Wednesday, August 14

Russia’s war against Ukraine

Destroyed houses following Russian shelling in the village of Loknya, Sumy Oblast, near the border with Russia, on Aug. 13, 2024. Ukraine launched a surprise offensive into the Russian border region of Kursk on Aug. 6, 2024, capturing over two dozen towns and villages in the most significant cross-border attack on Russian soil since World War II. (Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images)

‘Hundreds’ of Russian soldiers surrendered during Ukraine’s incursion of Kursk Oblast, Zelensky says. “I would like to thank all our soldiers who replenish the exchange fund. It is very important for our country,” Zelensky said in his evening address.

Ukraine controls 74 settlements in Russia’s Kursk Oblast. The Ukrainian military currently controls 74 settlements in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug. 13.

Russia to evacuate refugees from Kursk Oblast to Russian-occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Yevhen Balytskyi, a Russian proxy leader operating in occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast, suggested equipping “sanatoriums and boarding houses on the shores of the Azov Sea, located from Berdiansk to Kyrylivka.”

Bloomberg: Ukraine’s incursion brings Russia closer to new mobilization. Officials may present it as a rotation to give the military on the front line a rest, and the draft could be announced by the end of this year, according to Bloomberg.

Ukraine, Russia have no intention of halting gas flows to Europe amid fighting in Kursk Oblast, Bloomberg reports. Kyiv and Moscow plan to continue transmitting gas to Europe despite Ukraine’s incursion in Kursk Oblast near a key cross-border transit point for the fuel, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 12, citing its undisclosed sources.

Military: Kursk incursion has not yet influenced situation near Toretsk. Russian forces continue attacking Toretsk, and battles have now reached the outskirts of the town, military spokesperson Oleksandr Bordiian told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

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Kursk incursion aims to divert Russian troops, protect Ukrainian border regions, Kyiv says. “Unlike Russia, Ukraine does not seek to seize territory. We want to protect the lives of our people,” spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said. “If Ukraine could strike the enemy troops on their territory, from where they threaten Ukraine, then Ukraine would be in a much better position to protect itself,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said.

Ukraine sentences Russian propagandist Krasovsky in absentia to 5 years in jail. Anton Krasovsky was convicted for his calls to “burn and drown Ukrainian children” on air on one of his shows on the Russian state-run channel RT, formerly known as Russia Today. He also said that Ukraine “should not exist at all.”

2 out of 5 Russian working airfields in occupied Crimea ‘operating at a minimum,’ military says. Two airfields no longer have the load they had at the beginning of the full-scale invasion because they suffered damage, Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesperson for the Naval Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said.

1st ‘thematic’ conference as follow-up to peace summit to be held in August. The conferences will be dedicated to specific points of the peace formula aimed at developing and agreeing on the components of a joint peace plan drafted by Ukraine.

Belarus to transfer military equipment to Russia amid Ukraine’s operation in Kursk Oblast, media says. The recent delivery of Belarusian military equipment is related to “an urgent request from the Russian side” due to losses and a lack of equipment in the Kursk Oblast and other areas, Belnovosti said, citing an undisclosed source in the Belarusian Defense Ministry.

Russia’s Belgorod Oblast declares state of emergency, governor says. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, Vyacheslav Gladkov, declared a state of emergency on Aug. 14, citing an “extremely difficult” and tense situation due to ongoing attack from Ukrainian forces.

Read our exclusives

**Ukraine war latest: Ukraine controls 74 settlements in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, Zelensky says **

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug. 13 that the Ukrainian military currently controls 74 settlements in Russia’s Kursk Oblast. Ukraine’s cross-border incursion into neighboring Kursk Oblast began on Aug. 6, and by Aug. 12, Ukraine said it had control over 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory.

Photo: Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images

As Ukraine’s Kursk incursion wins US support, will fears of Russian escalation fade?

Russia has a “real dilemma,” U.S. President Joe Biden said on Aug. 13, seven days after Ukrainian forces launched a surprise cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast.

On the defensive side of the full-scale war for the first time, Moscow is in an unexpected bind.

Photo: Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images

Kursk incursion deals blow to Putin’s prestige marking first ground invasion of Russia since World War II

The 1,000 square kilometers Ukraine says it controls in Russia’s Kursk Oblast amounts to a tiny share of Russia’s massive terrain. Yet, politically, the surprise Ukrainian move poses one of the biggest challenges to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power.

Photo: Gavriil Grigorov/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

How Ukrainian company SolarGaps is reimagining a renewable future with its solar panel blinds

A sunflower inspired Yevgen Erik to reinvent solar panels in his home country, Ukraine. After realizing that the solar panels on his roof failed to cover air conditioning costs during summer, he decided to create solar-powered blinds that would track the sun’s movement.

Photo: Personal archive of SolarGaps

Human cost of war

Russian attacks against Ukraine kill 5, injure 25 over past day. Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day killed at least five civilians and injured at least 25, including children, regional authorities reported early on Aug. 13.

Opinions and insights

**Opinion: Were the Istanbul peace talks a missed opportunity for Ukraine?  **

“Many analyses naively assume the Kremlin would adhere to any signed deal, ignoring Russia’s well-documented pattern of broken promises,” writes Dr. Andreas Umland, analyst at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies.

Photo: Ozan Guzelce/dia images via Getty Images

International response

Ukraine’s Kursk Oblast incursion creates ‘real dilemma for Putin,’ Biden says. “It’s creating a real dilemma for Putin, and we’ve been in direct contact, constant contact, with the Ukrainians,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in his first public comments since Kyiv launched its cross-border offensive.

Cutting off Russian gas supplies could be ‘massive risk’ for country, Austria says. The Austrian Energy Ministry said as long as there is dependence on Russian gas supplies, “there is a massive risk of a corresponding supply failure with far-reaching consequences.”

Defense minister says Latvia transfers another 500 drones to Ukraine. The drones, provided in the framework of the international drone coalition, will “provide support for Ukrainians in various combat missions,” the minister said in his post on X.

In other news

Ukrainian basketball player Mykhailiuk joins NBA’s Utah Jazz. Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, a 27-year-old from Cherkasy, played for multiple NBA teams in the U.S. before signing a four-year contract with the Jazz worth $15 million.

Ukraine launches new graduate program in drone development. The Digital Transformation Ministry is partnering with the Kyiv School of Economics to launch a master’s program that will train drone development engineers to design, test, analyze, and improve UAVs.

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Today’s Ukraine Daily was brought to you by Martin Fornusek, Daria Svitlyk, Elsa Court, Olena Goncharova, Kateryna Hodunova, Chris York, Francis Farrell, and Abbey Fenbert.

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