For more information, including previous situation summaries and an interactive dashboard, visit our Ukraine Conflict Monitor.
Situation Summary
Despite the Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, ongoing for two weeks, Russian forces continued their assault on the central part of the Donetsk region, with the logistical hub of Pokrovsk and neighboring Myrnohrad appearing to be their main target. While the number of clashes in the area remained comparable to that recorded in each of the previous three weeks, throughout the past week Russian forces seized an additional five settlements — as many as in the previous two weeks combined. Russian forces also stepped up their offensive in the direction of Toretsk further north. Fighting also continued in the Kharkiv region on the border with Russia and on the boundary with the Luhansk region in the areas of Kupiansk and Svatove.
The aerial bombardment of the Sumy region bordering Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions continued unabated for the second week in a row, with the number of strikes reaching an all-time high since the beginning of the Russian invasion. The Ukrainian government ordered the evacuation of about 20,000 civilians remaining in the 10-kilometer range of the border and restricted civilian movements in areas within a 20-kilometer range.1Elsa Court, ‘Movement of civilians in Sumy Oblast restricted within 20 km of Russian border,’ Kyiv Independent, 13 August 2024 Meanwhile, on 11 August, a fire broke out at one of the two inoperational cooling towers of the Russia-occupied Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant, possibly due to a drone strike. International experts posted to the plant were unable to establish the cause of the explosions they heard on the day of the incident. They subsequently found no elevated levels of radiation in the area as the plant is in a cold shutdown mode.2International Atomic Energy Agency, ‘Update 242 – IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine,’ 11 August 2024; International Atomic Energy Agency, ‘Update 243 – IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine, ‘Update 243 – IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine,’ 12 August 2024
As a result of Russian shelling, missiles, airstrikes, and drones, at least 27 civilians were killed and more than 200 civilians were wounded, most in the Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Luhansk, Kyiv, and Kherson regions. Separately, on 13 August, according to Russian sources, Ukrainian shelling hit a bus in Lysychansk in the Luhansk region, killing one civilian and wounding 28 others. In addition, Ukrainian drone strikes and shelling of the heavily militarized westernmost Petrovskiy borough of occupied Donetsk city on 16 August wounded 11 civilians and damaged a shopping center, a hospital, an apartment building, and a house, as well as a gas pipeline.
