Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 901
As the war enters its 901st day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Wednesday, August 14, 2024. Kursk incursion The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskii, said Kyiv’s troops had taken control of 74 settlements in Russia’s Kursk region and were still advancing, gaining control over 40sq km (15sq miles) of territory in the past 24 hours. In Russia, special forces commander Major General Apti Alaudinov said Ukraine’s troops had been halted. The Ministry of Defence said Russian troops had repelled attacks in villages about 26 to 28km (16 to 17 miles) from the border. Kursk regional Governor Alexei Smirnov called on residents to show patience and character, warning that “the crisis has not yet been overcome”. United States President Joe Biden said Ukraine’s military incursion into Russia had “created a real dilemma” for Russian President Vladimir Putin. In his first substantive comments since Kyiv launched its surprise attack on August 6, Biden said he had been briefed on developments every four to five hours. Officials stressed the US had no role in planning or preparation for the attack. Lithuanian Minister of Defence Laurynas Kasciunas said Russia was moving troops from its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad to Kursk. Russia convened an informal gathering of the UN Security Council and criticised Ukraine’s allies for not condemning Kyiv’s incursion. “We will not recognise the aggressor as the victim,” said senior Slovenian diplomat Klemen Ponikvar, one of several members to accuse Russia of hypocrisy, double standards and wasting the council’s time. Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and currently occupies about one-fifth of Ukraine’s internationally-recognised territory. Russia has been evacuating thousands of residents from the Kursk region [Ministry of Emergency Situations Press Service via AP Photo] Fighting in Ukraine At least one person was killed and two injured in Russian shelling of Ukraine’s Sumy region, bordering Kursk. Sumy’s regional military administration said it had recorded 45 Russian attacks on Tuesday, including guided bomb strikes, drone explosions and shelling. Ukraine’s general staff said it was restricting the movement of civilians within a 20km (12 mile) border zone in Sumy due to an “increase in the intensity of hostilities” and the activation of Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups in the area. Two people were killed and 30 injured after a bus was struck by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-occupied city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, the TASS news agency reported, quoting Russian-appointed local officials. The Ukrainian military said Russian forces stepped up their attacks on the Pokrovsk front in eastern Ukraine. The General Staff said there had been 52 battles in the area over the previous 24 hours, more than a third of all battles reported along the war’s 1,000km (621-mile) front line. Russia launched 38 attack drones and two Iskander-M ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s Air Force said. Thirty of the drones were destroyed over eight Ukrainian regions, it added. It was not clear what happened to the weapons that were not destroyed. Politics and diplomacy Andriy Yermak, Ukraine’s president’s chief of staff, said Ukraine plans to hold a follow-up conference this month to June’s peace summit in Switzerland. The meeting will take place online and focus on energy security, he said. Adblock test (Why?)
US clears $20bn in arms sales for Israel as atrocities continue in Gaza
More weapons transfers approved as Israel bombs Gaza and prepares for anticipated retaliatory strikes by Iran and Hezbollah. The United States has approved another $20bn in weapons transfers to Israel, despite concerns that Israeli forces are routinely violating international law in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The State Department announced on Tuesday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had approved the arms sale, which includes dozens of fighter jets alongside tank munitions and air-to-air missiles. “The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defence capability,” the State Department said. The announcement came as Israel prepares for expected retaliation from Iran and the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah following the assassinations of high-level Hamas and Hezbollah officials which have raised concerns over the possibility of a regional war. The US has said it is working to avoid such an escalation. President Joe Biden on Tuesday said an Iranian retaliation might be avoided if a ceasefire agreement was reached to end the war in Gaza where Israeli forces have killed nearly 40,000 people, largely women and children, levelled entire neighbourhoods and blocked shipments of humanitarian assistance. Critics have called on the the Biden administration to cut off weapons transfers to Israel, alleging that they make the US complicit in the destruction of Gaza and are an essential source of leverage that the administration has refused to exploit in its efforts to secure a ceasefire agreement to end the war, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted will continue. Reports that Israeli forces are systematically violating international law and committing abuses such as torture have also failed to stop the flow of weapons, despite requirements under US law that military units credibly accused of gross human rights violations be cut off from support. Speaking before the United Nations on Tuesday, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said her country’s goal in the region was to “turn the temperature down”. “That starts with finalising a deal for an immediate ceasefire with hostage release in Gaza. We need to get this over the finish line,” she said in remarks to the UN Security Council. Adblock test (Why?)
A hidden ocean on Mars, would it spur human settlement?
A stream of liquid water could be brimming beneath the craggy, tan rock crust on Mars, enough to make up a whole ocean, according to a NASA study, whose results were published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Here’s more about NASA’s latest discovery, and what it tells us about the potential of human settlements on the Red Planet in the future: How did NASA find water on Mars? NASA’s outer-space robotic explorer, the InSight Lander, touched down on Mars in 2018. It studied seismic waves on the planet, which read data from more than 1,300 marsquakes before shutting down two years ago. InSight collected data from a plain near the planet’s equator called Elysium Planitia. A group of researchers combined this data with computer models and speculated that underground water is the most likely explanation for the seismic readings. While NASA found liquid saltwater on Mars in 2015, the latest discovery is significant because it indicates the large amount of water the planet possibly holds in fractures 11.5km (7.15 miles) to 20km (12.4 miles) underground. The lead scientist of the research, Vashan Wright of the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said that if the InSight data collected at Elysium Planitia is representative of the rest of Mars, the water would be enough to fill a global ocean 1 to 2km (0.6 to 1.2 miles) deep. Drills and other equipment will be needed to further investigate and confirm the presence of water. It has long been discovered by scientists that Mars once had water, maybe even in ample amounts. Last year, China’s Mars rover also found that water may be more widespread than previously thought. “There were thoughts that some of the water escaped when Mars lost its atmosphere,” Wright told Al Jazeera. How did Mars lose its atmosphere? Alastair Gunn, a radio astronomer at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester, told the BBC that Mars used to have a strong magnetic field like Earth. The motion of molten iron in Earth’s core generates the field, which protects from cosmic radiation and from the solar wind, which refers to energetic charged particles flowing from the sun. However, Mars cooled internally and switched off this field. This solar wind stripped Mars of its atmosphere, turning it cold and dry. Will there be human settlements on Mars? A NASA rover called the Perseverance Rover, which was launched in 2020, has manufactured oxygen on Mars, Amitabha Ghosh, a space scientist who has worked with NASA, told Al Jazeera. “So we just need water in some form for human existence as well as making rocket fuel,” said Ghosh. Plans for humans to inhabit Mars are not recent. Billionaire and technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has been striving to colonise Mars for over a decade under SpaceX, his rocket company. SpaceX employees have long been fleshing out the blueprint of a Martian city where humans roam, complete with dome habitats and spacesuits. “Elon Musk is making a Starship which can carry 200 people to Mars in six months. It’s all coming together,” Ghosh added. The SpaceX website deems Mars one of Earth’s closest habitable neighbours. Musk is not the only one with Mars city dreams. The United Arab Emirates Space programme, particularly the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center, aims to establish a human settlement on Mars by 2117. “In 10-15 years, it might not look like science fiction any more,” said Ghosh. Who would live on Mars? It is unlikely that most people will be able to afford to live on Mars, in case human settlements are established on the planet. Space missions are priced very high. In 2011, Cirque Du Soleil billionaire Guy Laliberte paid $35m to go to space. Las Vegas-based Bigelow Space Operations (BSO) said in 2019 that it would charge private astronauts $52m a seat to visit the International Space Station for a month or two. Should humans live on Mars? The prospect of humans living on the Red Planet has raised ethical questions: Some thinkers question whether it is right to move to a “backup planet” after wrecking environmental damage on Earth. Ian Stoner, an instructor of the Department of Philosophy at Saint Paul College Minnesota, wrote an article arguing against establishing human settlements on Mars on moral grounds. “Human presence on Mars, he argued in an article, is likely to constitute a significantly invasive or destructive investigation of the Martian environment.” Humans will impart bacteria, yeast and fungus on the environment of the planet, he added. Earth is already marred by environmental damage due to warming temperatures which have resulted in rising sea levels, floods and droughts. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey asked 10,329 American adults about their top priorities for NASA missions. Sixty percent of respondents wanted NASA to monitor asteroids that could hit Earth. For 50 percent of the respondents, the top priority was to monitor key parts of Earth’s climate system. Only 11 percent of respondents stated the exploration of Mars as their top priority. Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, rebuked the idea that Mars should be colonised instead of climate change on Earth being tackled, in an interview with US-based publication Aerospace America. “If we do not take action to reduce and eventually eliminate our carbon emissions, they will overwhelm human civilisation as we know it, long before Mars is ready to be colonised by large numbers of people,” Hayhoe is quoted saying. While space missions have been unearthing new details about the presence of water and oxygen on the Red Planet, Mars has not been explored by crewed space missions. There is not enough information about how long humans can sustainably survive on the planet. Adblock test (Why?)
What’s Troubling Her? Treating women’s mental health in Afghanistan
A 26-year-old psychologist, Mehriya Qadiri, treats young women as a mental health crisis unfolds across Afghanistan. Psychologist Mehriya Qadiri is in a unique position in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. When the Taliban returned to power and banned women from attending university, Mehriya was unable to finish her bachelor’s degree. However, due to the shortage of mental health professionals, she has been allowed to continue her training and work treating patients, both men and women, in hospital and private practice. For Mehriya, business is sadly booming, mostly because the number of girls and women excluded from society, work and education are queueing up for professional help. Mehriya is overworked and alarmed by the cases of anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts she has to deal with on a daily basis. What’s Troubling Her is a documentary film by Najibulla Quraishi and Mike Healy. Adblock test (Why?)
India’s doctors strike to protest murder of medic
NewsFeed Doctors in India are on strike in protest over the brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor while on shift at a Kolkata hospital. Protesters are demanding justice for the victim and stronger legislation to protect healthcare workers from violence. Published On 13 Aug 202413 Aug 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Officials at UN Security Council push for a permanent seat for Africa
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urges reform, says the African continent is underrepresented in a changing world. The United Nations chief has called for the UN Security Council (UNSC) to reform its outdated structure and assign Africa a permanent seat at the table, stressing that the continent is underrepresented. Addressing the council on Monday during a high-level debate, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the composition of the UNSC has failed to keep pace with a changing world. “We cannot accept that the world’s preeminent peace and security body lacks a permanent voice for a continent of well over a billion people … nor can we accept that Africa’s views are undervalued on questions of peace and security, both on the continent and around the world,” he said. The 15-member UNSC consists of five permanent members with veto power – China, France, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom – while the remaining 10 nonpermanent seats are allocated regionally. The 10 seats include three seats for African states; two each for Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Europe and other states; and one for Eastern Europe. In May, the UNSC called for the role of African countries to be strengthened in addressing global security and development challenges. Today, I addressed the @UN Security Council on the urgent need for #UNSC reform, emphasizing the historical injustice of Africa’s underrepresentation. We must reflect the world as it is, not as it was 80 years ago. The credibility of the UN depends on meaningful change. I… pic.twitter.com/Jkozt3YCJ8 — UN GA President (@UN_PGA) August 12, 2024 UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis said at the debate that the UN must reflect the world as it is. “The fact that Africa continues to be manifestly underrepresented on the Security Council is simply wrong, offending as it does both the principles of equity and inclusion,” he said. “It runs counter to the principle of sovereign equality of states and calls for the urgency to reform this institution to reflect the world as it is now, rather than what it was nearly 80 years ago.” A ‘favourable’ moment Speaking at the UNSC, Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio said Africa demands two permanent seats in the UNSC and two additional nonpermanent seats. .@PresidentBio of #SierraLeone speaking in the #UN Security Council regarding the historical injustice against #Africa and enhancing the continent’s effective representation in the #UNSC: “Africa demands two permanent seats in the UN Security Council and two additional… pic.twitter.com/bf2Ny6KdVB — Rami Ayari (@Raminho) August 12, 2024 “The African Union will choose the African permanent members. Africa wants the veto abolished. However, if UN member states wish to retain the veto, it must be extended to all new permanent members as a matter of justice,” he said. Carlos Lopes, a professor at the University of Cape Town who previously served as a high representative for the African Union (AU), told Al Jazeera that African attempts to have better representation aren’t new, but current geopolitics have made this current moment “quite favourable”. “[There’s] a competition for Africa’s votes; Africa’s bloc has become much more difficult to actually align with one position or another,” Lopes said. “The Africans have been able to navigate these geopolitical tensions very well. We have seen it with the membership of the G20 being expanded to include the African Union. Now it’s another attempt by the Africans to push the envelope and try to do it at the Security Council.” Adblock test (Why?)
Ukraine hopes to change dynamics in Donetsk with invasion in Kursk
NewsFeed Ukraine’s entry into Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod has succeeded in diverting attention from Donetsk. Whether that will affect the battlefield there is another matter. Published On 12 Aug 202412 Aug 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 900
As the war enters its 900th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Tuesday, August 13, 2024. Kursk incursion Ukraine’s army chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, said Kyiv controls about 1,000sq km (386sq miles) of the Russian region of Kursk after launching a surprise incursion across the border on August 6. Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Ukrainian ground attacks on his region had resulted in the loss of 28 settlements and that the incursion was about 12km deep and 40km wide. Smirnov said 12 civilians have been killed and 121 injured as a result of the fighting. Some 121,000 residents have been evacuated. Putin, who held a meeting with senior officials on the situation, said Ukraine was trying to destabilise Russia and that there would be a “worthy response“. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which also lies on the border with Ukraine, said some residents were being evacuated amid increased Ukrainian military activity. Russia’s state news agency TASS later reported that 11,000 people had been evacuated from the Krasnaya Yaruga district. Fighting in Ukraine The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its experts were unable to determine what caused a fire at a dormant cooling tower at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine. Moscow and Kyiv have each blamed the other for the fire. The Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces had taken control of the settlement of Lysychne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Politics and diplomacy China urged de-escalation amid Ukraine’s Kursk incursion. “China will continue to maintain communication with the international community and play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the crisis,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said in a statement. Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis signed a joint declaration with his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani expressing “deep concern” over Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, but said that Moscow should be present at the next peace summit. The first summit was held in June and Moscow was not invited. State prosecutors and anticorruption police in Ukraine said they had arrested one of the country’s four deputy energy ministers and three other suspects as they were caught “red-handed” receiving part of a $500,000 bribe. A Russian court sentenced Uzbek community leader Usman Baratov to four years in a penal colony for a social media post mocking troops fighting in Ukraine, the RIA Novosti state news agency reported. Weapons The United States warned Iran against sending ballistic missiles to Russia, saying it would invoke a “severe” US response and undermine efforts by Tehran to improve relations. The Reuters news agency, citing European officials, reported on Friday that Iran was planning to deliver hundreds of Fath-360 close-range ballistic missiles to Moscow. Adblock test (Why?)
Has Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk changed dynamics of the war?
Russia has asked thousands of its citizens to evacuate from Kursk and neighbouring Belgorod region, days after an unprecedented incursion on its territory by Ukrainian forces – the most significant cross-border attack since Moscow invaded Kyiv in February 2022. On Saturday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that his military was fighting inside Russian territory. The latest fighting has caused thousands of people to flee the border areas. Authorities have declared a “federal-level” state of emergency in the Russian regions of Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the incursion a “large-scale provocation” by Ukraine, which has been fighting Moscow forces in its eastern region. Meanwhile, Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for the outbreak of fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which remains under Russian control. The fire has since been put out. Here’s more about the Kursk incursion and what it means for the war: A man looks at debris near a multi-storey residential building, which according to local authorities was hit by remains of a destroyed Ukrainian missile, in Kursk on August 11, 2024. [Kommersant Photo/Anatoliy Zhdanov via Reuters] When did Ukrainian troops enter Kursk? Ukrainian forces launched the Kursk attack on August 6, taking Moscow by surprise. Fighting is under way between Kyiv and Moscow forces in the region. “We are seeing the Ukrainian operation slowly expanding into neighbouring Belgorod,” said Alex Gatopoulos, Al Jazeera’s defence editor. The Ukrainian army has taken some border villages in Belgorod, Gatopoulos said, adding that 11,000 people have been ordered to evacuate Belgorod region. Ukrainian forces are around 30km (18.6 miles) inside Russia, according the Russian Ministry of Defence. The AFP news agency quoted a Ukrainian official as saying that thousands of Ukrainian troops are in Kursk. Why did Ukraine decide to carry out such an attack, and what is Ukraine’s strategy? The Ukrainian attack came after weeks of military setbacks in the eastern Donetsk region. One of the reasons is “to seize the initiative”, Sean Bell, a retired fighter pilot and military analyst, said, explaining that there is a very long border between the two countries and “it’s evident that they can break through”. Secondly, Ukraine’s move demonstrates that Russia does not control this war alone; “Ukraine is clearly taking the reins here,” Bell said. Gatopoulos said Ukraine’s strategy with the Kursk attack amounted to a “drone Blitzkrieg” after Ukraine aggressively used first-person view drones that jammed the Russian drones. First-person-view drones are low-cost and usually operated using a screen or virtual reality goggles. Where did the attack take place? The attack took place in the town of Sudzha in Kursk located 530km (330 miles) from Moscow. Sudzha has the only pumping station that delivers Russian natural gas to Europe through Ukraine. Kursk is in western Russia, at the border with Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy city. How will the attack affect the Russia-Ukraine war? The attack has raised questions on how Ukraine was able to attack Kursk so easily after two years of intense fighting. Military analyst Bell told Al Jazeera that the attack can change the course of the war. While critics deemed Ukraine’s surprise attack reckless, “momentum and initiative is everything in warfare; this caught everybody off guard”, Bell explained. The Ukrainian attack forced Russia to take troops from the front line, where they have been advancing to Ukraine’s Donetsk, and deploy them at Kursk, relieving pressure from the front line for Ukraine, Bell added. To maintain its current position in Kursk, Ukraine will have to send more troops, tanks and resources, Gatopoulos said. While there is a possibility that Russian forces will outnumber and defeat Ukraine, if Ukraine persists, “it would be a great bargaining chip in peace negotiations”, he said. If the Ukrainian mission fails, “it will be a morale blow rather than a morale boost” for Kyiv, Gatopoulos said. What has been Russia’s reaction? Russia hit back militarily, deploying its own troops to quash the incursion. Additionally, Russian forces shot down 35 drones over the Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk and Oryol regions on Sunday night. Ukrainian officials said on Sunday that Russian air attacks killed five people including a four-year-old boy and his father just east of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Russia has also evacuated civilians in border cities and declared a state of emergency in Kursk. The Russian state broadcaster said that 20 temporary accommodation centres were set up, airing footage of a tent camp in Kursk. Officials from Russia have implied that the Ukraine attack had foreign backing. “We have no doubt that the organisers and perpetrators of these crimes, including their foreign curators, will bear responsibility for them,” said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday that the United States was not made aware of Ukraine’s plans to attack Kursk. Why is Belarus deploying forces to Ukraine border? Belarus announced on Saturday that it was sending its forces to the border with Ukraine, claiming Ukraine violated Belarusian airspace during its Kursk incursion. Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko said Belarusian air defence forces destroyed thousands of Ukrainian targets flying over eastern Belarus’s Mogilev. Viktor Khrenin, the country’s defence minister, announced that Ukraine’s violation of the Belarus airspace is indicative of a provocation and is “ready for retaliatory action”. What happened at the Zaporizhzhia power plant? On Sunday, Ukrainian official reported that a fire had broken out at the cooling tower of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia power plant in southern Ukraine. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog, said that the fire has not caused an impact on safety. According to Russian state media, the fire has been extinguished. Zelenskyy accused Russia of the fire, while Moscow blamed it on Kyiv. “These reckless attacks endanger nuclear safety at the plant and increase the risk of a nuclear accident. They must stop now,” said Rafael Grossi, chief of IAEA in a statement, without blaming either side. Adblock test (Why?)
Ukraine arrests energy official as it continues anti-corruption drive
Kyiv has been working hard to try to tame corruption among state officials. Ukraine has detained a deputy energy minister accused of taking a bribe worth half a million dollars as it continues a bid to tame corruption among state officials. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on Monday that it had arrested the official over a scheme to smuggle mining equipment out of the war-torn east of the country. Three alleged accomplices have also been detained. Ukraine has said that, amid its war against Russia’s 2022 invasion, it is trying to step up its fight against official corruption to prove the country’s credentials for joining the European Union. The SBU announcement did not disclose the identity of the official or his accomplices, posting photos of its officers arresting the suspects with their faces blurred. However, opposition MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak named the deputy minister as Oleksandr Kheilo. The SBU said that the minister, responsible for securing vital energy equipment amid the conflict, allegedly demanded mining industry officials pay him to transfer equipment from mines in the front-line eastern Donetsk region to a coal basin in western Ukraine. “The equipment in question is unique and scarce, belonging to one of the state-owned coal companies located in the most active area of the eastern frontline – Pokrovsk,” the SBU said in a statement. “In the spring of 2024, industry representatives approached the deputy energy minister to obtain permission to evacuate the equipment from the war zone and use it at mines in a western region,” it added. “However, the official, whose duties included the preservation of mining equipment, demanded money for its removal,” it said. The suspects were detained as they were about to receive $100,000 of the $500,000 bribe demanded. Investigators had previously documented receipt of another $200,000. Kheilo has now been dismissed, according to a government Telegram channel. Ukraine has been battling corruption for years. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rose to power on a platform of ending corruption. He has fired a number of officials, including the defence minister last year over corruption scandals in the army. In April, the agriculture minister was detained and sacked over allegations of his involvement in an illegal acquisition of state-owned land worth $7m. Adblock test (Why?)