Liveblog: ++ Ukraine reports attack on grain warehouses ++

According to the Ukrainian military, grain plants in the Odessa region caught fire after drone strikes. At least three people were killed in attacks in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. All developments in the live blog.

According to its own statements, the Ukrainian army has made further gains in advance in the Zaporizhia region in southern Ukraine. Not far from the settlement of Novoprokopivka, south-east of the long-fought village of Robotyne, Ukrainian units settled on newly reached positions, General Staff spokesman Andriy Kovalyov said, according to a statement. At the same time artillery duels took place. The information cannot be independently verified.

According to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with the Moscow-appointed separatist leaders of the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Zaporizhia. The Kremlin said it was about the regional elections on September 10 and the start of the school year. The separatist leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, reported to Putin that the situation in Luhansk was “tense”.

Moscow-appointed regional administrator for Zaporizhia Yevgeny Balitsky spoke to Putin in the transcript released by the Kremlin about the start of the school year in the Ukrainian region, assuring that “all children have textbooks.” All schools are staffed with teachers and well protected, he said.

The Zaporizhia and Luhansk regions are among four Ukrainian regions that Russia has claimed annexation of since September 2022. This is not recognized by the international community.

After the disappearance of General Sergey Surovikin, the Russian Air Force appears to have a new acting chief. The state news agency RIA reported, citing unnamed sources, that Colonel-General Viktor Afsalow is to take over the post on an interim basis.

Surovikin, who earned the nickname “General Armageddon” while deploying Russian troops in Syria’s civil war, disappeared from the scene shortly after the Russian Wagner mercenaries’ uprising in Ukraine in June. According to earlier media reports, he may have known about the plans of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and may have been arrested. The Kremlin did not confirm this.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has arrived in Ukraine for a two-day visit. The head of state arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kiev by train from Poland in the morning, the state television station RTP and other Portuguese and Ukrainian media reported.

On Thursday he will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In addition, Rebelo de Sousa wants to take part in the summit of the so-called international Crimea platform. With this visit, he wanted to “give continuity to the Portuguese presence” and “show solidarity in all areas,” Rebelo de Sousa said after his arrival.

According to British information, the Russian troops in southern Ukraine sometimes have to take long supply routes after Ukrainian attacks on bridges. This emerges from the daily intelligence report from the Ministry of Defense in London. Accordingly, two bridges between the Russian-occupied Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and southern Ukraine were hit and damaged by precision strikes in early August.

The British announced that floating bridges were still in use at the crossings from Tschonhar and Henichesk in the middle of the month. “The pontoon bridges will likely not be able to support the full influx of heavy vehicles carrying ammunition and weapons,” the statement continued. The resulting bottleneck meant that Russian forces were partially dependent on a long detour via Armiansk in northern Crimea. “This places an additional burden on Russia’s logistical network in the south,” the statement said.

According to authorities, there have been deaths in a drone attack in the Russian region of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine. Three civilians were killed in the town of Lawy, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in the online service Telegram. “The Ukrainian armed forces dropped an explosive device with a drone when there were people on the street.” The Ukrainian leadership has not yet commented on this.

Russian border regions have come under fire several times in recent months. In early June, armed militias advanced from Ukraine into the Belgorod region and engaged in skirmishes with the Russian army. The attackers described themselves as pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters.

The Ukrainian military has reported Russian drone strikes in Greater Odessa and the Danube region. The military wrote on Telegram that plants in the grain industry caught fire. Warehouses and a production and delivery facility were affected. The fire in the camps was quickly brought under control. The fire brigade is still on duty.

According to the region’s governor, Oleg Kiper, there were no casualties. Ukraine’s Southern Military Command said air defense forces destroyed nine Iranian Shahed attack drones in the attack. The information could not be independently verified at this time.

Netherlands provides mine clearance equipment to Ukraine. Devices are to be supplied for long-distance demining “that can create passages in artificial barriers,” Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren was quoted as saying on the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s website after a meeting with Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov in Kiev.

“As I know, you are now faced with the problem of extremely dense mining areas,” she said. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had previously stated that helping Ukraine to remove a massive landmine belt could become a joint effort by Germany and other partners.

Moscow airports have once again suspended air traffic, the Russian news agency TASS reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The major airports around the Russian capital have been repeatedly closed in recent days due to Ukrainian drone attacks.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Russian anti-aircraft systems have again fended off drones over Moscow and the capital’s region. Two drones had been shot down, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in the online service Telegram. Another drone “hit a building under construction in the city,” he added. So there were no victims.

The US does not support or facilitate attacks inside Russia, a US State Department spokesman said on the incident. But it is up to the Ukrainians how they want to defend themselves against the Russian invasion. Russia could end the war at any time by withdrawing from Ukraine.

According to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Russia could annex the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. “The idea of ​​joining Russia remains popular in Abkhazia and South Ossetia,” the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council wrote in an article published early this morning by the Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty. “It could well be implemented if there are good reasons for it,” said Medvedev.

According to Ukrainian sources, three people were killed in Russian artillery attacks in two villages near the small Ukrainian town of Lyman in the evening. Two other people were wounded, said the head of the military administration of the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, in the online service Telegram.

According to the Donetsk Prosecutor’s Office, the village of Torske was hit first, followed by the village of Sakitne half an hour later. The fatalities in Torske were sitting on a bench when the shelling took place. In another attack in the village of Seredyno-Buda in northeastern Ukraine near the border with Russia, four people were wounded in a grenade attack and a residential building was hit by drones, the regional military authority said on Facebook.

Eleven Balkan countries have signed a declaration of support for Ukraine. Foreign Minister Baerbock classifies alleged Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow as legitimate. Tuesday’s developments to read.