Russo-Ukrainian War: Forces from Moscow attempt to advance to Donetsk; Putin pledges to expand ties with North Korea – live | Ukraine
Putin says Russia and North Korea will expand relations
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia and North Korea will expand bilateral relations, Pyongyang’s official KCNA news agency reported on Monday. Putin told North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that the two countries would “expand comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations with joint efforts”, the KCNA reported on Monday.
In a letter to Kim for North Korea’s Liberation Day, Putin said closer ties would be in the interests of both countries and would help strengthen the security and stability of the Korean peninsula and the Northeast Asia region, the KCNA said.
Kim also reportedly sent a letter to Putin saying that the Russian-North Korean friendship was forged during World War II with the victory over Japan. Their “strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity” have since reached a new level in their joint efforts to counter threats and provocations from hostile military forces, Kim said in the letter, as reported by Reuters. KCNA did not identify hostile forces, but it generally used the term to refer to the United States and its allies.
Kim predicted that cooperation between Russia and North Korea would grow based on an agreement signed in 2019 when he met with Putin.
In July, North Korea recognized two Russian-occupied “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine as independent states, and officials raised the possibility of North Korean workers being sent to the areas to help with construction and other work.
Ukraine’s military command said on Sunday that Russian soldiers had continued unsuccessfully to attack Ukrainian positions near Avdiivka, which, since 2014, has become one of the outposts of Ukrainian forces near Donetsk.
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— РИА Новости (@rianru) August 15, 2022
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has said Russia and North Korea will expand bilateral relations, Pyongyang’s state news agency, the KCNA, reported on Monday. Putin told the North Korean ruler, Kim Jong-un, that the two countries would “expand the comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations with common efforts”, the KCNA reported on Monday.
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also reportedly sent a letter to Putin saying Russian-North Korean friendship had been forged in the second world war with victory over Japan. Their “strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity” had since reached a new level in their common efforts to frustrate threats and provocations from hostile military forces, Kim said in the letter, as reported by Reuters. KCNA did not identify the hostile forces, but it has typically used that term to refer to the US and its allies.
","elementId":"5494d931-5e40-431d-ab0f-740e63f286e5"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"Kim predicted cooperation between Russia and North Korea would grow based on an agreement signed in 2019 when he met with Putin.
","elementId":"b3e60b6c-c0c8-40f5-8e3c-0bb255fec8e2"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"North Korea in July recognised two Russian-occupied “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine as independent states, and officials raised the prospect of North Korean workers being sent to the areas to help in construction and other labour.
","elementId":"b2aeed05-f6c5-440c-8cb8-cef6d79e5ba4"}],"attributes":{"pinned":true,"keyEvent":true,"summary":false},"blockCreatedOn":1660537580000,"blockCreatedOnDisplay":"00.26 EDT","blockLastUpdated":1660539385000,"blockLastUpdatedDisplay":"00.56 EDT","blockFirstPublished":1660538332000,"blockFirstPublishedDisplay":"00.38 EDT","blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone":"00.38","title":"Putin says Russia and North Korea will expand relations","contributors":[],"primaryDateLine":"Mon 15 Aug 2022 05.47 EDT","secondaryDateLine":"First published on Mon 15 Aug 2022 00.26 EDT"},{"id":"62f9b3848f086d0d751f18d0","elements":[{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
","elementId":"f25d5ffa-d8ce-49b5-9333-680ed9ea4a12"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"I’m Samantha Lock and I will be bringing you all the latest developments for the next short while. Whether you’ve been following our coverage overnight or you’ve just dropped in, here are the latest lines.
","elementId":"53d7c6c7-7fcf-42a3-976e-041c879736d4"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has said Russia and North Korea will expand bilateral relations, Pyongyang’s state media reported. The Russian ambassador in Kabul also said working with the Taliban was necessary where it is in the interests of Moscow.
","elementId":"9e4b0059-9586-4131-9254-c134dac7fa39"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"Ukrainian forces reported heavy Russian shelling and attempts to advance on several towns in the eastern region of Donetsk, but said they had repelled many of the attacks.
","elementId":"acfd3895-e2c0-4d93-bfd0-ace5b0d0dc7d"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"It is 7.30am in Ukraine. Here is everything you might have missed:
","elementId":"f11925a7-3726-4e45-87a8-df66e875a0d6"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"- n
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, says Russia and North Korea will expand bilateral relations, Pyongyang’s state media reported on Monday. Putin told North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that the two countries would “expand the comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations with common efforts,” Pyongyang’s state media reported on Monday. In a letter to Kim for North Korea’s liberation day, Putin said that closer ties would be in both countries’ interests, and would help strengthen the security and stability of the Korean peninsula and the north-eastern Asian region, North Korea’s KCNA news agency said.
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The first UN ship to carry Ukrainian grain for Africa is ready to depart with 23,000 tonnes of wheat. The MV Brave Commander will head to Africa and “Ethiopia will be the last country where the 23,000-tonne cargo of wheat will be delivered”, said Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov. It will be the first shipment of food aid since Kyiv and Moscow agreed a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey in July to unblock Black Sea grain deliveries.
n
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The first ship to depart Ukraine when grain exports resumed was approaching the Syrian port of Tartus on Sunday. The ship left Ukraine two weeks ago but cargo on the Razoni was refused by its original Lebanese buyer, two shipping sources told Reuters.
n Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said his forces will target Russian soldiers who shoot at or from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. “Every Russian soldier who either shoots at the plant, or shoots using the plant as cover, must understand that he becomes a special target for our intelligence agents, for our special services, for our army,” he said.
n
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A total of 42 countries have called on Russia to immediately withdraw military forces from the plant, including the US, Japan and the UK, plus the EU. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has warned of a possible nuclear disaster unless fighting stops.
n
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Zelenskiy has warned those with Russian citizenship against being complicit and silent in supporting Putin’s war on Ukraine. “People’s silence approaches the level of complicity. And the rejection of the real fight against evil becomes the assistance to it. Therefore, if you have Russian citizenship and you are silent, it means that you are not fighting, it means that you are supporting it,” he said in his latest national address.
n
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Ukraine’s forces continued to strike at strategic bridges supplying Russian troops holding the city of Kherson, the only major site held by the invaders on the west bank of the Dnieper, including the Antonovsky road bridge and the crossing at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant upstream. Ukraine said Russian troops who crossed the Dnieper river during their offensive in the southern region were facing growing difficulties after bridges were damaged.
n Russia says it has taken control of Udy, a village in the eastern Kharkiv region, according to its latest military briefing. The village has been under heavy shelling by Russian forces.
n
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Russia’s priority over the past week has likely been to reorient units to strengthen its campaign in southern Ukraine, British military intelligence said on Sunday. The UK Ministry of Defence said Russia also appeared to be intensifying attacks on the eastern Donbas front, in what is likely to be an attempt to ensure Ukraine is not able to concentrate forces in the south against Kherson.
n
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Saudi Arabia’s largely state-owned energy firm recorded one of the largest quarterly profits in history, highlighting the colossal profits made by gas and oil-rich nations during the energy crisis linked to the war in Ukraine. Saudi Aramco profits in the three months to the end of June were up 90% to $48bn (£40bn) to beat the near $26bn it made a year earlier. Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding invested in Russian energy groups Gazprom, Rosneft and Lukoil between 22 February and 22 March, it said on Twitter on Sunday.
n
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Countries throughout Europe have called for the EU to limit or block short-term Schengen visas for Russian citizens. Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Finland and the Czech Republic all urged new restrictions. Poland is also considering restrictions for Russian tourist visas.
n
Key events
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to target Russian troops at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant firing on Ukrainian towns.
In a video statement on Saturday evening, the President of Ukraine said:
Every Russian soldier who fires at the station or who fires under cover of the station must understand that he becomes a special target for our intelligence, for our special services, for our army.
Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of bombing the nuclear power plant, which is Europe’s largest, following multiple incidents in recent weeks.
Russian troops captured the station early in the war. The G7 countries have called on Moscow to withdraw from the plant to avoid risking a nuclear disaster.
The American basketball star’s defense team Britney Griner appealed his conviction for drug possession and trafficking, Griner’s lawyer Maria Blagovolina told Reuters on Monday.
Griner, who had played for a Russian club, was arrested in a Moscow at the airport on February 17 after cannabis-infused vape cartridges were found in his luggage.
She pleaded guilty to the charges but said she made an ‘honest mistake’ in seizing Russia with cannabis oil, which is illegal in the country.
She was found guilty on August 4 and jailed for nine years.
The US government says Griner was wrongfully detained. He offered to trade him for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States.
Read more about the case here: Russia ‘ready to discuss’ prisoner swap but will resist pressure to release Brittney Griner
Mykolaiv came under heavy fire overnight from Russian forces, a Ukrainian official said.
Vitaly Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv, posted on his Telegram account that an educational institution and a hotel were hit on the outskirts of the city. He added that there were no casualties.
The report could not be independently verified.
Report by Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer:
“A city with Russian history,” proclaim billboards across the Ukrainian city of Kherson, which has been occupied by the Russian army since the first days of March. Others display the Russian flag or quotes from Vladimir Putin.
Over the past five months, Moscow has appointed an occupation administration to rule the Kherson region and ordered schools to teach the Russian curriculum. Residents are encouraged to apply for Russian passports to access pensions and other benefits.
The next step in the Kremlin’s plan is a referendum, to add a dubious sense of legality to these facts on the ground and create a pretext to bring Kherson and other occupied parts of southern Ukraine into Russia, using a version Crimea 2014 update. game book.
In a series of telephone interviews, residents of Kherson reported minimal enthusiasm for a referendum and described a nervous and unpredictable atmosphere in the city.
Residents remain uncertain what the next few months might bring: a swift Ukrainian counteroffensive to regain control, a protracted battle that turns the city to rubble, or Russia staging its mock referendum and annexing the territory.
Learn more here: ‘Referendum is not good’: Occupied Kherson looks to uncertain future
Here are some of the latest images sent to us by the news wires of Ukraine.
The Kyiv Independent reports that Russian forces shelled Kharkovin eastern Ukraine overnight and hit a factory.
No other information was given on possible victims.
⚡️Russian forces shell Kharkiv on the night of August 15.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported that at 2:50 a.m. local time Russian forces shelled the Slobidsky district of the city and hit a factory. There is no information on the casualties at the time of publication.
— Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) August 15, 2022
Simon Tisdall argues that locking up Vladimir Putin is a strategic goal the West should pursue:
The West’s strategic goals in Ukraine – repelling Russia’s invasion, restoring national sovereignty and securing the victory of global democracy over “the forces of darkness” – were made clear by US President Joe Biden in Warsaw in March, then approved by the United Kingdom and the Europeans. leaders.
What has always been less clear is whether they honestly expect to achieve these goals, given NATO’s unheroic refusal to get directly involved. An uncomfortable, even agonizing question now arises: should Ukrainians prepare for a stab in the back this winter?
Nearly six months into the war, the widening gap between rhetoric and reality is becoming potentially fatal. Public outrage over the invasion is giving way to concern, bordering on panic, about its alarming impact on energy and food prices and the cost of living.
This in turn fuels doubts about western power. How long before Europe’s already fragile unity crumbles, if and when Russia’s gas tap is finally turned off?
Read more about Simon Tisdall’s article here: As Putin’s war sows panic across Europe, Ukrainians must fear a stab in the back
Russian troops use Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, as cover for firing missiles into Ukrainian-held territory. Foreign correspondent tutor Luke Harding speaks with residents and Ukrainian military officials, who say they cannot retaliate.
The Philippines is seeking to buy heavy Chinook helicopters from the United States, after scrapping a deal with Russia worth 12.7 billion pesos ($227.35 million) to avoid sanctions, the l Manila Ambassador to Washington.
In June, a few days before President Rodrigo Duterte ended its six-year term, the Philippines canceled a deal to buy 16 Russian Mi-17 military transport helicopters over fears of US sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez told reporters in a virtual forum.
This termination of this contract is precipitated mainly by the war in Ukraine. Although we expect sanctions from the United States and Western countries, it is obviously not in our interest to continue and pursue this contract.
Romualdez said the Chinooks would replace existing equipment used for troop movement and disaster preparedness in the Southeast Asian country.
The United States is ready to reach an agreement on how much the Philippines should spend on Russian helicopters, Romualdez said, adding that the agreement with Washington will likely include maintenance, service and parts.
The Philippines is continuing talks with Russia to recover its $38 million down payment for the helicopters, delivery of which was to begin next November, 24 months after the signing of the contract.
Rustem Umerovmember of the Ukrainian parliament, posted a photo of the Canadian military on Twitter and thanked them for helping to train members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
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