Ukraine launched waves of drone attacks targeting power and refinery plants in the Moscow region and neighbouring Tver, sparking fires, Russian officials said. There were fires at the Moscow oil refinery and the Konakovo power station in the Tver region, one of the largest energy producers in central Russia, officials and media said.
Russia’s Tass news agency, citing emergency officials, said the fire at the Moscow refinery was assigned the highest level of complexity, which may require additional rescue units. The refinery in the south-east of the capital is owned by Gazprom Neft. Ukraine also targeted the Kashira power plant in the Moscow region, said Mikhail Shuvalov, head of the district.
The Baza Telegram news channel, which is close to Russia’s security services, said loud blasts were heard near the Konakovo power plant. The Tver governor, Igor Rudenya, said there was a fire in Konakovo but electricity and gas supplies were uninterrupted. He claimed there was no fire, damage or casualties – a line that Russian officials frequently adopt, regardless of the outcome of a Ukrainian attack. Reuters, which carried the above reports, said it could not independently verify the Russian claims. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy is adding pressure on the US to let Kyiv strike military targets deep inside Russian territory after his representatives met with senior US officials in Washington on Saturday. The Ukrainian president said guided aerial bombs killed six people and injured 97 in Kharkiv on Friday, with more attacks on Saturday. He said these could be averted only “by striking Russian military airfields, their bases, and the logistics of Russian terror”. Zelenskiy reiterated that clearing the Ukrainian sky of Russian guided aerial bombs would be “a strong step to force Russia to seek an end to the war and a just peace”. “We need both the permissions for long-range capabilities and your long-range shells and missiles,” Zelenskiy said. Washington has provided Ukraine with more than $50bn worth of military aid since 2022, but has limited the use of its weapons to Ukrainian soil and defensive cross-border operations.
A Russian guided bomb attack on Saturday killed two women and injured 10 more including children in a village in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, the governor said. Oleh Synehubov said Russian forces hit the village of Cherkaska Lozova with guided bombs, damaging a residential building.
Five men were killed in Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region when Russia shelled the city on Saturday morning, said the chief of the Donetsk regional military administration, Vadym Filashkin.
A day of mourning was declared in Kharkiv after seven people, including a 14-year-old girl, were killed in a Russian strike. The Kharkiv mayor, Ihor Terekhov, and Volodymyr Zelenskiy offered their condolences. “My condolences to all those who lost their relatives and loved ones. Mourning has been announced in Kharkiv today,” Terekhov said. Zelenskiy promised that “Russia will be held accountable for all its evil deeds”.
Russian forces gained control of the Kirove settlement, known in Ukraine as Verezamske, in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the defence ministry in Moscow said. Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia says it has annexed even though it does not fully control all of them, in a territorial claim that Ukraine and all but a few countries worldwide have rejected as illegal, and that Ukraine has vowed to reverse by force. Separately, the Russian defence ministry said its forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks in Kursk region including towards Korenevo and Malaya Loknya.
Russia’s foreign ministry said an attack killed five people and injured 46 others in Belgorod on Friday. The Local governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said 37 people were taken to hospital, seven of them children. In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry called on “all responsible governments and relevant international structures to strongly condemn this brutal terrorist attack”. Ukraine denies targeting civilians.
Ukraine said on Saturday that its air defences shot down 24 of 52 drones launched by Russia. Twenty-five fell on their own, with three flying towards Russia and Belarus. There were no reports of any injuries or major damage.
The US has decided against a proposal to deploy American contractors to Ukraine to maintain western military equipment, including F-16 fighter jets.
Discontent towards Vladimir Putin is growing amid Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk region. Since launching the offensive on 6 August, Kyiv claims to have captured dozens of settlements and more than 1,200 square kilometres of territory.
Nato could “overwhelm” Russia which is no longer the power it was during the Soviet Union, Lithuania’s foreign minister has said. Gabrielius Landsbergis said Russia’s invasion came as no surprise to people in Baltics though “the ferocity of it” was shocking.
