Airstrikes in Syria killed at least 18 people and injured dozens of others, Syria’s state news media reported on Monday, blaming Israel for the attacks in and around a city known as a center for the development of weapons, including missiles.

The Syrian state news agency, SANA, said multiple sites were hit in and near Masyaf, a small city in northwestern Syria; most of its reports were vague about what, exactly, was struck, but some said the targets were military sites. Israeli officials declined to comment on the attack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group based in Britain that tracks the conflict in Syria, confirmed the strikes and said they hit an area containing a scientific research institute where work on “developing short- and medium-range precision missiles” is conducted. It cited unnamed sources in the Syrian security forces.

Independent experts, Israeli officials and the U.S. government have described that institute as a center of weapons research and development, aided by Syria’s ally Iran, with the work being done there including chemical, biological and potentially nuclear weapons as well as missiles used by Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed militia group in Lebanon that is fighting Israel.

Israel has struck Masyaf, about 25 miles from the Mediterranean coast, several times in the past.

The airstrikes late Sunday night and early Monday amounted to one of the deadliest attacks in Syria in months. SANA said that in addition to the 18 dead, 37 people had been injured in the strikes, including six who were in critical condition. The agency said that the strikes had damaged roads and water, power and telephone infrastructure.

The Syrian Observatory put the death toll higher, saying that at least 25 people had been killed, including Syrian combatants, people working with Iranian militias and civilians. It was not possible to confirm the reported tolls independently.

The attacks added to an already volatile standoff between Israel and Iran’s allies and proxies across the region.

In the past, Israel has acknowledged carrying out hundreds of assaults on targets in Syria that it says are linked to Iran. A series of airstrikes in March near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo killed at least 44 people, including 36 Syrian soldiers and seven members of Hezbollah, the observatory said.

An April 1 strike on the Iranian Embassy compound in Damascus, the capital, killed the commanding general of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, his deputy, several other Iranian officials, and members of allied forces.

Tehran’s network of proxy militias includes Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in the Gaza Strip and multiple groups in Iraq.

But Tehran has reserved its most generous support for Syria, backing not only the government but also armed groups operating there. Iran’s backing was vital to the regime of Bashar al-Assad surviving the civil war that began in 2011.

The close relationship dates to Iran’s own revolution in 1979, when Syria backed the new government in Tehran as others shunned it. Iran, for its part, views Syria as a strategic partner that offers land access to Hezbollah.

The war between Hamas and Israel, which has accelerated tensions on multiple fronts across the region, is nearing its one-year mark on Oct. 7.

On Monday, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for northern Gaza after it said rockets fired from the area had crossed into Israeli territory. The latest evacuation order covers parts of the city of Beit Lahia, according to a social media post by Avichay Adraee, an Israeli military spokesman. The zone includes areas where Israel had agreed to pause fighting for a few hours each day, as part of a large-scale polio vaccination program, according to the United Nations.

The Gazan Health Ministry reported that more than 441,000 children had received a first dose of the vaccine in central and southern Gaza in the first two stages of the campaign; the third phase of the campaign in Gaza was expected to begin on Tuesday in the north, to reach 150,000 more, according to Jonathan Crickx, a UNICEF spokesman. It was unclear how the evacuation orders would affect localized pauses in fighting that Israel and Hamas have agreed to.

Diplomatic efforts to bring about a comprehensive cease-fire continue, with both Hamas and Israel accusing each other of standing in the way of a deal. Last week, two American officials told The New York Times that Hamas had recently toughened its terms for the release of hostages, asking for more on the release of Palestinian prisoners in the opening phase of an agreement.

On Monday, Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, issued a statement saying it was “a lie” that the group had made additional demands. He said it was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel who had placed new conditions on a deal.

The talks are being pushed by the Biden administration, which argues that a truce in Gaza would calm tensions across the region and would bring home the dozens of Israeli hostages believed to be still held in Gaza.

Israel and Iran have for decades fought a clandestine, low-level war, but attacks across borders have escalated since Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have for months traded fire across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, and Iran in April launched a wave of missiles and drones at Israel in response to the strike on its embassy complex in Syria. Iran also vowed revenge in July after a top Hamas leader was killed in Tehran, though a large-scale response has not yet happened.

The overnight strikes in Syria hit an area containing one of the campuses of the Scientific Studies and Research Center. The institute has many sites across Syria, and Masyaf is where the country’s military research organization maintains one of its most important weapons-development facilities, experts say.

The United States in 2005 prohibited U.S. citizens and residents from doing business with the center, and in 2007, the Treasury Department froze the assets of center subsidiaries, listing the S.S.R.C. as the “Syrian government agency responsible for developing and producing nonconventional weapons and the missiles to deliver them.”

Israeli security experts at the nonprofit Alma Research and Education Center, in an August 2023 report on the Syrian research center, said it serves as a “growth engine for the development and production of modern conventional weapons based on Iranian technology on Syrian soil.” The report noted that the center’s “operation shortens and saves the logistics of transferring weapons from Iran, which is more vulnerable to harm/disruption and obstruction.”

Israel is believed to have targeted scientists at the Masyaf site before. In 2018, Aziz Asbar, one of Syria’s most important rocket scientists, who had led a top-secret weapons-development unit and worked closely with Iran, was killed in a car bombing in Masyaf, apparently carried out by Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.

Rawan Sheikh Ahmad and Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.

The doomsday preacher who stands accused of sexual abuse and human trafficking wielded major influence not only over his devoted followers around the world but also on politicians in his own country, the Philippines.

But in the end, Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, surrendered to the Philippine authorities, putting an end to a massive manhunt that had enlisted thousands.

Through his lawyers, Mr. Quiboloy, who is 74, has denied all the accusations against him.

Here is what we know about the preacher, his church and the claims being made against him.

The Preacher

Known to his followers as the Appointed Son of God, Mr. Quiboloy has evangelized to believers across the world, from Ukraine to Brazil to New York. But he has been on the radar of investigators for years.

In 2021, a federal grand jury in the United States indicted the preacher and other church officials in the United States on charges that included conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, the sex trafficking of children and fraud.

The group allegedly recruited young women and girls to serve as “pastorals,” a role that included cooking meals and cleaning, but also giving massages to Mr. Quiboloy and, in some cases, having sex with him.

Popular among Filipinos working overseas, the organization was also accused by the U.S. of forcing members to meet donation quotas, and locking them in rooms and denying them food if they failed to raise the requisite amount.

The preacher ended up on the F.B.I.’s most-wanted list — but continued to preach from the church’s headquarters in Davao City. He also maintained close ties with the former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, who described him as his spiritual adviser. Mr. Duterte, too, has drawn the attention of prosecutors. Accused of ordering the extrajudicial executions of thousands, he is under investigation by the International Criminal Court.

When Mr. Quiboloy went into hiding, Mr. Duterte took over administration of the church’s properties.

The Manhunt

In June, the police in the Philippines failed to serve an arrest warrant for Mr. Quiboloy because they could not find the preacher at his church’s campus in Davao City, where Mr. Duterte had been the mayor for more than 20 years.

They returned on Aug. 24 with reinforcements, and for over two weeks, around 2,000 Filipino police officers searched a sprawling 75-acre compound, known as New Jerusalem to the church’s followers. Security officials believe Mr. Quiboloy was hiding in an underground bunker on the compound.

As the police searched, followers of the Kingdom played reruns of Mr. Quiboloy’s sermons.

The property is home not only to the church headquarters but to a college, a law school, airline and a onetime McDonald’s franchise, later rebranded amid the controversy. The organization is also building a 75,000-seat stadium that, when complete, will be one of the largest churches on the globe. Associates of the Kingdom also own a major media network.

The interior secretary of the Philippines, Benjamin Abalos Jr., announced that Mr. Quiboloy was in custody on Sunday evening. Mr. Quiboloy’s attorneys said the pastor had surrendered voluntarily.

What Happens Next

The future of the church, which stands accused of garnering great wealth on the backs of poor and impoverished followers, and its popular pastor is uncertain.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Mr. Duterte’s successor, said in a statement that Mr. Quiboloy would receive “no special treatment.” But his vice president is the daughter of former president Duterte, and like her father she has expressed support for the preacher.

Whatever the legal outcome in the Philippines, Mr. Quiboloy still faces charges in the United States. Bur Mr. Marcos said the government had yet to receive an American extradition request for the preacher.

And on Monday, he insisted that Mr. Quiboloy must face justice at home before he can be sent abroad.

The White House dismissed on Monday a new House Republican investigative report castigating President Biden’s administration for the chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying that it offers “little or nothing new” and ignores critical facts.

John F. Kirby, a national security spokesman for the president, took the lectern at the White House to issue a lengthy rebuttal to the report that was released earlier in the day. It came more than three years after the event and less than two months before the November election.

Mr. Kirby derided what he called the “one-sided partisan nature of this report” and noted that it was not the only one issued by Republicans. “This comes, of course, two years after their first report, and this one says little or nothing new,” he said.

He pointed out that in pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, Mr. Biden was following a withdrawal agreement negotiated with the Taliban by President Donald J. Trump before leaving office.

“Ending wars is more difficult than starting them,” Mr. Kirby said. “President Biden knew that. He acknowledged that. But it doesn’t mean that the decision to end this one was wrong or that the withdrawal wasn’t conducted as professionally and as bravely as it was humanly possible given the circumstances. It doesn’t mean we don’t grieve and mourn with the families of those whose lives were tragically taken during the withdrawal, especially at Abbey Gate on the 26th of August of that year.”

The report, prepared by Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, accused the Biden team of ignoring security warnings, failing to adequately plan an evacuation and lying to the public about the risks and the missteps that led to the bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members at Abbey Gate outside the airport in Kabul, the Afghan capital. The attack, which also killed as many as 170 civilians, punctuated a hasty and chaotic evacuation as the Taliban advanced, but Pentagon reviews have concluded that U.S. troops could not have prevented the violence.

The House report largely spared Mr. Trump of responsibility even though he sealed the original deal with the Taliban leading to the pullout and wanted to withdraw even more hastily.

The release of the report came as Mr. Trump has been blaming Vice President Kamala Harris, his opponent in the fall election, for “the humiliation in Afghanistan.” His campaign posted videos from some relatives of those killed at Abbey Gate criticizing her. Ms. Harris, for her part, has accused Mr. Trump of politicizing the tragedy, pointing to his photo opportunity at Arlington National Cemetery in defiance of rules barring political events.

Mr. Kirby rejected the report’s criticism, saying that planning for the withdrawal started in the spring of 2021 and that no one had anticipated how quickly the Taliban would take over the country. He noted that Mr. Trump’s agreement resulted in the release of 5,000 Taliban fighters held in Afghan prisons and that U.S. equipment left in the country was given to the Afghan government, not to the Taliban, and wound up in enemy hands only when the government collapsed.

Mr. Kirby added that the administration continues to “look with awe and admiration at the many thousands of men and women who waged this war over the course of 20 years — troops, diplomats, intelligence experts, contractors and civilian employees from this and dozens of other nations.”

He also denied that the administration was not candid with the public. “There was no deception, lying or lack of transparency by this administration, either during or after the withdrawal,” he said. “We did the best we could every day to keep the American people informed of what was happening. We conducted our own after-action reports and shared those, too, with the public.”

At least 59 people were killed in Nigeria on Sunday after a fuel tanker collided with a passenger truck about 80 miles west of the capital, Abuja, emergency officials said.

The accident was the latest traffic-related disaster to highlight how roads in countries across Africa are some of the world’s deadliest.

The victims were burned to death after a passenger truck collided with a fuel tanker that had toppled on its side in Nigeria’s Niger state, according to the police and Abdullahi Baba-Arab, the head of the local emergency agency.

In Nigeria and across West Africa, passengers often travel on the back of large trucks or even on their roofs, with little to no safety measures. Some 50 cattle were also burned alive in the crash, Mr. Baba-Arab said.

Traffic-related fatalities in sub-Saharan Africa accounted for nearly one-fifth of road deaths globally in 2021, even though the region holds only 15 percent of the world’s population and only 3 percent of its vehicles, according to a report from the World Health Organization published this year.

While road deaths increased by 17 percent in sub-Saharan Africa between 2010 and 2021, they decreased by 5 percent globally over the same period, the World Health Organization said — by 2 percent in Southeast Asia to 36 percent in Europe. Sub-Saharan Africa was the only region where road deaths increased.

The accident in Nigeria occurred early on Sunday as the truck carrying passengers was on its way from the country’s north to its largest city in the south, Lagos. The driver of the fuel tanker was driving at full speed when he lost control of the vehicle, which toppled on its side and caught fire, according to a police report reviewed by The New York Times. The passenger truck and two vehicles behind it caught fire after colliding with the toppled fuel tanker, according to the report.

All four vehicles were burned to ashes, read the report.

Mr. Baba-Arab said that rescue efforts were ongoing and that there may be more victims.

Africa is one of the fastest growing markets for used vehicles, but laws around road safety — from pedestrian protections to speed limits and the use of helmets and seatbelts — remain poorly enforced, according to the World Health Organization.

Road-related deaths in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, are below the continent’s average, but accidents caused by fuel tanker explosions are frequent because of loosely implemented safety regulations and poorly maintained roads. In April, more than 100 vehicles were burned after a fuel tanker exploded on a road in southern Nigeria.

More than 5,000 people died and 31,000 others were injured in traffic accidents reported in Nigeria last year, said George Akume, a government official. Mr. Akume launched a mobile app designed to prevent road accidents in Nigeria last week, two days before the fuel tanker collided with the passenger truck.

Ismail Alfa contributed reporting from Maiduguri, Nigeria.

Catherine, the Princess of Wales, announced on Monday that she had completed chemotherapy for her cancer, lifting a cloud from the British royal family after an anguished period in which she and her father-in-law, King Charles III, had both been stricken with serious illness.

Speaking in an emotional three-minute video, Catherine said, “As the summer comes to an end, I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have finally completed my chemotherapy treatment.”

“Doing what I can to stay cancer-free is now my focus,” she continued. “Although I have finished chemotherapy, my path to healing and full recovery is long, and I must continue to take each day as it comes.”

The videotaped announcement was highly personal, offering home-movie-style glimpses of Catherine with her husband, Prince William, and their three children. But it left many questions unanswered: whether her doctors have declared her medically free of cancer, whether she is still undergoing other forms of treatment and her prognosis for a full recovery.

Kensington Palace did not indicate that Catherine was cancer-free. And officials did not offer further details on the princess’s medical condition, citing her right to privacy. It has never confirmed what type of cancer she was being treated for, how far the disease had progressed or the details of her treatment, beyond chemotherapy.

Dr. Claudine Isaacs, an oncologist and professor of medicine at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University, said that, in general, doctors were cautious about declaring a patient free of cancer because there could be microscopic cancerous material that escaped detection.

“Often, we can’t detect any cancer,” Dr. Isaacs said, “but that does not guarantee the person is, or will remain, cancer-free.”

Catherine said she looked forward to returning to work and would undertake a limited schedule of public events for the rest of the year. She is expected to attend a ceremony honoring those killed in war at the Cenotaph monument in November, one of the most somber dates on the royal calendar.

“The last nine months have been incredibly tough for us as a family,” Catherine said. “Life as you know it can change in an instant, and we have had to find a way to navigate the stormy waters and road unknown.”

The announcement, filmed last month by Will Warr, a London videographer who specializes in wedding videos, put the emphasis on recovery and family rather than clinical details. Shot in gauzy light with a mix of soft focus and newsreel-style images, the video showed Catherine playing with her children, resting her head on William’s shoulder and walking through a field of waving grain.

Catherine, 42, spoke in a voice-over about her ordeal, which began after Christmas, when she entered a hospital for abdominal surgery.

“The cancer journey is complex, scary and unpredictable for everyone, especially those closest to you,” Catherine said. “With humility, it also brings you face to face with your own vulnerabilities in a way you have never considered before, and with that, a new perspective on everything.”

Over footage of her son Prince Louis scampering up a pile of logs, the family laughing during a card game around a kitchen table with Catherine’s parents, frolicking on the beach and walking hand in hand through forest and fields, Catherine characterized her illness as having pulled her focus back to the things that matter.

“This time has above all reminded William and me to reflect and be grateful for the simple yet important things in life, which so many of us often take for granted,” Catherine said. “Of simply loving and being loved.”

Charles, who announced in February that he, too, had been diagnosed with cancer, has returned to public duties, though Buckingham Palace has not yet said whether he continues to undergo treatment. His wife, Queen Camilla, offered the closest thing to a health update last week when she said of her husband, during a visit to a cancer center in Bath, “He’s doing very well.”

Catherine’s tentative return to public life began in June when she attended Trooping the Color, a military parade that honors the birthday of the king. She rode in a state carriage to watch the parade with her children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Louis.

Hopes for Catherine’s condition rose when she made a second public appearance in July, on the final day of the Wimbledon tennis tournament. Wearing a royal purple dress, she won an enthusiastic standing ovation from spectators, including the actor Tom Cruise, as she entered the gallery. Later, in her role as the royal patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Catherine presented the Challenge Cup to the men’s singles champion, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain.

Still, Catherine has tried to manage public expectations about her recovery since she spent 14 days in a hospital and announced the cancer diagnosis in March.

“I am making good progress,” she said in a statement issued the day before she took part in the birthday parade, “but as anyone going through chemotherapy will know, there are good days and bad days.”

“On those bad days you feel weak, tired and you have to give in to your body resting,” Catherine added. “But on the good days, when you feel stronger, you want to make the most of feeling well.”

Kensington Palace, where Catherine and William have their offices, has pleaded with the news media to respect her privacy, following weeks of breathless rumors about her condition earlier in the year. There has been relatively little speculation since she announced her diagnosis in a stark, prerecorded video.

As she has at other key phases of her recovery, Catherine has sought to keep tight control over how she discloses information to the public. Mr. Warr, the filmmaker who shot the latest video, also produced a video for the couple on their 10th wedding anniversary. In addition to wedding videos, Mr. Warr works for commercial clients like Puma, Red Bull and Tesco, according to his LinkedIn page.

Palace officials said the video was meant to underscore how the natural world has been a sanctuary for Catherine during her recovery. In her therapeutic language, she sought to make her ordeal a source of hope for others.

“To all those who are continuing their own cancer journey,” she concluded, “I remain with you, side by side, hand in hand. Out of darkness can come light, so let that light shine bright.”

The hearing was meant to decide a prison sentence for a convicted rapist, Peter Nygard, the former Canadian fashion mogul. But for a woman who had been sexually assaulted by Mr. Nygard, being one of his victims had long made her life a prison.

The trauma caused by the attack in the late 1980s, when she was 21, irreparably stunted her life, the woman told a Toronto courtroom during Mr. Nygard’s two-day sentencing hearing that began in July and was postponed until Monday.

It shattered her career as a clothing designer and television presenter, caused debilitating health problems and left lasting psychological wounds, she said. “I live now still in a veil of sadness,” said the woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban. “It breaks my heart to reflect upon the derailment of my entire life.”

After listening to statements from victims and from Mr. Nygard’s defense, a judge sentenced Mr. Nygard to 11 years in prison for sexually assaulting four women, one of whom was a teenager at the time of the attack.

Because of the time he has spent in custody since his arrest, Mr. Nygard has about seven years remaining in his sentence and will be eligible for parole in about two years.

“Peter Nygard is a sexual predator,” said Justice Robert Goldstein of the Superior Court of Ontario, delivering his sentence before a full courtroom. “He is also a Canadian success story gone wrong.”

Mr. Nygard, 83, was brought into court in a wheelchair, an outgrown beard replacing his usually clean-shaven appearance. He wore a large puffer jacket, with a makeshift paper visor fastened to the lip of the hood to shield his light-sensitive eyes.

A jury convicted him in November of four counts of sexual assault, effectively closing the first chapter in the saga of his criminal proceedings in Canada and the United States.

He is also facing trials for sex crimes in Montreal and Winnipeg, followed by extradition to New York, where he has been charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and other crimes. His next trial is scheduled to start in January in Montreal.

Mr. Nygard plans to appeal his Toronto conviction, said Gerri Wiebe, his lawyer, outside the courthouse on Monday.

Prosecutors in the Toronto trial argued that between the 1980s and 2005, Mr. Nygard lured four women, who were 16 to 28 years old at the time, to a bedroom suite during tours of his company’s downtown headquarters. He was acquitted of a sexual assault charge involving a fifth woman.

“This rape has tainted my life in many subversive ways,” said another victim, an actress. She told the court that the attack unraveled her career, mental health and relationships. “I did not live up to my full potential,” she said.

The sentencing was the coda to the staggering downfall of the Finnish-born executive, often touting his rags to riches story as a self-made Canadian immigrant who built a multinational women’s clothing brand, Nygard International, from scratch.

During his rise, he was crowned the “polyester king” in the Canadian media because he popularized a variety of the fabric. But Mr. Nygard developed allergies to the kind of polyester used in his jail linens, his lawyer, Ms. Wiebe, told the court in July.

She submitted 17 reference letters written by former business associates, lawyers, a pastor and girlfriends of Mr. Nygard who vouched for his character and philanthropic work in breast cancer, the disease that afflicted his mother and sister.

Prosecutors argued that Mr. Nygard used his flashy lifestyle and fame to lure women to his headquarters and assault them. He wielded his influence and “manufactured the opportunity to take whatever he wanted from these women,” said Neville Golwalla, a prosecutor.

During the trial, Mr. Nygard testified in his own defense that he largely did not remember the women and that the attacks they accused him of were not compatible with his character or his typical behavior.

He was arrested in Winnipeg in December 2020 and has been in custody for almost four years, contributing to an overall decline in his health, according to his lawyers, who in court filings said that Mr. Nygard had lost 30 pounds, developed insomnia and was bedridden.

Mr. Nygard testified during the trial to being obsessed with health throughout his career and influencing people in his circle to do the same, even offering cash incentives to employees who quit drinking or smoking.

Concerns about his health — and Mr. Nygard’s claim that attending the sentencing in person rather than virtually would kill him — have contributed to slowing his legal proceedings.

Delays were also caused by Mr. Nygard’s twice replacing his legal team, after the lawyers requested to withdraw from the case over ethical concerns.

The reasons behind their requests are protected by client confidentiality rules, though Brian Greenspan, one of Canada’s best known defense lawyers who represented Mr. Nygard in the Toronto trial, told the court that their relationship became adversarial.

Justice Goldstein appeared to lose patience with the sentencing delays. “There will also be no adjournments relating to Mr. Nygard’s health unless he is in a coma,” Justice Goldstein said at a June court appearance. He drew attention to the extra care that court staff have afforded him throughout the trial, including special meals and transportation to court from his infirmary unit bed at a Toronto jail.

“Mr. Nygard received privileges and consideration that no other person that I have ever dealt with has received,” Justice Goldstein said.

Russian forces have captured two villages in eastern Ukraine and are now pressing to encircle Ukrainian soldiers at two locations along the front line, according to an analysis of the battlefield on Monday.

The two villages, Nevelske and Vodiane, were captured by Russian troops on Sunday, according to DeepState, a group of analysts mapping the battlefield. DeepState’s analysis is based on sources in the Ukrainian military and open-source data like satellite imagery and photos and video posted on social media.

Russian forces have been expanding the territory they control around a key objective in the region, the strategic city of Pokrovsk, which has been strengthened in recent days by Ukrainian reinforcements, the analysis shows.

Now, Russia appears to be trying to cut off Ukrainian forces with pincer movements in two areas: to the south of Pokrovsk and in a pocket of Ukrainian-held territory near the town of Vuhledar, another strategically important site.

Control of those areas would allow Russian forces to broaden their lines of approach toward Pokrovsk, a logistics and transit hub that has been a focal point of the war in recent months, experts say.

“They are trying to strengthen their flanks in this way” along the main axis of attack toward Pokrovsk, said Mykhailo Samus, deputy director at the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies in Ukraine, an independent institution. “Their route to Pokrovsk depends on those flanks.”

The Ukrainian military and Russia have not commented on the status of the villages that DeepState reported had been captured on Sunday.

The last significant movement directly toward Pokrovsk came more than a week ago, with the capture of the town of Novohrodivka. The map produced by DeepState shows the town, southeast of Pokrovsk, to be in Russian hands, although the Ukrainian General Staff has yet to confirm its loss.

Russian forces advanced toward Pokrovsk last month and maintained a focus on capturing the city even after Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into the Kursk region of Russia. Battlefield maps from DeepState and the Finland-based Black Bird Group, which tracks developments in the conflict, indicate that the advance into Kursk stalled about a week ago.

The intense fighting that has taken place along the front has coincided with a deadly month for civilians in Ukraine, who have increasingly come under nightly attacks on cities by missiles and drones.

The United Nations reported that August was the second deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians in a year, with at least 184 killed and 856 injured.

Still, morale was lifted across the country by news of the surprise operation in the Kursk region. In that operation, Ukraine took numerous Russian prisoners of war, reportedly achieving parity in the number of prisoners of war held by Russia for the first time since the conflict began. Ukraine has claimed to have taken almost 600 Russian prisoners of war in the offensive, but those numbers have not been independently verified.

Some were swapped in a prisoner exchange last month. Russia and Ukraine exchanged 115 prisoners each in a trade in which the United Arab Emirates acted as an intermediary. Ukraine said that some of the prisoners it released had been captured in the Kursk region.

On Sunday, Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, said in a television interview that Russian prisoners would no longer be allowed to call their relatives back home, though they would be allowed to write to them. Mr. Lubinets said the rule change on phone usage was a response to Russian forces’ executing surrendering Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield.

Ukraine has said that Russia has barred Ukrainian prisoners from contacting their families from captivity.