Because the conflict enters its 903rd day, these are the principle developments.
Right here is the scenario on Friday, August 16, 2024.
Combating
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Ukraine had taken full management of the city of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk area, after sending hundreds of troops throughout the border in a shock assault that started on August 6.
- Ukraine’s high army commander Oleksandr Syrskii mentioned its forces had moved ahead by 1.5km (0.93 miles) over the earlier 24 hours, advancing some 35km into Russia’s Kursk area because the begin of the incursion. Its forces had been now in command of 1,150 sq. kilometres (444 sq. miles) of Russian territory and 82 settlements, he added.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence didn’t reply to the Ukrainian claims about Sudzha. The ministry mentioned earlier that Russian forces had blocked Ukrainian makes an attempt to take a number of settlements within the area and that they’d retaken the village of Krupets.
- Kursk performing governor, Alexei Smirnov, ordered the evacuation of the Glushkovo district, about 45km (28 miles) northwest of Sudzha. Authorities say greater than 120,000 Kursk area residents have already been evacuated due to the combating.
- Vasyl Maliuk, the pinnacle of the Safety Service of Ukraine (SBU), mentioned Ukrainian particular forces captured a gaggle of 102 Russian troopers on Wednesday within the Kursk area.
- Russia mentioned it might beef up its border defences, enhance the command and management system and ship in extra forces because of the Kursk incursion.
- No less than two folks had been killed and 12 injured in a Russian-guided bomb assault on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv area, regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, mentioned on Telegram.
- Serhiy Tsehotskiy, an officer with Ukraine’s 59th Motorized Brigade, instructed nationwide tv there had been no letup in Russian army stress in Ukraine’s partially-occupied jap Donetsk area. “The enemy, regardless of what is going on on the territory of Russia, remains to be … holding the majority of its troops on this route and attempting to attain success,” Tsehotskiy mentioned.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence mentioned it captured the Donetsk village of Ivanivka, a frontline village about 15km (9 miles) from the strategically necessary city of Pokrovsk in jap Ukraine.
- Ukraine’s air pressure mentioned it shot down all 29 Russian drones concentrating on eight Ukrainian areas, and the assault triggered solely minor harm.
Politics and diplomacy
- A courtroom within the Russian metropolis of Yekaterinburg jailed 32-year-old Ksenia Karelina, a twin United States-Russian citizen, for 12 years after discovering her responsible of treason for donating $51.80 to a New York-based charity that gives support to kids and the aged in Ukraine. Karelina, who lives in Los Angeles the place she made the donation, was arrested earlier this yr when she flew to Russia to see household.
- Mykhailo Podolyak, aide to Ukraine’s president, rejected options Kyiv was concerned within the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gasoline pipelines within the Baltic Sea. The Wall Avenue Journal reported late on Wednesday that Ukraine’s then-top army commander, Valerii Zaluzhny, oversaw the plan to explode the pipelines in September 2022. The report got here after Germany issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian over the assaults.
- Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko, a key Russian ally, instructed Russian state tv Moscow and Kyiv ought to negotiate an finish to the conflict. Lukashenko claimed solely “high-ranking folks of American origin” needed the conflict to proceed.
Weaponry
- The UK’s Ministry of Defence mentioned Ukraine was allowed to make use of British weapons in operations on Russian territory, however restrictions remained on using long-range Storm Shadow missiles.
- Sky Information and different UK media shops reported Challenger 2 tanks donated by the UK to Ukraine had been getting used within the Ukrainian incursion in Kursk.
