As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 178th day, we take a look at the main developments.
Here are the key events from Saturday, August 20.
Fighting
- Russian forces have continued offensive operations in the direction of Kramatorsk and Bakhmut, west of the Luhansk area held by pro-Russian separatists, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Saturday morning.
- Blasts at the Saky airbase in the annexed Crimean peninsula this month have put more than half of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s naval aviation combat jets out of use, a Western official said.
- The fleet is to receive 12 new vessels alongside additional aviation and land-based vehicles this year, newly appointed commander Vice Admiral Viktor Sokolov said on Friday, state-owned TASS news agency reported.
- Reuters could not confirm battlefield reports independently.
Diplomacy
- Russia has no moral right to sit at the Group of 20 nations while it presses on with its invasion of Ukraine, Britain’s foreign ministry has said, hours after G20 host Indonesia said President Vladimir Putin would attend the group’s November summit in Bali.
- Putin warned his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, that shelling of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which he blamed on Kyiv, could result in a large-scale disaster.
- According to Macron’s office, Putin has agreed to an International Atomic Energy Agency mission to the plant.
- President Joe Biden’s latest security assistance package for Ukraine includes surveillance drones and, for the first time, mine-resistant vehicles, a senior US defence official said.
