Russian missiles hit the small eastern town of Chapline, killing at least 22 people, local officials said, as Ukraine marked 31 years of independence from Soviet rule on Wednesday.

Highlights of Thursday, the 183rd day of the Ukrainian war, LIVETEXT:

10:13 The Ukrainian military notes that over the past day, the Russian occupation forces have lost 150 soldiers, 5 tanks, 2 armored personnel carriers, an artillery installation, 6 rocket salvo systems, an anti-aircraft system, 3 helicopters and 9 drones.

09:46 Google subsidiary Jigsaw will launch a campaign to combat disinformation about Ukrainian refugees in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The campaign will run for a month and was designed to combat anti-refugee rhetoric online.

Google conducted research with psychologists from two British universities and will work on the project with academics, fact-checkers, NGOs and disinformation experts.

09:27The US condemns Russia’s plans to organize trials of Ukrainian prisoners in Mariupol, calling them “illegitimate”, and the UN also emphasized that the creation of such courts is prohibited.

UK MoD morning assessment on Thursday:

• In early March, Russian troops attacked and captured the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZAEP). On August 21, 2022, satellite images showed Russia maintaining an increased military presence at the site, with armored personnel carriers deployed less than 60 meters from reactor number five.
• It is likely that Russian forces tried to hide the vehicles by parking them under pipelines and platforms.
• Presumably, Russia is ready to use any Ukrainian military activity near the ZNPP for propaganda purposes.
• As long as Russia continues its military occupation of the ZNPP, the main risks to the operation of the reactor will remain failures of the reactor’s cooling systems, damage to the backup power source, or errors by workers working under pressure.

Overnight, two Russian missiles were fired at Kyiv

08:43 The head of the regional military administration in Kyiv said that the Russians shelled the outskirts of the capital last night. Oleksiy Kuleba reported that Russia launched a missile attack on the Vyshgorod district north of the city center: “Two (missile) flights were recorded.”

He noted that so far there have been no casualties and damage to residential buildings and infrastructure facilities.

The Ukrainian armed forces previously reported that around 3 a.m. on Thursday, “several” explosions were heard, prompting residents to take cover immediately.

08:30 After leaving the operational pause, which ended on July 16, the Russian occupying forces captured the territory with a total area of ​​450 square meters. war

08:08 Japanese trading companies Mitsui and Mitsubishi have decided to join a new Russian company that has taken over the management of the Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, the two companies announced on Thursday.

The decision comes after the Japanese government asked trading houses to “think positively” about joining the new organization, as Sakhalin-2 is a key source of stable energy supply for Japan (Reuters).

A quick recap of the latest developments on Thursday morning:

• Russian missiles hit a passenger train at a station in the Dnipropetrovsk region on Wednesday, killing at least 22 people and injuring 50 more.
• Ukraine will never give up the struggle for freedom from Russian domination, Zelenskyi said in an emotional speech on the occasion of the national holiday on August 24. He stated that Ukraine is recapturing the Crimean peninsula by any means necessary.
• During a surprise visit to Kyiv, British Prime Minister Johnson praised Ukraine for its “unwavering” resistance during six months of war and said now was not the time to advance a “fragile plan of negotiations” with Moscow.
• Kyiv banned the public celebration of the national holiday, and the cities of Kharkiv and Mykolaiv also imposed restrictions due to fears of Russian attacks.
• Russian Defense Minister Shoigu said that the slowdown in Moscow’s military campaign was deliberate and aimed at reducing civilian casualties. The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence said that Russia’s offensive had slowed down due to moral and physical fatigue and Moscow’s “depleted” resources.
• A Russian-appointed leader in Mykhailivka, in the Moscow-controlled part of Zaporizhzhya region, died on Tuesday in a car bomb explosion, an official of the occupation administration said.
• Two employees of the Zaporizhzhya NPP were detained for passing on information to the Ukrainian authorities, the Russian National Guard reported.
• Pope Francis and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, which supports the war in Ukraine, will not meet next month at a meeting of religious leaders in Kazakhstan, the RIA news agency reported, citing a high-ranking Orthodox official.
• US President Biden marked the Independence Day of Ukraine with a new military aid package worth about 3 billion dollars. After six months of war, most Americans agree that the United States should continue to support Kyiv until Russia withdraws its troops, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows.
• Moscow may announce one or more “illegitimate” referendums in occupied Ukraine as early as this week, White House spokesman John Kirby said.
• The Russian authorities detained the politician Yevgeny Roizman, known for his criticism of the Kremlin and, more recently, of the military campaign in Ukraine.

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• Wednesday’s events were broadcast live on HotNews.ro