Ukraine
Ukraine Strikes Refineries as Russia Exploits Air Gaps
Ukraine's long-range drone campaign struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat refinery in Bashkortostan again overnight, Ukrainian outlet Babel reported, as part of a systematic effort to cripple Russian refining capacity rather than isolated raids. Bashkortostan head Radiy Khabirov has previously confirmed strikes on the plant, Russia's 10th-largest, according to the Moscow Times. Babel's report of a parallel hit on a Wildberries warehouse in Bashkortostan's Chishmy district remains unconfirmed; Ukraine's dozens of strikes on Wildberries facilities this year have concentrated in regions including Tver, Voronezh and Samara, targeting what Kyiv says is the retailer's role supplying Russian forces with drone parts and equipment. Russia responded with 133 Shahed-type and decoy drones overnight, Ukraine's Air Force said, of which 111 were shot down or suppressed, with impacts at 15 sites and debris at 16 more, according to UNN. Port infrastructure in Odesa region's Izmail district was hit, along with sites in Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk…
Ukraine Strikes Key Russian Black Sea Fleet Base
Ukraine's Defense Forces struck more than 300 kilometers past the front line overnight, hitting Russia's naval base in Novorossiysk, which President Volodymyr Zelensky called "the last main stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea." Zelensky confirmed the operation on his official Telegram channel. The president said the strike combined "Palianytsia" jet drones, "Neptune" missiles, and uncrewed naval systems, with confirmed hits on air defense positions, docks, and port infrastructure. He thanked Ukraine's military, the Security Service (SBU), and military intelligence for the operation. The attack was part of a broader overnight wave: explosions and air defense activity were also reported in occupied Crimea, near Sevastopol and the Kerch Bridge, according to The Kyiv Independent. Russia's Ministry of Defense claimed 502 drones downed overnight, a figure that could not be independently verified. The Novorossiysk naval base sits inside the same port complex as the city's grain terminal, operated by…
Russia Shifts Missile Production to Beat Ukraine’s Defenses
Almost every night this summer, Kyiv's residents have learned to listen for the difference between a drone's engine and the silence before a ballistic missile hits. That silence may now be shaping Vladimir Putin's calculus on whether to negotiate at all. Retooling the Missile Arsenal Russia has quietly abandoned two missile programs it once relied on. Production of the Kinzhal and Kh-32 has been halted since April, according to Ukrainian military intelligence deputy chief Vadym Skibitsky, after repeated combat failures to fix their accuracy. Kinzhal's deviation from target reportedly runs 30 meters or more, against a required 5–7 meters. Rather than keep chasing that fix, Moscow redirected the freed resources toward missile types it already knows can penetrate Ukraine's depleted Patriot interceptor stock: Iskander-M ballistic missiles and missiles launched from S-400 systems on ballistic trajectories, Kyiv Post reported. The payoff shows in the numbers. By August 3, seven months into…
Russia Removes Sole Anti-War Party From Vote
Russia's Supreme Court on August 10 canceled the registration of Yabloko's federal candidate list for next month's State Duma elections, removing Russia's oldest liberal party from the national ballot, AP reported. Judge Vyacheslav Kirillov granted a lawsuit filed three days earlier by the nationalist Rodina party. Yabloko said it would appeal within the required five-day window, and the ruling does not take legal effect until that process concludes. The Rodina party, led by State Duma deputy Alexei Zhuravlyov, accused Yabloko candidates of receiving foreign funding, violating copyright law in campaign materials and promoting extremism. Russia's Central Election Commission told the court that data from the financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring showed foreign transfers to several Yabloko candidates through third parties in the United States and Germany. Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov rejected the accusations and told supporters outside the courthouse that he could see how many people in Russia wanted peace and an…
Overnight Strikes Hit Russian Refinery and Ukrainian Cities
Ukraine and Russia traded overnight strikes on August 11. Drones struck two facilities in Orsk, Orenburg Oblast — the Orsknefteorgsintez oil refinery and a mechanical plant — some 1,500 kilometers inside Russia, according to 24 Kanal. The refinery strike ignited its hydrocracking unit, an asset Moscow struggles to repair independently, since it depends on sanctioned Western catalysts and reactor components now routed through slower parallel-import channels. Orsk's mayor confirmed the attack and local authorities imposed temporary flight restrictions at the city airport. A separate strike burned a 156,000-square-meter Wildberries warehouse near Voronezh, one of over 20 such sites hit since July. Kyiv alleges these hubs move sanctioned microelectronics and military components once handled through conventional defense channels. Russia responded with Zircon and Iskander-M/KN-23 missiles, along with roughly 120 Shahed drones and decoys, targeting Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, according to Ukraine's Air Force. Fedorov reported five killed and 20 wounded in Zaporizhzhia,…
Deep-Strike Campaign Squeezes Russia’s Oil Refineries
Russia's refining sector is being taken apart one processing unit at a time. On the night of August 9–10, Ukrainian drones reached into two of Russia's most important fuel-producing regions within hours of each other, striking the Saratov oil refinery and, roughly 1,200 kilometers further east, the Taneco refinery in Tatarstan, the fourth consecutive night of confirmed Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil infrastructure. "A just peace is closer with every target struck on the territory of the Russian Federation that is involved in its criminal war against Ukraine," Ukraine's General Staff said of the Saratov operation. A strike deep in Russia's interior Tatarstan head Rustam Minnikhanov described a "massive" drone attack on industrial and civilian facilities in Nizhnekamsk, a city roughly 1,200 km east of the Ukrainian border, according to CBS News. Taneco is no minor target: the plant has an annual processing capacity exceeding 16 million tons of oil…
