Live: Ukraine celebrates National Day, Russian invasion enters 7th month

Published on: 08/24/2022 – 00:04Modified on: 08/24/2022 – 00:06 Chance of the calendar, Ukraine celebrates the 31st anniversary of its independence from the USSR this Wednesday, which also marks the six months of the Russian invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised a firm response to possible Russian attacks. Follow the latest developments hour by hour. Update on the situation after six months of war in Ukraine Six months after the start of the war in Ukraine, the conflict is raging with no prospect of peace in sight. Western intelligence, however, assures that the dynamic tilts against Russia; 80,000 Russian soldiers have died or been injured since the start of the war, according to the American services. According to kyiv, 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have lost their lives since the February 24 invasion. The UN confirmed the death of more than 5,500 Ukrainian civilians. But the real toll is probably much heavier. A series of explosions have rocked the Crimean peninsula in recent weeks. Ukraine did not claim responsibility, but implied that its forces played a role. On Tuesday, at an international forum, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also promised to take back Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014. 0:03 am: Washington will provide new military aid of around 3 billion dollars to Kyiv The United States will announce about $3 billion in new military aid to Ukraine to mark its independence day as well as six months of conflict, a US official said on Tuesday. The White House is expected to officially announce the aid on Wednesday, the very day of Ukraine’s independence celebration which coincides with the anniversary of six months of conflict since the Russian invasion of that country on February 24, the official said under cover of the ‘anonymity. This will be the largest package of American military aid since the beginning of the war and will allow kyiv to acquire new weapons or finance training or operations. 12 a.m.: Kyiv and Moscow point fingers at Security Council over Zaporizhia power plant Russia and Ukraine again accused each other at a Security Council meeting on Tuesday of jeopardizing the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant, under Russian control since the first hours of the war. 01:44 “The Ukrainian armed forces continue almost every day to bombard the territory of the nuclear power plant, creating a real risk of a radioactive accident with catastrophic consequences for the European continent as a whole”, launched the Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia , who had called for this Council meeting. He also called on Westerners to “stop covering up for their Ukrainian protege”. “We have the impression that our colleagues live in a parallel reality in which the Russian army itself bombs the site it protects,” he said. “No one can imagine that Ukraine would aim for a nuclear power plant by creating a huge risk of nuclear disaster on its own territory,” replied Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya. “Once again (Russia) has the audacity to convene a meeting of the Security Council to discuss its own provocations and its own terrorist actions”, he added, considering that he had “lost an hour listening to a slew of imaginary declarations”. The two countries both ensure that they are ready to allow access to a team of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the site, but the mission did not still could not be programmed. For her part, the UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, repeated the need for both parties “to stop all military activity around the plant”. At the request in particular from Washington, Paris and London, another meeting of the Security Council is scheduled for Wednesday morning to mark six months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With AFP and Reuters