Almost a year after Vladimir Putin launched the invasion, Ukrainians will fight “as hard as we can” to hold the “fortress” of Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi vowed as he hosted European Union leaders to discuss new sanctions against Russia and Kyiv’s prospects for accession. EU. The Pentagon has announced that the $2.2 billion US military aid package to Ukraine includes a new missile, a small-diameter land-based bomb that will double the country’s strike range.

The latest on the war in Ukraine, day 346:

08:33Russian universities will teach the goals of Russia’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine from September 1, Russian state media TASS reported on Friday, citing the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia, reports CNN.

A brief summary of recent events:

• A new missile that will double Ukraine’s strike range in its war with Russia is included in a new military aid package worth more than $2.175 billion to be sent by the United States, a US official said on Friday, Reuters reported.
• Anti-war protests in Russia took the form of commemorating Ukrainian victims: Russians began laying flowers at monuments to Ukrainian writers in dozens of Russian cities, reports The Moscow Times.
• EU countries agreed on Friday the European Commission’s proposal to set maximum prices for Russian oil products, announced Sweden, which presides over the European Union.
• The European Union’s next package of sanctions against Russia will hit trade and technology that supports its war against Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday, Reuters reported.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goal is to “capture Donbas by March,” a representative of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Service said, adding that fighting in eastern Ukraine is expected to intensify in the next few months, CNN reports.
• Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Friday that tanks provided by NATO countries will be used as a “steel fist” in a counteroffensive against Russian forces in Ukraine, CNN reports.
• The Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said Friday that they have nationalized about 500 properties owned by Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians on the peninsula, CNN reported.
• President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Friday that it is “possible” to start official negotiations on his country’s accession to the European Union this year, AFP reports.
• France and Italy will supply the MAMBA medium-range ground defense system this spring to help Ukraine “defend itself against attacks by Russian drones, missiles and aircraft”, the French defense ministry said on Friday, AFP reported.
• Traders are using Turkey, Kazakhstan and Armenia to avoid European Union sanctions against Russia in a tactic that violates those countries’ compliance with the bloc’s embargo, Latvian Prime Minister Kristianis Karins said on Friday, Reuters reported.

—————-

Events related to the war since day 345 were broadcast live on HotNews.ro