As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 176th day, we take a look at the main developments.
Here are the key events from Thursday, August 18.
A Russian attack on a residential area of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, on Wednesday evening killed at least six people and injured 16, the Ukrainian Emergencies Service said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a block of flats had been “totally destroyed” in the attack, which he said “had no justification and shows the powerlessness of the aggressor”.
Ukrainian forces killed 29 “occupiers” in the south of the country and destroyed artillery, armoured vehicles and a military supply depot, the south district of the Operational Command of the Ukrainian armed forces said.
Ukrainian technicians at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant hit by shelling work under the barrels of Russian guns and face huge pressure, but they are staying on to make sure there is no Chornobyl-style disaster, Reuters news agency quoted one of them as saying.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Lviv in western Ukraine on Thursday to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and grain shipments, along with finding a political solution to the conflict.
Chinese troops will travel to Russia to take part in joint military exercises that will start at the end of August, Beijing’s defence ministry has said.
The head of Russian proxy forces in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region Denis Pushilin called for cooperation with North Korea amid signs Pyongyang is considering sending labourers for restoration projects in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
Three more ships laden with exports left Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on Wednesday, a monitoring group said, bringing the number of vessels to leave Ukraine under a UN-brokered grain export deal to 24. The Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) said the Sara, carrying 8,000 tonnes of corn, and the Efe, carrying 7,250 tonnes of sunflower oil, had left Odesa port bound for Turkey.
Russia forecasts its average export gas price will more than double this year to $730 per 1,000 cubic metres before gradually falling until the end of 2025 as pipeline gas exports decrease, an economy ministry forecast seen by Reuters showed.
Ukraine’s state nuclear power company Energoatom said Russian-based hackers carried out a three-hour attack on its website but had not caused significant problems.