Here is the situation on Friday, August 23, 2024.

Fighting

Ukraine said one man was killed and eight people, including a 15-year-old boy, were injured after Russia struck residential buildings in the village of Bohodukhiv in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Two people were killed and one injured in a Russian-guided bomb attack on Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, according to regional prosecutors.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the Sumy region, bordering Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a surprise cross-border offensive earlier this month. He met commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii and said Ukraine’s military had taken control of another Russian village and captured more prisoners of war. He did not name the settlement.

Ukraine’s military said Russian forces mounted 53 attacks on enemy positions on the Pokrovsk front in eastern Ukraine as they intensified efforts to seize the strategic town. Pokrovsk residents were ordered to evacuate with Russian soldiers just 10km (6 miles) from the city. Ukrainian officials said this week that about 50,000 people were still living in Pokrovsk.

Russia said its forces had taken control of the village of Mezhove, located between Pokrovsk and Avdiivka, which was captured in February.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed without evidence that Ukrainian forces tried to attack the Kursk Nuclear Power Station in an overnight raid. There was no response from Ukraine. Fighting has taken place about 30km (18 miles) from the plant, with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) calling for restraint on both sides. The watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi will visit the area next week.

A ferry loaded with 30 fuel tanks sank in the Russian port of Kavkaz in the southern Krasnodar region after a Ukrainian attack, local authorities said. Seventeen crew members were rescued with the search continuing for the remaining two. There was no comment from Ukraine.

The US embassy in Kyiv warned of a heightened risk of Russian missile and drone attacks throughout Ukraine as the country prepares to mark 33 years since its independence from the Soviet Union on Saturday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, centre, visited Sumy where he met Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskii, right [Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP Photo]

Politics and diplomacy

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to hold talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the first trip by an Indian prime minister to Ukraine since Kyiv gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In Poland, on the eve of his visit, Modi urged for peace and warned no conflict could be resolved on a battlefield.
Russia’s FSB security service said it had launched a criminal case against three journalists for “illegally” crossing the border after they reported from the Kursk region. The three include CNN journalist Nick Paton Walsh and two Ukrainian journalists, Diana Butsko and Olesya Borovik.
More than 110 Russian schools located close to the border with Ukraine will teach classes remotely when the academic year starts next month, Russia’s education minister said.

Ukraine said representatives of more than 40 countries and international organisations took part in a follow-up meeting to June’s peace summit in Switzerland.

Weapons

Officials in Washington told The Associated Press news agency that the US would send about $125m in new military aid to Ukraine, including air defence missiles, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and artillery. The deal is expected to be formally announced on Friday.

Ukraine’s air force said it used a US-made GBU-39 bomb to attack a Russian platoon command post in the Kursk region.