Here is the situation on Monday, August 12, 2024.
Fighting
- Officials in the Russian city of Kursk said that 13 people were injured after debris from a destroyed Ukrainian missile fell on a nine-storey residential building. Alexei Smirnov, Kursk’s acting governor, ordered local authorities to speed up the evacuation of civilians in areas at risk amid a continuing Ukrainian offensive in the border region.
- Moscow said it had “foiled attempts” by Ukraine’s forces to “break through deep into Russian territory” using armoured vehicles. It said some of the fighting took place near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, some 25km (16 miles) and 30km (20 miles) from the border.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that air defence units destroyed 14 Ukraine-launched drones and four Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles over the Kursk region.
- Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of starting a fire on the grounds of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said its experts based at the facility had seen strong, dark smoke coming from the northern area of the plant following multiple explosions.The fire was later extinguished and there was no indication that radiation levels had risen.
- Ukrainian forces destroyed 53 out of 57 Russian attack drones, Kyiv’s air force said. The drones were destroyed across various parts of Ukraine and included four North Korean-made missiles, the air force said.
- Analysts told the AFP news agency that the next couple of weeks would be “critical” in the fighting along the front line in Ukraine’s east. Members of the Ukrainian armed forces said the situation around Pokrovsk, about 15km (nine miles) from Russian positions, was particularly challenging.
Politics and diplomacy
- Olha Saladukha, the acting president of Ukraine’s athletics federation, told the AFP news agency that the country’s performance in the Paris Olympics – winning three athletics medals on August 4 – could have an “explosive emotional effect” amid Russia’s continued invasion. Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who won gold in the women’s high jump that day, dedicated her medal to the nearly 500 Ukrainian athletes and coaches killed since February 2022.
