A burned car and an apartment building damaged by Ukrainian shelling of the Kursk region in Russia, August 11, 2024 (AP)

Monday’s Coverage: Fire at Russian-Occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 2223 GMT:

Ukraine’s attacks have reduced Russia to only five military airfields in occupied Crimea, two of which are now functioning “at a minimum,” says the Ukrainian Navy.

Spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk offered the assessment on Thursday on national TV. He did not specify the airfields still used by the Russians and which have been damaged.

UPDATE 2209 GMT:

In his nightly address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said hundreds of Russian soldiers have surrendered during the week-long Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

“I would like to thank all our soldiers who replenish the exchange fund [of POWs]. It is very important for our country,” Zelensky said. “Hundreds of Russian soldiers have already surrendered, and all of them will be treated humanely. They did not even receive such treatment in their own Russian army.”

Zelenskiy said earlier that Ukraine now controls 74 settlements in Kursk (see 1638 GMT).

UPDATE 1807 GMT:

UK military intelligence says some Russian units fighting in eastern Ukraine are likely experiencing shortages of drinking water.

The problem has arisen because of ongoing Russian strikes against utilities infrastructure, exacerbated by above-average temperatures.

A Russian military observer said in late July that rations have been reduced to one liter per day, a quarter of the recommended minimum in high temperatures. Pilots have reportedly local civilians for water. Some units are carrying out filtration of stagnant puddles, likely increasing waterborne diseases, dehydration, and infections.

UPDATE 1638 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says troops now control 74 settlements in Russia’s Kursk region after their week-long incursion.

Zelensky said he is “constantly in touch” with military commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi about the situation: “Despite the difficult, intense battles, the advance of our forces in Kursk Oblast continues.”

The President added that “humanitarian solutions for these territories” are being established.

UPDATE 0801 GMT:

The US State Department has warned Iran not to deliver ballistic missiles to Russia for Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine.

Saying the Department has reports that Tehran is planning to deliver hundreds of missiles, spokesperson Vedant Patel said, “We are prepared to deliver a swift and severe response if Iran were to move forward…which would, in our view, represent a dramatic escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”

UPDATE 0726 GMT:

A Russian military court has sentenced an abducted Ukrainian woman, Tetiana Klochko, to 12 years in prison.

Prosecutors claimed that Klochko planned a “terrorist attack” targeting the manager of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. They said she planted homemade explosive device, which she kept in her home, and placed in the post box of an apartment in the city of Enerhodar. Neighbors supposedly discovered the explosive device which was then defused by enforcement officers of the Russian occupation.

UPDATE 0711 GMT:

The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has been unable to determine the cause of Sunday’s fire at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine.

The fire damaged a cooling tower at the plant, Europe’s largest with six dormant nuclear reactors.

IAEA head Rafael Grossi said in a statement that the team at the plant found no signs of drone debris or evidence that the fire started at the base of the cooling tower.

The team has not been able to draw definitive conclusions on the basis of the findings and observations so far. The IAEA will continue its overall analysis after additional review and access to the water nozzle distribution level and the cold-water basin.

Grossi added that nuclear safety at the power plant had not been affected, “No radioactive material is present in the area of the cooling towers, which is located approximately 1.5 kilometers from the reactor units at ZNPP.”

UPDATE 0655 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses downed 30 of 38 Iran-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight.

The UAVs were intercepted over the Mykolaiv, Vinnytsia, Sumy, Kirovohrad, Kherson, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Cherkasy regions.

The Russians also fired two ballistic missiles.

A civilian was injured in a Russian missile strike on a hospital and energy infrastructure in Sumy city in northeast Ukraine.

A power line, gas pipeline, and several cars were also damaged. Part of the city is without electricity and gas supply.

Sumy is across the border from Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. With Russia stepping up the use of guided aerial bombs, around 20,000 people are being evacuated from border settlements.

In the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, four civilians were killed and four wounded by Russian shelling.

Two people were slain in Ukrainsk and one each in Toretsk and Kostiantynivka.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine is claiming the capture of more than 1,000 square km (386 sq miles) in its week-long incursion into the Kursk and Belgorod regions in western Russia.

Ukraine’s military commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi made the assessment on Monday in a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other senior officials.

In a meeting of governors and top officials with Vladimir Putin, Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov supported Syrskyi’s claim. He told Putin that Ukraine is in control of 28 settlements in the region.

Describing the “difficult” situation, Smirnov said the incursion is up to 12 km (7.5 miles) deep along a 40-km (25-mile) front.

Russian officials said they have evacuated at least 133,000 people from border areas in the Kursk and Belgorod regions.

Putin pledged an “adequate response”: “The main thing now is solving the tasks at hand…to push out and beat back the enemy from our territory and ensure the state border is well protected.”

The West is fighting us with the hands of the Ukrainians. The enemy will certainly get the response he deserves, and all our goals, without doubt, will be accomplished.

But he betrayed his concern, noting that the Ukrainian advance might extend into a third region, “If things are relatively calm in Bryansk region today, that does not mean the situation will stay that way tomorrow.”

In his nightly video address, Ukraine President Zelenskiy said:

It is only fair to destroy Russian terrorists where they are, where they launch their strikes from. Russian military airfields, Russian logistics.

We see how useful this can be for bringing peace closer. Russia must be forced into peace if Putin wants to continue waging war so badly.

Russia brought war to others, and now it is coming home.

“They Were Unarmed and Didn’t Expect Us”

Speaking with the Financial Times, Ukrainian soldiers described the success of their surprise cross-border operations into Kursk.

Volodymyr recalled no resistance with Russian soldiers “sitting in the forest, drinking coffee at a table”.

Then our Stryker drives right into their table.

We killed many of them on the first day. Because they were unarmed and didn’t expect us.

“Dozens” of surprised Russians laid down their weapons and surrendered.

The Russians did attack from the air with glide bombs and suicide drones. Despite taking casualties and damage to equipment, the advance continued.

“It was a bit difficult at first but then it got easier,” said Roman, another soldier in the 82nd.

“Our mood is good. Morale is high,” said Serhiy, a paratrooper in the 80th Air Assault Brigade.

Soldiers from Ukraine’s 225th Separate Assault Battalion tear down the Russian national flag on the administrative building in Daryino in the Kursk region.