As the war enters its 916th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Thursday, August 29, 2024.
Fighting
- At least 14 people were injured and a number of others were killed after a Russian-guided bomb attack on the eastern town of Kupiansk. Speaking in his evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there were fatalities, but did not give a number. The attack also damaged the city hall building.
- At least eight people were injured after a Russian missile struck Zelenskyy’s home city of Kryvyi Rih as residents observed an official day of mourning for four people killed in a Russian attack the previous day on a city hotel.
- Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said a family of four was killed when their house in the village of Izmailivka was hit by a Russian-guided bomb. Izmailivka, with a pre-war population of about 200 people, is near the front line in the east where Russia has been trying to capture the strategic hub of Pokrovsk.
- Donetsk regional governor, Vadym Filashkin, said two people were killed in separate attacks near Chasiv Yar that damaged more than a dozen homes.
- The state-run TASS news agency, citing the Russian Ministry of Defence, said its forces had taken control of the settlement of Komyshivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
- Ukraine’s General Staff said in its Wednesday update that there was “fierce fighting” in a number of villages close to Pokrovsk. “So far, the enemy has made 38 attempts to storm Ukrainian positions. Combat is still ongoing in 14 locations,” the General Staff said.
- Deputy CIA Director David Cohen said Russian President Vladimir Putin would mount a counteroffensive to try and retake territory in the Kursk region captured by Ukrainian troops but would encounter “a difficult fight”. Ukraine launched a surprise attack on the Russian region on August 6 and has claimed to have taken some 100 settlements.
- Rosgvardiya, Russia’s National Guard, said in a statement that its sappers had found a shell from what it claimed was a US-supplied HIMARS multiple launch rocket system 5km (3 miles) from Kursk’s nuclear power plant, as well as a rocket fragment, which it said was stuffed with 180 unexploded munitions. Moscow has accused Ukrainian forces of trying to attack the plant. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the claim.
- Vasily Golubev, the regional governor of Russia’s southern region of Rostov, said a Ukrainian drone attack set an oil depot on fire in the Kamensky district. No casualties were reported.
- A Ukrainian drone attack also started a fire at an oil depot in the Russian city of Kotelnich in the northern Kirov region, some 1,100km (685 miles) from the Ukrainian border
Politics and diplomacy
- Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the biggest problem faced by Kyiv was that its allies were afraid of approving new policies to support Ukraine out of fear of escalation. Kuleba’s comments came a day after Russia’s foreign minister said the West was “playing with fire” by considering allowing Kyiv to strike deep into Russia and warned of the risks of World War III.
- NATO members reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen Ukraine’s defences at a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council. “We must continue to provide Ukraine with the equipment and munitions it needs to defend itself against Russia’s invasion. This is vital for Ukraine’s ability to stay in the fight,” said Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
- Russia’s Foreign Ministry banned 92 US citizens – including journalists, lawyers and the heads of what it said were key military-industrial firms from the country. The list, published on Telegram, includes 14 Wall Street Journal employees, five senior journalists from The New York Times and four from The Washington Post.
- A Russian military court jailed 39-year-old engineer Artyom Lozovoi for 18 years over a foiled attempt to blow up a military recruitment office, the TASS state news agency reported. Lozovoi was found guilty of multiple charges, including treason.
- Anastasia Zibrova, a dog handler from the Moscow region, was sentenced to five years in a penal colony for criticising Russia’s attack on a Kramatorsk railway station that killed 61 people in April 2022, according to the Russian legal aid group and monitor OVD-Info.
- In a third case, a Russian military court sentenced Ukrainian Andriy Martsenyuk to four and a half years in prison for preparing to set fire to a local military police station, Interfax reported, citing the local branch of the FSB security service.