News of the Russian-Ukrainian war: missiles hit Lviv and Lutsk; Russia raises the interest rate

Russia’s central bank decided at a meeting on Tuesday to raise its key interest rate by 3.5 percentage points to 12 percent — a significant increase that comes after the ruble fell to a 17-month low, dropping briefly from 102 against the dollar on Monday. The Russian currency has lost nearly a quarter of its value against the dollar since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Here is the latest news about the war and its ripple effects around the world.

A rocket flew into the yard of a kindergarten in Lviv During the Russian attack on the city, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy said on Telegram. More than 100 apartments were damaged in the strikes, which left four people in need of medical assistance although their lives were not in danger, according to Sadovy. The Washington Post could not independently verify the reports.

Three people were injured in the strikes against Lutsk, Mayor Ihor Polishchuk said in a telegram. Polishchuk added that emergency service crews were on site at the industrial plant.

The US ambassador to Russia, Lynn Tracy, met with imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Ivan Gershkovitch. On Monday in the Lefortovo prison in Moscow, A.I Newspaper mentioned. Gershkovich The US embassy in Moscow told the newspaper after the meeting — the third since his arrest in March on espionage charges — that he appeared to be in good health and still vigor, which he, his employer, rights groups and the US government dismissed as phony.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held “frank talks” with the troops During a visit on Monday to the front line in eastern Ukraine Donetsk area, amidst a sustained counter-attack that has yielded few visible gains so far and left many Ukrainians exhausted by the Russian offensives. “We talked about our offensive, about supplies to the troops, about the capabilities of the commanders, about what these capabilities are now and what they should be,” Zelensky said of the visit in his evening address.

The Chinese defense minister is scheduled to speak at a conference in Moscow as part of a visit to Russia and Belarus. According to the Chinese Ministry of Defense. Li Changfu is expected to deliver a speech at the Moscow Conference on International Security on Tuesday and meet with Russian defense officials. In Minsk, Li is scheduled to meet and hold talks with Belarusian state and military leaders, as well as visit Belarusian military institutions. This will be Li Changfu’s first visit to Belarus and the second to Russia since he took office this year. Beijing and Moscow have strengthened their partnership in recent years, though China has refrained from publicly taking sides in the war in Ukraine.

More than 20 Russian diplomats and their families left Moldova on MondayAnd local media It reported, weeks after Russia asked Russia to reduce its staff in the capital, Chisinau, amid deteriorating relations between the two countries. The Russian Foreign Ministry described him as:Unfriendly moveThat will negatively affect relationships.

A Russian MiG-29 fighter prevented a reconnaissance and patrol plane of the Norwegian Air Force from crossing the Russian border.over the Barents Sea, on Monday, the Russian state information agency TASS Reported quoting the Ministry of Defense. “Foreign aircraft moved away from the Russian border as the Russian fighter approached,” the statement said.

A Chechen battalion continues to take part in the battles around Orhikiv, north of Zaporizhia.The British Ministry of Defense said in a Daily intelligence update. On Aug. 10, Kadyrov acknowledged “the efforts of the Chechen Vostok Akhmat battalion in the hotly contested Orhikiv sector” in Zaporizhia, one of four Ukrainian regions illegally claimed by Russia last year. While “Chechen forces make up a relatively small but notable component of Russian forces in Ukraine,” the ministry said, “Kadyrov likely aggressively touted the roles of his units in part to burnish his credentials as a Putin loyalist.”

The ruble fell, underlining the pressure on Russia’s war economy: The Russian currency has lost nearly a quarter of its value against the dollar since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to a report by Francesca Ibel and Isabel Khorshodyan. The Russian Central Bank said that the ruble’s decline would not affect the country’s overall financial stability, and blamed the uneven trade balance, which was affected by Western sanctions, for the situation.

Oleg Itskoky, professor of economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the new decline was part of a “permanent consumption trend” and acceleration, rather than a spontaneous crisis. “Maybe the current acceleration will devalue the tsunami, but this did not happen in the past,” he said.