A senior NATO official has apologised and clarified his comments, a day after he said publicly that Ukraine could give up territory to Russia in exchange for NATO membership and an end to the war, writes The Guardian. Stian Jenssen, the chief of staff to the NATO secretary general, said “My statement about this was part of a larger discussion about possible future scenarios in Ukraine, and I shouldn’t have said it that way. It was a mistake”.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny discussed the urgent need of the Ukrainian army for ammunition and weapons with Chairman of U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley: “I spoke about the operational situation at the front and our near-, medium-, and long-term plans. I also informed General Milley in detail about the plans and probable actions of the Russian occupiers”. Zaluzhny and Milley also discussed the urgent need of the Ukrainian army for shells, weapons, mine clearance equipment, air defense systems, and electronic warfare systems.

During the day, 24 combat engagements took place between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Russian troops. This is stated in the report by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as of 18:00 on August 17 published on Facebook: “During the day, the enemy launched four missile strikes, 37 airstrikes, and 27 MLRS attacks on the positions of Ukrainian troops and populated settlements. As a result of the Russian terrorist attacks, civilians were killed and injured. Residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure objects were damaged. Twenty-four combat engagements took place during the day”.

Ukraine’s air force said a large group of Russian army drones entered the mouth of the Danube river and headed toward the Izmail river port near the border with Romania. The governor of southern Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, asked residents of Izmail district to take shelter at about 1:30 am and cancelled the air raid alert one hour later.

The US condemned Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine’s grain infrastructure in a state department statement, as it called for Moscow to return immediately to the grain deal. Russian president does not care about global food security, state department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters after Ukraine said Russia had attacked its grain storage facilities overnight.

Kyiv said a civilian cargo vessel had exited its southern port of Odesa on Wednesday despite warnings from Russia that its navy could target ships using Ukraine’s Black Sea export hubs.

Ukraine will not be able to operate US-built F-16 fighter jets this coming autumn and winter, air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian television: “It’s already obvious we won’t be able to defend Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets during this autumn and winter”.