Summary
Ukrainian drones struck targets in at least six regions deep within Russia on Wednesday, including an airfield where they destroyed military transport planes.
Russian officials described attacks on targets in the Pskov, Bryansk, Kaluga, Orlov, Ryazan and Moscow regions. The Russian foreign ministry said the attacks would “not go unpunished” and could not have reached so far into Russian territory without western help.
Russia’s defence ministry said in two separate statements on Wednesday that its aircraft had destroyed two Ukrainian speedboats east of Snake Island, in the Black Sea.
The attacks came as authorities in Kyiv reported at least two people killed in what they described as the heaviest series of Russian airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital for months.
Across Ukraine, Ukrainian air defences shot down all 28 Russian missiles and 15 out of 16 drones launched overnight, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said on Wednesday.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that investigators were considering the possibility that the plane carrying the Wagner mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin was downed on purpose, the first explicit acknowledgement that he may have been assassinated.
The Wagner group is expected to remain operational in Africa, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice-president of the European Commission said. “They will remain operational in Africa because it is the armed wing of Russia,” Josep Borrell said.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief has urged member countries to order more ammunition for Ukraine, as figures showed the bloc is a long way from a March target of giving Kyiv a million artillery shells within 12 months.
Russia is in secret, active talks with North Korea to acquire a range of munitions and supplies for Moscow’s fight in Ukraine, the White House said Wednesday. “Arms negotiations between Russia and the DPRK are actively advancing,” the White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said, adding that a key focus of the talks was artillery ammunition for Moscow’s forces.
Tech giants, including TikTok and Twitter, failed to effectively tackle Russian disinformation online during the first year of the war in Ukraine, according to a study published on Wednesday by the European Union. The independent study for the EU comes after tougher rules under the Digital Services Act (DSA) kicked in this month for the world’s biggest online platforms.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and his Turkish counterpart will discuss a proposal by Moscow for an alternative to the Black Sea grain deal when they meet this week, Lavrov’s ministry said. Under the plan, Russia would send a million tonnes of grain to Turkey at a discounted price, with financial support from Qatar, to be processed in Turkey and sent to countries most in need, the Foreign Ministry said
Few Russians wanted the war in Ukraine – but they won’t accept a Russian defeat either
It is highly probable that we will never know precisely how or why Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, was killed. It is also highly probable that he was assassinated, most likely on the orders of Vladimir Putin, but possibly on the orders of his enemies in the Russian defence ministry, who had probably been dreaming of this moment for a long time and believed they could finally kill him with impunity.
Most western commentary on the assassination has focused on the fear of Putin that Prigozhin’s death will cause among the Russian elites, or on the underlying fragility it reveals in the Russian regime.
This is not wholly wrong, but it misses several longstanding fears that are widespread within the Russian establishment – and indeed in the wider Russian population – that will influence how events play out: fear of defeat, chaos and of each other. What really worried most members of the elite was Putin’s failure to act much earlier to end the public feud between Prigozhin and the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and that Prigozhin’s armed demonstration risked a catastrophic internal split in Russia, leading to defeat in Ukraine.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief has urged member countries to order more ammunition for Ukraine, as figures showed the bloc is a long way from a March target of giving Kyiv a million artillery shells within 12 months.
Josep Borrell on Wednesday said overarching agreements, known as framework contracts, had been signed with arms firms to allow EU member countries to place joint orders for 155mm rounds, urgently needed by Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion, Reuters reports.
“Now it’s [up] to the member states to pass concrete orders inside these framework agreements with the industry,” Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU defence ministers in the Spanish city of Toledo.
In a landmark step, EU countries agreed in March on a plan worth about €2bn ($2.18bn) to provide 1m artillery shells or missiles to Ukraine within 12 months.
The first element involved countries digging into their reserves or buying stock from elsewhere. Borrell said that element had yielded about 224,000 ammunition rounds and 2,300 missiles, worth a total of about €1.1bn.
That means the EU has not even reached a quarter of its target, more than five months after the initiative was launched.
The rest of the shells are meant to come from the second element of the plan – a joint procurement scheme that encourages EU member countries to place orders for Ukraine and to replenish their own stocks, badly depleted by donating to Kyiv.
But with no orders announced so far under the scheme, some EU members are urging the bloc to look at other options.
“We have to ask ourselves … can we do more? And my answer here is clearly that yes, we can,” the Estonian defence minister, Hanno Pevkur, told reporters at the Toledo meeting, held at a former arms factory that is now a university building.
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Here are some of the latest images from the newswires coming out of Russia and Ukraine:
Photograph: Future Publishing/Ukrinform/Getty Images
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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Russia arms talks with North Korea 'actively advancing' says White House
Russia is in secret, active talks with North Korea to acquire a range of munitions and supplies for Moscow’s fight in Ukraine, the White House said Wednesday.
“Arms negotiations between Russia and the DPRK are actively advancing,” the White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said, adding that a key focus of the talks was artillery ammunition for Moscow’s forces.
Kirby noted that despite North Korea’s denials, it supplied infantry rockets and missiles to Russia last year for use by the privately controlled Wagner military group.
He said that recently, the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, had traveled to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – North Korea – seeking to acquire additional munitions for the war.
“Since that visit, President Putin and the leader of the DPRK, Kim Jong-un, have exchanged letters pledging to increase their bilateral cooperation,” Kirby told reporters.
At the UN, the US, UK, South Korea and Japan said in a joint statement that any such deal would violate security council resolutions forbidding arms deals with North Korea, resolutions that Moscow itself had endorsed.
They said that following Shoigu’s visit to Pyongyang, another group of Russian officials had travelled to North Korea for follow-up talks on arms purchases.
“Russia is negotiating potential deals for significant quantities and multiple types of munitions from the DPRK to be used against Ukraine,” they said.
“These potential deals could also include the provision of raw materials that would assist Russia’s defence industrial base.
“Any such arm deals would be a serious violation of resolutions the security council adopted unanimously after the DPRK past nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches,” they said.
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Kremlin not ruling out foul play in Prigozhin crash
The Kremlin said on Wednessday that investigators were probing all possible scenarios surrounding the death last week of the Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in a plane crash, including premeditated murder.
Prigozhin, 62, was buried on Tuesday in a private ceremony in his native St Petersburg, more than two months after he staged a short-lived mutiny that posed a serious challenge for the Kremlin, AFP reports.
Authorities said the businessman, who was under western sanctions, died when his private jet went down along with nine other people between Moscow and St Petersburg, and opened an investigation.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, on Wednesday told reporters that officials probing the incident had not ruled out any cause for the crash, including foul play.
“Obviously there are different versions, including the version – you know what we are talking about, let’s say a deliberate crime – and so on,” Peskov said.
He said the plane crash was being probed by Russia’s investigative committee and that there would be no international input.
The Kremlin has dismissed suggestions it orchestrated the crash in revenge for Wagner’s march on Moscow in June. Officials are investigating possible air traffic violations but have not disclosed details.
Russians paid their respects to Prigozhin on Wednesday after officers lifted a cordon around the cemetery following his funeral the previous day.
Aigul, 38, who declined to give her last name, said Prigozhin, who held the Hero of Russia title, Moscow’s top honour, had defended his country.
“He was our protector,” she told AFP at the cemetery.
“And who else was he if the president awarded him with medals?
“I didn’t know him personally but I believe that president didn’t make a mistake by decorating him.”
Marina, 51, who also withheld her last name, praised the warlord as well.
“I respected him. I appreciated what he did. I loved his company which worked responsibly.”
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A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced a female activist to six years in prison after she was accused of spreading false information about the Russian army.
Olga Smirnova, a member of the Peaceful Resistance movement, was also banned from managing websites for three years, said the OVD-Info rights group, which monitors opposition arrests said.
A representative of the Kirovsk district court in St Petersburg confirmed to AFP that Smirnova had been sentenced, but declined to provide details.
In March 2022, Smirnova published several social media posts about the tactics of the Russian army in Ukraine and the deaths of civilians.
Since unleashing full-scale hostilities against Ukraine a year and a half ago, public criticism of the Kremlin’s offensive has been outlawed and a number of prominent and ordinary Russians have received long prison terms.
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Ukrainian drones have attacked at least six regions deep within Russia, including an airfield where they destroyed military transport planes, in one of the largest-scale attacks on Russia in months.
A drone assault on the city of Pskov in north-western Russia damaged four IL-76 military cargo aircraft, Russian authorities said early on Wednesday, engulfing two of the planes in flames.
Andriy Yusov, the deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, confirmed the strike on the city on Wednesday, saying all four IL-76 military cargo planes had been destroyed and adding that “several more planes were damaged”.
Read more from Pjotr Sauer and Helen Sullivan here:
US 'concerned that arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea are actively advancing', says national security spokesperson
The United States is concerned that arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea are actively advancing, the White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, told a briefing on Wednesday.
Kirby said the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, had recently travelled to North Korea to try to convince Pyongyang to sell artillery ammunition to Russia, Reuters reports.
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Here are some of the latest images from the newswires coming out of Russia and Ukraine:
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Tech giants such as TikTok and Twitter failed to effectively tackle Russian disinformation online, says EU
Tech giants, including TikTok and Twitter, failed to effectively tackle Russian disinformation online during the first year of the war in Ukraine, according to a study published on Wednesday by the European Union.
The EU has previously warned against online manipulation and interference by Russia targeting the European internet in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The independent study for the EU comes after tougher rules under the Digital Services Act (DSA) kicked in this month for the world’s biggest online platforms.
The report focused on risks from pro-Kremlin disinformation on six platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (rebranded X), YouTube, TikTok and Telegram – and whether the companies’ actions complied with elements of the DSA, reports AFP.
Except for Telegram, all must currently comply with the DSA’s stricter rules that demand a more aggressive approach to policing content, including disinformation and hate speech, from “very large” platforms with at least 45 million monthly active users.
Tech companies signed a code of practice on disinformation before the DSA that would have “mitigated some of the Kremlin’s malign activities”, the report said.
“The evidence suggests that online platforms failed to implement these measures at a systemic level,” the study wrote.
Most major platforms signed the code last year but Twitter withdrew in June. The report also criticised the Telegram social network, but it has not signed up to the code.
The authors warned that Russian online disinformation has increased in 2023, especially after SpaceX and the Tesla billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter late last year.
“The reach and influence of Kremlin-backed accounts has grown further in the first half of 2023, driven in particular by the dismantling of Twitter’s safety standards.”
Musk unleashed a wave of sackings when he took over, firing many moderators who vetted Twitter content for disinformation and harmful messages.
He has said, however, that Twitter/X is “working hard” to meet the DSA rules.
Updated
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and his Turkish counterpart will discuss a proposal by Moscow for an alternative to the Black Sea grain deal when they meet this week, Lavrov’s ministry said on Wednesday.
Under the plan, Russia would send a million tonnes of grain to Turkey at a discounted price, with financial support from Qatar, to be processed in Turkey and sent to countries most in need, the Foreign Ministry said, according to Reuters.
“We consider this project as the optimal working alternative to the Black Sea deal,” it said, referring to the arrangement that Russia quit in July.
The announcement comes as a senior US state department official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said US and Romanian officials had been working to “potentially trying to double” the exports that go via the Danube River.
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The Wagner group is expected to remain operational in Africa, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice-president of the European Commission has said.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of EU defence ministers in Spain, Josep Borrell said that despite the death of the group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in a plane crash, he was “sure they’ll quickly find a replacement”.
“They will remain operational in Africa because it is the armed wing of Russia,” Borrell said.
“They [Wagner] will continue to serve Putin and do what they do, which is certainly not contributing to peace in the Sahel or defending rights and freedoms in the Sahel.”
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There have been more than 190 suspected drone attacks in Russia and in Russian-controlled Crimea since the start of the year – based on tracking reports in Russia media – according to analysis by BBC Verify.
The latest strikes, which reportedly targeted at least six Russian regions, are the most widespread so far in 2023, the BBC reports.
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Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has tweeted a picture of himself and the French president, Emmanuel Macron. He said they discussed further military support and other topics.
I was honored to be received by @EmmanuelMacron following his contacts with @ZelenskyyUa. Discussed further military support, expanding the Peace Formula coalition and our grain exports to countries in Africa and beyond. I thanked him for reaffirming France’s continued support. pic.twitter.com/Xat5DE2VCg
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) August 30, 2023
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Russia says it has destroyed two Ukrainian speedboats
Russia’s defence ministry said in two separate statements on Wednesday that its aircraft had destroyed two Ukrainian speedboats east of Snake Island, in the Black Sea, Reuters reports.
Neither Reuters nor the Guardian was able to verify the reports, which followed a similar incident on 22 August when Russia said it had destroyed a US-made speedboat carrying Ukrainian military personnel in the same area.
Snake Island is a small Ukrainian outpost in the north-west part of the Black Sea where tensions have escalated since Russia last month pulled out of a deal that had enabled Ukraine to ship grain from its southern ports.
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Lithuania has summoned the Vatican’s top diplomat to the country after Pope Francis told Russian young people to remember they were the heirs of “the great Russian empire”, Reuters reports.
In response to the impromptu remarks by Francis on Friday, in a live video address to Catholic young people gathered in St Petersburg, the Lithuanian foreign affairs ministry invited the apostolic nuncio for “a talk” after the archbishop returned from holiday, a ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The Vatican said on Tuesday that the pope did not intend to glorify Russian imperialism in the speech, in which he also extolled the Russian emperors Peter the Great and Catherine II, who expanded the Russian empire.
Large parts of the territories of Lithuania and Poland were annexed into the Russian empire in the 18th century by Catherine II. The countries broke away after the first world war, after two 19th century revolts against the empire were brutally suppressed.
Francis’s intent was “to preserve and promote all that is positive in the great Russian cultural and spiritual heritage”, said the Vatican.
Ukraine, once part of the same empire, said the comments were “deeply regrettable”. The Kremlin described them as “very gratifying”.
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Russia says Black Sea grain deal on agenda for Lavrov's talks with Turkish counterpart
The Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said on Wednesday that the Black Sea grain deal would be one of the items on the agenda of the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov’s, talks on Thursday and Friday with his Turkish counterpart.
Russia pulled out of the Turkish-brokered deal, which had enabled Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports, in July.
So far, more than 40m tonnes of grain, oil seeds and related products are estimated by officials to have been exported through alternative routes via Poland and Romania, providing an important lifeline to Ukraine.
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Summary of the day so far …
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that investigators were considering the possibility that the plane carrying the Wagner mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin was downed on purpose, the first explicit acknowledgment that he may have been assassinated.
Ukrainian drones struck targets in at least six regions deep within Russia on Wednesday, including an airfield where they destroyed military transport planes. Russian officials described attacks on targets in the Pskov, Bryansk, Kaluga, Orlov, Ryazan and Moscow regions. The Russian foreign ministry said the attacks would “not go unpunished” and could not have reached so far into Russian territory without western help.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia was working out where the drones had been launched from to prevent further strikes.
The attacks came as authorities in Kyiv reported at least two people killed in what they described as the heaviest series of Russian airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital for months.
Across Ukraine, Ukrainian air defences shot down all 28 Russian missiles and 15 out of 16 drones launched overnight, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said on Wednesday.
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Russia tells Brazil's aircraft investigation authority it will not probe crash of jet 'at the moment'
The Kremlin has responded to questions about the inquiry relating to the plane crash that killed the mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhinon (see post at 11.22).
Russia has informed Brazil’s aircraft investigation authority that it will not investigate the crash of the Brazilian-made Embraer jet under international rules “at the moment”, the Brazilian agency told Reuters.
Asked about that report, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said: “First of all, the investigation is under way, the investigative committee is engaged in this.
“In this case there can be no talk of any international aspect,” he added.
The private Embraer jet on which Prigozhin was travelling to St Petersburg from Moscow crashed north of Moscow, killing all 10 people on board on 23 August.
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Russia working out where Ukrainian drones were launched from to prevent further strikes, says Kremlin
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was working out where the drones were launched from to prevent further strikes (see earlier post at 06.07 for details).
Vladimir Putin had been informed immediately, as would be the case after any such “massive attacks”, he added.
Ukrainian drones reportedly struck targets in at least six regions deep within Russia on Wednesday, including an airfield where they destroyed military transport planes.
Kyiv confirmed the Russian planes had been destroyed in Pskov, without commenting on the nature of the incident, Reuters reports.
It generally withholds comment on strikes on territory inside Russia, though it says it has a right to hit military targets.
“Yes, four IL-76 transport planes were destroyed in Pskov at an airfield, they are beyond repair. Also, several other of those (aircraft) are damaged, but the information is being checked,” Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s GUR military agency, told Reuters.
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Russia said on Wednesday it was worried about the situation in Gabon after a coup by army officers there, Reuters reports.
Speaking to the media, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said:
Moscow has received with concern reports of a sharp deterioration in the internal situation in the friendly African country. We continue to closely monitor the development of the situation and hope for its speedy stabilisation.
Military officers in Gabon say they taken power and put President Ali Bongo Ondimba under house arrest.
If successful, the coup would be the eighth in west and central Africa since 2020. The latest one, in Niger, was in July, while soldiers have also seized power in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Chad.
Russia is looking to build up diplomatic and trade ties with Africa, and Vladimir Putin hosted African leaders for a summit last month.
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group is also active in several African countries.
Kremlin says Prigozhin plane crash may have been caused deliberately
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the investigation into the plane crash which killed the Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine others last week included the possibility that it was caused deliberately, Reuters reports.
“It is obvious that different versions are being considered, including the version – you know what we are talking about – let’s say, a deliberate atrocity,” the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov also said that the inquiry into the plane crash was a Russian investigation, and that there could be no question of an international investigation.
Russia’s investigative committee on Sunday confirmed Prigozhin was among the people killed. The committee said in a statement that after forensic testing, all 10 bodies recovered at the site had been identified, and their identities “conform to the manifest”.
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Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv has built dozens of classrooms in metro stations to allow some pupils to return to in-person teaching, Reuters reports.
Schools in Ukraine’s second largest city have been forced to teach online throughout the war as some Russian missiles can reach the city in under a minute – not enough time to get from many classrooms to a shelter.
The city mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said 60 classrooms had been created in Kharkiv’s metro stations before the new school year in September, creating space for more than 1,000 children to study in-person.
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Russia says overnight Ukrainian drone strikes 'will not go unpunished'
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory overnight “will not go unpunished”, Reuters reports.
In a briefing to journalists, spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that the drones, some of which struck an airbase in Pskov, 400 miles from Ukraine, could not have covered such distances without information from western countries.
Russia said it foiled one of the biggest Ukrainian drone attacks to date on western Russia on Wednesday, shooting down unmanned aircraft over at least six regions.
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The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will hold talks with his Turkish counterpart in Russia on 31 August and 1 September, his spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said on Wednesday.
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Vladimir Putin held a phone call with the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, to wish him a happy birthday and affirm the countries’ mutual commitment to deepening their relationship, the Kremlin said in a statement on Wednesday.
Russia and Belarus are linked in a partnership called the “union state” in which Moscow is by far the dominant player.
But Lukashenko has proved his usefulness to Putin since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, allowing Russia to use his country as a launch pad at the start of the war.
He has subsequently let Russian forces train at his military bases, conducted frequent joint exercises and taken delivery of tactical nuclear weapons which Putin has placed in Belarus in a move broadly condemned in the west.
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Ukrainian officials have said Russia’s largest airstrike on Kyiv since spring killed two people early on Wednesday (see recap at 06.07).
Three others were hurt in the overnight strike on Ukraine’s capital, and combat drones attacked infrastructure in the central region of Zhytomyr, where an unidentified facility and railway tracks were damaged, as trains were delayed, officials said.
“The blast wave broke all the windows, the entry doors are broken too. We were terribly scared,” Liudmyla Savchuk, a 57-year-old teacher whose apartment in northwestern Kyiv was damaged, told Reuters.
“Then there was another explosion in a couple of seconds, 20 or 30 seconds. We’re cleaning everything now.”
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Followers of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former leader of the Wagner mercenary group, laid flowers, messages and poetry at his grave on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
Prigozhin was buried at the Porokhovskoye cemetery in his home town of St Petersburg on Tuesday, away from the glare of the media.
A man wearing a shirt of Wagner and a cap bearing the Russian flag was among those paying respects at the grave, where red roses and carnations graced a wooden Orthodox cross marked “Prigozhin, Yevgeny Viktorovich 1961 - 2023”.
One tribute beside flowers read: “To be a warrior is to live forever.”
Prigozhin died when his business jet crashed last week, two months after he staged an aborted mutiny against Russian military commanders in which his Wagner troops briefly took control of the southern city of Rostov and advanced towards Moscow.
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Hundreds of firefighters are trying to put out blazes near the Russian Black Sea town of Gelendzhik, one of the country’s most popular resorts, the local mayor said on Wednesday.
In a post on Telegram, Alexei Bogodistov said 441 people and more than 80 vehicles had been deployed to combat the forest fires which had engulfed 118 hectares of land, Reuters reports.
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The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has met China’s vice-president, Han Zheng, during the first visit to Beijing by a UK foreign secretary in five years.
Cleverly landed on Tuesday night and is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, later on Wednesday.
Concerns over Beijing’s approach towards Taiwan and its support for Russia are expected to be on the agenda.
Beijing has sought to present itself as a neutral potential peacemaker in the conflict, but has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and in practice has given support to Russia.
This week it was reported Vladimir Putin would visit Beijing in October, one of the only places the Russian president feels comfortable travelling to after the international criminal court issued a warrant for his arrest.
In comments before his visit, Cleverly said no international issue could be solved without including China, but that Beijing had to also be held to its international obligations and commitments.
You can read the full story by my colleague, Helen Davidson, here:
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Here are some of the latest images from the newswires coming out of Russia and Ukraine:
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In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the high rate of convictions for Russian soldiers refusing to fight demonstrates the poor state of morale in the Russian army and the reluctance of some elements to engage in combat.
The MoD tweeted:
On 25 August 2023, two Russian soldiers were sentenced to serve at least two years in a penal colony by a military court for refusing to obey orders to return to the front in Ukraine.
On 18 July 2023, the Mediazona news outlet reported that Russia was convicting close to 100 soldiers a week for refusing to fight. If this trend continues, there will be approximately 5,200 convictions a year for refusing to fight…
Refusal to fight likely reflects the lack of training, motivation and high stress situations Russian forces face along the entire Ukrainian frontline.
Although some soldiers have refused to fight and attrition rates remain high, Russia highly likely mitigates their loss by committing a mass of poorly trained soldiers to the frontline.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, tweeted on Wednesday morning:
Today’s large-scale combined attack of the RF (cruise missiles+Shaheds) on Kyiv is an unquestionably deliberate attack on the civilian population.
The motive: revenge for the growing accidents in the RF itself; failures on the frontline; ethnic hatred and attempt of psychological intimidation.
Undoubtedly, an attack of this kind is qualified as an act of demonstrative terrorism, thought out, premeditated and committed by a group of persons in prior conspiracy.
Russia has said Ukrainian drones have tried to attack a TV tower over the Bryansk region, according to Reuters. No casualties have been reported.
The governor of the region, Aleksandr Bogomaz, reportedly posted to social media that two drones were intercepted en route to the TV tower.
These claims are yet to be independently verified.
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The attacks have come as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, announced a new package of military assistance to aid Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
The package includes additional mine-clearing equipment, missiles for air defence, as well as ammunition for artillery and small arms, Blinken said in a statement.
Reuters has some more information on reports of the major Russian missile and drone attack launched on Kyiv on Wednesday.
Reuters reports:
The bodies of two people were found in a non residential building and one person was wounded by glass shards, mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
“Kyiv has not experienced such a powerful attack since spring. The enemy launched a massive, combined attack using drones and missiles,” Serhiy Popko, the head of the city’s military administration, said on Telegram.
He said that at the beginning several groups of drones were heading for Kyiv from different directions. Russia then launched missiles from Tu-95 strategic aircrafts…
Kyiv authorities said several buildings were damaged by debris while officials in Kyiv region reported that six private houses were damaged by missile fragments and several people were injured.
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Here is some video of drones hitting an airport in the western Pskov region of Russia (see post at 02.49).
Hello everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the blog until 3pm (UK time). Please do feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleague Yohannes Lowe will take you through the rest of the day’s news from Ukraine.
28 missiles and 15 drones shot down overnight by Ukraine
Accross Ukraine, Ukrainian air defences shot down all 28 Russian missiles and 15 out of 16 drones launched overnight, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine‘s armed forces, said on Wednesday.
Ukrainian authorities have said at least two people were killed and two wounded in an attack on Kyiv on Wednesday morning. Several people were also injured in Kyiv region.
Here are some pictures from the attacks overnight on Kyiv:
What we know so far
It has been a big night in both Russia and Ukraine. Here is what we know:
Kyiv was targeted early Wednesday by the “most powerful” barrage of missiles and drones since the spring, authorities said, with two people reported dead, as Russia claimed it destroyed four Ukrainian boats in the Black Sea carrying up to 50 soldiers.
More than 20 missiles and drones were “destroyed by air defence forces” overnight, the Kyiv city military administration wrote on Telegram, describing the aerial assault as “the most powerful” to hit the city since the spring.
Ukrainian drones swept across Russia in overnight attacks that damaged military aircraft and disrupted air traffic, Russian officials said early on Wednesday, hours after the funeral service for Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Attacks by unmanned aircraft were reported in Pskov, Bryansk, Kaluga, Orlov and Ryazan regions as well as the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, Russian officials said.
The attack on six regions in Russia is believed to be the largest on Russian soil since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Associated Press reports.
The most significant attack appeared to be in Pskov, where Russian officials said four Il-76 military transport planes were damaged. Poskov lies about 411 miles (660 km) north of the Ukrainian frontier, near the borders with Estonia and Latvia.
Russia’s defence ministry said that it had destroyed military boats in the Black Sea carrying 50 Ukrainian paratroops. An aircraft “destroyed four high-speed military boats” in the Black Sea around midnight Moscow time, the Russian defence ministry wrote on Telegram. The boats had been carrying “landing groups of Ukrainian special operations forces with a total number of up to 50 people”, the ministry said. It did not give details on exactly where in the Black Sea the claimed incident took place.
Early on Wednesday, the local Moscow-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, was cited as saying by Tass that Russian defences repelled a “seaborne drone attack” near Sevastopol Bay in Crimea. Sevastopol is the base of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. “Anti-submarine … forces have completed their work,” Razvozhayev said, without giving details.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has announced a new package of military assistance to aid Ukraine. The package includes additional mine clearing equipment, missiles for air defence, ammunition for artillery and high bar systems, and over three million rounds of small arms ammunition, Blinken said in a statement.
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Attack on Kyiv was 'most powerful' since Spring, says Kyiv
More than 20 missiles and drones were “destroyed by air defence forces” overnight, the Kyiv City Military Administration wrote on Telegram, describing the aerial assault as “the most powerful” to hit the city since the spring.
“The enemy launched a massive, combined attack using drones and missiles,” the administration wrote.
Also early on Wednesday, the local Moscow-installed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev was cited as saying by Tass that Russian defences repelled a “seaborne drone attack” near Sevastopol Bay in Crimea.
Sevastopol is the base of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
“Anti-submarine … forces have completed their work,” Razvozhayev said, without giving details.
Here is what we know about Russia’s claimed attack on Ukrainian boats in the Black Sea.
An aircraft “destroyed four high-speed military boats” around midnight Moscow time, the Russian defence ministry wrote on Telegram.
The boats had been carrying “landing groups of Ukrainian special operations forces with a total number of up to 50 people”, the ministry said.
It did not give details on exactly where in the Black Sea the claimed incident took place.
The US-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War reports that the Kremlin appears to be “promoting five main information operations against Ukraine”.
In its daily update, the ISW wrote:
The Russian narratives include claims that Ukraine is conducting mass mobilisation regardless of age, gender, or health; claims that Ukraine’s Western partners are disappointed in Ukraine‘s prospects for victory; claims that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is failing; claims that the Ukrainian government is completely corrupt and is not fighting corruption and; claims that Russian authorities provide good living standards and conditions in occupied Ukraine. Russian First Deputy Presidential Chief of Staff Sergey Kiriyenko and Russian media representatives reportedly attended the meeting. ISW has observed all five false narratives in the Russian information space.
Two killed by falling debris in missile attacks on Kyiv
Here is more detail on the attacks on Kyiv, via AFP:
Two killed by falling debris after missile strike on Kyiv: authorities
Two people were killed by falling debris after a missile strike on Kyiv, the local military administration said on Wednesday.
“As a result of debris falling in Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv... 2 people died, according to initial reports,” Sergiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, wrote on Telegram.
Another person was injured and was being given medical assistance, he said.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram that “two dead men were found” in a non-residential building in Shevchenkivskyi district.
He did not specify how they died nor whether they were the same two reported by the city’s military administration.
The regional military administration had earlier warned of a missile attack and said air defences were operating.
An AFP reporter heard at least three loud explosions in the centre of Kyiv around 5am local time (0200 GMT).
Emergency services had also deployed to the southern Darnytskyi district, where debris had fallen onto a commercial building, Popko wrote on Telegram.
Here is a bit more detail on the drone attack in Kaluga, Russia.
One drone was brought down and another hit an empty oil reservoir, causing a fire that was quickly extinguished, region Governor Vladislav Shapsha reported. Residential windows were shattered, Shapsha said.
At least two people were killed and one wounded in an attack on Kyiv on Wednesday morning, Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app, as debris from targets destroyed by air defences fell on several buildings in the Ukrainian capital.
The bodies of two people were found in a nonresidential building and one person was wounded by glass shards, Klitschko said.
Several buildings were on fire, he said. Klitschko did not say whether the debris was from missiles or drones.
Updated
Here is a little more detail on the attacks on Kyiv, via Reuters:
Explosions were heard in Kyiv in the early hours of Wednesday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app, and debris from targets destroyed by air defences damaged several buildings in the Ukrainian capital.
Klitschko said a store building and an administrative building were on fire and one person had been wounded by glass shards. He did not say whether the debris was from missiles or drones.
Also on early Wednesday, Russian-installed officials in the annexed Crimea reported repelling an attack of drones targeting the harbor of the port city of Sevastopol, the Associated Press reports.
Moscow-appointed governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozzhayev said it wasn’t immediately clear how many of the drones have been destroyed. It wasn’t immediately clear if the attack caused any damage.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko has provided more details about the attacks on Kyiv. No victims have been found, he said on Telegram, and fires are being extinguished in Darnytskyi and Schevchenkiv –in the former, as a result of what appeared to be the falling debris from a drone or missile:
At the addresses of medical calls, so far, no victims have been found.
Fire and rescue services are extinguishing a fire in the Darnytskyi district, which is burning after debris fell on the roof of a commercial premises.
And in the Shevchenkiv district, where a fire broke out in the administration building.
Updated
The UK ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, posted 20 minutes ago to say that she was sheltering in Kyiv and could hear “a lot of explosions”:
In shelter, can hear a lot of explosions outside.
— Dame Melinda Simmons (@MelSimmonsFCDO) August 30, 2023
Debris falls in two districts of Kyiv
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko reports that explosions have been heard in Kyiv and that emergency services had been called to the Shevchenkivskyi district of the city.
“In the Darnytskyi district, debris fell on the roof of a commercial premises. In Shevchenkivskyi – also falling debris. All services follow in place,” Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
“Medics went to calls at two addresses in Shevchenkivskyi district. Details - later.”
Here is a map showing where Ukrainian drones have reportedly been shot down in Russia overnight:
Former Nato official Edward Hunter-Christie has said online of tonight’s attacks that they prove “the air war is now genuinely mutual”.
On Twitter, he wrote:
It is a long night. But to think that the air war is now genuinely mutual, and on the Ukrainian side based solely on Ukrainian-made systems, is extraordinary. Russia has lost the initiative and the ability to shape events in every domain. Ukraine is gaining both, in all domains.
US announces new aid package for Ukraine
Meanwhile US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced a new package of military assistance to aid Ukraine.
The package includes additional mine clearing equipment, missiles for air defense, ammunition for artillery and high bar systems, and over three million rounds of small arms ammunition, Blinken said in a statement.
Drone attacks reported in six Russian regions
Russia’s Defence Ministry has reported what it says are Ukrainian drones of targeting six Russian regions in the early hours of Wednesday in what appears to be the biggest drone attack on Russian soil over the course of this phase of the war – in other words, since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Drones hit an airport in the western Pskov region and were shot down over the regions of Moscow, Oryol, Bryansk, Ryazan and Kaluga.
The strike in Pskov started a massive fire and four Il-78 transport aircraft were damaged, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported, citing emergency officials.
Pskov regional Governor Mikhail Vedernikov ordered all flights to and from the Pskov airport canceled Wednesday, citing the need to assess the damage during daylight.
Footage and images posted on social media overnight showed smoke billowing over the city of Pskov, and a large blaze. Vedernikov said there were no casualties, and the fire has been contained.
The Associated Press reports that tonight’s attacks on Russia “appear to be the “biggest drone attack on Russian soil in 18 months,” as attacks are reported in six regions.
The regions where the Guardian has so far seen reports of drone attacks – confirmed by Russia’s military – are:
Moscow
Pskov
Bryansk
Ryazan
Kaluga
Orlov (also spelled Oryol)
Updated
Drone 'destroyed' in Moscow region
Russia’s Tass news agency reports, citing Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, that a drone was “destroyed” in the Ruzsky district of the Moscow region.
“Tonight, an attempt was made to mass attack drones in the Central Federal District. One of the UAVs heading for Moscow was destroyed by air defense forces in the Ruzsky district. There were no preliminary casualties and no damage,” Sobyanin wrote in his Telegram channel.
The attack happened at around 2.30 Moscow time (two hours ago), Russia’s defence forces said on Telegram.
Updated
Russia will not investigate Prigozhin crash under international rules - report
Reuters: Russia has informed Brazil’s aircraft investigation authority that it will not probe the crash of the Brazilian-made Embraer jet that killed mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin under international rules “at the moment”, the Brazilian agency told Reuters on Tuesday.
Prigozhin, two top lieutenants of his Wagner Group and four bodyguards were among 10 people who died when the Embraer Legacy 600 crashed north of Moscow last week.
He died two months to the day after staging a brief mutiny against the Russian defense establishment that posed the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s rule since he rose to power in 1999.
Brazil’s Center for Research and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (Cenipa), in the interests of improving aviation safety, had said it would join a Russian-led investigation if it were invited and the probe held under international rules.
Russia’s aviation authority was not obligated to say yes to Cenipa, but some former investigators said it should, as the US and other Western governments suspect the Kremlin of being behind the crash of the Embraer Legacy 600, which has a good safety record. The Kremlin denies any involvement.
Explosions heard in Odesa
Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko has said online that there has been a '“rocket attack” on Odesa with explosions heard at around 3.30 am local time:
Rocket attack on Odesa region. Explosions were heard 10 minutes ago. We are waiting for information from the Air Force.
— Oleksiy Goncharenko (@GoncharenkoUa) August 30, 2023
Two drones shot down over Russia's Orlov region – local governor
The governor of Russia’s Orlov region, Andriy Klychkov, has said on Telegram that two Ukrainian drones were shot down tonight:
Tonight, while repelling an attack by Ukrainian UAVs, two unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down over the territory of the Orlov region by means of air defence. There is no information about damage or casualties. All operational services are involved to ensure security.
Russia’s military initially reported that one drone had been shot down over the region.
Here is a bit more context on the reported attacks on Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea, via AFP:
Both Ukraine and Russia have ramped up activity in the area after a United Nations-brokered deal to ensure safe navigation for grain ships in the Black Sea collapsed last month.
Russia has since pounded Ukraine’s port infrastructure on the sea and on the Danube River.
Kyiv has attacked Russian ships in its waters and the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Last week, Moscow’s defence ministry said one of its jets destroyed a Ukrainian “reconnaissance boat” near Russian gas production facilities in the Black Sea.
It later said it also destroyed a US-made speedboat carrying Ukrainian troops east of Snake Island, without providing further detail.
Air raid sirens in Kyiv – emergency services
Air raid sirens are active in Kyiv and other regions in Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s emergency services on Telegram.
“In Kiev and the lower regions, the signal “At the alarm” has been announced!",” the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said on Telegram.
Russian military claims Ukrainian vessels ‘destroyed’ in Black Sea
Russia’s military, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said early on Wednesday that one of its aircraft had destroyed four rapid Ukrainian vessels carrying up to 50 paratroops in an operation on the Black Sea.
Writing on Telegram, the military said:
On August 30, at about 00.00 Moscow time, a naval aviation aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet in the Black Sea destroyed four high-speed military boats with landing groups of servicemen of the Ukrainian special operations forces totaling up to 50 people.
Drones also reportedly downed over Russia's Bryansk, Orlov and Tula
Russia’s military said on Telegram early on Wednesday it had downed three Ukrainian drones over southern Bryansk region and one over central Orlov region.
There were reports of explosions in Bryansk, as well as the Tula region.
Bellingcat researcher Aric Toyler said online: “About every local Bryansk channel just now wrote, almost simultaneously, that they heard a loud explosion. Similar reports in Tula with reports of drones being fired at.”
The region of Pskov was previously targeted by drones in late May.
In recent weeks Moscow and other Russian regions have been targeted by a barrage of Ukrainian drone attacks after Kyiv vowed this summer to “return” the conflict to Russia.
Updated
Planes in Russian city of Pskov hit by drones
A drone attack on the city of Pskov in northwestern Russia has damaged four heavy transport planes, state media reported early on Wednesday, amid reports of explosions in regions south of Moscow.
“The defence ministry is repelling a drone attack in Pskov’s airport,” regional governor Mikhail Vedernikov said on social media, posting a video of a massive fire, with the sounds of explosions and sirens in the background.
Pskov is located about 800km (nearly 500 miles) from Ukraine’s border and the surrounding region borders EU member states Latvia and Estonia.
In Moscow, news agency Tass reported that airspace above Vnukovo airport closed briefly in response to the attacks on Pskov, before reopening to air traffic.
There were also reportedly explosions in Russia’s Bryansk and Tula regions, according to the investigative news outlet Bellingcat.
There was no immediate comment from the defence ministry on the Pskov attack, but four transport planes were damaged, Tass news agency reported, citing emergency services.
Vedernikov said he was at the scene of the attack. “According to preliminary information, there are no victims,” he said, adding that the scale of the damage was being assessed.
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.
In breaking news, a drone attack on the city of Pskov in northwestern Russia has damaged four heavy transport planes, state media reported early on Wednesday, amid reports of explosions in regions south of Moscow.
“The defence ministry is repelling a drone attack in Pskov’s airport,” regional governor Mikhail Vedernikov said on social media, posting a video of a massive fire, with the sounds of explosions and sirens in the background.
Pskov is located about 800km (nearly 500 miles) from Ukraine’s border and the surrounding region borders EU member states Latvia and Estonia.
Separately, Russia’s military said early on Wednesday that one of its aircraft had destroyed four Ukrainian rapid vessels carrying up to 50 paratroops in an operation on the Black Sea.
We’ll have more developments shortly.
