Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,272

On Tuesday, August 19, this is how things are going.

diplomacy and politics

• Donald Trump, the president of the United States, met with European leaders at the White House on Monday and said it was a “good meeting.”
• Trump claimed that the leaders had a discussion about “coordination with” the US regarding security guarantees that would be offered to Ukraine by European nations.
• Details would be “formalized on paper within the next week to ten days,” according to Zelenskyy, who described US involvement in the security guarantees as “a major step forward.”
• Zelenskyy also claimed that his nation had offered to purchase US weapons worth $ 90 billion.
• The security guarantees discussed by Finland’s President Alexander Stubb were similar to those provided to NATO members in terms of Article 5, but details needed to be clarified.
• According to a Kremlin aide, Trump and Putin had 40 minutes of phone conversations after meeting with Zelenskyy and the European leaders, and the two leaders discussed how to raise the Russian and Ukrainian representative level during discussions.
• Trump stated that he had begun organizing for a bilateral summit between Zelenskyy and the Russian leader, with trilateral discussions involving the US president following.
• Within two weeks, according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Putin and Zelenskyy could meet.
• Trump, according to French President Emmanuel Macron, “also wants a peace agreement,” but that “we are also prepared to say that we need to increase sanctions] on Russia” if the “process is met by refusal.”
• Because “we are now going to work with the US on those security guarantees,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer claimed the talks produced a “significant breakthrough.”

Fighting

• Before the talks, 14 people died in Russian attacks throughout the country, according to Ukrainian authorities. At least seven people were killed in a drone attack on a Kharkiv apartment building. Thirty-eight others were hurt.
• The regional governor said that 23 people were also hurt in a ballistic missile attack on the southeast of Zaporizhzhia on Monday, including three of the victims.
• Russia launched 140 Shahed and decoy drones overnight, according to Ukraine’s air force, of which 88 were shot down or en route. In total, four Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 140 Shahed and decoy drones were launched.
• Regional governor Andrei Bocharov, a resident of Volgograd, reported in a post on Telegram that falling debris from a Ukrainian drone that was shot down by Russian forces had ignited fires in a hospital building and an oil refinery in Russia.
• According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 141 Ukrainian drones and four guided aerial bombs were destroyed in a 24-hour period, according to Russia’s state-run news agency TASS.