As the war enters its 909th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Thursday, August 22, 2024.
Fighting
- Acting Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov said one woman was killed and two people injured after their car was hit by an explosive dropped by a Ukrainian drone just outside Sudzha.
- Ukraine said it had destroyed several Russian pontoon crossings over the Seym River with US-made HIMARS rocket systems to defend its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Moscow said its forces had halted Kyiv’s advance into its territory.
- Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Kursk and Ukraine, said Russian forces pushed back a Ukrainian attempt to enter that region. Bogomaz identified the Ukrainian forces as a “sabotage and reconnaissance group” but did not specify if they were part of Ukraine’s military.
- Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces came under repeated Russian attacks around the frontline town of Pokrovsk in the east. The military said there were 46 Russian attacks on the front throughout Wednesday and that 44 were repelled. Two were continuing as of 19:00 GMT. The General Staff said 238 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded in the same area. It did not disclose Ukrainian losses.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces had taken control of the village of Zhelanne, which lies some 20km (12 miles) to the southeast of Pokrovsk.
- Ukrainian forces destroyed 50 out of 69 Russian attack drones launched across the country overnight. It did not elaborate on casualties or damage.
- In Russia, the Defence Ministry said air defence shot down 11 drones over Moscow and its surrounding region. The attack was one of the biggest on Moscow since the start of the war in 2022.
Politics and diplomacy
- Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed Chinese Premier Li Qiang to the Kremlin and said that Russia’s economic and trade links with Beijing were “yielding results”. Moscow has deepened ties with China amid heavy economic sanctions from many developed nations over its invasion of Ukraine.
- Ukraine’s parliament voted to join the International Criminal Court (ICC). Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the move would ensure efforts to secure accountability for “all Russian atrocities” in its invasion would be “even more effective”.
- A Russian court jailed exiled opposition politician and former member of parliament Dmitry Gudkov to eight years “in absentia” for criticism of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine. Gudkov, who left Russia in 2021 and is a vocal Putin critic, said the sentence was a “badge of honour”.
- Thousands of Ukrainian refugees face eviction from shelters in Hungary after the government barred state subsidies for those from areas of Ukraine not considered affected by the war. Budapest currently lists only 13, or about half of Ukraine’s regions, as affected by Russia’s invasion.
- Ukraine will need $12-15bn more in foreign assistance next year than previously expected because of Russia’s invasion, Deputy Finance Minister Olha Zykova said. Ukraine said previously it would need a total of $22.7bn in foreign assistance in 2025.
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he would “share perspectives” on the peaceful resolution of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia during his visit to Kyiv on Friday, more than a month after he travelled to Moscow.
- The military regimes of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have written to the United Nations Security Council asking it to “take appropriate actions” against Ukraine, which they accuse of supporting rebel groups in northern Mali. Mali and Niger cut ties with Kyiv after a rebel attack in northern Mali last month killed dozens of soldiers, as well as Russian Wagner mercenaries. Ukraine has rejected claims it was involved.
Weapons
- Ukraine’s military said it struck an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system based in Russia’s southern Rostov region because such weapons were being used to attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. Rostov Governor Vasily Golubev said air defence forces had destroyed a Ukraine-launched missile over his region.
