Civilians flee Russian advance near Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine

On Wednesday, people were fleeing the advance of Russian troops towards Pokrovsk, a major city in the eastern Ukraine ;oelig;ud logistics in eastern Ukraine, which they continue to approach despite kyiv's offensive in the Russian border region of Kursk.

The Russian army has taken village after village in recent weeks in this sector of the front and is now about ten kilometers from Pokrovsk, a town of some 53,000 inhabitants that the Ukrainian authorities have called for urgent evacuation.

Met by AFP journalists during his escape, Maksym, 40, describes a “very tense” situation, which is getting worse by the hour. His eight-story building was recently hit by a strike, while he was walking home.

A resident in front of a house destroyed by a missile strike in Myrnohrad, Donetsk region, on August 21, 2024 in Ukraine © AFP – Genya SAVILOV

“I decided to leave because life is more important,” says this miner who digs galleries in a mine in Pokrovsk.

Anatoli, 60, says he witnessed two bombings. “What a waste! But everyone is alive, thank God. People have left,” he said.

Regional authorities on Monday ordered the “forced evacuation” of families with children from Pokrovsk, a city on a route to the Ukrainian strongholds of Chassiv Yar and Kostiantynivka.

– Kursk, Pokrovsk, New York –

In a new sign of its advance, the Russian army claimed on Wednesday the conquest of a new village in this sector, that of Jelanné, located about twenty kilometers east of Pokrovsk.

Russia: the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region © AFP – Valentin RAKOVSKY, Cléa PECULIER, Paz PIZARRO

On Tuesday, it announced that it had seized the city of New York in eastern Ukraine, a highly symbolic victory given its name.

But this locality is also presented by Russia as an important logistical platform for Ukrainian troops, in the Toretsk agglomeration.

Ukrainian military personnel and bloggers nevertheless assured on Wednesday that part of New York remained under the control of Kiev's forces.

While the Ukrainian military offensive launched on August 6 in the Russian region of Kursk is receiving a lot of attention because it brings hostilities to the attacker's soil, the epicenter of the fighting remains in the Ukrainian industrial region of Donbass (East), where Russian soldiers have the advantage, being better equipped and more numerous.

Photo released by the Russian Defence Ministry on August 21, 2024, showing a Russian Mi-35m attack helicopter firing rockets at Ukrainian armed forces in the border area of ​​the Kursk region, Russia © Russian Defence Ministry – Handout

In the Kursk region, Ukrainian troops announced Tuesday evening that they had taken control of 1,263 square kilometers and 93 localities, slightly more than the day before. Their largest claim so far is the small town of Sudja, which had 5,500 inhabitants, located eight kilometers from the border with Ukraine.

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“The Ukrainian armed forces have advanced 28 to 35 km into the enemy's defenses,” their commander Oleksandr Syrsky said.

In the neighboring Bryansk region, Russian authorities said Wednesday that they had repelled an attempted incursion by a group of Ukrainian “saboteurs.” “The enemy was hit by gunfire,” said Governor Alexander Bogomaz.

A Ukrainian soldier of the 24th Mechanized Brigade fires a 152mm 2s5 “Hyacinth-s” self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions at an undisclosed location in the Donetsk region, August 20, 2024 © 24th Mechanized Brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces – Handout

According to Ukrainian authorities, the Kursk operation is intended to create a “buffer zone” in Russian territory to ward off bombings, force Moscow to redeploy forces there from other sectors of the front, or serve as a bargaining chip during possible “fair” peace talks.

The Ukrainian offensive on the Kursk region does not seem to have reduced Russian pressure on Pokrovsk, however.

– Crossed drone attacks –

The Russian capital was targeted during the night by “one of the most significant” Ukrainian drone attacks of the war, according to its mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

Ukraine: the positions of the military forces © AFP – Valentin RAKOVSKY, Sophie RAMIS, Cléa PECULIER

Eleven Ukrainian drones were shot down, he said. The city of Moscow, located more than 500 km from the Ukrainian border, has been the target of drones several times in the past, without them ever causing significant damage.

On the Ukrainian side, the air force said it had destroyed 50 Russian drones and a missile during the night. The head of the Kiev military administration, Sergiy Popko, said that ten of them had been intercepted as they were heading towards the Ukrainian capital.

The Russian telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor also reported on Wednesday a brief but rare outage of the Telegram and WhatsApp messaging services in Russia due to a “DDoS attack” (denial of service), which consists of bringing down a system by overwhelming it with requests.

Worshippers of the Russian-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church pray with icons in front of the closed entrance to the Caves Lavra monastery in Kiev, August 20, 2024 © AFP – Sergei SUPINSKY

Finally, Ukraine voted on Wednesday to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), after years of procrastination and despite opposition from the military, in the hope of one day seeing Russia punished for the crimes committed against it imputed.

The day before, the Ukrainian Parliament had voted to ban the branch of the Orthodox Church linked to Russia which, although losing influence, still has thousands of parishes in Ukraine.

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