Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks in Kyiv, August 4, 2024

Saturday’s Coverage: Zelensky Confers With Turkey About “Peace Talks” and Russia’s Killings

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 2045 GMT:

In his nightly address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed a “brilliant operation”, planned for more than 18 months, with 117 drones hitting targets on Russian airfields.

He added, “What’s most interesting is that the ‘office’ of our operation on Russian territory was located directly next to [Russian State security service] FSB headquarters in one of their regions.”

Earlier, the President posted an initial report:

UPDATE 2034 GMT:

Ukraine’s State security service SBU has confirmed the information, given by officials to the media, that the mass drone attacks caused $7 billion of damage to Russia’s air force.

The SBU repeated that 34% of Moscow’s cruise missile bombers, struck in six Russian airbases, have been disabled.

It promised to release further details, as it quoted Ukrainian poet Lina Kostenko.

And you thought Ukraine was easy? Ukraine is exceptional. Ukraine is unique. All the steamrollers of history have rolled over it. It has withstood every kind of trial. It is tempered by the highest degree. In today’s world, its value is beyond measure.

The SBU pledged, “We will strike them at sea, in the air, and on the ground. And if needed, we’ll get them from underground too.”

UPDATE 1801 GMT:

Entering Monday’s talks with Russia in Istanbul, Ukraine is proposing a full and unconditional ceasefire in the sky, on land, and at sea, monitored by the US.

The halt to attacks would be followed by the release of all prisoners, the return of Ukrainian children forcibly deported to Russia, and an agreement for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to meet Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine’s draft document seeks security guarantees to ensure Russia will not invade again. There will be no formal international recognition of Russian sovereignty over Ukrainian territories currently under Moscow’s control.

The front line “is the starting point for negotiations” and “territory issues are discussed only after a full and unconditional ceasefire”.

Kyiv also say there must be no restrictions on Ukraine’s military strength. Western sanctions on Russia would be lifted gradually, with a mechanism to reapply them if the Kremlin breaks the agreement. Frozen Russian sovereign assets will be used “for reconstruction or remain frozen until reparations are paid”.

UPDATE 1752 GMT:

“People familiar with the operation” say Operation Pavutýna (Spiderweb), the drone attacks on six Russian airfields destroying 41 strategic bombers, was planned more than a year ago and “personally supervised” by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Dozens of small, first-person view drones were armed with explosives and smuggled into Russia, followed by small wooden mobile cabins. The drones were concealed under the roofs of the cabins which had been loaded onto trucks.

“This is exactly what we need to win the war, which is an asymmetric conflict — military creativity like that,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

The Ukraine State security service SBU said the attack caused more than $7 billion worth of damage, with hits on 34% of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the attacks and said several aircraft caught fire. It claimed it had detained “participants in the terrorist attacks”, but the SBU said earlier that all those involved in the operation had left Russia long before the strikes.

UPDATE 1525 GMT:

The head of Ukraine’s Land Forces, Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi, has resigned after a Russian attack that killed 12 service members and injured 60 under his command.

A Russian missile struck a training ground on Sunday morning (see 1120 GMT).

“I have made the decision to file a letter of resignation from the position of Commander of the Land Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Drapatyi said in a statement on Telegram.

Twelve dead. There are injured. These are young lads from the training battalion. Most of them were in shelters. They should have learned, lived, and fought – not died.

The commander said missile struck the 239th Polygon, north of the city of Dnipro.

In March, after Russia hit the 239th Polygon with an Iskander ballistic missile, Drapatyi wrote: “Everyone who made decisions that day, and everyone who did not make them on time, will be held accountable. No one will hide behind explanations or formal reports.”

UPDATE 1417 GMT:

Video at one of the airbases attacked by Ukrainian drones shows men scrambling aboard trucks to prevent UAVs being launched.

Footage is also circulating of the burning Voskresensk airbase in the Moscow region, with a Russian serviceman saying “It’s fucked here,” as smoke rises from bombers in the background.

UPDATE 1350 GMT:

The six Russian airfields reportedly hit by Ukraine’s mass drone strikes of “Operation Pavutýna (Spiderweb)”, destroying 41 strategic bombers, are Belaya in the Irkutsk region, around 4,400 km (2,734 miles) from the Ukrainian border; Severomorsk, the main base of the Russian Northern Fleet, in the Murmansk region; Olenya in Murmansk; Ivanovo in the Ivanovo region; Dyagilevo Air Base in the Ryazan region; and Voskresensk in the Moscow region.

Claimed footage of the burning Olenya base:

Security expert Maria Avdeeva posts:

UPDATE 1225 GMT:

Claims are circulating that Ukraine’s attacks on Russian airfields were by drones launched from container trucks.

Drivers of the trucks were unaware that they were carrying the UAVs. The vehicles may have been detonated after the drones were released.

UPDATE 1125 GMT:

Ukraine’s State security service SBU claims it has hit “more than 40” bombers at airbases “in the rear of the Russian Federation”.

An SBU official said, “Enemy strategic bombers are burning en masse in Russia — this is the result of a special operation.

The official said the warplanes included A-50 surveillance aircraft and Tu-95 and Tu-22 M3 bombers. One of the airfields was the Belaya base in the Irkutsk region in east-central Russia near Mongolia, more than 4,000 km (2,485 miles) from Ukraine.

Video showed burning heavy bombers at an undisclosed location.

Claims are circulating on social media that the Olenya airfield in the Murmansk region — around 1,800 km (1,118 miles) from the border — was also hit, with video of an air defense crew testifying to the destruction.

UPDATE 1120 GMT:

Ukraine’s Land Forces say a Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian military training ground has killed 12 troops and injured 60.

The statement did not identify the location of the training grounds.

The Land Forces said most service members were in air shelters because of air raid alarms: “We emphasize that no formations or massive gatherings of personnel were being conducted.”

However, a commission will investigate the circumstances of the attack.

UPDATE 1012 GMT:

Russian investigators have blamed “explosions” for the overnight collapse of bridges in the border regions of Kursk and Bryansk.

They said at least seven people died and 69 injured in Bryansk when a road bridge fell onto a railway line late Saturday, derailing a passenger train destined for Moscow. The collapse of a rail bridge in neighboring Kursk derailed a freight train and injuring the driver.

Russian Railways said railway track on the Unecha-Zhecha section in the Bryansk region was damaged without casualties.

Ukraine’s military intelligence service HUR said a Russian military freight train carrying food and fuel was blown up en route to occupied Crimea from the Russian-held part of the Zaporizhzhia region in the south of the country.

“The Muscovites’ key logistical artery on the occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia Oblast and Crimea has been destroyed,” said HUR.

UPDATE 0657 GMT:

In an interview with The Sunday Times of London, Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko, 53, has lashed out at the Zelensky Government.

The mayor has chafed at the military administration in Kyiv, set up under the martial law because of Russia’s full-scale invasion. His latest remarks have been spurred by a string of arrests by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, in Operation Clean City, which has arrested seven of his subordinates with another three under investigation.

Klitschko declared that the Kyiv City Council has been paralyzed by “raids, interrogations, and threats of fabricated criminal cases” that prevented deputies from meeting a legal quorum for decision making.

“This is a purge of democratic principles and institutions under the guise of war,” he said. “I said once that it smells of authoritarianism in our country. Now it stinks.”

But Volodymyr Fesenko, the head of the Penta think tank, assesses, “There should be no doubt that these arrests are not just politics, but a response to manifestations of corruption in the Kyiv city administration.

Klitschko maintains that he fired eight of the officials under investigation: “Corruption cases sometimes happen, but we react harshly and quickly. We co-operate with law enforcement, provide all the necessary information and hope for an impartial investigation of all cases.”

In February, Klitschko derided Zelensky’s approach to a minerals deal with the Trump Administration. The President responded to the former world boxing champion, “Klitschko is a great athlete, but I didn’t know he was a great speaker.”

The dispute is as much personal as it is political. When Klitschko criticised Zelensky’s approach to peace negotiations in February, the former comic belittled the former boxer. “Klitschko is a great athlete, but I didn’t know he was a great speaker,” the president said. Klitschko’s portrayal of the feud as an act of presidential overreach plays to growing concerns that Zelensky’s consolidation of wartime powers has come at the expense of democracy. He accused Zelensky of using military administrations across the country to wrest power from elected mayors.

UPDATE 0632 GMT:

Ukrainian officials issued evacuation orders on Saturday for another 11 villages in the Sumy region in the northeast, as Russia tries to occupy more territory in a “gray zone” along the border.

The Russians claimed control of two more villages as they killed two civilians in missile and drone attacks.

More than 200 settlements in the region were already under evacuation orders.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia has gathered 50,000 troops for an offensive into Sumy, as Moscow tries to seize territory while facing pressure for a ceasefire in its 39-month full-scale invasion.

Ukraine’s military commander-in-chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said the Russians also focusing offensive efforts on Pokrovsk, Torets, and Lyman in the Donetsk region.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has noted that Russia has still failed to produce the Kremlin’s self-proclaimed “memorandum” over its 39-month invasion.

Ukraine and Russia are scheduled to meet, for the second time since April 2022, in Istanbul, Turkey on Monday.

Under pressure from a Ukraine-Europe proposal for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, the Kremlin declared last week that it has drawn up a memorandum. However, it has not produced the document, leading to criticism from Kyiv, European leaders, and even Donald Trump.

In his nightly video address to the nation, Zelensky said:

We are in contact almost daily with everyone who can make diplomacy meaningful.

As of now, there is no clear information about what exactly the Russians plan to bring to Istanbul. We don’t have it, Turkey doesn’t have it, and neither do the United States or other partners. And at this point, it looks far from serious. We discussed this yesterday with [Turkish] President Erdoğan.

Zelensky concluded, “Everyone wants Russia to stop playing games with diplomacy and end the war. Everyone wants a serious peace – and Russia must agree to that.”

While Kyiv was focusing on the talk, the President urged Washington, “We hope the American side will be decisive on the issue of sanctions – to help bring peace closer.”