These are the key developments as the war enters its 909th day.

Here is the situation on Thursday, August 22, 2024.

Battle

• Acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, said a woman was killed and two people injured when their car was hit by an explosive device dropped by a Ukrainian drone just outside Sudzha.
• Ukraine said it had destroyed several Russian pontoon crossings over the Sejm with American-made HIMARS missile systems to defend its advance into Russia’s Kursk region. Moscow said its forces had stopped Kiev’s advance into Russian territory.
• Alexander Bogomaz, governor of Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Kursk and Ukraine, said Russian forces had repelled a Ukrainian attempt to enter the region. Bogomaz described the Ukrainian forces as a “sabotage and reconnaissance group” but did not specify whether they were part of the Ukrainian military.
• Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces had come under repeated Russian attacks near the frontline town of Pokrovsk in the east. The military said there had been a total of 46 Russian attacks on the frontline on Wednesday and 44 of them had been repelled. Two attacks were still ongoing at 19:00 GMT. The General Staff said 238 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded in the same area. It did not give details of Ukrainian losses.
• The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had taken control of the village of Zhelanne, about 20 kilometers southeast of Pokrovsk.
• Ukrainian forces destroyed 50 of 69 Russian combat drones launched over the country overnight. No information on casualties or damage was provided.
• In Russia, the Defense Ministry said air defenses had shot down eleven drones over Moscow and the surrounding area. The attack was one of the largest on Moscow since the war began in 2022.

Politics and Diplomacy

• Welcoming Chinese Premier Li Qiang to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia’s economic and trade relations with Beijing are “yielding results.” Moscow has deepened its ties with China despite many developed nations imposing severe economic sanctions on the country over its invasion of Ukraine.

• The Ukrainian parliament has voted to join the International Criminal Court (ICC). Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the move would make efforts to take responsibility for “all Russian atrocities” during the invasion “even more effective”.
• A Russian court sentenced exiled opposition politician and former MP Dmitry Gudkov to eight years in prison “in absentia” for criticizing Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine. Gudkov, who left Russia in 2021 and is a vocal critic of Putin, said the verdict was a “badge of honor.”
• Thousands of Ukrainian refugees are facing eviction from their homes in Hungary after the government cut state subsidies for refugees from areas of Ukraine not considered to be affected by the war. In Budapest, only 13 regions of Ukraine are currently affected by the Russian invasion, or about half of all Ukrainian regions.
• Because of the Russian invasion, Ukraine will need $12-15 billion more in foreign aid next year than previously expected, said Deputy Finance Minister Olha Zykova. Ukraine had previously said it would need a total of $22.7 billion in foreign aid in 2025.
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he would “exchange perspectives on a peaceful resolution of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia” during his visit to Kyiv on Friday, more than a month after his trip to Moscow.
• The military regimes of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have written to the United Nations Security Council calling on it to take “appropriate measures” against Ukraine, accusing Ukraine of supporting rebel groups in northern Mali. Mali and Niger have severed relations with Kyiv after a rebel attack in northern Mali last month killed dozens of soldiers and Russian Wagner mercenaries. Ukraine has denied allegations that it was involved in the attack.

Weapons

• The Ukrainian military said it hit an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system stationed in the southern Russian region of Rostov because these weapons are used to attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. Rostov Governor Vasily Golubev said air defense forces destroyed a missile fired from Ukraine over his region.