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UKRAINE UPDATE: 19 AUGUST 2022

Erdoğan says Lviv talks focused on war’s end; Russia sends jets with hypersonic missiles to Kaliningrad

Erdoğan says Lviv talks focused on war’s end; Russia sends jets with hypersonic missiles to Kaliningrad
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (left), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (centre) and UN Secretary-General António Guterres attend a joint press conference in Lviv, Ukraine, 18 July 2022. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Mykola Tys)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said talks in Lviv, western Ukraine, with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky focused on how to “ultimately end” the nearly six-month-old conflict. Erdogan said he would evaluate the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held separate talks on Thursday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres before a joint meeting. Major topics included the situation at the Zaporizhizhia nuclear power plant. Guterres said the UN was establishing a “fact-finding mission” to investigate last month’s attack on the Olenivka prison which killed dozens of Ukrainian POWs. 

Shipments from Black Sea ports are picking up under last month’s deal brokered by Turkey and the UN, driving grain prices lower. Russia’s defence ministry said it deployed fighter jets equipped with hypersonic missiles to the exclave of Kaliningrad. Two are suspected of having violated Finnish airspace.  

Key developments

On the ground

Russian forces conducted several unsuccessful assaults near Kramatorsk, Bakhmut and Avdiyivka in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine’s military staff reported on Facebook. Shelling continued in areas from the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine to the Mykolaiv region in the south, according to the statement. Russia also fired missiles at Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, killing at least nine people and wounding 35 as a residential house and a dormitory were hit, Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor said. One person was killed and two injured in Mykolaiv. 

Erdogan says he discussed ending war in latest bid to mediate  

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he discussed avenues to end the Russian-led war during talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, as well as conditions for a possible exchange of prisoners. 

The comments came after the Turkish leader met in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv with President Volodymyr Zelensky and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday. Erdogan said he would follow up on the discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.  

Ukraine buys imaging satellite and data access for military 

A Ukrainian charity used $16.4-million spared by the Bayraktar drone donation to buy a satellite and access to high-resolution imaging for the country’s military. 

The money had been crowd-funded by Ukrainians via the Pritula Charity Foundation to purchase the Turkish drones, which were ultimately provided free of charge. 

The foundation used the funds to sign a contract with Helsinki-based ICEYE which operates a fleet of 21 spacecraft providing high-precision Earth images multiple times a day.

UN to establish fact-finding mission at Olenivka prison 

The United Nations will establish a fact-finding mission at the site of the Olenivka prison, where some 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war died in an attack last month, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. General Carlos dos Santos Cruz of Brazil has been appointed to lead the effort. 

“We will now continue to work to obtain the necessary assurances to guarantee secure access to Olenivka,” Guterres said in Lviv. “That means safe, secure and unfettered access to people, places and evidence without any interference from anybody.” 

While Ukraine and Russia have traded blame for the incident, European intelligence has dismissed Moscow’s claims that ammunition provided by the US was used to hit the facility, following analysis of the damage captured by satellite images.

 

 

 

Zelenskiy, Erdoğan discuss stolen grain  

Volodymyr Zelensky and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan agreed that trade in looted grain is “unacceptable”, Ukraine’s president said after his meeting with Turkey’s president in Lviv, western Ukraine. Kyiv estimates that Russia has stolen almost 50,000 tonnes of grain has been stolen in occupied areas. 

The pair also discussed the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s presidential office said in a readout. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in Lviv that global food markets are “beginning to stabilise” — a trend reflected in wheat prices, which have given up the year’s gains. 

Ukraine, Turkey to cooperate on infrastructure 

Ukraine and Turkey signed a memorandum on cooperation for the reconstruction of Ukrainian infrastructure after the war, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said.

The first potential project is the restoration of a bridge in the village of Romanivka in the Kyiv region, which connected Bucha and Irpin with Kyiv and was destroyed at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. 

Oleskandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, noted that Turkish business has extensive experience in the construction of roads and bridges, in particular, the Zaporizhzhia and Kremenchuk bridges in Ukraine, and is a reliable partner.

Zelensky says he spoke with UN chief about nuclear plant, deportations  

Commenting on Telegram after speaking with António Guterres, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he discussed with the UN Secretary-General the forced deportation of Ukrainians, the need to release Ukrainian soldiers and medics from Russian captivity, and continued exports of grain from the Black Sea. 

“Particular attention was paid to the topic of Russia’s nuclear blackmail” at the Zaporizhzhia plant, Zelensky said, adding that the UN “must ensure the security of this strategic object, its demilitarisation and complete liberation from Russian troops”. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a key architect of the Ukrainian grain export safe-transit agreement, met with Zelensky before the three men started tripartite talks. 

Russia issuing driver’s licences in occupied Zaporizhzhia  

Russian occupation authorities began distributing drivers’ licences and vehicle registration plates in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, according to state-run Tass. A planned replacement of licences in the city of Melitopol began on August 16, the news service reported. 

The move is the latest sign of Kremlin efforts to consolidate control over areas of Ukraine seized by Russian forces even as the war continues. 

Officials in the occupied Kherson region of southern Ukraine also began issuing Russian licences and registration plates this month, as the Kremlin prepares to organise referendums to annex territories into Russia as soon as September.

 

 

 

Ukraine foodstuff exports hit 500,000 tonnes under deal 

More than 500,000 tonnes of foodstuffs have been exported from Ukraine aboard 21 ships since a safe-transit deal for three ports in the Odesa region was signed last month. 

More vessels are arriving by the day. A key challenge is whether larger vessels normally commonplace in Ukraine’s ports are willing to transit the corridor and boost flows, even as Moscow continues its wider assault. 

Wheat futures in Chicago tumbled on Thursday and have now erased all of the year’s gains.  

Russia sends jets with hypersonic missiles to Kaliningrad 

Three MiG-31 planes with hypersonic Kinzhal missiles relocated to Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave as part of strategic deterrence, the Russian defence ministry said, according to Interfax. 

The deployments have been signalled by Moscow for some time in response to Finland and Sweden’s decision to join Nato. 

Two of the jets are suspected of having violated Finnish airspace near Porvoo on the Gulf of Finland, Finland’s defence ministry said, according to Reuters. 

New aid pledges plummet in July 

New pledges of support for Ukraine from international donors declined “drastically” to about €1.5-billion last month, with two-thirds, or €1-billion, of the total coming from Norway, according to the latest analysis by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

“In July, donor countries initiated almost no new aid, but they did deliver some of the already committed support such as weapon systems,” said Christoph Trebesch, who heads the team that compiles the institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker. 

“Both financial and military support has fallen further behind what Ukraine needs,” he added. “It also remains small in relation to what some donors are mobilising in their own countries for crisis response.”

Wheat extends losses on new shipments  

Wheat extended declines on Thursday as grain cargoes from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports have continued to flow, weeks after a safe-transit deal was reached. The resumption of grain shipments from one of the world’s major suppliers has buoyed global supply prospects at a time of year when its sales typically peak.

Three more ships left Ukraine on Wednesday carrying maize and sunflower oil and meal. Another four inbound ships are cleared to sail to Ukrainian ports. On Thursday, four outbound vessels and four inbound ships will be inspected. 

Blinken speaks with Ukraine on security assistance 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on continued US support for Ukraine’s defence needs, according to a readout from the State Department. 

Blinken reaffirmed that the US will continue to call for an end to all military operations at or near Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, the return of full control of these facilities to Ukraine and for Russia to end the war, according to the readout. 

Separately, Kuleba on Thursday described a call with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, who said “he is ready” to lead a delegation to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The facility has recently come under shelling that Ukraine and Russia have blamed on each other. 

Estonia hit by cyberattacks after removing Soviet tank monument 

Estonia was hit by a massive wave of cyberattacks on Wednesday after the removal of a Soviet tank monument on Tuesday, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said on Twitter.

In announcing the various monuments were being removed, Kallas said that “as symbols of repressions and Soviet occupation, they have become a source of increasing social tensions”. DM

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