News Feed
Wednesday, August 20
Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, illegally occupied by Russia since 2014, is roughly 26 times smaller than Texas.
(Updated: )
Closer to Ukraine, Lithuania said it was ready to put troops on the ground as part of a peacekeeping force, while Poland said its soldiers would assist the "coalition of the willing" from Poland.
In a joint statement, representatives of five Security Council members — Denmark, France, Greece, the United Kingdom and Slovenia — along with incoming member Latvia, denounced Russia's invasion of Georgia 17 years ago and its continued military presence in the country's Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions.
Poland's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed that the object, which fell into a cornfield near the village of Osiny, was a Russian unmanned aerial vehicle.
The Kyiv Independent spent a day with the 20th Separate UAV Regiment, also known as K-2, which specializes in ground robots, in northern Donetsk Oblast. We also spoke with the regiment's commander, Kyrylo Veres, about how these machines could shape the next phase of warfare in Ukraine, helping to reduce the risk to soldiers amid a growing manpower shortage.
Ukrposhta, Ukraine's state-owned postal service, is closing its offices in the front-line city of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk Oblast due to the deteriorating security situation, company CEO Ihor Smelyansky announced on Aug. 20.
"Valerii Zaluzhnyi has stated his position more than once, and as far as I know, it has not changed: while the war continues, we need to work to preserve the country, not think about elections," Zaluzhnyi's aide Oksana Torop said.
"Not everyone may remember this, but in 1994, Ukraine already got assurances of territorial integrity from the U.S., Russia, and the U.K. In Budapest," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin "noted with satisfaction Turkey's assistance in hosting talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives in Istanbul," the Kremlin reported.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that "seriously discussing security issues without Russia is a road to nowhere."
The Kyiv Independent’s Commenting Guidelines
The Kyiv Independent is proud to be driven by our readers – the majority of our revenue comes from our readers’ support. We want to foster an environment where our content sparks civil discussion and an exchange of views between readers, both in the open comment section directly underneath articles or in our members-only Discord server.
Our commenting guidelines are designed with our readers in mind. Comments that do not adhere to the guidelines will be subject to moderation.
The following comments will be deleted, while authors that repeatedly spread such comments will be banned from the website:
- Ad hominem attacks or personal attacks that go beyond civil discussion on a given topic
- Vague and senseless comments that are not relevant to the subject of the article
- Aggressive comments or comments that use offensive or insulting language
- Comments that incite hatred or are discriminatory on the basis of ethnicity, sex, age, disability, etc.
- Comments written with the intent to mislead the reader or spread disinformation
- Comments that appear under multiple articles with the same wording or are copy-pasted under multiple articles
- Ads, pornographic material, links to external irrelevant content
Please note that your first comment from a new Kyiv Independent account will be subject to moderation before being visible to other users on our website. Please allow 48 hours for this process.
Editors' Picks
As Zelensky, Trump prepare to talk about peace, most Russian demands are non-starters for Ukraine
Editorial: That meeting was sickening. Putin loved it
Our readers' questions about the war, answered. Vol. 9
