NATO member countries will contribute to the construction of new air bases where F-35 fighters will be stationed, Yle reported on 4 September.

The NATO Investment Committee will decide the size of each country’s contribution. Defence Properties CEO Matias Warsta expressed hope that the funding will reach over 100 million euros ($116 mn)

“I hope that we reach a three-digit figure, over one hundred million euros,” Warsta said, emphasizing this was his personal assessment.

Finland’s Ministry of Defence declined to provide forecasts on the amount other NATO countries might contribute.

According to Yle’s calculations, the potential 100 million euros ($116 mn) would represent one-fifth of the construction program worth approximately half a billion euros. The plan includes building shelters, maintenance facilities, and storage for new F-35 fighters in Rovaniemi, Siilinjärvi, and Tikkakoski.

NATO approved almost the entire Finnish F-35 infrastructure construction program as eligible for funding earlier this spring. The first F-35 fighters are expected to arrive at the Rovaniemi air base in late 2026, where construction work has already begun.

Finland has ordered 64 new F-35s from Lockheed Martin to replace aging F/A-18 Hornets.

Finland receives NATO co-financing for the first time

NATO provides funding through its investment program when a project is deemed to generate capabilities for the entire defense alliance and exceed national needs. According to Warsta, access to NATO co-financing was not guaranteed when construction began.

“This is an educated expert assessment. But the sum could be larger or smaller,” Warsta said.

Special adviser Arjo Kaarre from the Ministry of Defence noted that determining which aspects of fighter base equipment exceed Finland’s needs is not straightforward.

“It’s a matter of negotiation and partly interpretative,” Kaarre said.

Each NATO country’s payment share is determined in the same proportion as membership fees. Kaarre indicated the first funding decisions will likely be made next year.

Finland has not previously received NATO co-financing for its construction projects.

Manufacturer sets new requirements mid-construction

The first F-35 fighters will arrive at the Lapland Squadron in Rovaniemi in late 2026. Construction work continues at the site.

Cost estimates for the Rovaniemi base have increased from 150 million to 200 million euros (from $174 mn to $232 mn), though Warsta said they remain within agreed frameworks.

“In addition to rising construction costs, the equipment manufacturer (Lockheed Martin) has also set additional requirements for the work,” Warsta explained.

Both Lockheed Martin and the US administration have imposed strict security requirements and regularly inspect compliance.

Construction at Rovaniemi includes underground spaces for fighters and information systems, a 3,000 square meter storage facility for spare parts, maintenance facilities, and training facilities with simulators.

The airfield will see increased use as training activities with NATO allies intensify. In real situations, allied fighters could also rely on Finnish bases.

Warsaw acknowledged that two drones entered Polish airspace overnight on 2–3 September but were not intercepted or shot down, Reuters reported on 4 September. Polish military officials say the aerial objects posed no threat and exited the country without causing damage, even as Russia launched a major drone and missile assault across Ukraine the same night.

This occurred during Moscow’s daily air attack on Ukraine, as Russia launched more than 500 drones and dozens of missiles on Ukraine overnight. According to the reports, 14 locations across the country were hit, including critical energy and transport infrastructure. Four Ukrainian railway workers were injured in the attacks.

Poland confirms airspace violations but takes no action

According to Reuters, General Maciej Klisz, Operational Commander of the Polish Armed Forces, confirmed at a news conference that “we had two airspace violations.” He claimed that “these two violations were under the full control of national forces and units assigned to the state defense system.”

General Wiesław Kukula, Chief of the General Staff, stated that the drones “left Polish airspace without causing any damage,” which means that Poland once again allowed the Russian drones to use its airspace than safely return to Ukraine to attack residential areas. 

The Polish army did not disclose the drones’ point of entry or flight path, and no effort was made to shoot them down.

The incursion occurred overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday — 2 and 3 September — triggering a National Security Council meeting in Warsaw.

Military stays silent as drones cross NATO border

The lack of any military response highlights Poland’s continued restraint, even after repeated airspace violations. Poland, a NATO member state and a vocal supporter of Ukraine in its defense against Russia, has yet to shoot down any drones entering its territory since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.

The army has remained on high alert since a stray Ukrainian missile struck a village in southern Poland in 2022, killing two people. Yet, despite increased vigilance, no interception measures were taken during this latest event.

In August, a drone crashed into a cornfield in eastern Poland. A prosecutor later said the drone likely entered Polish territory from the direction of Belarus, a close Russian ally. Ukrainian sources noted that the drone remained 2.5 hours in the Polish airspace and was never intercepted.

Airspace monitoring channels reported the incursion during the assault

Warnings about drones heading toward Poland were posted on 3 September by several Ukraine-linked Telegram channels tied to air defense monitoring.

At 3:36 a.m., Ukrainian Telegram channel Nikolaevsky Vanyok, affiliated with air defense forces, wrote:

“1 [Shahed drone is] south of Sambir, course to Poland.”

Almost simultaneously, at 3:35 a.m., the airspace monitoring Telegram channel Zakhid Holovne reported:

“ One more Shahed toward Kolomyia and one drone through Sambir to Poland.”

Four minutes later, at 3:39 a.m., the same channel posted in Polish:

“ 03:39 Air alert in the Republic of Poland.”

The employment gap between men and women in the Czech Republic has narrowed to a record low, with experts attributing the shift primarily to Ukrainian refugee women entering the workforce, Novinky reported on 4 September.

Czech Statistical Office data shows that as of June 2025, employment among men stood at 80.2%, while women’s employment reached 71.2% – a difference of nine percentage points.

This marks a dramatic change from July 2023, when women’s employment was 68.2% compared to men’s 81.5%, representing a gap of over 13 percentage points.

“We are seeing things that have never happened historically,” Dalibor Holý, director of the labor market statistics and equal opportunities department at the Czech Statistical Office, told Novinky.

The statistics reveal the scale of Ukrainian women’s integration into the Czech labor market. In June 2025, nearly 166,000 refugees were legally employed in the country, with 101,000 of them women. According to Jakub Augusta, spokesman for the Czech Ministry of Labor, “this is the highest number since the beginning of the war.”

Holý explained that Ukrainian refugee women “have a very high employment rate, which contributes to the growth of women’s employment.”

Beyond refugee integration, experts point to broader economic factors driving the employment shift. The rising cost of living has pushed more women into the workforce, while traditional male-dominated industries have shed jobs. Manufacturing, historically employing more men, has contracted, while the service sector – where women are more represented – has remained stable.

The employment pattern also reflects changes in work arrangements. Experts suggest that support for part-time employment, which women use more frequently than men, has contributed to the narrowing gap.

The Czech Republic has taken other steps toward gender equality in recent months. The country recently allowed women to use the masculine form of their surnames in official documents.

However, Czech intelligence services have warned of potential challenges ahead. They cautioned about a scenario where thousands of Ukrainian war veterans might travel to the Czech Republic to reunite with their families after the war ends, though the implications for the labor market remain unclear.

The employment figures represent a significant shift in Czech demographics and labor patterns, with Ukrainian refugee women emerging as a key factor in reshaping the country’s workforce composition.

Leaders from more than 30 countries gathered on Thursday in a hybrid session of the Coalition of the Willing to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine.

Twenty-six countries pledged support for a peacekeeping force in the event of a ceasefire in Ukraine. They also committed to bolstering Ukraine’s long-term security, strengthening its military, and coordinating international efforts to deter further Russian aggression. 

“We have today 26 countries who have formally committed […] to deploy as a ‘reassurance force’ troops in Ukraine, or be present on the ground, in the sea, or in the air,” French president Emmanuel Macron told reporters after the summit.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said following the meeting that “a strong Ukrainian army is and will remain the central element of security guarantees.” 

Representatives from Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand took part in the session. 

The talks covered support across land, sea, air, and cyberspace, as well as the mechanisms needed to coordinate these contributions effectively. 

Zelenskyy highlighted the role of financial assistance, weapons supplies, and domestic production as essential components of Ukraine’s defense. 

He confirmed that new sanctions are being planned, including secondary measures and special trade tariffs, to further pressure Russia and its economy.

Zelenskyy said that the Coalition shares the view that Russia is “doing everything possible to drag out the negotiation process and continue the war.”

The Coalition of the Willing, formed in 2023, brings together countries committed to providing Ukraine with security and defense support beyond standard NATO and EU frameworks. 

The group coordinates financial aid, military equipment, training, and strategic planning to strengthen Ukraine’s resilience and capacity to respond to Russian aggression.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Thursday that members of the “Coalition of the Willing” have pledged to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles, as part of efforts to strengthen Kyiv’s defense capabilities.

The delivery of long-range missiles will enable strikes on military targets deeper inside Russian and Russian-held territory supporting both defensive and counteroffensive operations.

Ukraine has long requested additional long-range weaponry, but Western partners have been cautious due to concerns about escalating the conflict. Such weapons allow Ukraine to effectively disrupt supply lines that sustain Moscow’s war effort far from the front lines.

Speaking to a virtual session of the Coalition of the Willing from Glasgow, the Prime Minister said that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not be trusted, citing ongoing attacks on Ukraine and delays in peace talks.

The Prime Minister also thanked military planners and chiefs of defense of Coalition countries for their work to ensure forces could be deployed if a ceasefire is reached. 

He described the coalition’s support for Ukraine as “unbreakable” and that they had US President Trump’s backing. 

He added that they now need “to go even further to apply pressure on Putin to secure a cessation of hostilities.”

Russian forces on Thursday targeted a humanitarian mission from the Danish Refugee Council. The team was clearing mines near Novoselivka in Ukraine’s Chernihiv Oblast.

The strike killed 2 humanitarian workers and injured 5.

“This is yet another cynical crime. Attacking people carrying out humanitarian work means deliberately putting humanitarian efforts at risk,” said Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights.

The missile strike hit the team as they worked near a checkpoint outside the village, as reported by Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, the head of the Chernihiv City Military Administration.

The victims were employees of a Danish demining team carrying out humanitarian work to make the area safe for civilians.

Chernihiv Oblast lies on Ukraine’s northern border with Russia and Belarus, making it a frequent target for cross-border shelling and strikes.

Russian forces have repeatedly attacked humanitarian missions across Ukraine. These strikes target the people trying to restore normal life in liberated regions, where explosive remnants of past Russian occupation remain a major danger to residents.

Ukraine’s allies met in Paris to discuss security guarantees, but doubts grew as US commitments remained unclear. Reuters reports the summit brought together 30 leaders seeking to reassure Kyiv while peace talks with Russia look increasingly remote.

Coalition meets Zelenskyy in Paris

On 4 September 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined about 30 Western leaders in Paris for talks on security guarantees. The “coalition of the willing” includes European states, Canada, Japan, and Australia. Some leaders attended in person, while others joined by video-link.

The summit aimed to define military support for Ukraine in the event of a truce with Russia. But months of discussion have produced no clarity, as governments argue that European commitments need a US backstop.

Explore further

FT: Europe splits into three camps over postwar Ukraine troop commitments

Trump envoy arrives in Paris

Reuters noted that US President Donald Trump has yet to make any explicit pledge. His envoy Steve Witkoff met senior European officials in Paris hours before the meeting, according to diplomats. French President Emmanuel Macron said on 3 September alongside Zelenskyy that coalition leaders would endorse security plans drawn up by their militaries. Macron said Ukraine’s allies have finalized and are ready to politically approve military security guarantees to support Kyiv once a peace deal is reached, according to dpa.

Two European officials confirmed to Reuters the technical plans were finished, though they gave no details.

British and French army chiefs briefed the leaders during the talks. Macron told reporters, “We are ready, us Europeans, to provide security guarantees to Ukraine for when there is a signed peace,” while stressing that sincerity from Russia remains in question.

Sending signals to Washington

European officials said the goal was to send a political signal to Trump. Leaders hoped to highlight the absence of progress toward peace talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy since Trump hosted Putin in August.

Trump, after hosting Putin, accused him of conspiring with China and North Korea. On 3 September, he denounced the three leaders’ show of unity in Beijing during a commemoration of the end of World War Two.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on 3 September he expected clarity soon from the coalition on what could be delivered, and that this would pave the way for deeper discussions with Washington.

Western officials said the central element of guarantees would be continued support for Ukraine’s armed forces. Proposals also included deploying an international force in Ukraine or nearby countries to reassure Kyiv, despite Russia’s opposition to foreign troops.

European leaders insisted such a force could only happen with US backing. Trump has spoken in broad terms about supporting Ukraine but has not specified what Washington would contribute, Reuters says. The French presidency said some leaders would call Trump after the summit.

Ukrainian farmers watched their southern fields turn to dust this summer. A late and cold spring combined with the worst drought in decades slashed grain production by 11% and threatened the country with $1 billion in lost export revenue.

The harvest crisis reveals how bad weather, combined with destroyed irrigation systems in the central and eastern regions and war raising fertilizer prices, is a recipe for a perfect storm.

When the water stopped flowing

Kherson Oblast tells the story in stark numbers. The region lost its entire 55,000-hectare winter crop—fields that once produced 8-10 tons per hectare now struggle to reach 1-2 tons in the parched earth left behind after Russia blew up the Kakhovka dam in 2023.

“If these regions had irrigation, we could have avoided the losses. They could have produced 3-4 million tons of grain and oilseeds,” Deputy Minister of Economy Taras Vysotskyi said, commenting about the agricultural wasteland that was once Ukraine’s grain powerhouse.

The destruction rippled across southern Ukraine. Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv oblasts watched yields crash 30-50% as irrigation systems dried up and farmers calculated whether it was worth planting crops that might never grow.

The great shift north

The ongoing war is redrawing Ukraine’s farming map in real time.

Northern and western regions stepped up to fill the gap, achieving record yields: Lviv Oblast: 6.64 tons per hectare; Khmelnytskyi Oblast: 6.47 tons per hectare; Chernivtsi Oblast: 6.40 tons per hectare.

But geography can’t replace infrastructure.

Acting First Vice President of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences Ihor Hrynyk explained that due to rising resource prices, farmers are forced to reduce the amount of fertilizers applied, not provide adequate plant protection, cut back on agrotechnical measures, and abandon irrigation.

The billion-dollar squeeze

The World Bank predicts global grain prices will fall 11% later in 2025, creating a potential double squeeze that could cost Ukraine $900 million to $1 billion in export revenue.

For now, Deputy Economy Minister Vysotskyi notes prices “for the farmer remain high, really good,” but this may not last as global markets adjust to oversupply elsewhere.

Ukrainian consumers brace for higher food costs

The production drop threatens to increase domestic food prices just as Ukrainian families struggle with wartime inflation. Bread prices typically rise when wheat harvests fall, and an 11% grain reduction could force Ukraine to import more expensive grain or ration domestic supplies to maintain export revenues.

Corn to the rescue—maybe

However, corn’s resilience means the overall grain harvest may shrink by only 3-7% instead of the feared double-digit decline.

Russia profits from Ukraine’s agricultural struggles

Ukraine’s reduced grain exports create opportunities that Russia has quickly exploited.

The timing benefits Russia’s broader strategy of using food as leverage. Russia previously withdrew from the Black Sea grain deal that allowed safe passage for Ukrainian exports, and has repeatedly targeted Ukrainian agricultural infrastructure throughout the war.

For Ukrainian farmers counting their losses, the drought represents not just a natural disaster but another blow to the country’s ability to fund its defense through agricultural exports—revenue Moscow would prefer to capture for itself.

Ukraine destroyed another Russian S-300V system in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, along with its radar, in a drone strike on 3 September, media reports said. The attack marks another major blow against Russia’s air defenses in Ukraine’s occupied south.

Ukrainian drones strike in Polohy district

Militarnyi reports that the strike was carried out in the morning near the village of Oleksiivka in Polohy district by the Lasar’s Group unit of the National Guard. Video published by Telegram channel Butusov Plus shows drone operators identifying the Russian system before hitting it on a roadway. Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of Occupation, also released images of the destroyed launcher.

Radar supporting Buk systems eliminated

The destroyed radar was the 9S36 station, which forms part of Russia’s modern middle-range Buk-M2 and Buk-M3 air defense systems. The station uses a mast that can extend to 22 meters, giving it the ability to detect low-flying targets even in forested or uneven terrain. It guides missiles through its antenna post, which can rise to 21 meters.

According to the manufacturer’s data, the radar can track and engage up to four air targets at once, adjusting for terrain obstacles up to 20 meters high.

Recent Ukrainian strikes on Russian air defenses

On 27 August, Ukraine struck a Russian S-300 division and aircraft at Baltimor airbase. That attack destroyed a 76N6 radar responsible for detecting targets at medium and high altitudes, as well as a 30N6 radar used for illumination and guidance.

Another S-300 system was destroyed earlier on 20 August by fighters of Lasar’s group on Russian-occupied territory in Zaporizhzhia oblast. Together with the latest strike, these operations highlight a sustained Ukrainian campaign targeting Russian air defense assets.

As European leaders prepare for a summit on 4 September in Paris, their approaches to security guarantees for postwar Ukraine remain divided into three distinct groups, the Financial Times reports. While a small group of countries, including the UK, are ready to deploy troops, Italy has ruled out participation entirely, and a larger group—among them Germany—have yet to make any firm commitments.

Europe split into three camps on postwar Ukraine

The planned multinational force for Ukraine is at the center of ongoing negotiations over long-term security guarantees. The initiative is being pushed by France and the UK, with the US offering limited but targeted support. According to FT, European capitals are under increasing pressure to clarify what each country is willing to contribute.

French President Emmanuel Macron will host the summit, with some leaders joining in person and others remotely. The talks follow a preparatory meeting on 3 September involving defense officials. UK Defense Secretary John Healey co-chaired the call, where he stated that Britain was “reviewing readiness levels of UK Armed Forces and accelerating funding to be ready for any deployment to Ukraine,” according to the UK Ministry of Defense.

An official from the Élysée Palace told FT that technical preparations for the coalition’s contribution had been completed by those countries “willing and able” to offer security guarantees. “Today we have enough contributions to be able to tell the Americans that we are ready to assume our responsibilities, provided that they assume theirs,” the official said.

US President Donald Trump has told European leaders that Washington would offer intelligence, command and control systems, and help in establishing an air defense shield, but insisted that the European side must lead the effort.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on 3 September that he expected “concrete proposals” to be delivered either that day or soon after. He added that further steps would include intensified coordination with the US regarding its participation in the broader effort.

Germany’s position remains unclear. Officials in Berlin reportedly reacted negatively to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s comments to FT that member states were working on “pretty precise plans” for potential deployments to Ukraine, including a “clear road map.”

In the early hours of 4 September 2025, Ukrainian Defense Forces reportedly struck two radar installations in southern Russia’s Rostov Oblast. Militarnyi reports that the targets were the “Navigation of the South” radar complex (RLS-1) and a site located at a former air defense base.

Ukrainian strike hits Rostov aviation radar

The RLS-1 “Navigation of the South” is part of the Aeronavigation South branch infrastructure in Rostov-on-Don. It performs key functions in air traffic management over southern Russia, including aircraft detection and tracking, route coordination, flight support, aviation radio communication, and fixed satellite links. The complex is part of Russia’s centralized air traffic control system.

Ukrainian Telegram channel Krymskyi Veter reported that a fire broke out at the site on 4 September, as shown by NASA’s FIRMS map that features detected thermal signatures at the location. 

Strike also hits former air defense base

NASA data also show that the second site was on the grounds of a former air defense unit (military unit 65312) and military town that previously hosted the 1244th anti-aircraft missile regiment, which had been equipped with S-300PS surface-to-air missile systems in the 1990s. In 1997, the unit was merged with the 584th regiment and moved to Maryino in Moscow Oblast.

Militarnyi notes that Russia likely decided to restore the site for use in the war. A radar complex similar to RLS-1, believed to perform similar tasks, is located at the site. 

August radar strike in occupied Crimea

On 12 August, Ukrainian Special Operations Forces destroyed the Skala-M radar station in Russian-occupied Crimea. The station was used for air traffic control along routes and approach zones, with a range of up to 350 kilometers. Images published by Dnipro Osint showed the station before and after the strike.

Sweden has signaled that Ukraine’s dream of acquiring its most advanced fighter jets, the Gripen E, will have to wait until after Russia’s war ends. At the same time, Stockholm is showing more openness to discussing the donation of older Gripen C/D models sooner, despite earlier hesitation from NATO allies.

Sweden links advanced Gripens to post-war future

At MSPO 2025, Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson told Breaking Defense that Kyiv had expressed interest in the Gripen system, particularly the new Gripen E operated by Sweden and Brazil. He described a possible sale of the advanced version as “a long-term endeavor” that could help build “a common air force capability” after the war. But Jonson stressed that any deal “depends” on the war’s conclusion and must be tied to long-term development.

Western nations have pledged to help rebuild Ukraine’s Air Force once Russia’s invasion is over, though it remains unclear which mix of aircraft will be provided. Jonson pointed to Sweden’s experience in developing joint air power with countries like the Czech Republic, Hungary, Thailand, and Brazil as a model for what could happen with Ukraine in the future.

Kyiv still seeks Gripen C/D aircraft

Ukraine has long sought deliveries of older Gripen C/D fighters to boost its ability to resist Russia, but Stockholm held back. NATO allies asked Sweden not to move ahead so Kyiv could first focus on mastering F-16 jets and avoid overwhelming its pilots with different aircraft types.

Some French Mirage jets have already been delivered to Ukraine, while Sweden last year approved a donation of Gripen spare parts valued at $214 million. Jonson said Sweden remains “open to discuss” gifting older Gripen C/D aircraft and confirmed he raised the issue with his Ukrainian counterpart during a recent visit to Kyiv.

Saab pushes Gripen E as best option

Saab executives have repeatedly argued that the Gripen E would be the best fit for Ukraine. Saab CEO Micael Johansson told Breaking Defense in February that the aircraft should be supplied “over time,” though he admitted “it’s purely a political decision” to begin with the C/D variant. On 2 September, Saab head of media relations Mattias Rådström said the company would “fully support Sweden in such an endeavor” and called the Gripen E the most suitable fighter for Ukraine’s defense needs.

The Ukrainian army’s 425th Assault Regiment is about to deploy ex-Australian M-1 Abrams tanks, making it only the second Ukrainian unit to do so. But even after the 69-ton M-1s arrive, the regiment’s most important assets may be the creativity, courage and sheer aggression of its infantry.

Consider the 425th Assault Regiment trooper who recently posed as Russian, fell in with two Russian soldiers—and then gunned them down from a few feet away. One of the regiment’s drones observed the cold-blooded ambush from overhead.

Russian and Ukrainian infantry often wear similar uniforms—and identify themselves with colored armbands. Further complicating the identity crisis, Russian sabotage groups have been known to dress in captured or copied Ukrainian uniforms when they infiltrate Ukrainian lines.

In any event, the victims mistook that 425th Assault Regiment Trooper for an ally. The Ukrainian trooper may have encouraged this misconception by speaking the right language. Most Russians speak Russian, of course—but then, so do many Ukrainians.

Recall that, in May 2024, a squad from the Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade captured a Russian radio during a bitter skirmish over a Russian-held gully somewhere north of Kharkiv. “We will now try to fuck them over,” the Ukrainian infantry leader said in the official video depicting the fight. “Who is a Russian-speaker?”

A Russian-speaking Ukrainian soldier hopped on the captured radio. “We’re 1st Company,” he transmitted—part of the same battalion as the Russians in the gully. The Russians shifted their fire to avoid hitting their “allies.”

“Let’s go,” the 3rd Assault Brigade infantry leader ordered. “Yell in Russian!” By the time the Russians realized the soldiers approaching them weren’t actually fellows Russians, it was too late. They were all but surrounded.

Blending in

There are entire regiments and brigades in the Russian order of battle that are manned by Ukrainians from occupied oblasts—Ukrainians who are likelier to speak Russian. One of these units, the 132nd Motor Rifle Brigade, was at the vanguard of the Russian 51st Combined Arms Army’s effort to extend a salient northeast of the fortress city of Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, last month.

These Ukrainians fighting for Russia “would better understand the area and potentially blend in,” noted Rob Lee, an analyst with the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. But that local knowledge didn’t save them when, early last month, the Ukrainian 1st Azov Corps and other units—including the 425th Assault Regiment—counterattacked.

A month later, the salient and the 132nd Motor Rifle Brigade have both been mostly eliminated. Now the 425th Assault Regiment is pushing back Russian forces around Myrnohrad, just east of Pokrovsk. Surprisingly, the one-man ambush may have taken place in Boykovka, 15 km north of Myrnohrad in a zone many observers assume is largely under Russian control.

The circumstances are hazy. Was the ambusher a member of Ukrainian sabotage group infiltrating Russian lines the way Ukrainians routinely infiltrate Ukrainian lines?

The increasing porousness of the front makes deadly cases of misidentification more likely. “There isn’t a coherent front line,” American analyst Andrew Perpetua explained. Instead, there’s a wide no-man’s land between areas of clear Russian and Ukrainian control. That no-man’s-land is largely depopulated except for scattered—and carefully concealed—underground fighting positions for a few harried infantry doing their best to hide from the ever-present drones.

It’s that porousness that allowed the ill-fated 132nd Motor Rifle Brigade march right past undermanned Ukrainian trenches and extend their brief-lived salient northeast of Pokrovsk last month. The same lack of contiguous defenses may explain why a very dangerous Ukrainian and his supporting drone were wandering around Boykovka looking for gullible Russians to kill.

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When a building is full of Russians, send in an FPV drone first!

Exclusives

When a building is full of Russians, send in an FPV drone first!. One Ukrainian regiment is attaching explosive drones to its infantry squads—to help clear Russians from buildings.

How Ukraine went from power blackouts to selling electricity to Europe in record numbers. Canadian engineers explore billion-dollar projects as Ukraine transforms from energy victim to electricity supplier.

Russian marines rushed to save the Pokrovsk offensive—HIMARS had other ideas. Russian reinforcements rolling toward Pokrovsk made a fatal mistake. They traveled in armored vehicles—and within range of Ukraine’s HIMARS.

Military

Ukrainian deep drone strike inside Russia hits railway station, delays 26 trains for hours. The attack on Kuteynikovo station in Rostov Oblast damaged electrical infrastructure and left an unexploded ordnance on the building roof, forcing the evacuation of all passengers and staff.

Intelligence and technology

New Ukrainian KABs can glide 60 km, but expert says: “We need 100 every day”. Narozhny believes mass adoption would finally let Kyiv strike back at scale.

Ukraine establishes missile plant in Denmark near F-35 base for 3,000-km strikes

. European NATO allies accelerate weapons manufacturing partnerships with Ukraine as diminishing US support forces unprecedented defense industrial cooperation across the continent.

International

Chinese companies export, Russia kills, while trade between countries hits record €246 billion. Unlike North Korea, Beijing keeps its hands clean, letting companies feed the war machine through dual-use goods.

Shanghai summit shows old world order is dead, says Ukrainian volunteer. Berlinska claims that the axis of dictators demonstrates their power openly, indifferent to sanctions or global protests.

Putin discusses 150-year lifespan with Xi as as his Ukraine war costs one million Russian casualties. Due to biotechnology, human organs can be transplanted continuously, Putin says.

Putin thanks Kim for North Korean troops fighting against “neo-Nazism” in Ukraine

. This is the first time Putin has publicly thanked a foreign leader for soldiers’ deaths in Ukraine,

German chancellor says Putin has no reason to seek peace with Ukraine now. Merz calls for economic warfare as peace talks stall. Friedrich Merz said that Russia’s president sees advantage in continued fighting, pointing to territorial gains and international divisions as factors driving Moscow’s refusal to engage in meaningful dialogue.

“No one was plotting anything,” Russia responds to Trump. He wrote that Russia, China and North Korea conspire against US at Beijing parade. Russian presidential assistant Yuri Ushakov acknowledged irony in Trump’s Truth Social post as Putin, Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping gathered in Beijing for the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender.

Humanitarian and social impact

No sleep in Ukraine for civilians as air raid alert lasts for 13 hours and 500+ weapons fly from Russia. Russian drones and missiles reached cities in western Ukraine close to the Poland’s border that many residents considered relatively safe from continuous Russian terror of civilians.

Political and legal developments

Creaking wheels: Russian railway cargo plunges for third quarter as war costs mount. Transport data exposes industrial collapse across Russia’s most strategic sectors.

Read our earlier daily review here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected the concept of territorial concessions to Russia, arguing that such exchanges would not guarantee lasting peace.

According to Zelenskyy during a joint press conference with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Russian President Vladimir Putin would require years and millions of soldiers to fully occupy Donetsk Oblast. Despite Russia currently controlling approximately 75-79% of the oblast, Ukrainian forces continue inflicting heavy casualties on advancing troops while defending remaining territory.

The Ukrainian leader pointed to Putin’s limited territorial gains over four years of the full-scale war, noting that Russia has failed to capture the remaining approximate 30% of the region despite losing over 100,000 military personnel there.

“For four years he has not been able to occupy even 30% of one region. If he goes further, he will need years, but the question is not only about time, but also that he will have to sacrifice millions of soldiers,” Zelenskyy stated.

Donetsk has become Ukraine’s defensive stronghold. Russian forces throw waves of soldiers against fortified Ukrainian positions, suffering massive casualties for minimal territorial gains. The region’s strategic value extends beyond military considerations—it represents Ukrainian identity and constitutional integrity, Zelenskyy argued.

The president emphasized what territorial concessions would mean for ordinary Ukrainians. Displaced residents want to return to their homes despite current circumstances making this unrealistic.

“For someone this is just territory, but for us it is our life, our history, our Constitution,” he said.

Zelenskyy dismissed territorial exchange proposals as lacking substance, citing trust issues with Putin. “If someone supports this crazy idea, then who can guarantee that Putin will not continue [the war]? No one can give guarantees,” he said.

On 2 September, Ukrainian forces have liberated the village of Udachne in Donetsk Oblast after two weeks of house-to-house fighting. The village sits 10 km west of the strategic town of Pokrovsk, where Ukrainian troops repelled 46 Russian assault attempts across multiple settlements in the area.

Explore further

Ukrainian soldier first fought against Russia and then against Ukraine – his story reveals forced conscription in occupation

Tiny first-person-view drones are everywhere all the time over the 1,100-km front line of Russia’s 43-month wider war on Ukraine. But most of them are surveillance and attack assets. They scan for targets over or near the front line—and then zoom in and explode.

Now at least one Ukrainian unit is finding a new use for the ubiquitous FPVs. The 225th Assault Regiment, holding the line outside Vorone in southern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast with its M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles, has begun attaching FPVs to infantry squads to help the squads clear buildings of Russian troops.

“Clearing buildings is deadly—an enemy can be in every corner,” the regiment explained. When the infantry must enter a structure, they can send an FPV “to scout ahead.” “If the enemy is found,” the regiment explained, “the drone strikes, keeping our infantry safe.”

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Ukraine’s M-2 Bradleys engage Russian infantry at point-blank range

It’s delicate work requiring extreme precision on the part of the distant drone operator, who wears a virtual-reality headset to see what the warhead-clutching FPV sees. An FPV explodes on contact with any surface, so an imprecise maneuver can endanger the drone’s human squadmates.

To guarantee an uninterrupted signal between the operator and their drone, the 225th Assault Regiment uses fiber-optic FPVs for clearance missions. Fiber-optic drones send and receive signals via kilometers-long optical fibers, making them impervious to radio jamming and the signal dead zones created by buildings or hills.

Drones as suppressive fire

The Ukrainians aren’t the only ones innovating with their smallest drones. The Russians have new ideas, too. FPVs are so dangerous—and so terrifying—that soldiers tend to duck into their trenches as soon as they hear the drones’ distinctive buzzing. For that reason, some Russian regiments use the drones as suppressive fire.

Suppressive fire is an infantry tactic that’s as old as gunpowder. Basically, it means shooting at the enemy with something—rifles, machine guns, mortars or artillery—with enough intensity to drive the enemy underground for as long as it takes friendly forces to “breach” the enemy’s defenses … and advance.

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Drones can suppress the enemy without even striking. “Soldiers begin to hide from the sound of UAVs alone and do not leave cover for a long time,” Russian blogger Unfair Advantage wrote.

“If the enemy is accustomed to being afraid of drones, then a UAV ‘carousel’—that is, the successive replacement of one strike UAV with another, can lead to the effect of suppressing positions, despite significant time intervals between strikes,” Unfair Advantage explained.

Infantry should begin their movement to contact with the enemy during an initial wave of drone attacks. “After the strikes are completed, the infantry takes cover and waits for the next wave of UAVs to arrive—or continues to move, but out of the line of sight of the defenders,” the blogger wrote. “This is repeated several times until the infantry reaches the immediate vicinity of the attacked position.”

There, the attackers wait for more drones before making their final push through the enemy positions. Drones should be overhead the whole time during the breach—”a mixed carousel of observation UAVs and attack UAVs,” Unfair Advantage advised.

To prolong the endurance of any turn of the UAV carousel, the operators can land some drones on the ground or on rooftops, idling their engines but keeping their cameras on—thus preserving the robots’ batteries. As long as at least one drone is audible by the defending infantry, the infantry should keep their heads down. They should, in other words, remain suppressed.

The respective new drone tactics belie deepening manpower problems on both sides of the wider war. More and more, both the Ukrainian and Russian armed forces are counting on robots to perform tasks most militaries still assign to human beings.

Ukraine’s manpower shortage is well-known. It’s possible Ukrainian brigades are short 100,000 trained infantry. But Russia has too few troops, too—despite generous bonuses and deceptive recruiting practices that lure or trap tens of thousands of fresh enlistees every month. Overall, Russian regiments probably have plenty of soldiers. But like Ukrainian brigades, they may specifically lack trained and experienced infantry.

Why risk them on a mission that a robot with a skilled operator can handle?

Analysts at Defense Express have spotted a MiG-29 fighter jet armed with a domestic analogue of the Russian UMPK kit, a guided bomb, or a so-called KAB. This indicates the start of wider adaptation of this weapon on a more mass-produced aircraft.

The UMPK kit turns a standard unguided bomb into a precision-guided munition with an extended range.

“At least 100 per day are needed” 

“The enemy drops 120–150 aerial bombs daily. We, at best, have up to 10 per day. And we need to reach at least 100 per day. Once we finally get enough aerial bombs, the situation at the front can change drastically,” revealed military expert Pavlo Narozhny on Radio NV. 

He emphasized that the Ukrainian development does not compete with the French high-precision HAMMERs, which are much more advanced and have a range of over 200 km. Instead, the Ukrainian KABs can be compared to American JDAMs or GBUs, which glide under the influence of gravity.

Cheap, mass-produced, and with great potential

According to Narozhny, the cost of one Ukrainian KAB could be $25,000. An American JDAM costs around $20,000–22,000.

“We have huge stockpiles of these aerial bombs – high-explosive, cluster, various types. We can use them in massive quantities,” the expert explained.

He also noted that installing a jet engine is a completely realistic next step. This would make the Ukrainian munition technologically closer to Western models and provide additional range.

Chinese companies directly supplied at least €55 million worth of parts and materials to sanctioned Russian firms in 2023–2024. During this period, Moscow was actively building a large-scale logistics infrastructure for its drone program, The Telegraph reports.

Almost a quarter of the supplies, worth €12.5 million, went to companies involved in producing Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones in a Russian special economic zone in the city of Alabuga.

Among the goods exported from China were: aircraft engines, microchips, metal alloys, fiberglass, optics, and carbon fibers – all critical components for drone production.

Chinese neutrality only in words

Beijing publicly claims neutrality in the war, but the supply of drone parts reveals deep military cooperation with Moscow. On the battlefield, this is confirmed by the fact that Ukrainian troops regularly find Chinese components in downed Russian equipment.

“One has a very important interest in the survival of the other; this is not going to change. It’s a simple, geographic fact,” said Andrea Ghiselli, an expert on China’s foreign policy.

At the same time, unlike North Korea, China avoids direct participation in the war. Instead, it allows its companies to export dual-use goods. This has led to record trade volumes between the two countries – €246 billion in 2024.

Russia increases drone production

In just three months of 2023, the Chinese company Ningbo Peak Cloud Import and Export supplied Russia with aircraft engines worth €3.5 million for the Ural Civil Aviation Plant, which is under sanctions.

In total, The Telegraph identified 97 Chinese suppliers. At least five Russian firms, including the Ural Civil Aviation Plant, PT Electronic, and Radioline, directly use Chinese components in drone production.

As a result, in just the first half of 2024, Russia produced more than 2,000 “Harpy” drones, almost matching the total output of the entire previous year.

The company Mile Hao Xiang Technology also supplied engines for the “Gerbera” drone worth more than €1.5 million in 2022–2023, including through intermediaries. The main importers were Russian companies Sequoia JSC and Unikom LLC.

The real volume of supplies may be much higher than official statistics show.

The world has changed forever. Maria Berlinska, a Ukrainian military volunteer, says that the joint parade in China, attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, marks a “starting point for a new world order.”

Soldiers, sanctions, and the Western response

“If before they did this anyway but at least they were afraid to say it so openly, the main lesson now is—they are no longer afraid,” she says.

The axis of authoritarian dictators now tells the world, especially the West: the previous order is over, “now we are in charge.”

These leaders show that their soldiers can die “by the hundreds of thousands,” still swearing oaths to their rulers.

“Meanwhile, Western voters will only scream and protest when the first coffins arrive,” adds Berlinska.

Sanctions against world leaders also cannot stop these countries, because they have enough combined domestic economic power.

“So prepare your ‘pampered democratic asses to be removed from the seat’ of global governance. ‘We are already here, and we are coming for you,’ they are showing,” she emphasizes.

The world is now divided into “before and after,” Berlinska says.

Ukraine on the frontier of a new war

“The only pain I feel is that my country, my people, are on the frontier of the sleepy-bureaucratic Western civilization. And the battles in this war are only beginning,” the Ukrainian volunteer adds.

Earlier, the head of Ukrainian intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, also spoke about the new world order. He said that it was “not perfect, not as powerful as many believed, but it existed until 2014.” According to him, it changed after Russia forcibly altered Ukraine’s borders, annexing Crimea.

“All the problems started from there. When everyone silently watched the violation of the world order and did nothing,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping discussed the possibility of extending human life to 150 years and the prospects of “biological immortality” at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, Bloomberg reports.

Technology and immortality

Vladimir Putin, born 7 October 1952, is 72. Xi Jinping, born 15 June 1953, is also 72.

Xi noted that in the past, most people did not live past 70, while today, “at 70, a person is still a child.”

“Due to the development of biotechnology, human organs can be transplanted continuously, and people will be able to live longer and longer, potentially even achieving immortality,” Putin responded. 

Putin compared this vision to ideas promoted by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who actively advocated health and life extension initiatives.

Life amid death

These discussions come against the backdrop of the massive loss of life in Ukraine. Over one million Russians have died and been wounded during the war since 2022. Mariupol experienced mass killings with at least 100,000 civilians killed, and more than 13,800 civilians have been victims of missile attacks across Ukraine. Meanwhile, Putin and his counterpart are discussing eternal life.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed gratitude to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the “courage” of its soldiers fighting against Ukraine, Sky News reports. He said “Russia will never forget North Korea’s participation in the fight against modern neo-Nazism.”

“Battle with neo-Nazism”

“Russia will never forget North Korea’s participation in the fight against modern neo-Nazism. We will not forget the losses suffered by your armed forces and the families of your soldiers,” said Putin. 

In response, Kim thanked the Russian ruler for the personal meeting and declared that North Korea would “do everything” to fulfill its “brotherly duty” and support Russia.

North Korean soldiers on the frontline 

South Korean intelligence had previously reported that around 2,000 North Korean troops were killed in combat. Currently, North Korea plans to send an additional 6,000 soldiers to Russia as part of a third deployment rotation.

This represents a fundamental shift in Ukraine’s energy narrative, from vulnerability to strength, and maybe even regional dominance on the energy market one day.

Ukraine is rapidly becoming a net energy exporter to Europe, with August 2025 exports reaching a record 450,000 MWh—the highest monthly figure since integration into the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) on 16 March 2022.

The scale of this reversal is staggering. Just over a year ago, Russia’s systematic attacks destroyed 61% of its generation capacity.

International volunteer experts are exploring large-scale distributed generation projects that could position Ukraine as Europe’s new low-cost electricity supplier.

Western regions lead the reconstruction model

Zakarpattia Oblast exemplifies this transformation. In spring 2025, regional officials met with Canadian volunteer engineers from “Technology United for Ukraine” to explore what could become billion-dollar distributed generation projects using gas turbine and hydrogen technologies.

The volunteer organization, led by president Brian Robinson, brings experienced engineers willing to conduct technical and economic feasibility studies and attract donors for distributed generation development—expertise that traditional consulting firms hesitate to provide in active war zones.

But Zakarpattia’s energy ambitions extend beyond meetings.

The region already hosts Ukraine’s only multi-megawatt wind turbine production facility, launched by Friendly Wind Technology in May 2024, capable of producing up to 20 wind turbines annually ranging from 4.8 to 5.5 megawatts.

More ambitious still is the planned 1.5-gigawatt hydrogen valley project, featuring an initial 100 MW electrolyser capacity powered by 120 MW solar and 80-160 MW wind installations. Operations are expected to start in 2035.

Geography drives strategy

Zakarpattia’s location makes it ideal for Ukraine’s energy export ambitions.

At the same time, its borders with Hungary and Slovakia provide direct pipelines into European energy markets.

Ukrainian workforce and production costs could make electricity produced here competitive across Central Europe, positioning the country to replace Russia as the continent’s energy supplier.

This would help the EU simultaneously overcome Russian and fossil fuel dependency.

From defense to export strategy

Ukraine’s energy transformation, already well underway, follows a clear strategic evolution. State power operator Ukrenergo declared more than a year ago that decentralizing electricity production through hundreds of small power plants was the only way to protect against Russian attacks.

The export numbers show that what began as a defensive necessity is turning into an offensive economic strategy.

Volunteer expertise fills the gap

Here is also where the Canadian engineers come into play. Their involvement in Zakarpattia reflects a broader pattern in Ukraine’s reconstruction: specialized technical assistance increasingly comes from unexpected sources as traditional institutions remain cautious about active war zone operations.

“Such potentially rapid solutions will increase the region’s energy potential and strengthen the national energy system,” regional officials commented after the spring discussions.

The volunteer-driven approach offers advantages beyond mere expertise. Unlike commercial consultants, volunteer organizations can focus purely on technical feasibility and donor attraction without commercial constraints that complicate larger institutional projects.

What needs to happen next

For Ukraine’s west to fulfill its potential as an energy export hub, several elements must align.

Feasibility studies like those proposed for Zakarpattia need completion and implementation; international financing must move from discussion to commitment; projects require seamless connection to European grid systems, and individual regional projects should complement rather than compete.

The success of initiatives like the Zakarpattia hydrogen valley and distributed generation projects will determine whether Ukraine’s western regions become mere reconstruction examples or strategic economic centers driving the country’s post-war prosperity.

If volunteer feasibility studies successfully attract the donors they target, Ukraine’s west could emerge as the launching pad for energy independence, transforming Ukraine from a Russian energy victim into Europe’s new electricity supplier.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered a blunt assessment this week: Vladimir Putin sees no benefit in ending his war against Ukraine.

Speaking during :newstime interview, Merz argued the Russian president will only negotiate when it serves his personal agenda.

“He will only be ready for negotiations when it benefits him personally,” Merz explained. Putin continues the war because “he is conquering territories” and closely watches how world leaders respond to his actions, including discussions in Europe and America.

To change Russia’s position, Merz proposed creating conditions that would compel Moscow to seek an exit from the war through economic pressure rather than military means.

“We must create the grounds for this,” he said, proposing tariffs against countries that continue trading actively with Russia. The goal: make it impossible for Moscow to sustain its military production.

Merz also emphasized that Germany has no plans to deploy soldiers to Ukraine, expressing serious doubts about Bundeswehr participation even after a possible ceasefire.

“Until a ceasefire, sending troops to Ukraine definitely won’t happen. And even after that, I have significant doubts about Germany’s participation.”

Meanwhile, Britain and France lead the “Coalition of the Willing” initiative, which plans peacekeeping forces for post-conflict Ukraine with operational headquarters in Paris and coordination centers in Kyiv.

Merz outlined Germany’s constraints clearly. Any troop deployment would need Bundestag approval and Russian agreement.

“This cannot be done against Russia, only together with it,” he told Sat.1.

Russian demands for ending the war in Ukraine include:

• Ukrainian military withdrawal from four occupied regions: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
• written guarantees from Western leaders to halt “NATO’s eastward expansion”, effectively excluding Ukraine, Georgia, and other former Soviet states from membership
• Ukraine adopting a neutral status and limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces
• lifting of Western sanctions
• resolution of frozen Russian assets abroad
• protections for Russian speakers in Ukraine
• holding of Ukrainian elections under terms favorable to Moscow. 

Starting 1 December, Denmark will begin producing solid rocket fuel for Ukraine’s new cruise missiles, Danmarks Radio reports. 

Plant near F-35 airbase

The Ukrainian company FPRT, a part of Fire Point, will establish a new plant near Skrydstrup Airbase, home to the Royal Danish Air Force’s F-35 fighters. This location will provide quick access to advanced military technologies and integration into national defense.

Solid Fuel Technology

Ukraine’s Flamingo cruise missile uses solid rocket fuel, which ignites instantly, provides stable combustion, and does not require fueling before launch, unlike liquid fuel.

Large-scale project for national defense

The company has already received a Danish CVR number and launched a website with information about the project. FPRT plans to build modern production facilities in Vojens, while qualification and operational testing will take place at specialized sites outside the plant.

“Our activities are aimed at supporting programs that are vital for Denmark’s national defense,” the FPRT website states.

Russian presidential assistant Yuri Ushakov has rejected allegations by US President Donald Trump that Russia, China and North Korea are conspiring against America.

“No one was arranging any conspiracies, no one was plotting anything,” Ushakov said, according to Russian news agency Interfax and propagandist channel TASS.

What triggered Trump’s response? A massive military parade in Beijing on 3 September marking 80 years since Japan’s World War II surrender. Putin and Kim Jong Un joined Chinese President Xi Jinping alongside 24 other foreign leaders—but not a single Western head of state except Slovakia’s Robert Fico.

The parade showcased China’s latest military hardware. Fighter jets, missile defense systems, and hypersonic weapons rolled through Tiananmen Square in what Reuters called one of China’s largest military displays in years.

Trump’s post also referenced America’s historical support for China during World War II, noting that “many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory.” He questioned whether Chinese President Xi Jinping would acknowledge the “enormous support and blood” provided by the United States in helping China secure freedom from occupation.

Ushakov added that all parties understand the role currently played by the United States and the Trump administration in international affairs, referring to their attempts to broker ceasefire in Ukraine.

The military parade served a dual purpose—commemorating historical victory while demonstrating current capabilities to an audience of primarily non-Western allies. China’s message was clear: its military modernization continues with supportive witnesses from across Asia, the Middle East, and beyond.

A drone attack on Russian regions damaged a railway station in the Rostov Oblast, located close to the border with Ukraine, and caused significant disruptions to rail traffic, with 26 passenger trains experiencing delays.

The overnight strike hit the Kuteynikovo railway station in the Chertkovsky district, according to acting governor of the Rostov region Yuriy Slyusar. The attack damaged the station’s contact network and left an unexploded ordnance on the building’s roof, prompting the evacuation of all passengers and staff.

“No people were injured. The building is now cordoned off. Sappers have been called,” Slyusar stated, however, this information is not independently verified.

He added that station personnel are assisting affected passengers while trains continue operating with delays.

Russian Railways confirmed that all delayed trains are proceeding along their scheduled routes despite the disruptions. The company reported the maximum delay reached 4 hours and 15 minutes as of 6:00 a.m. Moscow time.

The incident occurred as Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed to have intercepted 105 Ukrainian drones overnight, with 25 allegedly shot down over the Rostov Oblast specifically. Ukrainian officials have not issued any statements regarding these reported operations.

Meanwhile, Russian forces attacked Ukraine with a massive coordinated assault on the night of 3 September, launching 526 missiles and drones across multiple regions. Ukrainian air defense systems successfully intercepted 451 of the incoming targets.

The attack caused widespread damage across the country. Four railway workers were injured in central Kirovohrad Oblast when strikes targeted rail infrastructure, while western regions including Lutsk, Khmelnytskyi, and Ivano-Frankivsk experienced fires and structural damage from drone attacks.

Russian forces conducted a large-scale assault on Ukraine during the night of 3 September, deploying 526 missiles and drones across multiple regions and injuring at least four railway workers.

The coordinated attack targeted several Ukrainian oblasts with cruise missiles and attack drones, causing fires, infrastructure damage, and disrupting civilian life.

Ukrainian air defense forces successfully intercepted the majority of incoming targets, though some missiles and drones struck locations across the country while debris from downed targets caused additional damage.

Air force reports high interception rate

Ukraine’s Air Forces reported that Russian forces used X-101 and Kalibr cruise missiles along with Shahed-type attack drones and various decoy drones in the assault. According to the military statement, Ukrainian air defense systems neutralized 451 out of 526 Russian targets.

The interception breakdown included:

• 14 out of 16 Kalibr missiles
• seven out of eight X-101 missiles
• 430 out of 502 drones of various types.

The military confirmed that three missiles and 69 attack drones hit 14 locations, while debris from downed targets fell across 14 additional sites.

Kyiv region faces prolonged air alert

Air raid sirens wailed across Kyiv Oblast for nearly thirteen hours, the longest alert in Vyshhorod district since the full-scale war began. Residents spent the night in subway stations and basement shelters while air defense batteries engaged incoming threats overhead.

Debris from a successful intercept crashed between apartment buildings in Vyshhorod, igniting fires that emergency crews quickly contained. The falling wreckage shattered windows in 28 apartments and destroyed two vehicles. A kindergarten lost its windows to the blast wave.

Regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk reported no casualties despite the extensive property damage.

Railway workers injured in Kirovohrad region

The attack on Znamianka in central Kirovohrad Oblast specifically targeted railway infrastructure, resulting in injuries to four railway workers, according to Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukraine’s national railway company. The attack disrupted freight and passenger services along key supply routes.

Western regions experience fires and structural damage

In the western city of Lutsk, drone attacks caused fires in two garages and one outbuilding, while debris damaged another outbuilding and completely destroyed a private freight vehicle, according to mayor Ihor Polishchuk. The attacks reached deep into what many residents considered relatively safe territory.

The city of Khmelnytskyi sustained damage and fires that disrupted public transportation services, with mayor Oleksandr Symchyshyn reporting window damage to residential buildings.

The regional administration reported that Russian forces conducted two separate attacks using missiles and drones, resulting in fires at a garage complex where 10 garages were destroyed and five others caught fire.

According to the State Emergency Service, western Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast experienced warehouse fires at three locations in Kalush district, requiring 130 emergency workers and 35 units of emergency equipment for response operations.

Russian Railways’ cargo volumes dropped 5.4% in August 2025 compared to the previous year, marking the third consecutive quarterly decline as sanctions and war costs devastate Moscow’s economy.

According to Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, the state railway monopolist transported just 92.2 million tons in August, down from 97.2 million tons in August 2024.

Over eight months, total shipments fell 7.1% to 738.8 million tons compared to 2024 levels.

Economic backbone crumbles under pressure

The railway data exposes how deeply the war has damaged Russia’s economic foundation. Russian Railways handles 87% of the country’s cargo transport excluding pipelines, making freight volumes a direct indicator of industrial activity across key sectors from construction to metallurgy.

The steepest declines hit Russia’s most strategic industries. Construction materials shipments collapsed 15%, ferrous metals dropped 17.3%, and coal fell 3.6%.

Oil shipments decreased 4.9% due to refinery maintenance issues, while grain transport plummeted 30.7% following poor harvests and export restrictions.

Earlier data published by Russia’s own Interfax on 12 August showed similar patterns through July, with cargo volumes down 6.2% over the seven months to 739.3 million tons. Domestic shipments fell 8.9% to 437.9 million tons, while international cargo dropped 2.1% to 301.4 million tons.

Sanctions bite deeper as infrastructure crumbles

The transportation crisis reflects broader economic stagnation gripping Russia nearly four years into its war against Ukraine. Western sanctions have severed access to critical railway components, forcing the state monopolist to trim its planned investment program by nearly 40%, cutting spending from 1.3 trillion rubles to 834 billion rubles for 2025.

The company now faces deficits of 2,500 engineers and 3,000 locomotive crews, forcing cancellation of approximately 200 train services daily.

Ukrainian drone strikes continue targeting Russian rail infrastructure. For example, a recent attack on 21 August struck a railway substation in Voronezh Oblast, disrupting military supply lines and civilian cargo movement.

War economy shows strain

The railway decline parallels Russia’s broader economic struggles. Military spending consumes 6.3% of GDP—the highest since the Cold War. The war economy’s temporary GDP boost masks structural problems, including chronic labor shortages and vanishing productivity gains.

Transport indicators typically warn early about economic downturns, as reduced cargo volumes signal decreased industrial production and weakening domestic demand. The consistent quarterly declines suggest Russia’s economic foundation continues deteriorating under the weight of sustained warfare and international isolation.

The Center for Countering Disinformation reported on 10 August that Russian Railways was forcing employees to take unpaid “vacations” due to financial constraints—another indicator of the state monopolist’s mounting difficulties.

Exclusives

Russian marines rushed to save the Pokrovsk offensive—HIMARS had other ideas. Russian reinforcements rolling toward Pokrovsk made a fatal mistake. They traveled in armored vehicles—and within range of Ukraine’s HIMARS.

“Revenge on Ukrainian authorities”: Suspect says he killed to find son’s body, while officials investigate Russian link to lawmaker assassination. Ukrainian police detained a 52-year-old man suspected of assassinating the longtime anti-Kremlin politician who was involved in organizing Ukraine’s biggest pro-democracy revolutions and called for Russia’s “complete destruction” during the full-scale invasion.

Latest News

Tue Sep 02 2025

Russia is turning Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia plant into nuclear weapon with offering “joint control” over facility, says Kyiv.

Frontline Zaporizhzhia Oblast opens 10th bomb shelter school for safe learning amid Russian bombardment. Ukraine is expanding underground schools in frontline regions, giving children safe spaces to continue learning despite the ongoing war.

Macron and Zelenskyy to meet in Paris before talks with European leaders. The talks will follow preparatory work by Western officials, aiming to provide security guarantees to Ukraine and increase pressure on Russia to achieve a ceasefire.

Ukraine unveils upgraded “Palianytsia” drone that can reach targets 650 km into Russia. Developed amid restrictions on Western missiles, the upgraded Palianytsia gives Ukraine a domestic, long-range tool to hit targets deep behind Russian lines.

Russia recruits German citizens as “single-use agents” via social media to sabotage Ukrainian military training sites. At the same time, Chancellor Merz labels Russian President Donald Trump “the most serious war criminal of our time.”

Rutte on threats from Russia: Russian missile takes 5-10 minutes to reach The Hague

. Distance from Russia no longer equals safety for NATO members, Secretary General Mark Rutte warned in Luxembourg, citing missile technology that can strike The Hague, Madrid or London within minutes of launch.

Merz: Putin “may be the most serious war criminal of our time”. Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that dealing with war criminals requires zero tolerance, specifically targeting Russian President Putin as potentially the current era’s worst offender

UK sanctions targeting Russian oil profiteers coming “very shortly”. The UK’s announcement comes as Europe steps up economic pressure on Russia, with coordinated measures aimed at limiting Moscow’s oil revenue and supporting Ukraine amid ongoing conflict.

Ukraine creates new security guarantee to protect itself from Russia, as Trump-Putin peace talks only end with more casualties. Ukraine produces 3,000km Flamingo missiles with $10 billion European funding as “best security guarantee.”

Western nations making progress on post-ceasefire security for Ukraine – Finnish President. Stubb said US coordination is key, but a ceasefire in Ukraine remains unlikely.

US finally began to “listen to Russia” under Trump, says Putin, denying plans to attack Europe. Putin’s denials of EU attack plans echo his identical 2022 statements before invading Ukraine, as NATO’s Supreme Commander warns the West has just 18 months to prepare for potential Russian-Chinese aggression.

Putin has just created alibi for himself at Shanghai summit for killing over 13,800 Ukrainian civilians

. He also says, America now “listens to Russia.”

Zelenskyy, Putin “not yet ready” for meeting – Erdoğan. Past talks have stalled, but Erdoğan says diplomacy is still possible.

Russian coal mines are collapsing under sanctions, yet Moscow is filling profit gap from occupied Ukrainian territories. Western sanctions demonstrate clear economic impact as Russian manufacturing contracts for three consecutive months.

Sanctions bite: Russian steel output collapses to lowest point since invasion. The metallurgy sector’s worst performance since Putin launched his invasion signals mounting strain on Russia’s military-industrial capacity.

Ukraine liberates Udachne village near Pokrovsk. After two weeks of house-to-house fighting, Ukrainian assault groups have liberated the village of Udachne in Donetsk Oblast, raising the national flag over the settlement located 10 kilometers west of the contested city of Pokrovsk.

About 2000 North Korean soldiers reportedly killed in war against Ukraine. Despite losing approximately 2,000 soldiers in Ukraine, North Korea is preparing to send 6,000 additional troops to Russia

Russian drones kill one in Kyiv Oblast strike as Ukraine shoots down 120 of 150 attack UAVs. One civilian died in Bila Tserkva during a Russian drone strike that damaged enterprise buildings and sparked multiple fires

Ukraine’s builders boom while factories bust in tale of two economies. Ukraine’s war economy splits in two: builders thrive on reconstruction demand while manufacturers struggle.

Read our previous report here.

Russia is turning the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant into a nuclear weapon. Any attempt by Moscow to impose new forms of control over the facility constitutes a direct escalation of nuclear security threats for both Ukraine and Europe, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine has warned.

Putin floats “cooperation” on ZNPP

On 2 September in Beijing, during a meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that “under favorable circumstances, Russia, the US, and Ukraine could cooperate at the Zaporizhzhia NPP.”

Ministry of Energy: plant occupied and in peril

Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy stresses that Russia seized the civilian nuclear facility by force and continues to block legitimate Ukrainian control.

“Russia attacked with heavy military equipment and occupied Ukraine’s civilian nuclear facility, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” it claims. 

The ministry emphasizes that the plant is operating under an extraordinary threat scenario, unanticipated by design standards or international safety frameworks.

Dangerous shutdowns and risk of disaster

Since the occupation began, Russia has caused “systemic, critically dangerous deformations” at the site.

This includes the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, which eliminated the primary water source for cooling reactors, and nine full disconnections from Ukraine’s power grid.

“These are direct preconditions for a nuclear accident,” the ministry warns. 

Call for international action

Kyiv views Putin’s remarks on new maintenance models at ZNPP as an attempt to turn the plant into a military tool.

“Ukraine calls on the international community to provide a clear assessment of these statements and actions, given their potential impact on the security of the entire European continent,” the ministry stressed.

Ukraine will raise the issue at the September session of the International Atomic Energy Agency General Conference (IAEA) and urge global condemnation of Russia’s actions.

IAEA denied access to a new dam

On 31 August, IAEA Director Rafael Grossi said that Russia did not allow the organization’s inspectors to access the new dam that the occupiers built near the plant, according to Sky News. 

“Our access to this dam is essential to assess the cooling water situation which is crucial given the fragile nuclear safety situation at the ZNPP,” he said.

He added that the problem is further complicated by the fact that the ZNPP currently relies on a single external power line to supply electricity to the plant’s safety systems, while the plant itself is not producing power.

The 10th underground school in Zaporizhzhia Oblast has opened its doors at Semenenko Lyceum in the Pavlivska community, the Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration reports.

Ukraine’s underground classrooms provide secure spaces for students living in frontline regions to learn even during the threat of missile and drone attacks. These facilities aim to provide a sense of normalcy, protect students, and ensure education can continue uninterrupted during the war.

The school in Pavlivska is designed for 200 students, with 10 classrooms including a modern computer lab and a sports hall. An elevator ensures the facility is accessible and inclusive.

Before the new underground school opened, many students in Pavlivska had been learning remotely due to the ongoing threat of attacks in the region. 

This facility is part of Ukraine’s growing network of underground schools, providing safe education in frontline areas.

Similar schools have been built in Kharkiv, where metro stations were converted into classrooms for thousands of students.

Across Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine has already opened multiple underground schools, including missile-proof facilities designed to protect children from attacks and even potential nuclear threats.

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris on the evening of 3 September, a day before the “Coalition of the Willing” summit scheduled for 4 September, according to an undisclosed source at the Élysée Palace cited by European Pravda.

The meeting comes as Ukraine continues to press for security guarantees from Western allies amid efforts towards a ceasefire with Russia.

The Paris summit will bring together countries ready to provide security guarantees to Ukraine if a ceasefire is reached, with the aim of coordinating technical and strategic measures to strengthen Ukraine’s defense and support the enforcement of peace efforts.

A French official told European Pravda that the talks aim to convey that the countries ready and able to provide security guarantees have completed their planning. They said that chiefs of staff and defense ministers have already completed the necessary groundwork.

“Today we are ready to provide these security guarantees,” the official said, adding that the effort also includes support for applying pressure on Russia to achieve a ceasefire.

The “Coalition of the Willing” summit will take place in a hybrid format under the joint leadership of Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is expected to join. 

Discussions are likely to cover potential deployment of peacekeeping forces, as highlighted recently by Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda.

This meeting follows earlier efforts by Ukraine to secure Western security guarantees. Western nations are continuing to develop frameworks for post-ceasefire security in Ukraine, but many believe that a ceasefire remains unlikely in the near term. 

The upcoming Paris talks are seen as a continuation of these efforts, providing Ukraine with a platform to push for concrete commitments on security guarantees and measures to strengthen pressure on Russia.

Ukraine’s state defense group Ukroboronprom has revealed the specifications of its updated “Palianytsia” kamikaze drone at the MSPO international defense exhibition in Kielce, Poland, according to Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi.

The upgraded drone gives Ukraine a long-range, domestically produced option for striking stationary land and naval targets deep inside Russian territory. It was developed in response to restrictions on the use of Western long-range missiles and reflects ongoing efforts to scale production and reduce costs.

The Palianytsia is not a new weapon – Ukraine first unveiled it in 2024, and it has already seen combat. Ukrainian officials say it was created out of urgent necessity, while its cost-effective design offers a long-range alternative to Western missiles.

The redesigned “Palianytsia”

The new model, presented a year after the drone’s initial debut, features redesigned wings, a longer fuselage, and modified tail surfaces. It measures 3.5 meters long with a 1.7-meter wingspan and weighs 320 kilograms, one third of which is a 100-kilogram warhead.

The drone can fly up to 650 kilometers at speeds of 900 km/h and operates at altitudes between 15 and 500 meters. It is powered by a turbojet engine and launched with a solid-fuel booster. Navigation combines inertial guidance, resistant to electronic jamming, with satellite correction for accuracy.

Proven in combat

The developers describe the drone as intended to strike targets deep behind enemy lines, including stationary land and naval positions. Its first reported combat deployment was on 24 August 2024. Details of that strike were not disclosed, but officials have announced plans to scale up production and reduce costs. 

The name “Palianytsia” comes from a traditional Ukrainian bread. During the war, it has taken on symbolic meaning, since Ukrainians can pronounce it easily while Russians often struggle – turning it into a cultural marker of identity and resistance.

At MSPO, the drone was displayed alongside other systems. Poland’s WB Group showcased a mock-up of its “Lanca” cruise missile, while Ukrainian company Ukrainian Armor presented the “Krechet,” a mobile command unit that integrates air-defense systems, mobile fire teams, and radars.

Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office and intelligence agencies have issued a warning: Russia is attempting to recruit citizens via social media for espionage and sabotage. These so-called “single-use agents” are lured into committing crimes on behalf of foreign intelligence services.

How the recruitment scheme works

According to German intelligence, malicious actors initiate casual conversations on social networks, assess the user’s political stance, and later offer money for criminal acts — such as property damage.

“Anyone who agrees becomes an ‘agent’ of another state… Behind these recruitment attempts may stand foreign intelligence services. Their goal is to destabilize Germany using people within the country,” the agencies cautioned.

Military facilities in focus

Authorities stress that Russian intelligence is particularly interested in military bases and sites where Ukrainian soldiers are being trained.

“Perpetrators hope to gain strategic advantages by spying on such facilities or disrupting their operations… Successful sabotage could severely damage military structures and undermine trust in the state,” the statement reads.

This represents a classic case of hybrid warfare, where an enemy seeks to weaken its opponent without direct confrontation.

Harsh punishment for “agents”

German citizens are urged not to fall for such recruitment attempts and to remember the consequences. “Anti-constitutional sabotage” in Germany carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, while “espionage activities” can result in up to ten years.

If crimes are proven to be carried out in the interests of a foreign intelligence service, the punishment is even harsher. 

Desperate to staunch the bloodletting around Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, the Kremlin rushed in reinforcements. A lot of them.

But those reinforcements—the best of Russia’s available naval infantry and airborne forces—are already suffering heavy casualties in a sector they clearly do not understand. Attacking in armored vehicles along drone-patrolled roads just east of Pokrovsk on the evening of Aug. 28, the Russian 155th Naval Infantry Brigade was immediately spotted from the air by the Ukrainian state security service’s Ivan Franko Group.

The Ivan Franko Group attacked with its own explosive first-person-view drones—and also called in rockets from nearby High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems. The combined firepower “inflicted devastating losses on the enemy’s assault armored group, which ultimately could not reach the forward positions of the 79th [Air Assault] Brigade and was completely defeated,” the Ivan Franko Group reported.

The group counted five destroyed vehicles and two abandoned ones. “The enemy’s manpower losses as a result of the complex strike of FPV and HIMARS amounted to 50 to 100 men,” the group claimed. See the official video below.

It was a swift and bloody setback for Russia’s best effort to shift the battlefield momentum around Pokrovsk back in its own favor.

For more than a year now, a Russian force with at least eight corps and field armies, together overseeing dozens of regiments are brigades each with potentially thousands of troops, has been trying—and mostly failing—to capture a chain of Ukrainian cities stretching from Pokrovsk to Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine Donetsk Oblast.

The Russian 51st Combined Arms Army came close to closing a pincer around Pokrovsk and cutting off one of its two main supply routes in early August, when its 132nd Motor Rifle Brigade slipped thousands of troops past undermanned Ukrainian trenches northeast of Pokrovsk.

They marched 15 km toward the village of Dobropillya, which sits astride the T0515 road, Pokrovsk’s easternmost main supply route.

A brief-lived salient

But the Russians underestimated the strength of the Ukrainians’ reserves. Ukrainian commanders had made the deliberate decision to leave some trenches empty in order to buy time for certain brigades to rebuild. “It was a sacrifice,” American analyst Andrew Perpetua explained. “Sacrifice ground for time while refitting and then you can attack later.”

A dozen or so Ukrainian brigades, regiments and battalions, some fighting under the command of the national guard’s new 1st Azov Corps, assaulted the Dobropillya salient from both sides with drones, tanks, armed ground vehicles and infantry—and quickly destroyed the Russian 132nd Motor Rifle Brigade, likely inflicting thousand of casualties.

Rather than accepting defeat in the Dobropillya salient, the Kremlin scraped forces from Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine as well as from the front stretching from Kursk Oblast in western Russia to Sumy Oblast in northern Ukraine—and sent them to Pokrovsk.

The reinforcements include no fewer than five Russian marine and airborne brigades, regiments and divisions including the ill-fated 155th Naval Infantry Brigade. The units that have been fighting around Pokrovsk learned the hard way, many months ago, that armored vehicles simply cannot survive on the roads threading toward the city. Their biggest successes have resulted from swift motorcycle assaults and hard-to-spot infiltrations by small groups of infantry.

The 155th Naval Infantry Brigade moved out in at least one tracked BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle and other armored vehicles along with a few bikes, winding through a village—Malynivka—the has been under bombardment by Ukrainian air force jets lobbing American-made Joint Direct Attack Munition precision bombs.

Their inexperience and recklessness doomed them—and wasted the Kremlin’s first attempt to preserve what little is left of the Russians’ Dobropillya salient. But the Ivan Franko Group, for one, isn’t surprised. “The enemy will continue to try to carry out meaty assaults on our positions,” the group mused.

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Robot counterattack! Ukraine rolls gun-‘bots into brutal Pokrovsk battle.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that geographical distance provides no security guarantee against Russian threats, citing missile technology that can reach European capitals within minutes.

“We are all very close, particularly in the context of the latest Russian missile technologies. For example, the difference now between Lithuania and Luxembourg, The Hague or Madrid is five to ten minutes – that’s how long it takes for a missile to reach these parts of Europe,” Rutte said during a joint press conference in Luxembourg with Prime Minister Luc Frieden and Defense Minister Yuriko Backes, according to Ukrinform.

The NATO chief emphasized that member states should abandon any sense of safety based on distance from Russia. “We are all under direct threat from the Russians. We are all now on the eastern flank, regardless of whether we live in London or Tallinn – there is no longer any difference,” he added.

Rutte’s comments came as he confirmed US commitment to NATO interests and Washington’s recognition of “the existence of a long-term Russian threat to the entire Alliance, to the entire Euro-Atlantic.”

The Secretary General described deep American understanding of interconnected security concerns. “They deeply understand, and I feel this from all my conversations in Washington, that safe United States needs a safe Atlantic, safe Europe and safe Arctic, because otherwise the United States itself, even the mainland, will be under threat,” he said.

Rutte also addressed the incident involving European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s aircraft, which experienced navigation problems due to suspected Russian interference. The NATO chief stressed that the Alliance takes this “very seriously” and is “strengthening the response to hybrid and cyber threats.”

Financial Times and Reuters reported that on 31 August, the aircraft carrying von der Leyen to the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv lost electronic navigation systems while approaching the city airport. According to unnamed officials, the GPS signal in the entire airport zone was disabled, which was interpreted as a Russian interference operation.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden announced his country’s intention to join NATO’s PURL initiative (Priority Ukraine Requirements List) to purchase weapons in the US and transfer them to Ukraine, Ukrinform reported.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz escalated his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him “perhaps the most serious war criminal of our time” in an interview with Sat.1 television, according to ntv.

“He is a war criminal. He is perhaps the most serious war criminal of our time that we are currently seeing on a large scale,” Merz said in the interview. “And we must simply be clear about how to deal with war criminals. There is no place for leniency here.”

The CDU leader’s characterization represents a new level of personal condemnation of the Russian president. While Merz has previously accused Russia as a state of “serious war crimes” and “terrorism against the civilian population” during his tenure as chancellor, his direct personal labeling of Putin as potentially the era’s worst war criminal marks an unprecedented escalation in his rhetoric.

The comments come as international legal proceedings against Putin continue. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president in connection with the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine.

The arrest warrant has complicated diplomatic efforts. Austria’s Foreign Ministry recently stated the country would be willing to host negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian leaders to end the war. Vienna indicated it could conduct consultations with the International Criminal Court to coordinate issues regarding Putin’s arrest warrant and avoid his detention during any potential visit.

Merz’s remarks reflect the ongoing international debate over how to engage with Russian leadership while war crimes proceedings remain active. His insistence that “leniency” has no place in dealing with war criminals signals Germany’s hardening stance toward diplomatic accommodation with Moscow.

The interview represents one of the strongest personal condemnations of Putin by a major European leader since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.

The UK is set to unveil additional sanctions targeting Russia, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in Parliament on Wednesday, Sky News reports.

The new measures are expected to target individuals profiting from Russian oil. Lammy said that an announcement would be made “very shortly,” without providing further details.

Lammy highlighted Britain’s previous measures, including lowering the Russian oil price cap – a move designed to limit Moscow’s revenue from exports while avoiding major disruptions to global energy markets – which he described as “essential.”

He also noted Britain’s role in enacting what he described as the “largest package of sanctions anywhere in the world against Putin’s war machine.”

This development comes as the European Union is discussing its 19th sanctions package, which may include secondary sanctions on countries aiding Moscow.

Ukraine is carrying out a multibillion-dollar arms buildup program, funded by Europe. The plan is seen as the best chance to defend against Russia amid reduced American aid and uncertainty over Western security guarantees, reports The New York Times.

Best security guarantee for Ukraine? 

Under this plan, the focus will be on developing Ukraine’s domestic defense industry. In particular, at the end of August, Ukraine began production of its long-range cruise missile, the Flamingo.

This domestically produced missile has a flight range exceeding 3,000 km and carries a 1,150 kg warhead. The company that designed them, FirePoint, also manufactures the FP-series drones. It is now actively scaling the Flamingo project alongside its drone production. FP-1 drones have been used against targets in Russia since at least 2024.

According to Maksym Skrypchenko, president of the Transatlantic Dialogue Center, Ukraine’s own missile program could be the country’s best security guarantee.

“The whole model is that we get contracts, written agreements, that state we will have this number of weapons provided to Ukraine by this year, from the United States, from the Europeans,” Skrypchenko said.

He is confident that Moscow can be deterred from a new attack if Ukraine possesses several hundred long-range ballistic missiles.

Technological advantage

The Ukrainian army is unlikely to match Russia in troop numbers, which is why increasing weapons production makes sense. However, it is still unclear how far this military buildup can go. European countries are already facing budgetary difficulties, which could limit the level of support Ukraine expects.

Building security shield from Russia 

Discussions over security guarantees have not yet produced significant results. Meanwhile, Russia is attempting to disrupt them, demanding a voice in certain matters, the report emphasizes.

This is why Ukraine is focusing on developing its own security guarantees. Producing Ukrainian weapons and purchasing Western arms are areas over which Russia can have almost no influence.

“This is not something the Russians can really discuss. That’s our advantage,” Aliona Hetmanchuk, Head of Ukraine’s Mission to NATO, told journalists.

Planning the production scales

Recent pledges from Germany and Norway to provide up to $10 billion in military and civilian aid to Ukraine next year indicate that Europe is ready to meet this challenge. These large sums mark a turning point, as previously Western partners provided smaller, short-term financial allocations.

Analysts told journalists that larger financial packages could help Ukraine better plan the long-term task of arming its army.

Meanwhile, Russia is showing no sign of intention to end the war in Ukraine. In recent months, Putin has only:

• intensified its attacks on Ukraine, killing more civilians than in 2024
• deployed nearly 100,000 troops to Donetsk Oblast
• refused to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
• continued strengthening ties with its main economic partner, China. 

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on Tuesday that Western countries are continuing to develop a framework for security guarantees for Ukraine, Reuters reports.

The discussions are focused on planning security arrangements for Ukraine after a potential ceasefire, with Western officials working to ensure protection without provoking further escalation.

Stubb added that any Western security measures would depend on a peace agreement with Russia, but he said he is not optimistic a ceasefire will be achieved soon.

Russia’s repeated rejection of Western security proposals for Ukraine puts the process in doubt. European leaders have emphasized that Moscow’s consent is essential. 

Stubb said coordination with the United States is central, as it would provide the main support for any post-ceasefire security arrangement. “We are working closely with our military chiefs to draw up concrete plans for what these security operations could look like,” he said.

German officials have previously stressed that Ukraine would need NATO-style security guarantees before any peace deal. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the EU has no reason to worry about potential Moscow aggression. He denies that the Kremlin is preparing for an attack and says that under US President Donald Trump, America began to “listen to Russia,” reports the pro-Kremlin outlet RIA Novosti.

Putin made these statements during a meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in China. 

On 31 August, he arrived in China, Russia’s main economic partner, which provides the Kremlin with unprecendent support during its war against Ukraine, on a four-day visit. It came just as US President Donald Trump’s deadline for a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop the war has expired.

Trump’s deadline and Russia’s new attacks

Putin claims that any talk about Moscow planning to attack the EU is “Western fiction.”

“They are specialists in fairy tales and horror movies. Any rational person perfectly understands that Russia is not going to attack anyone,” he said.

Before the beginning of Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine in 2022, Putin also repeatedly denied any plans for an attack or invasion in his official statements. Russian officials consistently rejected accusations of preparing military actions against Ukraine, calling the buildup of troops near the border “unfounded tension-mongering.”

It was only on 22 February 2022, that Putin announced the start of the so-called “special military operation” on Ukrainian territory, effectively acknowledging the military actions that had already begun.

The war in Ukraine – “protection of its own interests”

The Russian ruler also justified aggression in Ukraine, claiming that Moscow is allegedly “forced to protect people who tie their fate to Russia.”

“Russia’s only goal in Ukraine is the protection of its own interests,” Putin added.

He also shifted responsibility for attacks on Ukraine on its authorities: “Moscow endured Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy for a long time and then began to respond seriously.”

Lies about EU integration and the Zaporizhzhia NPP

Putin assured that Russia has “never opposed Ukraine’s EU membership” but called Ukraine’s accession to NATO unacceptable. He also allowed for the possibility of a tripartite cooperation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant involving the US and Ukraine.

Experts emphasize that such statements are part of a Kremlin information operation aimed at the West and the Global South, intended to justify three years of aggression and attacks on civilians.

In addition, Putin praised the administration of US President Donald Trump, which refused to provide free aid to Ukraine and introduced no new sanctions against Russia. According to him, under Trump, America began to “listen to Russia,” a claim he said was confirmed by the Alaska summit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is once again lying about strikes on Ukraine. During a meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico at the summit in China, he claimed that Russia’s massive attacks were in response to Ukrainian assaults on Russian energy facilities, according to the pro-Kremlin outlet RIA Novosti.

Putin justifies attacks on energy infrastructure

“Moscow endured Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy for a long time, and then began to respond seriously,” Putin said.

Meanwhile, Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, calls his statements a blatant lie, as since 2022, Russia has systematically attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, especially during the preparation for winter and in winter itself.

Attacks on civilians continue

Once again, he tried to shift the responsibility for Russian aggression onto Ukraine, explained Kovalenko. 

“Putin is preparing an informational alibi for strikes on Ukrainian energy. In Beijing, he claimed that Russia ‘never hit energy’ and only responds to Ukrainian attacks on the oil sector. This is false,” he stressed.

Kovalenko added that the Russians strike during the lead-up to winter and directly in winter. This year, they also did not stop attacks on energy in regions bordering Russia.

Kremlin information operation

According to Kovalenko, Putin’s speech in Beijing is part of another Russian information operation aimed at the West and the Global South.

“It is an attempt to shift responsibility for terrorizing Ukrainians onto us,” he claimed.

The Russians were the ones who started the war and attacks on energy, and they have never stopped.

According to the UN, Russia’s war has killed more than 13,800 civilians in Ukraine. Attacks on Ukraine intensified, particularly in 2025, following the launch of peace initiatives by US President Donald Trump.

Russia was not punished with sanctions or any other measures. On the contrary, President Putin was invited to a meeting with Trump in Alaska.

Putin urges Europe to weaponize energy against Ukraine, praises Trump’s inaction

Also, during the meeting with Fico, Putin called “on his friends in Europe” to cut Ukraine’s fuel and electricity supplies, the Kremlin press service reports. The Russian ruler emphasized that Ukraine receives a significant amount of energy resources through its Eastern European neighbors.

“Shut off their gas supplies, shut off their electricity supplies, and they will immediately understand that there are limits to violating others’ interests,” Putin said in a conversation with Robert Fico.

He also praised the administration of US President Donald Trump, which refused to provide free aid to Ukraine and introduced no new sanctions against Russia. According to Putin, under Trump, America began to “listen to Russia,” a claim he said was confirmed by the Alaska summit.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that the leaders of Ukraine and Russia are “not yet ready” for a face-to-face meeting, Reuters reports.

Previous efforts to bring the two sides together have failed to materialise, with lower-level negotiations showing little progress toward ending the war.

Türkiye supports “raising the level of negotiations gradually”, with the ultimate goal being a direct meeting between the two leaders. Erdoğan believes this to be the only way to achieve concrete results for peace. 

The Turkish president made the comments following his trip to China, where he met with Russian president Vladimir Putin and said he called Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone. 

He also said that the diplomatic path to peace remains open, demonstrated by talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Istanbul in recent months. 

Türkiye has taken an active role in mediation since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, keeping channels with both countries open and hosting diplomatic meetings between officials from the two warring countries.

Western sanctions against Russia are working and are already hitting the aggressor’s economy hard, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, which cited declines in key sectors. At the same time, the Kremlin is trying to offset its losses by looting temporarily occupied Ukrainian lands.

Sanctions squeeze the Russian economy

Business activity in Russia continues to fall. The manufacturing PMI, calculated by S&P Global, dropped to 48.7 in August out of 100 points, marking the third consecutive month in contraction territory.

Sunflower oil production in Russia also fell by 11% year-on-year. The coal sector is even worse off: 23 enterprises have halted operations due to the crisis, while 129 mines and open-pit sites, responsible for up to 85% of the country’s coal output, are seeking government support.

Coal and grain from occupied territories

Despite the crisis, Russia is trying to keep its economy afloat by plundering Ukrainian lands. New images from temporarily occupied Mariupol have shown how Russian forces are loading ships with stolen grain and coal. 

“Mariupol port. Two ships are being loaded at the same time… We expect the coal ship to head to the port of Temryuk for export clearance to Algeria, and the bulk carrier with grain to go to Egypt. Looting has predictably resumed,” reported Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of Occupation.

Stolen grain becomes the Kremlin’s business

According to the Center for National Resistance, Russia has turned stolen Ukrainian grain into a global business. Wheat that Moscow claims as “Russian” is purchased by 70 countries, including Egypt, Türkiye, and Iran. 

Russia’s metallurgy industry suffered its worst performance since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with production plummeting 10.2% in July compared to the same month last year, according to Rosstat data cited by Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation.

The metallurgy collapse delivers concrete evidence that Western sanctions are systematically degrading Russia’s capacity to sustain its war against Ukraine and signals that Moscow faces mounting difficulties maintaining current military production levels.

Key metallurgy companies report massive losses

The industry’s flagship enterprises are buckling under the pressure.

Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant—a critical supplier for Russia’s defense sector—slashed steel output by 18%. In comparison, Mechel reduced sales by 11% and Tubular Metallurgical Company lost up to 22% of sales. Companies are reporting billion-ruble losses.

Magnitogorsk reported profits plummeting ninefold to 5.6 billion rubles ($62 million) in the first half of 2025, while revenues dropped by a third. The company’s cash flow turned negative, with expenses exceeding income by 4.9 billion rubles (approximately $55 million) in the second quarter alone.

Magnitogorsk supplies steel for armored vehicles and artillery systems, while companies like Tubular Metallurgical produce materials essential for missile manufacturing. Each percentage point of production decline means fewer tanks, shells, and weapons systems reaching Russian forces.

Broader corporate crisis grips Russian economy

The metallurgy sector’s troubles reflect a deeper crisis across Russian industry. According to Rosstat data cited by Izvestia, nearly one-third of Russian companies reported losses in the first half of 2025—the highest level since the pandemic.

Coal mining enterprises suffered the most, along with utilities, transportation, and scientific research businesses—all sectors supporting military-industrial production.

The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)—a key indicator that measures changes in business conditions with readings below 50 signaling declining activity—fell to 47.0 in July for Russian manufacturing, down from 47.5 in June, marking the steepest decline since March 2022.

Sanctions systematically choke supply chains

Already a month ago, Reuters reported companies reducing their production levels, client demand declining, and customers having financial difficulties—all of this impacting both output and new orders.

Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation identified what it called “obvious” causes behind the metallurgy collapse: sanctions, loss of foreign markets, sharp drops in domestic metal demand in construction and machinery, plus restrictive Central Bank policies limiting investment.

Experts cite expensive credit, weak demand, tax increases, sanctions, and rising costs as the main drivers of corporate losses.

Weak demand could leave steelmakers unable to sell up to 6 million tons of production—nearly 10% of last year’s output.

Industry outlook

Severstal CEO Alexander Shevelyov called the second quarter “extremely difficult for the industry,” estimating that weak demand could prevent steelmakers from selling up to 6 million tons of production. This represents a massive loss of potential military materials.

For Ukraine’s allies, the data suggests their sanctions strategy is working as intended—systematically degrading Russia’s long-term military capacity rather than delivering immediate knockout blows.

The Center for Countering Disinformation assessment warns of the collapse risks “mass layoffs, factory shutdowns, and further economic decline in regions critically dependent on metallurgy”—problems that will further constrain Russia’s defense production capacity while creating domestic political pressure on the Kremlin.

Ukrainian forces have successfully cleared Russian troops from the village of Udachne in Donetsk Oblast and raised the Ukrainian flag over the settlement, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces announced on 2 September.

The village sits approximately 10 kilometers west of Pokrovsk, a strategic town that has emerged as one of the most contested areas along Ukraine’s eastern front line.

“Defense forces ‘cleared’ the village of Udachne on the Pokrovsk direction and installed the Ukrainian flag,” the General Staff reported on Facebook.

Military officials confirmed that all Russian strongpoints in the area were destroyed during the operation.

“Over two weeks, assault groups gradually cleared house by house and raised the Ukrainian flag over the village,” according to a video statement released by the armed forces.

The liberation of Udachne comes amid intense fighting across the Pokrovsk direction, where Ukrainian forces repelled 46 assault attempts near the settlements of Volodymyrivka, Zapovidne, Novoekonomichne, Myrolyubivka, Lysivka, Zvirove, Kotlyne, Udachne, and Dachne, the General Staff reported in its morning briefing on Facebook.

The village belongs to the Udachne territorial community, which has been under severe pressure from Russian forces. As of 11 June 2024, fighting was already underway in Udachne, Novoserhiivka, and Novomykolaivka, according to Valeriy Duhelny, head of the Udachne village military administration, as reported by Suspilne Donbas.

Duhelny had told Suspilne Donbas on 8 June that combat operations and the “gray zone” had reached the borders of Udachne and Novoserhiivka, though none of the seven settlements in the community were officially occupied at that time. He described the eastern part of Udachne as completely destroyed, with no intact buildings remaining after Russian shelling.

Construction sites multiply across Ukraine while factory floors stay empty. The National Bank’s August business survey reveals an economy moving at fundamentally different speeds—a division that signals resilience and vulnerability for the country’s long-term prospects.

Strategic implications emerge immediately

This sectoral divide marks Ukraine’s transition from an export economy to a reconstruction economy—a fundamental shift that may outlast the war.

The data prove that Western allies’ reconstruction aid works exactly as intended: it stimulates domestic activity and maintains consumer confidence. But it also exposes the limits—private industrial investment won’t return until security dramatically improves.

The split offers a roadmap for global businesses watching Ukraine.

The winners: builders and traders

Construction companies hit their fourth month of optimism in August, with their business confidence index reaching 54.0—the only major sector firmly in positive territory.

Builders expect more orders, expanded workforces, and steady material supplies as reconstruction accelerates.

The optimism reflects a geographic shift: Western regions like Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk lead activity as internal migration and safety drive housing demand, while companies struggle with acute labor shortages—over 150,000 missing workers force wage increases of 23%.

Trading firms, such as retailers, food distributors, and consumer goods companies, joined the optimism at 51.8, buoyed by consumer spending and fresh harvest supplies.

These companies have stayed positive for six consecutive months, suggesting Ukrainian purchasing power remains intact. At the same time, the National Bank reports that trading companies express concerns about inventory levels, suggesting supply chain pressures beneath the surface optimism.

The strugglers: factories and services

While construction enjoys predictable six-month order backlogs, manufacturers face an entirely different reality. Manufacturing confidence barely moved to 48.7—still below neutral—as companies grapple with destroyed facilities and an export market collapse.

Services firms scored worst at 47.0, hammered by expensive logistics, electricity price hikes, and chronic staff shortages. Most expect to cut jobs rather than expand.

The economic gamble

Ukraine essentially bets its future on reconstruction while its industrial base hemorrhages capacity. Construction sites signal resilience, but can’t replace the export earnings that once powered the economy.

Whether this proves sustainable depends on donor fatigue, military progress creating safe export corridors, and whether industrial companies can survive long enough to benefit from eventual peace.

For now, the cranes keep rising while factory chimneys stay cold. Ukraine’s economic survival depends on which trend proves more durable.

Exclusives

Ukraine investigates Russian link to assassination of politician who opposed Kremlin for 30 years. Ukrainian police detained a 52-year-old man suspected of assassinating the longtime anti-Kremlin politician who was involved in organizing Ukraine’s biggest pro-democracy revolutions and called for Russia’s “complete destruction” during the full-scale invasion.

A Russian drone boat hunted down Ukraine’s lucky intelligence ship. Russia has explosive drone boats, too—now Ukrainian ships and planes are no longer safe from surface attack.

Latest News

Mon Sep 01 2025

HUR: Russia amassed 260 foreign machines for tank production since 2007 war planning. Intelligence documents expose how European CNC technology powers Russian tank production, creating leverage points for coordinated sanctions enforcement.

Ukraine exposes Russian death lists of prominent figures after parliament speaker’s assassination in Lviv. The 52-year-old Euromaidan leader survived grenade attacks and multiple murder attempts since 2014 before the 2025 Russian operation.

Ukraine destroys irreplaceable Soviet radio telescope in Crimea, opening path to more operations. Ukrainian Navy officials revealed the strikes specifically target layered defenses protecting both the strategic bridge and Novorossiysk naval base where Russian missile carriers operate.

US pressures Europe to sanction India while importing Russian uranium and palladium

. he 50% tariff escalation followed India’s rejection of Trump’s request for Nobel Peace Prize nomination, according to sources, pushing New Delhi toward stronger ties with China.

Ukraine blows up another rail substation in southern Russia powering rail traffic to occupied Crimea. Kropotkin’s transformer station was targeted in Kyiv’s latest round of a campaign to disrupt Russian military supply chains.

Ukrainian foreign minister warns West against appeasing Russia as Kyiv marks WWII anniversary. Avoiding difficult decisions and favoring weakness over strength allowed evil to grow stronger in 1939, he said.

Poland’s defense chief warns against “getting used to Russia’s war” at WWII anniversary. He also called Russia an “empire of evil.”

Business mood lifts as $17.8B in aid props up Ukraine’s economy. Ukrainian businesses are less pessimistic about prospects, while the economy survives increasingly on foreign aid.

Ukraine’s Kyivstar lists on NASDAQ, world’s second-largest exchange in New York, during war

. The historic achievement follows government reforms that cut telecom permit times from two years to 25 days, spurring broader international investment.

Russian tanks rolled toward Pokrovsk. Then HIMARS and drones turned the whole convoy into wreckage (video). The 79th Air Assault Brigade exposed and destroyed the rare Russian column movement.

Kremlin deploys nuclear threats and war nostalgia to spook Western capitals into silence. Russian officials evoke Hiroshima and WWII to warn France and Germany against supporting Kyiv.

Ukraine seeks to tame war risk with state-backed insurance scheme. Ukraine is preparing a nationwide war-risk insurance program to finally open the door for private capital.

Man crashes car through Russian consulate gates in Sydney, police officer injured. A 39-year-old man injured a police constable and crashed his SUV through the Russian consulate gates in Sydney the morning of 1 Sept. Australian authorities arrested a man

German parliamentary chiefs arrive to Kyiv for first bipartisan Ukraine mission. Two key figures from Germany’s ruling coalition landed in Kyiv on 1 Sept., marking the first time parliamentary leaders from both the CDU/CSU and SPD have visited Ukraine together since Russia’s invasion began.

Read our previous daily report here.