Ukraine on Wednesday accused Russia of launching destructive drone attacks on grain warehouses at a Danube port in the Odessa region.
“Russian terrorists carried out two drone attacks in the Odessa region overnight,” Odessa region governor Oleg Kiper announced on social media. “Consequence of enemy strikes on one of the Danube ports: grain warehouses were damaged,” he added.
A catch in the south
Ukraine said on Wednesday August 16 that it had taken over a village on the southern front, in the Donetsk region, as part of its counter-offensive against Russia.
“Ourojaïné has been released. Our defenders are established nearby. The offensive continues” in the region, announced the Deputy Minister of Defense, Ganna Maliar, in a press release on social networks.
Three drones neutralized by Russia
Russia assured on Wednesday morning that it had shot down three Ukrainian drones in the Kaluga region located southwest of Moscow, against the backdrop of an increase in such attacks targeting the Russian capital. Around 5 a.m. local time (2 a.m. GMT), an attempted attack on kyiv using “three unmanned aerial vehicles […] in the Kaluga region was foiled,” the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Telegram.
“All drones were detected and destroyed in time by Russian air defense systems,” the ministry said, adding that the attack caused no casualties or damage. The devices were neutralized “in the south of the region” of Kaluga, local governor Vladislav Chapcha said on Telegram.
Three dead in bombings in Lviv and Lutsk
Moscow said it had destroyed “key Kiev regime” military industrial facilities, with Ukraine claiming to have shot down 16 of the 28 missiles fired last night by the Russian army.
One of them killed three people on an industrial site in Loutsk, less than 100 kilometers from Poland, belonging to the Swedish giant SKF, a specialist in ball bearings.
Confirming the death of three of its employees, an SKF spokesperson told AFP that the plant produced bearings for heavy commercial vehicles and that this was an “ordinary civilian activity”.
According to AFP journalists on the spot, another missile hit the playground of a kindergarten in Lviv.
Gains in eastern and southern parts of Ukraine
On the front, Ukraine claimed some gains on Monday in the eastern and southern parts of its territory, particularly around Bakhmout (east). Small advances as part of its grueling counter-offensive launched two months ago to liberate these territories occupied by Russia.
On the other hand, its army is in difficulty further north, around Kupyansk, and continues to slow down the Russian offensive, according to kyiv.
For Moscow, the counter-offensive is a failure
Moscow, for its part, judged that the Ukrainian troops were at the end of their resources, reaffirming that their counter-offensive to retake the occupied areas was a failure. “The resources of the Ukrainian army are almost exhausted,” said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday. “Despite the West’s total aid to the armed forces of Ukraine, there are no results,” he further proclaimed.
Sergei Shoigu said the military campaign in Ukraine, which began nearly a year and a half ago, had proved a “serious test” for Russian soldiers but that his country had managed to “significantly” increase its production of armored vehicles.
Russia: the fall of the ruble
On the economic level, Russia has however seen its currency collapse in recent weeks, its foreign trade, in particular its sales of hydrocarbons, suffering the brunt of the restrictive measures adopted by the West.
After long procrastination and in need of revenue from gas and oil, facing rising prices and criticism from the Kremlin, the Russian central bank finally resolved on Tuesday to a surprise increase in its interest rate director from 8.5% to 12%.
The objective is to curb inflation and the decline in the purchasing power of Russians, while the authorities must devote ever greater sums to the war waged against Ukraine.
The central bank has also warned that a further rise in this rate remains possible. Moscow also began the trial phase of a digital ruble on Tuesday, relying on blockchain technology in the hope of eventually limiting the impact of international sanctions.