By This is CNBC’s blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine on August 14, 2023.
Russia is currently equipping its new nuclear submarines with hypersonic Zircon missiles, the head of the country’s largest shipbuilder said in an interview published by the RIA state news agency Monday.
Alexei Rakhmanov, chief executive officer of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, said work is “already underway” to fit Yasen-class submarines, otherwise known as Project 885M, with the sea-based hypersonic missiles.
In Ukraine, at least three people were injured after a series of Russian drones and missiles hit the port city of Odesa, officials said Monday.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged justice after Russian shelling on the southern Kherson region killed seven and injured several more Sunday.
Meantime, the Russian ruble slid past 100 per U.S. dollar on Monday, a psychologically important threshold for the country’s beleaguered currency.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited medical staff and wounded Ukrainian servicemen near Bakhmut, according to a release provided by the government in Kyiv.
“I am honored to be here today. Thank you guys for your heroism. Thank you for protecting the lives of all our people. I’m proud to shake hands and be here to personally award you. Take care of yourselves. I thank you and wish you the main thing – victory,” Zelenskyy said, according to the release.
Medical staff also discussed their current equipment needs with Zelenskyy.
— Amanda Macias
The Pentagon has announced a new security assistance package for Ukraine worth approximately $200 million.
The latest arms package, the 44th such tranche, comes directly from U.S. arsenals and includes additional munitions for the Patriot air defense system and more than 12 million rounds of ammunition for small arms.
Here are the full details of the security assistance, according to the Pentagon:
— Amanda Macias
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited troops near the frontline in eastern Ukraine on Monday.
In a post on Telegram, Zelenskyy said he had visited troops near the Russian-held town of Soledar, in Donetsk.
“We discussed with the brigade commander the problems faced by the warriors and proposals for their solution,” the president wrote.
“Every day I receive general information, which gives me a broad understanding of the situation, and this is also very important. But I wanted to visit all the brigades individually to understand the problems of each of them,” he added.
The post included a video of Zelenskyy and other officials, a number of whom were military, in talks with pixelated images in the background. CNBC was unable to immediately verify the information in the post.
— Holly Ellyatt
The United States said on Monday it will send Ukraine new security assistance valued at $200 million.
The aid includes air defense munitions, artillery rounds, anti-armor capabilities, and additional mine-clearing equipment, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Two U.S. officials told Reuters last Monday that they would begin to dole out $6.2 billion of funds discovered after a Pentagon accounting error that overvalued billions of dollars of Ukraine aid.
In May, the Pentagon announced it had mistakenly assigned a higher-than-warranted value to the U.S. weaponry shipped to Kyiv when staff used “replacement value” instead of “depreciated value” to tabulate the billions’ worth of ammunition, missiles and other equipment sent to Ukraine.
Ukraine needs weaponry that can be shipped from U.S. stocks in a matter of days or weeks so it can continue to repel Russia’s invasion. The accounting error works to Kyiv’s benefit because more equipment can be sent.
Beginning to use these discovered funds is significant because they represent the last of the previously congressionally authorized $25.5 billion worth of Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) the administration can utilize to ship weapons from U.S. stocks in the event of an emergency, the U.S. officials said.
Washington is currently working on a supplemental budget request to continue to aid Kyiv, the U.S. officials said. Monday’s announcement of $200 million would be the first tranche of a $6.2 billion windfall of previously authorized Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), the officials said.
— Reuters
Russia’s central bank is to hold an extraordinary rate meeting on Tuesday after a steep fall in the ruble Monday.
Russia’s currency slid past 100 to the U.S. dollar earlier nearing a 17-month low, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s economic advisor to blame loose monetary policy for the rapid depreciation.
Russia’s central bank then put out a statement in which it said a meeting will be held tomorrow “to consider the issue of the key rate level.” It said it would announce the board’s decision at 10:30 a.m. Moscow time.
The central bank’s key rate currently stands at 8.5%, having been raised 100 basis points last month. Then, the bank acknowledged “the possibility of a further increase in the key rate at the next meetings to stabilize inflation near 4% in 2024 and beyond.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Britain said its Typhoon fighter jets intercepted two Russian maritime patrol bomber aircraft in international airspace north of Scotland on Monday, within NATO’s northern air policing area.
“Pilots launched in their Typhoon jets to intercept two Russian long-range bombers this morning, monitoring them as they passed north of the Shetland Islands, ready to counter any potential threat to UK territory,” British armed forces minister James Heappey said.
Russia’s defense ministry said earlier that Russian strategic bombers have carried out routine flights over international waters in the Arctic.
Russia regularly flies its Tu-160 and Tu-95’S long-range bombers, which are capable of carrying nuclear cruise missiles, over international waters.
“All the flights were carried out in strict compliance with international airspace regulations,” the ministry said, adding that the longest flight had lasted for more than seven hours.
— Reuters
The United Nations has confirmed 9,444 civilian deaths and 16,940 injuries in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began more than 530 days ago.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said the death toll in Ukraine is “considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration.”
— Amanda Macias
China’s relationship with Russia has deepened in recent years with both countries sharing a similar aim in opposing and disrupting what they see as the West’s hegemony in global affairs.
The dynamic between Beijing and Moscow is more nuanced than it appears on the surface, however, with power imbalances and conflicts of interest, particularly since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, throwing a curveball at the global economic order.
Some analysts have likened the relationship to the tale of “Goldilocks” in which a middle ground is sought, with China wanting its ally Russia to not be either too strong, where it could challenge Beijing, nor too weak where it leaves China ideologically isolated against the West.
Read more on the story here
— Holly Ellyatt
President Joe Biden is seeking more than $24 billion in additional funding as Ukraine continues to fight off a full-scale Russian invasion.
In the nearly 18 months since Russian troops poured over Ukrainian borders, the U.S. has unleashed a war chest worth more than $43 billion to bolster Kyiv’s arsenal.
Biden, who faces reelection next year, has committed the lion’s share of military aid for Ukraine. In addition to security assistance, the U.S. has committed more than $110 billion in economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and funding for NATO allies.
Read the full story here.
— Amanda Macias and Emma Kinery
Retired Major General Mick Ryan of the Australian Army breaks down some aspects of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, and how Russia’s defensive fortifications are proving a challenge for Ukraine’s well-trained troops.
Twenty-two Russian diplomats flew out of Moldova’s capital Chisinau on Monday amid deteriorating diplomatic relations between the two countries, according to Reuters.
Moldovan media published video footage of two buses being escorted out of the Russian embassy by police and driving in the direction of the airport.
Chisinau last month expelled 45 Russian embassy staff amid continued concerns about Moscow’s attempts to destabilize the former Soviet state. They were told they had until Aug. 15 to leave.
“We agreed on the need to limit the number of accredited diplomats from Russia, so that there are fewer people trying to destabilize the Republic of Moldova,” Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said at the time.
According to Reuters reports, Moldova’s foreign ministry said no more than 10 Russian diplomats and 15 support staff can remain in Chisinau from Tuesday. Moldova’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
— Karen Gilchrist
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said Monday that several Russian tanks had been destroyed and abandoned in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
“Three Russian T-90M ‘Breakthrough’ tanks, a transporter-tractor MT-LB and an IFV are knocked out and abandoned near the village of Andriivka, Donetsk region,” the ministry wrote in a post on X.
Aerial video footage included in the post appears to show the abandoned vehicles, though CNBC could not independently verify the reports.
— Karen Gilchrist
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Monday that Russian weapons were proving effecting in Ukraine.
According to Reuters, Shoigu’s comments were broadcast on state television, during which he added that Western weaponry had shown itself to be “far from perfect” on the battlefield in Ukraine.
— Karen Gilchrist
Ukrainian officials on Monday claimed “some success” in pushing back Russian troops in one part of the southeast of Ukraine.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said progress was limited by widespread Russian-laid minefields, but that Ukrainian troops pushed forward around the village of Staromaiorske, around 60 miles southwest of Russian-held Donetsk, according to Reuters.
She added that Kyiv’s troops were fighting for control of the neighboring settlement of Urozhaine as part their wider efforts to retake Russian-occupied territory.
“Hostilities are taking place in the vicinity of Urozhaine and the fight is for this particular locality,” Maliar said in a statement. “There is some success on the southern and southeast axes in the vicinity of Staromaiorske.”
CNBC was unable to independently verify the defense ministry’s claims.
Russia continues to control around a fifth of Ukraine, including the Black Sea Crimea peninsula, Luhansk region in the east, and large parts of the regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
— Karen Gilchrist
Germany’s finance minister said Monday that his country stands “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine and pledged to hold “concrete talks” with Ukrainian officials about how Berlin can support Kyiv.
Christian Linder, who arrived in Kyiv Monday for his first visit since the start of the war, said the talks would extend beyond the current crisis and look to the future, AFP reported.
The meeting with Ukrainian officials was set to include discussions about direct foreign investment and customs issues, it added.
Germany has provided around 22 billion euros ($24 billion) in humanitarian, financial and military aid to Ukraine since the start of the war, Lindner said.
— Karen Gilchrist
The Russian ruble slid past 100 per U.S. dollar on Monday, a psychologically important threshold for the country’s beleaguered currency.
The ruble was last seen down 100.78 against the greenback, having hit a near 17-month-low Monday morning.
The currently has fallen around 30% against the dollar this year amid anxiety around the state of the economy and the impact of Western sanctions imposed on Moscow in response to President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Putin’s economic advisor Maxim Oreshkin told Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency that the depreciation would normalize in the near future.
— Karen Gilchrist
Ukraine on Monday urged the international community to impose decisive countermeasures against Russia a day after Moscow said one of its warships had fired warning shots at a cargo vessel in the Black Sea.
Calling it a “provocative” attack, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the attack was a violation of international law and “exemplified Russia’s deliberate policy of endangering the freedom of navigation and safety of commercial shipping in the Black Sea.”
“We express our support and solidarity with Türkiye, our strategic partner, and we call on the international community to take decisive action to prevent Russian Federation’s actions that impede the peaceful passage of vessels through the Black Sea,” the ministry said, according to Reuters.
In a statement Sunday, Moscow said it had fired automatic weapons on the Palau-flagged Sukru Okan vessel after the ship’s captain did not respond to a request to halt for an inspection.
Russia has said it will treat any ships approaching Ukrainian ports as potential military vessels after leaving a U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal last month.
— Karen Gilchrist
German defense company Rheinmetall said Sunday that it had received an order from the government to supply its Luna drone system to Ukraine this year.
The company said the reconnaissance drones would be delivered by the end of the year, but did not specify the order volume.
The order forms a part of a wider military aid package initiated by the German government in July 2023.
— Karen Gilchrist
Russia is equipping its new nuclear submarines with hypersonic Zircon missiles, according to the chief executive of the country’s largest shipbuilder.
In an interview published Monday by Russia’s RIA state news agency, Alexei Rakhmanov, chief executive officer of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, said “work in this direction is already underway.”
“Multi-purpose nuclear submarines of the Yasen-M project will … be equipped with the Zircon missile system on a regular basis,” Rakhmanov added.
Yasen-class submarines, otherwise known as Project 885M, are nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines designed to replace Soviet-era nuclear attack submarines.
The sea-based Zircon hypersonic missiles have a range of 900 km (560 miles), and can travel at several times the speed of sound, making it difficult to defend against them, according to Reuters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this year that Russia world start mass supplies of Zircon missiles to boost the country’s nuclear forces.
— Karen Gilchrist
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged justice after Russian shelling on the southern Kherson region Sunday.
Seven people were killed and 13 more injured in the attack, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said, as of Sunday at 5 p.m. local time. Among the dead is a 23-day-old baby girl, according to the Associated Press.
“Russian invaders brutally attacked Kherson region. There are dead and wounded,” Zelenskyy wrote Sunday in his evening address on the Telegram messaging app.
“In total, from the beginning of this day until 6 pm, there have already been 17 reports of shelling from Kherson region alone. Other regions include Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donbas, Kharkiv, the border areas with Russia in the northeast,” he added.
“Each of our warriors who gives Ukraine results on the frontline — along the entire frontline from Kharkiv to Kherson — each of our warriors has the opportunity to bring justice to Ukraine.”
Local officials in the southern region, part of which Kyiv liberated last year, have declared Monday a day of mourning.
— Karen Gilchrist
At least three people were injured after a series of drones and missiles hit the Ukrainian city of Odesa, officials said Monday.
The southern port city was targeted in three waves of attacks: two waves of attack drones, a total of 15 drones, and 8 Kalibr missiles, Oleg Kiper, the governor of the local region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“As a result of the downing of the rockets that the Russians aimed at the center of Odesa, debris damaged a dormitory of one of the educational institutions, a residential building and a supermarket. The blast wave knocked out windows in several buildings, damaged cars parked nearby. Fires broke out at three facilities. All relevant services are on site,” Kiper wrote, according to a Google translation.
The three injured were employees of the supermarket, and two of them were hospitalized, Kiper added.
— Karen Gilchrist
The U.S. Treasury announced that it was sanctioning four people it described as members of Russia’s financial elite.
The men have all served on the board of the Alfa Group Consortium, a major Russian investment conglomerate.
“Wealthy Russian elites should disabuse themselves of the notion that they can operate business as usual while the Kremlin wages war against the Ukrainian people,” Wally Adeyemo, deputy secretary of the Treasury, said in a statement. “Our international coalition will continue to hold accountable those enabling the unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.”
The individuals sanctioned are:
Their property and business in the U.S. will be blocked as a result of the sanctions.
— Katrina Bishop
U.S. sanctions 4 of Russia’s financial elite; Russian strike on hotel kills 1
