A bridge , destroyed by a Ukrainian attack, over the Seym River in the Kursk region in western Russia, August 16, 2024
Friday’s Coverage: Kyiv Consolidates Control in Russia’s Kursk Region
Map: Institute for the Study of War
UPDATE 2112 GMT:
The International Atomic Energy Agency has warned that the safety situation is “deteriorating” at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine after a nearby drone strike.
IAEA experts visited the area of the strike. They said the damage “seemed to have been caused by a drone equipped with an explosive payload”, affecting the road between the plant’s two main gates.
They added, “The team has heard frequent explosions, repetitive heavy machine-gun and rifle fire and artillery at various distances from the plant,” it said.
IAEA head Rafael Grossi said in a statement, “Yet again we see an escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers facing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. I remain extremely concerned and reiterate my call for maximum restraint from all sides.”
Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear facility with six reactors, was occupied by Russian forces in the first days of the February 2022 invasion. The Russians turned the complex into a military base, using it to shell Ukrainian areas across the Dnipro River.
UPDATE 1506 GMT:
Germany’s Scholz Government intends to halve its direct military aid to Kyiv in 2025.
A “parliamentary source” says the Government will focus on money generated by profits of frozen Russian assets to continue supporting Kyiv. Thus it is not planning any additional aid to the €4 billion ($4.4 billion) set aside in next year’s budget.
Germany’s military aid this year to Ukraine amounted to €8 billion ($8.8 billion).
The approach is part of an agreement between Chanceller Olaf Scholz, of the centre-left Social Democratic Party and Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democratic Party.
UPDATE 1407 GMT:
Video is circulating on Russian pro-invasion channels of a Russian serviceman wielding a stake with a head impaled on it, claiming that it belongs to a Ukrainian soldier.
The serviceman, in a uniform with a Navy patch, warns, “This will happen every time we meet.”
Members of the Russian far-right group Rusich” say the Russian serviceman is in the 155th Separate Guards Marine Brigade, part of the Pacific Fleet. Analysts of the Ukrainian project DeepState geolocated the video in the Belgorod region near the Kolotilovka checkpoint, which Ukraine tried to overrun on Sunday.
The Ukraine Prosecutor General’s Office has launched an investigation, and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, has appealed to the UN and the Red Cross.
The enemy uses such videos to intimidate and demoralize Ukrainians. However, this only strengthens our desire to hold accountable everyone who commits such inhuman atrocities.
Russia’s 155th Brigade was transferred to the Kursk region after the start of Ukraine’s offensive. It had been deployed in Russia’s spring assault on Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry intelligence service says the unit was involved in the murders of civilians in Bucha, Irpen, and Gostomel near Kyiv in spring 2022.
UPDATE 1359 GMT:
British officials say the US is holding up permission for Ukraine to fire UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia.
The request was made more than a month ago but is “stuck in their system”, the officials said. One confirmed that “discussions were still ongoing around Storm Shadow with allies”. Another played down the situation as a “routine US process”.
The Pentagon has said that while Ukraine can use American-made arms in its Kursk incursion, there is no relaxation of the ban on the use of long-range weapons deep inside Russia.
UPDATE 1344 GMT:
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says forces are “strengthening” their positions in Russia’s Kursk region.
He said military commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi had “reported on the strengthening of the positions of our forces in the Kursk region and the expansion of stabilized territory”.
Ukraine had “replenished the exchange fund for our country” through the capture of Russian troops, “bringing the release of our soldiers and civilians held by Russia closer”.
The President said the situation in eastern Ukraine, including in the Donetsk region near the towns of Pokrovsk and Toretsk is “under control”: “Dozens of Russian assaults on our positions over the last day. But our soldiers and units are doing everything to destroy the occupier and repel the attacks.”
UPDATE 1110 GMT:
Writing for The Observer, Natalia Vasilyeva reports on anger and fear among residents of the Kursk region facing Ukraine’s incursion.
Lyubov Antipova spoke to her elderly parents almost two weeks ago, begged them to leave their village because of rumors of a Ukrainian attack.
All those years my parents didn’t think they would be affected. We were sure the Russian army would protect us. I’m amazed how quickly the Ukrainian forces advanced.
Alexander Zorin, a custodian of the Kursk Museum of Archaeology, was working with colleagues on the excavation of 10th- and 11th-century burial mounds in the village of Gochevo.
“Officials’ reports were not scary at all: ‘100 saboteurs went in’ – but then it went up to 300, 800 … It was impossible to get a clear picture,” Zorin said. “We decided to leave only after we saw locals who had been evacuated from there and told us to go.”
On the VKontakte site, Nelli Tikhonova wrote, “I don’t even know who I hate more now: the Ukrainian army that captured our land or our government that allowed that to happen.”
Volunteers speak of the shock of seeing some of the estimated 200,000 residents who have fled homes: “People had to flee in shorts and flip-flops.”
Antipova reflects the sense of betrayal and uncertainty:
Locals were bringing soldiers supplies. I’m really annoyed that the government and the army keep saying the troops have all they need – while we had to chip in for drones and underwear….
It’s scary when you see you’re on your own and you have no one to turn to. Volunteers are doing the work. Local authorities are nowhere to be seen.
UPDATE 0955 GMT:
“Official sources” say Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region has halted plans for indirect talks in Qatar about a halt to Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
The Washington Post says Ukraine and Russia were sending delegations to Doha this month to negotiate an agreement halting the strikes.
Amid its incursion, Ukraine wanted to send its delegation despite Russia’s absence, but Qatar declined.
A diplomat said Russia “didn’t call off the talks, they said give us time”.
Senior officials in Kyiv put the odds of successful talks at 20% and others were more pessimistic, even if the Kursk incursion had not been launched.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine’s 11-day incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, advancing farther on Friday, destroyed two key bridges.
Russian officials confirmed the demolition of two of the three bridges over the Seym River in the Glushkovsky district, where orders to evacuate were given earlier this week.
Posting photos, Russian Telegram channels said the bridges were struck multiple times. About 30 settlements near the village of Glushkovo, around 150 km (93 miles) from Kursk city, have been cut off due to the attack.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry acknowledged the loss, saying Ukraine had likely used US-made HIMARS rocket systems.
Ukraine Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk published a video of the attack and summarized:
Air Force aviation is actively participating in combat operations in the Kursk sector. Ukrainian pilots are conducting precision strikes on enemy’s strongholds, equipment concentrations, as well as on enemy’s logistics hubs and supply routes.
Ukrainian forces advanced 1 to 3 km ((0.6 to 1.9 miles) in some areas of Kursk, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi reported to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“In general, the situation is under control. All activities are being carried out according to the plan, the logistics system is working smoothly,” Syrskyi said.
The commander said fighting is ongoing near the village of Malaya Loknya, around 15 km (9 miles) from the Ukraine-controlled border village of Sudzha.
An Offensive to Push The Kremlin Into “Fair” Talks
The Ukrainian cross-border incursion seek to persuade the Kremlin to engage in “fair” talks about its 29 1/2-month invasion, says Presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak.
Podolyak wrote on Telegram on Friday:
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.
We have proven, effective means of coercion. In addition to economic and diplomatic ones…we need to inflict significant tactical defeats on Russia.
“Trail of Destruction”
Associated Press journalists, on a trip through Kursk organised by the Ukrainian Government, report:
A trail of destruction lies in the path that Ukrainian forces carved on their risky incursion into Russia, blasting through the border and eventually into the town of Sudzha.
Artillery fire has blown chunks out of a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin that stands in a central square of the Russian town….The windows of an administrative building are blasted out, and its bright yellow facade is scorched and pockmarked with bullet holes….
Evidence of Ukraine’s lightning march lines the roads to the town. On grass littered with debris lies a sign blasted with bullets that has arrows in two directions: Ukraine to the left and Russia to right. A burned-out tank stands by the side of a road.
