Day 175 Roundup: UN's Guterres and Turkey's Erdogan to Meet Zelenskyy in Ukraine

Facts

• As Ukraine announced that over 560K tonnes of grain have left its ports since the implementation of a Turkey-brokered, UN-backed deal, the UN has said its Sec. Gen. António Guterres, will on Thurs. travel to Lviv to meet Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy alongside Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,
• Leaders are expected to assess the grain export deal. However, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that they will also no doubt discuss the situation at the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia power plant and a UN fact-finding mission into the deaths of POWs at Olenivka prison, as well as "the need for a political solution."
• Meanwhile, an unnamed Ukrainian official again told Washington Post reporters that Ukrainian special forces were behind the attacks on Crimea that caused explosions at an ammunition depot in the Dzhankoy region on Tuesday. A Russian military base in central Crimea was also reportedly struck later in the day.
• Explosions were also reported at a railroad line for freight in the Russian border region of Kursk on Tuesday. It came as Russia's security service, the FSB, blamed "Ukrainian saboteurs" for a series of explosions targeting pylons of power lines that run from the Kursk nuclear power plant on Aug. 4, Aug. 9 and Aug. 12. It added that security in the area had been strengthened, and that a search for the perpetrators is underway.
• In light of the attacks, Ukraine's presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told the Guardian that Ukraine is now engaged in a counteroffensive aimed at creating "chaos within Russian forces" by striking deep into supply lines.
• Meanwhile, Russian artillery strikes continue to be reported across the Donbas region, where Ukrainian officials reported two civilians had been killed and seven injured in the last 24 hrs. Pro-Russia officials from the Donetsk People's Republic reported that Ukrainian shelling killed nine civilians and injured six in the same period. Russian strikes were also reported in the regions of Odesa, Zaporizhia, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv, without reports of civilian fatalities at this stage.

Sources: Associated Press, Washington Post, Pravda, and Guardian.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Newsbud. With the help of Western military aid, Ukraine's southern counteroffensive has commenced, and Russia's commanders will be increasingly worried by the strikes deep into territory it supposedly controls – including three attacks on Crimea in less than a week.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Anti War. Multi-billion dollar weapons packages will make little difference in the outcome of the war. The US has been meddling in Ukraine since the end of the Cold War, and what we're witnessing is a geopolitical ponzi scheme to benefit those aligned with the military-industrial complex. War is a lucrative racket.

Predictions