A resident in front of an apartment block damaged by a Russian missile attack, Kharkiv, Ukraine, August 31, 2024 (Ivan Samoilov/AFP)

Podcast: Russia’s Political Warfare in Europe

Sunday’s Coverage: Iran “Has Delivered Ballistic Missiles to Russia”

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1438 GMT:

The EU’s foreign policy branch has said Russia’s “elections” in occupied Crimea last weekend are “another act of violation of international law”.

The staged vote in Crimea, seized by the Russians in 2014, was part of local and regional election across Russia. The results will not be released until the end of September.

The European External Action Service said the ballot violates “the UN Charter and Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity”.

UPDATE 0847 GMT:

At least 184 Ukrainian civilians were killed and 856 injured amid Russian attacks in August, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The report said the monthly toll is the second highest of Russia’s 2 1/2-year invasion, surpassed only by July’s casualties.

“The vast majority of civilian casualties (91 per cent) and damage to educational and health facilities (95 per cent) in August continued to occur in Government-controlled territory,” the UN assessed.

A 16-year-old girl has been killed and three people injured in Russia’s latest shelling of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine.

Serhiy Lysak, the head of the region military administration, posted about the teenager, “Rescuers pulled her out from under the rubble of a damaged house. Unfortunately, she sustained fatal injuries.”

In the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, three residents were killed and five wounded in Cherkaske.

UPDATE 0537 GMT:

A Ukrainian drone set ablaze a fuel storage facility in Russia’s Belgorod region on Sunday, reported Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Videos and photos on Telegram posted around 6 p.m. showed a large fire and heavy smoke.

Gladkov claimed Ukrainian drones attacked three settlements, damaging several residential houses and cars.

ORIGNAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has spoken of Russia’s firing of more than 800 guided aerial bombs, more than 60 missiles, and 300 Iran-type attack drones on Ukraine in only one week.

Posting a video of destruction from the latest strikes, Zelenskiy commented:

Terror can only be reliably stopped in one way: by striking Russian military airfields, their bases, and the logistics of Russian terror. We must achieve this.

On Tuesday, Russia’s double missile strike killed 58 people and injured more than 320 in Poltava in central Ukraine. Zelenskiy said 220 of the victims are still hospitalized.

See also Ukraine War, Day 924: Mourning in Poltava as Russia’s Missiles Kill 51+

On Wednesday, seven civilians were slain in Lviv in western Ukraine. They included a mother and her three daughters.

Another 64 people were injured.

Zelenskiy said in his nightly address to the nation:

Air defense remains our top priority, and we are continually working to convince partners of the need for long-range capabilities. Russia can evade the search for peace just as much as the world evades strong decisions that lead to Russia’s defeat—long-range capabilities are one of those strategic decisions.