Exclusives

Russia hunted civilians by drone in Kherson. Victims are suing the US firm they say helped connect the attackers.

Ukraine's quiet counteroffensive took 745 square km. Russia's dead Starlink is how. Six months, 26 settlements, and almost no video. Russia lost its battlefield communications three days in, and Ukrainian armor drove through the gap.

Ukraine's Zaporizhstal may idle half its capacity to fit new EU steel quotas. The EU dropped its steel duties in 2022 to help Ukraine through the war. On 1 July, it halved the tariff-free quotas and taxed the remainder at 50%.

Kosova is no precedent for Russia's annexation of Crimea—Ukraine should say so. Acknowledging Kosova's exceptional path would strengthen Kyiv's case against Moscow's occupation referendums, not weaken it.

Military

Captured Russian soldier describes 28-km crawl that killed most of his group before reaching Ukrainian lines. There, they were cut down from 16 to four and surrendered, the 71st Brigade says.

Reported Flamingo strike hits Samara industrial area housing factory that builds rockets for Russia's Starlink rival. The strike reached an industrial area in Samara roughly 900 kilometers from Ukraine.

Intelligence and technology

A jet-powered BM-35 can now hit 350 km/h. Russia says that's specifically to outrun Ukraine's interceptors. Russia has begun fitting jet engines to another attack drone, the BM-35, to outrun Ukraine's interceptors, following the same shift it made with Shaheds, adviser Serhii Beskrestnov says.

First warehouses burned, now payment system is down: Ukraine launches dual campaign against Russia's largest marketplace that reportedly moves drone parts. Ukrainian hackers disrupted the payment and customer-service systems of Russia's Wildberries marketplace, HUR says.

International

70 rescuers, 15 pieces of equipment, two weeks in France: Ukraine's rescuers just came home from their first-ever EU civil-protection mission. Ukraine's rescuers returned from nearly two weeks fighting French wildfires.

Humanitarian and social impact

Ukraine still hands Kremlin opponents back to Russia—even now. Ukraine never stopped handing Kremlin opponents to Russia and its own prisoner swaps, human rights defender says.

Read our earlier daily review here.

Exclusives

Ukraine’s quiet counteroffensive took 745 square km. Russia’s dead Starlink is how. Six months, 26 settlements, and almost no video. Russia lost its battlefield communications three days in, and Ukrainian armor drove through the gap.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhstal may idle half its capacity to fit new EU steel quotas. The EU dropped its steel duties in 2022 to help Ukraine through the war. On 1 July, it halved the tariff-free quotas and taxed the remainder at 50%.

Kosova is no precedent for Russia’s annexation of Crimea—Ukraine should say so. Acknowledging Kosova’s exceptional path would strengthen Kyiv’s case against Moscow’s occupation referendums, not weaken it.

Military

Russia drops eight FAB-250 bombs on Kramatorsk, killing one and injuring 18. Prosecutors opened a war crimes investigation into the glide-bomb strike, the latest in a series that has hit residential blocks across Donetsk Oblast.

Russia's defense ministry threatens to "freeze" Ukraine this winter. Moscow posted photos of attack drones captioned "like snow on your head," tying the taunt to its strikes on Ukraine's ports.

Poland was ready to scrap these MiG-29s. Bulgaria's interest just revived the Ukraine deal.. Warsaw was ready to let the jets go to the scrapyard, until a rival buyer showed up.

745 km² recaptured in Ukraine's eight-month Oleksandrivka counteroffensive, Kyiv says. The eight-month operation retook 26 villages across three oblasts, halting Russia's push toward Dnipropetrovsk and turning it back on Ukrainian soil, per the report.

Ukrainian drones hit Wildberries warehouse in Tver for the third time in two weeks. Wall damaged again, no injuries reported, marketplace says goods intact.

Ukrainian drones hit Russia's Ust-Luga oil port for the 6th time this year. Fire breaks out at Baltic terminal handling nearly half of Russia's regional exports.

Intelligence and technology

Captured Akhmat fighter says he chose Ukraine and a drone guided him away from Russia's ranks. Magomed said earlier Chechen defections prompted Russian commanders to check fighters' phones and tighten surveillance.

Armor can barely reach Ukraine's front now—so robots drive and soldiers walk. Ukraine's frontline logistics are under strain from drone pressure, forcing soldiers to walk while ground robots take over the most dangerous runs.

They find a sword, we find a shield: Ukrainian soldier on why drones will never replace infantry. He went from mortarman to drone operator, and says neither role can absorb the other.

Ukraine's drones crushed a US armored brigade in a war game in Germany. Ukrainian crews knocked out US units so fast the drill had to revive them, years and billions after America bet big on beating drones.

International

More than 100 drones detected near Romania in four days, NATO jets scrambled seven times. The latest figures underscore how Russia's drone war is increasingly reaching NATO's eastern flank, with Romania already forced to destroy several drones this summer.

Ukraine: 18 of 26 Russian oil and stolen-grain ships face no sanctions. HUR says the oil tankers run for firms like Lukoil and Rosneft, while the dry-cargo ships load stolen grain at occupied ports such as Sevastopol.

Military training from age 15: Belarus splits 10th-graders into drone pilots and battlefield medics. The move deepens a years-long militarization of Belarusian schooling that now reaches from kindergarten military-patriotic groups to mandatory field camps.

Russia's state statisticians report the growth Putin demanded—economists doubt it will hold. The rebound leaned on war spending and one-off boosts, it barely moved the flat first-half trend, and it landed just after Putin ordered his officials to turn the economy around.

Reuters: Russia dismisses Black Sea ceasefire idea after Ukraine's offer. Reuters says Kyiv passed the proposal through a third party after attacks pushed carriers from Odesa and choked routes that move Ukrainian grain.

Russia allegedly sent a hitman after a US-Ukrainian citizen in Warsaw. Poland caught the suspect. Polish services detained the Russian suspect earlier this month after working with US counterparts.

NATO fighter, one drone, one district: a jammed intercept lands over Latvia. A NATO fighter shot down a drone over Latvia's Balvi district after Russian jamming pushed it off course, officials say.

NASA shows Crimea as Russian on a map during its eclipse broadcast. It's the latest in a run of Western maps quietly erasing the line international law still draws around occupied Crimea, this time from the US space agency.

Japan weighs sanctions after Putin's first visit to disputed Kuril Islands. Tokyo says Moscow's move is "totally unacceptable".

Humanitarian and social impact

A stray goat named Borka has become the Spartan Brigade's mascot after 18 months on the front lines in Donetsk Oblast. The soldiers once pulled on body armor and helmets and drove back into drone range to bring him out.

437 killed, over 2,600 injured: Ukraine's deadliest month for civilians since 2022, UN says. 437 killed, 2,610 wounded, the worst toll since May 2022, UN monitors say.

Political and legal developments

Russia plans to remove border zones separating Russia from occupied Ukrainian territories. Russia plans to remove special border zones along its boundaries with occupied parts of Ukraine, further integrating the occupied territories into its legal and administrative system.

A Russian soldier kept a Ukrainian woman in a basement and raped her for two months – Ukrainian court sentences him to 12 years. The abuse ended only when Ukrainian troops captured the Russian soldier during fighting in December 2025, freeing the woman from the basement where she had been held.

“Responsibility is inevitable”: Zelenskyy warns Russian collaborators in occupied territories after explosion kills defector. Zelenskyy said collaborators helping Russia attack Ukrainians will be held accountable as Ukrainian special services continue targeted operations in occupied territories.

Russian agent who set fires in Kyiv receives 15-year prison sentence. He was one more disposable recruit in Russia's Telegram sabotage campaign, hired for two arson jobs, then left to face the court alone.

Read our previous daily review here.

Exclusives

Ukraine’s new Tu-95 killer is a $48,000 copy of a drone China refused to sell. Ukraine went to China to buy the drone. China refused. Two years later, the MICH 2000 costs $2,000 less than the original—and just took out a Russian bomber.

Wildberries can lose a fifth of its network and over half its main hubs at once. Estimates of how much of Wildberries Ukraine has burned run from a fifth of the network to well over half. Which is right depends on what you count. And some of the loudest claims don’t survive a check.

Moldova overtakes every EU country as Ukraine’s top dairy buyer. Ukraine is selling less dairy abroad and importing more—while Moldova, rather than an EU country, has become its largest foreign customer.

Russia’s biggest weapons maker has been under EU sanctions since 2022. Its 482 subsidiaries are the loophole.. A new NAKO analysis maps 482 companies inside Rostec and finds Western sanctions reach only a fraction of them—which is how the microelectronics in Russia's drones and missiles keep getting through.

Ukraine funds its war from wages, and a 1971 law keeps millions of women from earning them. Ukraine is short 4.5 million workers and 81% of its registered unemployed are women—yet a Soviet-era law still bars them from night shifts in the industries most desperate to fill them.

Russia has figured out how to stop Ukraine’s most powerful missile. The Flamingo cruise missile is Ukraine's hardest-hitting deep strike munition. But what good is it if Russia usually shoots it down?

Military

Ukraine puts controversial Skelia regiment under Azov command as Drapatyi pushes military reforms. The 425th Separate Assault Regiment will remain independent but operate under Azov Corps' command, with its scattered units gradually being brought together on the same section of the front.

Blackout and a blinded radar: Ukraine hits Russian military infrastructure across Crimea and beyond. Ukraine struck a Russian Nebo-U radar in Sevastopol as a wider overnight campaign targeted the logistics and military infrastructure supporting Russia's war.

Poland would rather the next Russian missile be downed over Ukraine than over its soil. It may send Kyiv more Patriots. A Russian missile that fell inside Poland in July has shifted Warsaw's thinking.

Russia pulled its fleet back to Novorossiysk to keep it safe. Ukraine hit it there with 15 kinds of weapons at once. The overnight barrage fused jet drones, Neptune missiles and naval drones against the fleet's last major refuge.

5% of US Patriot stocks gets Ukraine through winter, 10% ends the ballistic threat, and Zelenskyy has just 1%, he tells CNN. Ukraine holds just 1% of the Patriot interceptors it needs to stop Russia's ballistic missiles, Zelenskyy told CNN.

Ukrainian drones black out occupied Sevastopol and hit the Balaklava power plant. Power was restored on a temporary scheme after the city's energy infrastructure was damaged.

Two railway workers killed: a Russian jet drone hit their train's locomotive in Odesa Oblast. The jet-powered Shahed hit the locomotive as the train neared a station, the latest strike in Russia's campaign against Ukraine's railways.

115 days in a forest Russia has tried to seize since 2022: one border guard's stand. In the Serebryanskyi forest, holding on that long meant digging a well for water so that supply drones could bring in more food.

Intelligence and technology

One tower linked two Russian regiments near Kharkiv border. Ukrainian partisans say they disabled it. ATESH says damage to the tower slowed Russia's 345th and 380th motor rifle regiments and made it harder for them to support each other.

Ukraine strikes Gazprom's Salavat refinery again as Russia's fuel shortages return in 16 regions. The second hit in a month lands as Russian refining falls to its lowest since 2002.

International

Finland backs €28.5 million power plant project as Ukraine braces for Russia's next winter energy assault. Finnish technology will help Ukraine add power generation capacity as repeated Russian strikes continue to threaten the country's electricity and heating systems.

Ukraine asks the EU for €220 million to unlock €4 billion in farm loans as Russia's port strikes choke exports. The proposed EU grant would offset interest and bank risk, helping Ukrainian growers borrow before storage pressure peaks.

Poland and the Baltics risk Russian sabotage for backing Ukraine, Bloomberg says. The CIA warned regional governments as Russia weighed sabotage and false flags against Ukraine's supporters, officials told Bloomberg.

Tree lines out, swamps in: Lithuania rethinks how to stop Russian armor at the border. Restored wetlands are meant to make some ground simply impassable to heavy military vehicles within a few years.

Humanitarian and social impact

From "easy money" to murder: Russia escalates recruitment of Ukrainians for terrorist attacks inside Ukraine, police warn. Russian handlers are targeting people through Telegram job and drug channels, fake SBU calls, personal relationships, and even minors, gradually turning recruits into disposable operatives.

A 12-year-old dies in occupied Kherson Oblast where no hospital or ambulance is left, Ukrainian official says. The official says the nearest hospital in the town where the child died is 60 km away. Russian authorities have sent no aid to the city for over a year.

Ukraine brings home 261 bodies in latest repatriation, as Russia claims the dead are Ukrainian soldiers. The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said the remains arrived on 13 August 2026, and that investigators will now work to establish the identities.

Man killed in explosion in occupied Sevastopol, Russian sources report. A pro-Kremlin channel claims a woman carrying a backpack tracked the victim in the moments beforehand.

Read our previous daily review here.

Exclusives

Russia has figured out how to stop Ukraine's most powerful missile. The Flamingo cruise missile is Ukraine's hardest-hitting deep strike munition. But what good is it if Russia usually shoots it down? Russia's oil money is drying up—so its own people are paying for the war. Fresh figures show the Iran oil windfall came and went—and Russia, further behind than before, is now reaching for pensions and paychecks. Crude goes south, gasoline north—Ukraine's strikes split Russia's oil trade. Ukraine's refinery campaign has turned one of the world's largest fuel exporters into an importer—and pushed its crude onto an Arctic shortcut it barely used a year ago. Ukraine's drone strike shut Russia's biggest LPG plant as fuel rationing returned in 16 regions. The strike hit the plant's entry unit 2,200 kilometers behind the front, taking 40% of Russia's LPG production offline indefinitely. Military Two Kalibr-carrying frigates, a missile ship, a patrol vessel: Ukraine hit four Russian warships in one night at Novorossiysk. Ukraine carried out the strike at the port where Russia's Black Sea Fleet sheltered after fleeing Sevastopol. Russia steers its long-range drones from ground towers—Kyiv says it hit one in occupied Crimea. Explosions rolled across occupied Crimea through the night as Sevastopol declared three air-raid alerts and much of the peninsula lost power. 28 tanks in single day: July was Russia's deadliest month for personnel and its worst for vehicle losses. Ukraine's Defense Forces destroyed or disabled 13,998 Russian vehicles in July. A 141-meter ship mysteriously "disappeared" in the Black Sea near Novorossiysk, while Russian authorities are keeping the incident under wraps. The vessel may have been carrying military cargo, according to the OSINT project Exilenova+. Sea drones, jet drones, and Neptune missiles hit one Russian port in a single night. Kyiv paired three different weapon types in a coordinated operation its president called unique against the Black Sea Fleet's last big base. Intelligence and technology Russia builds 3,000 jet drones monthly to counter Ukrainian interceptors, HUR says. Moscow has ended production of the Geran-3 while expanding production of faster jet-powered models built to strain Ukraine's air defenses, HUR says. Russians work three shifts to build jet-powered missiles powered by a $16,000 Chinese engine from AliExpress. Russia can produce up to 80 S8000 "Banderol" cruise missiles a month. FPV drone repurposed to hunt Russian recon drones worked so well that Ukraine turned it into new purpose-built interceptor. Ukraine's Defense Ministry codified TAF Industries' Kolibri-i10 high-speed interceptor. Ukraine finds American Nvidia Jetson micro-computer in Russia's new missile that can't reportedly tell truck from a bus with children. Ukraine's HUR intelligence found an Nvidia Jetson micro-computer in Russia's new S-71 "Monokhrom" cruise missile. Türkiye wants to send Ukraine old US-made cluster munitions—one human rights group is fighting to stop it. HRW is targeting a $256 million transfer of decades-old rockets and shells that Kyiv wants to resist the Russian invasion. Newer drones haven't dethroned the FPV, and Russia fears our bomber drones, Ukrainian commander says. FPV drones are still a central precision-strike weapon in Ukraine's war against Russia, while Ukrainian forces claim a separate advantage in bomber drones. Ukrainian drone pilots turned a captured AK and a hard-drive magnet into a flying machine gun. The contraption barely flew at first—the rifle swung like a pendulum—but once the pilots steadied it, Russian soldiers ran from the sound of an assault rifle firing out of the sky. Ukraine's first domestically built CBRN scout vehicle just replaced Soviet jeep with no armor at all. Ukraine's National Guard received the first Ukrainian radiation and chemical reconnaissance vehicles on the armored Tisa chassis. International A record 4.41 million Ukrainians are under EU protection—and few are going home. With Russian strikes still hitting Ukrainian cities, the number under EU protection keeps climbing three years into the war—even as new arrivals slow and few in the system leave it. A bomb-laden drone hit a Ukrainian An-124 in Germany, then lay unnoticed for hours. The drone was likely linked to Russian intelligence services, a US Department of Defense representative in Europe suggested. Romania found two Russian drones bobbing in its sea—and didn't wait to ask questions. The military blew up the uncrewed aircraft near its flagship gas field once Kyiv confirmed they weren't Ukrainian. Humanitarian and social impact Russia starves most Ukrainian POWs, then "fattens" a few for exchange so they look normal, Ukrainian official says. Ukraine's intelligence confirms Russia is forming battalions from Ukrainian POWs and keeps cells where it feeds up prisoners. "They laid down their weapons, raised their hands": Russia has executed at least 345 surrendered Ukrainian soldiers on the ground. Dmytro Lubinets says the executions are a part of a systematic and rising pattern. Political and legal developments A Ukrainian railway engineer spied on Lyman's defenses for Russia using Google Maps. A former railway engineer tried to pass Ukrainian military locations to a handler to help Russia's strikes. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Ukraine says Russia can't replace its losses, plans mass draft after elections—and again in 2027. The claimed call-up comes as Russian battlefield losses overtake contract recruitment, which threatens Moscow's offensive capabilities. New developments The Belarus border tunnels reached Latvia—guards turned back the 15 migrants who crawled underground. The passage surfaced near Latvia's fence as Riga moved to coordinate police, soldiers, and security services against migrant-smuggling networks. Read our earlier daily review here.

Exclusives

Table tennis restored Russia's flag while Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. Sweden's Anton Källberg faces Russia's Vladimir Sidorenko in Malmö, the first Russian to play under his flag since table tennis dropped its wartime ban.

Russia squeezes the flanks, then infiltrates the middle. Around Kramatorsk, it can't do both. Russia knows how to take a Ukrainian city. Around Kramatorsk it does not have the infantry to run the method.

Military

From 27,711 to 40,438 in two months: Ukraine's drone kill rate is climbing fast. All of the destroyed targets were confirmed through the DELTA battle-management system.

From builder to the eyes of Ukraine's front: the soldier with the callsign Dancer who went from Soviet launchers to drones. When Russia's full-scale invasion began on 24 February 2022, Fedir was 22 and responsible for the generators that kept a Soviet S-300 battery firing. Now he is flying drones on the zero line, the point of closest contact with Russian forces.

Two Russian refineries burn – Orsk hit by drones 1,500 km out, Komsomolsk ablaze 6,500 km east. Explosions rocked Orenburg Oblast before flames engulfed a Rosneft plant in Khabarovsk, as monitoring channels flagged the second blaze as possible sabotage.

Ukrainian drones set a newly opened Wildberries mega-hub ablaze near Voronezh. Ukrainian drones burn a giant Wildberries logistics complex near Voronezh, killing one and forcing mass staff evacuation.

With Ukraine short of Patriot interceptors, Russia sees no reason to enter real negotiations, ISW says. Kyiv's dwindling air defenses now face freshly built weapons fired straight off the assembly line, not pulled from stored reserves, military intelligence warns.

Intelligence and technology

"Faster than originally planned": Russia wants 292 Starlink-rival satellites by 2027. The Rassvet network already offers brief connections as satellites cross Ukraine. Kyiv is discussing countermeasures.

Russia's jam-resistant drones run on a Chinese modem no one has sanctioned. The XK-F358 mesh radio that keeps Russia's Geran and Gerbera drones flying past Ukrainian jamming sells openly online from about $8,100 a unit, and it appears on no US, EU, UK or Ukrainian sanctions list.

Russia's tank shield shot down seven drones—Ukraine destroyed the tank anyway. Russia's Arena-M shield knocked seven drones out of the air on one tank, then ran dry.

Ukraine's newest interceptor doesn't ram its target. It nets it for $27, then flies home to catch another. Ukraine's WINFLY unveiled the Spider, an interceptor drone with a net-launcher.

Ukraine's security service breaks up two schemes registering Starlink terminals for Russia. The SBU says it detained three suspects in Dnipro and Zhytomyr and blocked every device the two operations had signed up.

A $300 FPV downs a $20,000 bomber drone. Ukraine tests an EW shield for it. Kyiv is testing a new electronic-warfare system designed to stop cheap Russian FPV drones from destroying expensive Ukrainian heavy bombers.

Ukraine's new AI platform trains weapons on five million frames of drone footage. Partner countries can use it too. Ukraine's Defense Ministry opened Avengers Labs, an AI-training platform built on battlefield data.

International

Sweden detains Russians who "camped" near home of CEO of Gripen jets Ukraine is buying. Micael Johansson is under personal protection.

Seoul says no again to Ukraine's weapons request as Pyongyang gets ready to send Russia more troops. South Korea arms NATO members with K2 tanks and K9 howitzers that free up older kit for the front, yet still draws the line at any direct transfer to Kyiv.

Local residents hang "thousand thanks" banner as Ukrainian firefighters help stop wildfire from reaching their French village. Ukrainian rescuers helped extinguish a wildfire that engulfed about a hectare of forest and threatened a village in France.

Humanitarian and social impact

Russia's Odesa strikes halve Ukraine's grain export forecast. Disrupted Black Sea exports are straining Ukraine's grain storage and pushing some wheat prices below production costs.

North Korean ballistic missile kills 7 steelworkers on their way to shelter, shuts down Zaporizhstal plant. The strike comes as Russia expands its use of North Korean KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles, which are harder for Ukraine to intercept and have been linked to deadly attacks on civilians.

Russia's education minister calls it "objective." A new textbook teaches Ukrainian children that their occupied region is historically Russian. Two new textbooks, compulsory from 1 September for grades 5–7, recast Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson Oblasts as Russian soil.

US forecasters see Ukraine's corn exports falling 39% as Russia bombs ports. Corn stocks are set to jump more than tenfold — the grain is there; the way out is not.

Ukraine and Moldova discuss rail corridor for grain amid Russian Black Sea attacks. Kyiv is requesting a 50 percent discount on transport costs as Chisinau seeks guarantees on cargo volumes, Reuters reports.

Russian ballistic missiles struck the grounds of a Kyiv children's hospital and set a warehouse ablaze — overnight strikes across Ukraine killed at least 9. Young patients and medical staff had reached the shelter before impact, sparing them, though a 28-year-old man was wounded at a nearby fire.

Political and legal developments

US House takes up Graham sanctions bill targeting Russia's oil money and shadow fleet. Lawmakers moved during recess, and the House text is word-for-word identical to the bill the Senate already passed 86-11.

Ukraine's distributed generation program has failed. It needed 7,000 MW of small plants to outlast Russian strikes, but built only 700, says former grid chief. The failure leaves the grid as vulnerable to Russian strikes as ever.

Canada joins Ukraine, EU, and Switzerland in sanctioning UAE arms maker whose vehicles equip Russia's National Guard. Canada has imposed restrictions on Streit Group, a UAE defense manufacturer.

New developments

Russia's Syrian foothold shrinks to a training center as Damascus takes back the airport and a berth. Under a memorandum signed on 9 August 2026, Russia will transfer civilian facilities to Syrian state control and turn its military bases into joint training centers.

Read our earlier daily review here.

Exclusives

Ukraine's cardboard protests look like democracy working. In a war, that's also the risk.. Three weeks on, the protests go on—smaller but daily. Fedorov's old seat is filled by an acting minister, and Fedorov himself won't join the crowds demanding his return.

Military

"What happens here affects next 50 years": why American left Pennsylvania to fight in Ukraine's 47th Brigade. "Lighthouse", a soldier in the 47th Brigade's reconnaissance company, came from Pennsylvania after the full-scale war.

"This is money of his accomplices burning": Russian partisans and Ukraine hit Siberian plant tied to Putin's inner circle. The plant is located over 2,000 km away from the Ukrainian border and is one of Russia's largest.

Ukraine's Crimea campaign could strike seven times more targets with faster funding, Brovdi says. To clear the skies over the peninsula, the force destroyed more than 300 Russian air defense assets in recent months, its commander said.

Russia's advance in Ukraine slows as casualties per square kilometer rise 3.5-fold, Radio Svoboda reports. Ukrainian drone operators say Russian infiltration units moving on foot lose all but one soldier out of every fifteen.

Zelenskyy says Russia could receive up to 50,000 North Korean troops. Kyiv says North Korean deployment numbers have grown from hundreds to tens of thousands within roughly two months, according to Ukrainian estimates.

Drones strike Russian oblasts overnight: thick smoke over a Nizhnekamsk refinery as Crimea's Krasnoperekopsk industrial zone burns. Unmanned aircraft reportedly hit a Tatarstan oil hub and the occupied peninsula, with satellite sensors flagging heat signatures and 15 airports halting flights.

Russian electric locomotive was named target of Ukrainian partisan operation. It carried military supplies toward Kharkiv front. The ATESH partisan movement says its agents destroyed the cab of an electric locomotive.

Intelligence and technology

Forged end-user certificates through eight countries: how one network kept European tech flowing into Russian missiles. Austrian counterintelligence exposed an international network that funneled high-tech industrial equipment to Rostec-linked Russian defense firms.

70 ballistic missiles and 12 launchers: Ukraine lines up deep-strike refill from an unlikely supplier. The M39 ATACMS flies about 165 kilometers the short-range original, carrying a warhead that scatters 950 bomblets over troops and air defenses.

Russian plants are overfulfilling monthly missile production quotas by 110-120% and unlikely to pause strikes, Ukraine's intelligence says. Moscow met its full-year Zircon and Onyx output targets by early August, seven months into 2026, Ukraine's deputy intelligence chief said.

New Iranian loitering munition has started reaching Ukraine, analyst says. It's built to hit deep behind front. Iran is improving its Shahed-107 kamikaze drones based on the Ukraine war, adding shrapnel elements.

International

Ukraine gave up 1,900 nuclear warheads in 1994 on Western promises that didn't work. New plan would replace them with Britain's shield instead. Plan pairs Britain's nuclear deterrent with Ukraine's army as Europe doubts US protection and struggles to deter Russia.

The Atlantic: US firms may fear cheaper Ukrainian Patriots, Republican official says. A Republican congressional official says intellectual-property concerns may mask fears of Ukraine being able to make Patriots more cheaply and more quickly.

Humanitarian and social impact

A $20,000 "welcome bonus" that was never paid: how a Colombia-registered recruiter sent Peruvians into Russia's war. Russia has deceived more than 450 Peruvian citizens into its army, and some have already been killed.

Occupied Ukraine's schools get a new Russian ideology class, a separate military-training track, and behavior grades from 1 September. Behavior grades for children as young as the second grade, a standalone military-training course, and a compulsory Russian identity subject take effect together across the temporarily occupied territories from 1 September.

A Russian missile took Oleksandra Paskal's leg at six. At 10, she competes in rhythmic gymnastics across five continents. She returned to the gym roughly seven months after the amputation, and now trains as hard as any girl in her group, on a prosthesis.

July was Ukraine's deadliest month for civilians since 2022 — and Russia is scaling its ballistic missile salvos toward 200 at once. Kyiv's unmanned-forces commander warns the Kremlin is racing to swamp a depleted air shield, echoing intelligence that Moscow now overfulfills its monthly weapons plans.

ISW: Russia strikes the Mayaki bridge linking southern Ukraine to Romania and Moldova. Moscow's overnight hit on the M-15 highway forced Kyiv to halt traffic toward the Danube ports, its main grain outlet after sea exports collapsed.

Political and legal developments

Sweden says it stopped Russian operation to discredit country and EU. But no one will be prosecuted. Sweden's Säpo exposed a Russian intelligence operation that recruited an agent in a foreign diplomatic mission to undermine Swedish decision-making.

A Russian who moved to Ukraine got 13 years the moment he visited relatives back home. Eleven alleged transfers of about 100 hryvnias ($2.23) each led Ivan Stolbov to a harsh sentence after he returned to Russia.

Zaluzhnyi, Fedorov, and Budanov lead Ukraine's trust ranking as Zelenskyy places fourth – KIIS. Three of Ukraine's most recognizable wartime figures now command the strongest public confidence, a late-July sociological study found, even as the president's standing lags noticeably behind.

Read our earlier daily review here.

Exclusives

Russia is assaulting the gateway to Sloviansk. Ukraine's 81st Brigade is holding it nearly alone. Mykolaivka is the biggest obstacle between Russian troops and Sloviansk, one of two big free cities in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast.

How Russia built a jam-proof drone force—and the Chinese supply chain that could still break it. First fiber optics, then mesh modems. Both came from China, and the modems are a catalogue item.

Ukraine's new drone is a cousin to America's stealth bombers. It reaches Ufa in three hours.. Ukraine's newest strike drone has a unique shape. And that helps it range deep inside Russia, faster, and with a heavier payload.

Ukraine's strikes gave Kazakhstan leverage over Russian retail giant Wildberries. Ukraine's strikes have given Astana leverage over a Russian retailer in retreat.

Ukraine's drones force oil-giant Russia to import gasoline—now from Morocco. Ukrainian strikes have cut Russian refining to a two-decade low, forcing one of the world's largest oil producers to buy finished fuel abroad—first from India, now from Morocco, shipped to the Arctic.

Military

Six explosions, four fires: Ukraine hit one of Russia's five largest refineries, 700 km from border. Ukraine's SBU and Defense Forces struck the Yaroslavl refinery, one of Russia's five largest, over 700 km from the border, and two FSB coast guard ships in occupied Kerch.

Seventh time this year: Ukrainian drones torch a top-five Russian refinery in Yaroslavl. The pre-dawn raid sent several columns of black smoke over the Slavneft-YANOS plant, which turns crude into gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel for central Russia.

Intelligence and technology

US rebuilt full intelligence sharing with Ukraine—and Kyiv strikes deep inside Russia hit harder. Both parties in Washington now credit the restored flow of satellite data and warnings, reversing a short 2025 cutoff that a Ukrainian officer said cost hundreds of lives.

Reuters: The Patriot deal Trump denied is quietly still alive. Washington kept working to let Ukraine build the interceptors even after the US President's doubts, four sources told Reuters.

A slice of Estonia's new EU billions will buy drones—for Ukraine, not itself. The money is a 45-year loan drawn from Brussels' new joint defense fund, which lets member states borrow cheaply.

International

Colombian veterans, a British bomb-disposal expert, a Finnish teenager: who are the 16,000 foreigners fighting for Ukraine?. Foreign troops serve Ukraine in frontline and specialist roles. The Military Ombudsman's Office has received more than 300 requests concerning their pay, contracts, supplies, status, and medical care.

Russia's planes probed NATO's eastern flank so often this July that scrambles jumped more than 250%. Russian planes kept approaching NATO's borders with their transponders off.

Azerbaijan's FM visited Irpin, town that stopped Russia's drive on Kyiv, and offered gas supplies. Baku is ready to expand energy cooperation, as Azerbaijan's relations with Russia deteriorate.

Voice of America's Ukrainian service goes back on air next week, more than year after Trump shut it down. For Ukraine, it means the return of a US-government broadcaster delivering news in Ukrainian into an information space that Russia floods with disinformation.

Humanitarian and social impact

Double-tap strike kills 20-year-old Hospitaller volunteer in Kyiv. "At the age of 20, while being a student, she could have enjoyed life, lived through the best years of her life, but she chose a different path, a very difficult and dangerous one," Nataliia Chykhachova said.

Fighters from 51 countries now held in Ukraine after fighting for Russia, ombudsman says. The figure raises Ukraine's publicly stated minimum from more than 48 countries in May, as Moscow's foreign recruitment widens.

47 sites destroyed, 1,943 damaged: Russia's toll on Ukrainian heritage keeps climbing. Ukraine's culture ministry counts close to 2,000 heritage sites hit since 2022, with 90 more added in just the last month.

Shortage of Patriot missiles from allies and intensified Russia's attacks made July deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since April 2022. July killed more Ukrainian civilians than any month since April 2022, the UN says.

Political and legal developments

Finnish archbishop is shocked by Moscow's latest church rhetoric: blessing nuclear weapons as "God's grace". The Russian church has traveled far from the faith it claims to represent.

Ex-top general Zaluzhnyi explains his "Ukraine will never join NATO" remark: I back the Alliance, but it must transform first. He says the bloc is stuck in Cold War thinking and needs a new doctrine before Kyiv could ever fit in.

The throwaway agents Moscow sent after a Bavarian drone boss arming Ukraine—and how Germany stopped them. A former Ukrainian bricklayer and an untrained Romanian woman took turns watching him before both were arrested.

Drug lab in EU member state, dealers in Ukraine, passenger buses in between: Dual operation seizes $960,000 in drugs across 32 searches. Ukrainian and Bulgarian police dismantled an international drug syndicate running a lab in Bulgaria.

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Exclusives

Russia wrecked Ukraine's grid. Dutch turbines with 20 years left are keeping its factories lit. Too small for a Dutch wind farm, exactly big enough for a factory running on two hours of power a day.

Some Ukrainian farmers sell wheat below cost as Black Sea disruption stops ore operations. The central bank has put a $2.5 billion price on the port closures, and an iron ore miner now has weeks of cash left.

Ukraine's new ballistic missiles would make Russia choose: bomb Kyiv or defend Moscow. Russia uses its S-400 air defense missiles in a surface strike mode. Once Ukrainian ballistic missiles start raining down, this may no longer be an option.

Europe promised Ukraine a deterrence force. The missiles that would make it work arrive in 2029.. The only deep-strike production line opening sooner runs through Ukrainian factories.

Military

Why can't Ukraine just blow up Russian launchers firing ballistic missiles at its cities?. Russia's Iskander launchers hide on forest roads, deploy and flee in minutes, making them extremely hard to catch, presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov says.

Ukraine hits 16th Wildberries warehouse in under three weeks, one injured overnight. Governor confirms drone downed itself onto sorting hub, one worker injured.

Intelligence and technology

For under $120, Russia can get Ukrainian warehouse bombed. Here's how it finds its targets. Russia can launch around 100 ballistic missiles at Ukraine each month.

American tank missiles, an Israeli radar, a Dutch truck—Ukraine welded them into one drone-killer. For each cheap Russian drone it stops, Ukraine saves a million-dollar interceptor for the cruise and ballistic missiles that truly need one.

North Korean missile unit deploys to Russia for ballistic strikes on Ukraine, Kyiv says. Russia is reportedly deploying a North Korean missile unit in western Russia, potentially adding 120 ballistic missiles to an arsenal increasingly used against Ukraine's cities.

US has burned through 80% of THAAD interceptors, sources tell CNN. Patriot stockpiles, which arm Ukraine's air defense, are down by half.

International

Fewer air-defense missiles from partners may be attempt to make Ukraine more compliant, Zelenskyy says after Russia's attack killed 17 civilians. President Zelenskyy said political motives may lie behind the reduced supply of anti-ballistic missiles to Ukraine.

Humanitarian and social impact

German brand sold in 150 countries just lost its Ukraine warehouse to a Russian strike. It says it won't stop operating.

For over 12 years, one man gave hundreds of Ukrainian families name and body to bury. He was killed exhuming bodies near front. Oleksii Yukov, who for a quarter-century recovered the bodies of the fallen so families could bury them, was killed by a fatal wound while exhuming bodies on the front line.

Russia loots occupied Crimea's ancient sites through six illegal archaeological digs. Russian archaeological teams are probing ancient burial sites and settlements while Ukrainian officials say artifact looters can pay Russian security personnel to take finds at dig sites from Chersonesus.

Russia destroys the warehouses of Ukraine's biggest retailers and parcel carrier in overnight Kyiv barrage. Russia destroyed the warehouses of Rozetka, Nova Poshta, and Epicentr — the retailers and parcel carrier that move goods to millions of Ukrainians — and killed 17 people.

Russia hits Kyiv and its region overnight, 14 dead as ammonia leaks and building collapses. Second massed Kyiv barrage in five days kills 14, floods four districts with fires.

Political and legal developments

Soviet nukes are "God's grace," says Russian church Patriarch Kirill. He claims it stopped the "enemy's plans" to "destroy and enslave" the country.

New EU rule blocks temporary protection for Ukrainian men who dodge military duty. Reserve+ app data now required to prove compliance before crossing into the EU.

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Exclusives

Reconstruction holds Ukraine’s economy above water as service sector cracks. The sector rebuilding what Russia destroys is now the war economy’s most confident, while service firms slip into pessimism, and the overall mood stops improving.

Ukraine’s ousted defense minister took drone contracts away from the generals. Now they may take them back. The suppliers who thrived under the old system are already pushing to bring it back.

Can Ukrainian forces save Sloviansk and Kramatorsk?. Sloviansk and Kramatorsk are the last big free cities in Donetsk Oblast. Can Ukrainian forces save them from a creeping Russian advance?

Military

Over 100 strategic targets struck in Ukraine's 40-day campaign against Russia's war machine. Ukraine's Security Service says the operation combined deep strikes on air bases, oil facilities, air defenses, and shadow fleet vessels with battlefield attacks on more than 21,000 Russian military targets.

Two Russian missiles landed 5 and 150 meters from Lithuania's embassy in Kyiv. Its FM says strike could have been deliberate. Lithuania's foreign minister said Russia may have deliberately targeted diplomatic missions in Kyiv, noting no military sites stand near its damaged embassy.

Ukraine has intercepted 445,000 Russian aerial targets since 2022, but cracks in the shield are starting to widen. Ukraine says its air defenses have shot down hundreds of Russian missiles and tens of thousands of attack drones since 2022, as Russia increasingly shifts toward harder-to-intercept ballistic attacks.

Take Lyman, then Sloviansk, then Kramatorsk: Russia's plan is still stuck on step one, the Ukrainian military says. Russian commanders treat the town as the necessary launchpad, yet their infantry cannot hold ground inside it, according to the report.

ISW: First Pokrovsk, then Huliaipole, now Russia points its logistics-killing air campaign at the Fortress Belt. The 2025 version took months to set up advances, and this one is expected to move just as slowly.

No siren sounded before drone hit crowded Russian beach near missile maker's resort, killing six. OSINT analysts say Russian air defense likely brought it down.

Intelligence and technology

Mystery drone resembling America's F-117 stealth jet filmed over a Russian refinery. The unidentified aircraft appeared during a strike near Ufa, and Ukraine's military has said nothing about what it is.

This Russian refinery makes the jet fuel for Moscow's warplanes, and Ukraine keeps setting it on fire. Syzran supplies airfields and units of two Russian military districts, and it sits over 800 km from Ukraine. Also, Wildberries confirmed a fire at the Krasny Bor complex, the third of its Leningrad Oblast hubs struck in under two weeks.

Russia wanted Novorossiysk to be its main export gateway, Ukraine turned it into a chokepoint. The port handled every fifth ton of Russia's seaborne exports, but a grain-exporters' union now warns the Black Sea corridors could be blocked entirely.

Russia's largest retailer is taking cameras away from its own workers, month after eight of its warehouses burned. Russia's Wildberries now lets warehouse staff bring only button phones without cameras, after employees filmed Ukrainian drone strikes on its facilities and shared the footage.

Russia uses old KGB trick to get rid of Ukrainian soldiers not on battlefield. It's already tried more than 50 times this year. Russia is using "honey traps," fake dating profiles and staged dates, to lure Ukrainian soldiers to their deaths, the SBU says.

International

US begins handing Ukraine military aid mission to European allies as Pentagon reorganizes command. The Security Assistance Group-Ukraine has coordinated billions of dollars in military aid since 2022. The Pentagon says the transition reflects Europe's growing role in supporting Kyiv's defense.

Lithuania moves to produce Ukrainian drones locally under bilateral defense pact. The project will manufacture Ukrainian-designed drones in Lithuania using transferred technology, expanding Ukraine's production capacity abroad while strengthening Europe's defense industry.

Syria agrees to cut Russian oil imports as US pushes to curb Moscow's influence, Reuters. Russian crude shipments to Syria have risen sharply this year, making Moscow the country's dominant supplier, but Damascus is now reportedly seeking alternative sources as it pursues closer relations with Washington.

Russia is now Belgium's only LNG supplier, after Iran War disrupts imports, Bloomberg. Belgium's LNG intake plunged, yet every cargo it received in July came from Russia while European purchases from Moscow continued rising.

Georgia's sanctioned Kulevi refinery says switch to non-Russian crude is under way. Black Sea Petroleum says Kazakhstan's crude has already entered production and the first shipment from Libya is due later this month as the company seeks to meet EU requirements for ending its reliance on Russian oil.

Iran was prepared to strike three Ukrainian sites over sunken ship but paused after Kyiv's explanation, Tehran claims. A senior adviser to Iran's supreme leader said Tehran still intends to make Ukraine "pay" for the attack despite suspending its immediate response. Ukraine has maintained the vessel was carrying Iranian drone and missile components for Russia.

Humanitarian and social impact

Russia has destroyed 80% of Ukraine's power capacity. Its next target makes blackout survivable for only three days. Russia's aim this winter is to destroy Ukraine's water supplies, First Deputy PM and Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal says.

Crimea mass shooting: Russian soldier reportedly kills three civilians and one fellow soldier. The detained serviceman reportedly opened fire on fellow soldiers before attacking residents outside Sevastopol. His identity and motive remain undisclosed.

Putin gave this brigade honorary title weeks after war crimes in Bucha. It's now hiding its own dead as "missing". The 64th Brigade, a main suspect in the Bucha atrocities, is intimidating wives of missing soldiers and relabeling its dead as "missing" to hide losses, the ATESH partisan movement says.

70 Ukrainian firefighters help tackle one of France's largest wildfires in the past 20 years. Ukrainian rescuers were assigned to the most challenging section, where they received their first tasks today.

Russia keeps hitting warehouses that keep Ukraine fed. This time, it was food storage outside Dnipro. A Russian drone strike ignited a large fire at food warehouses in a suburb of Dnipro, the regional administration says, with casualty information still being clarified.

Political and legal developments

Ukraine's former commander-in-chief just said what officials won't: NATO membership will never happen for Kyiv. Kyiv should tie its security to a future European military bloc.

Zelenskyy names one of the worst consequences of Russia's war. This threat is about to grow everywhere in the world. Ukraine needs 100 systems under its FREYJA anti-ballistic project to close its skies, President Zelenskyy says, pitching it as a future shared shield for Europe.

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