As the war enters its 904th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Saturday, August 17, 2024.

Fighting

• At least two people were killed and more injured after Ukrainian shelling hit a shopping centre in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Russian state news agencies cited local authorities as saying. Earlier, Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed governor, said that a series of Ukrainian attacks wounded at least seven people.
• Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine will evacuate residents from five villages and close access to them, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, as the area comes under heavy attack from invading Ukrainian forces.

• The heaviest fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops was reported in the strategic Ukrainian hub of Pokrovsk. Officials said Russian forces were 10km (6.2 miles) from the outskirts of Pokrovsk and about 6km (3.7 miles) from nearby Myrnohrad. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

• Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskii said that Kyiv’s forces were advancing 1-3km (0.6 and 1.8 miles) in some areas in Russia’s Kursk region. Kyiv has claimed to have taken control of 82 settlements over an area of 1,150sq km (444 square miles) in the region since August 6.

• Ukraine’s Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk said on Telegram that aviation was an active part of the operation in Kursk, targeting Russian supply routes and logistics centres. He posted a video of a strike on a bridge.
• Kursk regional Governor Alexei Smirnov later said that Ukraine had destroyed a road bridge over the Seym river in the region’s Glushkovsky district. The strike is hindering civilian evacuations by land, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported, citing local security services. An estimated 20,000 people are reportedly evacuating from the area.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its troops repelled Ukrainian attacks in several areas, including near the villages of Gordeevka, Russkoe Porechnoe and others.
• Russian forces destroyed a Ukrainian reconnaissance and sabotage unit, which was armed with weapons from NATO countries, in the Kursk region, Russia’s RIA state-run media agency reported on Friday, citing unidentified security sources.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukraine has set up storage facilities in its northern Sumy region to hold and send humanitarian aid to Russian civilians in the Kyiv-held part of Russia’s Kursk region, Ukraine’s Minister of the Interior Ihor Klymenko said.

• Nikolai Patrushev, an influential aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, told the Izvestia newspaper in an interview that the West and the United States-led NATO alliance had helped to plan Ukraine’s surprise attack on Russia’s Kursk region. Without “direct support” from the West, Kyiv would not have ventured into Russian territory, he said.

• Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had summoned Italy’s ambassador in Moscow to launch “a strong protest” over what it said was “illegal border crossing” by a team of correspondents from the Italian state broadcaster RAI, who reported from Ukrainian-held parts of Russia’s Kursk region this week.
• Baza, a Telegram channel close to Russian law enforcement, reported that the country’s Interior Ministry was planning to open criminal cases against two RAI journalists for crossing the Russian border.
• The Italian Foreign Ministry told the Reuters news agency that Italy’s ambassador to Russia, Cecilia Piccioni, had explained to the Russian authorities that RAI and its news teams “plan their activities in a totally independent and autonomous way” from the government.
• The US is set to announce more security assistance for Ukraine in the coming days, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby told US television news media on Friday. He did not give details.