As the war enters its 899th day, here are the top developments.
Here is the situation on Monday, August 12, 2024.
Struggle
- Authorities in the Russian city of Kursk said 13 people were injured when debris from a Ukrainian missile hit a nine-storey residential building. Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of Kursk, ordered local authorities to speed up the evacuation of civilians from at-risk areas amid the continuing Ukrainian offensive in the border region.
- Moscow said it had “thwarted attempts” by Ukrainian forces to “enter Russian territory” using armoured vehicles. It added that some of the fighting took place near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, some 25-30 kilometres from the border.
- Russia's Defense Ministry said air defense units destroyed 14 drones launched from Ukraine and four Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles over the Kursk region.
- Moscow and kyiv have accused each other of setting off a fire at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said its experts based at the facility had seen a thick, dark plume of smoke coming from the northern part of the plant after several explosions. The fire was later extinguished and there was no sign that radiation levels had risen.
- Ukrainian forces destroyed 53 of 57 Russian attack drones, the Kiev air force said. The drones were destroyed in several parts of Ukraine and included four North Korean-made missiles, the air force said.
- Analysts told AFP news agency that the coming weeks would be “critical” in fighting on the front line in eastern Ukraine. Members of the Ukrainian armed forces said the situation around Pokrovsk, about 15 kilometres from Russian positions, was particularly difficult.
Politics and diplomacy
- The acting president of Ukraine's athletics federation, Olha Saladukha, told AFP news agency that the country's performance at the Paris Olympics – winning three athletics medals on August 4 – could have an “explosive emotional effect” amid the ongoing Russian invasion. Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who won gold in the women's high jump that day, dedicated her medal to the nearly 500 Ukrainian athletes and coaches killed since February 2022.
