Latest Ukraine updates: Kyiv denies involvement in Dugina death
Kyiv has denied responsibility for the death of Alexander Dugin’s daughter, who was killed in a car explosion in Moscow.
- Ukraine’s top presidential adviser denies Kyiv’s involvement in the death of Darya Dugina, the daughter of ideologue Alexander Dugin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- Russia’s defence ministry says that sea-based Kalibr missiles destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made HIMARS rocket systems and other Western-made anti-aircraft systems in Ukraine’s Odesa region.
- Ukraine’s top presidential adviser denies Kyiv’s involvement in the death of Darya Dugina, the daughter of ideologue Alexander Dugin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- Russia’s defence ministry says that sea-based Kalibr missiles destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made HIMARS rocket systems and other Western-made anti-aircraft systems in Ukraine’s Odesa region.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges Ukrainians to be vigilant before Independence Day on Wednesday, saying: “We must all be aware that this week Russia could try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious.”
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New blasts hit Crimea, and a missile attack wounds 12 civilians in Voznesensk, near the Pivdennoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plant, says the governor of the Mykolaiv region.
The live blog is now closed, thank you for joining us. Here are the updates for August 21.
Western leaders likely discussed NATO response to radioactive accident: AJ correspondent
The joint call between the leaders of the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom is likely to have addressed the implications for NATO of an accident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Al Jazeera correspondent Patty Culhane said from Washington.
“Article 5 says a direct attack on one NATO member country is a direct attack on all of its members,” Culhane said. “Would a radioactive cloud be considered a direct attack on a country?”
Western leaders are also likely to have discussed the potential uses of Russian military trucks stationed inside the compound whose pictures have been circulated on social media, Culhane added, as well as the call between the presidents of France and Russia in which the latter agreed to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission at the plant.
Western powers stress importance of nuclear safety in Ukraine: UK
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the leaders of the United States, France and Germany have stressed the importance of ensuring the safety of nuclear sites in Ukraine in a call, Johnson’s office said.
“On a joint call, the Prime Minister, President [Joe] Biden, President [Emmanuel] Macron and Chancellor [Olaf] Scholz underlined their steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion,” a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement.
“They stressed the importance of ensuring the safety and security of nuclear installations and welcomed recent discussions on enabling an IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia facility,” it added.
Ukraine denies involvement in Darya Dugina’s death
Ukraine’s top presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has denied his country’s involvement in the death of Darya Dugina, the daughter of Putin supporter Alexander Dugin.
“I confirm that Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and definitely not a terrorist state,” Podolyak told Ukrainian TV.
Ukrainian residents remain defiant before Independence Day
In the southern city of Mykolaiv, some 50km from occupied Kherson, residents collected gallons of water brought in as humanitarian aid after Russian shelling damaged the city’s pipelines.
“Many haven’t had fresh drinking water for months,” Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo, reporting from Mykolaiv, said.
While their city has been razed to the ground, residents “continue to insist about the need to fight to their land, to fight for their homes”, Bo said.
In the capital, Kyiv, Russian burned-out tanks were being displayed on the central boulevard in the run-up to the celebration of Ukraine’s Independence Day on Wednesday, which also marks six months since the war began.
Resident Maryna Bespalova told Al Jazeera Ukrainians believe they can win the war. “We hope it will be soon,” she said.
Moscow launches investigation into death of Darya Dugina
Russian authorities have launched an investigation into the death of the daughter of Russian political scientist and philosopher Alexander Dugin, who was killed after her car exploded on Mozhaysky highway in Moscow.
Samuel Ramani, an analyst at the Royal United Service Institute (RUSI) told Al Jazeera that Dugin had likely been the target of the assassination rather than his daughter.
“I don’t think this is a strike at a major Russian foreign policy decision maker,” Ramani said, stressing that Dugin’s influence within the Kremlin had been overestimated.
“Of course Russia is blaming Ukraine for this, saying that it’s part of a pattern of Ukrainian terrorist activity,” the analyst added.
German minister rules out keeping nuclear plants running to save gas
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck has ruled out extending the lifespan of the country’s three remaining nuclear power plants, saying it would save at most two percent of gas use.
“It is the wrong decision given the little we would save,” Habeck said.
The plants are due to be shut down by the end of the year under legislation introduced by the government of former Chancellor Angela Merkel following the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan in 2011.
Habeck said during a discussion with citizens at the government’s open-door day that the gains did not justify reopening the debate about the exit from nuclear energy given the consensus on the topic.
Albania investigates military factory intruders from Russia and Ukraine
Albania has said it is investigating why two Russians and a Ukrainian broke into a military factory in its central town of Gramsh.
“In view of the broad regional context and the geopolitical context, this cannot be dismissed as just as an ordinary, civilian incident, but we cannot rush to conclusions,” Defence Minister Niko Peleshi said.
The defence ministry said late on Saturday that two of its soldiers had been slightly injured while detaining the intruders, who had entered the grounds of the Gramsh military factory and were attempting to take photos.
The ministry’s website says the plant now provides manufacturing services for the defence industry.
Senior Ukrainian intelligence official found dead at home
A regional head of Ukraine’s SBU intelligence services has been found dead at his home in central Ukraine, the prosecutor general’s office said.
Oleksandr Nakonechny was found by his wife with gunshot wounds in a room of their apartment in the city of Kropyvnytskyi late on Saturday after she heard gunfire, the office said on Telegram.
Police have opened an investigation into the death, but made no further comments.
A local politician, Andrii Lavrus, wrote on Telegram that Nakonechny had shot himself. The information could not be immediately confirmed.
Nakonechny has headed the SBU in the Kirovohrad region since January 2021.
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Russia says it destroyed HIMARS ammunition depot in Odesa
Russia’s defence ministry says its sea-based Kalibr missiles destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made HIMARS rocket systems and other Western-made anti-aircraft systems in Ukraine’s Odesa region.
The ministry also said it destroyed two M777 Howitzers in combat positions in the Kherson region, and a fuel depot in the Zaporizhia region that it said was storing more than 100 tonnes of diesel.
Four more ships leave Ukraine, Turkey’s defence ministry says
Four more ships carrying foodstuffs have left Ukraine’s ports, Turkey’s defence ministry says.
That brings the total number of vessels to leave Ukraine’s Black Sea ports under a United Nations-brokered grain export deal to 31.
On Ukraine’s front line, a fight to save premature babies
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, three hospitals in government-controlled areas of the country’s war-torn Donetsk region had facilities to care for premature babies.
One was hit by a Russian air raid and the other had to close as a result of the fighting – leaving only the maternity hospital in the coal mining town of Pokrovsk still operating.
Tetiana Myroshnychenko, the site’s only remaining neonatologist, now lives at the hospital. Her three-year-old son divides the week between staying at the facility and with his father, a coal miner, at home.
The doctor told The Associated Press why it is now impossible to leave; even when the air raid sirens sound, the babies in the hospital’s above-ground incubation ward cannot be disconnected from their lifesaving machines.
“If I carry [the baby] to the shelter, that would take five minutes. But for her, those five minutes could be critical,” Myroshnychenko said.
Inside Story: Can a nuclear disaster at Zaporizhzhia be averted?
Shelling has intensified around the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine in recent days, raising fears of a disaster at Europe’s largest nuclear facility.
Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for the attacks.
Russia controls the facility but Ukraine is operating it.
How much of a risk do the attacks pose? And is a disaster worse than Chernobyl imminent?
KEEP READING:
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 179
As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 179th day, we take a look at the main developments.
Read more here.
UN chief says Russian food and fertiliser must get to market
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said governments and the private sector should cooperate to bring Russian food and fertilisers as well as Ukrainian grain to world markets under a deal agreed on last month.
“The other part of this package deal is the unimpeded access to the global markets of Russian food and fertiliser, which are not subject to sanctions,” Guterres told a news conference in Istanbul. “It is important that all governments and the private sector cooperate to bring them to market.
“Getting more food and fertiliser out of Ukraine and Russia is crucial to further calm commodity markets and lower prices for consumers.”
US official warns Russia trying to bypass sanctions via Turkey
US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo has told Turkey’s Deputy Finance Minister Yunus Elitas that Russian entities and individuals are attempting to use Turkey to bypass Western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, the Treasury Department has said.
In a phone call, the two also discussed ongoing efforts to implement and enforce sanctions against Russia, the department said in a statement.
Daughter of Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin killed in car explosion
A car belonging to the daughter of Russian political scientist and philosopher Alexander Dugin has exploded in Moscow, according to media reports.
Darya Dugina’s car exploded on Mozhaysky highway at about 9:45pm local time (18:45 GMT), with witnesses claiming the blast rocked the vehicle in the middle of the road and scattered debris.
It was unclear if the explosion was an assassination attempt targeting her father, who has been described as the “brain” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Dugina, like her father, was involved in journalism, philosophy and politics.
Read more here.
Alexander Dugin’s daughter said to have been blown up in her car in Moscow this evening. pic.twitter.com/zfuLc5uJJj
— Michael Weiss 🌻🇺🇸🇮🇪 (@michaeldweiss) August 20, 2022
Usyk beats Joshua, retains heavyweight boxing belts
Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk has beaten Britain’s Anthony Joshua in a surprise split points decision, retaining his WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO world heavyweight boxing belts.
The fight in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah was a rematch of one in London in September, which Usyk won on a unanimous decision to take the belts from Joshua, but fought with much more intensity and emotion.
Read more here.
Zelenskyy urges vigilance before Independence Day
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Ukrainians to be vigilant before Independence Day on Wednesday.
The day also marks six months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Missile wounds 12 near power plant
New blasts have hit Crimea and a missile wounded 12 civilians near a nuclear power plant in the south.
Four children were among the wounded in the missile raid in Voznesensk, about 30km (20 miles) from the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, said the governor of the Mykolaiv region.
Two Russians and a Ukrainian arrested as alleged spies in Albania
Two Russians and a Ukrainian were arrested for alleged espionage at a military plant in southern Albania, the Albanian Defence Ministry has said.
The Russian man identified only as MZ, 24, was detained after entering the plant’s grounds in Gramsh, 80km(50 miles) south of the capital, Tirana, and taking photos, the ministry said in a statement.
Two military guards were injured by a “neo-paralysing spray” used by the Russians while resisting arrest, it said.
Another Russian woman, ST, 33, and a Ukrainian man, FA, 25, were arrested outside the complex and their vehicle was blocked, the ministry said.
“Three persons were accompanied by police which in cooperation with other institutions is investigating the case,” the statement said, adding that military police, army intelligence police, and civil and anti-terror police are coordinating on the case.