Here is the situation on Monday, August 26, 2024.
Fighting
- At least 18 people were killed and 37 injured in Russian missile and drone attacks on Sunday which targeted the front-line Ukrainian regions of Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Donetsk.
- The Reuters news agency said its safety adviser Ryan Evans was killed and two Reuters journalists injured, one of them seriously, in a Russian attack that hit a hotel in Kramatorsk, about 20km (13 miles) from the front line in Ukraine’s east, on Saturday night. Three other members of the team escaped unharmed.
- Russian officials said six civilians were killed in Ukrainian attacks on Russian border regions.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s forces advanced up to 3km (1.86 miles) in Russia’s Kursk region, taking control of two more settlements there.
- Ukraine called on Belarus to pull back what it described as significant levels of Belarusian forces and equipment, including tanks and artillery, deployed in the Gomel region at their common border. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned Belarus against making “tragic mistakes” while under pressure from Moscow.
Politics and diplomacy
- Zelenskyy said negotiations were continuing with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Switzerland on a second summit for peace. Zelenskyy also said he had told India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Kyiv, that he would support India hosting the event.
- Pope Francis condemned the Ukrainian government’s move to ban a Russia-linked branch of the country’s Orthodox Church. “Do not touch churches,” the pope said in his weekly prayers, one day after Zelenskyy signed the ban into law.
Weapons
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it sent more missiles and artillery to the Kursk region where thousands of Ukrainian troops advanced across the Russian border on August 6.
