Six months after the start of the invasion in Ukraine, the conflict continues to escalate. While the Kremlin plans to increase its strike force, by mobilizing 90,000 additional soldiers, kyiv is preparing to receive six British underwater drones to neutralize Russian mines off its coasts.
At the same time, concerns around the Zaporijia power plant, occupied by the Russians, are not abating. kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of carrying out bombings near the complex, near the town of Energodar, on the Dnieper River, and thus putting the plant in danger.
Russia has committed at least 160,000 troops to the war in Ukraine, not counting the National Guard, the representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Saturday evening. Vadym Skibitsky added that Moscow plans to mobilize 90,000 more, currently recruiting from all military districts.” because there are fewer and fewer candidates, especially in big cities where few want to serve, said Vadym Skibitsky.
It is unclear whether Russia will try to increase the number of members of the armed forces by recruiting more “contract” volunteer soldiers or by increasing annual conscription targets, according to British intelligence. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree this week to increase the size of his armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
The town hall of Zaporizhia has indicated that since August 23 it has been distributing iodine tablets to residents within a radius of 50 km around the plant, in accordance with the instructions of the Ministry of Health, while stressing that no anomaly had been detected. for now and that iodine should only be taken in the event of a radiation alert.
The operator of Ukrainian nuclear power plants Energoatom warned on Saturday that the Zaporizhia power plant was now operating with the risk of radioactive leaks and fire, following bombardments which Ukrainians and Russians have accused each other of for several weeks.
For several weeks, the Zaporijia power plant has been at the heart of the conflict in Ukraine.
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The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is trying to negotiate access to the plant for an urgent inspection mission ’to help stabilize the nuclear safety situation. nuclear safety and security there”.
European Union foreign ministers are due to meet on August 30 to reach an agreement on limiting tourist visas for Russians, according to the Financial Times. A suspension of a visa agreement signed in 2007 would remove preferential treatment for Russians when applying for all EU visas, requiring more documents, making them more expensive and dramatically increasing waiting times.
The Czech Republic and Poland will guard the airspace of neighboring Slovakia as the NATO member country bids farewell to its Russian-made MiG-29s, the Slovak Defense Ministry announced on Saturday.
An agreement on the protection of Slovak airspace by the Czech and Polish air forces was signed on Saturday by Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad, with his Czech counterparts Jana Cernochova and Polish Mariusz Blaszczak. “The agreement will enter into force on September 1, when the Slovak MiG-29 fighter jets are grounded,” Defense Ministry spokeswoman Martina Koval Kakascikova said in a statement.
The United Kingdom announced on Saturday that it would donate six underwater drones to Ukraine to help it neutralize Russian mines off its coast, and train Ukrainian soldiers in their use. These “lightweight, self-contained devices are designed for use in shallow coastal areas, capable of operating up to 100 meters below sea level to detect, locate and identify mines (…) so that the Navy Ukraine can neutralize them,” the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said in a statement.
From the same source, “dozens of members of the Ukrainian Navy will be trained to use these drones over the next few months, training has already started for the first of them”. The training will be provided by the United Kingdom and the United States. This new military aid comes as, according to the MoD, “Russia is turning food into a weapon by destroying Ukrainian agriculture and imposing a blockade on the country’s ports on the Black Sea to prevent exports”.
