Estonia's defense minister resigned on 2 September over a failed €70 million ammunition deal for Ukraine, ERR reported. The state procurement agency paid EU funds to companies that had never sold artillery shells. Estonian taxpayers may now have to cover the losses.

The Baltic states have poured billions into defense since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Estonia alone redirected €500 million toward air defense and drones. It pledged 0.25% of GDP in annual aid for Kyiv. Defense budgets have grown faster than the procurement systems managing them.

Minister walks over "socks and ammunition"

Hanno Pevkur has held the post since 2022. Amid the scandal, he told Estonian public broadcaster ETV he would step down.

"The minister does not count socks and ammunition," Pevkur said.

RKIK's former chief countered that no major decisions were made without the ministry's approval.

Three opposition parties called for his resignation before he announced it. Prime Minister Kristen Michal said Pevkur was not personally at fault but acknowledged political responsibility applied. The resignation followed a National Audit Office report released on 28 August. Estonia's Prosecutor's Office has also opened a criminal investigation into the procurement.

The deal that fell apart

In 2024, Estonia's Center for Defense Investments (RKIK) signed four contracts with Datasel S.R.L., an Italian-registered firm. Eesti Ekspress reported that the Indian company Neco Defense Munitions owned it. Neither had ever sold a single artillery shell. RKIK paid roughly $81 million in advance using the EU's European Peace Facility. The first delivery was due in November 2024. Ammunition that arrived failed to meet quality standards. Estonia canceled the deals and filed a case at the European Court of Arbitration in Strasbourg.

Pevkur is the second Baltic defense minister to resign in four months. Latvia's Andris Sprūds stepped down in May after drone incursions from Russia's war destabilized the country's government.

Poland will recover hundreds of millions of euros from a shared European Union fund for weapons it handed to Ukraine, the defense outlet Militarnyi reported. The money had been frozen for two years and only started moving after a change of government in Hungary lifted a veto.

Europe's ability to keep weapons moving to Ukraine rests on members trusting they will be paid back for what they give away. When that cost-sharing seizes up, national governments face the full bill alone, and the case for the next donation gets harder. A single member's veto can jam that machinery for years.

The money starts flowing again

Poland will receive up to $500 million in 2027 from the European Peace Facility (EPF), an EU fund that reimburses member states for military aid to Ukraine. Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski told the Polish news agency PAP that the ceiling combines the $465 million now secured with a possible $12–35 million more, depending on which of the two payout options the European Commission picks. Warsaw had already collected $960 million earlier, bringing its total EU reimbursement to roughly $1.4 billion.

Explore further

190 or 580 Patriot missiles? What Ukraine’s EU-loan request could buy—and why Washington still decides

The reimbursements had stalled in 2024, when Hungary blocked a $7.7 billion tranche. Budapest dropped the veto in June 2026 after a new government took over, unfreezing the funds. The bloc is now steering part of the money toward joint arms purchases and its training mission for Ukraine, rather than just reimbursement.

Where Poland stands among donors

By Militarnyi's tally of Kiel Institute figures, total Polish aid has reached $6.8 billion, with $5.2 billion of that military. That ranks Poland 11th among donors by raw volume. When weighed against each country's economy, it ranks 9th, equal to 1.021% of Polish GDP, with the military share at 0.775%.

Explore further

A masked figure got into a Polish drone-parts plant—Poland now suspects a foreign spy service set the fire

What Warsaw handed over

Poland has supplied ammunition and other weapons since early 2022, before the full-scale invasion, and has since handed over more than 350 tanks—14 Leopard 2A4, about 60 PT-91 Twardy, and roughly 280 Soviet-era T-72 variants. Warsaw also sent Krab self-propelled howitzers, Piorun shoulder-fired air-defense missiles, and Grad rocket launchers. Alongside Slovakia, it was among the first NATO states to send Ukraine fighter jets, delivering 14 MiG-29 jets and 10 Mi-24 attack helicopters between 2022 and 2024.

EU foreign ministers have given broad backing to an entry ban on Russians who fought in Ukraine and to stricter tourist visa rules for Russian citizens, DW reported. The bloc's foreign policy chief announced that support on 2 September, after an informal meeting in Wicklow, Ireland, without setting out what the tightening would involve. She tied the visa question to the risk of sabotage in Europe.

"Broad support," and nothing pinned down

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas spoke to reporters after the ministers finished. 

"There was broad support for moving ahead with a ban on entry to the EU for Russian ex-combatants and tougher visa restrictions for Russian tourists," she said.

She did not name the restrictions planned for Russian tourists, say when they might take effect, or say which categories of Russian citizens they would cover.

The bloc has no unified position on tightening visa rules further, Kallas acknowledged. Some member states have so far argued against additional steps in that direction, she said.

Explore further

Russia’s former soldiers may face a locked EU border—if France and Italy stop balking

Many EU countries say tourist visas serve sabotage preparation

Reporters asked Kallas about accounts that one suspect in the Leipzig attack may have entered the EU on a tourist visa issued by Italy. German authorities have to confirm or refute those accounts, she said. If the information is correct, it shows that visas can be used to enter the bloc by potential wrongdoers who intend to harm it, she added. Many EU countries pointed out that tourist visas are used in preparing sabotage, because the people who carry it out need to get onto EU territory, she said.

Explore further

Russia’s ex-combatants entering the EU is a risk flagged in a leaked threat assessment

"It is not normal": Russians in Europe while Russia bombs Ukraine

Many ministers raised the visa question while the meeting was discussing Russia's war against Ukraine, Kallas said.

"It is not normal when a country bombs Ukraine, kills civilians—in July and August more than ever during this war—and at the same time Russians enter and enjoy the hospitality of European countries. That should not be," she said.

EU representatives said in July that the ban, kept separate from the tourist visa rules, was agreed in principle but still needed an evidence standard for refusing entry. The EU Council signs off after that, and the European Commission hoped at the time to finish by October.

Ukraine's National Guard says its assault units have cleared four square kilometers of ground near Kupiansk. According to the military, fighters of the 23rd R.U.G. Assault Regiment of the Khartiia corps have pushed Russian forces out of territory between the settlements of Dvorichna and Zapadne, working with the 35th Separate Marine Brigade on one stretch.

Russia wants Kupiansk as a logistics node and a springboard for pushing deeper into Kharkiv Oblast. Just outside the city sits the Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi station, a key rail hub whose capture would let Russian forces move supplies and equipment far more easily.

“Overall, another 4 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory have been liberated. As long as the enemy remains on our land, the work continues,” the National Guard said.

A city fought over from both banks

The clearing north of the city is only one part of a contested picture. Kupiansk straddles the Oskil River: Ukraine holds the left, eastern bank, while Russian forces have pushed onto the right, western bank closer to Ukraine's rear.

On 2 September, Viktor Tregubov, head of communications for Ukraine's Joint Forces Group, said Russian troops had infiltrated part of northern Kupiansk on that right bank.

"On the right bank, the Russians are trying to hold the northern parts of the city, where they've already infiltrated some of their fighters," he told Suspilne, adding that Ukrainian forces are making trouble for them there.

The infiltrators are trying to reach the city through the village of Holubivka, he said.

On the left bank, Russian units are trying to reach the railway station.

"The Russians are pushing very hard toward it. They want to narrow our bridgehead," Tregubov reported.

No confirmed Russian advance

Back in July, Trehubov mentioned the Russian forces’ logistical problems in this direction, according to ArmyInform.

He explained that logistics for Russian forces in the area had been effectively paralyzed by a fuel shortage, with even water being delivered exclusively by drones.

The European Union is discussing export support with Ukraine and its neighboring countries, including through so-called solidarity lanes, Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen told Bloomberg on 2 September.

Strikes in the Black Sea have curtailed exports from both Ukraine and Russia, while low water limits how much grain vessels can carry on the Danube, Ukraine’s main fallback when sea traffic slows. Wheat and corn prices are at multiyear highs, and the Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index jumped by more than 13% in August, its sharpest monthly rise in over a decade. Hansen said the EU’s role as a major food exporter means drought-driven production losses could cause shortages elsewhere.

Created after Russia's full-scale invasion, the solidarity lanes carry Ukrainian exports by road, rail, and river through neighboring countries when Black Sea shipping is disrupted.

The European Commission is separately weighing relief for drought-hit EU farmers. Hansen urged governments to use flexibilities in the Common Agricultural Policy, the EU's farm-subsidy system, including exemptions for circumstances beyond farmers' control, emergency fertilizer aid, and earlier payments, but proposed no new measures in a letter seen by Bloomberg. EU agriculture ministers are due to discuss the drought in Ireland next week and in Brussels later in September.

Russian attacks squeeze Ukraine’s export routes

Low water is only one obstacle to Ukraine’s southern export routes. Russia has repeatedly attacked ports and transport links along the Danube and on Odesa Oblast’s Black Sea coast. Some Ukrainian farmers have sold wheat below production cost as port prices fell, leaving less money for the next sowing.

Romania detected more than 100 drones during seven attacks on Danube ports in mid-August, interim Romanian Defense Minister Radu Miruță said. Russia struck Izmail, Ukraine's largest Danube port, three times in August. The 29 August attack killed one person and destroyed five grain trucks, Odesa regional authorities said.

Ukraine and Moldova have pursued a rail corridor through Moldova to Constanța, Romania’s main Black Sea port, as an alternative. Moldova later halved transit tariffs through 31 December. Ukrainian officials estimate the corridor could handle around 10% of Ukraine's grain exports, Reuters reported.

Russia has been bolting small FPV attack drones to the wings of its long-range Gerans and releasing them deep inside Ukraine, far behind the front. The tactic may now have reached Kyiv Oblast, where an FPV drone was recently recorded, though it is not confirmed that a Geran delivered it, Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, the president's adviser on defense technologies, told UNIAN. A Geran drop is one of the versions being weighed.

A Geran (the Russian-built version of Iran's Shahed-136) can fly hundreds of kilometers, so bolting short-range FPVs to its wings carries them far past the front line before release. Russia has done the same with its Molniya and Gerbera drones, and in May Euromaidan Press reported FPVs delivered this way, turning up dozens of kilometers from the border, on the ground, and even on the roofs of apartment buildings.

A year-old experiment, still rare

"The Russians have been running these experiments for a while. They attach two FPVs above the wings and drop them," Beskrestnov said.

He last recorded the tactic a week ago in Konotop, in Sumy Oblast, where Russian forces held two such drones on a carrier's wings and released them.

Until now, he added, it had shown up only on conventional Gerans. Holding an FPV on a jet-powered Geran is far harder because the speed is too high for a clean release, "but technologically it's entirely possible," Beskrestnov believes.

Ukrainian air defenders have brought at least one carrier down: in March, the Darknode anti-Shahed unit destroyed a Geran carrying two wing-mounted FPVs over Ukrainian airspace before it could release them, Militarnyi reported.

Low yield, mostly a scare tactic

Russia uses the tactic sparingly, and by its own measure, it does not work well.

"If you look at the number of successful strikes they've had with these FPVs, it's small," Beskrestnov explained, because controlling a drone dropped this way is difficult.

The FPVs carry no large warhead, and the launches often serve mainly to terrorize civilians, he said.

The dropped drones are usually flown over ordinary mobile networks rather than through a relay mounted on the carrier.

"There's an ordinary SIM card, and they control the FPV through it," Beskrestnov said, adding that Ukraine has been recording the practice on and off for about a year.

A gunman on a motorcycle shot a Russian Aerospace Forces officer twice in Saratov Oblast on the morning of 3 September, Radio Svoboda reported. Telegram channels identify the wounded man as Nikolai Varpakhovich, the major general who commands Russia's heavy bomber division at Engels. Ukraine's security service and prosecutors named that officer a suspect three days earlier over the missile strike on Kyiv's main children's hospital.

Ukraine's services have pursued senior Russian officers in the rear, sometimes unofficially claiming the operation and sometimes saying nothing at all. Bombings have killed at least three generals in and around Moscow since December 2024, and a fourth died in a Moscow restaurant blast whose target Russia has never established. Nobody has claimed the Engels shooting yet, and Ukrainian officials have not commented on it.

Two shots outside Engels, then the motorcycle was gone

The attack happened in Probuzhdeniye, a settlement next to the city of Engels in Russia's Volga region. The Russian Telegram channel Shot said the officer was leaving a shop when an unknown man on a motorcycle fired twice, hitting his face and his body. Another Russian channel, Mash, reported that the gunman rode up to a detached house, that one bullet struck the abdomen and the other the head, and that surgeons removed both. The accounts of the spot and the wounds do not match.

The officer's driver was hit as well, got away, and called an ambulance himself. The attacker wore a helmet and fled, and doctors in Saratov operated before preparing the officer for a flight to Moscow. 

Explore further

Forensic experts identify over 30 parts of Russian Kh-101 missile that hit Okhmatdyt hospital

Russia confirms a shooting and leaves the name out

The regional branch of Russia's Investigative Committee stated that someone had attempted to kill a serviceman and that the victim was hospitalized. Investigators stated they had recovered cartridge cases and bullets at the scene and opened a case for attempted murder and illegal weapons trafficking. They released no name.

The  Telegram channel Dosye Shpiona, possibly linked to the Ukrainian special services, named the victim as Nikolai Varpakhovich, commander of the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division of Russia's long-range aviation. Meduza noted that no official source has confirmed this. Agentstvo reported that Varpakhovich comes from Ryazan, served earlier as deputy head of the 43rd flight-crew training center, and has lived in Saratov Oblast since at least 2024, with documents listing an apartment in Engels and a house in Probuzhdeniye.

Explore further

Car bomb kills Russian general who armed Russia’s war on Ukraine—fourth top officer assassinated near Moscow since late 2024

Ukraine named him a suspect on 31 August

The SBU and the Prosecutor General's Office announced an in absentia suspicion against Varpakhovich on 31 August. Investigators say he issued the combat order for the strike that hit Kyiv's Okhmatdyt children's hospital on 8 July 2024, killing two people and injuring 32. Russia's Defense Ministry claimed that day's missiles went at military-industrial sites and airbases.

It was his second notice this year. Ukraine charged him in June over a 2022 cruise-missile strike on an Odesa apartment block that killed eight, and prosecutors had notified his division's commander of suspicion back in June 2023.

Ukraine formally notified the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on 2 September that Russian airspace is unsafe for civilian flights because of increased military activity, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said. The letter behind the notification asks the organization to urge its member states to stop civil flights over Russia altogether, ZN reported.

ICAO, the UN aviation agency, cannot close Russian airspace or order carriers to reroute. European and US airlines already avoid Russia's airspace, while carriers from China, Türkiye, and the Gulf states have kept flying through it. Those remaining airlines must assess the safety of flying amid drone and air defense operations. Drone alerts during reported Ukrainian attacks have repeatedly shut Russian airports and delayed hundreds of flights.

The notification follows a 1 September warning by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who told airlines, insurers, and other aviation stakeholders that Russian skies were becoming unsafe as Ukrainian drones reached deeper into the country.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine's Foreign Ministry would pass information about the risks to international organizations. The letter to ICAO came from another office—Mykola Kalashnyk, Ukraine's minister for recovery, infrastructure, and transport, whose portfolio covers aviation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Zelenskyy's statement amounted to "a bid for state terrorism" and that Moscow would find a way to respond if civilian "tragedies" followed.

Sybiha urged airlines to avoid Russian airspace and said the notice was meant to prevent unintended incidents, arguing that Moscow was failing to disclose the dangers its war had created. He invoked Ukraine’s inherent right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the provision that recognizes states’ right to defend themselves against an armed attack. The foreign minister further stated that the war was “returning home to Russia.”

In its separate statement, ICAO warned of rising threats to civil aviation worldwide. It did not mention Russia, endorse Ukraine’s assessment, or say Kyiv’s notification had prompted it.

The UN aviation body identified long-range weapons, drones, navigation-signal interference, and advanced air-defense systems as growing dangers to civilian aircraft. It reiterated that international aviation law prohibits the use of weapons against them.

ICAO urged member states to assess airspace under their control, share threat intelligence quickly, and improve military-civilian coordination.

Russian airports were already facing repeated closures

Russian airspace has not been legally or completely closed. The disruption has instead taken the form of temporary restrictions at individual airports.

From 5–7 May 2026, restrictions during reported Ukrainian attacks delayed more than 450 flights at Moscow airports, while limits at Vnukovo remained in place for nearly 18 hours.

On 6 July 2025, Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport canceled 171 flights, while airports in five other cities suspended operations. During an earlier wave on 22 May 2025, Domodedovo halted flights four times in one day and Sheremetyevo three times, while Vnukovo and Zhukovsky also restricted operations.

Airports in Kaluga, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov, and Tambov were temporarily closed during a 27 May attack in which Moscow claimed 99 drones were intercepted. Two days later, another alert delayed 20 arrivals and 14 departures at Vnukovo, pro-Kremlin Telegram channels claimed.

Russia has started launching its strike drones during the day, not only after dark. The reason is the new jet-powered Geran drones, which fire groups cannot take down, so for Russia there is no longer any difference between attacking by day or by night, Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, President Zelenskyy's adviser on defense technologies, told Glavcom.

The near-hourly daytime raids are the new face of a campaign that culminated on 1 September, Knowledge Day, when Russia hit Kyiv and its region with ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones and killed 12 people. That strike culminated a six-day assault on the capital that began on 27 August, two days after CIA Director John Ratcliffe arrived in Moscow. However, even after that, the attack continued. Sirens now sound across Kyiv and the surrounding oblast roughly once an hour, around the clock.

Why the shift to daylight

The daytime raids carry an added economic and psychological weight, he said. The threat of strikes forces shops and businesses to open and close unpredictably, snarls transport, and can halt rail service.

"They understand perfectly well that daytime attacks hurt the population and business," Beskrestnov said, adding that the state railway Ukrzaliznytsia is paralyzed.

Keeping the defenders on their feet

A further aim is to hold Ukraine's air defense in a permanent state of readiness, Beskrestnov said. Round-the-clock attacks mean radar stations and generators must run without pause.

"Radar stations and generators run constantly, and that also puts a strain on our troops," he added.

Kyiv remains a Russian prime target because it carries symbolic as well as military weight, as the capital houses the government, business, and warehouses, and a strike there would resonate far more than terrorizing a small town.

Russian forces first concentrated on districts nearer the drones' launch corridors — Kyiv's Left Bank, and the Brovary and Boryspil raions — before switching to the other bank to hunt for targets. As the cold season approaches, he expects Russia to intensify strikes on the energy infrastructure it has so far spared.

Belgium's foreign minister said the kingdom's opposition to using Russia's frozen assets for Ukraine has not changed, Reuters reported. A push by four member states to revive the plan "generated little enthusiasm or appetite" among European Union foreign ministers, he said. Belgium points instead to part of an already-agreed European loan arriving sooner.

Nothing has changed, Belgium's foreign minister told the room

Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot spoke after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Ireland on 2 September. Four countries had put the frozen-assets question back on the agenda, and his colleagues showed little interest in taking it up, he said. Belgium's own position has not moved in a year, he added. Anything that amounts to confiscating the money would carry very significant risks for his country, he said.

The country's Defense Minister Theo Francken told Flemish broadcaster VRT in remarks published on 30 August that the door is closed and the question is not open for discussion. He also said the Baltic States should be more careful about returning to it, and recalled how much support Belgium gives Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, The Moscow Times reported.

Explore further

Ukrainians rally across dozens of countries to demand Europe use Russia’s frozen billions

In August, Russian gains ticked upward in key sectors along the 1,200-km front line of Russia's 55-month wider war on Ukraine.

The coming winter could slow Russian advances as the trees lose their leaves and infantry infiltrators have nothing to conceal them from overhead drones. But for the next month or two, the trees will still have their leaves, and the infiltrators will still have their cover.

And that means, as fall wears into winter, Ukraine may lose yet more ground in the north and especially in Donbas region in the east, where Russia enjoys a substantial manpower and firepower advantage. "Russian forces still hold the operational initiative and are slowly capturing ... Donetsk Oblast as well as border zones in Sumy and Kharkiv Oblasts," mapper Thorkill warned.

The Russian gains belie a greater truth, however. In the middle of the fifth year of wider war, the situation on the ground only changes along the margins even as thousands die.

According to Thorkill's tally, the Russians occupied just under 220 square km of Ukrainian soil in August. That's 25% more territory than they captured in July. "The situation has deteriorated sharply in the Donbas in August," mapper Clément Molin explained.

To be fair, the Russians are advancing much more slowly than they did a year ago. "Compared to August 2025, Russian gains are down by nearly half," Molin noted. That's cold comfort to Ukrainian civilians and defenders in the areas where the Russians are still gaining ground, however. And the sheer proximity of the most aggressive Russian formations to the most vulnerable Ukrainian settlements means it might not take much more effort on the part of the Russians to turn these settlements into battlegrounds.

The Russians' main effort is still directed at the last big free cities in Donetsk. Inching forward at great cost from several directions, Russian forces are slowly closing a pincer around Kramatorsk and Sloviansk and the tens of thousands of civilians who still live in the adjacent cities.

Thorkill's map places the forwardmost Russian forces in Mykolaivka, just 4 km east of Sloviansk. This is the middle joint of the Russian pincer. The pincer's southern claw is a zone of disputed control stretching along the road between the ruins of the city of Kostiantynivka and the battleground town of Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka.

If the Russians can march through Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka, they can lay siege to the town of Druzhkivka, a few kilometers to the northwest. If they can capture Druzhkivka, they can turn north and assault Kramatorsk, a mere 6 km away.

Ukrainian counterattacks

The most fragile part of the claw is to the north. Bucking the overall trend of Russian gains in August, Ukrainian forces counterattacked in several sectors the same month. Most dramatically, a clutch of Ukrainian mechanized and air assault brigades extended a slow advance through the town of Nove, mostly cutting across a 100-square-km salient of Russian forces around 25 km northeast of Sloviansk.

The Nove counterattacks offer some hope that targeted Ukrainian action may slow the Russian march on Sloviansk and Kramatorsk from the north. Meanwhile, a reshuffling of Ukrainian units south of Kramatorsk could improve Ukrainian defenses against an assault on the twin cities from the south.

As new Ukrainian commander-in-chief Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi gradually addresses some of the imbalances in the Ukrainian ground forces, certain key units are getting help. Most notably, the 425th Assault Regiment is now subordinate to the 1st Azov Corps, which is responsible for the defense of Kramatorsk.

Keenly aware that the Russians intend to slowly infiltrate front-line settlements with small teams of infantry rather than rushing them with masses of easily-droned armored vehicles, the 1st Azov Corps has assigned the aggressive 425th Assault Regiment "to clear enemy infiltrators from the brigades’ areas of defense," the corps stated.

Explore further

Glide bomb then infiltrate. This is Russia’s new way of war.

Infiltrators aren't the only problem, however. The Russians' favorite tactic combines small teams of infantry with massive aerial firepower in the form of precision-guided KAB glide bombs flung by supersonic Sukhoi Su-34 fighter bombers.

"Glide bombs hurt," Ukraine's 4th National Guard Brigade reported. "It's about 200 kg of explosives flying your way. And you can't really shoot them down like you can shoot down drones. They can collapse fortified buildings, bunkers, and entire urban blocks much more effectively than artillery."

After the dust settles from the glide bomb impacts, Russian infantry "infiltrate through the damaged areas, using the ruins for cover and concealment," the national guard brigade explained.

The same lack of long-range air defenses that exposes Ukrainian cities to relentless Russian bombardment also deprives front-line forces of protection from the Su-34s and their glide bombs. And so the Russians can keep bombing and keep infiltrating as long as the trees offer some concealment for the infantry.

Explore further

Ukraine’s secret counteroffensive takes the pressure off Sloviansk

The clock is ticking. The Russians will aim to position their forces for more direct assaults on Kramatorsk and Sloviansk no later than next year. The Ukrainians will aim to slow down the Russians, trading a little space for more time. Time Drapatyi may use to institute further reforms in the Ukrainian ground forces.

Zooming out and taking the long view, no one should expect major changes on the map of Russia's wider war as the fifth year of fighting grinds toward the sixth. Yes, the last two big free cities in the Donbas are in trouble. But "the overall situation remains unchanged since October 2023," Thorkill wrote.

The Russians slowly advance. The Ukrainians slowly fall back. And losses deepen on both sides.

A well-drawn food illustration can make a dish look irresistible, steam curling off a bowl, glossy sauce catching light, a burger stacked just right or a sweet, juicy pancake. But no matter how appetising the drawing is, it's still just sitting there, doing nothing while a real dish is sizzling, steaming, or dripping. That gap is exactly what image to video tools close, taking a still food illustration and giving it the motion that makes it genuinely mouthwatering. Dreamina, powered by its most advanced video generation model, Seedance 2.5, turns that transformation into something any menu, brand, or food creator can pull off without a full animation team.

Why food illustrations were always missing something

So much of what makes food appealing is sensory and time-based, steam rising, cheese stretching, sauce dripping slowly down the side of a plate. A still illustration can suggest all of that, but it can't actually deliver it. It is the motion that finally makes an illustrated food look realistic and thus satisfy the craving.

What features make a food video clip appetizing?

The most successful food videos usually have some common characteristics, such as:

- Motion corresponding with the movements that the real food can do, e.g., steam coming out, dripping, melting
- Warm appetizing light, not something cold and artificial
- Slow enough speed to be considered delicious, not quick
- The amount of motion that looks natural, but not exaggerated

How to animate your food illustration using Dreamina

Step 1: Upload your illustration and describe the motion

Log in to Dreamina and find the "AI Video" category. Click on "Add reference image," upload your food illustration and describe how it should move.

To create a video, use the following prompt: "Create a video of a ramen illustration, including rising steam from the broth, slow lifting of the noodles with chopsticks from the bowl, and warm glowing light across the toppings."

Step 2: Generate with Seedance 2.5

Choose the Seedance 2.5 model, set your video length, then pick an aspect ratio, 1:1 or 4:5 for a menu or social post, 9:16 for Reels and TikTok. Click Dreamina's generate icon and let the dish come alive.

Step 3: Refine and export the finished video

Use Dreamina's editing tools to finish it off. Upscale for richer detail on texture and steam, generate a soundtrack for a light ambient or sizzling audio layer, then export and use it across your menu or marketing channels.

What Seedance 2.5 adds to food visuals

Seedance 2.5, Dreamina's most advanced video generation model, is well matched to the small, sensory motion food content depends on.

Texture and warmth that feel real

Comprehensive quality improvements reduce the flat "AI look" and add believable texture and warmth, so steam, glaze, and melt all read as genuinely appetizing rather than artificial.

Precise touch-ups on a single detail

Local editing lets a single garnish or detail be adjusted without regenerating the whole scene, useful when only one part of an otherwise great shot needs a fix.

A complete creative brief

Multimodal input support means a menu description or brand style reference can be layered in alongside the illustration, giving the model more context than the image alone.

A clean file, ready for longer sequences

Stray subtitles and unwanted background music are removed automatically, and extended duration up to 180 seconds in Ultra-long mode supports a full recipe-style sequence when needed.

Writing prompts that capture texture

Naming specific sensory details — steam, glaze, melt, drip — gives the model a much clearer sense of what kind of motion to render, rather than defaulting to generic, non-specific movement across the dish that could apply to almost any plate.

Choosing the right format for your platform

A square or vertical format suits a menu screen or social feed post, while a slightly longer, wider version works well for a website hero section or a paid ad where viewers are more likely to watch a few extra seconds.

Tying movement to the mood of the meal

There is a world of difference between a quick breakfast dish and a slow-cooked meal. While a brisk movement works well with the former, there needs to be something more substantial in terms of the latter in order to do justice to its mood and nature. The best prompts are always those that match the mood of the meal and not ones where you try to use the same pace of movement for all dishes.

Mistakes that undercut a food animation

A few habits tend to weaken the result:

- Overcomplicating the prompt with too many food elements moving at once
- Choosing lighting language that reads as cold or clinical instead of warm
- Skipping sound entirely, which leaves an otherwise appetizing clip feeling flat
- Leaving out sensory detail in the prompt, which can lead to motion that looks technically fine but not actually hungry-making

Where animated food illustrations get used

This format shows up naturally on restaurant menus, food delivery apps, recipe content, and social campaigns for food brands, where a dish that moves tends to hold attention and drive appetite far more effectively than a static illustration sitting in a grid. Delivery apps in particular have leaned into it as a way to make menu browsing feel less like scrolling a list.

A food illustration was always trying to make someone hungry, motion just finally gives it the tools to do that properly. With Dreamina and the sensory precision behind Seedance 2.5, a drawn dish can finally look as good as it was always meant to taste, without needing a real kitchen or a food stylist on set.

Ukraine’s Third Army Corps has released photos of the RapidRanger air defense system mounted on a URO VAMTAC armored vehicle. The troops themselves described the system as a “short-range storm.”

The system defends the sky in areas where radar cannot spot a target and other weapons cannot reach it, filling the gap between mobile fire groups and heavy, less-mobile air-defense systems. That niche — fast, cheap, and radar-independent — is exactly where Russia's Shaheds and small reconnaissance drones have been slipping through.

The images show a crew of the 1030th "Aquila" Anti-Aircraft Missile-Artillery Regiment arming the launcher with missiles before going on combat duty for the first time, RBC-Ukraine reports.

Light enough to ride a pickup

Rapid Ranger weighs only 500 kilograms and has a modular design that allows it to be mounted on pickups, armored cars, or even tracked platforms.

The systems in Ukrainian service ride Spanish URO VAMTAC tactical off-roaders, which reach 135 km/h, drive on public roads, and can change position quickly or cover long distances.

That mobility is the point: a launcher that can shoot and move is far harder for Russian forces to find and destroy than a fixed battery.

Laser guidance beats the decoys

The system's LMM Martlet missiles are 1.3 meters long, weigh 13 kilograms, and reach 1,800 km/h, striking targets up to seven kilometers away. Crucially, the missiles use laser guidance, not only infrared, so Rapid Ranger can hit targets with a low thermal signature or those carrying heat-emitting decoys. That makes it effective against Russian reconnaissance drones like the Orlan-10, whose small heat trail slips past heat-seeking weapons.

A 360-degree electro-optical surveillance suite gives the crew all-around coverage, and the system detects targets out to about 15 kilometers, which is more than twice its engagement range, giving the crew time to track a threat before firing.

Rapid Ranger reached Ukrainian units as part of a British military aid package, and Euromaidan Press reported in April that the system was already downing Shaheds from its Spanish mounts. The 3rd Corps' photos are the newest confirmation that Ukraine's newest Western air-defense hardware is now integrated and standing combat duty at the front.

Exclusive

NATO vows to defend every inch. Svalbard is where Russia plans to prove it won't.. The CIA chief's visit to Moscow gave rise to warnings that Russia may be preparing to strike the Baltics. However, Russia has an easier target for the goal of paralyzing NATO.

Ukraine spent three years learning to catch Russian drones—so Russia made them fly faster. Russia's jet-powered drones don't beat Ukraine's missile defense. They threaten the cheap layer that keeps it affordable—and they are turning the war into a contest over reaction time.

Military

42,020 troops, 1,827 artillery systems, 89 tanks: Ukraine's tally of what it cost Russia to keep fighting in August. As frontline losses climb, Moscow fires ballistic missiles and jet drones Ukraine cannot catch.

Ukraine confirms strike hit Novatek fuel plant at Russia's Ust-Luga port. Kyiv says the Baltic-coast facility supports Russia's military, while the strike's effect on production remains unknown.

Putin says Russia is 12 km from Sumy—1.5 km farther than in June. Just two months ago, the Kremlin claimed Russian troops were 10.5 km from Sumy—now it says they are 12 km away.

Foot soldiers get a long spear: Ukrainian assault units strike deep behind Russian lines. Ukraine's trench units now fly strike drones 150 km into the Russian rear—a job that once belonged to specialists.

Intelligence and technology

Twenty Ukrainian firms are racing to catch Russia's jet-powered Shaheds. This one's interceptor is already flying combat missions. Firebolt Engineering joins Ukraine's jet-interceptor drone race.

Kazakh refinery deal could ease Russia's front-line fuel pressure—but it covers just 0.3% of demand. Central Asia lacks capacity to solve Moscow's shortage, while potential suppliers risk Western sanctions.

Ukraine says it bought 5,000 pickup trucks through open competitive bidding and saved more than $45 million. Six suppliers will deliver the all-wheel-drive diesels by year's end.

International

190 or 580 Patriot missiles? What Ukraine's EU-loan request could buy—and why Washington still decides. The EU is weighing Ukraine's loan request to buy Patriot missiles, von der Leyen confirmed—member states take it up on 7 September.

Russia says Armenia's EU accession law means leaving Moscow-led trade bloc. Yerevan disagrees. At their first meeting since Armenia's June election, Pashinyan rejected Putin's claim that Yerevan had begun leaving Moscow's economic bloc.

A masked figure got into a Polish drone-parts plant—Poland now suspects a foreign spy service set the fire. Poland has opened a foreign-intelligence and terrorism case. A masked figure got in over the fence, the fire followed, and no one is charged.

Humanitarian and social impact

Russia's air war has cost the average Ukrainian mall 166.8 working days since 2022, about eight months of closed floors. Ukraine's malls spent a fifth of August under air-raid alerts, a new record.

Zaporizhzhia's largest mall closes as Russia's attacks seek to make Ukrainian cities unlivable. City Mall will remain closed throughout September after a Russian strike hit a nearby hypermarket, as repeated attacks disrupt businesses and everyday life across Ukraine.

Political and legal developments

Ukraine says it busted a Kyiv crypto ring that drained EU citizens' wallets. The SBU says the alleged scheme's monthly turnover from stolen funds could reach $1 million during its most lucrative periods.

Putin dismisses mobilization reports as Ukraine warns Russia could call up 600,000 to war. Russian officials gave similar assurances before the Kremlin's 2022 call-up, while the decree authorizing it was never formally revoked.

Russian Church installs Soviet military veteran to lead occupation-created diocese in Kherson Oblast. After Patriarch Kirill consecrated him in Moscow, Igor Pashentsev will oversee Russian Orthodox parishes across five occupied Kherson districts.

Ukraine's Security Service says it foiled FSB plot to assassinate Russian opposition leader in Kyiv – several wounded in street shootout. The clash followed the reported disappearance of a Russian Volunteer Corps commander and a Ukrainian investigation into an alleged Russian assassination attempt.

Putin calls Zelenskyy's airspace warning "state terrorism" as shares in Russia's national airline fall 5%. European and US airlines already avoid Russian airspace, while carriers from China, Türkiye, and Gulf states continue using it.

New developments

Estonia quarantines emails from Russian domains over cyberattack risk. Messages will undergo automated security screening rather than being blocked outright. Local governments and some state bodies remain outside the system.

Russian propagandists fake Polish newspaper claiming Ukraine faces famine. The Matryoshka disinformation network fabricated a Polish newspaper front page claiming that Russian strikes could leave 63% of Ukrainians facing famine.

Read our earlier daily review here.

Ukraine's 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade has tested a domestic dome-type electronic-warfare system, Serval Cube, against drones simulating a Russian attack. The brigade's electronic-warfare unit staged the trial under conditions close to real combat, the brigade said.

Serval Cube jams the control, navigation, and video-transmission channels a drone depends on rather than destroying it outright, Armyinform said. That kind of interference does not bring down the aircraft. It strips it of the ability to complete a mission or return to its operator.

Ukraine's counter-drone field is crowded

Ukrainian defense firms have been racing to field more of this kind of gear this year: in July, Contra Drone unveiled a 20-system counter-drone architecture combining electronic warfare, radar, and autonomous interceptors.

Another firm, Rebel Group, said this week its stationary jamming and signals intelligence system, Brama, has cleared range and lab testing and is now seeking official codification. Brama works by detecting a drone's analog video frequency, decoding it, and jamming both the video and control channels at once.

EW now shields nearly everything at the front

Electronic warfare has become one of the key elements of front-line defense, the brigade said, covering troops, positions, logistics routes, transport, shelters, and the launch sites of Ukraine's own drones against Russian FPV drones and reconnaissance UAVs.

FPV drones — small, camera-equipped quadcopters flown by a remote pilot wearing video goggles — have become a primary strike weapon for both sides along the front this year. That is why soldiers constantly test and refine the equipment they carry, the brigade said.

A scripted attack, and nothing got through

The brigade's electronic-warfare company ran the test, building a scenario meant to mirror combat as closely as possible: at one position, operators launched Mavic quadcopters, widely used for reconnaissance, alongside FPV strike drones. At another, the unit deployed the Serval Cube complex.

Serval Cube suppressed every drone launched against it during the trial — none reached its designated target, the brigade said.