As the war approaches its 915th day, the major events are as follows:
Here’s what it looks like on Wednesday, August 28, 2024:
go for it
- At least six people have been killed across Ukraine, including in the central city of Kryvyi Rih and the southern city of Zaporizhia, amid a second day of Russian missile and drone strikes. At least nine people have been wounded. On Monday, Russia launched its biggest airstrike since it began its invasion in 2022.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would retaliate against the Russian attack. The air force said Ukraine shot down five of the 10 missiles and 60 of the 81 drones fired by Russia on Tuesday, some of which were destroyed by Western-supplied F-16 fighter jets. Ten more drones were not tracked and likely crashed somewhere in Ukrainian territory, it said. Another crossed into neighboring Belarus.
- Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Sirsky said Ukraine had captured 594 Russian soldiers and captured 1,294 square kilometers (about 500 square miles) of territory and 100 settlements since its invasion of the Kursk region in western Russia on August 6.
- Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), visited the Kursk nuclear power plant. He said the plant was vulnerable to a serious accident because it lacked a protective dome to protect it from missiles, drones and artillery during a battle in the region.
- Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia’s western Belgorod region, said the situation on the border with Ukraine was “difficult but under control”, following a report on a Russian Telegram channel that Ukrainians had been pushed back after attacking a border checkpoint in Nekhoteyevka.
- Ukrainian Sirski said on TV that the situation around Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine was “quite difficult” as Russia was trying to disrupt Ukraine’s front-line supply lines. “The enemy is taking advantage of its manpower, weapons and military equipment, and is actively using artillery and aircraft,” he said. Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said its troops had captured the village of Olivetka near Pokrovsk.
Politics and Diplomacy
- Zelensky said he would present a “victory plan” to U.S. President Joe Biden and his two potential successors while in New York for the U.N. General Assembly next month. The plan is designed to force Ukraine to take a strong position before entering into ultimate talks to end the war. “The main purpose of this plan is to force Russia to end the war. And I want that very much. It will be fair (to Ukraine),” he told reporters in Kiev.
- Li Hui, China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs, urged more countries to support China’s peace plan for Ukraine after a round of diplomacy with Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa. “They have maintained communication with both Russia and Ukraine and are committed to a political solution to the crisis through dialogue and negotiation,” Li Hui said. China did not attend the peace summit hosted by Switzerland in June. China announced a joint peace plan with Brazil earlier this year.
- Moscow said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin “exchanged views” on the war in Ukraine. Modi was in Kiev last week.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has condemned Ukraine’s move to ban a branch of the Orthodox Church with ties to Russia, describing it as an attack on Christianity and a blow to religious freedom. Kyiv accused the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of spreading pro-Russian propaganda, harboring spies and aiding Moscow’s 30-month-old war.
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Russia’s FSB security service said it had opened criminal cases against two foreign journalists who crossed the Russian border to report from the Kursk region following the invasion of Ukraine. The journalists included a reporter for the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and a correspondent for the Ukrainian 1+1 TV channel, Interfax reported. The FSB has now opened criminal cases against at least seven foreign journalists who reported from Kursk.
weapon
- Zelensky said the military recently conducted the first successful test of a domestically produced ballistic missile. He said he could not share further details.
