today
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
APPEAL TO STOP GRANTING VISAS TO RUSSIAN CITIZENS
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on all European Union and G7 countries to stop granting visas to Russian citizens.
“The Russians largely support the war in Ukraine. They must lose the right to be able to move from border to border until they respect these borders,” he said. The request had already been made previously by Estonia and Finland.
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TEHRAN ENSURES THAT ITS SATELLITE IS NOT USED FOR “SPYING” Tehran on Wednesday rejected US allegations that the Iranian satellite launched by Russia was intended for “espionage” activities. “Sometimes certain comments are made to stir up tension,” Iranian Space Agency chief Hassan Salarieh replied. “To say that we want to engage in espionage operations with the Khayyam satellite…is really childish,” he told reporters. “Khayyam is fully designed and built to meet the country’s needs in various areas of urban crisis management, natural resources, mining, agriculture, etc,” he added. —
RUSSIA ‘ENDANGERS THE REGION’ The group of the most industrialized countries of the G7 on Wednesday accused Moscow of “endangering” the Ukrainian region around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russian troops, and demanded the return of the plant to Ukraine. “We demand that Russia immediately return to its rightful sovereign owner, Ukraine, full control of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant,” wrote the G7 in a statement issued by Germany, which holds the presidency. “It is Russia’s continued control of the plant that puts the region at risk,” the group said. —
ZAPORIJIA: THE G7 ACCUSES RUSSIA On Wednesday, the G7 accused Moscow of “endangering” the Ukrainian region around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russian troops, and demanded the return of the plant to Ukraine. “We demand that Russia immediately return to its rightful sovereign owner, Ukraine, full control of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant,” wrote the G7 in a statement issued by Germany, which holds the presidency. “It is Russia’s continued control of the plant that puts the region at risk.” —
ORDER FOR RUSSIAN HELICOPTERS CANCELED BY THE PHILIPPINES The Philippine authorities have announced that they have canceled the order for 16 Russian military helicopters. According to press reports, this is due to US sanctions against Moscow, which was not mentioned by the spokesman for the Philippine Ministry of Defense. He assured AFP that his ministry was “in the process of formalizing the break”. Manila, a longtime ally of the United States, had concluded a contract in November for 12.7 billion Philippine pesos (228 million euros) for Mi-17 helicopters to modernize its military equipment. —
MEASURES TO COUNTER THE SOAR IN PRICES CREATED BY THE WAR IN UKRAINE German Finance Minister Christian Lindner has announced that Berlin will adopt a series of tax measures amounting to 10 billion euros in 2023 to mitigate the soaring prices. Inflation in Germany reached 7.5% in July, down from June, but it is still at a very high level due to the war in Ukraine. —
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION AGAINST RUSSIAN JOURNALIST MARINA OVSIANNIKOVA The journalist became famous following her appearance on the newspaper of a Russian state channel with a poster against the offensive in Ukraine. She then received two administrative fines. Marina Ovsiannikova was finally arrested on Tuesday August 10 after a search of her home by the police. Under criminal investigation for “disseminating false information about the Russian army”, she could then be sentenced to up to fifteen years in prison. This follows his participation in a demonstration in front of the Kremlin on July 15th. The journalist then accused Vladimir Putin of “murderer”, referring to the children who died in Ukraine. —
SALE OF FIRST LOAD OF UKRAINIAN GRAIN CANCELED The contract for the sale of the first shipment of cereals exported by Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Lebanon has been canceled due to the delay in delivery. The Razoni had left the Ukrainian port of Odessa on the Black Sea on August 1 with 26,000 tonnes of corn, and should have docked in the port of Tripoli, Lebanon, on Sunday. The five-month delivery delay, however, “prompted the buyer and shipper to agree on canceling the order,” according to a statement from the Ukrainian Embassy in Lebanon. The sender is nevertheless studying “other purchase requests”. —
80 RUSSIAN ROCKETS LAUNCHED IN THE DNIPROPETROVSK REGION “We spent a horrible night. (…) It’s very hard to get the bodies out of the rubble,” said Valentin Reznitchenko, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, where 13 civilians were killed in Russian bombardments. overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday. “I beg you, go to safe places during the air raids. (…) Don’t let the Russians kill you”. The town of Marganets, located on the other bank of the Dnipro river opposite the Ukrainian nuclear power plant of Zaporizhiia, and the village of Vychtchetarassivka were targeted in this attack with Grad multiple rocket launchers. “Eighty rockets were deliberately and insidiously launched at residential neighborhoods while people were sleeping in their homes,” he said. —
RUSSIAN BOMBING IN THE DNIPROPETROVSK REGION Thirteen civilians were killed in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in Russian bombardments in the Dnipropetrovsk region, in central-eastern Ukraine, announced Governor Valentin Reznichenko. Two wounded succumbed to their injuries, adding to the death toll of eleven announced by the governor a few minutes earlier on Telegram. —
RUSSIANS TRY TO CONNECT ZAPORIZHYA WITH CRIMEA The situation is still just as tense at the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant. According to the boss of the Ukrainian company Energoatom, Petro Kotin, the Russian military “implement the program (of the Russian group) Rosatom aiming to make it switch over to the Crimean electricity networks”. “The first condition for this is to damage the power lines connecting the power plant to the Ukrainian energy system. From August 7 to August 9, the Russians have already damaged three power lines. At the moment, the power plant is operating with only one output line from electricity, which is an extremely dangerous mode of operation”, because if it is cut, “the plant will have to switch to diesel generators, and everything will depend on their reliability”, explained Petro Kotine. —
RUSSIAN BOMBING EASTERN UKRAINE According to the Ukrainian army general staff, the Russians continued on Tuesday to bombard several localities in eastern Ukraine, around Cherniguiv in the north, Kharkiv in the northeast, as well as the city of Mykolaiv, in the south. In the eastern region of Donetsk, more than 3,000 civilians, including 600 children, have been evacuated in total since the authorities made these evacuations compulsory at the end of July, kyiv announced. —
STOP OF RUSSIAN OIL DELIVERIES FOR THREE NEW COUNTRIES The Russian company responsible for transporting hydrocarbons, Transneft, announced on Tuesday that deliveries of Russian oil through Ukrainian territory to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Member States of the European Union without access to the sea, were interrupted on August 4. Transneft explained that the payment for the right of transit through Ukraine for the month of August, made on July 22, was refused on July 28 because of the entry into force of certain sanctions against Russia. These are supplies via a branch of the Druzhba pipeline crossing Ukraine and serving the three countries concerned. Deliveries to Poland and Germany, through Belarus, “continue” on the other hand “normally”, assured Transneft. —
EXPLOSIONS AT AN AMMUNITION DEPOT IN CRIMEA Explosions that left one dead and injured occurred on Tuesday at an ammunition depot on the site of a military airfield on Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia. The Russian army claimed that no shooting or bombardment had been the cause of these explosions, first reported by the authorities of this peninsula unilaterally attached to Russia in 2014. According to a press release from the Russian army, “several ammunition intended for aviation exploded in a depot located on the territory of the military airfield of Saki, near the locality of Novofiodorovka”. Videos posted on social media showed a fireball forming after a loud blast, as thick billows of black smoke rose into the sky and panicked holidaymakers left the nearby beach. —
BONJOUR Hello and welcome to this direct dedicated to the war in Ukraine. Find here the main information of the conflict, on this Wednesday, August 10. —
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