Because the Russia-Ukraine struggle enters its 171st day, we check out the primary developments.
Listed below are the important thing occasions on Saturday, August 13.
Combating
- Blasts this week on the Russian-operated Saky army airfield within the annexed Crimean Peninsula led to the lack of eight Russian fight jets, the UK’s defence ministry mentioned.
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy advised authorities officers to cease speaking to reporters about Kyiv’s army techniques in opposition to Russia, saying such remarks had been “frankly irresponsible”.
- Russia’s defence ministry mentioned its forces destroyed a US-made AN/MPQ-64 radar system in Ukraine’s japanese Donetsk area. In its newest each day briefing, the ministry additionally mentioned Russian troops had shot down two US-made Excessive Mobility Artillery Rocket Methods (HIMARS) missiles.
- Ukraine’s defence minister mentioned Kyiv has acquired a cargo of M20 A number of Launch Rocket Methods (MLRS) from the UK.
- Ukraine’s army mentioned its artillery hit a Russian ammunition depot close to a key bridge within the south on Friday and added it now had the flexibility to assault practically all of Moscow’s provide traces within the occupied area.
Economic system
- Russia’s gross home product (GDP) contracted by 4 p.c within the second quarter in contrast with the identical interval a 12 months earlier, as financial sanctions by the West take their toll on the financial system, the nationwide statistics company mentioned.
- Russia’s Nationwide Settlement Depository (NSD) mentioned it filed a lawsuit on the European Courtroom of Justice in Luxembourg to overturn European Union sanctions imposed on the nation over its invasion of Ukraine.
- A possible new fuel connection between Spain and France could possibly be able to function in lower than a 12 months’s time, Spain’s Power Minister Teresa Ribera mentioned, if France and different European international locations agree on the venture. The EU is racing to wean itself off Russian pure fuel after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, bringing new interconnection tasks into focus.
- McDonald’s will begin reopening a few of its eating places in Ukraine within the coming months, an emblem of the war-torn nation’s return to some sense of normalcy and a present of help after the American fast-food chain and others pulled out of Russia.
- Russia is contemplating shopping for the currencies of “pleasant” international locations resembling China, India and Turkey to carry in its Nationwide Wealth Fund (NWF), having misplaced the flexibility to purchase {dollars} or euros attributable to sanctions, its central financial institution has mentioned.
- Russian oil flows to the Czech Republic via the Druzhba pipeline are set to renew inside hours after transit price funds had been unblocked, Slovak pipeline operator Transpetrol has mentioned.