The Wildberries warehouse in Koledino in Russia’s Moscow region burns after a Ukrainian attack, August 16, 2026

EA on Pakistan TV: Ukraine Counter-Attacks Rattle Kremlin and Rock Russian Economy

EA on TVP World and DW News: Why Did CIA Chief Ratcliffe Visit Moscow?

Friday’s Coverage: Kyiv’s 13 Air Raid Alerts on Thursday

UPDATE 1739 GMT:

In addition to today’s deadly drone strike in the western suburbs of Kyiv, Russia has murdered two children in and near the capital.

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.

UPDATE 1327 GMT:

At least 37 people have been murdered and 42 injured, including four children, by a Russian drone strike on the western suburbs of Kyiv.

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.

Four people are missing. More than 370 have been evacuated so far, and the process is continuing.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted:

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 today’s attacks:

I was at home, speaking to my children over a video call, when I heard a powerful explosion. I thought someone might need help because I used to work in that area. I changed my clothes, locked the house, and ran. I had gone about 100 meters when there was another extremely powerful explosion.

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.

UPDATE 0656 GMT:

The Rostov region, which accounts for almost 10% of Russia’s grain harvest, declared a state of emergency on Friday.

Ukraine’s drone attacks have shut down ports on the Sea of ​​Azov since mid-July, through which up to 1.5 million tons of Russian grain were exported monthly.

More than 80% of Russian grain export capacity has been paralyzed. In August, exports fell to a 16-year low of 1.9 million tons.

The current situation could “result in disruption of people’s livelihoods and significant material losses”, said the order from Rostov Governor Yuri Slyusar.

The Russian Agriculture Ministry is beginning state grain procurement and is exploring alternative export routes, including ports on the Arctic Ocean. However, no viable alternatives are in sight, says Arkady Zlochevsky, President of the Russian Grain Union.

UPDATE 0648 GMT:

“Western officials” say Russia is losing about 6,000 more troops in Ukraine each month than it can recruit.

The officials said Russia has added around 1,000 battlefield recruits per day in the last two months, but this has been insufficient to replace those killed or injured.

One official summarized:

[Vladimir] Putin’s response to this has been to escalate himself and to target civilian infrastructure and civilians in Ukraine, firing over 360 missiles since early July and exploiting Kyiv’s shortage of defence against ballistic missiles. It’s clear that Moscow intends to try and break Ukrainian morale by destroying its energy infrastructure this winter.

Claims have circulated that Putin is considering mass mobilization. However, the officials say this is a big risk. They note that in autumn 2022, after the Russian leader announced a partial mobilization, around a million Russians left the country. Many were highly skilled, and less than half returned.

It is also unclear if the Russian military can absorb the several hundred thousand new recruits,, given a lack of equipment and officers.

UPDATE 0644 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses downed 233 of 267 drones launched by Russia overnight. Strikes were recorded at 15 locations.

UPDATE 0639 GMT:

Russia has sentenced an abducted Ukrainian woman to 15 years in prison over her alleged donations to Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

A “court” in occupied Crimea condemned Victoria Serhieieva, 56, on a charge of “treason”.

Serhieieva denies having made any such donations since 2021. She retracted her “confession”, saying it was extracted through torture.

UPDATE 0614 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed a briefing from US officials on the outcome of “meetings in Moscow”, welcoming the Trump Administration’s “realistic vision” for ending Russia’s invasion.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced visit to the Russian capital on Tuesday, following a phone call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

No details of Ratcliffe’s conversation with the head of Russia’s State security service FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, have been made public. However, US officials have said that the CIA Director warned Russia about its hybrid warfare operations in Europe. They said he presented intelligence of Moscow’s mounting economic and military problems, making the case that Russia should engage in talks to end the invasion.

Zelensky posted:

I am grateful for the information and for the necessary tone of the conversation with Russia. We value the coordination of steps and the fact that America is advancing a quite realistic vision of what needs to be done and what must be done. Russia must end its war, and all conditions must be created for that to happen.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Putting further pressure on the Russian economy, Ukraine has struck the warehouses of leading retailers inside Russia overnight.

Ukrainian forces attacked a logistics facility of Okon, Russia’s second largest online retailer, the sixth assault on the company in a week.

The site is in Rostov-on-Don in southwest Russia. The company claimed a “small fire” was immediately extinguished, but operations have been suspended.

Elsewhere in the Rostov region, a warehouse of appliance and electronics retailer DNS was set ablaze. Rostov Governor Yuri Slyusar said drone debris was found on the territory of a warehouse, without identifying the facility or referring to any damage.

In the nearby village of Leninskoye, a warehouse of the Russian supermarket chain Chizhik was hit.

Slyusar claimed seven people were injured in the attacks, with two adults and two children hospitalized.

Ukraine began its campaign against retailers with attacks on Russia’s largest online company Wildberries from mid-July. The strikes have inflicted billions of dollars of damage on the firms and the businesses who supply stock to them.

Wildberries is seeking Government support. Its CEO Tatyana Kim, Russia’s richest woman, has lost more than $2 billion of her estimated $8.1 billion fortune.