Russia is urgently advertising for trench diggers to build defences in the Kursk region because of Ukraine’s surprise invasion, according to reports. Figures quoted by the BBC’s Russian service from the jobs site Avito suggested wages equating to US$2,500 a month or more. Ads call for labourers and general workers with no experience, but also excavator operators, and promise the work will be “outside the combat zone” with “no danger”. The Institute for the Study of War, citing satellite images, has said Russia is hurriedly trying to fortify a line 10 miles (16km) away from Ukraine’s frontline in Kursk.
The UN human rights office (OHCHR) said it had asked Moscow to let it visit Russian regions affected by Ukraine’s cross-border campaign. The office had previously asked Russia repeatedly for access to both Russian territory and to Ukrainian territories under Russia’s control, to no avail, said Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the OHCHR. In contrast, Ukraine has said it will open humanitarian corridors for evacuating civilians towards both Russia and Ukraine, and Ukrainian officials have promised access for international humanitarian organisations like the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN. In Kursk, Agence France-Presse said its reporters saw about 500 evacuees from border areas queueing for food and clothes being distributed by the Russian Red Cross.
Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian commander in chief, said Ukraine had set up a military commandant’s office in occupied Kursk. “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, adding that the office would be headed by Maj Gen Eduard Moskalyov. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, announced his troops had full control over the Russian town of Sudzha, which had a prewar population of 5,000 people and contains infrastructure pumping Russian gas towards Europe, writes Shaun Walker.
Dan Sabbagh writes that the Ukrainian incursion has been good for morale at home but has obscured the difficulties Ukraine is facing in the central section of the Donbas, where Russian forces have been gaining a mile a week since 1 July – pressing towards Pokrovsk, a strategic road and rail junction
Russia said on Thursday that its forces had taken control of Ivanivka, 16km (10 miles) from Pokrovsk. It was reported by Reuters, which said it could not independently verify the claim, but said Ukraine had reported the heaviest fighting in weeks near Pokrovsk.
Ukraine’s special forces captured a group of more than 100 Russian soldiers in Kursk, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on Thursday, adding that Ukrainian forces also took over their “sprawling, concrete and well-fortified company stronghold”. The 102 servicemen of Russia’s 488th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment and its “Akhmat” unit are the largest group of soldiers to be captured at the same time since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, according to the SBU. Pictures showed dozens of Russian servicemen sitting or lying on the ground in a concrete bunker with their helmets and weapons piled up near the walls. The prisoners would eventually be swapped for Ukrainian prisoners of war, the SBU said.
A Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber crashed in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, killing one person out of a crew of four despite them managing to eject, said the regional governor, Igor Kobzev, citing the defence ministry. The survivors were being treated for their injuries. A technical malfunction was blamed but this could not be independently confirmed.
• This article was amended on 16 August 2024. An earlier version said that the UN human rights office was UNHCR when it should have said OHCHR; UNHCR is the UN’s refugee agency.
