Summary of the day
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office, has said that “in the Kursk region, we can clearly see how the military tool is being used objectively to persuade [the Russian Federation] to enter a fair negotiation process.”
Military authorities in Pokrovsk, a city in eastern Ukraine, have urged civilians to speed up their evacuation because the Russian army is quickly closing in.
Russian attacks killed three civilians in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the region’s governor said.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update that after initial disorganisation, Russian forces have deployed in greater force in the Kursk region.
A Russian parliamentary deputy, Mikhail Sheremet, said that the Ukrainian incursion into Russia has brought the world close to an all-out global war.
Russia is seeking to open a criminal case against two journalists of Italy’s state broadcaster Rai who entered the Kursk region alongside Ukrainian troops.
Test results showed that the tap water at a German military base in Cologne was not contaminated.
Kursk incursion used to 'persuade' Russia on 'fair negotiation process', Ukrainian official says
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office, has said today that “we need to inflict significant tactical defeats on Russia.”
“In the Kursk region, we can clearly see how the military tool is being used objectively to persuade [the Russian Federation] to enter a fair negotiation process,” he said in a social media post.
“An important tool is also the influence on public opinion within Russia, which is beginning to change when the war has come deep into their territory,” he noted.
“Negative changes in the psychological state of the Russian population will be another argument for the start of negotiations,” he said.
Russian army 'deployed in greater force' in Kursk after Ukrainian offensive, says UK defence ministry
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in an intelligence update today that after initial disorganisation, Russian forces have deployed in greater force in the Kursk region.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 16 August 2024.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 16, 2024
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/JgR5kqH67L #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/NXSNDd7ZI7
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Test results have shown that the tap water at a German military base in Cologne was not contaminated, a military spokesperson said today, Reuters reported.
The base was sealed off temporarily earlier this week due to possible sabotage.
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A Polish deputy prime minister, Krzysztof Gawkowski, has denied his country was involved in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022.
“Poland did not take part in anything. It has to be said clearly that this is a lie,” he told TV channel Polsat News, AFP reported.
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Here are the latest images from Kursk region.
How Ukraine turned the tables and struck back at Russia
It was a critical and deliberate last-minute deployment on a previously unimportant part of the front. The Russians, having invaded in February 2022, had not anticipated that Ukraine would turn the tables and strike back with the first occupation of Russian territory since the second world war.
Had Moscow known that combat medics were quietly moving into the remote Sumy region, had the message gone up to the Kremlin, Russia might have been better prepared. The medics’ presence would only be required if an outbreak of heavy fighting was anticipated, in an area where none had taken place for over two years.
“We arrived on Monday last week. It had been equipped two days before that,” a surgeon told the Guardian between puffs on a cigarette. It would not be long before the first casualties arrived and days of intense work would begin: Ukraine’s audacious invasion of Russia began the following morning. Their work has been almost round the clock since. “We only get a few hours’ break a day,” another said.
Local civilian authorities, meanwhile, had no idea. Volodymyr Artyukh, the governor of Sumy region, said he found out “same time as you” and instituted an order to evacuate 7,000 people living between 5km and 10km from the border. As for the civilians, though many had seen a military buildup, giving the soldiers potatoes and other vegetables, the first they knew of the reason was when the villages were subjected to intense bombing in the daylight hours after the attack started.
Read the full piece here:
Offensive into Russia meant to draw Moscow into ‘fair talks’ says Ukraine
My colleague Peter Beaumont has this report from today’s fighting in Russia and Ukraine:
Ukraine’s lightning offensive into several Russian border regions is designed to persuade Moscow to engage in “fair” talks about its war in Ukraine, an aide to Volodomyr Zelenskiy has said.
The Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on the Telegram messaging app: “We need to inflict significant tactical defeats on Russia. In the Kursk region, we clearly see how the military tool is objectively used to convince the Russian Federation to enter into a fair negotiation process.”
Both sides were pushing ahead with their offensives on Friday, as Russian forces edged closer to the key city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk and Ukraine appeared to be consolidating its gains in Russia’s Kursk region.
Russia has accused Nato and the west more widely of aiding the Ukrainian incursion, including by permitting the use of western-supplied kit. But British officials said Ukraine was entitled under international law to use British-donated equipment in operations, including within Russia.
Read the full report here:
Here’s a map of the latest advances by Ukrainian and Russian forces:
We reported earlier on the shelling of a shopping centre in the Moscow-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region. We now have more detail on the situation.
Russian-installed officials said Kyiv’s army hit the shopping centre, wounding at least seven, AFP reports.
Images showed a large fire raging at a shopping centre with thick grey smoke billowing from the building.
Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed Donetsk governor said in a post on Telegram: “The enemy has been carrying out targeted massive strikes on the Petrovsky district” on the outskirts Donetsk city, which is under Russia’s control.
One strike hit the Galaktika shopping centre, wounding at least seven people, he said.
Information about those wounded was still coming in, Pushilin said, adding that the fire had engulfed an area of more than 10,000 square metres.
Russian forces control parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where the heaviest fighting of the conflict has taken place.
Evacuations around Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine have become increasingly urgent in recent weeks, the Associated Press reports.
Today’s call by military authorities urging civilians to speed up their evacuation of Pokrovsk – an important logistical hub for Ukrainian forces – comes as Ukrainian troops continue their incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, warned yesterday that Pokrovsk and other nearby towns in the Donetsk region were “facing the most intense Russian assaults.”
Russian forces are continuing to pursue a tactical encirclement of Ukrainian forces southeast of Pokrovsk.
— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) August 16, 2024
Geolocated footage published on August 14 and 15 indicates that Russian forces recently advanced east of Pokrovsk within Hrodivka and southeast of Pokrovsk within… https://t.co/422EZfnEFs pic.twitter.com/ebcEFG422F
At least two people were killed after Ukrainian shelling hit a shopping centre in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported citing Russian state news agencies.
Russia is seeking to open a criminal case against two journalists of Italy’s state broadcaster Rai who entered the Kursk region alongside Ukrainian troops.
According to sources cited by Rai, the press agency La Presse, and the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, Rai’s war correspondents Stefania Battistini and Simone Traini, who last Wednesday produced a dispatch from the city of Sudzha, face the risk of prosecution for “illegal crossing of the state border.”
The news has allegedly been confirmed by the Russian ministry of internal affairs.
Sources in Russia claim that “the Kremlin’s intention is to initiate criminal proceedings against the Italian journalists.” The Italian embassy in Russia, in close coordination with the Italian Ministry of foreign affairs, is actively working on the case and conducting “appropriate investigations.”
In a recent post on X, Battistini shared Article 79 of the Geneva Convention, stating that “journalists in war zones should be treated as civilians and protected accordingly, as long as they do not take part in hostilities.”
Da otto giorni ormai l'esercito ucraino è penetrato in territorio russo. #Zelensky rivendica, #Mosca sostiene di aver fermato le truppe di #Kiyv. Oltre il confine è riuscita ad arrivare la troupe del #Tg1 con la nostra inviata @StefaniaBattis4.
— Tg1 (@Tg1Rai) August 14, 2024
Questo è quello che ha trovato. pic.twitter.com/1vmS5JoIKE
Civilians urged to speed up evacuation from Pokrovsk
Military authorities in Pokrovsk, a city in eastern Ukraine, have urged civilians to speed up their evacuation because the Russian army is quickly closing in, the Associated Press reported.
Authorities said that Russian troops are “advancing at a fast pace. With every passing day there is less and less time to collect personal belongings and leave for safer regions.”
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Russian forces captures village in Donetsk region: report
Russian forces took control of Serhiivka, a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Reuters reported citing the TASS state news agency.
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Joe Biden has met with Vladimir Kara-Murza and his family in the White House.
Kara-Murza, a Russian-British citizen and prominent opposition figure, was detained in Moscow in April 2022 and later sentenced to 25 years on treason and other trumped-up charges.
He was released as part of a major exchange with the west earlier this month.
“Vladimir spent two and a half years unjustly imprisoned in Russia for speaking out against Russia’s war in Ukraine. Today his family is whole once more” Biden said.
I welcomed Vladimir Kara-Murza and his family to the White House today to celebrate his return to America.
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 16, 2024
Vladimir spent two and a half years unjustly imprisoned in Russia for speaking out against Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Today his family is whole once more. pic.twitter.com/5NopnA2HnW
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office, has stressed that “Ukraine is not interested in occupying Russian territories.”
“Ukraine is waging an exclusively defensive war strictly within the framework of international law... But if we are talking about potential negotiations – I emphasise potential – we will have to put [Russia] at the table opposite,” he said.
“On our own terms. We have absolutely no plans to beg,” he added.
Ukraine is not interested in occupying Russian territories. This is obvious. Because #Ukraine is waging an exclusively defensive war strictly within the framework of international law... But if we are talking about potential negotiations – I emphasize potential – we will have to…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) August 16, 2024
3 killed in Donetsk region, Ukrainian official says
Russian attacks killed three civilians in the last 24 hours in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the region’s governor, Vadym Filashkin, said, Reuters reported.
One person was killed in the village of Mykolayivka and two were killed in the village of Verkhniokamyanka, he said.
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Belarus’ defence minister, Viktor Khrenin, said there was a high probability of an armed provocation from Ukraine, Reuters reported citing the state-run Belta news agency.
Ukraine’s defence ministry has published footage from the first hours of the incursion into Kursk region in Russia.
The unique footage of the first hours of 🇺🇦 Defense Forces operation in the Kursk region.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) August 16, 2024
Demining, destroying the enemy's defensive lines, the work of aviation and artillery, prisoners.
📹: Air Assault Forces Command pic.twitter.com/oopsMdGRxX
Fears of water supply sabotage in Germany
Residents of Mechernich and surrounding towns in western Germany have been warned not to drink tap water, AFP reported.
The warning came after a hole was found in a fence around a water tank that also supplies a nearby military base.
Earlier this week, a base near Cologne airport was temporarily sealed off due to a suspected act of sabotage, after a hole was discovered in a fence near drinking water storage facilities.
A Russian parliamentary deputy, Mikhail Sheremet, said today that the Ukrainian incursion into Russia has brought the world close to an all-out global war, Reuters reported citing the RIA news agency.
“Considering the presence of Western military equipment, the use of Western ammunition and missiles in attacks on civilian infrastructure and irrefutable proof of foreigners’ participation in the attack on Russian territory, one could come to the conclusion that the world is on the brink of a third world war,” Sheremet said.
Ukraine’s president has claimed Kyiv’s troops have 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.
Sudzha, roughly six miles (9.6km) inside Russian territory, is the biggest of 80 settlements that Ukraine claims to have taken during the 10 days since its surprise incursion into Russia began.
“General Syrskyi reported on the completion of the liberation of the town of Sudzha from the Russian military. A Ukrainian military commandant’s office is being established there now,” said Volodymyr Zelenskiy, after receiving a briefing from the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, on Thursday.
The claim could not be independently verified, but a Ukrainian television channel broadcast a report from Sudzha on Wednesday suggesting the town was under Ukrainian control.
While some residents have remained, sheltering from the fighting in basements, most have been evacuated. “We hid in the bushes,” said one, Tatyana Anikeyeva, speaking to Russian television from a facility helping evacuees. “Volunteers were handing out water, food, bread to people on the go. The sound of the cannonade continued without any break. The house was shaking.”
Kremlin aide accuses west of involvement in Kursk operation
Kremlin aide Nikolai Patrushev said today Nato and the west were directly involved in the planning for Ukraine’s attack on Russia’s Kursk region, Reuters reported.
The White House has said Ukraine did not provide advance notice of its incursion and that the US was not involved.
“The operation in the Kursk region was also planned with the participation of Nato and Western special services,” Patrushev told the Izvestia newspaper.
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