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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 907

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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 907

As the war enters its 907th day, these are the main developments.

Here is the situation on Tuesday, August 20, 2024.

Fighting

  • Russia said Ukraine attacked the third and last bridge across the River Seym in the Kursk region, where Kyiv mounted a surprise incursion across the border on August 6.
  • In his first comments on the offensive’s objectives, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the aim of the offensive was to create a “buffer zone” and limit the ability of Russia to launch long-range attacks on Ukraine. Ukrainian forces were in control of more than 1,250 square kilometres (483 square miles) of land and 92 settlements in the Kursk region, he added later.
  • Ukraine ordered families with children to immediately leave the town of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region as Russian troops advanced. About 53,000 people are still thought to be living there.
  • As an indication of the intensity of the fighting on the Pokrovsk front, Ukraine’s military said its forces were involved in 63 skirmishes on Monday around Pokrovsk, and 21 in the Toretsk area. Some of the battles continued into the night, the military said.
  • Russia’s Ministry of Defence, meanwhile, said that its forces had captured the town of Zalizne near Toretsk. About 5,000 people lived in Zalizne before Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
  • At least four people were killed in Russian attacks on Toretsk and Zarichne, another front-line settlement, Ukraine said.
  • Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed governor in Russian-occupied Donetsk, said at least one woman was killed and 10 people injured after Ukrainian artillery fire hit a bus stop in the city of Donetsk.
  • Vasily Golubev, the governor of Russia’s southern Rostov region, said more than 40 Russian firefighters had been injured tackling a days-long fire at an oil facility hit by a Ukrainian drone. Golubev said 18 of the firefighters were being treated in hospital with five in intensive care.
  • The European branch of the World Health Organization said it had recorded a total of 1,940 attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Politics and diplomacy

  • Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Ukraine on Friday and meet Zelenskyy. It is the first visit by an Indian leader in more than 30 years. Modi was in Moscow last month and met Russian President Vladimir Putin.
  • Russia complained to Germany over its investigation into the 2022 explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream gas pipelines after a key suspect escaped arrest in Poland despite a German warrant. The suspect – a Ukrainian diver – had left Poland before he could be detained.
  • Russia banned a number of “hostile” British think tanks and 32 of their staff. The list includes the prominent Chatham House foreign affairs think tank, as well as the Aga Khan Foundation.
  • Russian prosecutors said they had designated The Clooney Foundation for Justice, a US nonprofit group, as an “undesirable” organisation for carrying out work at “a Hollywood scale” to discredit Moscow. The foundation was founded by actor George Clooney and his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney.
  • Belarus deployed aircraft and air defence troops to its border with Ukraine, a day after President Alexander Lukashenko announced he would station almost a third of the country’s military along the frontier.

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Map: 3.8-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Las Vegas

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Map: 3.8-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Las Vegas

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Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 3 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “weak,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown.  All times on the map are Pacific time. The New York Times

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A minor, 3.8-magnitude earthquake struck in Nevada on Thursday, according to the United States Geological Survey. The earthquake prompted a flurry of chatter online, but no widespread damage was reported.

The temblor happened at 1:47 p.m. Pacific time about 7 miles northwest of Summerlin South, Nev., data from the agency shows.

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On social media, residents across the area described the earthquake jolting their homes and rattling windows and doors. Some said they heard the boom-like sound of an explosion, while others said they didn’t feel anything or described a small disturbance that lacked any significant oomph.

Brian Cohen was at home putting away groceries in Lone Mountain, about a half hour west of the Las Vegas strip, just before 2 p.m. when he felt the entire house rattle intensely for about three seconds.

“The whole house felt like it was lifting up,” said Mr. Cohen, who is in his 60s. He went outside and saw a neighbor, who also reported feeling the jolt.

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Mr. Cohen, who has lived in the Las Vegas area since 1994, said this wasn’t his first earthquake. “This one is the strongest one I felt,” he said, adding there was no damage to his home.

As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.

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Aftershocks forecast

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While individual earthquakes can’t be predicted, geologists can calculate the chances that more earthquakes will follow an initial quake using statistical models of past events.

For this earthquake, it is unlikely — about a 4 chance — that a larger quake will strike the area in the next day, according to the U.S.G.S. Here is the forecast for aftershocks of other sizes:

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3.0 mag. or stronger

Perhaps

26%

4.0 mag. or stronger

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Unlikely

5%

5.0 mag. or stronger

Unlikely

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Source: United States Geological Survey. Data is as of June 4 at 1:57 p.m. Pacific time.  Chance of aftershocks typically decreases over time. Forecast quake counts are estimates. William B. Davis, Joel Eastwood and John Keefe/The New York Times

The rate of aftershocks typically decreases over time, and forecasts are available for the next week, month and year.

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Aftershocks detected

Subsequent quakes have been reported in the same area. Such temblors are typically aftershocks caused by minor adjustments along the portion of a fault that slipped at the time of the initial earthquake.

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Quakes and aftershocks within 100 miles

Aftershocks can occur days, weeks or even years after the first earthquake. These events can be of equal or larger magnitude to the initial earthquake, and they can continue to affect already damaged locations.

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When quakes and aftershocks occurred

 All times are Pacific time. The New York Times

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Sources: United States Geological Survey (epicenter, aftershocks, shake intensity); LandScan via Oak Ridge National Laboratory (population density) | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Pacific time. Shake data is as of Thursday, June 4 at 5:25 p.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Thursday, June 4 at 8:23 p.m. Eastern.