As the war enters its 904th day, here are the top developments.
Here is the situation on Saturday, August 17, 2024.
Struggle
- At least two people were killed and others wounded after Ukrainian shelling hit a shopping mall in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, local authorities said, according to Russian state news agencies. Earlier, Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed governor, said a series of Ukrainian strikes had wounded at least seven people.
- Russia's Belgorod region bordering Ukraine will evacuate residents of five villages and close access to them, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, as the area comes under heavy attack from invading Ukrainian forces.
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The heaviest fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops took place in Pokrovsk, a strategic hub in Ukraine. Officials said Russian forces were 10 kilometers (6 miles) outside Pokrovsk and about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from nearby Myrnohrad. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
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Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskii said kyiv's forces were advancing between 1 and 3 kilometers (0.6 and 1.8 miles) in some areas of Russia's Kursk region. kyiv has claimed to have taken control of 82 settlements in an area of 1,150 square kilometers (444 square miles) in the region since Aug. 6.
- Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said on Telegram that aviation took an active part in the operation in Kursk, which targeted Russian supply routes and logistics centers. He posted a video of the attack on a bridge.
- Kursk Region Governor Alexei Smirnov later said Ukraine had destroyed a road bridge over the Seym River in the region’s Glushkovsky district. The attack is hampering the evacuation of civilians by land, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported, citing local security services. An estimated 20,000 people are evacuating the area.
- Russia's Defense Ministry said its troops repelled Ukrainian attacks in several areas, including near the villages of Gordeevka, Russkoe Porechnoe and others.
- Russian forces have destroyed a Ukrainian reconnaissance and sabotage unit, which was armed with weapons from NATO countries, in the Kursk region, Russia's state news agency RIA reported on Friday, citing unnamed security sources.
Politics and diplomacy
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Ukraine has set up storage facilities in the northern Sumy region to store and send humanitarian aid to Russian civilians in the kyiv-controlled part of Russia's Kursk region, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
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Nikolai Patrushev, an influential aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, told Izvestia newspaper in an interview that the West and the US-led NATO alliance had helped plan Ukraine’s surprise attack on Russia’s Kursk region. Without “direct support” from the West, kyiv would not have ventured into Russian territory, he said.
- Russia's Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Italy's ambassador in Moscow to launch “a strong protest” over what it said was an “illegal border crossing” by a team of correspondents from Italian state broadcaster RAI, who reported from parts of Russia's Kursk region controlled by Ukraine this week.
- Baza, a Telegram channel close to Russian law enforcement, reported that the country's Interior Ministry was planning to open criminal cases against two RAI journalists for crossing the Russian border.
- Italy's foreign ministry told Reuters news agency that Italy's ambassador to Russia, Cecilia Piccioni, had explained to Russian authorities that RAI and its news teams “plan their activities in a completely independent and autonomous manner” from the government.
- White House national security spokesman John Kirby told US television on Friday that the US plans to announce more security assistance for Ukraine in the coming days, but gave no further details.
