Here are the key events from Wednesday, August 24.
Follow the latest updates here.
Fighting
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Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, has banned public celebrations commemorating Ukraine’s independence from Soviet rule. Kharkiv and Mykolaiv have also imposed curbs.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would recapture its annexed peninsula of Crimea from Russia by any means it deemed right and that it would not consult other countries before doing so.
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Russian air defences shot down an unspecified number of Ukrainian drones near the Crimean city of Sevastopol on Tuesday night, Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said.
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Ammunition stored in southern Russia near the border with Ukraine caught fire, the second such incident in a week, and an official said high temperatures were to blame.
Diplomacy, economy
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The United States will announce a new security assistance package for Ukraine worth about $3bn as early as Wednesday, a US official said, in what would be the single largest tranche for Kyiv since Russia’s invasion six months ago.
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Russian politicians bade farewell at a service to Darya Dugina, the daughter of one of Russia’s most prominent nationalist ideologues, hailing her as a “martyr” whose death must inspire Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.
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The United Nations nuclear watchdog will visit the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine within days if talks to gain access succeed, it said.
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A total of 33 cargo ships carrying about 719,549 tonnes of foodstuffs have left Ukraine under a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey to unblock Ukrainian seaports, the Ukrainian agriculture ministry said.
