Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 184

Here are the key events from Friday, August 26.

Fighting

• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the world narrowly avoided a radiation disaster as electricity to Ukraine’s Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was restored hours after being cut off.

• Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed eight Ukrainian warplanes in raids on airbases in Ukraine’s Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

• Russia said it hit a military train with an Iskander missile at the Chaplyne station that had been set to deliver arms to Ukrainian forces on the front lines in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv said the missile also hit a residential area and killed 25 civilians as the nation marked its Independence Day on Wednesday.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to increase the size of Russia’s armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million service members.

Diplomacy

•  Zelenskyy said he had “a great conversation” with US President Joe Biden and thanked him for his support in the war against Russia, adding that they had discussed the next steps “on our path to victory”.

• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials are “very, very close” to being able to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the agency’s Director-General Rafael Grossi said.

• The top United Nations official in Ukraine said she was shocked by the military raids that killed children and other civilians in the town of Chaplyne on Wednesday. Denise Brown, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, called on all parties to adhere to international law.

• UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called on President Putin to halt armed attacks on Ukraine and said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant must be demilitarised.

Economy

• Ukraine’s economy should stabilise over the coming year and expand by as much as 15.5 percent in 2023, depending on military developments in the war against Russia, the country’s economy minister said in an interview.