► The American embassy calls on its nationals to leave Ukraine
“The State Department has information that Russia is intensifying its efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days”said the American embassy in a message published on its website, Tuesday, August 23, without further details on the places potentially concerned.
She called on American citizens to “Leave Ukraine now using available private ground transportation”.
► Russia would prepare a new attack, according to kyiv
Russia is seeking to engage Ukraine in new negotiations to have time to restore its military capabilities and launch a new offensive, said an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency. For weeks, the Kremlin “seeks to convince Ukraine to enter into negotiations” pour “freeze the conflict while preserving the status quo in the occupied Ukrainian territories”claimed Mykhailo Podoliak in the sixth month of the war launched by Moscow.
Russia “transmits its proposals via various intermediaries”, he added without naming them, while according to kyiv no political contact with Russia currently exists. Ukraine believes that, in fact, Moscow “does not want a dialogue” of serious peace but seeks to obtain “an operational break for his army” before throwing “a new offensive” against his neighbor, according to Mykhailo Podoliak.
kyiv, for its part, rejects any negotiated solution for the territories under Russian occupation, which it aspires to take back, as well as those under the control of pro-Russian separatists in the East and Crimea annexed in 2014. “All other scenarios (…) only represent a dangerous operational pause before a new round of the war”said the adviser, while assuring that “the Ukrainians will resist as long as it takes”.
“It’s an existential war, we have no other solution. Giving up the struggle will mean not only the destruction of the Ukrainian state but also that of all its civilians”he insisted.
► About 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed since the start of the Russian invasion according to the army
About 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in six months of Russian invasion, said Monday August 22 the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army Valery Zalouzhny, quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
On the same day, Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily address that “the total number of the various cruise missiles that Russia has launched on our territory reaches almost 3,500” and that’“Russian artillery shelling cannot be counted – they are too intense”.
► Russia accuses Ukraine of having killed the daughter of a reputed ideologue close to the Kremlin
The Russian security services (FSB) on Monday accused the “special services” Ukrainians of having killed the daughter of a reputed ideologist close to the Kremlin, who died in the explosion of his car near Moscow, reported the Russian press agencies.
The “murder” de Daria Douguina, fille d’Alexandre Douguine, “was prepared and committed by Ukrainian special services”, the FSB said in a statement quoted by Russian agencies. According to the same source, the person who trapped Daria Douguina’s car then fled to Estonia. This is a « crime ignoble » for his part commented Vladimir Putin.
► The EU plans to organize a training mission to the Ukrainian army
The EU plans to organize a mission “training and assistance” to the Ukrainian army which would take place in neighboring countries, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, said on Monday.
The proposal will be discussed next week in Prague at the Council of Defense Ministers of EU member countries, Josep Borrell said at a press conference in Santander (northern Spain). “I hope it will be approved”he added.