Russia in Review, Aug. 18 | Warehouse Equipment Co.,Ltd

· In the past month of fighting Russian forces have gained 38 square miles of Ukrainian territory, while Ukraine has also gained 38 square miles, according to the Russia-Ukraine War Report Card. (Belfer Russia-Ukraine War Task Force, 08.22.23) For an informative account of daily combat as seen through the eyes of Ukrainian soldiers, see this WSJ piece.

Explosion on board theory:

Surface-to-air missile theory:

The cutoff for reports summarized in this product was 2:00pm Eastern Time on the day it was distributed.

Here and elsewhere, the italicized text indicates comments by RM staff and associates. These comments do not constitute RM editorial policy.

Photo shared by the Russian presidential press service (Kremlin.ru) under a CC BY 4.0 license.

PMC Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, his top military commander Dmitry Utkin and eight other people were on board an Embraer passenger plane when it crashedThough Ukraine’s armed forces (ZSU) have made incremental advances, these gains were matched by the Russian military over the past month, fueling debates between Kyiv and Washington on what strategy the former should pursue in its counteroffensiveAt their summit this week, BRICS member states agreed to bring Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to their group—a move that “puts the G-7 … into the shade” in terms of economic output,