Russia Ukraine war live: Kyiv still advancing in Kursk as Moscow opens 400 shelters amid evacuation

The governor of Russia’s border area of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, declared a regionwide state of emergency today, citing continued attacks by Ukrainian forces.

“The situation in the Belgorod region continues to be extremely difficult and tense,” Mr Gladkov said. Daily shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces had destroyed houses, killing and wounding civilians, he added.

“Therefore, we are making a decision, starting today, to declare a regional emergency situation throughout the Belgorod region with a subsequent appeal to the government to declare a federal emergency situation.”

An official in the Kursk border region of Russia on Monday urged more residents to evacuate due to the “very tense situation” in the area, where Russian forces are still scrambling to respond to a surprise Ukrainian attack after almost a week of fierce fighting.

Russia’s emergency authorities say more than 76,000 people have fled their homes in areas of Kursk, where Ukrainian troops and armor poured across the border on Aug. 6, reportedly driving as deep as 30 kilometers (19 miles) into Russia and sowing alarm.

Ukrainian forces swiftly rolled into the town of Sudzha about 10 kilometers (6 miles) over the border after launching the attack. They reportedly still hold the western part of the town, which is the site of an important natural gas transit station.

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Sasha Skochilenko and Sofya Subbotina are planning to get married. That wasn’t an option in their native Russia, but it’s possible now that they live in Germany, which recognizes same-sex weddings.

“We don’t know how or in which city we will do it, but that’s the plan,” Skochilenko, 33, told The Associated Press, looking lovingly at Subbotina, who radiated happiness.

They reunited earlier this month in Germany, shortly after Skochilenko and other Russian prisoners were exchanged in a historic East-West swap — a happy if unlikely ending to an over two-year ordeal.

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Ukraine has taken control of 74 settlements in Russia’s region of Kursk and was still advancing, making gains of one to three km in the last 24 hours. This is Kyiv’s biggest cross-border assault of the war to date.

“Despite difficult and intense battles, our forces continue to advance in the Kursk region, and our state’s ‘exchange fund’ is growing. Seventy-four settlements are under Ukrainian control,” Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Shown speaking by video link, the Ukrainian leader asked his top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, to develop the next “key steps” in the operation. “Everything is being executed according to the plan,” Syrskyi replied, without elaborating.

Ukraine blindsided Moscow by pouring thousands of troops into the western Russian region of Kursk last week. The surprise operation has given Ukraine its biggest battlefield gains since 2022 after months on the backfoot.

Kyiv’s forces have also rounded up Russian prisoners of war who could be swapped for captured Ukrainian fighters, what Mr Zelensky referred to as an expanding “exchange fund”.

Russia needs to be forced to participate in a summit on peace as it would not do so willingly, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.

Mr Podolyak told national TV that one of the methods of coercion is actions on the battlefield, referring to Ukraine’s unprecedented cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

“Simple calls to Russia do not work, only a set of coercive tools works,” he said, referring to economic and diplomatic pressure as well.

He added that by actions in Russia’s border regions Ukraine was resolving the key issue of its own security.

“This is destruction of war infrastructure and formation of so-called sanitary zones so that Russia cannot use there … equipment that strikes deep into the territory of Ukraine,” he said.

A week after the launch of the incursion, Ukraine said it controls 74 Russian settlements and continues its advance.

Evidence continues to indicate that Monday’s fire at the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine did not start at the base of the cooling tower or by a foreign object, the UN nuclear body International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

“The evidence gathered reinforces our conclusion that the main fire seems unlikely to be at the base of the cooling tower,” the IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said.

He said “foreign objects or materials were visible” in the damaged tower.

The Russian management of the plant told the IAEA that the tower may need to be dismantled, the IAEA said.

Backing up the colonel’s assessment, an official who has worked for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration as an adviser and in a variety of other important roles, says the Kursk assault will not be a brief incursion but is likely to broaden its scope with the intention of holding onto captured territory.

He said that thousands more troops – potentially several brigades – are standing by, “including some of the best, most experienced troops and brigades” to fight.

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Ukraine’s military incursion into Russia has “created a real dilemma” for Vladimir Putin, president Joe Biden said, adding that US officials are in constant touch with the Ukrainians about the move.

Answering questions from reporters upon arrival in New Orleans, Mr Biden said he has been briefed every four to five hours for the last six to eight days on Ukraine’s action.

“It’s creating a real dilemma for Putin,” he said in his first substantive comments about the operation, which appeared to have caught the Russians off guard.

About 1,000 Ukrainian troops rammed through the Russian border in the early hours of 6 August with tanks and armoured vehicles. A US official said that the goal of Ukraine’s Kursk incursion appears to be to force Russia to pull troops out of Ukraine to defend Russian territory against the cross-border assault.

The White House said Ukraine did not provide advance notice of its incursion, which took place in the Kursk region of Russia. Russian forces on Tuesday struck back at Ukrainian troops with missiles, drones and airstrikes.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, said Washington had no involvement in the operation.