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 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.
