The drone war continues, with Russia saying it has “destroyed a Ukrainian assault drone” near Moscow. “Around 3 am local time on August 26, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack against facilities in Moscow and the region using a drone was thwarted,” the Russian Defense Ministry said. the Tass agency. The drone was shot down “by the air defense forces over the Istra district”, they specify from Moscow.
Even the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergey Sobyanin, reported via Telegram of a “destroyed drone in the district of Istra, as it was heading towards Moscow”, adding that “from the first information there are no victims or damage”. Moscow’s Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports, closed in the past few hours, have been reopened and resumed operations.
Russia says it has shot down another Ukrainian drone in the Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine. According to the Moscow Defense Ministry, reports the Tass agency, this morning “an attempt by the Kiev regime to strike sites with a drone” on Russian territory was thwarted and “the drone was destroyed by the air defense while it was flying over the Shebekino district, Belgorod region”.
Moscow accuses Kiev of wounding six people in an “attack” denounced by the Russians and attributed to the Ukrainians that hit the Belgorod region. “Six civilians sustained shrapnel wounds in the attack in which cluster munitions were used,” Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote in Telegram. The governor, reports the Russian agency Tass, added that among the injured one person is in serious condition. Earlier the governor had denounced the wounding of four people in the attack in the Urazovo area.
RUSSIA ATTACKS AND UKRAINE COUNTEROFFENSIVE
The death toll from a Russian attack that hit a cafeteria in the Kupyansk district, in the Kharkiv region, is at least two dead. The Ukrainian authorities report it. “According to the first reports from doctors, two people were killed and another injured in the Podoly shelling,” Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said via Telegram, accusing the Russians of hitting a bar. According to Ukrinform, the victims are civilians.
UK intelligence services believe there is a “realistic possibility” that Russian forces will increase the “intensity” of their offensive in northeastern Ukraine over the next two months, after losing ground further south. According to British experts, Russian attacks are possible in the axis between the localities of Kupyansk, in the Kharkiv region, and that of Lyman, in Donetsk, probably with the aim of advancing in the direction of the Oskil river and protecting the territories already occupied.
There have already been “small-scale attacks in the north-east, in the Kupyansk-Lyman sector” with which Russian forces have made “limited progress”, according to the assessment released this morning by the UK’s Defense Ministry. All at a time when the counter-offensive launched by Ukrainian troops “put pressure on Russian forces in Bakhmut and southern Ukraine”. In this area of the country, “Ukraine continues to gain ground gradually”.
TAURUS MISSILES
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said he was confident that Taurus cruise missiles would arrive in Kiev from Germany. “I’m really optimistic and I believe that in the future we will also get Taurus from Germany,” Reznikov said in an interview published by Bild, Welt and Politico. Without specifying when the supplies could arrive, Reznikov said he “didn’t believe it will take a whole year”.
Ukraine has long been asking for Taurus in Berlin. However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far been reluctant. “No matter what requests are made to Germany – he told the newspapers – I will continue to carefully evaluate every single decision and I will never do anything rash”. In recent days, the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, had spoken of “technical details” to be defined.
CLASH BETWEEN TWO TRAINING AIRCRAFT
Three Ukrainian pilots died in a mid-air collision between two training aircraft in the Zhytomyr region. The Ukrainian Air Force reported it on Telegram, specifying that the episode happened yesterday. “During a combat mission, the crews of two L-39 combat trainer aircraft collided in the sky – reads the statement -. All three pilots, unfortunately, died”. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, announced in a post on Telegram that an investigation into the tragedy was “underway”. “It is too early to know the details. All the circumstances will be clarified”, continued Zelensky, assuring that “Ukraine will never forget all those who have defended the skies of our country”.
This article is originally published on adnkronos.com
