Updated on 08/11/2022 at 06:34
- Ukraine fights with its soldiers against the Russian invasion, but it depends on weapons from abroad.
- Now fans are advising again: what works best?
- An overview of the night’s events and a day’s perspective.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on residents of Russian-occupied territories to resist. They must transmit information about the enemy or collaborators to the Ukrainian military through secure channels, Zelenskyy said in his video address Wednesday night.
At the same time, the president renewed the request for foreign arms assistance for his country. The more decisive it is, the sooner the war will end, he said ahead of a conference in Copenhagen starting Thursday. There, defense ministers from a dozen countries, including Germany, discuss military and financial support for the country attacked by Russia.
The United Nations Security Council in New York will deal with the tense situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear plant, which is occupied by Russian troops. For Ukraine it is the 169th day since the start of the Russian invasion.
Kiev Reflections: How long will the war last?
Zelenskyy and the head of his presidential cabinet, Andriy Yermak, approached the question of how long the war would last with different emphases. The fight urgently needs to be ended before the warm-up season, Yermak said. Otherwise, there is a risk that Russia will destroy the heat and power infrastructure. “This is one of the reasons why we want to take maximum measures to end the active part of the war by the end of autumn.”
Zelenskyi said the duration of the war depends on Russian losses. “The greater the occupier casualties, the faster we can liberate our country,” he said. That, in turn, depends on military aid to Ukraine. The more decisive it is, the sooner Ukraine and Europe will be able to live in peace again.
Explosions in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol
In his message to residents of the occupied territories, Zelenskyy recalled Tuesday’s explosions at a Russian military base on the Crimean peninsula. Nine Russian warplanes were destroyed there, he said. According to experts, the first western satellite images of the Saki base show that Russia has lost many of the jets stationed there. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry suspected more than nine aircraft on Thursday morning.
According to unofficial information, Kyiv loyalists played a role in the still puzzling incident. There are also reports from other occupied areas of attacks on Russian installations and on Ukrainians who are cooperating with the occupation. According to Ukrainian reports, two explosions took place in the occupied southern city of Melitopol on Wednesday night. Access roads to the local police headquarters were blocked. Russian sources interpreted the loud explosions as anti-aircraft fire. There have been no independent reports on this.
Read too: All current information about the war in Ukraine on the live ticker
Zelenskyy expressed the expectation that the Russian occupiers would soon flee. “They already feel that the time has come to flee Kherson and the south of our country in general. There will come a time when they will flee the Kharkiv region, Donbass and Crimea.”
Night battles and bombings
In Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, Russian troops continued their advances accompanied by massive artillery fire. Seven civilians were killed in the city of Bakhmut on Wednesday, according to Ukraine’s Attorney General’s Office. Zelenskyi announced retaliation for Russian air strikes in the Dnipropetrovsk region, in which 13 civilians were killed on Wednesday night. In Donetsk, Russian-controlled separatists complained that several civilians had been killed by Ukrainian bombings. Toxic ammonia was released when a brewery was hit.
More ships bring Ukrainian grain to market
After the Moscow-Kyiv grain deal, the United Nations expects Ukraine’s exports through the Black Sea to increase. Several ships are currently awaiting permission to proceed to Ukrainian ports, said UN export coordinator Frederick Kenney in New York. “We expect a major uptrend in transit orders.” On Wednesday there was a new high with five ships inspected contractually.
In July, Ukraine and Russia signed agreements with Turkey and the UN to export agricultural products and fertilizers from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports. Since then, a dozen ships have left the ports of Chornomorsk, Odessa and Pivdenny with over 370,000 tons of cargo. After its attack on Ukraine in late February, Russia blocked Ukrainian ports.
This will be important on Thursday
As of early Thursday, EU countries are no longer allowed to import coal from Russia. The coal embargo was decided in April to further weaken the Russian economy in the context of the war in Ukraine. At the time, countries agreed to a transitional period of 120 days for the industry to adapt. This has now come to an end.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, is expected to inform the Security Council in New York about the situation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. A press conference by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in Berlin is also expected to be about Ukraine and Germany’s role in the nearly six-month-old war. (hub/dpa)
Updated on 08/10/2022 11:58 am
After explosions at the Saki military base in Crimea, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promises the liberation of the annexed peninsula. Zelenskyy in video speech: “Crimea is Ukrainian and we will never give up on it”.