Russia said it downed 158 Ukrainian drones across more than a dozen regions overnight, including the capital, where a drone strike ignited a blaze at a major oil processor.
Ukraine will receive $800-million from the US to help stabilise severely battered energy infrastructure amid reports that the nation’s top grid manager will soon be ousted.
Ukraine should be allowed to use Western weapons, including F-16 fighter jets, to hit targets inside Russia as long as it follows international law, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a security conference in Prague on Saturday.
Russia strikes Kharkiv sports centre after Moscow refinery fire
Russia said it downed 158 Ukrainian drones across more than a dozen regions overnight, including the capital, where a drone strike ignited a blaze at a major oil processor.
Ukraine and Russia continued to exchange hostilities on Sunday. Dozens were wounded in a missile attack on a major indoor sports centre and other buildings in Kharkiv, while Kyiv’s troops struck the Belgorod region.
“The sports complex has been demolished,” Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee said on its Facebook page.
As part of one of the heaviest Ukrainian drone barrages on Moscow to date, a downed drone damaged what was described as a “technical building” at the Moscow Oil Refinery, Governor Sergei Sobyanin said on his Telegram channel.
The fire was “localised” and there was no threat to people or the plant’s operations, he said. Social media footage showed flames and smoke billowing from the massive facility, which is about 16km from the Kremlin.
The Gazprom Neft refinery in Moscow is one of Russia’s largest producers of high-octane petrol, diesel and aviation fuels and supplies more than a third of the fuel market in the capital region, according to its website.
Moscow and the surrounding region were targeted by nine drones overnight, Russia’s defence ministry reported. Flights in and out of area airports were halted briefly.
Local media also reported a fire at a power plant in the Tver region northwest of Moscow, attributed to downed drones.
The heaviest overnight concentration of drones was in the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, where 46 drones were intercepted. A total of 34 drones were downed over the Bryansk region, as well as 28 over the Voronezh region and 14 over the Belgorod region, according to the ministry.
Separately, five people were killed and 46 wounded on Saturday in Ukrainian shelling of Belgorod, according to regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. Ukraine hasn’t commented.
The wave of overnight attacks came as Russia continued to rush reinforcements to the Kursk border region, which neighbours Belgorod, to counter a Ukrainian ground incursion that started in early August.
Kremlin forces responded with a missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight, according to Ukraine’s Air Defence.
Russia fired one Iskander-type ballistic missile from the Kursk region and 11 Shahed-type drones from Crimea at “agrarian enterprises” in the northeastern Sumy and southern Mykolaiv regions, Ukraine said. Sumy’s regional prosecutor said one person was killed and four injured.
In his regular address to the nation on Saturday night, President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his appeal to allies to allow Ukraine’s forces to strike military targets within Russia, citing an attack on Kharkiv on Friday that injured almost 100 civilians.
In the past week, Russia launched over 160 missiles of various types, 780 guided bombs and 400 drones at Ukraine, according to Zelensky.
Kyiv to get $800m from US to protect power grid
Ukraine will receive $800-million from the US to help stabilise severely battered energy infrastructure amid reports that the nation’s top grid manager will soon be ousted.
The package was announced by Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister, during a visit to Washington on Saturday.
The funds will be spent on equipment necessary for immediate repairs to Ukraine’s power facilities, which have been significantly damaged by almost two years of Russian airstrikes, Svyrydenko said on X.
Drones and missiles regularly launched by Russia have damaged about 50% of Ukraine’s pre-war power generation capacities, according to government estimates.
“Energy infrastructure of Ukraine requires an urgent restoration and in this context, the crucial role is played by our US partners,” Andriy Yermak, chief of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on Telegram.
Read more: Ukrainians fear grim winter amid massive attacks on power plants
The aid was announced amid reports in local media that Kyiv planned to soon dismiss Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukrenergo, the state-run company which manages Ukraine’s power grid, as the government was displeased with the quality of power protection.
Kudrytskyi and Ukrenergo haven’t commented on the reports.
Ukraine must be allowed to use F-16s inside Russia, says Denmark
Allies must give Ukraine what it needs to repel Russia’s invasion and not restrict the use of donated arms, said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
Ukraine should be allowed to use Western weapons including F-16 fighter jets to hit targets inside Russia as long as it follows international law, she told a security conference in Prague on Saturday.
“Talking about red lines when it comes to donations is a big mistake,” the premier said. “Ukraine has to win this war, and they are facing an extremely aggressive Russia. The only way to win is to give Ukraine what they need.”
Denmark is one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine and among the staunchest Russia hawks within Nato as allies keep debating restrictions on the use of their arms supplies inside Russia. The Nordic country of six million people has provided $7.3-billion worth of military aid and helped to train Ukrainian pilots and soldiers. Most recently, it donated 19 of its F-16s.
Frederiksen declined to comment on the use of F-16s in specific operations but said the Danish government puts “no restrictions” on their deployment, provided Ukraine complies with international law. She also called on Europe to ramp up defence spending and take full responsibility for the continent’s security.
The prime minister signalled that Beijing was in part responsible for the war because of its support for Russia. Western nations were making a “big mistake” by remaining dependent on China, said Frederiksen.
“Russia would not be able to do this, they would not be able to kill Europeans in Ukraine almost every day, if it wasn’t because of China,” she said. “We have to realise that and we have to understand how dangerous this situation is.”
Zelensky dismisses Ukrainian Air Force chief after F-16 crash
Ukraine’s Air Force chief was dismissed by Zelensky, a day after the crash of a Ukrainian F-16 was made public.
Zelensky made the announcement on Friday in a video address on the Telegram platform, saying it was important to strengthen the air force at the command level for the sake of national security and to reassure the population. A presidential decree on force commander Mykola Oleshchuk’s removal didn’t give a reason for his dismissal.
Ukraine said on Thursday that one of its F-16 fighter jets crashed on Monday during Russia’s biggest missile and drone attack on Ukraine since its full-scale invasion began in February 2022. The US has joined an investigation into what caused the crash.
Ukraine received its first consignment of F-16s in late July after a long debate among its Western allies about whether to supply the US-made fighter jets.
Lieutenant General Anatoliy Kryvonozhko was appointed acting Air Force chief, the Ukrainian army’s general staff said in a Telegram post.
Putin defies war crimes warrant with plan to visit Mongolia
Russian President Vladimir Putin received assurances ahead of a planned visit to Mongolia that he would not be arrested for alleged war crimes under a warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to two people familiar with the Kremlin’s preparations.
The 3 September visit will be the first by Putin to a member state of the ICC since the warrant was issued in March last year over the abduction of children from occupied areas of Ukraine. As a signatory to the Rome Statute governing the court, Mongolia is obliged to implement the warrant and arrest Putin if he appears on its territory.
“We have no such problem,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, in response to a request to comment on whether Mongolia had provided guarantees that it wouldn’t implement the ICC’s warrant.
Officials at Mongolia’s presidency, prime minister’s office and foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to requests to comment. The foreign ministry met on Friday with representatives of numerous foreign embassies to explain Putin’s visit, which is formally linked to the 85th-anniversary commemorations of the 1939 battles at Khalkh Gol against Japanese forces.
“There is no risk of Putin’s arrest,” said Sergei Markov, a political consultant close to the Kremlin. “Before any foreign trips, the entire spectrum of the negotiating format is agreed in advance, and the host nation gives 100% guarantees that neither Putin nor any member of the delegation will be detained.”
Still, Putin hasn’t risked such a visit before. He skipped last year’s summit in South Africa of leaders from the BRICS grouping, which also includes China, Brazil and India, after the host nation made clear it would have to comply with the ICC warrant as a member state.
Read more: All about Putin’s war crimes warrant
The Russian leader also chose not to travel to the Group of 20 summit last year in India, even though it isn’t an ICC member. Brazil has invited Putin to the G20 summit it will host in November, though President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has said it’s a matter for the judiciary to decide whether to arrest him as a signatory to The Hague-based court.
Neither Russia nor the US are members of the ICC, which counts 124 member states.
“States parties to the ICC Rome Statute have the obligation to cooperate” with court decisions, “including in relation to arrest warrants,” an ICC spokesperson said in a statement. In the case of non-cooperation, an ICC judge may inform the Assembly of State Parties, which can “take any measure it deems appropriate”.
Putin’s visit comes only six months after the first Mongolian judge to serve on the ICC took up his post at the court. The country’s president, Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, hailed the development as proof of Mongolia’s “growing reputation and strengthening status in the international arena”, according to the Mongolian National News Agency.
“All aspects of the visit have been thoroughly prepared,” Peskov told reporters on Friday in response to questions about the ICC warrant, according to the Interfax news service. “We have a wonderful dialogue with our friends from Mongolia.”
Russia is aiming to build a new gas pipeline, Power of Siberia 2, via Mongolia to China. A recent Mongolian decision not to include funding for the project in a new five-year government economic plan has raised doubts over Beijing’s commitment to the project, the South China Morning Post reported.
Even so, Mongolia has assumed growing importance as a third country to facilitate trade between Russia and China amid the threat of US sanctions against Chinese firms that deal directly with Russia, said Markov, the political consultant. Beijing is under increased pressure to curtail support that’s helping Moscow continue its war in Ukraine that began in February 2022.
“Putin is travelling to Mongolia under Chinese security guarantees,” said Stanislav Belkovsky, a former Kremlin political adviser who’s now a government critic. “Mongolia won’t go against China even though it doesn’t want to pick a fight with the US.” DM