Ukraine Briefly

August 05, 2022

Ukraine, Briefly

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• A new report from Amnesty International said the Ukrainian military has occasionally put people at risk of Russian strikes by establishing bases in schools, homes and other sites in inhabited regions, the Associated Press wrote.

• A Russian court found WNBA star Brittney Griner guilty of drug offenses and sentenced her to nine years in jail Thursday, bringing an end to a case that garnered intense interest and included the highest echelons of the US government, according to Axios.

• The US Senate has approved Finland and Sweden’s membership in NATO, marking the 30-member alliance’s biggest enlargement since the 1990s, Al Jazeera reported.

• Ukraine said that Russia was forming a military strike force aimed at President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih, warning that this might be part of a larger new offensive in the country’s south, Euronews noted. Russia already controls large portions of southern Ukraine acquired during the initial stages of the invasion. Kyiv said it is conducting a counteroffensive and has already taken back 53 villages in the Kherson area.

• Italian authorities are looking into the case of a former top Russian official who was sent to hospital this week in Sardinia after suffering neurological symptoms, the Washington Post said. Anatoly Chubais, the Kremlin’s climate envoy who quit in protest shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, was in intensive care after becoming unwell without warning at a resort on the island.

This story originally appeared in the August 05, 2022 newsletter, Same Old, Same Old.