List of significant incidents from day 172 of the Russia-Ukraine war
As Russia's onslaught on Ukraine continues, Ukrainian forces prepare a D-30 artillery to be fired close to a combat line in the Mykolaiv region. [Reuters/Oleksandr Ratushniak]
Here are the main happenings from August 14 Sunday.
Fighting
The largest nuclear station in Europe, Zaporizhzhia, which is under Russian control and has been regularly shelled over the last week, has been the target of the most recent round of bombardment, for which Russia and Ukraine have laid blame on one another.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeated claims that Moscow was using the power plant as nuclear "blackmail" and warned any Russian military who fired at the plant or used it as cover would become a "particular target."
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, charged that Russia had "struck the part of the nuclear power plant where the energy that powers the south of Ukraine is created."
According to Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Moscow-installed government, the Zaporizhzhia plant and the town where it is located, Energodar, "are again under fire by Zelenskyy's militants," pro-Moscow officials in the occupied area have blamed the shelling on Ukrainian forces.
Since Russian soldiers seized over the plant in early March, Western governments have expressed escalating alarm about it. Moscow has been urged to remove its forces from the factory, which is still controlled by Ukrainian personnel.
In response to a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian military intelligence indicated it was likely their top priority over the past week to "reorient units to reinforce southern Ukraine."
In the aftermath of a rocket attack, a man stands in front of a demolished building in the Ukrainian town of Kramatorsk [Anatolii Stepanov/AFP].
Diplomacy
According to the TASS news agency, the chief of the North American department at the Russian foreign ministry has declared that any potential seizure of Russian assets by the US will utterly shatter Moscow's bilateral relations with Washington. Since the invasion started, the US has taken billions of dollars' worth of Russian assets as a result of sanctions.
According to a senior source in the foreign ministry quoted by TASS, Russia has also warned the US that any designation of Moscow as a "state supporter of terrorism" by Washington would cause serious harm to relations and would even end.
Zelenskyy and a number of US lawmakers have demanded that Russia be classified as such.
Economy
According to the Turkish defense ministry, two additional ships departed from Ukrainian ports on Saturday, bringing the total number of ships departing the nation as part of a settlement mediated by the UN to 16.
The first food aid shipment to leave Ukraine since the Russian invasion will leave on a UN-chartered ship, the MV Brave Commander.
According to a UN representative, the ship will sail from the Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi to Ethiopia across the Black Sea corridor negotiated by the UN and Turkey in the next days. 23,0000 tonnes of wheat are expected to be carried by it.
A new $5 billion loan from the IMF would assist reassure Ukraine's other creditors that its macroeconomic situation was under control, according to Zelenskyy's main economic adviser.
According to a top official from the Indian central bank, the US has voiced alarm about the fact that an Indian ship used a high-seas transfer earlier this year to export fuel manufactured from Russian petroleum to New York.
The US is prohibited from importing any energy products from Russia, including crude oil, refined fuels, distillates, coal, and gas.
Hungary said that after its foreign minister's trip to Moscow in July, Russia had started supplying more gas to the nation. Hungary has resisted the European Union's efforts to cut back on its use of Russian gas.
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