Russia reports shooting down three Ukrainian drones

Monday 28 August 04:51: According to Russian authorities, the Russian air defense destroyed a drone near the capital Moscow and two others in the Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine on Monday night. As Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced on Monday in the online service Telegram, Russian air defenses in the Lyubertsy district, southeast of the Russian capital, destroyed a “drone that was flying in the direction of Moscow”. There were no casualties or damage, rescue workers were on site.

The Russian Ministry of Defense also announced that around 04:30 (03:30 CEST) the air defense system destroyed a drone over the Lyubertsy district. It blamed Kiev for the attempted attack. As the state news agency Tass reported, citing the aviation authority, air traffic at Moscow’s Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports was suspended.

In addition, the Ministry of Defense announced on Telegram that two more drones had been destroyed by anti-aircraft defenses over the Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine. The ministry initially did not comment on possible victims or damage.

Second ship crosses Black Sea Corridor

9:20 p.m.: Almost six weeks after the failure of the grain agreement with Russia, according to Kiev, a second cargo ship has reached safe waters after leaving the port of Odessa in southern Ukraine. The Liberian-flagged freighter Primus, owned by a Singapore shipping company, “reached Romanian waters on Sunday after successfully passing through our temporary Black Sea Corridor,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the online networks. According to him, the ship was loaded with steel for the African market.

In mid-July, Moscow withdrew from the grain agreement that had allowed Ukraine to transport grain across the Black Sea despite the war. Ukraine then opened sea lanes to merchant ships from several Black Sea ports in early August, despite Russia’s announcement that it would target any ship originating from Ukraine or heading to Ukraine in the Black Sea after the Grains Agreement expires.

Meanwhile, Russia reported an incident involving a US drone over the Black Sea on Sunday. The deployment of a fighter jet prevented the reconnaissance drone from penetrating Russian airspace, the Defense Ministry said in Moscow. “As the Russian warplane approached, the foreign reconnaissance drone made a U-turn and moved away from the state border of the Russian Federation.”

Russian paramilitaries threaten to disobey orders

1:33 p.m A force of right-wing Russian paramilitaries is said to be threatening to disobey orders in the Ukraine war because one of their leaders is imprisoned in Finland. The Russian government should force the 36-year-old to leave the country, the Rusitsch militia is demanding. The US Institute for War Studies ISW reported on this on Sunday. “If a country doesn’t protect its citizens, why should citizens protect the country?” it said on a Rusich channel on Telegram.

The detained Russian is suspected of committing atrocities against Ukrainian soldiers during fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015. Ukraine is therefore demanding his extradition. The district court of Vantaa near Helsinki extended the man’s detention on Friday, according to Finnish radio Yle. The well-known right-wing extremist had already been arrested in July for violating residence regulations. According to Russian paramilitaries in the Finnish prison, he is said to have already been questioned by officials from the Ukrainian secret service SBU.

According to this information, the Russian embassy in Helsinki only began to take care of the case when the detention review in Vantaa was due. Rusitsch’s paramilitaries are often used for reconnaissance and sabotage operations. They are said to be cooperating closely with Wagner’s private army. Because of the Russian war against Ukraine, Finland has given up its traditional neutrality and joined NATO. The entry of Russians was stopped with a few exceptions.

Russian cruise missile attack on outskirts of Kiev

Sunday, August 27, 9:12 a.m.: Several regions in Ukraine reportedly came under fire from Russian cruise missiles early Sunday morning. Among other things, air defenses were activated in the outskirts of Kiev, as the military administration of the Ukrainian capital announced on Telegram.

The Ukrainian Air Force said the cruise missiles were launched by Russian fighter jets near the town of Engels on the Volga. A total of eight missiles were observed. Four of them were shot down over northern and central Ukraine. Despite this, no impacts or damage were reported. Some of the guided missiles could have been dummies, it said. Such military information can usually not be independently verified.

The governor of Cherkassy, ​​Ihor Taburez, also wrote in his Telegram channel that the central Ukrainian region had activated air defenses. Russia has been waging a brutal war of aggression against the neighboring country for around 18 months.

Ukrainian media: drone strikes in Crimea

10:20 p.m.: According to a report in Ukrajinska Pravda, the SBU secret service and Kiev’s armed forces have attacked military positions with drones on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia. There are dozens dead and injured, the Internet portal reported on Friday, citing informed circles at the SBU secret service. A photo of clouds of smoke was also published. Accordingly, the 126th Brigade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is said to have been attacked in the village of Perevalnoe not far from the Crimean capital Simferopol.

Other Ukrainian media also reported about it. There was initially no information on this from the Russian side. The information was not independently verifiable.

According to the reports, the drones also hit an ammunition depot, bypassing Russian air defense systems. Military technology was also badly damaged, it said. The Russian occupiers were not prepared for the special operation of the secret service SBU and the Ukrainian armed forces.

In the past, the Russian Ministry of Defense and the authorities in Crimea had repeatedly reported the shooting down of Ukrainian drones. For weeks, Ukraine has been increasingly targeting targets on the Black Sea Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Selenskyj urges hurry for F-16 mission

10:10 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is urging the use of F-16 fighter jets against Russian aggression. “Our goal is to get closer to when the F-16s will help us keep the Russian terrorists out. As soon as possible,” he shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday evening.

After the announced delivery of the combat aircraft by the Netherlands and Denmark, the agreements made there during his recent visits would be implemented, said Zelenskyj in his evening video message distributed in Kiev. Norway had also announced F-16.

In total, dozens of planes are involved. The exact delivery time is not clear. With the fighter jets, Ukraine wants to increase the effectiveness of its counter-offensive against the Russian attacks and, above all, protect its airspace – together with the air defense systems – even better than before. Russia, on the other hand, warns that the use of fighter jets will increase violence in the war.

“Our overseas team is working on expanding the training missions as much as possible,” said Zelenskyy. “Our military is preparing the infrastructure as quickly as possible and sending pilots and engineers for training. We need to make sure that Ukraine is fully prepared.” Earlier, he said the F-16s should be delivered once the pilots have completed training.

Hofreiter: “The Russian leadership acts like a mafia state”

Friday, August 25, 12:10 a.m.: The chairman of the European Committee in the Bundestag, Anton Hofreiter (Greens), has attested to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mafia methods. The reason for this is the alleged death of the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigoschin, whom Hofreiter believes was a deliberate murder. “The Russian leadership acts like a mafia state,” said the Green politician to the editorial network Germany (RND). “The death of Prigozhin is a demonstrative assassination and is intended to have a deterrent effect on imitators. At the same time, it shows the cracks in the Putin system.”

With regard to the Ukraine war, Hofreiter added: “In any case, nobody should have any illusions about negotiations. Putin would only stick to results if they are in his interest,” said the Green. “That should also show the last thing we have to do: namely to support Ukraine unreservedly and actively.”