Russia-Ukraine latest updates: Attack on train station kills 15

Consumer prices in Russia have declined for the seventh week running, as the rouble’s appreciation in the past few months and a drop in consumer demand slow the pace of price growth, although households’ expectations of future inflation increased.

The consumer prices index dipped 0.15 percent in the week to August 22 after easing 0.13 percent a week earlier, the federal statistics service Rosstat said.

Russians focus closely on inflation among economic trends as rising prices eat into living standards. Annual inflation reached 15.1 percent in July, far above the central bank’s 4 percent target.

At least 15 people have died and 50 more have been wounded when Russian forces launched a rocket attack on a Ukrainian railway station, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In a video address to the United Nations, Zelenskyy said the rockets had hit a train in the town of Chaplyne, some 145km (90 miles) west of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Four carriages were on fire, he said.

Pope Francis and the head of the Russian Orthodox church, who backs the war in Ukraine, will not meet when both men attend a gathering of religious leaders in Kazakhstan next month, the RIA news agency has cited a senior Orthodox official as saying.

Francis, due to be in the capital Nur-Sultan from September 13 until 15 to attend the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, has said in several recent interviews he hopes to meet Patriarch Kirill when in Kazakhstan.

But Bishop Anthony, the Russian church’s second-most powerful bishop, told RIA there was no question of the two religious leaders meeting on the sidelines.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the United Nations Security Council that Russia “should unconditionally stop nuclear blackmail” and “completely withdraw” from an atomic plant in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy made the remarks about the Zaporizhzhia facility during an address via video link to a special meeting of the council in New York to mark six months since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the six-month anniversary of the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine a “sad and tragic milestone”.

Guterres made the comments during a special meeting of the UN Security Council in New York to mark the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of its neighbour on February 24.

“The consequences of this senseless war are being felt far beyond Ukraine,” said Guterres, referring to its effect on food and fuel prices.

There have been 473 verified attacks on healthcare in Ukraine since Russia invaded six months ago, which have killed nearly 100 people, according to the WHO.

The World Health Organization’s Europe chief Hans Kluge branded the attacks “unconscionable”.

As well as the 98 people known to have been killed in verified attacks on healthcare, at least 134 others were wounded, the WHO’s figures showed.

Nearly 400 of the attacks hit health facilities. Dozens of attacks struck transport, including ambulances, while warehouses, supplies, personnel and patients were also damaged.

European Union countries should agree upon a cap on the price of gas imported from Russia to help ease the burden of rising prices on businesses and households, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has said.

“The Italian government has pressed hard at the European level for a maximum ceiling on the price of Russian gas that we import,” Draghi told a conference in the Italian town of Rimini.

“Some countries continue to oppose this idea because they fear that Moscow could interrupt supplies,” added Draghi, who will step down after a national election next month.

“But the many blocks on supplies of Russian gas this summer have shown the limits of that position,” he said, noting the issue would be discussed at the next meeting of EU leaders.

EU defence ministers will discuss options to set up a military training mission for Ukrainian forces at an August 29-30 meeting in Prague, the bloc’s foreign policy chief has said.

“As EU, we have to see what else we can do in terms of support to Ukraine and increasing the cost of this war for Russia,” Josep Borrell said in a blog to mark Ukraine’s Independence Day, six months after Russia invaded the country.

“We will discuss this … in Prague next week, including on the issue of visas for Russian citizens and a possible EU training mission for Ukrainian armed forces.”

Borrell referred to the idea of an EU military training programme at a conference in Spain on Monday, explaining that it would not be based in Ukraine, but in neighbouring countries. The 27-nation bloc has launched more than 30 missions and operations during the past 20 years aimed at peacekeeping, conflict prevention and strengthening international security outside its borders.

Two employees of Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant have been detained for passing information to Ukrainian authorities, Russia’s National Guard has said.

In a statement, the National Guard said it had prevented what it called “illegal actions” that threatened the plant’s security, and arrested two nuclear plant workers, along with a third person it said had violated the plant’s access procedures and collaborated with the Ukrainian armed forces.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, was captured by Russian troops in March. It remains close to areas where fighting is taking place, and has come under repeated fire in recent weeks, raising fears of a nuclear disaster. Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling the plant.

Russia has launched missiles at a railroad station in Ukraine’s central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, the country’s president has told a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

“This is our life every day. This is how Russia got prepared for this UN session,” Zelenskyy told the Ukraine-focused meeting over video link. There were deaths and injuries in the missile attacks, he added, warning that the death toll could rise.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify Zelenskyy’s claims.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised a further package of military support for Ukraine after meeting with Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

The 54 million pound ($63.5m) package will include 200 drones and loitering munitions to enable the Ukrainian military to better track and target invading Russian forces, Johnson’s office said in a statement.

“The UK will continue to stand with our Ukrainian friends. I believe Ukraine can and will win this war,” Johnson, who has less than two weeks left as prime minister, said on Twitter.

What happens in Ukraine matters to us all.

That is why I am in Kyiv today.

That is why the UK will continue to stand with our Ukrainian friends.

I believe Ukraine can and will win this war. pic.twitter.com/FIovnqJGTS

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) August 24, 2022

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from the White House, says the latest US package of military aid for Ukraine is the “biggest … in isolation so far” since Russia launched its invasion in late February.

“It will include anti-armour and anti-aircraft missiles to use against Russian tanks … it will also allow for the acquisition by the Ukrainian military of air defence systems, artillery systems and munitions,” Halkett said.

“But the real important thing to note about this is this is a real shift in posture … it is buying and purchasing for the long term,” she added.

“Initially, what US security assistance [for Ukraine] was focused on was immediate needs. In other words, the Pentagon supplied what it had in stock, and shifted it over as quickly as possible.

“But now, what this is going to be is the utilising of [US] Department of Defense contracts to purchase for the long term.”

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has dismissed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s Independence Day greeting, branding it “cynical” and blasting Minsk for allowing Russia to stage attacks from its territory.

“Lukashenko truly believes the world does not notice his participation in crimes against Ukraine,” Podolyak tweeted.

“And is why he cynically wishes us a ‘peaceful sky’ while allowing deadly rockets to hit us,” he added.

Lukashenko’s statement earlier on Wednesday stood at odds with some of his recent declarations of support for Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.

The head of Russia’s state nuclear energy agency has held a meeting with the chief of the UN’s nuclear watchdog to discuss an anticipated inspection of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine.

Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agency Rafael Grossi and Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev met in Istanbul on Wednesday, the Russian nuclear energy agency said in a statement.

Grossi and Likhachev “discussed in detail all the issues relating to the planned IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” Rosatom said.

“The Russian side shares the intention … to organise such a mission in the near future, as soon as the military situation on the ground allows it,” it added.

The United Kingdom imported no fuel from Russia in June for the first time since records began 25 years ago, as sanctions on Moscow in response to its invasion of Ukraine helped drive a 97 percent fall in imports of Russian goods, official data has shown.

The UK government has banned the import of some Russian products and hiked tariffs on others as part of its economic sanctions package. It has also said it will phase out imports of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said there had been a sharp and continued decrease in fuel imports from Russia since March, with June’s zero imports representing a decrease of 499 million pounds ($588m) compared with the monthly average for the 12 months before the invasion in February this year.

Russia was the UK’s largest supplier of refined oil in 2021, the ONS said. By June, there were no imports of refined oil, crude oil, gas or coal, coke and briquettes from Russia.

After six months of war, Russia has failed to overrun Ukraine, install a puppet government in Kyiv, or even fully conquer the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the east – its pared-back goal.

Ukraine’s battlefield successes have also forced Moscow to lift a Black Sea blockade of Ukrainian food exports, bringing the assaulted country as much as $30bn this year.

On the other hand, Kyiv is also seemingly unable to score the decisive victory it wants – the reconquest of all the territory Russia has seized since 2014 when it annexed Crimea and backed separatist rebels in Ukraine’s east.

Read more here.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican has criticised Pope Francis for referring to Darya Dugina, the daughter of prominent Russian ultranationalist Alexander Dugin, as an innocent victim of war.

“Innocents pay for war,” Francis said during his general audience on Wednesday, referring to “that poor girl thrown in the air by a bomb under the seat of a car in Moscow”.

Dugina was killed by a car bomb late on Saturday night. Russia has blamed the killing on Ukrainian agents, a charge Kyiv denies.

In a Tweet, Andrii Yurash, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, said the pope’s words were “disappointing”.

“How (is it) possible to mention one of [the] ideologists of [Russian] imperialism as innocent victim?” said Yurash, referring to Dugina, who was a public backer of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He also repeated the unproven allegation that Dugina was killed by her own government.

US President Joe Biden has announced what he called the “biggest tranche of security assistance to date” for Ukraine, amounting to about $2.98bn in weapons and equipment.

“This will allow Ukraine to acquire air defense systems, artillery systems and munitions, counter-unmanned aerial systems, and radars to ensure it can continue to defend itself over the long term,” he said in a statement marking Ukraine’s Independence Day.

Washington has so far provided about $10.6bn in military aid to Ukraine.

French firm TotalEnergies has denied a newspaper report which has said gas condensate converted into jet fuel and delivered by a company it co-owns with Russia’s Novatek might have supplied Russian army bases.

“No, TotalEnergies does not produce kerosene for the Russian army,” the company said in a statement.

The Le Monde newspaper report was based on energy market data. It said the fuel might have been used at two Russian army bases which non-governmental organisations have accused of housing aircraft used to strike civilian targets in Ukraine. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the claims.

Local authorities in Kyiv have banned large public events, rallies and other gatherings related to Ukraine’s Independence Day amid concerns over possible Russian attacks.

However, some appeared determined to mark Wednesday’s anniversary with shows of personal support for the country and its armed forces.

People were pictured attending an exhibition of destroyed Russian military vehicles in the city centre, while others were photographed draped in the Ukrainian flag.

On February 24, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine from Belarus to the north, the Russian-annexed Crimea Peninsula to the south, and its own territory to the east.

The war has since killed thousands of people, displaced millions of others and destroyed entire cities.

Click here for a summary of the main events from the conflict over the last six months.

Six months of Russia’s war in Ukraine, explained in maps.https://t.co/oLtPTJ7MeG pic.twitter.com/YxMbmvWKd2

— AJ Labs (@ajlabs) August 24, 2022

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has offered his congratulations to the people of Ukraine as the country marks its Independence Day.

“I am convinced that today’s contradictions will not be able to destroy the centuries-old foundation of sincere good neighbourly ties between the peoples of our two countries,” Lukashenko said in a statement.

“Belarus will continue to stand for the preservation of harmony, the development of friendly, mutually respectful contacts at all levels,” he added.

Belarus relies financially and politically on its close ally Russia. Moscow deployed forces to Belarusian territory under the pretext of military drills prior to launching its invasion and then funnelled troops into Ukraine when it began the offensive on February 24.

The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence has published its latest map showing Russian attacks and troop locations in Ukraine.

The map indicates Moscow’s forces are pressing to make gains in the eastern Donbas region.

The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing.

The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 24 August 2022

Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/hHhseLcVgS

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/nYTCYSLKFK

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 24, 2022

President Emmanuel Macron has warned that France faces “sacrifices” in a new era marked by climate change and instability caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I believe that we are in the process of living through a tipping point or great upheaval. Firstly because we are living through … the end of what could seem like the end of abundance,” he said during a televised address to his cabinet.

Referring to the war in Ukraine, Macron added: “Our system based on freedom in which we have become used to living, sometimes when we need to defend it, it can entail making sacrifices.”

The speech appeared designed to prepare the country for what promises to be a difficult winter ahead, with energy prices rising sharply amid Moscow’s ongoing offensive and many French families struggling with soaring inflation.

A video published on social media appears to show Russian opposition politician Yevgeny Roizman being arrested at his home in what is the latest apparent move by the Kremlin to punish critics of the war in Ukraine, according to a report by the Reuters news agency.

Video of the arrest shows Roizman, a former mayor of the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, being taken away by law enforcement officials.

Roizman is seen in the video telling reporters that he was being investigated under a law against discrediting the armed forces, according to Reuters. He said he was being arrested “basically for one phrase, ‘the invasion of Ukraine'”.

State news agency TASS cited Yekaterinburg security services as confirming the reason for the arrest, saying Roizman was being investigated for “discrediting the Russian army”. The offence, newly introduced after Russia’s February 24 invasion, carries a prison sentence of up to five years.

Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo, reporting from Kyiv, says Independence Day celebrations are muted in the Ukrainian capital.

“I’m right in the centre of Kyiv, not far away from Independence Square, and for many Ukrainians it is a day of remembrance, to think of those who have been killed and injured,” Bo said.

“But also, there is an act of defiance going on in the streets … Russian tanks destroyed in the past six months have been put here by Ukrainian authorities, who say that Russia wanted to hold a parade in the centre of Kyiv but couldn’t do it, and this is what they got instead,” she added.

“And when you talk to people here, they say that this invasion has reaffirmed their need to be closer to Europe, democracy and freedom of speech and further away from Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian rule.

“For many, the fight for independence, 31 years after Ukraine became independent from the Soviet Union, continues here because people are fighting for their land, their homes and their country.”

Pope Francis has called for “concrete steps” to end the war in Ukraine and avert the risk of a “nuclear disaster” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

Speaking at his weekly general audience, the head of the Catholic Church went off script to condemn wars as “madness” and, referring to Darya Dugina, said the woman killed by a car bomb near Moscow was among “innocents” killed because of war.

He also said arms merchants who profit from war are “delinquents who kill humanity”.

Click here for a rundown of the key events from day 182 of the war in Ukraine.

KEEP READING

• ‘Vic­to­ry is our hope’: Old­er Ukraini­ans on six months of war
• Ukraine is reliving a promise it made on this day in 1991
• Six months since Russia invaded Ukraine: What’s next?
• Photos: Six months of Russia’s war in Ukraine

Alexander Dugin has been described by some as Vladimir Putin’s “brain”, but dismissed by others as a “harmless cult figure” with little influence on the Russian president.

For years, analysts and observers have offered competing views about the 60-year-old ideologue’s true level of influence among Moscow’s political elites.

This week, the longstanding debate has taken on a new intensity after his daughter was killed in a car bomb blast in the Russian capital.

Read more here.

Russia’s defence minister says the slowing pace of his country’s offensive in Ukraine is a deliberate choice to reduce civilian casualties.

“Everything is being done to avoid casualties among civilians. Of course, this slows down the pace of the offensive, but we are doing this deliberately,” Sergei Shoigu told a meeting of defence ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Uzbekistan.

Russia’s war effort in Ukraine has made little progress in recent weeks, after its troops were pushed back from Kyiv in the early weeks of the invasion. Offensives in the south and the east have largely stalled, according to the Washington, DC-based Institute for the Study of War.

Ukraine’s president has promised in an Independence Day address that his country will fight Russia’s invasion “until the end” and will not be making “any concession or compromise”.

“We don’t care what army you have, we only care about our land. We will fight for it until the end,” Zelenskyy said in a video address.

“We have been holding strong for six months. It’s tough but we have clenched our fists and we are fighting for our destiny,” he added. “Every new day is a reason not to give up. After such a long journey we do not have the right not to go on to the end.”

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi has said the UN nuclear watchdog hopes to gain access to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine within days.

“I’m continuing to consult very actively and intensively with all parties,” Grossi said in a statement on Tuesday. “The mission is expected to take place within the next few days if ongoing negotiations succeed.”

Both sides have accused the other of firing missiles and artillery dangerously close to the plant, Europe’s biggest, raising fears of a nuclear catastrophe.

Biden’s White House administration is expected to announce roughly $3bn in additional aid to train and equip Ukrainian forces to fight for years to come, officials in the US have said.

The officials told The Associated Press news agency that the package will fund contracts for as many as three types of drones and other weapons, ammunition and equipment.

The official announcement is expected on Wednesday, which marks Ukraine’s independence day holiday and the six-month point in the war.

Norway and the UK will jointly supply micro drones to Ukraine to aid in its war with Russia, the Norwegian defence ministry has said.

The cost of the Teledyne Flir Black Hornet drones, used for reconnaissance and target identification, will be up to $9.26m (90 million Norwegian crowns), the ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine’s president has warned of the possibility of “repugnant Russian provocations” as the country marks 31 years of independence from the Soviet Union.

“We are fighting against the most terrible threat to our statehood and also at a time when we have achieved the greatest level of national unity,” Zelenskyy said in an evening address on Tuesday.

Public gatherings were banned in Kyiv and a curfew was in force in the front-line eastern city of Kharkiv on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s military urged citizens to take air raid signals seriously.