Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,275 | Russia-Ukraine war News

Here are the key events on day 1,275 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Friday, August 22:

Fighting

A Ukrainian combined missile and drone attack killed two people and injured 21 in the industrial city of Yenakiyeve, according to Denis Pushilin, the Russia-installed governor of the occupied areas of Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The attack also damaged several residential buildings in the city and the nearby city of Horlivka.
Russia attacked a gas compressor station in eastern Ukraine that is important for getting fuel into storage facilities for the winter heating season, two industry sources told the Reuters news agency, as Russian attacks escalate despite a push from the United States for peace.
Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov visited the “north” group of forces fighting in Ukraine, where he was briefed on the battlefield situation there, Zvezda, the official media outlet of the Ministry of Defence, reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that large-scale Russian attacks overnight in various parts of Ukraine showed Moscow was avoiding negotiations about ending the more than three-year-long war.
Russia’s latest strikes involved 574 drones and 40 missiles, President Zelenskyy said, and were one of the largest of Russia’s attacks so far on Ukraine. One person was killed and 22 were wounded in the overnight strikes, authorities said.
Zelenskyy also said that a Russian attack on an American civilian business enterprise in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region injured 15 people.
A fire has started following a drone strike in Russia’s southern Novoshakhtinsk city, home to an oil refinery, authorities said, as Ukraine stepped up attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure. The Novoshakhtinsk refinery, which sells fuel mainly for export, has an annual capacity of five million metric tonnes of oil, or about 100,000 barrels per day.
Several regions in Russia and parts of Ukraine that it controls are reporting petrol shortages after Ukraine stepped up attacks on Russian oil refineries this month, and amid a seasonal surge in fuel demand.

The Netherlands will send two Patriot air defence systems and about 300 personnel to NATO ally Poland to protect a hub for military aid sent to Ukraine, Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
European NATO leaders must not be naive when discussing a Ukraine peacekeeping force but face up to the reality that they would need to deploy tens of thousands of troops to the country for the long term, the head of Germany’s soldiers’ union, Colonel Andre Wuestner, said.
Wuestner, who heads up the German Armed Forces Association representing more than 200,000 active and retired soldiers, said European leaders should not play down the military task in Ukraine but be honest about the challenges, even though any quick ceasefire with Russia seemed unlikely.

Russia’s nuclear shield should be strengthened in the coming years due to the “colossal threats”, said Alexey Likhachev, head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation.

Belarus is assessing how best to ramp up domestic production of missiles, including exploring how to equip its Polonez rocket launcher systems with nuclear warheads, Alexander Volfovich, head of Belarus’ State Security Council, told reporters.
NATO member Lithuania has declared a 90-kilometre (56-mile) long no-fly zone near its capital along the country’s border with Belarus, in response to drones entering from the neighbouring country.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused European leaders of trying to undermine progress which he said had been made at last week’s US-Russia summit in Alaska on a possible peace deal in Ukraine.
Lavrov reiterated Russian concerns about the way European discussions on security guarantees for Ukraine were being conducted without Moscow’s input.
Lavrov also said that while Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his readiness to meet Ukraine’s Zelenskyy, there are some issues that need to be resolved before such a meeting could happen.
Zelenskyy said Kyiv would like a “strong reaction” from the US if Putin was not willing to sit down for a bilateral meeting with him. The Ukrainian leader also accused Russia of trying to avoid a meeting with him.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un lauded “heroic” North Korean troops who fought for Russia in the war against Ukraine, in a ceremony decorating soldiers of the army’s overseas operation, according to state media KCNA.
A Ukrainian man has been arrested in Italy on suspicion of coordinating attacks on three Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022, officials said. The attack largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe and had been described by both Moscow and the West as an act of sabotage.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the two leaders coordinating their positions on the war in Ukraine.