These are the most important developments on the 897th day of the war.

Here is the situation on Saturday, August 10, 2024.

Battle

• A Russian missile hit a supermarket in the Ukrainian town of Kostiantynivka in the frontline region of Donetsk. At least 14 people were killed and 43 others injured, Ukrainian officials said. “Russian terrorists hit an ordinary supermarket and a post office. There are people under the rubble,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X.
• Russia has deployed additional tanks, artillery and missile systems to the southern Kursk region and imposed “anti-terrorist measures” in the border areas in the fight against a surprise invasion by the Ukrainian military.

• Ukrainian forces have released a video purporting to show them controlling a town near the border, the first visual evidence of their cross-border advances. Another video posted on social media shows a convoy of about 15 burnt-out Russian military trucks scattered along a highway in the Kursk region, some of which contained dead bodies.

• The acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, said that debris from a drone had fallen on a substation near Kurchatov, which is home to one of Russia’s largest nuclear power plants with four reactors. The power supply in the region was temporarily interrupted.

• The Russian Defense Ministry released its own video, which it claims shows a drone destroying a Ukrainian tank and a howitzer near Sudzha, about 10 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The location could not be immediately verified.
• The ministry said Russian troops, airstrikes and artillery had “canceled attempts by enemy units to penetrate deep into Russian territory in the direction of Kursk” over the past 24 hours. It claimed that Ukraine had lost a total of up to 945 soldiers and 102 armoured vehicles, but did not mention Russian losses.
• Ukrainian special forces have carried out an amphibious assault on the Russian-occupied Kinburn Spit in the northwestern Black Sea, destroying six Russian armored vehicles and about three dozen soldiers, Ukrainian military intelligence said.

Politics and Diplomacy

• The US has announced a new $125 million aid package for Ukraine, which includes Stinger missiles, artillery ammunition and anti-tank systems. Zelensky said the package was “vital for our armed forces to counter Russian attacks”.
• The head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) called on both Russia and Ukraine to exercise restraint in the fighting in the Kursk region near Kurchatov, given the proximity of the nuclear power plant there.

Weapons

• Dozens of Russian servicemen are currently being trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 short-range missile system, two European intelligence sources told Reuters, adding that they expected hundreds of the satellite-guided weapons to be delivered to Russia soon for its war in Ukraine.
• Poland has signed a contract with the United States to purchase hundreds of air-to-air missiles, the Polish Armaments Agency said on Friday. The AIM-120C AMRAAM missiles will be delivered between 2029 and 2033 for the Polish Air Force’s fighter jets, the agency said on X. Security concerns have arisen in Poland following the invasion of Ukraine by neighboring Russia.

Business

• Ukraine has begun the formal process of obtaining creditor approval for its offer to restructure around $20 billion of international bonds, a key step in the war-torn country’s efforts to restructure its debt.
• Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by four percent from April to June compared to the same period last year, according to the statistics office Rosstat. Although this is the lowest quarterly result since the beginning of 2023, it is still a sign that the economy is growing.