Because the conflict enters its 903rd day, these are the principle developments.
Right here is the state of affairs on Friday, August 16, 2024.
Preventing
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Ukraine had taken full management of the city of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk area, after sending 1000’s of troops throughout the border in a surprise attack that started on August 6.
- Ukraine’s high navy 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 have 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 appearing 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 preventing.
- Vasyl Maliuk, the top of the Safety Service of Ukraine (SBU), mentioned Ukrainian particular forces captured a bunch 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 further forces because of the Kursk incursion.
- No less than two folks have 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 navy stress in Ukraine’s partially-occupied jap Donetsk area. “The enemy, regardless of what is occurring on the territory of Russia, remains to be … retaining the majority of its troops on this path and attempting to realize 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 vital city of Pokrovsk in jap Ukraine.
- Ukraine’s air drive mentioned it shot down all 29 Russian drones concentrating on eight Ukrainian areas, and the assault induced 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 youngsters 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 strategies Kyiv was concerned within the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream fuel pipelines within the Baltic Sea. The Wall Avenue Journal reported late on Wednesday that Ukraine’s then-top navy 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 have been getting used within the Ukrainian incursion in Kursk.
