Police officers examine remains of an Iran-made drone following a Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, December 14, 2022 (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty)
EA on India’s WION News: A Saudi Arabia Summit on Ukraine
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Map: Institute for Study of War
UPDATE 1425 GMT:
Russian authorities have issued weapons to members of territorial defense units in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine.
In a ceremony, members were given assault rifles, anti-drone guns, UAZ utility vehicles, and digital radios.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said last month that the units consisted of 3,000 people in total, and that regional authorities had begun forming another regiment with the same number of personnel.
Kursk Governor Roman Starovoit also said the “people’s military” in his region will receive weapons.
The Kursk region is experiencing terrorist attacks from Ukraine on an almost daily basis. The first batch [of weapons] has already arrived at the base. In the near future we will increase the number of weapons up to 300 units.
UPDATE 1351 GMT:
The scene in Kyiv early this morning, from Christopher Miller of the Financial Times:
In this video you can hear & see what we hear & see in Kyiv during Russia’s air attacks. The buzzing sound is the Iranian Shahed drone which Ukrainians call flying mopeds or flying lawnmowers. Air defenses destroy it, sending debris falling to the ground. pic.twitter.com/WDizNhsjPR
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) August 2, 2023
UPDATE 1345 GMT:
Ukraine Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said this morning’s Russian drone attacks, on warehouses and grain elevators in the ports of Odesa and Izmail, damaged almost 40,000 tons of grains for China, Israel, and countries in Africa.
Kubrakov said, “The world must resist. Attacks on Ukrainian ports are a threat to the world.” He appealed for more donations of air defense equipment.
Romanian Prime Minister Klaus Iohannis, whose country is just across a river from the port of Izmail, tweeted:
Russia's continued attacks against the Ukrainian🇺🇦 civilian infrastructure on #Danube, in the proximity of Romania🇷🇴, are unacceptable. These are war crimes and they further affect UA's capacity to transfer their food products towards those in need in the world.
— Klaus Iohannis (@KlausIohannis) August 2, 2023
UPDATE 1042 GMT:
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has written about Russia’s overnight drone attacks:
The world must respond. When civilian ports are targeted, when terrorists deliberately destroy even elevators, this is a threat to everyone on all continents. Russia can and should be stopped.
UPDATE 1005 GMT:
Russia’s overnight drone attacks have damaged a grain silo in the Ukrainian port of Izmail on the Danube River.
The Ukraine Defense Ministry posted, “Another elevator in the port of Izmail, Odesa region, was damaged by Russians. Ukrainian grain has the potential to feed millions of people worldwide.”
On Tuesday, it was reported that at least three and up to six ships had reached Izmail, across the river from Romania. They defied the Russian blockade of the Black Sea, reimposed by Vladimir Putin on July 17 when he ripped up the July 2022 deal allowing exports from three Ukrainian ports.
Photos, released by the Ukraine Prosecutor General’s office, showed a war crimes investigator outside a ruined building. Wheat was falling out of at least two damaged silos.
An industrial source said the damage is “serious”. Operations have been suspended.
#Russian occupiers also attacked the port infrastructure of #Izmail, the regional military administration reports. pic.twitter.com/YAJHW6SUKW
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) August 2, 2023
UPDATE 0800 GMT:
Ukraine Presidential Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak has posted on Telegram about Russia’s latest drones attacks:
Heroic work by the air defense tonight. The Russians again tried to attack civilians, our ports, [grain] elevators. They do everything to circumvent sanctions and obtain components for the production of weapons.
They want to increase its quantity in order to kill people, destroy infrastructure, and cause famine in the countries of the global South.
Yermak again appealed to the international community, “It is possible to stop this with tougher sanctions, which will constantly increase and affect the military industry of the Russian Federation.”
He added, “We also need more air defense/anti-missile defense.”
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia has failed to inflict casualties in an overnight drone attack on civilian areas in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
The Iranian-made Shahed “kamikaze” drones were among 23 fired on Ukraine.
Sergiy Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration, said on Wednesday morning:
Groups of drones entered Kyiv simultaneously from several directions. However, all air targets — more than 10 unmanned aerial vehicles — were detected and destroyed in time by the forces and means of air defense.
Debris from downed UAVs fell on several areas. In the Golosiivsky district, “parts of a drone fell on the playground” and a fire broke out in a non-residential building. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the debris caused damage in the Solomyansky district, where one of Kyiv’s international airports is located.
In Odesa in southern Ukraine, some port and grain storage facilities were set.
No casualties were reported in either Kyiv or Odesa, and — perhaps significantly — Russia did not use missiles in the assault.
Waves of Russia missile and drone attacks have failed to strike targets in Kyiv this spring and summer. All of the munitions have been intercepted and downed, but falling debris has killed and wounded civilians.
Moscow carried out months of assaults from last October in an attempt to break Ukraine’s energy grid and freeze the population. At one point, almost half of the grid was damaged, but as Ukraine’s air defenses improved, essential repairs were carried out.
Despite the recent defeats of the Russian attacks, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy cautioned on Sunday, “We must be aware that, just as last year, Russian terrorists can still attack our energy sector and critical facilities this winter.”
