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The United Nations released a revised humanitarian appeal for more funds toward the crisis in Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in New York that financial requirement increased from $2.25 to $4.3 billion, and that more than a quarter of Ukraine's population will need humanitarian assistance by year's end.
"During the first five months of the war, at least 2.3 million Ukrainians received cash assistance," he said, according to AP. "Our humanitarian colleagues warn that during the forthcoming winter the situation can deteriorate as more people will be displaced from areas with limited access to gas, fuel or electricity. Supporting them is a priority.”
The European Union has called on member states to cut natural-gas use by 15 percent under a new plan intended to prepare the bloc for a possible halt in Russian supplies,
The plan, approved two weeks ago and published as a European Council regulation on Monday, will apply for one year and is reportedly expected to go into force Tuesday.
"Considering the imminent danger to the security of gas supply brought about by the Russian military aggression against Ukraine, this regulation should enter into force as a matter of urgency," according to the text of the regulation.
Under the plan, EU countries are expected to do their best to voluntarily reduce their gas consumption by 15 percent between August 1 and March 31 compared to the average consumption over the same period the past five years.
Ukraine is deploying its relatively new, locally built Bureviy multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) against Russian targets near Kharkiv. The Bureviy (Stormy, or Hurricane) is a modernized version of the Soviet Uragan system. An RFE/RL photographer as it went on the attack.
manning a German Panzerhaubitze 2000, a self-propelled, long-range howitzer, as it opened fire on Russian positions. After firing a salvo, the crew hid the weapon system among trees and broken branches. They told reporters the Russian drones were hunting the highly effective howitzers, which had forced Russian artillery to pull back to positions farther from the front line.
Russian troops shelled positions held by Ukrainian troops and several populated areas in various directions, Ukraine's General Staff said as Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said it had foiled a plot to kill two top government officials,
In the Donetsk region, Russian troops are trying to inflict "maximum losses" on Ukrainian units and prevent their transfer to other fronts, the General Staff said in its evening assessment of the day's fighting.
"Our soldiers repelled enemy assaults in the direction of the settlements of Bakhmut, Zaytseve, Vershina, and Kodem," the General Staff announced.
A lack of running water in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk means that residents must fill bottles by hand at public pumps throughout the city, . The city's remaining population has adapted to this new way of life. But local officials warn that the coming of winter could set the stage for a humanitarian crisis. Most of the eastern Donetsk region is without gas for heating and public wells and municipal water pipes are likely to freeze in winter. The head of the city military administration in nearby Kramatorsk said that this lack of utilities would prompt people to use other means to heat and light their houses. And that raises the risk of fires.
A judge has authorized U.S. prosecutors to seize a $90 million Airbus plane owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Andrei Skoch, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said, according to a Reuters report.
Skoch, a member of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, was initially sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2018 for alleged ties to Russian organized criminal groups. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued further sanctions against Skoch in the wake of Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Washington has sought to pressure President Vladimir Putin to stop the military campaign by freezing and seizing assets belonging to wealthy Russians.
The United States on Monday pledged $1 billion in new military aid to Ukraine, according to a .