As the war enters its 900th day, here are the top developments.
Here is the situation on Tuesday, August 13, 2024.
Raid on Kursk
- Ukraine's army chief Oleksandr Syrskii said kyiv controls about 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russia's Kursk region after launching a surprise cross-border raid on Aug. 6.
- Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukrainian ground attacks in his region had resulted in the loss of 28 settlements and that the incursion was about 12 kilometres deep and 40 kilometres wide.
- Smirnov said 12 civilians had been killed and 121 wounded in the fighting. Some 121,000 residents had been evacuated.
- Putin, who met with senior officials to discuss the situation, said Ukraine was trying to destabilise Russia and that there would be a “dignified response”. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
- Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which also lies on the border with Ukraine, said some residents were being evacuated amid increased Ukrainian military activity. Russia’s state news agency TASS later reported that 11,000 people had been evacuated from the Krasnaya Yaruga district.
Fighting in Ukraine
- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its experts were unable to determine what caused a fire in an idle cooling tower at the Zaporizhia nuclear plant in Russia-occupied Ukraine. Moscow and kyiv blamed each other for the blaze.
- The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had taken control of the settlement of Lysychne in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Politics and diplomacy
- China has called for detente following Ukraine's Kursk incursion. “China will continue to maintain communication with the international community and play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the crisis,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.
- Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis signed a joint statement with his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani expressing “deep concern” about Russian aggression in Ukraine, but saying Moscow should be present at the next peace summit. The first summit was held in June and Moscow was not invited.
- Ukraine's state prosecutors and anti-corruption police said they had arrested one of the country's four deputy energy ministers and three other suspects when they were caught “red-handed” receiving part of a $500,000 bribe.
- A Russian court has sentenced Uzbek community leader Usman Baratov to four years in prison for a social media post mocking troops fighting in Ukraine, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Arms
- The United States has warned Iran against sending ballistic missiles to Russia, saying that doing so would provoke a “severe” US response and undermine Tehran’s efforts to improve relations. The Reuters news agency, citing European officials, reported on Friday that Iran was planning to deliver hundreds of Fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles to Moscow.
