Ukrainian officials issue evacuation order for eastern city of Pokrovsk
Local authorities in Pokrovsk have ordered families with children to urgently evacuate, as Russian forces advance towards the eastern Ukrainian city.
In an interview with the U.S.-funded Radio Liberty, Serhiy Dobriak, the head of city’s military administration, said that Russian progress meant families should leave the city and other nearby towns.
Civilians have “a week or two, no more,” Dobriak said, adding that authorities have the capacity to evacuate at least 1,000 people a day, but only 500-600 people per day are currently leaving.
Regional governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram that some 53,000 people, including almost 4,000 children are still in Pokrovsk and adjacent settlements.
For months Russian troops have been inching slowly through Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast region, making significant gains despite suffering heavy losses.
Away from the Kursk incursion, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has been talking about the 2022 attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, saying it’s “clear” the United States were to blame.
During a visit to Azerbaijan on Monday, Lavrov refuted the idea that the underwater blasts had been carried out by “a group of drunken officers”, describing the theory as “not serious”.
“It is clear that to carry out such a terrorist attack, there was a command from the very top, as they say. The very top for the west is, of course, Washington,” Lavrov told Izvestia newspaper in a video interview published on its Telegram channel.
The Nord Stream pipelines, which carried Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, were essential to Russia’s export-driven economy and made Europe largely reliant on Moscow for its energy.
Last week the incident came under renewed scrutiny when German prosecutors looking at the case issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian man, and an article in The Wall Street Journal published allegations that the pipelines’ destruction had been part of a Ukrainian operation. The newspaper reported that both Kyiv’s top military commander at the time, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, and president Volodymyr Zelenskiy had approved the action, before the latter attempted to call it off when the CIA warned him against it.
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Zelenskiy: 'We are achieving our goals'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has commented on the almost-two week old offensive into the Russian region of Kursk, saying that his troops are meeting their objectives.
“We are achieving our goals. This morning we have another replenishment of the (prisoner of war) exchange fund for our country,” he said.
Kyiv sent troops over the border on 6 August, the biggest attack since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Zelenskiy’s remarks were quickly backed up by Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrsky.
“We are achieving new results in the Kursk region and have replenished the exchange fund,” Syrsky said.
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An update to that earlier map, showing the three bridges hit by the Ukrainian air force:
A summary of this morning's events:
Ukrainian forces have struck and damaged a third bridge over the River Seym, near the village of Karyzh in the Kursk region of Russia, according to a member of Russia’s Investigative Committee. The hit could seriously complicate Russian military logistics as Moscow attempts to fend off Ukraine’s incursion into the region.
Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin, has said that Ukraine’s attack on Kursk means Moscow is not ready to hold peace talks for now. Proposed discussions aimed at negotiating a halt to strikes on energy and power infrastructure between the two sides had been planned to be held in Qatar.
RIA News, a state-owned news agency, says Russian forces have captured 19 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region. The report has not been independently verified.
Ukraine’s air force said on Monday morning that the country’s air defence units had repelled an overnight Russian drone attack on multiple cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Cherkasy.
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RIA News, a state-owned domestic news agency, claims that Russian marines have captured a group of 19 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region.
Publishing what it says was a video of those captured, RIA described the Ukrainian troops as “saboteurs”.
The incident has not been independently verified.
Moscow "not ready" for peace talks
An aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that Ukraine’s attack on the Kursk region means Moscow is not ready to hold peace talks for now.
In a video statement broadcast by the SHOT news outlet, Yuri Ushakov maintained that Russia is not withdrawing its earlier peace proposals.
It follows Moscow’s denial on Sunday of a Washington Post report suggesting that proposed talks between the two sides to be held in Qatar had been derailed by Ukraine’s attack on the Kursk region.
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Ukraine strikes third bridge in Kursk
Ukraine has struck and damaged a third bridge over the River Seym, near the village of Karyzh in the Kursk region of Russia, according to a member of Russia’s Investigative Committee.
A video statement confirming the hit was posted on Russian state TV anchor Vladimir Solovyov’s Telegram channel.
As yet the extent of the damage to the bridge is unclear, but if it has been completely or even partially destroyed it could severely hinder Russia’s ability to bring heavy armoured vehicles and other crucial equipment across the Seym river to counter the Ukrainian incursion.
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Chinese leader to visit Russia and Belarus this week
Beijing’s foreign ministry has announced that Chinese Premier Li Qiang will visit Russia and Belarus this week.
“From August 20 to 23, Premier Li Qiang of the State Council will travel to Russia to chair the 29th regular meeting between Chinese and Russian heads of government and visit Russia and Belarus,” the ministry said in a statement.
China is a close economic partner of Russia, something Ukraine’s NATO allies have long decried, branding it a “decisive enabler” of the war. Outwardly, however, China maintains that its neutrality is evidenced by a refusal to provide lethal assistance to either side, unlike the US and other western nations.
Li Qiang’s visit to Belarus is interesting. The country, relatively isolated in Europe on account of its steadfast support for the Russian war effort, has long been reliant on Moscow for economic and military support. The country’s leader, Alexander Lukashenko, sees bolstering ties with Beijing as an important second means of underwriting Minsk’s security, as well as that of his own regime.
In December of last year, Lukashenko promised China it would be a “reliable partner”. In July it joined the bloc of nations comprising the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a grouping viewed by Beijing as a potential counterweight to NATO and the US-led alliance of western nations.
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Here are some of the latest changes to the frontline in Russia and Ukraine:
TASS are carrying a line this morning from the Deputy Chief of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces, Major General Apty Alaudinov.
Alaudinov, who is also the commander of the Akhmat special forces, a Chechen paramilitary organisation, claims that the Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region is being dealt with.
“We have the situation under control. Yesterday was a very difficult day, there were several waves of attacks from the enemy. Most of the enemy that attacked yesterday has been destroyed. Some of their equipment has been destroyed. Today we feel that the enemy is redeploying in order to try to come in from the other side,” he said.
Ukraine’s air force said on Monday morning that the country’s air defence units had repelled an overnight Russian drone attack on multiple cities.
Giving an update on its Telegram channel, the Ukrainian air force said the Russian assault targeted Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and the Sumy and Donetsk regions.
Meanwhile Reuters reported witnesses hearing explosions on Kyiv’s outskirts early on Monday.
There were no immediate reports of any damage.
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Opening summary
Hello, welcome to our rolling coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine’s military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region aims to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by Moscow across the border.
It marked the first time the Ukrainian president had clearly stated the aim of the operation, which was launched on 6 August. Previously, he had suggested it aimed to protect communities in Ukraine’s bordering Sumy region from constant shelling.
In his nightly address on Sunday, Zelenskiy said: “It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region.”
More on that shortly. In other developments:
Ukraine said it had struck a second key bridge in the Kursk region, seeking to disrupt Moscow’s supply routes as Kyiv’s unprecedented incursion on Russian soil stretched through its second week. “Minus one more bridge,” Ukrainian air force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said on Telegram, publishing an aerial video of a blast tearing through a bridge near the Russian town of Zvannoye. “The air force aviation continues to deprive the enemy of logistical capabilities with precision airstrikes,” he said. On Friday, Ukraine announced it had destroyed a separate bridge in the neighbouring town of Glushkovo.
Ukraine has captured more than 150 Russian prisoners of war on some days in the cross-border military operation in Kursk, according to Oleksii Drozdenko, the head of the military administration in the Ukrainian city of Sumy. “Sometimes there are more than 100 or 150 prisoners of war a day,” Drozdenko said. Many of the Russian troops who have been guarding the border are young conscripts. “They do not want to fight us,” he added.
The Institute for the Study of War has “observed claims” that Ukraine’s operation in Kursk has advanced through 800 square kilometres over six days. The initial incursion “attacked largely unprepared, unequipped, and unmanned Russian defensive positions along the border”, the ISW said in its daily report on the conflict, adding that Ukraine has continued to make rapid advances in Kursk “following the deployment of Russian reinforcements to the area.”
Russian forces took control of the village of Svyrydonivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the TASS state news agency reported on Sunday, citing the defence ministry. The Guardian could not independently verify the battlefield report.
Russia on Sunday denied a report that Ukraine’s attack on the Kursk region had derailed indirect talks with Kyiv on halting strikes on energy and power targets, saying there had been no talks ongoing. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Ukraine and Russia were set to send delegations to Qatar this month to negotiate a landmark agreement halting strikes on energy and power infrastructure on both warring sides. The Post said the agreement would have amounted to a partial ceasefire but that the talks were derailed due to Ukraine’s attack on Russian sovereign territory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Sunday for a two-day state visit, Russian news agencies reported. Russian television broadcast images of the Russian president’s plane as it arrived in Baku in the evening. Azerbaijan is a close partner of Moscow but also a major energy supplier to western countries, comes against the backdrop of an unprecedented Ukrainian military offensive on Russian soil.
