Ukraine has built a revolutionary drone to catch Russia's most modern drones. The Ukrainian arsenal gained its first jet-powered interceptor drone, the Alexa Spatium, developed to destroy small aerial, ground, and surface targets in combat, Ukraine's Defense Ministry announced.

The interceptor is Ukraine's answer to a threat that has outrun its defenses and killed civilians. Russia added jet engines to its Geran drones to make them fly faster than Ukraine's interceptors could intercept. Such jet-powered drones, Geran-4, struck a Kryvyi Rih shopping center on 21 August, killing at least 15 people and injuring 130.

The Alexa Spatium is built to catch exactly those jet-powered drones, closing an arms-race loop in which Russia's speed had left Ukraine's slower interceptors behind.

It is built to kill the jet Gerans

The interceptor targets Russia's fastest drones first. It is primarily oriented toward destroying Russian kamikaze drones, including the Geran-3, Geran-4, and Geran-5, as well as the Shahed-131, and can also strike reconnaissance drones, helicopters, and other targets, according to the Defense Ministry.

A powerful turbojet gives the Alexa Spatium the speed to chase down jet-powered targets, with a high flight ceiling, a significant combat radius, and a range spanning low to medium altitudes.

It is fast, reusable, and pickup-portable

The drone is built for flexible, repeated use. It measures about 1.5 by 1.7 meters, launches from a mobile catapult in minutes, and is made of a light, strong composite that lets it make sharp maneuvers without losing control. A drone that does not complete its mission can return to the launch site and be reused.

It carries a choice of warheads and seekers. The Alexa Spatium can be fitted with fragmentation, shaped-charge, or thermobaric warheads, guided by preset coordinates or direct control, and uses television and infrared search-and-aiming systems.

Since the beginning of 2026, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has codified and approved 413 unmanned aerial systems for use by the country’s Defense Forces. Almost all of them are Ukrainian-made.

Ukraine has hit the commander of a Russian brigade notorious for one of the war's worst atrocities. The 423rd Separate Unmanned Systems Regiment "Scythian Griffons" struck the car of Dmitry Shabaev, commander of Russia's 64th brigade, seriously wounding him, the regiment reported.

The target commands the unit most associated with the killing of civilians in Bucha in spring 2022. During the Russian occupation, 637 civilians were killed in the small town of Bucha alone. 460 infrastructure facilities were damaged or destroyed, according to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office.

The strike hit the commander 80 km behind the front

According to military intelligence, the Russian colonel's movements had been tracked for a long time, and the drone crew hit his service vehicle roughly 80 kilometers from the line of contact.

Both men aboard were badly hurt. Shabaev and his driver received serious injuries, and both were evacuated to a Russian military hospital, the regiment said.

The brigade is tied to Bucha

After the atrocities in Bucha, the brigade remains in the fight. It now forms part of Russia's southern grouping in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts and continues to commit crimes.

The unit is targeting Russian command posts

The strike reflects a deliberate focus on Russian command. Regiment commander Colonel Vitalii Hersak said that after becoming a separate regiment with strengthened capabilities, the unit set a strategic task of concentrating on the command posts of enemy brigades and battalions.

"After we became a separate regiment and our combat capabilities strengthened, I set the guys a strategic task to focus especially on working the command posts of enemy brigades and battalions. This is only the beginning. To be continued," Hersak said.

Targeting commanders and command posts aims to degrade Russian units by removing the officers who direct them, a higher-value target than the front-line troops they command.

Russia is deploying six launchers for North Korean ballistic missiles in Voronezh Oblast, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported on 20 August. The assessment cited Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR).

Russia has already used North Korean missiles in deadly strikes across Ukraine, and Pyongyang is supplying more of them. From Voronezh Oblast, the weapons could threaten Kyiv and six other regions, adding to the ballistic arsenal Moscow can use in mass attacks intended to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses.

Six launchers expand Russia’s missile threat

The North Korean missiles could reach Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, ISW said.

The unit may eventually field 120 missiles. HUR said North Korea had transferred around 50 KN-23, KN-24, and upgraded KN-30 ballistic missiles to Russia by July.

The KN-30 can carry a 2,500-kilogram warhead, though ISW has seen no evidence of Russia using it against Ukraine. Other North Korean missiles have larger warheads than Russia’s Iskander-M but are less accurate, Ukrainian military expert Anatolii Khrapchynskyi said.

Those missiles could join Russia’s combined attacks. ISW expects Moscow to stockpile ballistic and cruise missiles for several days before launching large barrages intended to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses.

ISW pointed to the 19–20 August attack as the latest example of that pattern. The barrage lasted nearly nine hours and killed at least 15 people in Kyiv. Ukraine’s Air Force said it intercepted most drones and cruise missiles, but no longer routinely reports how many ballistic missiles Russia launches or Ukraine intercepts.

North Korean missiles have already killed civilians

Preliminary evidence indicated that Russia used a North Korean ballistic missile in a 30 July strike on Radushne, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, that killed five members of one family.

On 10 August, a North Korean missile killed seven Zaporizhstal steelworkers and injured 21 others in Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian officials said. The workers were heading to a shelter when the missile struck.

Ballistic missiles travel at high speed and leave civilians little time to seek cover. They are also harder to intercept than drones or cruise missiles, while Ukraine has limited supplies of the Patriot interceptors used against them.

Ukraine is training the operators who shoot down Russian drones on a simulator, before they touch a real interceptor. The Ukrainian interceptor drones P1-SUN and Bullet were integrated into the UFDS combat-drone simulator, Drone Fight Group reported.

In the simulator, an operator can practice basic control, pursuit, and interception of aerial targets, repeat exercises an unlimited number of times, and train accuracy without using real equipment, letting Ukraine build interceptor-drone crews cheaply and safely as it fields more of the drones that down Russia's Shaheds.

The simulator uses accurate models of real drones

The two interceptors are the first real ones added to the military version. The P1-SUN by SkyFall and the Bullet by General Cherry became the first actual anti-aircraft interceptor drones integrated into UFDS Military, Drone Fight Group said.

The point is to train on what operators will actually fly. For the developers, the collaboration continues the simulator's core principle of bringing training as close as possible to get to know them in a safe digital environment.

It is free for Ukrainian troops

The training version is provided to the military at no cost. The full training version of UFDS is available free for Ukrainian soldiers, while a public version is available on Steam, and the full version is given to units individually through a form on the site.

More Ukrainian drones are being added

The developers plan to keep integrating real systems. The UFDS team intends to add more real Ukrainian drones and other uncrewed-systems solutions, giving makers a way to present their platforms to operators digitally and users a way to train on models matching real systems.

As the country fields an ever-wider range of interceptors and other drones, a simulator that mirrors the real systems lets operators learn each new platform before it reaches their hands.

Logistical problems are stopping Russian small infantry groups from reaching Lyman, a 53rd Brigade officer told Army TV on 21 August, ArmyInform reported.

Russia is trying to capture Lyman and use it as a launchpad for an advance toward Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Its forces have repeatedly tried to push into the city. They have reached its eastern edge but have not secured a foothold inside, according to Ukraine’s Joint Forces.

Junior Lieutenant Volodymyr Hirniak, a communications officer with Ukraine’s 53rd Separate Mechanized Brigade, said the situation in the unit’s sector remained tense but had “not changed too radically.”

Russian forces continued to use drones, including fiber-optic models, Hirniak said. On the ground, they were sending small infantry groups to slip through Ukrainian lines and create confusion inside the brigade’s defensive positions.

The tactic was neither new nor confined to the 53rd Brigade’s sector, he added. Russia’s immediate aim was to reach Lyman and “open a gate” for further advances.

However, logistical problems were preventing the groups from achieving that aim, according to Hirniak. Ukrainian troops later detected and neutralized the infiltrating teams, he said.

ArmyInform did not report how many groups had attempted to advance, where within the brigade’s sector the incidents occurred, or over what period. Hirniak’s account could not be independently verified.

Why Russia keeps pushing toward Lyman

Lyman is a frontline city in northern Donetsk Oblast that blocks Russia’s northern route toward Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, part of Ukraine’s fortified Donbas “fortress belt.” Russia occupied the city for about four months in 2022 before Ukrainian forces liberated it on 1 October.

Joint Forces spokesman Viktor Trehubov said on 4 August that Russia needed to capture Lyman and establish a base there before advancing south toward Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

Russia has pressed towards Lyman for more than a year. In July 2025, another Ukrainian officer said Russian gains near the city remained slow and costly despite repeated attempts to exploit gaps in Ukrainian lines.

Ukrainian defense manufacturer Fire Point has delayed its Danish missile-fuel plant until late 2027 after the original building failed to meet safety requirements, pushing the estimated cost above €150 million, Euractiv reported on 19 August.

The plant will produce solid rocket propellant for Fire Point’s Flamingo cruise missiles. Denmark was the first NATO country to permit Ukrainian military production on its territory, the German outlet BILD reported. The site is intended to move some production away from Russian attacks in Ukraine, but the delay postpones that capacity by a year.

Fire Point is building the plant in Vojens, near Skrydstrup Air Base in southern Denmark, Euromaidan Press reported.

Fire Point CEO Iryna Terekh announced the revised plan at DALO Industry Days, a defense-industry conference in Herning. She said Fire Point had originally expected the project to cost €50 million and called the new estimate “very rough.”

Denmark had already removed more than 20 legal barriers to speed up the project, Euractiv reported. Terekh said other European countries also remained interested in hosting Fire Point production.

What is Fire Point

Fire Point currently makes missiles and drones at 90 locations across Ukraine, Terekh told Euractiv in July.

The company supplies more than half of Ukraine’s deep-strike weapons—arms used to hit targets far behind the front line—and says it produces 300 drones daily, in a July 2026 interview with Liga.

In August 2025, Fire Point was producing 100 FP-1 long-range attack drones each day, according to the Associated Press. Its later figure includes FP-1 and FP-2 drones.

Denmark directly funds Ukrainian arms makers

Denmark has created the “Danish model” of aid, which uses allied money to buy weapons directly from Ukrainian manufacturers instead of taking equipment from donor stockpiles.

About $200 million of the €590 million military aid package announced in June was directed through the mechanism, Euromaidan Press reported. Denmark has committed about $11.7 billion in military support to Ukraine from 2022 through 2028, according to its Defense Ministry.

Ukrainian prosecutors have formally accused a captured Russian marine of executing a Ukrainian unit commander near Pokrovsk, the Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor’s Office said on 20 August. Investigators allege he took the 34-year-old captive to a forest belt after an interrogation and shot him in the back of the head on his superior’s order.

The case comes as Ukraine steps up efforts to prosecute Russian troops accused of executing or abusing Ukrainian POWs. Ukrainian investigators and UN monitors have documented a growing pattern since 2024 of Russian forces executing Ukrainian troops after capture.

The alleged gunman is now in Ukrainian custody, opening the way for an in-person trial. Russian troops also shot dead a second Ukrainian prisoner, prosecutors said.

Russian assault units had been trying to seize Shakhove on the Pokrovsk front since May 2025, according to the prosecutor’s office. On 10 October 2025, a small Russian infantry group entered the village’s outskirts and captured two Ukrainian service members, including the commander, the office alleges.

After the interrogation, the suspect took the commander to a forest belt and killed him with an automatic rifle, prosecutors said. The other Ukrainian prisoner was also shot dead. The statement names neither victim.

Investigators identified the suspect as a 34-year-old native of Russia’s Krasnoyarsk Krai who used the call sign “Tai” and served as a rifleman in the 336th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade.

Ukrainian forces later captured him during fighting in the same sector, according to prosecutors. The office did not say when he was taken prisoner.

Prosecutors formally accused him of cruel treatment of prisoners of war resulting in death, a war crime under Ukrainian law.

Ukraine’s other cases against captured Russian soldiers

Ukraine has previously brought cases against other captured Russian soldiers over POW executions. A Zaporizhzhia court sentenced Dmitry Kurashov to life imprisonment in November 2025—the first time Ukraine convicted a Russian soldier of executing a surrendered Ukrainian POW.

In a separate case, the Security Service of Ukraine charged Sergey Tuzhilov over the execution of one bound Ukrainian POW and his alleged role in killing two others near Vovchansk in June 2024.

Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya denied reports that Moscow could launch another mass mobilization after September’s parliamentary elections, saying none was planned or expected “as far as I know,” The Moscow Times reported

Russia has avoided another draft since its 2022 mobilization triggered protests and an exodus, relying instead on contract soldiers. Ukraine says those recruits no longer replace battlefield losses, and Moscow may mobilize several hundred thousand people after the elections. That could replenish its forces and support new offensives, although Ukrainian intelligence sees no preparations now.

Nebenzya’s remarks followed a question about more than 20,000 people crossing Russia’s Verkhny Lars border checkpoint into Georgia in one day amid fears of post-election mobilization, Meduza reported.

His comments extend a series of Russian denials. Deputy Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev dismissed reports of another mobilization as “nonsense” in late July. The State Duma’s defense committee said a mass compulsory call-up was not under consideration because the army was recruiting contract soldiers, The Moscow Times reported.

Russia has avoided another mass draft since its September 2022 mobilization triggered protests and an exodus. Officials had also denied that mobilization was planned shortly before President Vladimir Putin announced it, Meduza noted.

Russian government seeks new wartime penalties

Moscow is separately seeking penalties for people and companies that ignore mobilization and military-supply orders issued by regional authorities. The bill would not itself order a new call-up.

The government submitted it to the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, on 20 August, The Moscow Times reported. Companies could face fines of up to 1 million rubles or suspension for up to 90 days.

Russian law already punishes such defiance in areas under martial law but imposes no nationwide penalty elsewhere in Russia, according to the bill. Its authors said a “significant number” of violations had been recorded.

Ukraine says a new draft could provide troops for a northern offensive

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 11 August, citing Ukrainian military intelligence, that Russia planned to mobilize several hundred thousand people after the elections and roughly the same number in 2027.

HUR, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, later assessed that a post-election mobilization could enable Russia to build a strike force for a northern offensive by February 2027. Its deputy chief, Vadym Skibitskyi, stressed, however, that the agency currently sees no evidence that such preparations have begun.

Editor's note: This is a developing story.

A Russian drone attack on a shopping center in Kryvyi Rih on 21 August killed at least 15 people and injured 130, including 23 children, local authorities said.

The attack struck the shopping mall during the day, setting shops inside the building on fire, regional military administration head Oleksandr Hanzha said.

The attack came in two waves, with the second strike hitting emergency responders about 30 minutes after the first strike caused the fire, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Twenty-nine people remain in serious condition, including five children, according to Head of the Kryvyi Rih Defense Council Oleksandr Vilkul.

One of the victims died in hospital from severe injuries sustained in the attack, bringing the death toll to six, according to Hanzha.

Second strike hit emergency responders

The second wave came as emergency crews were responding to the fire caused by the first strike.

Zelenskyy called the attack “simply an act of terrorism” and said the international community should respond with real pressure on Russia.

“For peace to be possible, Russia needs to face real accountability,” Zelenskyy said.

Kryvyi Rih, in central-southern Ukraine, has faced frequent Russian missile and drone attacks throughout the full-scale war, with repeated strikes causing heavy civilian casualties.

Russian channels acknowledge strike on civilian target

Russian military Telegram channels described the shopping center as a target shortly after the attack, according to Kryvyi Rih Times.

One Russian channel claimed that a “Geran-4” jet-powered drone had been used to strike the shopping and entertainment complex and said the “target was hit” before noting that a fire had broken out inside the building.

The channel also published the precise coordinates of the shopping center.

The posts did not provide evidence that the shopping center was a legitimate military target.

Russian forces have repeatedly used drones and missiles to strike Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure throughout the full-scale invasion.

Russian attacks across Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

Russian forces attacked four districts of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast nearly 60 times on 21 August using drones, artillery, and an aerial bomb, Hanzha said.

In addition to the attack on Kryvyi Rih, Russian strikes hit communities in Nikopol, Synelnykove, and Kamianske districts, damaging apartment buildings, private homes, and cars.

Three people were injured in Nikopol district, while two others were injured in Synelnykove district. Several of the injured were hospitalized, Hanzha said.

The attacks also damaged private homes in Synelnykove district and caused a fire in the Krynychanska community of Kamianske district.

Ukraine is asking Elon Musk to let it arm deep-strike drones with his Starlink network and turn them on Russian ballistic-missile launchers far inside Russia, the Financial Times reported. The plan needs Musk's approval — and US President Donald Trump was cool to the idea when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy raised it at the White House on 28 July, with people present expecting Musk to refuse.

Kyiv is chasing the workaround because its air defenses are stretched: Russia keeps escalating its missile and drone strikes, and Ukraine is running low on the Patriot interceptors that are its only dependable answer to Russian ballistic missiles. As Russia builds more missiles and drones, Ukraine's interceptor needs run into the hundreds before the year is out.

At the meeting, FT reported, Zelenskyy pressed Trump to lobby Musk for permission to fly Starlink-linked drones across the Russian border. He capped the pitch at 200 km into Russia — far enough to reach launch sites, command posts, and other targets — on the calculation that a shallower limit might make Musk likelier to agree.

Starlink could extend Ukrainian drone strikes

Riding SpaceX's satellites, Starlink drones hold a steadier link to their pilots at long range than ordinary radio allows, and they shrug off the jamming that grounds other drones. The drones have already shown their worth in the fighting at home, and Vienna-based military analyst Franz-Stefan Gady said that across the border they "could be very useful in hunting" Russian launchers, FT wrote.

Kyiv's best channel to Musk has also just closed: Zelenskyy recently fired his defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, who had a direct line to the billionaire.

Speaking to a Ukrainian podcast on 6 August, Fedorov said that even with a channel to Musk still open after his firing, he had made no progress on cross-border Starlink use—"a difficult task right now."

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Musk’s Starlink decisions have affected both sides in the Russo-Ukrainian war

Musk has backed Ukraine's heavy dependence on Starlink for military command and comms. In 2022, Musk declined to extend Starlink coverage for Ukrainian troops mid-operation near occupied Crimea, citing his fear of triggering a nuclear escalation.

He has also acted against Moscow: in February, at Fedorov's direct request, Musk shut down the Starlink terminals that Russian forces had been operating illicitly against Ukraine.

Now, Musk answered Fedorov's Monday post with a line about "trying to do the right thing" and wanting peace — and said nothing about the Starlink ask.

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) urged Ukrainians to remain particularly vigilant ahead of Independence Day on 24 August, warning of potential Russian attacks and other security threats around the holiday.

Security threats are often heightened around major national holidays in Ukraine during the full-scale war with Russia, when large public gatherings can create opportunities for attacks and Russia has an added incentive to use symbolic dates to spread fear and disruption.

The SBU said Russia could exploit Independence Day gatherings for attacks, provocations, sabotage, cyberattacks, or other crimes.

Russia may recruit Ukrainians for sabotage

The SBU specifically warned about attempts by Russian intelligence services to recruit Ukrainians to carry out attacks inside the country.

According to the agency, Ukrainians could be offered money to set fires, damage property, plant suspicious objects, collect information about military facilities, or carry out other illegal activities.

The SBU urged people not to accept such offers and to immediately report attempts at recruitment.

It also warned that recruiters may disguise requests as ordinary tasks. People could be asked to photograph a particular location, deliver a package, or leave an object somewhere without being told the real purpose of the task.

The SBU said people should be especially cautious about requests from unknown individuals, including those claiming to represent law enforcement.

Russia has repeatedly sought to recruit Ukrainians for sabotage and other activities inside Ukraine during the full-scale war. Ukrainian authorities have previously reported cases in which people were offered money to carry out arson attacks, damage infrastructure, gather intelligence, or perform other tasks on behalf of Russian handlers.

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Warning over information that could help Russia

The agency also urged Ukrainians to avoid sharing information that could help Russia identify military targets or assess the results of its attacks.

That includes photos and videos showing the locations of Ukrainian troops, critical infrastructure, checkpoints, and air defense systems.

The SBU also told people not to publish information about the consequences of Russian strikes, Ukrainian air defense operations, or the movement of Ukrainian military personnel.

Such information can reveal the location and activity of Ukrainian forces or help Russia assess the effectiveness of its strikes.

Independence Day under wartime threats

Ukraine will mark its 35th Independence Day on 24 August, more than four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

The holiday comes as Russia continues to use missiles and drones to attack Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, while Ukrainian authorities remain concerned about Russian intelligence activity and sabotage inside the country.

The SBU urged Ukrainians to remain particularly vigilant before and during Independence Day and to report suspected recruitment, preparations for sabotage or terrorism, and other activity that could threaten national security.

Latvia has resumed publishing monthly lists of locally registered companies trading goods with Russia or Belarus after a nearly three-year pause, public broadcaster LSM reported on 20 August 2026.

Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs has pledged to sever its remaining economic ties with Russia and Belarus, but substantial trade remains legal because EU sanctions are not a full embargo. The monthly register makes that commerce visible by identifying the companies involved.

The Central Statistical Bureau, Latvia's national statistics agency, published the names of 171 companies for July. A subsequent analysis by Latvian news agency LETA found that more than two-thirds operated in logistics, food and agriculture, or medicine.

The disclosure is, in effect, a form of naming and shaming. Yet the statistics bureau stopped publishing a similar list in autumn 2023 because names without transaction details could not support objective conclusions. The register is not a sanctions blacklist, and inclusion does not indicate a sanctions violation.

Under an amendment adopted on 18 June 2026, Latvia’s tax authority must send the data to the statistics bureau each month. The change also lifted tax-confidentiality rules that had kept company names private, LSM reported.

The explanatory note accompanying the law said disclosure was intended to support Ukraine. The amendment's authors argued that Latvian companies should not contribute to Russian and Belarusian state revenues while Russia’s invasion continues, according to LSM.

Latvia seeks to cut its remaining trade

The Prime Minister said in June that Latvia must sever its remaining economic ties with Russia and Belarus. However, he indicated that pharmaceutical exporters would likely be exempted on national-security grounds.

Latvia’s exports to Russia and Belarus each fell only about 7% in 2025, while imports from Russia plunged by more than two-thirds, according to official data cited by Euromaidan Press.

EU sanctions do not prohibit all trade

The EU renewed its economic sanctions on Russia through July 2027, preserving restrictions on trade, finance, and energy, as well as on goods and technology with both civilian and military uses, Euromaidan Press reported in June.

The Council of the EU says its trade restrictions exclude health, pharmaceutical, food, and agricultural products to avoid harming Russian civilians. Those exclusions allow EU companies to continue lawful trade with Russia even while other parts of its economy remain under sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine struck one of Russia's largest oil refineries deep in the Urals and a military airfield overnight in a long-range attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on 21 August. The Ukrainian Army's General Staff confirmed the refinery and airfield hits, while Zelenskyy said the same night also reached the Black Sea and brought fresh damage from earlier strikes on a Russian warplane and a drone-launch site.

Fire at a major Lukoil refinery in Perm

Zelenskyy said the overnight drones hit the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez refinery — known as PNOS — in Perm, where the General Staff recorded a fire on the plant's grounds. The target sits more than 1,500 km from Ukraine's northern border, in a region near the Ural Mountains.

The refinery is one of Russia's largest, able to process more than 13 million tons of crude a year, with more than half its output sold abroad until recently. It supplies fuel to both Russia's economy and its army.

Ukrainian Telegram channels Supernova+ and Exilenova+ shared footage of explosions and a rising plume, with locals reporting a series of blasts at the site. Russia's Perm Krai authorities claimed they repelled the attack and downed 16 drones.

Kyiv has repeatedly hit the plant through the year. After a strike at the end of July, it had been running well below capacity.

Airfield, Black Sea, and other targets the same night

The General Staff said the same night's drones also struck the Marinovka military airfield in Volgograd Oblast, located in Russia's Volga region, with the damage still being assessed, while Zelenskyy added that Ukraine achieved unspecified results in the Black Sea. The military also reported hitting a drone storage and launch site near Donetsk, a materiel warehouse in occupied Crimea, two command posts in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, and six relay stations in Crimea used to steer Russia's Geran and Gerbera attack drones.

Zelenskyy also confirmed damage from earlier strikes: a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber hit at the Akhtubinsk airfield, about 600 km from the front line, and a drone store and launch site struck at Primorsko-Akhtarsk, roughly 180 km away. The strike extends a run of deep hits this month, from the TANECO refinery in Tatarstan and a Black Sea oil terminal to three refineries hit in one night and an Omsk refinery struck 2,500 km away in Siberia.

Italian defense giant Leonardo has quietly registered a research subsidiary in Kyiv, planting a direct corporate flag in Ukraine's wartime defense ecosystem, Euractiv reported. The move reverses the company's previous public stance against opening operations in Ukraine.

European defense firms are quickly embedding inside Ukraine's defense industry, as Ukraine's wartime manufacturing base has become a draw rather than a risk for Western capital.

Kyiv-based R&D company

Leonardo Ukraine appeared in Ukraine's business register on 20 May, but the company disclosed the step only in its H1 2026 financial report at the end of July. The subsidiary's share capital stands at about $125,000. Leonardo International wholly owns it.

"We have completed the legal process to begin operations. The new company will be used to work in this region," a Leonardo spokesperson said.

The subsidiary will focus on R&D covering communications and navigation systems, software, IT services, and electronic and optical technologies. The step brings Leonardo closer to Ukraine's drone and missile industry, which has expanded rapidly during the war.

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From no factory to a Kyiv office

Just over a year ago, then-CEO Roberto Cingolani said that Leonardo had no plans to open a factory in Ukraine, as Reuters reported. At the same time, Cingolani pledged to test Leonardo's Michelangelo Dome air defense system in Ukraine. The Italian government did not reappoint him in April 2026. Lorenzo Mariani took over as CEO in May.

The subsidiary is not a factory. But it gives Mariani a registered legal presence inside Ukraine's defense innovation ecosystem, positioned near the drone and electronic warfare sectors Leonardo wants to tap.

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Leonardo is not the first major European defense firm to set up inside Ukraine. Germany's Quantum Systems established three joint ventures and made the country its second-largest international base. Rheinmetall is building an ammunition plant there. Ukrainian defense companies, in turn, have opened production facilities across Europe.

A Ukrainian drone maker is taking its battle-tested technology to a European factory floor. Ukrainian producer Airlogix has agreed with Finnish technology company Innokas to establish a joint venture in Finland, the company reported.

Under the "Build with Ukraine" initiative, the partnership will manufacture uncrewed systems based on Airlogix's Ukrainian technology in Finland, scaling production of Ukrainian drones in Europe and increasing supply to Ukraine's Defense Forces.

The deal was signed in Denmark

The two companies formalized their intent at a defense event. Airlogix and Innokas signed a Letter of Intent to establish manufacturing in Finland for uncrewed systems based on Airlogix's Ukrainian technology during DALO Industry Days in Denmark.

The next stage will focus on developing the manufacturing model in Finland and establishing the joint venture, according to Airlogix.

Airlogix is a globally ranked drone maker

Airlogix is one of Ukraine's most recognized drone developers. In 2025, it ranked 84th on The Defense Post's list of the world's top 100 unmanned-systems makers, a ranking that weighed revenue, R&D investment, and growth. It was one of three Ukrainian companies on the list, alongside TAF Drones and Ukrspecsystems.

Airlogix makes the GOR unmanned aerial system, designed for reconnaissance and artillery spotting, which flies for two to two-and-a-half hours, has a range of 150 kilometers, and maintains communication at a range of 30 to 40 kilometers.

It is Airlogix's second European production deal

The Finnish venture follows a similar one across the Atlantic. In May 2026, Airlogix formed a 50-50 joint venture, Airlogix-Sentinel, with a Hamilton-based manufacturer to produce Ukrainian reconnaissance drones on Canadian soil for Ukraine's forces, under the same "Build with Ukraine" initiative.

Australian police have charged a 27-year-old Russian-Australian man with foreign interference after alleging he joined Ukraine's armed forces to obtain military information for Russian intelligence, the ABC reported.

Russia has repeatedly sought to obtain information about Ukraine's military through espionage and intelligence operations as it continues its full-scale invasion. The alleged operation also shows how Moscow can use individuals in third countries to gain access to Ukrainian military information and attempt to pass it to Russian intelligence.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) arrested Vladimir Teslov on 20 August in Sumner, a suburb of Brisbane. He appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court on 21 August, where his case was adjourned until 2 October, according to the ABC.

Alleged operation inside Ukraine

According to the AFP, Teslov traveled to Russia in October 2024 and underwent military-style training before returning to Australia in December.

Teslov allegedly maintained contact after his return with individuals he believed were connected to Russian intelligence services, the AFP said in a press release.

Police allege he traveled to Ukraine in May 2025 and joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces, where he gained access to information about Ukrainian military personnel, units, and locations.

The AFP alleges Teslov subsequently provided, or attempted to provide, information obtained in Ukraine to people he believed were acting on behalf of Russian intelligence.

The agency said he sought to collect and communicate information about Ukrainian military personnel, locations, and operations for the benefit of Russia.

AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said the alleged activity could have endangered Ukrainian troops.

“It is alleged that this conduct created a risk to the safety and security of Ukrainian military personnel,” Barrett said, according to ABC.

The allegations have not been tested in court.

Australia has been a major supporter of Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, providing about A$1.8 billion in military, economic, and humanitarian assistance.

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Investigation into alleged Russian intelligence links

The AFP said its Counter Foreign Interference Task Force began Operation Woodcreeper in June 2026, following an extensive investigation by Australia's domestic intelligence agency, ASIO.

Australian authorities carried out searches at five properties in Queensland on 20 and 21 August, according to the AFP press release. Police seized electronic devices and other items relevant to the investigation, which will undergo forensic examination.

The AFP said further arrests are possible.

Barrett said there was no indication that Teslov posed a threat to Australia itself, although investigators allege parts of the activity took place both in Australia and overseas.

The foreign interference charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

The Russian Embassy in Canberra told ABC it learned of the case through media reports and had not received an official notification from Australian authorities or Teslov. It said it was using available channels to establish the circumstances of the case.

Russian espionage cases in Australia

Australian authorities have previously warned of Russian intelligence activity in the country.

ABC noted a separate case involving Russian-born Australian citizens Kira and Igor Korolev, who were arrested in 2024 and accused of attempting to gather and send sensitive information to Russia. Their charges were upgraded to conspiracy to commit espionage in June.

In 2022, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess said the agency had disrupted a “hive of spies” from an unnamed country seeking to recruit Australians and obtain sensitive information. Multiple media reports later identified Russia as the country involved, although ASIO has not publicly confirmed this.

Last month, the Australian Signals Directorate and nearly two dozen international partner agencies warned that Russian-linked hackers were targeting Australian defense, communications, energy, and financial sectors.

Russia’s summer fuel crisis is back for a second wave, driven by Ukrainian strikes on its oil refineries. This time, it has forced rationing back into both Moscow and St. Petersburg and pushed its largest oil producer to cap gasoline nationwide.

St. Petersburg drivers ran into limits again on 20 August, when several major oil companies restricted sales across the city, Bumaga first reported. Gazprom Neft reinstated a 60-liter-per-receipt cap it had lifted on 4 August and blocked customers from filling more than one canister.

Tatneft capped AI-95 and AI-92 at 50 liters. Many Gazprom Neft stations carried no AI-95 at all, its own station map showed. “Gazprom and Lukoil are dropping dead,” one driver wrote in a local chat.

The limits followed Moscow’s by a day. There, Gazprom Neft cut sales to 40 liters per car, and AI-95 turned up at a single Neftmagistral station, The Moscow Times reported. Rosneft went furthest, capping gasoline at 30 liters per car at every one of its stations across Russia, with no limit on diesel. In June, the same network was still letting drivers take up to 90 liters a fill.

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By mid-August, gas stations in at least 12 regions were again seeing hours-long lines, Meduza’s regional roundup found, citing a count by the outlet 7×7. Lipetsk Oblast brought back odd-even rationing by license plate on 13 August and held fills to 30 liters, a step Governor Igor Artamonov announced; Sochi’s authorities asked residents and tourists to leave their cars at home.

Ukraine has spent months hitting the plants to choke off both the fuel Russia’s army runs on and the oil revenue that funds its war. At least four refineries went offline in August alone.

Officials say supply is holding. Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilyov said on 18 August that fuel remains available, even as he acknowledged the lines. Gasoline averaged 76.04 rubles a liter ($0.89) on 10 August, off a July peak that ran nearly 20% above where the year began.

A retired Russian FSB major-general whose company built secure communications for the Kremlin's security services and military has been found dead in his Moscow apartment, RFE/RL's Current Time reported. Russian outlets, citing their own sources, say the 83-year-old apparently killed himself, though authorities have released nothing. His death adds to a run of senior Russian military and security figures dying in the capital.

An FSB veteran who wired Russia's spies

Igor Laptev, 83, was found dead in an apartment in Moscow. Russian outlet MK and others, citing sources, wrote that he probably took his own life on the afternoon of 20 August. Izvestia claimed he died from a gunshot wound to the head. No suicide note or motive has been reported, and Russian law enforcement has issued no official statement.

Laptev was a chemist-technologist by training who served in the Soviet KGB, including combat in Afghanistan, according to Delovoy Peterburg. In the KGB and later the FSB, he worked on information security. In the late 1990s, he was a deputy minister for taxes and duties, and from 1998, he chaired the board of Informtekhnika i Svyaz, now the Informtekhnika group.

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A supplier to the FSB, the guards, and the army

The company says on its own site that it makes communications systems for federal authorities and security structures, including the FSB, the FSO federal guard service, the Defense Ministry, and the interior ministry. According to OSINT VARTA, it develops and produces specialized telecom equipment and software for secure communications, building switching systems and special-comms platforms for security agencies and state bodies. It also works with Voentelecom, a Russian Defense Ministry structure, to supply troops with digital telecom gear, Militarnyi reported.

A string of deaths among Russia's brass

Laptev's death is not the first in Moscow involving retired Russian generals. On 2 May, retired colonel-general Stanislav Petrov — founder of Russia's radiological, chemical and biological defense troops, who helped create the TOS-1 Buratino heavy flamethrower system — was found dead in a central Moscow apartment. Weeks ago, Moscow buried a general under roadblocks and metal detectors after a bombing that likely killed him at a commander's gathering.

Explosions were again observed above occupied Crimea on the night of 21 August, with part of the peninsula enduring a blackout just one day after a peninsula-wide blackout following explosions that were attributed to the partisan movement ATESH and the Ukrainian defense forces. Occupation officials have admitted to power outages, and drones were shot at by mobile air defense groups, bright flashes were registered above Tavriiska thermal power plant.

Ukrainian authorities have not taken responsibility for this night's strikes; Russian authorities have not commented on the targets or consequences of the attacks.

These strikes come amid Ukraine's ongoing efforts to isolate Crimea and therefore weaken Russia's ability to conduct offensive operations in south-eastern Ukraine. While retaking Crimea has not been stated as Ukraine's primary objective, cutting off its power would not only weaken it as a key military base used to move troops and weapons to attack Ukrainian forces, but also force Russia to pour resources into maintaining civilian life there.

The monitoring channel Crimean Wind logged explosions and gunfire from mobile fire groups from around 01:00 until close to 05:00 across Simferopol, the village of Radianske, Vilyne, and Alushta. Residents reported jet-powered drones passing over Simferopol in the direction of the Tavriiska thermal power plant, with bright flashes seen near it—reported, not confirmed.

A pro-Russian outlet gave the same trajectory, saying monitoring channels tracked targets moving toward the plant while stressing the data was unofficial. No damage to the plant has been confirmed.

Grid on fire

The overnight explosions followed a wider blackout a day earlier. On the night of 20 August, full outages were reported in Simferopol, Sevastopol, Kerch, Feodosia, and Yalta; the partisan movement ATESH claimed the Sevastopol explosions, and drones hit the Taman oil-and-gas terminal and the 500 kV Taman substation in Russia's Krasnodar Krai—a main node of the energy bridge carrying power across the Kerch Strait—igniting fires recorded by NASA's FIRMS satellite service, in a strike Ukrainian outlets attributed to Kyiv's Defense Forces.

The strikes land on a grid that has been under fire since June. Ukrainian drones blacked out all of occupied Sevastopol on 24 June, with roughly half of Crimea already dark, in an attack whose target was the Balaklava power plant.

Occupation authorities have kept Crimea and Sevastopol under a regional state of emergency since 26 June. Krymenergo, the Russian-installed operator, has repeatedly conceded outages caused by Ukrainian attacks, and the occupation head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, has said the authorities are limiting what they disclose to residents.

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Ukrainian officials have described the strikes as stages of a plan to cut occupied Crimea off from mainland Russia, Euromaidan Press has reported. Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has said his forces are turning the peninsula into an island; the SBU has vowed to make it a zone of constant losses until Russian troops leave.

Occupied peninsula in Ukraine's crosshairs

The campaign aims to make Crimea unusable to the Russian military and is only its first phase, the commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert "Madyar" Brovdi, has said — noting that because much of Russia's air defense runs on the grid, cutting power leaves Russian forces "blind."

Commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has framed Ukraine's aim for the year as defensive, exhausting the Russian army rather than retaking Crimea, even as the peninsula has become the main focus of the drone campaign.

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The plants now drawing fire were built to make that pressure survivable. Balaklava, near Sevastopol, and Tavrida, near Simferopol, were opened by Vladimir Putin in 2019 to end Crimea's dependence on electricity from mainland Ukraine, which Kyiv cut in 2015.

Both are gas-fired and built around Siemens turbines moved to the peninsula in breach of EU sanctions, as Euromaidan Press has reported; because Russia can no longer properly repair them, each hit compounds the last. Since they burn gas piped from Russia, strikes on gas-distribution and compressor stations can choke their output as surely as a hit on the plants.

Whether the plants have taken damage in the latest strikes is unclear. A satellite thermal anomaly was logged at Tavrida during a 20 June attack, but the plant has been targeted repeatedly since—tonight included—which suggests it is at least partly still running. Occupation authorities have reported no damage to it.

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy allowed preparations for an AI-guided drone campaign against Moscow-area airports, The Atlantic reported on 20 August, citing two anonymous sources with direct knowledge of the proposal.

The reported plan sought to keep civilian flights grounded long enough to pressure Russia’s elite. Had it proceeded, it would have moved Ukraine toward large-scale autonomous strikes, raising questions under the laws of war about attacks without human confirmation. The Atlantic's disclosure follows months of reported Ukrainian attacks that repeatedly forced Moscow-area airport closures and sent increasingly large drone swarms toward the capital.

How the drone operation would have worked

Code-named M&Ms, the operation called for as many as 1,000 drones to fly toward Moscow-area airports each night and overwhelm Russian air defenses, one source said.

Onboard cameras would compare live views with preloaded maps and target images. They would also allow the drones to strike without pilot confirmation and to navigate without a remote-control link that is vulnerable to Russian electronic jamming, the sources said.

One source said prolonged airport closures were intended to pressure Kremlin-linked elites and push Vladimir Putin toward negotiations.

The plan was presented to Zelenskyy during the winter of 2025–26, The Atlantic reported. Preparations stopped after Zelenskyy dismissed Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, whom The Atlantic described as the operation’s mastermind, in July, both sources said. One source said another team could revive the project within about three months.

Both sources said Zelenskyy allowed preparations despite concerns that a drone could hit a civilian airliner. Planners proposed warning airlines, according to one source.

A Zelenskyy spokesperson declined to comment. Another unnamed presidential office official called the report “total nonsense,” saying Ukraine lacked long-range weapons reliable enough to strike the airports without posing undue risks to civilians.

Previous Ukrainian strikes on Moscow

The alleged M&Ms operation never launched, but other reported Ukrainian drone attacks repeatedly disrupted Moscow’s airports.

From 5 to 7 May 2026, restrictions imposed amid reported Ukrainian drone attacks delayed more than 450 flights at Moscow airports. Limits at Vnukovo remained in place for nearly 18 hours, EP reported, citing the independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo.

Earlier this week, Russian authorities claimed that 620 drones flew toward Moscow in one night, EP reported. The Atlantic placed Russia’s nationwide interception claim for that night at 791 drones. Ukraine’s military did not claim the attack.

A Ukrainian company has built a drone link designed to keep working when the enemy tries to jam it. Ukraine's defense-tech firm Rise Technologies has developed the Nakande digital communication system, designed for rapid integration into small and large FPV drones, bombers, and fixed-wing platforms, commercial director Viktor Chuikovskyi says, Defender Media reports.

The system attacks the connectivity problem that jamming creates for Ukraine's drones. On a front saturated with electronic warfare, drones that lose their radio link become useless, and Nakande answers that by constantly hopping frequencies to find clear air.

How the frequency-hopping works

Nakande's defining feature is its ability to change frequency. It hops across a tuning range of up to 1,000 MHz, monitoring channels within that band, finding a freer stretch, and automatically switching to it, Chuikovskyi said, which lets operators keep their link to drones amid electronic warfare and a congested radio spectrum.

That is the core countermeasure to jamming. By moving to whatever frequency is clear rather than staying on one the enemy can block, the system stays connected where a fixed-frequency link would be jammed dead.

What the link carries

Nakande's airborne module weighs 160 grams, supports 2×Ethernet and MAVLink, and combines control, telemetry, and video in a single secure link, with a downlink up to 5.2 Mbit/s that the maker says delivers clean video and a compressed 4K stream, protected by AES-256 encryption.

It is built for fast, flexible setup. The ground station deploys in under five minutes. Its standard IP architecture allows the operator, antenna, and control point to be separated over Ethernet, fiber, or VPN, and a single ground station can connect 50 to 100 modules.

It held a link past 100 kilometers

Nakande has been tested in combat, the maker says. It passed bench, field, and combat checks, with a dedicated range class up to 60 kilometers for FPV drones, and in testing its maximum configuration, held a link at 118 kilometers, Chuikovskyi said.

The company did not disclose the module's price but said it is several times lower than foreign equivalents.

Ukraine is investigating officers who cheated soldiers and misused defense money. The State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) has launched a large operation, "Justice for Soldiers", on 20 August, checking cases of illegal payments to soldiers, the use of soldiers for private work, and corruption, together with the General Staff, the DBR reported.

The operation is part of Ukraine's effort to control its own military and defense spending during the war. Across 21 criminal proceedings, investigators planned 72 searches in various regions and prepared to notify 22 people of suspicion, as part of an internal accountability push.

The biggest category is illegal payments

Most of the cases concern money wrongly paid to soldiers. Twelve proceedings deal with the illegal calculation and receipt of payments by soldiers, with 58 searches conducted and suspicions planned against 20 people, the DBR said.

The bureau has already closed some cases. It finished investigating four more proceedings on illegal payments and plans to send indictments against 16 people to court.

Some commanders used soldiers as private labor

A separate strand targets the misuse of soldiers themselves. Five searches are being conducted in a case involving the illegal use of military labor, in which subordinates, instead of performing military duties, were used for construction, household, and other work in commanders' private interests, the DBR said.

That practice diverts soldiers from the war. Using troops as personal labor for officers takes fighters away from their duties and abuses the command relationship, the kind of misconduct the operation is meant to root out.

The bureau frames it as accountability

The remaining searches target corruption. Nine searches are underway in a case of corruption abuses, with suspicions prepared against two people, and the operation is being conducted with the General Staff and under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor General's Office.

Ukraine is giving its stockpiled Soviet armored scouts a second life as robots that fight without a crew. Ukrainian producers are converting Soviet-made BRDM-2 armored reconnaissance vehicles into remote-controlled robotic platforms for use on the line of contact after testing, Colonel Vladyslav Voloshyn of the Armed Forces' Central Directorate for Innovation told Ukrinform.

The project turns obsolete Soviet stock into uncrewed platforms that keep soldiers out of danger. Ukraine holds a significant number of BRDM-2s in storage, and reworking them into remotely operated robots as part of a broader push to hand the most dangerous battlefield tasks to machines.

The converted vehicle fights without a crew aboard

The platform will have expanded capabilities to integrate a remote-controlled combat module with automatic weapons of at least 12.7mm caliber, which should increase units' effectiveness and help preserve soldiers' lives, Voloshyn said.

"The main thing is preserving the lives of personnel," he stressed.

It is equipped to operate remotely. The modernized vehicle will carry day-and-night cameras for situational awareness, remote-control systems for its main functions, and location, navigation, and orientation systems, with the combat module integrated over protected data channels.

The upgrades run deep

The conversion goes beyond adding a remote control. Ukraine is developing the ability to control the vehicle from up to 1,000 kilometers away. It also plans to replace the Soviet gasoline GAZ engine with a powerful foreign-made diesel engine, with General Motors or Mercedes engines under consideration, along with an automatic transmission, Voloshyn said.

It gets modern protection too. The vehicle will have added anti-mine protection for the hull bottom, tubeless high-mobility tires, a backup remote-control system inside the body, and anti-fragmentation protection, Voloshyn said.

The work is being accelerated

Preparation is underway for the vehicle's testing and use on the line of contact, according to the Ukrainian colonel, though he did not specify a completion date, explaining that some information on such projects is not for wide release.

One combat episode pushed the timeline up. After a particular battlefield case, the work is to be accelerated, Voloshyn said, adding that the modernized BRDM-2 "may well become a breakthrough on the line of contact."

Mariia's working day starts at 4:30 a.m. A cook with the reconnaissance battalion of Ukraine's 40th Artillery Brigade, she has cooked for as many as 860 soldiers at once—borsch at military scale, and the steady work of keeping a brigade fed—Army Inform writes in a profile of her service.

Mariia's seven years in uniform put a human scale on a war that began in 2014: one working life spent feeding soldiers.

Mariia's path to that kitchen began long before the full-scale invasion. She wanted to enlist in 2014, when Russia's war in the Donbas started, and joined the army in 2019, she told Army Inform. Her first posting took her to Popasna, in the east, where she served for eight months. Russia's full-scale invasion, in February 2022, caught her unit in Kharkiv Oblast.

One moment from the first weeks of the invasion has stayed with her, she told Army Inform: in March 2022, an elderly couple who assumed the soldiers had nothing gave them what little they had themselves—ten eggs and four cigarettes. She has kept cooking in the years since.

Ukraine’s failure to anticipate and prepare for Russian threats is a bigger problem than the shortage of air defenses, says Oleksandr Kovalenko of the Information Resistance group. Russia, meanwhile, has demonstrated its ability to develop and execute medium-term plans for terror operations that can take years to prepare, according to Obozrevatel.

Russian forces adapt almost every month to new challenges and opportunities, scaling up their attacks. The use of jet-powered Banderol drone missiles is one example.

Russia is now employing a “tactical adaptive distribution” approach, flexibly redirecting missiles and strike drones toward different regions and rear cities depending on Ukrainian air-defense capabilities.

The main difference

The key change in Russia’s 2026 campaign against Ukraine’s rear areas has been the growing use of jet-powered drones based on the Iranian Shahed-238 and Karrar, which Russia has localized as Geran-3/4/5.

Russia first used a jet-powered kamikaze drone against Ukraine in January 2024. These weapons have been continuously upgraded over the past two years.

Ukraine, however, failed to adequately anticipate the threat and now lacks an effective, low-cost way to intercept Geran-3/4/5 drones, Kovalenko says. Russian forces used more than 1,400 jet-powered drones in the first half of 2026 alone, compared with 180 throughout all of 2025.

“It is possible that the facility in Alabuga, Tatarstan, could eventually be fully converted to producing jet-powered kamikaze drones as part of this strategy,” the analyst said.

What comes next: strikes on Kyiv to exert psychological pressure

A significant share of Russia’s new hard-to-intercept weapon variants appears to be concentrated for strikes on Kyiv.

Russian forces are seeking to exploit Ukraine’s acute shortage of Patriot and SAMP/T interceptors, using the opportunity to intensify their campaign of terror. Russia has previously used similar tactics to exert psychological pressure on civilians and disrupt economic activity in regions including Kharkiv and Odesa.

The same approach could increasingly be directed at the capital, particularly ahead of and during Ukraine’s Independence Day.

Ravil Dzhamally fled when Russian forces occupied his farm in Kherson Oblast, then returned after liberation to clear mines and plant again. Now, tons of his grain lie unsold in plastic sleeves across his fields because Russian attacks have nearly halted exports through Odesa, Bloomberg reported on 20 August.

Odesa’s Black Sea ports handle almost all of Ukraine’s grain exports, Bloomberg reported. Weekly grain and oilseed exports have fallen by more than 90% since early July, data from commodity-data firm Kpler show. That threatens fall planting and the sector that generates more than half of Ukraine’s export revenue. The disruption is also raising food costs in countries that rely on imported grain, Reuters reported.

Farmers must either store harvests they cannot export or sell locally at about one-third of global prices, Bloomberg reported. They say this year’s crisis is worse than the 2022 blockade because the financial reserves that carried them through six months of disruption then have since been depleted.

Russian attacks drive ships from Ukraine’s grain corridor

Ukraine’s Black Sea grain corridor—the wartime shipping route from Odesa—was never formally closed, Euromaidan Press reported. Four or five ships entered Ukraine’s ports on 21 July. Still, none arrived the next day because shipowners had paused calls, not because Ukraine had restricted navigation, Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskyi told Ukrainian agricultural outlet Latifundist.

Ukraine’s state railway, Ukrzaliznytsia, subsequently restricted selected wheat and barley shipments to Odesa ports. Its register did not state a reason, and the railway did not publicly link the orders to the shipping disruption.

Oleksandr Havryliuk, who farms near the front in Kharkiv Oblast, told Bloomberg that losing his harvest would probably bankrupt him and force him to sell the farm. The National Bank of Ukraine estimates that Ukraine could lose about $2.5 billion in export revenue during the second half of 2026, Reuters reported. Bloomberg said the disruption could trigger widespread farm bankruptcies.

Ukraine seeks EU aid and export routes as losses mount

Financing was already constrained before the port crisis: available financing and insurance were “enough to keep the sector surviving, not enough to keep it growing,” Vysotskyi told Euromaidan Press in May.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, agriculture accounted for more than 10% of Ukraine’s economic output, according to World Bank data cited by Bloomberg.

The sector has since grown more important as Russian attacks have destroyed much of the country’s heavy industry, Evghenia Sleptsova, a senior economist at the economic forecasting firm Oxford Economics, told Bloomberg.

Her firm estimates that the disruption could cost the equivalent of 1.8% of GDP this year and 2.1% in 2027. Under a prolonged severe disruption, the 2027 loss could instead reach 5.3%, Oxford Economics said.

Ukraine could exhaust its grain-storage capacity by early November if exports do not recover, the Agriculture Ministry said, according to Bloomberg. Even using every available route, the country may export only about 30 million tons this season, leaving roughly the same volume stored or rotting, Vysotskyi said.

Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry requested a €220 million EU grant to subsidize interest and unlock up to €4 billion in loans, the ministry said.

Ukraine and Moldova are also discussing a rail route through Moldova to Romania’s port of Constanța, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources in both countries. Kyiv estimates the route could carry about 10% of its grain exports.

Western rail corridors have limited capacity, while low water levels restrict traffic through Danube ports. Both alternatives cost more than shipping through the Black Sea, Bloomberg reported.

Polish officers have detained a Ukrainian accused of trying to murder a figure from Ukraine's weapons sector on Moscow's orders, Reuters reported. Investigators say his homemade explosive failed to detonate, and he fled to Poland, where officers detained him. The case is the latest in a run of Russian-directed plots targeting people tied to Ukraine across Europe.

A car bomb that failed

The suspect, named only as Serhii P. under Polish privacy rules, allegedly went after a figure in Ukraine's weapons sector in Irpin, a town in Kyiv Oblast just northwest of the capital. The ABW, Poland's Internal Security Agency, said he planted an improvised explosive device under a car used by the potential victim. The device was meant to be set off remotely with a cellphone, but it "did not detonate due to a malfunction," the agency said.

The suspect, a 63-year-old Ukrainian, fled to Poland after the attempt collapsed and was arrested in Warsaw on 5 August 2026, the Ukrainian outlet NV says. Polish authorities announced the arrest on 20 August and said it kept him from using Poland as a hideout while he dodged investigators. Prosecutors charged him with trying to kill with a bomb and with holding explosives without a permit. The charges carry a floor of 15 years behind bars and a ceiling of life, they said.

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The ABW framed the case as proof that Russian intelligence runs operations far beyond its own borders, using people who move between countries to do the work. For years, Kyiv and Western capitals have said Moscow enlists people — Ukrainians among them — to run sabotage and spying missions, a charge Russia keeps rejecting.

A pattern across Europe

The plot fits a wider Russian campaign. Weeks earlier, Warsaw detained a Russian man whom Moscow had allegedly recruited to murder a Ukrainian-American in the same city. 

Earlier this year, Ukrainian investigators recently exposed a coordinated scheme to kill a Russian dissident and Ukraine supporter in Lithuania, German prosecutors filed sabotage charges against a Ukrainian and a Latvian, and an earlier plot targeted the chief of German arms-maker Rheinmetall.

Poland and the Baltic States have been named prime targets for Russian sabotage over their backing for Kyiv.

Russia's propaganda machine has mobilized against Ukraine's new defense minister within days of his appointment. Russian resources have spread more than 1,000 posts in two days against Ukraine's new Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara, the Center for Strategic Communications reported.

The effort aims to portray Khmara as a "terrorist" and again push the Kremlin narrative of "Ukraine as a terrorist state," running through the same coordinated pipeline of Russian outlets and laundering networks that Russia uses to seed disinformation abroad.

The campaign ran through a familiar pipeline

The disinformation has followed a coordinated path. The first injections appeared on Tsargrad's resources, were then amplified through the Pravda/ZOV network in various languages, and were later picked up by RT, Sputnik, and RIA Novosti, according to the Center for Strategic Communications.

A narrative seeded on a fringe Russian outlet, amplified through a multilingual network, then carried by Russia's state media, reaches foreign audiences looking like independent reporting rather than a Kremlin operation, the method Russia uses to push its narratives into Western information spaces.

The false claims and their purpose

Russia's outlets attached fabricated accusations to Khmara. As purported "proof," the propagandists attribute to him involvement in the Kerch Bridge explosion, the Crocus City Hall attack, and the car bombing of Darya Dugina, while also pushing claims of "total corruption" and "external control" of Ukraine.

These are assertions Russia makes, not established facts, and Ukraine's monitors identify them as disinformation designed to serve the "terrorist state" narrative. The choice of accusations, tying Khmara to attacks Russia blames on Ukraine, is meant to frame Ukraine's defense leadership as criminal and justify Russia's war to audiences at home and abroad.

The campaign targets foreign audiences

The operation was built to travel. About 65% of the identified posts appeared on Telegram, and about 30% on web resources, and the campaign is being translated into English, French, Spanish, and other languages to reach foreign audiences, according to the Center for Strategic Communications.

A Russian strike damaged the Ukrainian warehouse of a company that helps fund Russia's budget. As a result of Russia’s massive August 20 attack, a warehouse storing Yves Rocher cosmetics in Ukraine was heavily damaged.

According to Leave Russia, French cosmetics brand Yves Rocher continues to operate in Russia. Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has included Yves Rocher on its list of international sponsors of war.

In 2022, the company’s Russian subsidiary, Yves Rocher Vostok, paid approximately $6 million in taxes to the Russian budget, contributing to the financing of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

At the same time, Yves Rocher’s Ukrainian office and stores continue to operate.

The strike disrupted Ukrainian operations

“We are temporarily suspending online orders and working to restore operations,” the company said.

Customers who have already placed orders will be informed of their status once the attack's consequences are assessed.

Yves Rocher boutiques remain open, although the range of products available may be limited, the company adds.

The strike on Yves Rocher’s warehouse is part of a broader Russian campaign against Ukrainian businesses and critical commercial infrastructure. Russian attacks have repeatedly targeted companies involved in food production, storage, and distribution, disrupting supply chains and local economies.

As a result of the strikes, some food products are already becoming scarce in shops. People are also clearing products off the shelves, apparently stocking up amid concerns over further disruptions. In some stores, supplies of salt and flour are already running low.

Almost the entire arsenal on one city

The Russian attack took place on 20 August and killed 15 people. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a children's hospital and a school were also damaged in the capital.

Russia used almost its entire arsenal, launching ballistic and Zircon hypersonic missiles at Kyiv and the surrounding region. Kyiv’s air defenses intercepted nearly all of the cruise missiles. However, ballistic missiles remain a major challenge as the US has not supplied Ukraine with enough Patriot interceptors.

Poland has held up a Ukrainian search at Łasków for months, Ambassador Vasyl Bodnar told Polish broadcaster RMF24, NV reported on 19 August. He says the eastern Polish village may contain the remains of civilians killed there by Polish underground forces in 1944.

The permit dispute is part of a much larger argument over how Ukraine and Poland remember the wartime killings of Poles and Ukrainians. Reciprocal searches resumed only recently after years of deadlock, giving both countries a way to recover and identify victims even as they disagree over historical responsibility. The latest delay tests that fragile progress while Poland remains Ukraine’s main route for Western arms and aid.

Bodnar says Ukrainian civilians were killed at Łasków in 1944 by the Home Army—Poland’s principal underground resistance force during the Nazi occupation—and the Peasant Battalions, an agrarian underground movement.

Bodnar appealed to Poland to issue "at least one permit" for searches on its territory. He said Ukraine systematically approves Polish requests in return. The ambassador blamed the holdup on unspecified “bureaucratic restrictions” and urged Warsaw not to leave the impression that Kyiv was obstructing the work.

In July, Bodnar said Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance had supported the Łasków application procedurally and that only approval from the regional monuments conservator remained. He expected work to start in August.

The institute said it had assisted with Łasków but was awaiting more documents for Ukraine’s separate applications concerning Sahryń and Przemyśl.

Past Polish-Ukrainian exhumations

Reciprocal work between Ukraine and Poland resumed only after Kyiv lifted a moratorium imposed in 2017. Ukraine had halted Polish exhumations in response to the destruction of Ukrainian memorial sites on Polish soil.

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A joint team exhumed the remains of 42 Polish victims of massacres by Ukrainian nationalists at Puzhnyky in western Ukraine in May 2025. Ukrainian researchers later searched for a suspected grave of up to 18 Ukrainian Insurgent Army fighters at Jureczkowa, Poland, but found none.

Ukraine granted further permits for Polish searches in 2026. Joint work at Uhly in Rivne Oblast found no mass grave, while exhumations began at Ostrivky and Volia Ostrovetska in July.

Historical grievances strain wartime alliance

The searches are the practical core of a broader dispute over wartime killings of Poles and Ukrainians. Competing interpretations of the Volyn tragedy and battles over Ukrainian Insurgent Army symbols have increasingly spilled into Polish politics and the streets.

Kyiv says it continues approving Polish grave searches while its own researchers wait to begin work in Poland.

Finland is investigating a suspected violation of its airspace by a Russian aircraft over the Gulf of Finland, its Defense Ministry said. Authorities have not identified the aircraft or said whether the crossing was deliberate, and the country's border guard has opened an inquiry. The case adds Finland to a growing list of NATO states reporting Russian intrusions along the alliance's frontiers.

What Finland reported

A Russian aircraft is suspected of violating Finnish airspace in the western Gulf of Finland on the afternoon of 20 August, Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen said. He said the country treats every such case seriously and that an inquiry is running.

"Every suspected territorial violation is taken seriously. An investigation is underway," Häkkänen said.

The ministry statement did not name the aircraft. The Border Guard later identified it as a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance plane, Finnish broadcaster Yle reported, saying the suspected crossing lasted about three minutes and reached some 4.7 nautical miles into Finnish airspace at its deepest. It said it would release more as the inquiry advances.

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Finland already builds drones with a Ukrainian partner. Joining the drone coalition is the next step

A pattern along NATO's frontiers

The suspected crossing follows two earlier Finnish cases this year. Finland suspected Russian military aircraft of entering its airspace in May, off Porkkala while one avoided a thunderstorm, and again in June, summoning Russia's chargé d'affaires over the two incidents.

Other members of the alliance keep logging similar incidents. Romania has destroyed a sea drone and recovered aerial-drone debris on its soil, and Russian drones have struck near Moldova's border with Ukraine. Kyiv has also accused Russia of steering Ukrainian drones toward Finland and the Baltic States through electronic warfare.

Finland joined NATO in 2023 and has since rearmed sharply, ending a domestic ban on nuclear weapons as part of a wider defense shift. It has stepped up support for Ukraine, most recently backing a power-plant project before Russia's winter energy campaign. Helsinki has also argued it is too early to negotiate with Moscow while the war continues.

Now held in a POW camp in western Ukraine, Anton does not consider himself a traitor. He calls Putin “my President” and said he joined Russia’s army to defend “my land,” the BBC reported.

The BBC interviews show what more than a decade of Russian rule has produced in occupied Donbas. Moscow has replaced Ukrainian schools, media, and public institutions while presenting the occupied regions as permanent parts of Russia. It also recruits residents or forces them to fight against Ukraine.

The BBC said prisoners could refuse and were interviewed without guards or cameras.

Almost all its Ukrainian-born interviewees from territories occupied since 2014 said they had enlisted willingly. Anton said he was not a traitor and called Vladimir Putin “my President.”

His friends also volunteered. Messages announcing their deaths followed: “Dead, dead, dead.”

Forced conscription of Ukrainians in occupied territory

One prisoner from Donetsk Oblast told the BBC he had been forced to fight. He wanted only to return to his wife and children.

The BBC cited an official intelligence-based estimate that Russia forcibly conscripted more than 50,000 Ukrainians in occupied areas. It noted that other estimates were higher.

Ukrainian veteran Pavlo Pshenychnyi told Hromadske that occupation authorities used planted drug evidence to push him into Russia’s army. They threatened him with up to 12 years in prison.

Article 51 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits occupying powers from compelling protected residents to serve in their armed forces.

Anton and the Russification of occupied Ukrainian territory

Russia took control of Anton’s home while he was still in primary school. By adulthood, he called himself Russian and dismissed his Ukrainian surname as irrelevant.

Putin’s 2025 policy decree set a 95% target for “all-Russian civic identity” by 2036 and ordered the integration of occupied Ukrainian regions into Russian education, culture, and media.

Kherson-based outlet MOST reported that Russia will introduce compulsory textbooks on 1 September, presenting four occupied Ukrainian regions as historically Russian.

Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation reported in 2025 that more than 100 teenagers from occupied Luhansk attended a Russian military camp. They received firearms, drill, and guard-duty training.

The center described the camp as part of a wider effort to spread Russian war propaganda and hostility toward Ukraine.

Petro Yatsenko of Ukraine’s POW Coordination Headquarters told the BBC that these prisoners were strongly pro-Russian. He said their national identity was “very blurred.”

Ukraine still considers them Ukrainian and treats Russia’s control of their home regions as temporary, the BBC noted.

NATO's top military body is coming to Ukraine for the first time in nearly a decade. NATO's Military Committee will visit Ukraine in October, the last such visit having been eight years ago, Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatyi said after his first conversation with Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the committee's chair, the General Staff reported.

Coming early in Drapatyi's tenure as commander-in-chief, the plans on the first NATO Military Committee trip to Ukraine reflect an alliance drawing closer to a country that both receives its support and feeds back combat experience no other NATO member has.

Drapatyi briefed NATO on the front and Ukraine's priorities

Drapatyi laid out the war for the alliance's top soldier. He informed Cavo Dragone about the situation at the front and Ukraine's priorities: long-range strikes, flexible infantry tactics, and the robotization of the front line, according to the General Staff.

Air defense was a focus. Drapatyi stressed that protecting the skies is his priority amid the same interceptor-shortage problem that has left Ukrainian cities exposed to Russian missiles. He thanked the admiral for his consistent support, noting Cavo Dragone had visited Ukraine three times and seen the situation firsthand.

Ukraine frames itself as a contributor

Drapatyi cast the relationship as two-way.

"In October, we expect the NATO Military Committee in Ukraine. The last such visit was eight years ago. Ukraine not only receives support. We transfer combat experience that no one has today, and it works for the security of the whole Alliance," he said.

The admiral confirmed continued support

Cavo Dragone affirmed NATO's backing. He confirmed NATO's continued military support as Ukraine defends its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and said allies in Europe and North America are ramping up defense production, speeding deliveries, and supporting the transfer of needed equipment to Ukraine, he wrote on X.

"I have seen Ukrainian courage with my own eyes: soldiers holding the line with extraordinary bravery for their homes, their families, and their freedom," Dragone said.

He tied Ukraine's security to the alliance's own.

"Ukraine's security is our security, and we will continue to stand alongside Ukraine to help achieve a just and lasting peace," he added.

Hungary has closed the Oschadbank case after finding no crime connected to an $82 million shipment of cash and gold belonging to Ukraine’s state-owned savings bank, The Insider reported on 20 August 2026, citing the bank’s lawyer Lóránt Horváth.

Closing the money-laundering case removes the allegation used to justify seizing Oschadbank’s assets. A separate criminal investigation is examining the couriers’ detention, while Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s government has opened an internal review of the agencies involved. Together with the return of the assets, these steps reverse how this case was handled under former PM Viktor Orbán and may help improve relations with Ukraine.

Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV), the country’s tax and customs authority, traced the assets to a documented deal between Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International and Oschadbank. Raiffeisen provided records establishing the assets’ origin and Oschadbank’s payment, according to Horváth’s account of NAV’s decision.

Meanwhile, a separate investigation into the couriers’ alleged unlawful detention remains open. János Hajdu, the former head of Hungary’s Counter-Terrorism Center (TEK), is a suspect. TEK is the country’s armed counterterrorism police.

A leaked prosecution document named former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and three other former officials, including Hajdu, among those involved in deciding on the operation. Orbán has not been named as a suspect, Euronews reported on 30 June.

Orbán denies wrongdoing and says the raid was lawful.

How the Oschadbank case began

TEK stopped two armored cash-in-transit vans near Budapest on 5 March 2026. They carried $40 million, €35 million, and nine kilograms of gold from Vienna to Kyiv under a routine banking contract, Euromaidan Press reported. Officers detained the seven Oschadbank employees as witnesses, kept them handcuffed for 28 hours, and denied them lawyers and Ukrainian consular access, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said.

Hungary deported the couriers and imposed three-year Schengen bans, which barred them from most of Europe, although none had been charged with a crime. The orders and bans were later annulled.

Orbán’s government nevertheless portrayed the shipment as possible money laundering. Fidesz politicians also alleged, without evidence, that it was intended to finance Magyar’s then-opposition party, Tisza.

Hungary returned the vans, cash, and gold by 6 May. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the handover a break with Orbán-era “lawlessness” and a sign that relations could advance through “mutual respect and healthy pragmatism,” Reuters reported.