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Situation Summary
On 6 August, Ukrainian forces launched an incursion from the Sumy region into Russia’s Kursk region, meeting little resistance from border guards and small military units deployed there. As of 9 August, Ukrainian forces advanced over 10 kilometers inside Russia1Jaroslav Lukiv, James Waterhouse, ‘Ukraine’s cross-border attack into Russia enters fifth day,’ BBC, 10 August 2024 and seized over 20 settlements, including the town of Sudzha. Unlike previous incursions led by Russian volunteer units, regular Ukrainian forces have crossed into the Kursk region. While the specific operational aims of the offensive remain unclear, it could aim to divert Russian troops from hotspots in Ukraine and boost Ukrainian forces’ morale amid the ongoing Russian advances in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. However, it has also led to increased Russian shelling and airstrikes on the Sumy region, which reached levels last recorded during the escalation in early May 2024.
In the meantime, Russian forces continued their advances in the directions of Pokrovsk and Toretsk in the Donetsk region, seizing an additional two villages. Heavy fighting also continued in the direction of Kupiansk and near Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region, and near Robotyne in the Zaporizhia region. Meanwhile, in Crimea, a Ukrainian naval drone destroyed a Russian patrol boat near Chornomorske. Ukrainian forces also raided Russian positions on the Kinburn and Tedrivska Spits in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, respectively, destroying Russian military equipment and reportedly killing at least 30 Russian servicemen.
Russian shelling, drones, and airstrikes killed at least 30 civilians in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, and Sumy regions. On 9 August, a Russian missile struck a supermarket in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk, killing 14 civilians, including three children, and injuring 44 others. Russian forces also shelled the city the same day, damaging residential houses, a postal office, stores, and other civilian infrastructure. Separately, on 7 August, a pro-government Belarusian organization deported 43 Ukrainian children from the occupied Donetsk region to Belarus. Both Russia and Belarus have been systematically displacing thousands of Ukrainian children since February 20222Khoshnood, Kaveh, Nathaniel A. Raymond and Caitlin N. Howarth et al., ‘Belarus’ Collaboration with Russia in the Systematic Deportation of Ukraine’s Children,’ Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health, 16 November 2023, with many subjected to reeducation, placed in adoptive families, and unable to return to their home country.
