People queue at a humanitarian aid distribution center for evacuated residents of the Kursk region in western Russia, August 28, 2024 (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Monday’s Coverage: Russia Bombs A Kharkiv Apartment Block

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1629 GMT:

As Ukraine marks Rescuer’s Day, four first responders are among seven civilians wounded by Russian guided aerial bombs on Kharkiv city.

THe attack was on the Kyivskyi district.

As of July, Vladimir Putin’s 31-month invasion killed 93 emergency workers and wounded almost 400 wounded.

UPDATE 1623 GMT:

The Ukrainian Navy says it destroyed ammunition depots near Russian-occupied Mariupol in southeast Ukraine in a recent missile strike.

The Navy said it blew up storage infrastructure and tons of ammunition.

Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the exiled mayor of Mariupol, shared photos showing Russia’s “destroyed warehouses” in the neighboring village of Hlyboke.

Mariupol surrendered at the end of May 2022 after 12 weeks of bombings, ground assaults, and siege by Russian forces. Authorities estimate at least 25,000 people may have been killed.

UPDATE 1346 GMT:

Ukraine military intelligence has reported on Russia’s luring of men from Syria into frontline service in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has established a scheme with travel companies to recruit Syrians for the war against Ukraine. First, poor people are offered jobs as security guards in Russian oil regions, and then they are lured with a higher salary.

The HUR agency said Syrian nationals are also promised Russian passports.

HUR cited the cases of Mohammed Mansour and Wahid Mursal Al-Shibli.

Mansour was in a squad of 15 Syrians deployed in an attack near Svatove in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine in July. Russia rejected the mercenaries’ request for evacuation when they came under fire, ordered them to press the attack. Mansour allegedly refused to obey the order and fled the battlefield — the rest of his unit dispersed and is now considered missing.

Al-Shibli was deployed in the Luhansk region in a seven-member squad. He was injured in battle and died when he was not evacuated.

Russian authorities and private companies have been accused of enticing foreign nationals, including from Cuba and India, with offers of work and then sending them into battle.

Vladimir Putin promised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July that Indian nationals would be returned. Last week, six men went home.

UPDATE 1337 GMT:

Ukraine has appealed to the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross over the apparent execution of a Ukrainian POW by Russian forces in the occupied Donetsk region.

A photo circulated on Tuesday morning of a slain Ukrainian soldier with a sword in his chest and the inscription “For Kursk”. Remnants of gray tape are visible on the soldier’s hand.

The bloodied body lies on the road against the backdrop of damaged vehicles and a house with broken windows. Analysts have geolocated the image in Novohrodivka, 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Donetsk city, echoing the finding of the Ukraine Prosecutor General’s office.

Human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets emphasized the violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War: “The level of barbarism and bloodthirstiness is impossible to comprehend.”

UPDATE 1008 GMT:

Germany is providing an additional €100 million ($111 million) in aid to Ukraine this winter.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced during a visit to Moldova on Tuesday that Russia is once again planning a “winter war with the aim of making the lives of people in Ukraine as terrible as possible”.

UPDATE 0826 GMT:

Ukraine’s Western allies bought around $2 billion in fuel made from Russian oil in the first half of 2024, according to a study by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air and bythe Center for the Study of Democracy.

The shipments of gasoline, diesel and other products made from Russian crude oil have increased because of imports from three Turkish refineries.

The European Union, US, and other countries have banned imports of almost all of Moscow’s oil, but countries can still buy fuel of Russian origin if it is processed in another country such as Turkey.

Turkey is benefitting from discounts of $5 to $20 per barrel of Russian oil. It increased purchases from Russia by 34% in 2023 and 70% this year.

One of the Turkish refineries, the Azerbaijan-owned Star Aegean, is 98% dependent on Russian crude. About 73% of its supplies come from US-sanctioned Lukoil.

Almost 90% of the refinery’s outlet go to Western allies of Ukraine.

UPDATE 0740 GMT:

Two civilians, including a child, were killed and nine injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past 24 hours.

The fatalities were inflicted by Russian assaults on 10 settlements in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

Other casualties were in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.

Ukraine air defenses downed 34 of 51 Iran-type drones launched by Russia overnight. Twelve others were “lost”, likely as a result of electronic warfare, and two returned to Russia.

However, supplies of electricity and water have been disrupted in Sumy city in northern Ukraine. The city has switched to emergency backup power, but trolley services have been suspended.

UPDATE 0723 GMT:

The international humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières has closed its programs in Russia.

Last month the Russian Justice Ministry excluded MSF’s Dtuch branch from the register of offices of foreign NGOs. The Ministry gave no reason for the decision.

“It is with a heavy heart that we are forced to suspend our activities in Russia. Our work is guided by the principles of independence, impartiality and neutrality, as well as medical ethics. We provide assistance depending on the needs,” MSF said in a statement.

The agency that many people in need of medical and humanitarian assistance will now be left without support.

UPDATE 0706 GMT:

Officials indicate that the Biden Administration has still not decided whether to allow Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia with UK-made Storm Shadow missiles.

Last week, during a visit to Kyiv alongside UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted that the Administration was moving towards lifting its months-long ban. US and European officials subsequently said the permission would be privately given, but not announced in public.

See also EA on Times Radio and TVP World: Permission for Ukraine’s Long-Range Strikes on Russia?

But officials told The Times that there is still disagreement within the Biden Administration, although the the US is likely to authorize strikes during meetings at the UN General Assembly over the next week.

The officials reiterated that while US-made ATACMS missiles will not be used, American guidance systems are crucial to hitting targets with the Storm Shadows.

UPDATE 0613 GMT:

Russian authorities have authorized the first group of importers to pay for Chinese goods in digital currencies.

The group includes electronics manufacturers, members of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and several banks, said “three sources familiar with the matter”.

Chinese financial institutions have strictly limited and even banned transactions with Russian clients since last December, amid the threat of US secondary sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

One of the sources said the selected importers in the initial group have had the greatest difficulties with payments to banks in China and other countries. The government also selected companies with the largest turnover, while planning to attract more participants within the experimental system.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Amid a six-week Ukrainian cross-border incursion, Russian officials are evacuating dozens of villages in the Kursk region in the west of the country.

Governor Alexey Smirnov said authorities ordered the “obligatory evacuation of settlements in the Rylsky and Khomutovsky districts that are within a 15-km (9-mile) zone adjacent to the border with Ukraine.

Smirnov said last week that more than 150,000 people in the region have left their homes.

The order was issued despite the Russian Defense Ministry’s claims of a counter-offensive retaking control of two villages on Monday.

The Ministry has proclaimed the counter-offensive over the past two weeks. However, military analysts say any success has been dwarfed by ongoing Ukrainian capture of territory.

Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and military commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, have said that the August 6 incursion has taken about 100 settlements and controls around 1,300 square km (500 square miles) in Kursk.

The cross-border operation countered Russia’s 11-month offensive trying to occupy more parts of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

On Monday, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry invited the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to join humanitarian efforts in Kursk, citing “the need to properly ensure basic human rights”.

The Ministry said it has asked the ICRC to monitor Ukraine’s compliance with the principles of international humanitarian law in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.

Map: Institute for the Study of War