One day into their unprecedented cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk oblast launched Aug. 6, Ukrainian forces captured the Sudzha gas metering station—a key node of the last remaining Russian pipeline still sending gas to Europe through Ukraine. The Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline, built by the Soviets in the 1980s, sends natural gas from Siberian fields through Ukraine to Slovakia, the Czech Repubic, Hungary and Austria. Despite the capture of the Sudzha station, Gazprom hasn’t halted the flow of gas through the station—nor has Ukraine shut the pipeline over the past two and a half years of war, apparently due to pressure from Europe. EU sanctions have only gradually started to affect Russia’s massive hydrocarbons sector. (Meduza, Reuters)
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has also expressed concern about fighting around the Kursk nuclear power plant, urging Russia and Ukraine to use “maximum restraint” to “avoid a nuclear accident.” (Newsweek)
Ukraine and Russia each blamed the other after a fire broke out at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Aug. 11. (BBC News)
Russia and Ukraine exchange 230 prisoners of war
Russia and Ukraine exchanged a total of 230 prisoners of war on Aug. 24, following an intermediation by the United Arab Emirates. The exchange happened on the 33rd commemoration of Ukraine’s Independence Day of Ukraine from the Soviet Union. (Jurist)
Russia escalates air war on Ukraine
Russia has been ramping up its aerial attacks across Ukraine in recent weeks. Seven people were killed in the western city of Lviv on 4 September. The strike came a day after Russian missiles hit a military academy in the central city of Poltava, killing over 50. Air raid sirens also sounded across Ukraine for nearly two hours on Sept. 2, including in the capital, Kyiv, where missile strikes damaged infrastructure and homes. (TNH)