As the war enters its 915th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Wednesday, August 28, 2024.
Fighting
- At least six people were killed across Ukraine, including in the central city of Kryvyi Rih and in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, in a second day of Russian missile and drone attacks. At least nine people were injured. On Monday, Russia launched its biggest aerial assault since the start of its invasion in 2022.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would retaliate against Russia for its attacks. The air force said Ukraine brought down five out of 10 missiles and 60 out of 81 drones Russia fired on Tuesday, with some of them destroyed by Western-supplied F-16 fighter jets. It said it lost track of 10 more drones and they probably came down somewhere on Ukrainian territory. One more crossed into neighbouring Belarus.
- Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, said Ukraine had captured 594 Russian soldiers and taken control of 1,294 sq km (almost 500 sq miles) and 100 settlements since launching its incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region on August 6.
- Rafael Grossi, director general at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), visited the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. He said it was vulnerable to a serious accident because it lacked a protective dome that could shield it from missiles, drones and artillery amid the fighting in the region.
- Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s western Belgorod region, said the situation on the border with Ukraine was “difficult but under control” after reports on Russian Telegram channels that Ukraine attacked a border checkpoint at Nekhoteyevka before being pushed back.
- Speaking on television, Ukraine’s Syrskii said the situation around Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine was “fairly difficult” with Russia trying to disrupt Ukraine’s supply lines to the front. “The enemy is using its advantage in personnel, weapons and military equipment, it is actively using artillery and aviation,” he said. Earlier, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces had captured the village of Orlivka, which is near Pokrovsk.
Politics and diplomacy
- Zelenskyy said he would present a “victory plan” to United States President Joe Biden and his two potential successors, probably while he is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly next month. The plan was designed to ensure Ukraine was in a strong position going into eventual talks to end the war. “The main point of this plan is to force Russia to end the war. And I want that very much – [that it would be] fair for Ukraine,” he told reporters in Kyiv.
- China’s Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs Li Hui called on more countries to endorse its 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 stay committed to a political settlement to the crisis through dialogue and negotiation,” Li said. China did not attend the peace summit organised by Switzerland in June. It issued a joint peace plan with Brazil earlier this year.
- Moscow said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin had “exchanged perspectives” on the war in Ukraine. Modi was in Kyiv last week.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned Ukraine’s move to ban a Russia-linked branch of the Orthodox Church, describing it as an attack on Christianity and a blow to freedom of religion. Kyiv has accused the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of abetting Moscow’s 30-month-old war by spreading pro-Russian propaganda and harbouring spies.
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Russia’s FSB security service said it had opened criminal cases against two more foreign journalists who crossed the Russian border to report from the Kursk region after Ukraine’s incursion. The Interfax news agency said the journalists included a reporter for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and a correspondent for Ukraine’s 1+1 TV channel. The FSB has now brought criminal cases against at least seven foreign journalists who have reported from Kursk.
Weapons
- Zelenskyy said the military had recently carried out the first successful test of a domestically-produced ballistic missile. He said he was not able to share more details.