Donetsk villages and a prisoner's death: Ukraine's war, 5 August 2024

What was happening on the eastern front in the days leading up to 5 August 2024? Reports from 30 July to 4 August pointed to two Donetsk settlements Russia said it had taken, and to a demand from Kyiv over the death of a prisoner of war.

Claims in Donetsk Oblast

On 30 July 2024, the Russian defence ministry said its forces had taken control of the settlement of Pivdenne in Donetsk region. On 4 August, Russia said its armed forces had captured the village of Novoselivka Persha, also in Donetsk Oblast. Both were Russian statements about the Eastern Ukraine campaign.

A prisoner's death

On 31 July 2024, Ukraine demanded that Russia explain the death in captivity of Ukrainian prisoner of war Oleksandr Ishchenko. He was being tried together with 21 other captured Ukrainian troops. Russian prosecutors alleged that the Azov Brigade, to which they linked the defendants, was far-right affiliated.

The case has roots in the siege of Mariupol, which began on 24 February 2022 and lasted until 20 May of that year. It ended with Russian and Donetsk People's Republic control of the city, after the Ukrainian troops remaining at the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works surrendered on 20 May 2022, having been ordered to cease fighting.

Together, the reports from those days show a war in which territorial claims in Donetsk Oblast ran alongside disputes over the treatment of captured Ukrainian soldiers.