Smoke rises over Ukraine’s capital Kyiv after Russian strikes, August 29, 2026 (Reuters)
EA-Ukraine VideoCast: CIA Director to Putin — Your Invasion Is Failing
Saturday’s Coverage: Kyiv Strikes More Warehouses Inside Russia
UPDATE 1749 GMT:
Ukraine’s overnight long-range strikes destroyed air defense and radar systems at two military airfields in southwest Russia.
Unmanned Systems Forces Commander Robert Brovdi said drones targeted the Yeysk airfield in Krasnodar Krai and the Millerovo airfield in the Rostov region.
A Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system, a Sopka-2 radar, and an aviation weapons depot were destroyed at the Yeysk airfield. Kasta 2E2, RSP-27, and Nebo-SV radar systems, aviation facilities, and a depot were demolished at the Millerovo airfield.
A Ukrainian missile damaged a logistics facility of Russia’s second-largest online retailer Ozon in Belgorod. Governor Alexander Shuvaev said there were casualties and several fires, without providing details.
Ozon confirmed that its sorting center and delivery hub was struck.
UPDATE 1740 GMT:
At least eight civilians have been murdered, including two children, and at least 41 injured by Russia’s attacks across Ukraine over the past day.
In the Donetsk region in the east, two people were killed, including a 13-year-old, and two injured by Russian bombs damaging dozens of houses in the village of Bilbasivka.
In the Kherson region in the south, at least three people were slain and 17 injured as Russian troops damaged six apartment blocks, 14 houses, as well as buses, taxis, garbage trucks, and cars.
In the Kharkiv region, an Iskander missile struck an annual charity race, killing one person and injuring two. Attacks on Kharkiv city and the surrounding area wounded another eight people.
In the Zaporizhzhia region, a first-person-view (FPV) drone killed one woman and injured two men. Three other people were injured in attacks on Zaporizhzhia city and on the region.
Casualties were also reported from the Odesa region.
UPDATE 1736 GMT:
The Kremlin has rejected a summit of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump, reportedly proposed by CIA Director John Ratcliffe in his trip last Tuesday to Moscow.
Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov effectively restated Russia’s maximum demands, “Such a meeting is possible only to formalize agreements.”
UPDATE 1119 GMT:
Ukraine President Zelensky posts that the toll has risen to 38 murdered from Russia’s strike on Myla, west of Kyiv, on Saturday.
Four people are still missing.
Zelensky commented:
This week alone the Russians have launched nearly 2,000 strike drones, more than 1,600 aerial bombs, and 31 missiles of various types, including North Korean ballistic missiles, against our people. Strikes on frontline and border communities are virtually constant – Nikopol, Kramatorsk, Kherson, and communities in the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Donetsk, and Sumy regions.
We are seeking just responses to every Russian strike and crime. They will certainly come.
UPDATE 1106 GMT:
Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry has summoned Ukraine’s ambassador on Saturday after two strikes on Turkish-operated ships in the Black Sea.
One of the vessels was struck Wednesday off the coast of Tuapse, a Russian port city with a large oil refinery. A second boat sent to tow the first ship was also struck.
Ukraine has struck more than 200 vessels of Russia’s “shadow fleet” in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea this summer.
UPDATE 0645 GMT:
The Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine has been without off-site power for more than a week.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said the plant is relying on emergency diesel generators to keep its six dormant reactors cool. The complex has only a 10-day diesel supply on site.
The plant was supplied with diesel on Thursday and Friday from another off-site location.
IAEA head Rafael Grossi said, “The availability of diesel fuel is of paramount importance whenever a nuclear power plant loses off-site power. The current situation once again shows why reliable external power and secure supply routes are indispensable for nuclear safety and security.”
Zaporizhzhia lost its regular power supply “following military activity on the northern side of the Dnipro River”. The IAEA said it is trying to negotiate a local ceasefire to allow repairs to electrical lines.
UPDATE 0624 GMT:
Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz is preparing to blame Russia for an attempted drone attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport.
Merz will announce “extensive” sanctions, say “three officials familiar with the matter”, in parallel with European Union measures.
The announcement is scheduled for early next week, coinciding with an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Ireland on Tuesday. However, Merz might make it earlier, said two officials.
Merz said last Tuesday that there would be severe consequences for the attempted attack on Leipzig/Halle, but without naming a specific party.
The drone attack in Leipzig, among other things, shows that we are also facing very real threats,. The federal government is making the perpetrators of hybrid attacks pay a price. They will pay for this.
A drone, rigged with explosives, intended to strike a Ukrainian Antonov cargo plane. A bus driver prevented the detonation by kicking the drone out of the air and disabling it.
US intelligence assessments directly linked Russia to the drone. German officials have not revealed the information which they have.
German intelligence officers also discovered a weapons cache near Berlin, in a wooded area close to Lake Müggelsee.
UPDATE 0620 GMT:
Russia continued its aerial assault on Kyiv’s civilians overnight.
In the Obolonskyi district, a drone fell between residential buildings around 10 p.m. A fire broke out on the 2nd through 5th floors of a 12-story block.
Another downed drone caused a fire in a green area in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district. The roof of a non-residential building in the Holosiivskyi district was set ablaze by debris.
UPDATE 0608 GMT:
Ukrainian forces set afire one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, Kinef, in the Leningrad region overnight.
Leningrad Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko confirmed a “drone crash has been reported in the vicinity of a refinery in the Kirishi district, resulting in a fire”.
The internationally-sanctioned complex processes around 20 million tons of oil annually.
Ukraine also struck an airbase was struck in the town of Yeysk in Krasnodar Krai in southwest Russia, setting off a series of strong explosions.
UPDATE 0558 GMT:
“Two sources briefed on the matter” say CIA Director John Ratcliffe proposed a trilateral meeting between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimr Putin, and Donald Trump during his sudden trip to Moscow last Tuesday.
Ratcliffe met the head of Russia’s State security service FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, and its foreign intelligence service SVR, Sergey Naryshkin. The CIA Director assessed if they could help convince Putin to re-enter talks to end the 54-month full-scale invasion.
Zelensky has welcomed the summit, but Putin has always rejected it as he maintains maximum demands for Ukraine’s capitulation and loss of territory.
The sources said Ratcliffe concluded that Bortnikov is a “constructive player” who could help restart diplomatic efforts.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: At least 39 people were murdered, including two children, and 50 injured by Russian strikes on and near Kyiv on Saturday.
Of the victims, 37 were slain when the Russians hit a depot, owned by the Ukrainian military, which stored shells, drones, and other munitions. At least 50 residential buildings, including a care home for elderly and disabled people, were damaged in the attack on Myla, 30 km (19 miles) west of Kyiv. Almost 400 people were evacuated.
A 14-year-old girl was killed in the Boryspil district of the Kyiv region. In the morning, a 2-year-old girl was slain in a Russian attack on Kyiv’s Obolonskyi district, and eight people were injured.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted about the strike on the depot:
The first impact was on a place where ammunition was being stored that absolutely should not have been there – a depot of the defence forces. [There was] detonation of shells, mines, other munitions and drones on a significant scale.
Zelensky said criminal proceedings have been opened on charges of official negligence: “There are regulations in place – ammunition cannot be stored near homes or other residential areas.”
The first impact was on a place where ammunition was being stored that absolutely should not have been there – a depot of the defence forces. [There was] detonation of shells, mines, other munitions and drones on a significant scale.
Zelensky said criminal proceedings have been opened on charges of official negligence: “There are regulations in place – ammunition cannot be stored near homes or other residential areas.”
Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi noted that mistakes had not been learned from a deadly strike on a munitions depot in Vyshneve,near Kyiv in July.
An investigation into that incident, in which 22 people were killed, revealed serious failings on the part of a state-owned company which did not comply with regulations on the proximity of residential buildings.
Resident Stefania Torska said of Saturday’s attacks:
As my grandson later described it, it looked like lava — just fire, an enormous mass of flames rising high into the air. I realized that if I stayed where I was, it would fall on me and I would burn alive. I started running. I do not know how I managed to run so quickly, but the fire only caught up with me when I had almost reached my own gate.
