August 16, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhnyi looks on before a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other officials in Kyiv on Oct. 19, 2021.

Valeriy Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, has acknowledged that Russian forces “continue to advance” in Donbas but said the “intense” situation is “fully controlled.”

Zaluzhny added that “the enemy continues to advance along the entire front line. At the same time, the enemy carries out approximately 700-800 [actions of] shelling of our positions every day, using from 40 to 60,000 pieces of ammunition.”

That estimate is in line with many made by Western analysts about the volume of ammunition being used by Russian forces, after a relative lull in early July.

“The enemy’s main efforts are concentrated on pushing our troops back from the Donetsk oblast. The most intense situation is now on the axis of Avdiivka-Pisky-Mariinka,” Zaluzhny said. 

That axis is a stretch of some 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Donetsk.

Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Energoatom accused hackers based in Russia of launching a “powerful” attack on the company’s website for three hours on Tuesday, but said the attack had not “significantly” affected operations of the site. 

The statement blamed the Russian group “People’s Cyber ​​Army” for carrying out the attack using 7.25 million bot users, who simulated hundreds of millions of views of the company’s main page. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Ukrainians living in occupied areas to stay clear of Russian forces’ military facilities.

Zelensky’s remarks follow a series of explosions in Crimea Tuesday and a surge in attacks on Russian ammunition depots and supply lines in occupied parts of southern Ukraine in recent weeks.

“The reasons for the explosions in the occupied territories can be different, very different. Including, I quote the definition of the occupiers themselves as ‘bungling,’ but they all have the same meaning. The destruction of the logistics of the occupiers, their ammunition, military and other equipment, and command posts saves the lives of our people,” he said.

Ukraine has not officially said it was responsible for last week’s major attack on an airbase in Crimea, which destroyed at least seven military aircraft, nor Tuesday’s explosions that appear to have destroyed a large stock of munitions.

Referring to long queues of traffic seen leaving Crimea for Russia last week, after the air base attack, Zelesnky said, “The queue these days to leave Crimea for Russia via the bridge proves that the absolute majority of citizens of the terrorist state already understand or at least feel that Crimea is not a place for them. “

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference on August 6 in Hiroshima, Japan.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres will go to Ukraine this week, traveling to Lviv Thursday for bilateral issues and to Odesa on Friday to discuss the grain deal, the UN announced.

Guterres will hold a trilateral meeting with Ukrainian leaders and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss the inner workings of the Black Sea grain deal, according to spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric. He also plans to hold a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the UN said.

In July, Ukraine and Russia agreed to a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to allow the resumption of vital grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

Guterres will travel Saturday to Istanbul. The Russians are aware of the secretary-general’s travel plans, Dujarric said.

Russian forces tried to advance again from north of Sloviansk but their offensive was unsuccessful and they withdrew, the Ukrainian military said.

The battle occurred near Mazanivka on the border of Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, an area that first saw Russian efforts to break through more than 40 days ago, according to the General Staff.

Another Russian assault further east also failed, despite support from combat aircraft, it added. “Near Ivano-Dariivka, with the support of aviation, the enemy conducted unsuccessful assault actions. It suffered losses and withdrew.”

Fighting has been going on in that district for well over a month. 

Ukrainians say Russian objectives remain the same — they are “focused on conducting active offensive and assault actions in the Kramatorsk, Bakhmut, and Avdiivka directions,” the General Staff said.

Bakhmut and Avdiivka have been within a few miles of the front lines for several months, but they remain in Ukrainian hands.

The Ukrainians say further efforts to advance in the Bakhmut area had been rebuffed.

“Offensive and assault actions of the occupiers in the Soledar, Zaitseve and Maiorsk districts ended with losses and withdrawal,” it added, saying another attack just south of Bakhmut (in the Vershyna area) had also been foiled.

Meanwhile, the Russians appear to have put renewed effort into breaking through Ukrainian lines in southern Donetsk, between Pavlivka and Novomykhailivka, where “hostilities continue,” according to the General Staff.

Further north, in the Kharkiv region, the Ukrainian General Staff said nearly 20 settlements had come under fire, including several close to the border with Russia.

The mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekov, urged civilians to stay indoors after shells landed in the Saltivka district.

The UK has denied Russia’s claims that a British electronic surveillance aircraft violated their state border on Monday, saying Britain’s Royal Air Force aircraft carried out a “routine operation” in international airspace over the Norwegian and Barents seas. 

“A Russian MIG-31 jet conducted an unsafe close pass of an RAF RC-135W Rivet Joint aircraft as it carried out a routine operation in international airspace over the Norwegian and Barents Seas on Monday 15 August. The UK aircraft was in communication with Russian civilian air traffic control and its crew operated in a safe and professional manner,” a UK Defense spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday.

The spokesperson added that the RAF aircraft did not enter Russian sovereign space and later returned safely to its base in the UK.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron speak during a press conference on June 16 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his support for a proposal by the International Atomic Energy Agency to deploy an agency mission to the Russian-occupied Ukrainian nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia to examine the situation there, according to a readout of Macron’s call with his Ukrainian counterpart Tuesday. 

Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the terms of such a mission, which would commence “as soon as possible” according to the proposal of the IAEA’s director general, according to the readout. 

Macron “underlined his concern” to Zelensky regarding the threat posed by the presence and actions of Russian forces around the nuclear plant and called for their withdrawal. 

Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of attacks near the plant. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres described recent artillery and rocket fire around it as “suicidal.”

The two presidents also discussed the cargo ship chartered by the UN to transport Ukrainian grains, which left Odesa earlier on Tuesday and is headed to Africa. 

Following the export of 2.8 million tons of Ukrainian grains via road and river “solidarity routes” in July, the pace of such exports ”continues to accelerate,” according to the readout. 

Zelensky also tweeted after the call, calling for more sanctions on Russia.

The town of Nikopol across the river from the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has again come under rocket fire from the Russians, Ukrainian authorities say.

Residential areas had been hit and four people were injured, said Valentyn Reznichenko, head of Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration.

Twenty rockets from multiple rocket launchers called GRAD and 10 shells from artillery hit Nikopol, he added.

Nikopol has frequently come under fire from Russian forces’ base on the opposite bank of the river Dnipro, where the nuclear power plant is situated.

The sign of the the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) in Kakhovka, near Kherson, Ukraine is seen on May 20.

Ukraine’s state hydro-electric power operator says that despite the damage at a critical bridge across the river Dnipro, the Kakhovka power plant is still operating.

Ukrainian technicians continue working at the plant, which is a Russian-controlled area.

The bridge adjacent to the plant at Nova Kakhovka has been severely damaged by repeated Ukrainian attacks apparently designed to render it inaccessible to Russian military vehicles rather than destroy it.

Ukrhydroenergo, the state company, told CNN the plant “is currently operating in basic mode with a load of 72 MW.”

The installed capacity of the plan is 357 MW.

“There is also a possibility to perform small amounts of repair work by repair personnel,” the company added.

The company said: “Provided that there is no external interference in the operation of the station, it will be able to work for a long enough time. However, in the event of a forced stop, there will be no breach of the dam nor shallowing,” suggesting that current river levels can be maintained.

The Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) said on Tuesday that Ukraine undermined six power lines and disrupted processes at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. 

The FSB is currently searching for members of Ukrainian sabotage groups who blew up power lines connected to the Kursk plant, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday, citing the FSB. 

“Six pillars of high-voltage power lines (110, 330 and 750 kV) were blown up, through which the Kursk NPP supplies power to facilities,” the FSB statement said.

Two previous attempts to blow up power lines were made earlier this month on Aug. 4 and Aug. 9, according to the FSB.

CNN could not independently confirm Russia’s claims. 

Some more context: Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of threatening nuclear terrorism, particularly around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which Russia has controlled since March.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday called for tougher sanctions in response to what he described as Russia’s “nuclear blackmail” around the Zaporizhzhia plant. 

The Russian Ministry of Defense signed state contracts for the manufacturing and supply of ballistic missiles and air defense systems for Russian troops on Tuesday worth more than 500 billion rubles (more than $8 billion).

The ministry signed contracts for the manufacturing of Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), S-500 air defense systems and supply of Su-34 front-line bombers during the annual Army 2022 international military-technical forum held near Moscow, an announcer at the conference said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in June that the first Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile system would go on combat alert in Russia at the end of 2022, according to state news agency TASS. 

Russian forces in the occupied Kherson region in southern Ukraine are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the flow of ammunition, armor and fuel to front-line units, according to Ukrainian officials and Western analysts, thanks to a concerted Ukrainian campaign to cut off river and rail supply lines as well as target ammunition depots.

The Russians are moving command posts from the north of the Dnipro River to the south bank as bridges have been heavily damaged, Ukrainian officials say.

The first deputy head of Kherson regional council, Yuri Sobolevsky, claimed on his Telegram channel that a significant portion of the Russian military command had already left Kherson city. Ukrainian forces are about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) north of the city, towards Mykolaiv.

Much of Kherson region has been occupied since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As part of Kyiv’s counteroffensive to try to retake lost territory in the south, Ukrainian forces are targeting critical bridges to disrupt supply routes in and around Kherson.

The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, said Sunday that the Russians may be leaving for the other side of the river “to avoid being trapped in Kherson city if Ukrainian strikes cut off all ground lines of communication connecting the right bank of the Dnipro River to the Russian rear.”

Videos have appeared on social media in the past few days showing renewed long-range artillery attacks on the Antonivskyi bridge and a road bridge over the dam near Nova Kakhovka, rendering them impassable for heavily armored vehicles. In some areas, the river is up to 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) wide, making pontoon bridges impractical.

The Ukrainians have also targeted several railway lines from the Russian-occupied Crimea Peninsula into the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. On Tuesday, a series of fierce explosions rocked the town of Dzankhoy on the main line towards Kherson. Recent video showed a substantial stock of military vehicles and ammunition at the site.

Two railway lines from Crimea were struck in the last 10 days. Last week, local residents reported several hours of explosions in the Henichesk district, a port area along the Sea of Azov, and the railway further west at Brylivka was also struck.

“Within the last week we have destroyed over 10 ammunition warehouses and military equipment clusters. These hits do not allow for the heavy equipment to be transferred by these bridges,” said the Ukrainian military’s Operational Command South.

None of this suggests an imminent Russian withdrawal from Kherson.

Olga Voitovych, Yulia Kesaieva and Mariya Knight contributed reporting.

Read the full report here.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said Moscow has “no need” to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of destabilizing global affairs. An explosion at a Russian ammunition depot in Crimea has injured two people and triggered the suspension of most train services to Russia, while the Ukrainian military has admitted that Russian forces have made limited progress in their attacks in eastern Ukraine.

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Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson speaks during a press conference alongside the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Stockholm on August 16.

Sweden will live up to the terms of the trilateral agreement signed by Sweden, Finland and Turkey over the Nordic countries’ NATO membership applications, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said Tuesday.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted Sweden and Finland to abandon their nonaligned status and apply to join NATO amid Europe’s worst security crisis in decades.

Sweden and Finland joined the European Union together in 1995 and gradually aligned their defense policies with the West.

The pair still avoided joining NATO outright but that changed when Russia invaded Ukraine, and convincing Turkey to let them join involved negotiations over extraditions.

“The cases of extradition that are being processed in Sweden will, of course, be processed according to Swedish and international law,” said Andersson. “That is also something we agreed upon in this memorandum of understanding.”

Extradition cases have been one of the central points of contention between Sweden and Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had previously threatened to veto Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership requests, accusing the two countries of harboring members of the separatist militant Kurdistan’s Workers Party, also known as PKK.

Erdogan had said that Sweden promised to extradite 73 people to Turkey because of the memorandum, which stipulates that Sweden and Finland will address Turkey’s pending extradition requests of terror suspects in accordance with the European Convention on Extradition. 

Speaking alongside Andersson, Scholz said those states that hadn’t yet ratified Sweden and Finland’s respective bids would do so soon, “including Turkey.”

“The agreements that Sweden and Finland have reached with Turkey show a good way forward,” Scholz said, adding that he was looking forward to seeing Finland and Sweden in NATO and NATO needed the Nordic nations as partners.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu speaks during the Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS) at the Patriot Park in Kubinka, near Moscow, on August 16.

Russia has “no need” to use nuclear weapons to achieve its objectives in Ukraine, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday. 

“The main purpose of Russian nuclear weapons is to deter a nuclear attack, their use is limited to emergency circumstances, which are defined in Russian guiding documents that are open to the public,” he added.

“Against this background, speculation is spreading in the media about the alleged use of Russian tactical nuclear weapons during a special military operation or about the readiness to use chemical weapons. All this information is an absolute lie,” Shoigu said.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has blamed sabotage for the explosions at an ammunition depot in Kremlin-occupied Crimea, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday.

“There are no victims with serious injuries. Necessary measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences of sabotage,” it added.

The ministry statement did not clarify how much military equipment and ammunition may have been damaged or destroyed, but the Ukrainian military said several air defense systems had been deployed to the area.

Footage posted on social media a week before the incident shows large ammunition stacks and several military vehicles with pro-war “Z” symbols on their side.

As Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, truthful reporting of the conflict was gagged due to the country’s new so-called “fake news” law.

Russia’s last independent TV channel, TV Rain, was forced off the air as a result of the new rule.

Shortly before that the husband-and-wife team behind the network also left their home.

But they couldn’t sit still – they continued working from abroad and eventually relaunched TV Rain.

WATCH:

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses participants via a video link attending the Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS) at the Patriot Park in Kubinka near Moscow on August 16.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of destabilizing global affairs, particularly in Asia, and of prolonging the war in Ukraine.

In a video message played at the opening of an international security conference in Moscow on Tuesday, Putin said the US was exacerbating global tensions by supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia and accused Washington of stoking tensions between China and Taiwan.

“We see this as a carefully planned provocation,” he added.

Putin also said a “multipolar world” was being formulated that could challenge what he described as Western hegemony.

“The contours of a multipolar world order are being formed. More and more countries of the world and peoples are choosing the path of free, sovereign self-development based on their identity, traditions and values,” Putin told conference attendees.

The conference is hosted by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and will feature several panels focused on global security issues.

Background on China-Taiwan tensions: A US congressional delegation landed in Taipei on Sunday on an unannounced two-day visit, the second US congressional delegation to visit Taiwan this month. China hit back against the visit, saying it would take “resolute countermeasures in response to the US’s provocations” in a statement from the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi drew the ire of China in early August when she became the first US speaker to visit Taiwan in 25 years, at a time when Washington-Beijing relations have been especially tense. China responded to the speaker’s trip by launching military exercises, which China’s Ministry of Defense said began with drills in both the seas and airspace surrounding Taiwan.

Smoke rises above a transformer electric substation which caught fire after a blast in the Dzhankoi district, Crimea on August 16.

Ukraine says a Crimean substation that was also affected by explosions at an ammunition depot in the village of Maiskoye had been used to divert power from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. 

“I think and believe that this is karmic retribution. Everything that is stolen does not bring wealth,” he added.

CNN could not independently verify Podolyak’s claim that power from the Zaporizhzhia plant was being diverted to Crimea via Dzhankoi.

Podolyak said that Moscow’s explanations for the explosions at the ammunition depot in the Crimean village of Maiskoye, as well as the blasts at an air base in Crimea last Tuesday, suggested the Russian military was deploying “untrained” staff to some locations.

The series of explosions at Novofedorivka air base, on Crimea’s west coast, destroyed at least eight Russian military aircraft, satellite imagery reviewed by CNN showed.

The blasts killed one person and injured 14, according to the Crimean health ministry.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the incident was caused by the accidental detonation of ammunition. Ukraine would not definitively confirm it was responsible for an attack on the air base.