War in Ukraine: capture of New York, Russian Orthodox Church banned, strikes against kyiv… an update on the situation

Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Tuesday, August 20, 2024, discover the latest news about this conflict.

Belarus sends military reinforcements to the border with Ukraine

Belarus said Monday it had sent additional troops, aircraft and armory to its border with Ukraine, a day after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he had deployed nearly a third of his country's troops to the region.

According to state television, Air Force Commander Andrei Lukyanovich said that “the group has been significantly reinforced and is now on duty on our country's southern border”.

Following Ukraine's August 6 incursion into Russia's Kursk region, Alexander Lukashenko, a staunch ally of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, accused kyiv of pursuing an aggressive policy and sending more than 120,000 troops to the border with Belarus.

Ukrainian authorities have said they have not seen any reinforcement of the Belarusian army contingent on the border between the two countries and have dismissed Alexander Lukashenko's announcements as “rhetoric” intended to please Vladimir Putin. Moscow used Belarus as a rear base for the launch in February 2022 of what it has presented as a “special military operation” in Ukraine. kyiv and its allies denounce an invasion.

Czech Republic to buy ammunition for Ukraine with proceeds from Russian assets

The Czech Republic will use part of the interest earned on Russian assets frozen in the European Union (EU) to buy more large-calibre ammunition for Ukraine, the Czech Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

Part of the money will be used as part of a comprehensive initiative led by the Czech Republic with its European partners to purchase artillery ammunition for Ukraine, the ministry said. “Thanks to the funds frozen by Russia and released by the European Union, we will be able to supply several hundred thousand large-calibre rounds of ammunition,”, Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said.

She also said that the deliveries would be made “in the coming months" and that they would therefore soon have an impact on the battlefield. Ukraine already received its first delivery of 50,000 to 100,000 shells under the initiative in June, and deliveries continue every month, Czech officials said.

Western countries have frozen about $300 billion of Russian sovereign assets following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. In June, EU governments decided to use €1.4 billion in profits from these assets to buy weapons and support Ukraine.

Orthodox Church banned in Ukraine: an "illegal act", denounces the Moscow Patriarchate

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the adoption of a law to ban the Russian Orthodox Church on Ukrainian territory on Tuesday. The Moscow Patriarchate condemned the ban on Tuesday "illegal&quot in Ukraine of the branch of the Orthodox Church that is accused of being linked to it, voted on the same day by the Ukrainian parliament.

“This is an illegal act that constitutes a flagrant violation of the fundamental notions of freedom of conscience and human rights”, a spokesman for the Russian Patriarchate, Vladimir Legoida, commented on Telegram.

The Russian army claims the capture of New York City in the east

The Russian army claimed Tuesday the capture of the city of New York in the Donetsk region, in eastern Ukraine, presented as an important logistical platform of the Ukrainian troops.

“The Center grouping has liberated Novgorodskoye (Russian name for New York, editor's note), one of the largest towns in the Toretsk agglomeration and a strategically important logistical center”, the Russian Defense Ministry said in its daily report.

The New York town, where German settlers had settled in the 19th century, bore that name until 1951, when Soviet authorities renamed it Novgorodskoye in the midst of the Cold War. The town was reverted to New York in the summer of 2021, under pressure from Ukrainian activists. It is located six kilometers as the crow flies south of the largely destroyed Toretsk, which has also been the target of a Russian offensive for several weeks.

If the Ukrainian military offensive launched two weeks ago in the Russian region of Kursk receives a lot of attention because it brings hostilities to the attacker's soil, the Ukrainian military offensive launched two weeks ago in the Russian region of Kursk receives a lot of attention because it brings hostilities to the attacker's soil, The epicenter of the fighting remains eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops, better equipped and more numerous, are gradually advancing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the capture of the entire Donbass, which includes the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, a priority for Kremlin troops.

Ukrainian army reports Russian strikes against kyiv, no damage

Ukrainian air defense systems repelled missiles launched by Russia against the capital kyiv during the night from Monday to Tuesday, the Ukrainian army said, specifying that the first information was not state of no injuries or damage.

This is the fifth attack carried out in August by the Russian army against kyiv, added the military administration of the Ukrainian capital via Telegram messaging. Cruise missiles could have been used by the Russian army, the Ukrainian army said, without being able to immediately establish the extent strikes.

Several explosions were heard early Tuesday morning in kyiv, in what Reuters journalists said appeared to be active air defenses on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital. There was no immediate comment from Moscow.