These images reportedly show Ukrainian marines obliterating Russian armoured vehicles using anti-tank guided missiles.
The footage was obtained from the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Monday, 22nd August, along with a statement saying: “On 21st August, in the Donetsk and Kherson directions, servicemen of the military units and marine units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of the groups steadfastly and courageously resisted the Russian invaders on the fortified areas of the front.
“Marines destroyed two armoured combat vehicles of the occupiers in the Kherson direction.
“Our artillery units struck the concentration of manpower and equipment of the occupiers, as a result of which six invaders and a Msta self-propelled guns were destroyed. The total losses of the enemy are being investigated.”
The images and statement were also relayed by the Office of Strategic Communications (StratCom) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Ukrainian media reported that the marines had taken out the two armoured vehicles in the Kherson area, while destroying the Msta and six enemy soldiers in the Donetsk region.
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24th February in what the Kremlin is still calling a “special military operation”. Today marks the 181st day of the war.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that between 24th February and 23rd August, Russia had lost about 45,550 personnel, 1,921 tanks, 4,238 armoured combat vehicles, 1,033 artillery units, 266 multiple launch rocket systems, 146 air defence systems, 234 warplanes, 198 helicopters, 817 drones, 196 cruise missiles, 15 warships, 3,150 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, and 99 units of special equipment.
Russia has claimed that its casualties have been much lower, but provides infrequent updates on its latest figures.
General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, 49, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on Monday, 22nd August that almost 9,000 Ukrainian military personnel have been killed since the beginning of Russia’s invasion.
Russia’s security agency, the FSB – successor to the KGB – has accused Ukraine of killing Daria Dugina. The 29-year-old, whose father is Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, 60, an ultranationalist Russian ideologue and Vladimir Putin ally, was killed in a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday night.
The FSB has claimed that a Ukrainian woman from the Azov Regiment was behind the killing, but former Russian MP and lawmaker Ilya Ponomarev, currently in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, has claimed that the attack was carried out by Russian partisans from a group allegedly called the National Republican Army.
Ponomarev claimed that the National Republican Army is an underground group in Russia geared towards overthrowing Putin’s regime. Ponomarev said: “This attack opens a new page in Russian resistance to Putinism.”
We have not been able to independently verify either of these claims.
The United Nations’ Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has reiterated his demand that fighting cease at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest. Guterres said, on Monday, 22nd August, that the world was at a “maximum moment of danger”, describing the situation at the plant as critical, as shelling in the area continues.
Russia has requested that the United Nations Security Council meet to discuss the Zaporizhzhia plant, according to Russian state-owned news agency RIA.
The US, the UK, Germany and France have urged for military restraint around the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered to Russian forces after the Siege of Mariupol have accused Moscow of torture.
The only bridge across the Dnipro River in the city of Kherson, which is occupied by Russian forces, has been hit by US-supplied HIMARS rockets, according to Russian independent news agency Interfax.
