Ukrainian forces have successfully cleared Russian troops from the village of Udachne in Donetsk Oblast and raised the Ukrainian flag over the settlement, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces announced on 2 September.
The village sits approximately 10 kilometers west of Pokrovsk, a strategic town that has emerged as one of the most contested areas along Ukraine’s eastern front line.
“Defense forces ‘cleared’ the village of Udachne on the Pokrovsk direction and installed the Ukrainian flag,” the General Staff reported on Facebook.
Military officials confirmed that all Russian strongpoints in the area were destroyed during the operation.
“Over two weeks, assault groups gradually cleared house by house and raised the Ukrainian flag over the village,” according to a video statement released by the armed forces.
The liberation of Udachne comes amid intense fighting across the Pokrovsk direction, where Ukrainian forces repelled 46 assault attempts near the settlements of Volodymyrivka, Zapovidne, Novoekonomichne, Myrolyubivka, Lysivka, Zvirove, Kotlyne, Udachne, and Dachne, the General Staff reported in its morning briefing on Facebook.
The village belongs to the Udachne territorial community, which has been under severe pressure from Russian forces. As of 11 June 2024, fighting was already underway in Udachne, Novoserhiivka, and Novomykolaivka, according to Valeriy Duhelny, head of the Udachne village military administration, as reported by Suspilne Donbas.
Duhelny had told Suspilne Donbas on 8 June that combat operations and the “gray zone” had reached the borders of Udachne and Novoserhiivka, though none of the seven settlements in the community were officially occupied at that time. He described the eastern part of Udachne as completely destroyed, with no intact buildings remaining after Russian shelling.
Around 2,000 North Korean servicemen sent to Russia to participate in combat operations in Ukraine have been killed, South Korean lawmakers said citing intelligence data, Yonhap news agency reported.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service also indicated that Pyongyang plans to additionally send approximately 6,000 soldiers to Russia as part of a third batch of troops to assist Moscow in its war against Ukraine. The intelligence suggests that about 1,000 combat engineers have already arrived in Russia.
According to intelligence data, existing troops are deployed “in the rear as reserve forces,” Yonhap reported.
Since October last year, North Korea has sent approximately 13,000 military personnel to support Russia’s military operations. North Korea itself reported that during the first and second stages of troop deployment to Russia, it lost about 350 soldiers.
The latest casualty figures represent a significant increase from previous estimates. In late April 2025, a South Korean lawmaker, citing intelligence data, said that around 600 North Koreans had been killed in Russia’s war against Ukraine, particularly while participating in military operations in Russia’s Kursk region.
In June, North Korean state media showed footage of the country’s leader Kim Jong Un mourning his soldiers who reportedly died during Russia’s war against Ukraine. In August, Kim Jong Un awarded soldiers and commanders of his army who participated in battles in the Kursk Oblast on the side of Russian forces and met with families of the deceased.
The intelligence assessment suggests North Korea’s military involvement in the war continues to expand despite mounting casualties among its forces.
Russian forces struck Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv Oblast during the night of 2 September, killing one person and causing significant damage to industrial facilities, according to Kyiv Regional Military Administration head Mykola Kalashnyk and Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
The attack damaged warehouses and a three-story building at an enterprise, sparking fires at the facility. A garage cooperative also caught fire during the bombardment.
“During the firefighting operation, rescuers discovered the body of a deceased man,” the State Emergency Service reported. At another location, emergency responders extinguished fires in three buildings.
Russian forces also targeted Sumy the same night. Regional military administration head Oleh Hryhorov reported that the attack caused a large-scale fire in the city.
“The Russian forces hit non-residential buildings in the Zarichny district of the city,” Hryhorov said. No casualties were reported from the Sumy attack. Authorities are still determining the full extent of the damage.
The nighttime assault was part of a broader attack involving 150 Shahed-type strike drones and various decoy drones launched against Ukraine, according to the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Russian forces launched the unmanned aircraft from Kursk, Bryansk, Millerovo, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, and Cape Chauda in temporarily occupied Crimea.
Ukraine’s air defenses neutralized 120 targets during the attack. Aviation, anti-aircraft missile forces, electronic warfare units, unmanned systems, and mobile fire groups participated in repelling the air assault.
Military officials recorded impacts from 30 strike drones at nine locations, with debris from destroyed targets falling at five additional locations across northern, southern, eastern and central regions of the country.
Construction sites multiply across Ukraine while factory floors stay empty. The National Bank’s August business survey reveals an economy moving at fundamentally different speeds—a division that signals resilience and vulnerability for the country’s long-term prospects.
This sectoral divide marks Ukraine’s transition from an export economy to a reconstruction economy—a fundamental shift that may outlast the war.
The data prove that Western allies’ reconstruction aid works exactly as intended: it stimulates domestic activity and maintains consumer confidence. But it also exposes the limits—private industrial investment won’t return until security dramatically improves.
The split offers a roadmap for global businesses watching Ukraine.
Local-serving sectors like construction, retail, and consumer services can function and grow during wartime. Export-oriented manufacturing and complex services remain too vulnerable to sustained attack.
Construction companies hit their fourth month of optimism in August, with their business confidence index reaching 54.0—the only major sector firmly in positive territory.
Builders expect more orders, expanded workforces, and steady material supplies as reconstruction accelerates.
The optimism reflects a geographic shift: Western regions like Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk lead activity as internal migration and safety drive housing demand, while companies struggle with acute labor shortages—over 150,000 missing workers force wage increases of 23%.
The confidence shows up in import data: machinery imports surged 50% in July, feeding construction demand for everything from cranes to concrete mixers.
Trading firms, such as retailers, food distributors, and consumer goods companies, joined the optimism at 51.8, buoyed by consumer spending and fresh harvest supplies.
These companies have stayed positive for six consecutive months, suggesting Ukrainian purchasing power remains intact. At the same time, the National Bank reports that trading companies express concerns about inventory levels, suggesting supply chain pressures beneath the surface optimism.
While construction enjoys predictable six-month order backlogs, manufacturers face an entirely different reality. Manufacturing confidence barely moved to 48.7—still below neutral—as companies grapple with destroyed facilities and an export market collapse.
Grain exports plunged 45.4%, while metals exports fell 5.1% as production centers face ongoing Russian attacks.
Services firms scored worst at 47.0, hammered by expensive logistics, electricity price hikes, and chronic staff shortages. Most expect to cut jobs rather than expand.
Ukraine essentially bets its future on reconstruction while its industrial base hemorrhages capacity. Construction sites signal resilience, but can’t replace the export earnings that once powered the economy.
This strategy also creates a dangerous dependency: Ukraine builds more while producing less for world markets.
Whether this proves sustainable depends on donor fatigue, military progress creating safe export corridors, and whether industrial companies can survive long enough to benefit from eventual peace.
For now, the cranes keep rising while factory chimneys stay cold. Ukraine’s economic survival depends on which trend proves more durable.
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Russia has been preparing for war with Ukraine since 2007. Since then, Russia’s largest tank manufacturer, Uralvagonzavod, has been accumulating hundreds of units of foreign high-tech machinery to support Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence or HUR reports.
HUR has published new data in the “Tools of War” section of the War&Sanctions portal on over 260 machine tools, CNC processing centers, and other foreign-made equipment operating within the Russian military-industrial complex.
This portal documents entities and companies helping Russia wage the war against Ukraine.
According to Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence chief, most of these purchases occurred during the rearmament of Russia’s defense industry ahead of the all-out war.
This equipment requires regular maintenance, repairs, and software updates. Manufacturers can restrict the supply of spare parts, technical fluids, and CNC software, directly impacting the operation of Russia’s military machinery.
In 2024, Uralvagonzavod launched a new tank engine production line equipped with advanced CNC machinery from leading European manufacturers. While deliveries via third countries continue, they have become slower, more complicated, and more expensive due to sanctions.
Effectively limiting Russian aggression requires coordinated diplomatic efforts, investigation of violations, and blocking of circumvention schemes.
The Russian intelligence has assassination lists, which includes Ukrainian prominent politicians, officials, and public figures. Former Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, Andrii Parubiy, who was killed in Lviv by a Russian agent, was in one of them even before the war, says deputy Iryna Herashchenko from his European Solidarity party, Radio NV reports.
Parubiy, 52, maintained a consistently anti-Russian stance throughout his career. He co-founded the Social-National Party of Ukraine in 1991, when Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union, which declared in its early program that it “considers the Russian state the cause of all troubles in Ukraine.”
The politician played pivotal roles in Ukraine’s two major democratic upheavals. During the 2004 Orange Revolution, he served as commandant of the Ukrainian House, a key protest site. Nearly a decade later, Parubiy became the de facto leader of the Euromaidan demonstrations in 2013 and 2014, aimed at fighting for Ukraine’s future int he EU and away from Russian influence,
Ukraine investigates Russian link to assassination of politician who opposed Kremlin for 30 years
“From the very first second, it was clear that Moscow was behind this. Whoever pulled the trigger, Moscow was controlling it,” says Herashchenko.
The first attempt on Parubiy’s life occurred in December 2014, when a grenade was thrown near the Kyiv hotel. In 2022, the Russians added him to a “hit list” targeting dozens of Ukrainian politicians.
Herashchenko explained that Russian intelligence tried to recruit a suspect via Telegram, offering the body of Parubiy’s missing son as leverage, exploiting his emotional vulnerability.
“The person was easy prey for the FSB to execute this absolutely hellish plan,” she noted.
The European Solidarity faction is pushing for legislation to de-anonymize Telegram in Ukraine to prevent such crimes in the future.
Herashchenko also recalled threats during the Minsk negotiations, when Moscow-aligned actors warned Ukrainian participants.
“Do you think we don’t know where you live? Your house will be burned by the families of prisoners of war,” she repeats Russian threats to Ukrainian officials.
Russia breached the Minsk agreements, which focused on reaching peace in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine, and started the all-out war in 2022.
Herashchenko emphasizes that such Russian tactics continue today, underscoring the ongoing dangers faced by Ukrainian politicians.
The Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense continues to demonstrate its strength, UNIAN reports. In temporarily occupied Crimea, several key Russian targets have been destroyed, including the RT-70 radio telescope, in a latest strike.
According to HUR and the Ukrainian Navy, in August, fighters from the special unit “Phantoms” struck:
“The radio telescope is truly unique. It was built during Soviet times to monitor satellite constellations. It is genuinely one-of-a-kind,” emphasizes Ukrainian Navy Spokesperson Captain 3rd Rank Dmytro Pletenchuk.
Pletenchuk noted that in Crimea, the enemy deployed a dense network of air defense systems to protect the Crimean Bridge and the peninsula’s military infrastructure. The layered air defense system also covers Novorossiysk, where the Black Sea Fleet’s missile carriers are based.
“Clearing a path to other Russian targets begins with the air defenses,” he stresses.
Disrupting Russia and destroying its key targets makes their restoration costly and difficult.
Destroying such targets significantly complicates the operation of Russian air defense, reducing its effectiveness against airstrikes, missile attacks, and drones. This is a strategic step in the demilitarization of temporarily occupied Crimea and in preparing for subsequent operations by Ukrainian forces.
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