A destroyed Russian tank on the roadside near Sudzha in the Kursk region in western Russia, August 8, 2024

Tuesday’s Coverage: Zelenskiy — “Everything In This War Depends Only On Courage”

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1544 GMT:

The Ukrainian attack on the Savasleyka airbase in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region on August 16 destroyed three warplanes and damaged up to five others, according to a Ukraine military intelligence official.

Russian warplanes on the airfield include MiG-31K, a supersonic intercepter which carries Kinzhal ballistic missiles used to attack Ukraine.

The Ukrainian official said kamikaze drones destroyed a MiG-31K and two Il-76 strategic airlifters. The damaged aircraft may have included another MiG-31K.

UPDATE 1459 GMT:

Ukraine air defenses and electronic warfare downed of 69 attack drones launched by Russia overnight.

The Russians also fired three missiles, one of which was intercepted.

UPDATE 1455 GMT:

Russian officials claimed air defenses downed 11 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow and the surrounding region.

“This is one of the largest ever attempts to attack Moscow with drones,” said Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin said. He reported no damage or casualties.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine launched 45 drones across the country. It claimed all were destroyed.

UPDATE 1447 GMT:

Ukraine’s Parliament has voted to join the International Criminal Court.

Ukraine signed the Rome Statute creating the ICC in 2000, but did not ratify it amid questions about whether Ukrainian soldiers could face prosecution.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba posted, “By taking this step, Ukraine demonstrates its unwavering commitment to strengthening international justice….With the ratification of the Rome Statute, Ukraine also took another significant step toward joining the EU.”

UPDATE 1420 GMT:

Switzerland has adopted further sanctions against Russia, staying in line with the EU.

The measures, matching the EU’s 14th sanctions package, include a ban on Russian diamonds.

UPDATE 0242 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the “situation is tough” in the face of a Russian offensive in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, “but our soldiers are doing everything to destroy the occupier”.

On Monday, authorities ordered families with children to evacuate urgently from Pokrovsk — a logistics hub with a pre-invasion population of around 62,000 — and nearby towns. The Russians are also trying to overrun Toretsk.

UPDATE, 0215 GMT:

A 15-year-old boy has been killed and four other people — aged 11, 14, 17, and 18 — injured in a Russian strike on a youth cafe in the village of Malokaterynivka in the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine.

The attack occurred at 5:40 p.m. on Tuesday. The 15-year-old was taken unconscious to hospital and later died in the intensive care unit. The other victims are in stable condition.

The type of ammunition used by the Russian military is still being identified.

Russian troops fired 376 times at nine settlements in Zaporizhzhia over the past day, according to the local military administration.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine’s forces are up to 22 miles inside the Kursk region in western Russia, according to Ukrainian military commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.

Syrskyi said the 15-day cross-incursion has advanced 28 to 35 km (17 to 22 miles). The Ukranians control 93 settlements across 1,263 square km (488 square miles), even as the Russians move troops from other theaters to establish a defense.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian army reportedly captured the village of Martynovka. Video showed Ukrainian soldiers in an intense firefight in the hamlet of nearby Malaya Loknya.

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said the military has established three groupings named after the Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk regions.

But Ukraine said hundreds of Russian personnel have given themselves up.

At a detention center, just across the border in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine, a 22-year-old Russian conscript said he and others were “simply abandoned by our command” when Ukrainian troops appeared. Now he hoped “to be exchanged and go back home…to my family”.

The deputy head of the detention facility said PoWs were initially afraid but “came to life” after realizing they were being well treated: “On the battlefield they are hated soldiers and when they are captured they become ordinary people.”

The Kremlin is being criticized for breaking Vladimir Putin’s promiise, at the outset of his 2 1/2-year invasion of Ukraine, that conscripts would not see combat.

On Russian social media channels, families of the conscripts are speaking about lack of preparation, bad treatment, and abandonment. A mother posted:

When the border was attacked at 3 a.m. by tanks, there were only conscripts defending themselves. They didn’t see a single soldier, not a single contract soldier — they didn’t see anyone at all. My son called later and said, “Mom, we’re in shock.

Other mothers said last week that conscripts who evacuated from Kursk are being pressured to return to the frontlines.

Natalia Appel, the grandmother of a missing conscript, said he was stationed without any weapons in a village about 500 meters from the border. “What could the boys do? Go against [the Ukrainian soldiers] with a shovel?,” she asked.