Russia’s largest oil refinery burns
16:53: Ukraine has apparently responded to the Russian attack on the country’s energy system by attacking Russia’s largest oil refinery. Pictures and videos on social media show the facility in Omsk, Siberia, burning. According to Russian sources, operations are continuing. Initial reports, however, suggest that the plant was damaged.
Russia attacks Ukrainian energy system in major attack
16:48: In one of the heaviest attacks in two and a half years of war, Russia has bombarded Ukraine with rockets, cruise missiles and drones from the air. 15 of the 24 Ukrainian regions were hit, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Telegram. “There are dead and injured.” The main target of the attacks was once again Ukraine’s energy system. Among other things, the hydroelectric power plant on the Kiev reservoir was damaged. There were power outages and emergency shutdowns in the Ukrainian capital and other parts of the country.
Russia has deployed more than 100 missiles and a similar number of combat drones, said President Volodymyr Zelensky. He renewed Kiev’s pleading request to partner countries to allow the use of Western weapons against military targets deep in Russia’s rear area. “Every leader, every partner of ours knows what strong decisions are necessary to end this war, and to do so fairly.” There should be no range restrictions for Ukraine, he said, because Russia is not limiting its attacks either. Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba made similar appeals to the allies.
Massive missile attack on Ukraine – air raid warnings across the country, explosions in Kiev
08.21 am: On Monday morning, there was an air raid warning across Ukraine. Russia bombarded the country with rockets, cruise missiles and drones from the air in the morning hours. Observers in Kiev are talking about one of the heaviest air raids in two and a half years of war. Explosions were reported from the outskirts of the capital and the regions of Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil and Lviv, according to the official air raid warning app. There are problems with the power supply in Kiev, as Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced on Telegram.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the Russian army temporarily deployed eleven Tu-95 long-range bombers, which carry cruise missiles. In addition, Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were reportedly fired at Ukraine. Ukraine was also shelled from the Black Sea.
There is no overview of victims and damage yet. According to initial information, the Ukrainian energy system was once again a main target of the attack.
Belarus gathers troops at the border – Kyiv warns of “tragic mistakes”
Monday, August 26, 06:43: Ukraine has accused its Russian-allied neighbour Belarus of massing troops on its border with Ukraine. The Foreign Ministry in Kiev said on Sunday that Ukrainian intelligence services had observed that Belarus “has massed a significant number of forces in the Gomel region near the Ukrainian border under the guise of exercises”.
Kiev warned Belarus against making “tragic mistakes” under pressure from Russia. The Belarusian army must stop its “unfriendly acts”. The Foreign Ministry called on the Belarusian armed forces to withdraw their troops from the border and to take a distance from the Ukrainian border that is greater than the range of the Belarusian missile systems.
Kyiv also said it had detected the presence of fighters from the Russian mercenary group Wagner, some of whom were taken in by Belarus after the failed uprising of their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in Russia in June 2023.
Ukraine warned that military exercises in the border area posed a threat to “global security” because of the proximity of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
“We stress that Ukraine has never taken and will never take hostile actions against the Belarusian people,” the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv added.
Journalists from the US and UK injured in Russian attack on hotel in Ukraine
10.32 am: According to authorities, two journalists were injured in a nighttime Russian attack on a hotel in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. Another is still missing, said the governor of Donetsk, Vadym Filashkin, on Sunday in the online service Telegram. “All three victims are journalists, citizens of Ukraine, the USA and Great Britain. In addition to the hotel, a nearby high-rise building was also damaged,” he continued.
“Authorities, police and rescue workers are working on site. The rubble is being cleared and rescue operations are underway,” Filashkin added. Kramatorsk is the last major city in the entire Donbass that is still under Ukrainian control. The Donbass includes the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Before the Russian invasion, Kramatorsk, located about 20 kilometers from the front line, had a population of around 150,000. Since the invasion, it has been repeatedly the target of attacks.
Dead and injured by Ukrainian shelling in Belgorod
Sunday, August 25, 10:29 a.m.: According to official information, five people were killed by Ukrainian shelling in the settlement of Rakitnoye in the western Russian region of Belgorod. “The number of injured has increased to 13,” wrote Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov on his Telegram channel. Several minors are among the injured. Some of the victims are said to be seriously injured. In addition, twelve residential buildings, two shops and seven cars were damaged.
Rakitnoye is located just over ten kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Around 10,000 people live in the settlement. The war of aggression against the neighboring country ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has claimed new victims there every day for two years and left behind immense destruction.
But the Russian border regions are also increasingly complaining about the serious consequences of Ukrainian counterattacks. In the Kursk region, which is neighboring Belgorod, Ukrainian ground troops have even advanced since the beginning of August for the first time since the war began. However, the Ukrainian military only holds a relatively small bridgehead there, while Russia occupies about a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
Scholz assures Selenskyj of “unbreakable solidarity” with Ukraine
5.30pm: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj of Germany’s “unwavering solidarity” in a telephone call on Saturday. As government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit announced, Scholz discussed “the military and humanitarian situation in Ukraine” with Selenskyj on Ukraine’s Independence Day. The Chancellor reaffirmed his ongoing and unwavering solidarity with Ukraine in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression, Hebestreit explained.
Selenskyj thanked the federal government for its continued military support, particularly in air defense. “Both agreed on the importance of the Swiss summit process and discussed its continuation,” added Hebestreit, referring to the Ukraine conference in Switzerland in mid-June. The inclusion of the countries of the Global South is particularly important. The Federal Chancellor and the Ukrainian President have also agreed to remain in close contact.
Russia and Ukraine exchange hundreds of prisoners
2.43 p.m.: Russia and Ukraine have completed another major prisoner exchange. Through negotiations, 115 Russian soldiers who were captured in the Kursk region were brought back to their homeland, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. In return, an equal number of Ukrainians were handed over. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the exchange on social networks.
Ukraine is not forgetting anyone and is trying everything to bring its own soldiers back from captivity, wrote Zelensky. He thanked his own troops who had captured Russians. This made the exchange possible in the first place. Zelensky had stated more than once that one of the goals of the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region was to capture Russian soldiers in order to exchange them for Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Ukraine uses home-made “rocket drone” for the first time
12.17 pm: Ukraine is said to have used the new Ukrainian-made “Palianytsia” drone for the first time in its attack on the ammunition depot in the Voronezh region, as President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed. It is also known as a “missile drone”.
The Ukrainian word “Palianytsia” means something like “bread”. It is used as a code word because Russians have difficulty pronouncing the word correctly due to the language barrier.
Media: Russian ammunition depot burns after drone attack
11.05 am: According to media reports, Ukraine has hit an ammunition depot in the Voronezh region in drone attacks against Russia. The target was a warehouse near the small town of Ostrogozhsk, about 100 kilometers south of Voronezh, reported the independent Internet portal Astra. Although there is no official mention of an ammunition depot, Governor Alexander Gusev ordered the imposition of a state of emergency in three towns due to the “elimination of the consequences of a fire and the detonation of explosive objects.”
Two women were injured by the explosions, one of whom had to be hospitalized, he wrote on Telegram. 200 people had to be brought to safety. According to official reports, two people were also injured in drone attacks in the neighboring region of Belgorod.
The Russian Defense Ministry, on the other hand, only reported the shooting down of a total of seven drones, five over the Voronezh region and one each over Belgorod and Bryansk. The agency did not provide any information on subsequent damage.
On the other side, the Ukrainian military reported a massive Russian missile attack on the Snake Island in the Black Sea. Four X-22 cruise missiles hit the island. Glide bombs were also dropped over the Kherson region. There is no information about damage.
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