Summary of the day
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said his country’s forces are continuing to advance into Russian territory after their surprise offensive.
The head Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, has said Kyiv has set up a military commandant’s office in the occupied part of Russia’s Kursk region.
He said his forces were still advancing and had taken up to 1.5 km (0.93 miles) in the last 24 hours.
Alexei Smirnov, Kursk’s acting governor, said that the Glushkov district was being evacuated.
Russia’s emergency ministry declared a federal level emergency in the Belgorod region.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the US will provide additional security packages for Ukraine in the coming days, told MSNBC on Thursday.
British Challenger 2 tanks are thought to have been used in Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia, the UK’s PA Media reported.
A Russian court today sentenced a Russian-American, Ksenia Karelina, to 12 years in jail on treason charges. The charge against Karelina was based on a donation of just over $50 she made to a charity supporting Ukraine.
Russian guided bomb attacks today killed at least two people and injured seven more in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, local authorities said, Reuters reported.
Zelenskiy says Ukrainian forces have taken full control of Sudzha in Kursk
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the head Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, reported to him the “successful liberation of the city of Sudzha from Russian forces.”
The town had a prewar population of around 5,000 people, the Associated Press reported. It holds a measuring station for Russian natural gas that flows through Ukrainian pipelines.
“A Ukrainian military commandant’s office is being established there,” Zelenskiy said, adding that “several other settlements have also been liberated. In total, more than eighty.”
Ukrainian state TV aired footage on Wednesday of its troops pulling down a Russian flag from an official building in Sudzha.
Today at the Staff meeting, I received a report from Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi. Our key defense directions at the frontline: Toretsk, Pokrovsk, and others. These areas are currently facing the most intense Russian assaults and are receiving our utmost defensive attention.… pic.twitter.com/uL3Oe4wL0n
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 15, 2024
Updated
Russia has claimed its forces have taken control of the village of Ivanivka in eastern Ukraine 16 km (10 miles) from the city of Pokrovsk, which is on an intersection of major roads that supply Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine’s surprise attack on Russia’s Kursk region has been seen by some analysts as an attempt to force Russia to divert forces from the Ukrainian front. But Russia’s defence ministry said its forces have clocked up a host of wins along the front, from Kharkhiv region to Luhansk and Donetsk, Reuters reports. The Guardian has not independently verified the battlefield claims.
Ukraine said there was no sign Russian military pressure was receding along the eastern front inside its borders on Thursday and reported the heaviest fighting in weeks near Pokrovsk.
An update from the @CinC_AFU Oleksandr Syrskyi on the operation in the Kursk region.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) August 15, 2024
Since the beginning of the day:
◾ Our defense forces have advanced 500 meters – 1.5 km.
Since the beginning of the operation:
◾ The Ukrainian troops have penetrated 35 kilometers and now… pic.twitter.com/g1zxASbi52
Обстановка на Сході та Півдні України залишається складною, але контрольованою. Триває оборонна операція. Основні зусилля зосереджуються на недопущенні просування ворога в напрямку Торецька та Покровська. pic.twitter.com/jgMjYbLVNo
— Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (@CinC_AFU) August 15, 2024
Updated
The US will provide additional security packages for Ukraine in the coming days, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told MSNBC on Thursday.
Kirby’s comments came after the Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov spoke with US counterpart Lloyd Austin about the battlefield situation and Ukraine’s defence needs, Reuters reported.
The head Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, has said Kyiv has set up a military commandant’s office in the occupied part of Russia’s Kursk region. He said his forces were still advancing and had taken up to 1.5 km (0.93 miles) in the last 24 hours, Reuters reports.
Syrskyi told Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a video published by the Ukrainian leader that Kyiv’s forces have advanced 35 km into Russia’s Kursk region since launching an incursion last week.
Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces had taken 82 settlements under control during the incursion and an area of 1,150 square kilometres. He said he was appointing Major General Eduard Moskalyov to head up a military commandant’s office in the Kyiv-held part of western Russia.
“We are moving forward in Kursk region. A military commandant’s office has been created which must ensure order and also all the needs of the local population,” Syrskyi said in a written statement on his Telegram channel.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine’s forces are continuing to advance into Russian territory after a surprise offensive and reiterated an appeal to western partners to allow long-range strikes on targets inside Russia. Authorities across the Kursk and Belgorod regions are continuing to evacuate residents as footage from inside Kursk shows people sheltering in a local boxing centre
British Challenger 2 tanks reportedly used in Ukraine's incursion into Russia
British Challenger 2 tanks are thought to have been used in Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia, the UK’s PA Media is reporting.
A UK source told the news agency that battle tanks had been deployed by Ukrainian troops, as first reported by Sky News.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence refused to comment on “operational” matters but said there had been no change in policy since the green light was given for UK weapons to be used on Russian soil as part of Kyiv’s self-defence. The only exception are Britain’s powerful Storm Shadow missiles, which remain off limits beyond Ukraine’s borders. The 82nd Air Assault Brigade, which has been operating UK tanks since last year, has been involved in the ongoing incursion.
Ukraine’s surprise counter-offensive has sparked concerns about a wider escalation of tensions between Russia and the West. But the MoD has said Ukraine has a “clear right” to use weapons donated by the UK for its self-defence, and “that does not preclude operations inside Russia”.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had a staff meeting covering “Frontline. Weapons. POW exchange. Legislative initiatives.”
I held a Staff meeting.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 15, 2024
Frontline. Weapons. POW exchange. Legislative initiatives.
More details - to follow. pic.twitter.com/mPZELG6h0b
The Security Service of Ukraine’s special forces captured 102 Russian servicemen in the Kursk region, Ukrinform reported.
“This is the most massive capture of the enemy that we managed to carry out at one time,” a source in the security service told the outlet.
Russia’s defence ministry said today that its forces had regained control of the settlement of Krupets in the Kursk region, Reuters reported.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from eastern Ukraine.
Russian-American jailed for 12 years in Russia for donation of just over $50 to charity supporting Ukraine
A Russian court today sentenced a Russian-American, Ksenia Karelina, to 12 years in jail on treason charges, the Interfax news agency said, Reuters reported.
The charge against Karelina was based on a donation of just over $50 she made to a charity supporting Ukraine.
Updated
As Ukraine’s Kursk incursion forges on the stakes are rising for both sides
Nine days into Ukraine’s incursion into Russia, and Kyiv is showing increasing confidence. Two soldiers, speaking off the record by a dusty roadside a few miles from the border, said they expected logistics functions to be brought forward “inside Russia” because supply lines were becoming stretched.
Though it is a fragmentary detail – being more specific would endanger life – it demonstrates that as Ukraine’s forces continue to advance into Kursk oblast, Kyiv is gradually becoming more committed to an incursion that may have begun brightly, but the eventual outcome of which remains profoundly uncertain.
Ukrainian operational security has been relatively tight, and soldiers are not supposed to post military successes on social media except with higher-level permission. But Ukrainian media are now being allowed inside Russia, as demonstrated by a report from the 1 + 1 channel, which is close to the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
It carried a broadcast from Sudzha, five miles inside the border, of Ukrainian soldiers handing out water bottles to the Russian civilians who had chosen not to evacuate. Zelenskiy made the point explicitly later on Wednesday, revealing that as Ukraine’s military campaign expands, Kyiv is being drawn in.
Here are more images of evacuees in Russia.
Apti Alaudinov, commander of Chechnya’s Akhmat special forces, told Russian state television that Russian forces had taken back control of the settlement of Martynovka in the Kursk region, Reuters reported.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian president’s office, said today that “in the border regions of Russia, including Kursk region, Ukrainians deal exclusively with security-related tasks.”
He added:
Ukraine is not interested in occupying these territories. But it is interested in the actual destruction of many Russian military facilities, pushing the remnants of Russian troops beyond the lines that allow for artillery and ballistic missile strikes on Ukrainian territory, forming a security belt around Ukraine’s borders, and destroying military logistics and infrastructure (including storage bases, training centers, and places where equipment is concentrated).
In the border regions of #Russia, including #Kursk region, Ukrainians deal exclusively with security-related tasks. #Ukraine is not interested in occupying these territories. But it is interested in the actual destruction of many Russian military facilities, pushing the remnants…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) August 15, 2024
Russia’s emergency ministry has declared a federal level emergency in the Belgorod region, Reuters reported.
“The situation in the region remains complex and tense. As a result of terrorist attacks by Ukrainian armed groups in the Belgorod region, residential houses and infrastructure facilities have been damaged, there are dead and injured citizens,” the head of the ministry, Alexander Kurenkov, said today.
Late yesterday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he met with government officials “regarding support for our military actions in the Kursk region.”
“It is crucial that Ukraine fights according to the rules, and that humanitarian needs in that area must be met,” the president said, noting that “today’s report from the head of the Security Service of Ukraine was positive.”
He stressed Kyiv’s need for long-range missiles.
Our Ukrainian drones are working exactly as needed. However, there are things that drones alone cannot achieve, unfortunately.
We need other weapons—missile systems. We continue to work with our partners to secure long-range solutions for Ukraine because these are forward-looking decisions essential for our victory. This must be done. The bolder our partners’ decisions, the less Putin can do.
Today, I held a meeting with government officials—including the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Internal Affairs, and the Ombudsman of the Verkhovna Rada—regarding support for our military actions in the Kursk region. It is crucial that Ukraine fights… pic.twitter.com/L2V9P8iHMn
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 14, 2024
Russia evacuates more people amid Ukrainian incursion
Good morning and welcome to our blog on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Russia is evacuating more people from its border regions today, Reuters reported, as Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region continues.
Alexei Smirnov, Kursk’s acting governor, said that the Glushkov district was being evacuated. The district has a population of 20,000.
At least 200,000 people have so far been evacuated from the border regions, according to Russian data, Reuters noted.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said today that its forces had shot down Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region.
Sukhoi-34 bombers also targeted Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region, the Russian ministry said.
In other developments:
Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, spoke with US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, about the battlefield situation and defence needs, his ministry said on Thursday. Umerov also thanked Austin for “continuous and comprehensive support since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia”, according to a statement on social media.
Ukraine’s airforce said on Thursday that it shot down all 29 Russia-launched drones over eight Ukrainian regions during an overnight attack, which officials said caused only minor damage. Russia also launched three Kh-59 guided missiles during the attack, the airforce said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian troops said they took more than 100 Russian soldiers prisoner in Kursk. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said they would eventually be part of a prisoner of war swap.
