Ukraine has reopened for the first time since Russian troops invaded the country in February, Ireland’s foreign minister has confirmed.
Simon Coveney said the reopening of the embassy was an “important statement of solidarity and support” with Ukraine.
Reopening our Embassy in Kyiv is an important statement of solidarity and support to #Ukraine. #Ireland will be there for Ukrainians, through this war, for the rebuilding process in the aftermath and on the pathway to #EU membership! #StandWithUkraine 🇮🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 https://t.co/Va8l5VNSBa
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) August 22, 2022
Each new claim over the attack that killed Darya Dugina seems to raise more questions than it answers.
On Monday, Russia’s FSB security service claimed to have cracked the case, publishing information and a video it said showed a Ukrainian woman from the country’s Azov regiment was responsible for the murder of Dugina, whose father is the far-right ideologue Alexander Dugin.
According to the FSB, the assassin managed to enter Russia with her 12-year-old daughter in tow, move around undetected while frequently changing the plates on her Mini Cooper, plant and detonate a professional explosive device, and leave the country.
Supposedly, she managed to do all this without being spotted by Russia’s security services until after she had fled, presumably by posing as one of the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who have either sought refuge in Russia or been forcibly deported from occupied areas of Ukraine.
The FSB’s claims will be met with extreme scepticism, and Ukraine has strongly denied any involvement in the attack, pointing out that Dugin was a marginal figure and insisting it does not carry out this kind of mission.
But it is not impossible to imagine a motive for Kyiv: Dugina’s death came as Ukrainians are increasingly taking the fight to Russia in occupied Crimea for the first time since the invasion in February. Operations such as an audacious plan to lure a group of Russian mercenaries to Ukraine two years ago show that there are those in the Ukrainian services who like to think big.
Read the full article by my colleague Shaun Walker: Russian security service claim to have identified killer of Darya Dugina lacks credibility
Ukraine’s national guard has denied accusations by Russia that the alleged killer of Darya Dugina had previously served in the Ukrainian military as a member of the Azov regiment.
As we reported earlier, Kremlin-linked news websites have claimed that the Ukrainian citizen accused of carrying out Dugina’s killing was a member of the Azov battalion, a unit of Ukraine’s army that Russia has designated a terrorist group.
Russian media are “trying to justify among its citizens the previous decision to recognize a unit of the National Guard of Ukraine as a terrorist organization, showing Russians ‘crimes committed by Azov’ on the territory of the Russian Federation”, Ukraine’s national guard said in a statement on its Facebook page.
It added that the woman had not served in the Azov guard.
Updated
A spokesperson for the Estonian police and border guard said they would not comment on the movements of private individuals, following allegations by Russia that a Ukrainian citizen, accused of carrying out the murder of Darya Dugina, fled to Estonia.
Russian state-owned news agency Tass had earlier reported that Russian law enforcement agencies had placed the suspect on the country’s wanted list, with Moscow seeking her extradition from Estonia.
The spokesperson for Estonia’s police and border guard service said they had not received any request for information from the Russian authorities.
The spokesperson added:
We can publish the data of people moving across the border only in the cases prescribed by law, and the situation where the Russian special service accuses them of something in the media is not one of them.
The FSB said that after the killing, the suspect and her daughter fled across the Russian border into Estonia. It said they had been travelling in a Mini Cooper that used various licence plates, including registrations from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the Russian-controlled areas of east Ukraine.
Ukraine has denied involvement.
Russia’s parliament said it will hold a special meeting to discuss the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in eastern Ukraine.
A session of the council of the state Duma will be held on Thursday to discuss “the threat to the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant”, it said in an official statement.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactor complex, the largest in Europe, has come under repeated shelling, with both Moscow and Kyiv trading blame.
Russia has accused Ukrainian forces of recklessly firing at the plant, which is in territory controlled by Russian forces but is still operated by Ukrainian staff.
Ukraine has denied shelling the site, accusing Russia of planning a “provocation” there to justify further aggressive action.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said it continues its consultations with Ukraine and Russia to visit the nuclear plant.
IAEA director general, Rafael Grossi, told CNN that there “is progress” in the difficult negotiations and that if the visit goes ahead, he will be leading the team to the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Updated
Kremlin-linked news websites have claimed that the Ukrainian citizen accused of carrying out the killing of Darya Dugina was a member of the Azov battalion.
Russia’s FSB security service said Durina’s murder was carried out by a Ukrainian woman born in 1979, whom it named and whose picture and personal information appeared on Russian news websites.
The websites linked her to Ukraine’s security services and accused her of being a member of the Azov battalion, a unit of Ukraine’s army that Russia has designated a terrorist group.
Kremlin-linked media shared images of what they claimed was the suspect’s ID card identifying her as a member of the Azov regiment.
Ukraine has denied involvement in Durina’s murder.
Russian law enforcement agencies have placed the suspect on the country’s wanted list, the Russian state-owned news agency Tass reported.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Russia has accused Ukraine’s intelligence services of carrying out the murder of Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue. Dugina was killed on Saturday evening when a bomb blew up the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving, Russian investigators said. The Guardian has not been able to verify the accusations made by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
Ukraine has vehemently denied involvement in Dugina’s killing. A senior Ukrainian official said they believed that Dugin was the target, not the daughter, but argued the victim and her father were not strategically significant figures. Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak described the FSB’s accusations as Russian “propaganda” living “in a fictional world”.
The FSB’s claims have raised fears of violent retaliation, with Ukraine bracing itself for an intensification of Russian missile attacks to coincide with its independence day on Wednesday. The country’s military warned that Russia had put five cruise missile-bearing warships and submarines out in the Black Sea and that Moscow was positioning air defence systems in Belarus. Large gatherings have been banned in Kyiv for four days from Monday.
A senior Russian diplomat has ruled out a diplomatic solution to end the war in Ukraine. Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, told the Financial Times that there would be no direct talks between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy, adding that Moscow expects a prolonged conflict.
Ukraine’s army chief, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said almost 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February. This is the first time Ukraine has revealed the scale of its military losses since the war began. It has not been possible to independently verify the figure put forward by Zaluzhnyi.
Russia is finding it difficult to motivate and add “auxiliary forces” to its regular troops in the Donbas, the latest British intelligence update said. The MoD report added that Russia is finding it difficult to motivate its auxiliary forces to join its regular troops in the Donbas. This is leading to commanders likely resorting to using financial incentives to get troops into combat.
Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is planning to speak with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, this week to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and the war in Ukraine, Russian state media agency RIA Novosti has cited a diplomatic source as saying.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has warned Russia against putting Ukrainian soldiers captured during the siege of Mariupol on trial. In his latest video address, Zelenskiy said that if the “absurd and disgusting trial” of Ukrainian soldiers takes place in Mariupol it will eliminate the possibility of talks with Russia.
Good afternoon from London. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong still with you with all the latest from Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
The father of Darya Dugina, Alexander Dugin, has described her death as a “terrorist act by the Ukrainian Nazi regime” in his first public comments since she was killed on Saturday evening.
Dugin, an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue, said his daughter was killed during an explosion “in front of my eyes” while returning from the Tradition festival near Moscow, in a statement on Telegram.
He said:
She was a beautiful Orthodox girl, a patriot, a war reporter, an expert on central channels and a philosopher. Her speeches and reporting have always been profound, grounded and restrained. She never called for violence and war. She was a rising star at the beginning of her journey. The enemies of Russia meanly, stealthily killed her.
He added:
Our hearts yearn not only for revenge or vengeance … we only need our victory.
The Guardian has not been able to verify the accusations, made by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), that Ukraine’s intelligence services carried out Durina’s murder. Ukraine has strongly denied involvement.
Putin condemns ‘despicable, cruel crime’ after Russia accuses Ukraine of Darya Dugina’s murder
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has sent his condolences to the family of Darya Dugina, describing the daughter of the ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin as a “patriot of Russia”.
In a statement published on the Kremlin website, the Russian leader described Dugina’s killing as a “despicable, cruel crime”.
Putin said:
A despicable, cruel crime crime ended the life of Darya Dugina - a bright, talented person with a real Russian heart - kind, loving, sympathetic and open. A journalist, scientist, philosopher, war correspondent, she honestly served the people, the Fatherland, she proved by deed what it means to be a patriot of Russia.
Putin’s statement was published after Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) accused Ukraine’s intelligence services of carrying out her murder. Ukraine has denied involvement in her death.
Updated
Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has responded on Twitter to the accusation from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) that Ukrainian intelligence services are responsible for the killing of Darya Dugina.
Ru-propaganda lives in a fictional world: 🇺🇦 woman and her 12-year-old child were "assigned" responsible for blowing up the car of propagandist Dugina. Surprisingly, they did not find the "Estonian visa" on the spot. Vipers in 🇷🇺 special services started an intraspecies fight.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) August 22, 2022
Updated
Ukrainian official denies Kyiv involved in Dugina car bomb death
My colleague Dan Sabbagh has the latest from Ukrainian officials after Russia accused Kyiv’s intelligence services of carrying out the murder of Darya Dugina:
A senior Ukrainian official repeated a denial of Kyiv’s involvement in the car bombing on Monday, arguing that the victim and her father were not strategically significant figures. “What reason is there for us to do this?” said one, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official said they believed that Dugin was the target, not the daughter, but said that he was not an important Russian political figure or a decision maker in the Ukraine war. “Not many people here have heard of him, and nobody had heard of his daughter,” they added.
A claim made in Ukraine that the killing was the work of a new group called the National Republican Army should not be taken too seriously either, the official added. “They are a virtual group, seeking to increase their profile as a result of this incident,” they said.
The car bombing appeared to be a sophisticated plot - “the work of professional guys” - and while it may be been the product of a dispute amongst ultranationalists the official speculated it could also have been the work of Russia’s FSB agency, although they stressed the latter hypothesis was only speculative.
Ukraine does expect Russia to try and make political capital from the incident, particularly because it has come at a time when Ukraine wants the US and other countries to list Moscow as a state sponsor of terrorism. Russia would likely refer to the bombing to try “to silence voices” calling for such a designation.
Updated
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Kremlin-backed RT, has tweeted that she suspects Estonia would not extradite the suspect in Darya Dugina’s murder that was announced earlier today by the Federal Security Service (FSB).
She adds that Russia should “send people to admire the spires in Tallinn”, which is likely a reference to the two Russian nationals -Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga – accused of poisoning the Skripals on UK soil in March 2018.
Shortly after the attack the two men claimed in an interview broadcast on RT that they were in Salisbury to admire the cathedral that was known for “its 123-metre spire”.
Убийцы Даши уже в Эстонии.
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) August 22, 2022
Эстония их, конечно, не выдаст.
Думаю, у нас найдутся профессионалы, желающие полюбоваться шпилями в окрестностях Таллина.
Updated
Almost 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed so far, says army chief
Ukraine’s army chief, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said almost 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February.
This is the first time Ukraine has revealed the scale of its military losses since the war began, previously protected as a tightly guarded secret.
It is impossible to independently verify the figure put forward by Zaluzhnyi. The commander-in-chief did not specify if the total included all armed forces defending Ukraine, including border guards. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has previously said 1 million people are involved in defending Ukraine.
Zalyzhniy said children needed protection in several parts of the country including the capital Kyiv. He said:
The [children] really do not understand anything that is going on and definitely need protection ... because their father has gone to the front and possibly is among the almost 9,000 heroes who have been killed.
In June, shortly before sought-after western equipment arrived, the Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podalyak, said up to 200 Ukrainian soldiers were dying a day.
It is unclear exactly how much the new long-range rocket systems have helped stem Ukraine’s death toll. Analysis by a Washington-based thinktank, the Institute for the Study of War, found that the new weapons’ ability to target ammunition depots had helped slow Russia’s ability to attack Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine claims that as many as 45,000 Russian troops have died in Ukraine since February. The CIA, however, has put the total number of Russians dead closer to 15,000 in July.
Updated
My colleague Andrew Roth has the full write-up on the news that Russia has accused Ukraine’s intelligence services of carrying out the murder of Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue:
Dugina, the daughter of Alexander Dugin, was killed on Saturday evening when a bomb blew up the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving, Russian investigators said.
Ukraine has denied involvement and the Guardian has not been able to independently verify the accusations made by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
But the direct accusation against Ukraine will raise concerns about possible Kremlin retaliation for the first political assassination in Moscow in the nearly six-month-old war.
In a statement on Monday, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said that its suspect was a female Ukrainian citizen whom it said had arrived in Russia in late July with her 12-year-old daughter.
“It has been established that the crime was prepared and committed by the Ukrainian special services,” the FSB statement read, according to state-run RIA Novosti.
The woman allegedly moved into a flat near Dugina in order to surveil her and then attended the festival Dugina attended the night that she was killed.
Five minutes after departing the festival, a bomb ripped through Dugina’s car, killing her.
The FSB said that after the bombing, the woman and her daughter fled across the Russian border into Estonia. It said they had been traveling in a Mini Cooper that used various license plates, including registrations from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and from the Russian-controlled areas of east Ukraine.
Russia’s FSB has claimed it has “solved” the murder of Darya Dugina, the daughter of the ultranationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin, who investigators say was killed on Saturday evening when a suspected explosive device blew up the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving.
The FSB said the attack was carried out by a Ukrainian woman, born in 1979, who arrived in Russia on 23 July with her daughter. The suspect escaped to Estonia following the killing, the FSB said in a statement carried by Russian state agencies.
The Russian special service said the “crime was prepared and committed by Ukrainian secret services”. Ukraine has denied involvement.
Updated
Here’s more on the accusation by Russia that Ukrainian secret services carried out the killing of Darya Dugina, the daughter of the ultranationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin.
The FSB, Russia’s internal security service, said the attack was carried out by a Ukrainian citizen who arrived in Russia in July and rented an apartment in the same housing block as Dugina, according to a statement carried by Russian news agencies.
The suspect went to an event outside Moscow on Saturday evening, at which Dugina and her father attended, before carrying out a “controlled explosion” of Dugina’s car, and fleeing Russia to Estonia, the FSB was quoted as saying.
Ukraine has denied involvement in Dugina’s killing.
Updated
Russia accuses Ukraine of killing ultranationalist’s daughter
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has accused Ukrainian special services of carrying out the murder of the daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue, the Interfax news agency is reporting.
Ukraine has denied involvement in the car-bomb killing of Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, on the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday night.
Russian investigators have now claimed that Dugina’s murder was prepared and carried out by Ukraine’s special services, who they said travelled to Estonia after the killing.
Earlier today, the Russian state-owned news agency Tass reported that the car bomb that killed Dugina was detonated remotely, citing a Russian law enforcement agency official.
Ukraine is bracing itself for an intensification of Russian missile attacks in the aftermath of the killing, with the country’s military warning that Russian troops had put five cruise missile-bearing warships and submarines out in the Black Sea and that Moscow was positioning air defence systems in Belarus.
Updated
For the second time in less than a month, Russia’s naval base at Sevastopol has come under a drone attack.
Plumes of smoke were seen rising after the incident on Saturday morning, which the Russian-appointed governor of the city, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said came after a drone flew over the sensitive military site.
In narrow military terms the attack is not significant. Razvozhaev said it involved a single drone. Footage from a local Telegram channel appears to back that up. But a key question is how a drone was able to evade Russian electronic warfare defences and fly right over the naval base.
What sounds like small arms fire, not air defence systems, can be heard on some of the videos and the drone may have been shot down before delivering a payload. Razvozhaev said initially the drone had not been hit, before saying it was. At the very least, though, it is embarrassing for Russia, which is struggling to show it can defend what it considers its own back yard.
Read the full story by Dan Sabbagh: Ukraine strikes psychological blows in drone warfare over Crimea
Germany must prepare for Russia to cut gas supplies further and faces a difficult time ahead, the country’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, said.
Germany has a good chance of getting through the coming winter without taking drastic measures, Habeck told the German broadcaster ARD, adding:
We still have a very critical winter ahead of us. We have to expect that Putin will further reduce the gas.
Updated
Russia rules out peace deal to end war in Ukraine
A senior Russian diplomat has ruled out a diplomatic solution to end the war in Ukraine and said Moscow expects a prolonged conflict, in an interview published days before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine reaches the six-month mark.
Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, told the Financial Times that there would be no direct talks between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
He claimed Moscow and Kyiv had been “very close” to reaching a deal to end the conflict during negotiations in April and accused the US and Nato allies of pressing Ukraine to walk away from talks.
Gatilov said:
Now, I do not see any possibility for diplomatic contacts. And the more the conflict goes on, the more difficult it will be to have a diplomatic solution.
He added that it was impossible to forecast how long the conflict could last and said Western countries “will fight until the last Ukrainian”.
Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here with you today to bring you all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Summary
It is just past 1pm in Ukraine. Here is what you might have missed:
Authorities in Kyiv have banned large public events and gatherings ahead of Ukraine‘s 31st anniversary on Wednesday of independence from Russian-dominated Soviet rule, reports Reuters. People in the capital will not be able to meet up in big groups from Monday until Thursday due to the possibility of rocket attacks, according to a document published by the Kyiv military administration signed by its head Mykola Zhyrnov. It comes after Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, warned of the risk of more severe attacks ahead of the celebration.
Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine is not going the way that Vladimir Putin hoped, the former head of the British army has said. Gen Lord Richard Dannatt told Kay Burley on Sky News that Russian forces have had to “recalibrate” what they are doing as they have been unable to obtain a swift victory over the Ukrainian military. He said: I think the war has panned out completely differently to what Vladimir Putin imagined. This is probably his worst scenario, his nightmare scenario.”
Russian shelling in the Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine has killed two people, according to the region’s governor. Pavlo Kyrylenko said they were killed in the settlements of Georgievka and Kostiantynivka, according to a post on Twitter.
Russia is finding it difficult to motivate and add “auxiliary forces” to its regular troops in the Donbas, the latest British intelligence update said. On 15 August, Ukrainian social media channels circulated a video, which allegedly showed elements from a military unit of the self-proclaimed republic in Luhansk refusing to be part of an offensive operation, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. The fighters claimed they had already fulfilled their duty by gaining control over the Luhansk Oblast and did not want to fight in the neighbouring Donetsk region – despite threats from commanders, the update said.
Russian artillery fire once again pounded the Ukrainian city of Nikopol overnight, according to Ukrainian officials. Regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said Russian forces struck the three districts of Nikopol, Kryvoriz, and Synelnykiv close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. “Nikopol was shelled with ‘Grad’ and barrel artillery three times during the night. 42 Russian shells flew into the residential quarters,” he said in a Telegram update early this morning.
Ukraine is bracing itself for an intensification of Russian missile attacks to coincide with its independence day on Wednesday. The country’s military warned that Russia had put five cruise missile-bearing warships and submarines in the Black Sea and that Moscow was positioning air defence systems in Belarus. Large gatherings have been banned in Kyiv for four days from Monday. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that “Russia may try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious” this week as the country celebrates its 31st anniversary of independence.
Russian missiles hit targets near Odesa, Ukrainian officials said. Five Russian Kalibr cruise missiles have been fired from the Black Sea at the region, the regional administration spokesperson said on Monday, citing information from the southern military command. Two were shot down by Ukrainian air defences and three hit agricultural targets, but there were no casualties. Russia said on Sunday the missiles had destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made Himars rockets, while Kyiv said a granary had been hit.
Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is planning to speak with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, this week to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and the war in Ukraine, Russian state media agency RIA Novosti cites a diplomatic source as saying.
The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue and ally of Vladimir Putin was killed by a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday night. Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm local time (1930 BST), according to investigators.
A former member of Russia’s Duma has claimed that Russian partisans were allegedly behind the car bomb attack. Ilya Ponomarev, who was expelled for anti-Kremlin activities, alleged the explosion was the work of the National Republican Army, which he claimed was an underground group working inside Russia and dedicated to overthrowing the Putin regime. “This attack opens a new page in Russian resistance to Putinism,” he said.
Zelenskiy warned Russia against putting Ukrainian soldiers captured during the siege of Mariupol on trial. “If this despicable court takes place, if our people are brought into these settings in violation of all agreements, all international rules, there will be abuse,” he said in a Sunday evening address. “This will be the line beyond which no negotiations are possible.”
Updated
Authorities in Kyiv have banned large public events and gatherings ahead of Ukraine‘s 31st anniversary on Wednesday of independence from Russian-dominated Soviet rule, reports Reuters.
People in the capital will not be able to meet up in big groups from Monday until Thursday due to the possibility of rocket attacks, according to a document published by the Kyiv military administration signed by its head Mykola Zhyrnov.
It comes after Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, warned of the risk of more severe attacks ahead of the celebration.
Zelenskiy said Moscow could try “something particularly ugly” in the run-up to Wednesday, which also marks half a year since Russia invaded.
Zelenskiy said he had discussed “all the threats” with his French counterpart and word had also been sent to other leaders including Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and UN secretary general, Antònio Guterres.
“All of Ukraine‘s partners have been informed about what the terrorist state can prepare for this week,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Saturday, referring to Russia.
Updated
Daniel Boffey reports for us from Tallinn:
Father Grigory Borisov offers a prayer for Ukraine every day in a special liturgy at the Lasnamäe church, a towering, whitewashed place of Russian Orthodox worship in the centre of the most populous suburb of Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, where a majority are Russian speakers.
The Church of the Icon of the Mother of God was built in 2013 with the help of funds from a Moscow-based NGO. While in March the Estonian Orthodox church joined other churches in the Baltic country in condemning the bombing of civilians in Ukraine, the church’s leader back in Moscow, Patriarch Kirill, has been accused of providing theological cover for Vladimir Putin’s war.
Borisov, 32, who went to theological college in St Petersburg, is treading a thin line. He says he is not permitted to talk about politics and the war. But the priest concedes there is widespread anxiety in his congregation in this economically deprived part of the city. “The mental health situation is bad – Covid, war, the economic situation, the gas prices. These things make people sad and worried.”
Read more here: ‘I’m always looking over my shoulder’: anxiety among Estonia’s Russians
Updated
These are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine.
Updated
Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine has turned into a 'nightmare scenario', says former head of British army
Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine is not going the way that Vladimir Putin hoped, the former head of the British Army has said.
Gen Lord Richard Dannatt told Kay Burley on Sky News that Russian forces have had to “recalibrate” what they are doing as they have been unable to obtain a swift victory over the Ukrainian military.
He said:
I think the war has panned out completely differently to what Vladimir Putin imagined. This is probably his worst scenario, his nightmare scenario.
If we go back six months to 24 February... what he had in mind and what the international media was expecting was a lightning strike down from Belarus to Kyiv to topple Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, change the regime in Kyiv, change the government of Ukraine and hey presto, Ukraine would come under the control of Russia.
And of course, that didn’t happen. This meant that the Russians then had to recalibrate what they were trying to do.
Updated
Shaun Walker reports for us on the six months since Russia invaded Ukraine:
The shock of those first hours of the war, when the unthinkable became reality, is a moment that is likely to stay with every Ukrainian for the rest of their lives.
In the chaotic first days, events moved incredibly fast. By the end of the first week, the country had already settled into a new reality in which roads were dotted with checkpoints run by locals carrying whatever arms they could get their hands on, mayors strutted around their towns in body armour organising the defence, and families endured separation from their loved ones, as millions of women and children rushed to safety abroad.
Split-second decisions could mean life or death. People whose friends had mocked them in previous weeks for hoarding food or making escape plans were now hailed as prophets. Countless families decided to leave Kyiv for the peaceful commuter towns to its west, hoping to sit out the expected attack on the city there, only to find themselves subjected to a month of terror from occupying forces, while the centre of the capital remained relatively unscathed.
Read more here: Six months of hell in Ukraine: how Putin’s crazy war reached deadlock
Updated
Russian shelling in the Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine has killed two people, according to the region’s governor.
Pavlo Kyrylenko said they were killed in the settlements of Georgievka and Kostiantynivka, according to a post on Twitter.
⚡️Governor: Russian shelling killed 2 civilians in Donetsk Oblast on Aug. 21.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) August 22, 2022
Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said they had been killed in the settlements of Heorhiivka and Kostyantynivka.
Russia is finding it difficult to motivate and add “auxiliary forces” to its regular troops in the Donbas, the latest British intelligence update said.
On 15 August 22, Ukrainian social media channels circulated a video, which allegedly showed elements from a military unit of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) refusing to be part of an offensive operation, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
The fighters claimed they had already fulfilled their duty by gaining control over the Luhansk Oblast and did not want to fight in the neighbouring Donetsk region – despite threats from commanders, the update said.
The MoD report added that Russia is finding it difficult to motivate its auxiliary forces to join its regular troops in the Donbas. This is leading to commanders likely resorting to using financial incentives to get troops into combat.
A reason that Russia is having this issue is that it has consistently classified its war with Ukraine as a “special military operation” which subsequently limits the state’s powers of legal coercion, the MoD said.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 22 August 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 22, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/yI2OUa5eEe
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/gckTwVSILW
News agency AFP has posted a graphic showing the economic indicators impacted by Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine.
The charts show the soaring cost of natural gas, a forecasted fall in global economic growth, the increased price of commodities and skyrocketing forecasted inflation.
Six months of war in Ukraine.#AFPgraphics shows key economic indicators impacted by the Russia-Ukraine war which began February 24, 2022 pic.twitter.com/atQTqUopQ6
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 22, 2022
Mikhail Shishkin is an award winning novelist and they write for us to argue that even if Putin dies another Putin will take his place unless Russia’s power structure is broken:
And now, here we are: in the middle of a European war, facing an unprecedented wave of refugees from Ukraine, and wondering how our politicians could have been so blind. No one listens to writers any more. The only true lesson we can draw from history is that history teaches nothing.
In Germany, intellectuals have collected thousands of signatures on a petition demanding their own government stop delivering weapons to Ukraine, because it could lead to a third world war. “We want a policy of peace, not war,” they write. But the third world war has already begun. It started in 2014. How can you cure someone’s blindness, if they want to be blind?
The question now is, how and when will this war end? The war against Nazi Germany didn’t end with Hitler’s death, but with a devastating military defeat. Putin’s death one day is inevitable, but Russia’s defeat is not.
Read more here: The west is trying to quietly forget the war in Ukraine. It does so at its own peril
Summary so far
It is 9am in Kyiv and Russia has now been at war with Ukraine for six months.
Here are where things stand this morning:
Russian artillery fire once again pounded the Ukrainian city of Nikopol overnight, according to Ukrainian officials. Regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said Russian forces struck the three districts of Nikopol, Kryvoriz, and Synelnykiv close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. “Nikopol was shelled with ‘Grad’ and barrel artillery three times during the night. 42 Russian shells flew into the residential quarters,” he said in a Telegram update early this morning.
Ukraine is bracing itself for an intensification of Russian missile attacks to coincide with its independence day on Wednesday. The country’s military warned that Russia had put five cruise missile-bearing warships and submarines in the Black Sea and that Moscow was positioning air defence systems in Belarus. Large gatherings have been banned in Kyiv for four days from Monday. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that “Russia may try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious” this week as the country celebrates its 31st anniversary of independence.
Russian missiles hit targets near Odesa, Ukrainian officials said. Five Russian Kalibr cruise missiles have been fired from the Black Sea at the region, the regional administration spokesperson said on Monday, citing information from the southern military command. Two were shot down by Ukrainian air defences and three hit agricultural targets, but there were no casualties. Russia said on Sunday the missiles had destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made Himars rockets, while Kyiv said a granary had been hit.
Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is planning to speak with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin this week to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and the war in Ukraine, Russian state media agency RIA Novosti cites a diplomatic source as saying.
The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue and ally of Vladimir Putin was killed by a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday night. Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm local time (1930 BST), according to investigators.
A former member of Russia’s Duma has claimed that Russian partisans were allegedly behind the car bomb attack. Ilya Ponomarev, who was expelled for anti-Kremlin activities, alleged the explosion was the work of the National Republican Army, which he claimed was an underground group working inside Russia and dedicated to overthrowing the Putin regime. “This attack opens a new page in Russian resistance to Putinism,” he said.
Zelenskiy warned Russia against putting Ukrainian soldiers captured during the siege of Mariupol on trial. “If this despicable court takes place, if our people are brought into these settings in violation of all agreements, all international rules, there will be abuse,” he said in a Sunday evening address. “This will be the line beyond which no negotiations are possible.”
Updated
Putin and Erdoğan to talk this week - reports
Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is planning to speak with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin this week to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and the war in Ukraine, Russian state media agency RIA Novosti cites a diplomatic source as saying.
Erdoğan said that he intends to discuss with Putin the results of his talks with Zelenskiy and UN Secretary General António Guterres in Lviv , as well as to ask the Russian president to take specific measures to resolve the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant.
According to RIA Novosti, the source said:
Yes, such negotiations are expected this week. [Putin] outlined the topics earlier. This is the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis in general. Turkey continues to play its honest mediating role in this conflict, being the only country that has won the trust of both sides.”
Updated
Daughter of Putin ally killed by car bomb in Moscow
In case you missed this earlier report, here is a quick recap by the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent, Andrew Roth.
Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue and ally of Vladimir Putin, was killed in a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday night.
Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm local time (1930 BST), according to investigators.
Prominent Russian hawks without evidence quickly blamed Kyiv for the attack, calling it an assassination attempt and demanding the Kremlin respond by targeting government officials in Kyiv.
If the car bombing is tied to the war it would mark the first time since February that the violence unleashed on Ukraine has reached the Russian capital, touching the family of a Kremlin ally near one of Moscow’s most exclusive districts.
Kyiv strongly denied the allegations. “Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do with this, because we are not a criminal state like Russia, or a terrorist one at that,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in remarks broadcast on television.
Russian artillery fire once again pounded the Ukrainian city of Nikopol overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.
Regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said Russian forces struck the three districts of Nikopol, Kryvoriz, and Synelnykiv close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
In an update posted to his official Telegram channel this morning, Reznichenko said:
A night of shelling and casualties.
Nikopol was shelled with ‘Grad’ and barrel artillery three times during the night. 42 Russian shells flew into the residential quarters.
In the city, two houses were destroyed, almost 50 were mutilated. Enemy shells damaged a kindergarten, shops, pharmacies, markets, a court and a bus station. The shelling caused five fires … Up to 2,000 people are without electricity.”
In the Sinelnyk district, an agricultural enterprise was reportedly destroyed as well as a school and a cultural centre.
Updated
Ukraine braces for intensified attacks
Ukraine is bracing itself for an intensification of Russian missile attacks to coincide with its independence day on Wednesday.
The country’s military warned that Russia had put five cruise missile-bearing warships and submarines out in the Black Sea and that Moscow was positioning air defence systems in Belarus. Large gatherings have been banned in Kyiv for four days from Monday.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that “Russia may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel” this week as the country celebrates its 31st anniversary of independence.
Zelenskiy warns Moscow against trial of Ukrainian soldiers
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has warned Russia against putting Ukrainian soldiers captured during the siege of Mariupol on trial, claiming it will risk the possibility of negotiations.
In his latest video address, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that if the “absurd and disgusting trial” of Ukrainian soldiers takes place in Mariupol it will eliminate the possibility of talks with Russia.
If this despicable court takes place, if our people are brought into these settings in violation of all agreements, all international rules, there will be abuse.
This will be the line beyond which no negotiations are possible.”
Shelling rocks Nikopol near nuclear plant
Artillery shells rained down on the Ukrainian city of Nikopol, close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
Nikopol was shelled on five different occasions, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said in an update on Telegram.
He said 25 artillery shells hit the city, causing a fire at an industrial premises and cutting power to 3,000 people.
The Russians fired 25 shells from barrel artillery at Nikopol. The shelling caused a severe fire at the enterprise - the fire destroyed the equipment.
In the city, a school was mutilated, one house was destroyed, and two dozen others were damaged. Gas furnaces and power lines are out of order. More than 3,000 Nikopol citizens are without electricity. Emergency teams are working.”
Summary and welcome
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
I’m Samantha Lock and I will be bringing you all the latest developments for the next short while. Whether you’ve been following our coverage overnight or you’ve just dropped in, here are the latest lines.
Repeated shelling has rocked the southern Ukrainian city of Nikopol, located near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, its governor has said.
Zelenskiy warned Moscow against going ahead with the trial of captured Ukrainian soldiers in his latest national address.
It is 7.30am in Ukraine. Here is everything you might have missed:
Ukraine is bracing itself for an intensification of Russian missile attacks to coincide with its independence day on Wednesday. The country’s military warned that Russia had put five cruise missile-bearing warships and submarines in the Black Sea and that Moscow was positioning air defence systems in Belarus. Large gatherings have been banned in Kyiv for four days from Monday. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that “Russia may try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious” this week as the country celebrates its 31st anniversary of independence.
Artillery shells have rained down on the Ukrainian city of Nikopol, close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Nikopol was shelled on five different occasions, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram. He said 25 artillery shells hit the city, causing a fire at an industrial premises and cutting power to 3,000 people.
Russian missiles hit targets near Odesa, Ukrainian officials said. Five Russian Kalibr cruise missiles have been fired from the Black Sea at the region, the regional administration spokesperson said on Monday, citing information from the southern military command. Two were shot down by Ukrainian air defences and three hit agricultural targets, but there were no casualties. Russia said on Sunday the missiles had destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made Himars rockets, while Kyiv said a granary had been hit.
The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue and ally of Vladimir Putin was killed by a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday night. Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm local time (1930 BST), according to investigators.
A former member of Russia’s Duma has claimed that Russian partisans were allegedly behind the car bomb attack. Ilya Ponomarev, who was expelled for anti-Kremlin activities, alleged the explosion was the work of the National Republican Army, which he claimed was an underground group working inside Russia and dedicated to overthrowing the Putin regime. “This attack opens a new page in Russian resistance to Putinism,” he said.
Zelenskiy warned Russia against putting Ukrainian soldiers captured during the siege of Mariupol on trial. “If this despicable court takes place, if our people are brought into these settings in violation of all agreements, all international rules, there will be abuse,” he said in a Sunday evening address. “This will be the line beyond which no negotiations are possible.”
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and the US urged military restraint around the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine. In a phone call, the four leaders also called for a “quick visit” to the nuclear site by independent inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesperson.
Four more ships carrying food left Ukraine’s ports, Turkey’s defence ministry said, bringing the total number of vessels to leave Ukraine’s Black Sea ports under a UN-brokered grain export deal to 31.
