That’s all of our policy live today, but we’ll be back with the latest updates.
Before we go, a reminder of what happened today:
Volodymyr Zelensky spoke for the first time about the Ukrainian invasion of the Russian Kursk region and advised a “fair response” to a series of measures introduced through Russia.
Ukraine’s president said Russian forces carried out around 2,000 cross-border movements in the city of Sumy from the region over the summer.
Fighting continued in Kursk for a sixth day, and Russia had attacked Ukrainian troops with aerial weapons.
The US think tank Institute for the Study of War said Ukrainian forces were largely holding their ground in the city of Sudzha, while Kiev media reported that forces had entered the neighboring Kursk region, in Belgorod.
Meanwhile, Russia has evacuated about 76,000 more people from border regions.
Tamerlan Eskerkhanov is one of five men sent to jail for the murder of Boris Nemtsov.
He was convicted of aiding and abetting and sentenced to 14 years in criminal prison in 2017.
“Eskerkhanov signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense in March 2024, was pardoned and then released from his penal colony,” TASS quoted a police source as saying.
We will know more about the chimney at the occupied Zaporizhzhia power plant. . .
The U. N. nuclear watchdog said dense dark smoke was observed emerging from the site’s northern domain.
The smoke was followed by several explosions.
“No effect on nuclear safety has been reported. ”
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces had a fire at the factory.
The Russian government in charge of the plant said the fire broke out near the facility’s cooling towers and that rescuers were rushing to put it out.
By Deborah Haynes, Security & Defense Editor
As his troops fight hard in Russia, Ukraine’s president has finally broken his silence on an invasion that has caught his much larger and tougher neighbor by surprise.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the operation, which began Tuesday in the Kursk region of southwestern Russia, as “our moves aimed at expanding the war into the territory of the aggressor. “
Giving further indication of the target of the wonderful attack, he said: “Ukraine is showing that it knows how to atone for justice and promises precisely the kind of tension needed: tension on the aggressor. “
Details about the number of Ukrainian troops in Russia are unclear, and commanders were intentionally silent about a secretly planned mission.
But they are most likely in the thousands, with elements of at least three well-equipped brigades on the ground, deploying tanks, armored vehicles, artillery guns and drones.
It is also difficult to measure how Ukrainian attackers have pressed, as Russian army bloggers claim that they have penetrated up to about 19 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
The videos, widely distributed on social media, purport to show Ukrainian infantrymen waving Ukraine’s yellow and blue flag on Russian territory, adding in the city of Sudzha and in an agreement near the border with Ukraine in the neighboring Belgorod region.
Under pressure, Russia sent reinforcements and released photos of its army counterattacking, but this is the sixth day of the Ukrainian offensive and fighting continues.
Commenting on the events, analysts noted that this was the first time Russia had been invaded since Adolf Hitler in 1941.
But the attack on Ukraine is the act of a competitive, land-grabbing power.
Rather, it is the counterintuitive action of a country that invaded through Vladimir Putin’s Russia a decade ago – capturing Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine – and then became even more devastated with Moscow’s full-scale invasion. in February 2022.
This makes Kiev’s counter-invasion of Kursk the latest – though arguably the most audacious – attempt across Ukraine to drive Russian forces out of its own sovereign territory.
Russian forces have a fire at a nuclear plant in southern Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Flames could be seen on the premises of the Zaporizhzhia plant, occupied by Russian forces for much of the war, the Ukrainian president said.
He also shared a video purporting to show the fire. Sky News has independently verified the clip.
He suggested citizens remain calm.
The Russian government in charge of the plant said the fire broke out near the facility’s cooling towers and that rescuers were racing to put it out.
Ukrainian troops have been seen in armored vehicles near the Russian border.
Photos taken through Reuters show several infantrymen operating in the city of Sumy, the domain used to liberate the wonderful Ukrainian invasion of Russia’s Kursk region.
Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to recommend tonight that the invasion was presented as a “just” reaction to Russian moves in Sumy over the summer.
Earlier today, the president of Ukraine issued his first statement on the invasion of his forces to the Russian region of Kursk.
Very few main points have been revealed about the operation, as Ukrainian officials have followed a policy of secrecy about its objective and why it was carried out.
But in his late-night speech, Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared to recommend that the resolution be made in retaliation for moves carried out by Russian forces from Kursk.
Reports suggest that up to 6,000 soldiers may have crossed the border, and Ukrainian media suggested that Kiev forces may have also entered Russia’s Belgorod region.
Six days after the invasion began, the U. S. think tank Institute for the Study of War said Ukrainian forces are largely holding their positions in the Sudzha region of Kursk.
Russia carried out an airstrike against Ukrainian forces in Kursk, the country’s Defense Ministry said.
In a post on Telegram, he had been attacked by “groups of manpower, armored and motor vehicles. ”
“The attack was carried out with unguided aerial missiles instead of reconnaissance targets,” he said.
“After the use of aerial weapons, the crews performed an anti-missile maneuver, launched decoy rockets and returned to the scene. ”
He claimed that the goals had been destroyed.
The Ukrainian invasion of Russia’s Kursk region was a moment that shocked Moscow and the world.
This is the largest incursion into Russian territory since the start of the war.
Although Ukrainian officials have remained tight-lipped about the main points of the operation, we have observed Russia evacuating other spaces near the border.
Here’s a timeline of what happened in the invasion:
Ukrainian units launched a miraculous operation in the Kursk border region on Tuesday, August 6.
On Wednesday, August 7, Ukrainian forces occupied 10 kilometers of Russian territory.
The US Tank Institute for the Study of War geotagged photographs of Ukrainian forces at various locations and verified photographs appearing to be Russian prisoners of war captured at border checkpoints.
Ukraine forces its advance on Thursday, August 8.
On Friday, August 9, a video emerged showing Ukrainian infantrymen controlling a local fuel facility in the city of Sudzha.
Ukraine will expand its presence on Saturday, August 10.
Six days after the invasion began, this latest map shows Ukrainian forces largely holding their ground, while the Russian military has evacuated another 76,000 people from the area.
Ukrainian media also began reporting that Ukrainian forces appear to have entered Kursk’s neighboring Belgorod region, with video showing them in the Russian village of Poroz.
Sky News has not been able to independently verify this.
At the same time, Russia imposed an “anti-terrorist” operation in the three border regions of Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk.
This allows the government to rehouse residents, confiscate cars, and phone communications.
Evacuees from the border areas of Russia’s Kursk region got help from the Russian Red Cross.
Red Cross staff have visited transition shelters for those who have fled and a telephone line has been set up to reunite family members.
The Kursk humanitarian organization said it had received around 3,000 calls in less than a day.
So far, some 76,000 citizens have been evacuated, a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said yesterday.
The Ukrainian invasion of the Russian region began earlier this week and was seen as an embarrassment to Russia’s military leaders, who were forced to scramble to close the gap.
The precise objectives of the operation remain unclear and Ukrainian army officers have followed a policy of secrecy, with few main points of the invasion revealed.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke about the fighting in Kursk for the first time, days after it began.
He said he discussed the operation with Ukraine’s most sensible commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
“Today I received several briefings from Commander-in-Chief Syrsky related to the front lines and our moves to expand the war into the territory of the aggressor,” he said.
“Ukraine shows that it can repair justice and put pressure on the aggressor. ”