Ukraine has captured 100 settlements, almost 600 servicemen in Kursk incursion
Ukraine’s top general Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Ukraine had captured 594 Russian servicemen during its operation in the Kursk region, disclosing that figure for the first time.
Ukraine has also captured 100 settlements during its three-week long incursion, he said. Moscow’s troops were trying to counterattack in the area and encircle Kyiv’s forces, but those attempts were being repelled, he added. The Guardian could not independently verify the figures provided by Syrskyi.
He said that one of the objectives of the Kursk operation was to divert Russian forces from other areas, primarily away from Pokrovsk and Kurakhove. “The Kursk operation diverted a significant number of its forces,” he said, noting that Russian troops had been drawn from Ukraine’s south. “As of now, we can say that around 30,000 servicemen have been sent to the Kursk front and this figure is growing.”
On Pokrovsk, a coal mining city that has strategic military value as a transport hub that Russia has been advancing on recently, Syrskyi said Russia was trying to disrupt Ukraine’s supply lines to the front. “The situation on the Pokrovsk front is fairly difficult … the enemy is using its advantage in personnel, weapons and military equipment, it is actively using artillery and aviation,” he said.
Key events
Ukraine’s Paralympic fencer, Artem Manko told AFP that a strong medal haul for his country at the Paris Paralympics would be a boost for disabled veterans back home.
The 25-year-old, who won fencing silver at the last Paralympics, said previous impressive medal hauls have raised respect for disabled people in Ukraine to the highest level it has ever been. Ukraine finished third in the medals table at Rio 2016 and sixth at Tokyo 2020.
“It not only helps boost morale back home, it helps disability in society,” Manko told AFP by phone from his training camp. “After the last Paralympics, Ukraine got so many medals we inspired the nation and I think we are now at the highest level of disability acceptance.
“That is really important right now as there are a lot of injured soldiers without legs, hands and in wheelchairs.
“It is hugely important for them to feel disabled people are accepted in society.”
Dan Sabbagh
Library books are piled in the street, waiting to be removed in a truck. Two men across the road take down a supermarket sign. The modern grocery store shut a couple of weeks ago. Half a mile away an evacuation train waits to depart. People crowd on to the platform and outside the station, preparing to flee.
Pokrovsk, a mining city in eastern Ukraine, is packing up fast. The Russians are 7 miles (11km) away, already close enough for the city to be struck, after a remorseless advance that has taken the invaders close to a place that had been considered safe. Fearing the worst, Ukrainian officials have given people two weeks to leave.
Read the Guardian’s report from Pokrovsk, where residents are bundling their lives into bags and fleeing as Russia advances and Ukrainian officials gave people in the city two weeks to leave:
The White House has condemned a Russian missile attack that injured Reuters journalists and killed a safety adviser for the news agency.
“Over the weekend, Russia attacked a hotel in Ukraine in a missile strike, injuring multiple journalists and killing one. We condemn this attack in the strongest of terms and extend our deepest condolences to Reuters on the loss of one of their own,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett wrote.
Over the weekend, Russia attacked a hotel in Ukraine in a missile strike, injuring multiple journalists and killing one. We condemn this attack in the strongest of terms and extend our deepest condolences to @Reuters on the loss of one of their own. https://t.co/TmUB8Z92iI
— Sean Savett (@NSC_Spox) August 27, 2024
General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the head of the Ukrainian armed forces, said today that Ukraine’s troops control nearly 1,300 square kilometres of Russia’s Kursk region, the Associated Press reported.
“The enemy drags troops from other directions, in such way weakening them; They attempt to create a ring of defense around our offensive group of troops and plan counter-offensive actions,” Syrskyi said, speaking of the situation in the Kursk region.
IAEA chief warns of risk in Kursk region
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has said after visiting Russia’s Kursk nuclear power plant today that there was a risk of a “nuclear incident,” Reuters reported.
Grossi said the situation was serious.
Ukraine tests first domestically-produced ballistic missile
In a press conference today, Volodymyr Zelenskiy revealed that Ukraine had tested its first domestically-produced ballistic missile.
He also said that Ukraine had the ability to produce 1.5-2m drones this year, but currently lacks the funding to do so.
In further comments, reported by Reuters, he said that the war with Russia would eventually end through dialogue, but that Kyiv had to be in a powerful position at a summit that it hopes to convene this year to advance its vision of peace.
The number of people killed by Russia’s overnight air attack on Ukraine is now five, according to Reuters.
Two people were killed when a hotel was “wiped out” by a missile in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, regional officials said. Three died in drone attacks on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.
Separately, a child was killed in a drone attack on the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Polohy, which is also in the Zaporizhzhia region. The Russian official said the child was killed and four family members were injured on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Reuters could not independently verify the report and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine plans to present a plan on how to end the war with Russia to the Democratic and Republican US presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Reuters reports.
Apart from the incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, the plan, the Ukrainian leader told a news conference in Kyiv today, included more steps on the diplomatic and economic fronts. He would also present the plan to US president Joe Biden, he said.
Air raid sirens heard near nuclear plant in Russia’s Kursk region
A witness has reported hearing air raid sirens near the nuclear power plant in Kurchatov a Russian town in Kursk, Reuters reports.
Air raid sirens went off briefly on Tuesday afternoon, indicating a missile threat, a Reuters reporter said.
UN nuclear agency chief Rafael Grossi is currently on an inspection tour of the plant
Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Russia reported drone fragments located roughly 100 metres from the plant’s spent fuel nuclear storage facility as Ukraine continues its offensive into Russian territory.
Ukraine has captured 100 settlements, almost 600 servicemen in Kursk incursion
Ukraine’s top general Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Ukraine had captured 594 Russian servicemen during its operation in the Kursk region, disclosing that figure for the first time.
Ukraine has also captured 100 settlements during its three-week long incursion, he said. Moscow’s troops were trying to counterattack in the area and encircle Kyiv’s forces, but those attempts were being repelled, he added. The Guardian could not independently verify the figures provided by Syrskyi.
He said that one of the objectives of the Kursk operation was to divert Russian forces from other areas, primarily away from Pokrovsk and Kurakhove. “The Kursk operation diverted a significant number of its forces,” he said, noting that Russian troops had been drawn from Ukraine’s south. “As of now, we can say that around 30,000 servicemen have been sent to the Kursk front and this figure is growing.”
On Pokrovsk, a coal mining city that has strategic military value as a transport hub that Russia has been advancing on recently, Syrskyi said Russia was trying to disrupt Ukraine’s supply lines to the front. “The situation on the Pokrovsk front is fairly difficult … the enemy is using its advantage in personnel, weapons and military equipment, it is actively using artillery and aviation,” he said.
The relationship between Russia and France is at its “lowest” level following the arrest of Telegram boss Pavel Durov in Paris over the weekend, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said, Reuters reports.
Durov, a Russian-born billionaire who also reportedly holds passports for France and the UAE, was arrested in France on Saturday as part of an investigation into crimes related to images of child sex abuse, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the messaging platform, French prosecutors said. Telegram has been widely used by both sides of the Ukraine conflict to disseminate information.
Lavrov also accused Ukraine of blackmailing the West by demanding powers allow it to strike deep into Russia. In further sabre rattling comments, Lavrov said that Russia was “adjusting” its nuclear weapons doctrine, and that it was dangerous for Western nuclear powers to be “playing with fire”.
The Guardian’s video team has put together a report on the overnight attacks on Ukraine that struck a hotel in the city of Kryvyi Rih.
The strike, part of a large-scale overnight air attack on Ukraine, killed two people and injured five, while another two people were killed and four injured in drone attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi told Russian president Vladimir Putin that he supports a swift end to the conflict in Ukraine after visiting the war-hit country, AFP reports.
Modi has struck a delicate balance between maintaining India’s historically warm ties with Russia while courting closer security partnerships with Western nations as a bulwark against regional rival China.
Delhi has avoided explicit condemnations of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, instead urging both sides to resolve their differences through dialogue.
I a post on X, Modi said he had “exchanged perspectives on the Russia-Ukraine conflict” with Putin and shared “my insights from the recent visit to Ukraine”, in a post on social media.
Spoke with President Putin today. Discussed measures to further strengthen Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership. Exchanged perspectives on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and my insights from the recent visit to Ukraine. Reiterated India’s firm commitment to support an early,…
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 27, 2024
Modi, who angered Ukrainians by hugging Putin in Moscow recently, visited Kyiv on Friday and told president Volodymyr Zelenskiy that “no problem should be solved on the battlefield.”
Ukraine’s top commander said that Kyiv’s forces were still advancing in Russia’s Kursk region, Reuters reports. But General Oleksandr Syrskyi also warned that Moscow was building up its forces on the eastern Pokrovsk front, where Russian troops have been advancing inside Ukraine.
Syrskyi said in remarks by video link that were broadcast on Ukrainian television that Russia was trying to disrupt Ukraine’s supply lines to the Pokrovsk front. He described the overall situation there as difficult.
Russia’s FSB security service said it opened a criminal case against two foreign journalists who illegally crossed the Russian border to report from the Kursk region after a Ukrainian incursion, Reuters reports, citing the Russian Interfax news agency.
Interfax said the journalists included a reporter for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and a correspondent for Ukraine’s 1+1 TV channel.
The FSB has now brought criminal cases against at least seven foreign journalists who have reported from Kursk.
Here’s a map of Russia’s strikes against Ukraine over 26 and 27 August:
You can read more detail about the latest wave of attacks in this piece from the Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent, Shaun Walker:
Ukraine has not seen any sign of Belarusian personnel and equipment moving near its border but is aware of potential threats, Ukrainian border guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko said.
“We … do not record the movement of equipment or personnel … in close proximity to the border, but this direction in general still remains a threat to us,” Demchenko said on national television in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
His statement came two days after Ukraine’s foreign ministry called on Belarus to pull back what it described as significant levels of Belarusian forces and equipment deployed at their shared frontier.
Russia’s ministry of defence said its forces had captured the village of Orlivka in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Reuters reports citing Russia’s state news agency TASS.
Ukraine and Russia have fought over Orlivka since the fall of Avdiivka to Russian forces in February. Orlivka is about six miles from the city of Avdiivka.
The Guardian could not independently verify the report.
A senior ally of Vladimir Putin has accused the US of being involved in the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France, though he provided no evidence for the claim, Reuters reports.
Durov, a Russian-born billionaire, was arrested in France over the weekend as part of an investigation into crimes related to images of child sex abuse, drug trafficking and fraudulent transactions on the messaging platform, French prosecutors said. A spokesperson said Durov’s detention had been extended by up to 48 hours late yesterday.
The messaging platform, which analysts have described as a virtual battlefield, has been heavily used by both sides of the war in Ukraine.
Without providing evidence, Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said the US, through France, was attempting to exert control over the messaging platform.
“Telegram is one of the few and at the same time the largest Internet platform over which the United States has no influence,” Volodin said in a post. “On the eve of the US presidential election, it is important for Biden to take Telegram under control.”
The White House did not immediately comment on Durov’s arrest. You can read more about Telegram and Durov’s arrest, here: