NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg paid tribute 'to all those who have lost their lives or been wounded and to all Ukrainian men and women who are fighting for their country, their freedom, and their loved ones. “I believe Ukraine can and will win this war.” That is why I am in Kyiv today,” he said in a tweet. What happens in Ukraine matters to us all. London has also been a major supplier of weaponry and aid to Ukraine. assistance at nearly $12 billion since February 24.īritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who made an unannounced trip to Kyiv to help mark the occasion, pledged continued British support. military aid, a mammoth package that puts U.S. The United States, the largest single provider of weaponry, announced another $3 billion in new U.S. The invasion has also prompted vast amounts of Western aid, support, and weaponry, bolstering Ukrainian defenses. The invasion has resulted in unprecedented Western economic sanctions that have pummeled the Russian economy and isolated Moscow internationally. In the Ukrainian capital, authorities staged a display of wrecked and captured Russian military vehicles and tanks on Kyiv’s famed Khreshchatyk Street, as a reminder of Moscow's failed attempt to capture the capital. The commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces said this week that about 9,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed in six months of fighting. And we are united,' Zelenskiy said in a recorded address broadcast to the nation. We understood that despite any help and support, no one but us will fight for our independence. 'During these six months, we changed history, changed the world, and changed ourselves. Kyiv and several other big cities had banned public celebrations amid warnings that Russia would use the occasion to strike civilian and government infrastructure.Įarly on August 25, Russian forces bombed the central city of Kryvyi Rih with cluster munitions, the head of the military administration of Kryvyi Rih, Oleksandr Vilkul, said on Telegram, adding that so far there were no reports of casualties or damage.Ĭluster munitions have been banned by most nations due to their devastating and indiscriminate effect on military personnel and civilians alike.Įarlier, acknowledging the heavy toll since the February 24 invasion, Zelenskiy vowed his 'reborn' country would fight Russian troops 'until the end.' And we will certainly throw out the invaders from our land.' We will definitely make the occupiers answer for everything they have done. 'Search-and-rescue operations at the railway station will continue. As of this moment, there are 22 dead, five of them burned in a railway car,' he said in his nightly video address. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.Īs Ukrainians celebrated 31 years of independence from the Soviet Union on August 24, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of launching a missile strike that hit the Chaplyne railway station in the southern Dnipropetrovsk region, killing at least 22 people and wounding more than 50. RFE/RL's Live Briefinggives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. With writing and reporting by Ardeshir Tayebi In recent years, especially after the armed attack on the Iranian parliament and on Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's tomb in 2017, the security institutions of the Islamic Republic of Iran have occasionally reported the arrest of IS members before they carried out sabotage operations. The ministry said a clash occurred at one of the locations that resulted in the alleged militants wounding two Iranian intelligence agents in an exchange of gunfire before they were arrested. The arrests were made in two locations - one in the west and one in the south of the country - in the last three days, the statement added.

The statement, published by the Fars news agency, which is affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), said the people arrested were found with explosive equipment, communication devices, and weapons. The ministry did not provide the names of the alleged IS militants or say where they were being detained.

In a statement on August 4, Iran's Ministry of Intelligence identified the people arrested as 'Takfiri-Zionist terrorists' and accused Israel of hiring them. Iran says it has arrested 10 militants affiliated with the extremist Islamic State (IS) group who were planning to carry out attacks on religious processions during the Islamic month of Muharram, which started on July 30.

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