Russian missiles struck two western Ukrainian cities overnight, damaging an industrial plant in Lutsk and residential buildings in Lviv, officials said. Three people were killed in the Lutsk strike, the city’s mayor said, citing preliminary information.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Russia attacked the region of Lviv with cruise missiles in the early-morning hours, according to regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi. Air defenses stopped only one of the missiles, while six reached their intended targets, Kozytskyi said. Nineteen people were injured, he said. In the city of Lviv, 20 houses were destroyed, and several buildings were damaged, including a kindergarten, he said. The Washington Post could not independently verify the reports.
Three people were also injured in the strikes against Lutsk, Mayor Ihor Polishchuk said on Telegram. Emergency service crews were on-site at the industrial plant, Polishchuk added.
Russia’s Central Bank attributed the interest rate hike to “inflationary pressure” caused by “steady growth in domestic demand surpassing the capacity to expand output.” In a statement, the bank did not mention the drop in the value of the ruble. The currency has lost ground amid Western sanctions that have harmed Russia’s trade balance and military spending that has soared because of the war in Ukraine.
A conservative group has launched a campaign to convince congressional Republicans to continue backing U.S. aid to Ukraine. The $2 million campaign, called “Republicans for Ukraine,” launched Tuesday.
A Moscow court on Tuesday convicted a pro-war, retired Russian colonel of discrediting the military, as the Kremlin seeks to bring nationalist pro-war critics to heel. Vladimir Kvachkov, a 74-year-old retired military intelligence officer, who has called for a tougher approach in the war against Ukraine, told the court that President Vladimir Putin and Russian defense leaders were discrediting the military, before Judge Alesya Orekhova sharply cut him off, Russian independent media outlet Mediazona reported from the court. He was fined 40,000 rubles ($408) in the case, reinforcing the message that Russian authorities will no longer tolerate criticism of the military’s conduct of the war, even from pro-war nationalist former military officers.
A Chechen battalion continues to take part in the fighting around Orhikiv, in northern part of the Zaporizhzhia region, as a recent post by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov illustrates, the British Defense Ministry said in a daily intelligence update. On Aug. 10, Kadyrov “acknowledged the efforts of the Chechen Vostok Akhmat Battalion in the heavily contested Orhikiv sector” in Zaporizhzhia, one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia illegally claimed to annex last year. While “Chechen forces comprise a relatively small but high-profile component of Russian forces in Ukraine,” the ministry said, “Kadyrov likely heavily promotes his units’ roles partially to burnish his credentials as a Putin loyalist.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had “frank conversations” with troops during a visit Monday to the front line in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, amid the ongoing counteroffensive that has yielded few visible gains so far and left many Ukrainians exhausted from Russian attacks. “We talked about our offensive, about supplies to the troops, about the capabilities of commanders, about what these capabilities are now and what they should be,” Zelensky said of the visit in his nightly address.
China’s defense minister, in Moscow, called his country’s ties with Russia a “model for cooperation,” according to Bloomberg. Li Shangfu was speaking Tuesday at the Moscow Conference on International Security, as part of a trip to Russia and Belarus. In his address, Li said the relationship between Beijing and Moscow was one of “non-confrontation” and did “not target any third party,” Bloomberg reported. Beijing and Moscow have deepened their partnership in recent years, though China has refrained from taking sides publicly in the war in Ukraine. Li is also expected to meet with Russian defense officials. In Minsk, he is scheduled to hold talks with Belarusian state and military leaders, as well as visit Belarusian military institutions.
The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, met with jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on Monday at Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, the newspaper reported. Gershkovich appeared to be in good health and remains strong, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow told the Journal after the meeting — the third since his arrest in March on espionage charges that he, his employer, rights groups and the U.S. government have rejected as spurious.
The Swedish government on Tuesday pledged a new support package for Ukraine, valued at $314 million and containing spare parts and ammunition for equipment previously sent by the Swedes. “We are at a stage in the war where it is important that we have good and secure solutions” for Swedish-sent equipment “in order for the Ukrainians to succeed,” said Sweden’s minister of defense, Pal Jonson, at a new conference aired on Swedish public television.
Conservative group launches campaign to push for GOP support for Ukraine: Amid decreasing Republican support for Ukraine, a conservative group will spend $2 million convincing Republicans in Congress to continue backing the U.S. ally, writes The Washington Post’s Mariana Alfaro. The campaign, named “Republicans for Ukraine,” was launched Tuesday by Defending Democracy Together, an organization led by Republican strategist Sarah Longwell and conservative political commentator Bill Kristol. The launch comes ahead of what is likely to be a lengthy appropriations fight for further U.S. funding to Ukraine when Congress returns next month.
In an interview with The Post, Longwell, who runs regular focus groups with Republican voters, said one of the most “alarming trends” she has seen over the past two years is a “real drop-off in support for Ukraine.”
She said the goal of the campaign — which features testimony from more than 50 pro-Ukraine Republican voters — is to “put pressure on Republicans to do the right thing on Ukraine.”
Robyn Dixon, Mariana Alfaro, Francesca Ebel and Isabelle Khurshudyan contributed to this report.
