On the 175th day of Russia’s large-scale military invasion of Russia on Wednesday, August 17, Russian troops continue their attempts to capture the neighboring country’s settlements. Ukraine’s Armed Forces and their territorial defense units are resisting the aggression. It is impossible to verify the statements of representatives of both sides of the conflict from independent sources.

General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: Russian bombings in various areas

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russian forces carried out bombings in the areas of several settlements towards Kharkov, including Kharkov, Novaya Nikolaevka, Dementievka and Rubizhne. The attacker unsuccessfully tried to break through the defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the direction of Lebyazhye and Bazalievka and then withdrew, the General Staff said in the evening’s operational report on Facebook. According to him, the Russians also failed to advance in the directions of Novodmitrovka and Mazanovka in the Slavic direction.

In the direction of Kramatorsk, Russian units fired from tanks and artillery near Nikolaevka, Kramatorsk, Verkhnekamensky, Tatyanovka, Serebryanka, Grigorovka and Raigorodka and launched an unsuccessful attack towards the village of Vesele, according to reports. Russian bombing was also recorded in the Bakhmut, Avdeevsky, Novopavlovsky, Zaporozhye and Yuzhnobuzh directions, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.

On the night of August 17, they fired Kh-22 missiles from Russian Tu-22M3 strategic aircraft in the Odessa region. The impact of two rockets caused a fire covering an area of ​​more than 600 square meters in one of the coastal recreation centers and in several private homes, the Yug’s operational command said. In Melitopol, occupied by the Russian Armed Forces, an explosion occurred near the military commander’s office building, wrote Mayor Ivan Fedorov. The day before, he reported explosions near the city’s substation, after which, according to media reports, the Russian television broadcast was interrupted.

UN chief Guterres arrives in Ukraine

UN Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Lviv. On August 18, he has a trilateral meeting with the presidents of Ukraine and Turkey, Vladimir Zelensky and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to the Turkish president’s office, the meeting will discuss diplomatic ways out of the war. It will be about “ending the war between Ukraine and Russia through diplomatic means”. In addition, the parties will address the issue of increasing the work of the mechanism formed for the export of Ukrainian grain to world markets.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has ruled out the possibility of “freezing” the war. “I don’t think a freeze is possible. A decrease in activity is possible, depending on the season. And again, modern warfare is a resource war. Resources, of course, are depleted on both sides. And consequently , , each side takes time to recover,” he said. Perhaps just “cooling down the situation from the point of view of military confrontations”, admitted Reznikov. I don’t see the “freezing” of what people want to call a “conflict” because it’s not a conflict. This is war. War for survival. And we will protect ourselves to survive,” he emphasized.

The Office of the President of Ukraine considers the Crimean Bridge a legitimate target for the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Meanwhile, in Kyiv, they said they consider the 19-kilometer bridge over the Kerch Strait, built by Russia after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and linking the Russian Federation to the captured peninsula, a legitimate military target. “It is fixed in international law: Crimea is Ukraine. Therefore, this bridge is a banal object of illegal construction, permission for construction of which Ukraine did not give. It harms the ecology of the peninsula, therefore, it must be dismantled. Voluntarily or no, it doesn’t matter,” he wrote on Twitter, an adviser to the head of the Cabinet of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak.

In the Kherson region, they say Russian authorities blocked the Crimean bridge for civilians to cross to stop the mass exodus of people from the peninsula after the blasts. Another objective is the transfer of military equipment and weapons from the Russian Federation, said the adviser to the head of the regional military administration of Kherson, Sergei Khlan, in the air of the national marathon. According to Denis Savchenko, coordinator of the KrymSOS movement, the Russians have set up a checkpoint before entering the Kerch bridge and are checking the documents and cars of anyone who wants to leave the peninsula.

NATO chief urged Russia to allow IAEA experts to do ZNPP

The situation remains tense at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which was captured by the RF Armed Forces in early March and has been subject to bombing since late July. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has asked Russia to agree to the inspection of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant by experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The capture of the Ukrainian nuclear plant by Russian troops seriously threatens the safety of its operation and increases the risk of a nuclear accident or incident, which in turn poses a threat to the people of Ukraine, neighboring states and the world community, Stoltenberg said in a statement. Brussels. “It is urgent to secure an inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency and ensure the withdrawal of all Russian troops,” said the NATO Secretary General.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated in a video message in the evening that the IAEA mission could be sent to the ZNPP very quickly. “Ukrainian diplomats, our nuclear scientists and the IAEA are in constant contact. Now they are working to send an IAEA mission to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant,” he said.

On the basis of the NNEGC company “Energoatom”, a crisis headquarters of government representatives and departments in case of an emergency was created in the ZNPP, said Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko during a trip to Zaporozhye. “A wide range of ministries, departments, institutions are involved in this headquarters, full coordination takes place there. It works 24/7 and we monitor the situation around the ZNPP online,” he said.

Estonia and Finland: the visa situation for Russians

On the same day, Estonia, which had previously banned Russians from entering on the basis of Schengen visas issued since August 19, announced plans to make a similar decision regarding holders of these visas granted by other countries. Such a ban does not contradict the EU’s basic treaty, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said. Proposals to that effect will be prepared by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs next week, he said on the air of national broadcaster ERR.

For its part, Finland, which announced a sharp reduction in the number of visas for Russian citizens the day before, does not plan to cancel Schengen visas already issued, the country’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told RBC. “Yesterday our government talked about visas, and we are also going to limit the issuance of tourist visas to 10 percent. We haven’t touched on old visas, they are still valid,” he said.