Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 08-12-2024

Oleksandr Heilo, who has previously shared pro-Russian publications on social media, allegedly demanded a bribe in exchange for allowing the evacuation of frontline equipment in Donbas.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) detectives detained the Deputy Minister of Energy on Monday, Aug. 12, for allegedly accepting a bribe of half a million dollars, NABU's press service said.

“According to the investigation, the official, in collusion with the head of one of the state-owned coal enterprises from the east and two other persons, asked the head of another coal enterprise located in the western region to provide an illegal payment amounting to $500,000,” NABU said.

Ukraine has captured 28 towns and villages, with the new front 40 km (25 miles) long, Kursk Regional Governor Alexei Smirnov said.

President Vladimir Putin ordered his army on Monday to “dislodge” Ukrainian troops who have entered Russian territory as authorities said over 120,000 people had been evacuated away from the fighting.

Kyiv launched a surprise offensive into Russia’s western Kursk region last Tuesday, capturing over two dozen settlements in the most significant cross-border attack on Russian soil since World War II.

The Kremlin had spent over $109 million and over two-and-a-half years building the fortifications.

In about a day, Ukrainian forces breached two lines of defensive fortifications in Russia’s Kursk region that Moscow had built over two-and-a-half years at a cost of 15 billion rubles (around $109 million), the Russian publication Agenstvo reported.

According to Agentsvo, the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Federal Security Service (FSB) Border Service had built the fortifications.

Franak Viačorka, chief political adviser to Belarusian democratic opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, speaks on Belarus’s attempt to free itself from Lukashenko and Russian rule.

Authorities in the Kursk region said they were widening their evacuation area to include Belovsky district and neighboring Belgorod region said it was evacuating Krasnoyaruzhsky district.

Two Russian regions bordering Ukraine ordered more evacuations on Monday as Moscow battled to contain an unprecedented push onto its territory.

Ukraine sent troops into Russia last week in its biggest cross-border operation since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022 and the most significant by a foreign army since World War II.

It wasn’t just the Kremlin and Russia’s military that was taken by surprise by Kyiv’s cross-border move last Tuesday – Moscow’s propaganda machine was also unprepared.

In the early morning of Aug. 6 Russian milbloggers started to report what they called another “unsuccessful” Ukrainian incursion by about 100 soldiers across the border into the Kursk region. They immediately assumed that this was another attempt by one of the anti-Kremlin militias such as the Freedom of Russia Legion – a nuisance but militarily insignificant.

It was pretty quickly obvious that this incursion was potentially more serious than what had happened before. One pro-Russian milblogger wrote on his Telegram channel: “The [Ukrainian] enemy… [is] saturating the combat area with air defense and electronic warfare systems. The AFU [Armed Forces of Ukraine] seem serious about advancing and are making continuous efforts to hold part of our territory. The situation is complicated.”

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

Moscow ordered more evacuations on August 12 in regions bordering Ukraine as its forces battled to contain an unprecedented incursion onto Russian territory by the Ukrainian military. The governor of the southwestern Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Telegram that the authorities were relocating residentsof the Krasnoyaruzh district to "safer places" on August 12 due to "activity" in the area by Ukrainian forces. The evacuation comes as Ukrainian troops have advanced some 30 kilometers inside Russia in what has become the most significant incursion since the war began in February 2022. In Moscow, Russia's Defense Ministry said that its air defenses had intercepted 11 drones that Ukraine launched overnight targeting the western Kursk region. Air defenses also destroyed five Ukrainian-launched drones over the Belgorod region and two over the Voronezh region, the ministry said on August 12. The ministry did not say how many drones in total Ukraine launched. Ukrainian forces entered the Kursk region on August 6, the largest cross-border operation by Kyiv since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive more than two years ago. Ukrainian forces claim they have captured a number of settlements in the Kursk region, as clips emerged purportedly showing troops seizing administrative buildings in Sverdlikovo and Poroz, while intense fighting has been reported in Sudzha, a town of about 5,000 people. - RFE/RL

In the village of Guevo, Ukrainian soldiers filmed themselves removing the Russian flag from an administrative building. Moscow has rushed in reserve troops, aviation, tanks, artillery, and drones in a bid to repel the incursion, which caught the Russian authorities off-guard. Despite these efforts, however, Russia acknowledged on August 11 that Ukraine had been able to penetrate into its territory by up to 30 kilometers in some areas, RFE/RL reported

The total combat zone now covers 720 square kilometers. Meanwhile the Russian Defense Ministry is publishing old videos claiming they’re new “successful strikes.”

Ukrainian forces advanced 70 square km (43 square miles) into Russia’s Kursk region in a single day, according to calculations by the Russian media outlet Agenstvo, which reported Sunday night, Aug. 11, that the current combat zone is 720 square km (447 square miles).

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also reported that based on geolocation footage and videos from Russia and Ukraine, between Saturday, Aug. 10 to Sunday, Aug. 11, Ukrainian forces advanced west and northwest in the Kursk region.

Staring at the slow, nearly static frontline land war, means not seeing the war fought by military and non-military means; on land, in the air, at sea, in space, in cyberspace, and cognitive space.

For the last year, we have persistently been told that the so-called “Russia-Ukraine War” has reached a “stalemate.” I use the term “so-called” because I find both phrases highly misleading and inaccurate. Both result from an effort to “belittle” the war and the battlefield.

In this article, however, I will limit myself to discussing the alleged stalemate.

Kyiv has deployed thousands of troops to the surprise operation, seizing the battlefield initiative after months of slow Russian advances across the east.

China on Monday urged all sides in the Ukraine war to de-escalate as Kyiv's forces pierced deep into Beijing ally Russia's Kursk border region.

Kyiv has deployed thousands of troops to the surprise operation, a Ukrainian security official told AFP, seizing the battlefield initiative after months of slow Russian advances across the east.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

If reports of Ukrainian troops entrenching in Russia’s Kursk region were true, it could mean Kyiv intended to hold the territories, potentially for future negotiations.

Ukrainian troops were reportedly digging trenches to fortify their positions during its latest incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, substantiating earlier speculations that the incursion goes beyond a mere border raid.

While there has not been visual evidence of Ukrainian troops entrenching in the Kursk region, Russian military reporter Aleksandr Kharchenko claimed that it is happening in his Sunday update, adding that it’s “the worst thing that can happen” and a race against time, where successful Ukrainian entrenchments would complicate Russian efforts to repel Ukrainian troops.

The focus of this piece is to explore the options now available to Ukraine as it moves into the second week of operations in Kursk, as well as the considerations and risks involved with each option.

The Ukrainian operation in Kursk is almost one week into execution. Ukrainian government representatives are yet to speak in any great detail about the operation, although President Zelensky did refer to it briefly in his Aug. 10 speech when he noted that:

Today, Commander-in-Chief Syrsky has already reported several times – on the frontline situation and on our actions to push the war out into the aggressor's territory. I thank every unit of our Defense Forces that makes this happen. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian forces of deliberately starting the fire as an act of "blackmail" against Kyiv. The nuclear plant has been under Russian control since 2022.

Kyiv and Moscow exchanged accusations on Sunday, August 11, after a fire broke out at a cooling tower of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, currently under Russian control.

Despite the incident, Ukraine, Russia, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that radiation levels have not increased, and nuclear safety remains unaffected.

Akhmat commander Apti Alaudinov earlier claimed that his unit was stationed along the Kursk region border with Ukraine, but Ukrainian forces bypassed them, avoiding direct engagement.

The Ukrainian project “I Want to Live,” known for assisting Russian soldiers in surrendering, released a video on Monday, August 12, featuring several dozen captured soldiers.

Among them, three identified themselves as being from Grozny, with one confirming service in the Akhmat special forces [Kadyrovites]. In the video, the prisoners’ eyes are covered with duct tape.

AFU troops stormed across the border on Tuesday morning in what has been the largest and most successful such offensive by Kyiv since Russia’s full scale invasion.

Russia said Saturday it had evacuated tens of thousands of people from its border region and launched a “counter-terror operation” as it struggled to contain a major Ukrainian incursion.

At the same time, Moscow warned that the fighting in Russia’s western Kursk region was endangering a nuclear power plant.

The Russian oligarch’s revelations simply toe the Kremlin political line as part of a complex web of maneuvering and deception. As Vladimir Putin plays a long game, the West must remain vigilant.

It was just over a year ago that Yevgeny Prigozhin declared his doomed march on Moscow. As the world looked on in surprise, many found themselves paradoxically wishing for his success. Yet, the sudden end to his hostilities towards the Russian establishment serves as a stark reminder that things in Russia are seldom as they seem. One must be cautious not to take the machinations of Russian actors at face value.

The recent revelation by Oleg Deripaska, an oligarch and Kremlin insider, to Japanese media that the war in Ukraine will have no winner and must be brought to an end, will undoubtedly spark a flurry of opinion pieces. Many of these are sure to speculate on the possible rifts within the Kremlin and a change of heart among Russia's elites. However, it is more important than ever to look beyond the headlines. In this case, a close reading of Deripaska's full comments reveals a different story.

Kyiv has deployed thousands of troops to the surprise operation, seizing the battlefield initiative after months of slow Russian advances across the east.

Russia on Sunday acknowledged Ukrainian forces had pierced deep into the Kursk border region in an offensive that a top official in Ukraine said was aimed to "destabilize" Russia and "stretch" its armed forces.

Kyiv has deployed thousands of troops to the surprise operation, a Ukrainian security official told AFP, seizing the battlefield initiative after months of slow Russian advances across the east.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Ukraine's operation in Kursk Oblast has allowed Ukrainian forces to at least temporarily seize the battlefield initiative in one area of the frontline and contest Russia's theater-wide initiative.
• The Ukrainian operation in Kursk Oblast and further possible Ukrainian cross-border incursions force a decision point on the Kremlin and the Russian military command about whether to view the thousand-kilometer-long international border with northeastern Ukraine as a legitimate frontline that Russia must defend instead of a dormant area of the theater as they have treated it since Fall 2022. Moscow’s response may require the Russian military command to consider the manpower and materiel requirements for defending the international border as part of its theater-wide campaign design and can therefore impose long-term operational planning constraints that Russia previously did not face.
• Geolocated footage and Russian and Ukrainian reporting from August 10 and 11 indicate that Ukrainian forces advanced westward and northwestward in Kursk Oblast, although Russian sources largely claimed that Russian forces have stabilized the situation.
• The hastily assembled and disparate Russian force grouping responding to the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast is comprised of Russian units likely below their doctrinal end-strength and ill-prepared to establish the joint command and control (C2) structures necessary to coordinate operations.
• Russia’s redeployment of battalion and lower-level units rather than full brigades and regiments to defend in Kursk Oblast is likely contributing to Russian forces' difficulty in quickly establishing effective C2 in the area.
• Confusion about the status of Russian conscripts fighting in Kursk Oblast is a consequence of ineffective C2 and will likely continues to further strain Russia’ C2 structures to respond to the Kursk operation.
• Russian officials acknowledged that Ukrainian mobile groups advanced upwards of 25 kilometers into Belovsky Raion, Kursk Oblast on the night of August 10 to 11, but there are no indications that these groups remain in the area or that Ukrainian forces are operating beyond the immediate border area in Belovsky Raion.
• The reported rapid Ukrainian maneuver in Belovsky Raion suggests that Russian forces along the international border remain poorly prepared to respond to further Ukrainian cross-border incursions.
• Russian sources claimed on August 11 that small Ukrainian groups attempted unsuccessful limited cross-border incursions into western Belgorod Oblast.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky officially acknowledged the Ukrainian cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast for the first time on August 10.
• A top Ukrainian defense official reportedly stated that Russian forces have somewhat reduced the intensity of assaults in eastern Ukraine but that otherwise the situation remains largely unchanged amid the Ukrainian operation in Kursk Oblast, which is consistent with ISW's observations of Russian offensive tempo across the theater.
• Russian forces recently advanced near Kupyansk and Donetsk City.
• Russian propagandists are attempting to use the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast to promote Russian force generation efforts.