As the war enters its 906th day, here are the top developments.
Here is the situation on Monday, August 19, 2024.
Struggle
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has for the first time stated the aim of Ukraine's August 6 incursion into Russia's Kursk region, saying the operation was necessary to create a buffer zone.
- Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said the air force destroyed a second strategically important bridge over the Seym River in the Kursk region. He posted aerial video of an explosion that destroyed the bridge, which appeared to be near the village of Zvannoye, about 15 kilometers north of the border with Ukraine.
- Vasily Golubev, governor of the Rostov region in southern Russia, said debris falling from a Ukrainian drone strike caused a major fire at an oil storage facility in the town of Proletarsk. There were no reports of injuries. Ukraine acknowledged the attack.
- Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces took control of the village of Svyrydonivka, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the key town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
- kyiv's military administration said Russia carried out its third ballistic missile attack on the Ukrainian capital this month, but initial data suggested the weapons were shot down during the approach. Separately, the air force's Oleshchuk said eight Russian attack drones and five of eight missiles launched across the country, including kyiv, were destroyed.
- Zelensky said Russia had launched more than 40 missiles, 750 guided aerial bombs and 200 attack drones last week at towns and cities in Ukraine.
- The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said security at Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was deteriorating after a drone attack hit a perimeter access road on Saturday.
- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said kyiv had deployed more than 120,000 troops along its border with Belarus, telling the state news agency that it had deployed a third of all Belarusian soldiers on the frontier. Andriy Demchenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian border service, told Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda that the situation on the Belarusian border had not changed.
Politics and diplomacy
- North Korea has condemned Ukraine's Aug. 6 incursion into Russia's Kursk region as an “act of terrorism” and said it would always stand with Russia, according to state media.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, for a two-day state visit, Russian news agencies reported. Putin will meet his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, to discuss bilateral relations and “international and regional problems,” the Kremlin said.
