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Ukrainian drones targeted sites in nine Russian regions, including two energy facilities, in an overnight barrage thought to be Kyiv's biggest since the start of the war, according to reports and social media posts from Russian authorities. While Moscow has accused Ukraine of repeated drone strikes on its territory, Monday night's strikes appear to have been on a larger scale. In August 2023, UAV attacks on six Russian regions including Moscow were reported as the biggest drone strikes since the start of the war. Russia's defense ministry said on Tuesday that air defenses had destroyed and intercepted 25 Ukrainian drones...

A RUSSIAN military plane crashed in a fireball after flames were seen spurting from one of its engines. It is the latest disaster from Vladimir Putin's creaking military as the IL-76 went down in Ivanovo, Russia. The large aircraft is widely used by the Russian military as a transport plane for the war in Ukraine. It is reported numerous bodies were recovered from the wreckage. Dramatic footage captured the plane plunging from the sky with flames spitting from one of its engines. Putin's military is wracked with corruption and its vehicles and aircraft are often poorly maintained.

It’s uncommon for Russian and Ukrainian narratives war to concur. But since Ukraine began its major counteroffensive in June, both countries agree that Russia’s tactical airpower poses a growing problem for Ukraine’s ground forces. That may seem surprising given the general arc of the conflict, in which Russia’s qualitatively and quantitatively superior tactical air force (the VKS) has proven unable or unwilling to execute strikes deep into Ukrainian airspace—largely due to Ukraine’s extensive Soviet-era ground-based air defenses, now reinforced by more modern Western weapons.Indeed, Russian airpower hasn’t prevented Ukraine’s counteroffensive from creeping forward several miles along three or four main...

The Ukrainian Army lost up to 4,855 servicemen last week, TASS reports, as its counter-offensive inches forward in Southern Ukraine. Last week, the Ukrainian forces lost 1,490 fighters in the Donetsk area, 1,180 servicemen in the South Donetsk area, 820 in the Zaporozhye area, 665 in the Kupyansk area, 485 in the Krasny Liman area and 215 in the Kherson area, TASS reports, based on the figures of the Russian Defense Ministry. On Saturday, Aug. 26, the Ukrainian Army lost a total of 785 casualties, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, which claims to have repelled five attacks by the...

First, Nato-trained brigades of Western tanks would cross no-man’s land and clear a path through the minefields to the main Russian defences.A second corps would leapfrog through the first to punch a hole through the “Surovikin line” – the three-layered system of trenches, tank traps and strong-points Russia has built to protect its precious “land bridge” to Crimea.Then a third echelon – using British Challenger tanks and US Stryker fighting vehicles – would exploit the breakthrough, chasing collapsing Russian troops across the Pontic steppe all the way to the Azov Sea.At least, that was the idea.In reality, Ukraine’s counter offensive...

The Ukrainian military has halted a Russian advance in the east of the country and is now moving south, officials said on Friday. “We had very fierce battles in the Kupiansk and Lyman directions, but our soldiers stopped the enemy there,” Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar told Ukrainian television. Ukraine’s summer counterattack has won multiple small victories, but Russian officials have denied Ukrainian claims that it has taken eight villages and pushed back Russian forces. That offensive is still in its early stages, with Ukrainian forces not yet advancing on the best-defended Russian positions in Donetsk and Luhansk.

The boss of Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, accused a Russian brigade of abandoning its position in front-line Bakhmut, allowing Ukraine to seize territory. The remarks are the latest in a series of public criticisms from him of Moscow’s Ministry of Defense for the faltering invasion of Ukraine – and, in particular, the failure to capture the city of Bakhmut. But while Prigozhin has frequently poured scorn on the Russian military and its leadership, he has not previously accused Russian units of running from battle and allowing Ukrainian forces to recapture territory. Prigozhin said the 72nd brigade “just ran...

A Ukrainian commander said the situation in Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine, is "critical" and that there are more Russian troops surrounding the city than there is ammunition to kill them all.Volodymyr Nazarenko, a deputy commander in the National Guard of Ukraine, told Ukrainian NV Radio that the fighting is currently going on "round the clock" as Russians relentlessly push to capture the city, according to a translation from Reuters."They take no account of their losses in trying to take the city by assault," Nazarenko said, adding that Ukrainian troops are trying to "inflict as many losses on the...

Belarus partisans said they blew up a Russian A-50 surveillance military aircraft The two Belarusians who carried out operation had used drones, it was claimed Belarusian partisans and members of the country's exiled opposition said they damaged Vladimir Putin's A-50U surveillance military aircraft in a secret mission. Two participants had used drones and had already left the country, claimed Franak Viacorka, a close adviser of opposition figurehead Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Front and central parts of the AWACS Beriev A-50U aircraft as well as the radar antenna were damaged from two explosions at the Machulishchy air base near Minsk, Belarusian anti-government organisation...