Up to date August 16, 2023 at 11:25 a.m. EDT|Revealed August 16, 2023 at 2:11 a.m. EDT
Polish troopers participate in a army parade Tuesday in Warsaw. (Wojtek Radwanski/AFP/Getty Photographs)
Ukraine’s infrastructure minister mentioned Wednesday {that a} Hong Kong-flagged ship carrying meals had efficiently left Ukraine’s Odessa port — the primary container since Russia withdrew from the grain deal to make use of a brand new “short-term” transport hall via the Black Sea.
A NATO official on Wednesday apologized for saying that Ukraine ought to cede land to turn into a member of the army alliance and referred to as his controversy-causing feedback “a mistake,” Dutch media shops reported.
Russian forces carried out a number of “waves” of drone assaults in southern Ukraine in a single day, destroying warehouses and granaries on the Danube River port of Reni that’s a part of the nation’s grain infrastructure, the regional governor mentioned Wednesday. No person was injured, he added.
Right here’s the newest on the conflict and its influence throughout the globe.
NATO official Stian Jenssen walked again feedback made on Tuesday — wherein he advised Ukraine cede land for NATO membership — calling them “half of a bigger dialogue about attainable future situations in Ukraine, and I shouldn’t have mentioned it that means,” the Norwegian newspaper VG reported Wednesday. His authentic feedback stirred ire in Kyiv. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak referred to as the concept “ridiculous” on X, previously generally known as Twitter. Ukrainian International Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko posted on Fb that “the aware or unconscious participation of NATO officers in shaping the narrative” round Ukraine ceding land “performs into the palms of Russia.”
The principle goal of the in a single day strikes was “port and grain infrastructure,” mentioned Odessa’s regional governor, Oleh Kiper. The assaults passed off south of the Ukrainian port metropolis of Odessa, which has more and more come below Russian assault since final month when the Kremlin left the U.N.-backed grain deal that enabled Ukraine to ship exports via Russian-controlled components of the Black Sea. The most recent assaults had been launched with Iranian-made Shahed drones, Ukraine’s army mentioned.
NATO member Poland touted its state-of-the-art fighter jets and different weaponry at its largest army parade for the reason that Chilly Conflict — a show of power as preventing continues subsequent door between Russia and Ukraine. “The protection of our jap border, the border of the European Union and of NATO, is right this moment a key ingredient of Poland’s state curiosity,” Polish President Andrzej Duda mentioned on the occasion commemorating the 1920 Battle of Warsaw, when Polish troops stopped Bolshevik forces from advancing on Europe. The Polish army has grown by about 78,000 troops over the previous eight years, Duda mentioned.
Lithuania will briefly shut two land crossings with Belarus “to scale back potential threats alongside the border” in response to the Wagner Russian mercenary group’s relocation, Lithuanian Minister of the Inside Agnė Bilotaitė mentioned in an announcement Wednesday. Wagner moved to Belarus in July after a failed mutiny by the group’s founder and former Kremlin-insider Yevgeniy Prigozhin. The closures “will allow border officers to redistribute their capacities on the border with Belarus and pay even bigger consideration to the safety of the state border,” Bilotaitė mentioned. Final week, equally citing Wagner, Poland mentioned it might ship 10,000 troops to its border with Belarus.
North Korean chief Kim Jong Un vowed to strengthen bonds with Moscow in a letter he wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin, based on the state-run Korean Central Information Company. Within the letter, Kim mentioned the 2 nations would proceed to “smash the imperialists’ arbitrary practices and hegemony,” KCNA reported.
The European Union will redirect $147 million from applications deliberate for Russia and Belarus towards initiatives geared toward boosting ties between Ukraine and Moldova. The funding was a part of Interreg, a program that focuses on fostering interregional cooperation to deal with cross-border points. In line with a European Fee assertion Wednesday, “The choice to cancel the initially envisaged cooperation with Russia and Belarus … is the results of the brutal conflict of Russia towards Ukraine.” The funding will assist actions, together with the event of cross-border transport hyperlinks, well being companies, training and analysis initiatives.
The American rock band the Killers apologized after lead singer Brandon Flowers invited a Russian fan onto the stage as a drummer throughout a live performance on the Black Coastline of Georgia and referred to as the viewers “brothers and sisters,” prompting some viewers members to boo and stroll out of the present. Many within the crowd had been livid at Flowers’s implication that Russians are brothers to Georgia, a nation that Moscow invaded in 2008. The Killers’ apology, which mentioned it was “by no means our intention to offend anybody,” additionally prompted criticism over its failure to say the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The live performance venue within the coastal city of Shekvetili additionally apologized in a Fb submit and mentioned it didn’t share the band’s place, calling Russia “the occupier.”
Grotesque and frequent mine accidents are haunting medical doctors in Ukraine: Confronted with our bodies ripped to items and limbs mangled past recognition, Ukrainian medical doctors working within the Zaporizhzhia area are left with no selection however to reside via the psychological anguish of amputation after amputation, Eve Sampson reviews.
Closely mined Russian defenses have slowed Ukraine’s assault to a bloody, painstaking crawl, and hard-won positive factors come at the price of mine blast accidents. “The mines are simply in every single place,” Ukrainian army surgeon Dmytro Mialkovskyi instructed The Washington Publish from a hospital in Zaporizhzhia.
Robyn Dixon and Beatriz Ríos contributed to this report