Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,278

Here are the key events on day 1,278 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Locals sit on a monument of a T-34 tank from the second world war as they celebrate Ukraine's Independence Day, in Kharkiv on Sunday [AFP]

Here is how things stand on Monday, August 25:

Fighting

Russian forces shelled Ukraine’s Donetsk region 23 times in a day, killing one person in Kostiantynivka, Governor Vadym Filashkin said in a post on Telegram on Sunday.
Russian forces launched shelling and drone attacks on Ukraine’s Kherson region, killing one person and injuring two others, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote in a post on Telegram on Sunday.
A Russian drone attack killed a 47-year-old woman in the Dubovykivska community of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk, Governor Serhiy Lysak said in a post on Telegram.
A woman and an 11-year-old child were killed in a Ukrainian attack on a bridge in a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine’s Kherson region, Pavel Filipchuk, the Russian-appointed head of the Kakhovka district, wrote in a post on Telegram.
Ukrainian forces drove out Russian troops from the villages of Mykhailivka, Zeleny Hay, and Volodymyrivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Oleksandr Syrskii, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, wrote on Facebook.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that Russian forces had captured the village of Filiya inside Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.
In Russia, officials accused Ukraine of attacking the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), close to the border with Ukraine, and causing a fire.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog, IAEA, said that its monitoring confirmed “normal radiation levels near Kursk NPP” after Russia said it reduced the reactor unit’s power “due to auxiliary transformer damage” and extinguished a fire, with no injuries.
Russian forces shot down 95 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight, Russia’s state TASS news agency reported on Sunday.

Politics and diplomacy

Russia and Ukraine exchanged 146 prisoners of war from each side on Sunday after mediation by the United Arab Emirates, the Russian Defence Ministry and the Ukrainian president said.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney expressed support for Ukraine’s calls for security guarantees as part of a potential peace deal with Russia, during a visit to Kyiv, where he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday.

Speaking at a news conference, Carney said the guarantees could include international participation: “In Canada’s judgement, it is not realistic that the only security guarantee could be the strength of the Ukrainian Armed Forces… that needs to be buttressed and reinforced.”

Carney joined Zelenskyy for a ceremony in central Kyiv to mark Ukrainian Independence Day, which was also attended by the US special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.

Kellogg met Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, who said they discussed the Ukraine-US minerals agreement as well as security guarantees.

United States Vice President JD Vance told the broadcaster NBC that Russia has made “significant concessions” towards a negotiated settlement in its war on Ukraine.

“They’ve recognised that they’re not going to be able to install a puppet regime in Kyiv. That was, of course, a major demand at the beginning. And importantly, they’ve acknowledged that there is going to be some security guarantee to the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Vance said.

Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that a group of nations, including UN Security Council members, should be the guarantors of Ukraine’s security.