Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Serbia on August 8, his first trip there since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, meeting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to discuss EU accession, energy, and the path to peace, in a visit that carries heavy geopolitical symbolism given Serbia's historically pro-Russia stance

Ukrainian drones struck the Slavneft-Yanos oil refinery in Yaroslavl on the night of August 5-6, 2026, setting fires at one of Russia's five largest fuel processing plants located more than 700 kilometres from Ukraine's border; Zelensky confirmed the operation, saying the refineries fund Russia's war; a second refinery in Bashkortostan and a Wildberries logistics warehouse in Tver were also struck; Yaroslavl governor Mikhail Evraev announced traffic restrictions and described it as the largest-ever drone attack on the region; drones were also tracked heading toward Moscow

Russia launched a combined barrage of ballistic missiles and drones at Kyiv and surrounding Kyiv Oblast overnight on August 4-5, killing at least 17 people and wounding 44; Ukraine's air defences failed to intercept any of the ballistic missiles, and officials warned of critical shortfalls in Patriot-compatible interceptors as fires burned across the capital and its suburbs

Black Sea milling wheat fell to US$225.5 per tonne FOB for September shipments on August 6, 2026, its lowest level since June 2025, even as Ukraine's deep-strike campaign drove Russian refining to a two-decade low and attacks on both sides closed grain ports intermittently; analysts cited weak global import demand as the dominant downward price pressure; Ukraine's export corridors remained partially open despite ongoing attacks on port infrastructure

A drone fitted with what police described as an 'explosive device' was found on the tarmac near a Ukrainian Antonov cargo plane at Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport overnight on August 5; a DHL cargo aircraft hit an unknown object as it climbed away from the airport; the south runway was closed, several flights were diverted, and Saxony state police took over the investigation

A Russian soldier opened fire in Sevastopol, Russia-occupied Crimea, on August 4, killing one fellow serviceman and three civilians and wounding four others; Crimea's Moscow-installed governor Mikhail Razvozhaev confirmed the soldier was detained; the Moscow Times and Meduza reported the incident, which Russia's state channels carried with limited detail

Russian forces struck the Ukrainian city of Sumy with guided aerial bombs overnight on August 3-4, killing two children and a woman and destroying civilian infrastructure, according to Ukraine's Sumy region governor; in the same period, a Ukrainian drone killed one person near Belgorod in Russia's border region, and Ukrainian strikes on Russian-annexed Crimea and a Black Sea resort collectively killed at least 11, according to an earlier RTÉ report

Russian crude oil refining averaged 3.6 million barrels per day in July 2026, the lowest since May 2002, Bloomberg data showed via Meduza; Ukrainian drone attacks on refineries and tankers drove the drop; at the same time Russia's federal budget deficit exceeded its full-year legal ceiling in just six months, large companies began cutting investment despite Putin's calls for a spending surge, and monthly company closures tripled to 12-15 thousand

Ukrainian drones struck a Wildberries logistics center in Russia's Vladimir Oblast on August 3 and attacked warehouses in Moscow and Leningrad regions overnight August 4, killing five and injuring six in Moscow Oblast; the strikes bring to 20 the total Wildberries facilities hit since Ukraine launched the campaign on July 18; Kyiv says the sites supply sanctioned drone components, a claim Meduza found partially but not conclusively supported by available evidence

A Ukrainian drone came down on a crowded beach at the Russian resort village of Arkhipo-Osipovka, near Gelendzhik on the Black Sea coast of Krasnodar Krai, on August 3, killing seven people including three children and injuring about 58; Russia blamed Ukraine; Ukraine said Russian air defenses shot the drone down and that 'it was Putin who killed those people'; CNN's video analysis found automatic gunfire from three weapons audible before the drone veered and dived into the sand; independent Russian exile outlet Meduza found the attribution 'genuinely unresolved'

Ukrainian drone strikes hit the Black Sea resort city of Gelendjik and Russia-occupied Crimea on August 3, killing 11 and wounding dozens, Russian officials said; Russia struck civilian infrastructure in Ukraine's Sumy city with guided aerial bombs the following morning, killing two children and a woman; a separate Russian strike on Mykolaiv killed one more woman

Ukrainian forces hit the Engels strategic air base in Saratov Oblast overnight August 1-2, Ukraine's General Staff confirmed; drones also struck a Saratov Oblast refinery and the 17th Wildberries warehouse of the war; Russia responded on August 2 with ballistic missiles on Kyiv; Russia fired a record number of missiles at Ukraine in all of July, per AFP analysis

A homemade bomb detonated near the Balzi Rossi Italian restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square in Moscow on the evening of August 1, killing at least five people by August 2, including the woman believed to have carried the device and a security guard who had stopped her from entering; Meduza reported the bomb was intended for a birthday celebration, suggesting the carrier may have been an unwitting courier; Russia's Anti-Terrorism Committee is investigating; no group has claimed responsibility

Ukraine's SBU claims drones hit three major oil refineries in Ufa on August 1 and took out four radar systems; independent Russian outlet ASTRA geolocated footage of black smoke over the Bashneft complex; the same night Ukrainian naval drones sank the container ship Yanina in the Black Sea

Russia launched 30 ballistic missiles at Kyiv on August 1, killing at least ten people including a police officer on duty and injuring at least 28 across five districts; Ukraine's air defences intercepted some, but officials said Patriot-compatible interceptors are running low and urged urgent allied resupply; the attack came less than 48 hours after a separate major Russian strike on Ukraine

Russian forces launched a mass aerial attack on Ukraine overnight July 31, deploying 255 Shahed-type attack drones across the country, the Ukrainian Air Force said; the attacks killed 9 people and wounded 48 over the preceding day as Ukraine continued to reel from the July 30 mass missile and drone barrage; President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed his plea for faster Western air-defense deliveries, saying 'untimely assistance and delays in the delivery of anti-ballistic missiles lead to this kind of destruction'

A Russian strike on Kyiv on July 26 destroyed the Kyiv facility of Terminal Autonomy, a US company producing AI-guided AQ-400 Scythe and AQ-100 Bayonet deep-strike drones; The Guardian confirmed the attack on July 31 via a source close to the company, and Kyiv Post reported the strike was carried out with a missile; it is the first time Russia has directly targeted a US-owned drone manufacturer operating in Ukraine

The Financial Times reported on July 30 that US and French intelligence agencies gave Ukraine real-time data on Russian air-defense positions, letting Ukrainian drones navigate around radar gaps and hit oil refineries far inside Russian territory; Ukrainian officials confirmed the arrangement to the newspaper

Russia launched its largest overnight barrage in weeks on July 30, killing at least ten civilians and wounding more than 50 across Ukraine; a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile crossed into eastern Poland, a NATO member, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed it likely crashed there, triggering notifications to NATO allies and a fresh Zelenskyy push for accelerated Western air-defence deliveries

Ukrainian drones struck Wildberries logistics warehouses in four separate Russian regions on July 30, the third multi-warehouse day of attacks since Ukraine began targeting Russia's largest online marketplace on July 18; the Leningrad Region governor said about 1,500 sellers lost their inventory in the warehouse fire there; Wildberries declared the drone campaign force majeure; Foreign Policy described the strikes as a deliberate campaign to collapse Russia's civilian logistics backbone

Ukrainian drones attacked Wildberries logistics warehouses in Ryazan on July 29, causing a large fire and partial building collapse; at least 3 people were killed across Russia and annexed Crimea in overnight Ukrainian strikes on industrial sites; President Zelensky said his military struck several industrial targets; Wildberries said Ryazan warehouse operations were disrupted

Ukrainian forces repelled a record 226 Russian combat clashes across all frontline axes on July 29, with 32 Russian soldiers killed near Pokrovsk alone; Russia launched 6,125 kamikaze drones and 190 guided aerial bombs in a single 24-hour period; Russian forces advanced toward Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast, fighting in Sumy, Kharkov, Dobropolye, Gulyaypole and Zaporozhye; Zelensky warned partners that 30,000 more North Korean troops are being prepared for deployment and said a massive Russian strike was imminent

Andrey Cherezov, who leads a Russian UAV research company, was shot three times in the entrance of his apartment block in Tula and left in critical condition; Russia's Investigative Committee confirmed the attack; no group has claimed responsibility

Ukraine's Security Service launched a drone strike on the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez refinery in Perm on July 29, hitting a key crude-processing unit more than 1,500 km from the Ukrainian border; the operation was ordered by President Zelensky to degrade Russia's military and economic capacity; Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez is one of Russia's largest refineries and a significant contributor to refined fuel for Russian industry and the military

Ukraine locked in co-production negotiations with Lockheed Martin on July 28, the second US defense contractor engaged in a week after Raytheon, while Poland's Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz proposed siting the production factory in Poland as a geographically safer option; Boeing separately declined to transfer the homing-head license to third countries, a restriction first reported by Germany's Die Welt; analysts say 24-to-30-month component lead times mean no Ukrainian-made PAC-3 MSE interceptors before late 2028

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington on July 28 for a meeting with US President Donald Trump at 9:30am ET, his latest attempt to win firmer US support against Russia; the visit comes as Ukraine and Russia both escalate long-range strikes and US-led diplomatic talks remain at a standstill, with the US Senate due to vote the same day on Russian sanctions

A Russian missile struck the Kyiv production facility of Terminal Autonomy, a US-owned company that manufactures AI-guided AQ-400 Scythe and AQ-100 Bayonet strike drones designed to resist Russian jamming; Kyiv Post and reporting citing The Guardian described the July 31 attack as Russia's first direct hit on a factory belonging to an American defence company operating in Ukraine

A Ukrainian drone hit a civilian passenger bus on a scheduled route in Shebekino, Belgorod Oblast, on July 28, injuring 19 people, acting Governor Alexander Shuvaev confirmed; separately, over 390 drones targeted the Moscow region overnight, with 81 intercepted approaching the city and the rest neutralized by air defence, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the UK on July 27 for the first face-to-face meeting with new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham at a Royal Navy base; Burnham announced the UK would share the intellectual property of its Stone Cloak electronic jammers, which can interfere with Russian air-defense radar, with Ukraine, and both leaders stressed air defense, maritime security and joint defense production as priority areas

A Russian missile violated Polish airspace and landed in a field in eastern Poland's Lublin region before dawn on July 30, during a mass Russian barrage on Ukraine; NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte condemned the airspace violation and said the alliance would 'defend its territory'; Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said there was 'no reason to think Poland was targeted'; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed 'insufficient or delayed' air defense supplies for deaths in Ukraine during the same barrage

Russia's President Vladimir Putin told Russian Navy officers on July 26 that he was 'confident' Ukraine would 'sooner or later' lose its western territories, which he described as lands Stalin gifted to Soviet Ukraine after WWII; Poland's Foreign Ministry called it 'cynical' disinformation designed to split Warsaw from Kyiv; Hungary and Romania, also named, have not responded

Ukraine struck oil facilities in Russia's Udmurt Republic, 1,400 km from the front line, and in Yaroslavl Oblast on July 27, with Udmurt Governor Alexander Brechalov describing it as 'the most massive attack in recent times'; President Zelensky also confirmed strikes on an oil export terminal in Russia's Rostov region; a separate overnight drone hit an apartment block in Rostov-on-Don, killing two people and injuring eight

Russia launched 147 drones at Ukraine overnight July 26-27, with Ukrainian air defense intercepting 145; Russian attacks killed at least 7 civilians and injured 58 in Ukraine, including at a Kryvyi Rih hypermarket; Ukrainian counterstrikes killed at least 5 people in southern Russia; President Zelensky warned that Russia is preparing a new mobilization wave, with losses exceeding recruitment

Ukraine launched what Meduza described as one of its biggest strikes on Russia in 2026, sending 571 drones against 15 regions overnight on July 24; Flamingo cruise missiles struck the AVITEK plant in Kirov, Russia's only serial maker of fighter ejection seats and a supplier of Tor air-defense and Kh-101 cruise missile components, killing 6 and wounding 26; Wildberries warehouses near St. Petersburg were hit for at least the fifth time in a week, as Russia officially called the e-commerce strikes terrorist attacks while Ukrainian defense analysts documented FPV drones and attack-drone components listed for sale on the platform

Russia struck a defense industry exhibition site in Kyiv Oblast on July 24 at around 11:20 a.m. local time, killing at least 10 people and injuring around 100; Ukrainian defense company representatives were present at the site when the missile hit, making it one of the most lethal daytime strikes on the capital region in weeks

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the UK on July 27 for his first meeting with new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham; Burnham announced the UK would share the intellectual property of its 'Stone Cloak' electronic jammers used to counter Russian air defence systems

Ukrainian drones attacked two Wildberries warehouses in Nevinnomyssk and Krasnodar on July 22, killing at least one person and injuring several others, in the third such strike on Russia's largest online retailer; Russia retaliated by striking port infrastructure and vessels in the Ukrainian cities of Odesa and Chornomorsk

An LPG tanker, the Gas Lisbon under Liberian flag, was attacked and exploded approximately 30 km from the Romanian port of Sulina outside Romanian territorial waters on the night of July 20 to 21 while sailing from Egypt to Ukraine; three crew members were wounded, and Romanian President Nicusor Dan called the strike 'most likely' a Russian attack and launched a probe

Ukraine launched more than 400 drones toward Moscow and surrounding cities overnight on July 20; Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses shot down 385 of them; Ukraine's armed forces also struck an oil storage facility and logistics sites in Moscow Oblast and hit six vessels in the Black Sea; Russia struck Zaporizhzhia residential buildings and a dry cargo ship in Odessa in parallel

Ukrainian forces struck fuel storage facilities in Russia's Stavropol Krai and hit three shadow fleet vessels in the Black Sea on July 19; Russia's TASS reported fires in an industrial zone near Stavropol with no casualties, while President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes were a direct response to Russia's heaviest ballistic missile barrage on Kyiv

Drone strikes on cargo ships navigating the northern Black Sea on July 20 killed two Filipino crew members, injured 12 others, and left one missing; the Philippines Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac confirmed the casualties and said the ships were operating in waters near southern Ukraine when attacked

Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces struck 13 additional vessels linked to Russia's sanction-evasion fleet on July 18, including tankers and cargo ships in the Black Sea and Azov Sea, pushing Operation Molochka's cumulative tally to 172 ships targeted since the campaign began

Russia launched 41 missiles of various types at Ukraine's capital overnight July 18-19, hitting several districts in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called one of the biggest ballistic missile barrages of the war; at least one person was killed and 17 others were wounded, with Ukraine's air defences under strain from a Patriot munitions shortage

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy began reconsidering his wartime cabinet shake-up on July 17 under pressure from civil society and the armed forces, while dismissed Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov publicly blamed Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi for obstructing military reform and 'splitting the country'

Ukraine's naval drone force struck nine dry cargo ships, one oil tanker, one gas carrier, and one tugboat in the Black Sea on July 17 in what commanders described as the largest single operation against Russia's evasion fleet yet; Russia responded by ordering armed troops onto the remaining vessels

Russian ballistic missiles hit warehouses and non-residential buildings in Kyiv in the early hours of July 16, starting fires across two districts as Ukraine's capital absorbed its first ballistic strike in weeks

A Ukrainian drone struck a service car near Enerhodar on July 15, killing Oleksandr Yakovlev, chief engineer of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, and his driver; IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi condemned the attack as an 'unacceptable' threat to nuclear safety, while Russia's Rosatom called it a deliberate act of terrorism and urged IAEA action

Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces extended their shadow-fleet drone campaign from the Sea of Azov into the Black Sea on July 15, hitting 20 Russian vessels including 17 oil tankers, according to Kyiv Independent; commander Robert 'Madyar' Brovdi declared 'the first round of the maritime battle is over' and announced the next phase, after 105 Russian ships were struck in the Azov over nine days in Operation MoLoChKa

Waves of Russian strikes hit Ukrainian cities from Sumy in the north-east to Odesa in the south on July 15, killing at least 12 people and injuring 90, with Odesa Oblast targeted for the fifth consecutive day; a missile hit an apartment building in Odesa, killing three residents

Russian forces fired ballistic missiles and long-range drones at Ukraine overnight July 13-14, hitting military-industrial complex facilities in Kyiv and targets in the Odesa Oblast port area; Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported warehouse fires in the Holosiivskyi district and burning cars in Darnytskyi, with no casualties confirmed

European Union member state ambassadors on July 15 agreed to extend temporary protection rights for Ukrainians fleeing the war until March 2028 but excluded military-age men arriving after the decision; the restriction was requested by Kyiv itself, yet Hungary and France led opposition inside the EU, while the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner warned that blanket exclusion without individual case reviews would be discriminatory

France held its July 14 national day parade with troops and warplanes from partner countries across Europe, and Ukrainian soldiers marching alongside them; French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at what Macron described as his tenth and last Bastille Day parade as president, with a record nearly 6,700 troops, 98 aircraft, 31 helicopters, and 315 vehicles on the traditional route from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde

Ukrainian drones struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat petrochemical plant in Russia's Bashkortostan republic and the Afipsky refinery in Krasnodar Krai overnight July 13-14, setting both sites ablaze; Ukraine's Special Operations Forces confirmed the Bashkortostan hit in what APA called the last major Russian refinery to remain undamaged in 2026.

More than 350 Ukrainian drones struck Russia's Moscow region overnight on July 13, killing three people and wounding five when a drone crashed in Pionersky, near Istra, and killing one more person near Russia's border with Ukraine in a separate strike; it was the second consecutive day of large-scale Ukrainian drone attacks on the Moscow area

Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) hit the Syzran oil refinery in Russia's Samara Oblast overnight on July 11-12, setting the Rosneft facility ablaze around 800 km from the front line; the strike damaged the ELOU-AVT-5 crude distillation unit and drove Russian gasoline output to roughly 65% of summer demand; the same strike wave hit 10 tankers and four ferries in the Sea of Azov; Ukraine's General Staff confirmed the operations

Russia's Defense Ministry said its armed forces hit military-industrial and energy facilities in Kyiv and surrounding areas; Ukrainian authorities reported eight dead and 48 injured in the Kyiv region

Ukraine's military claims Russia's June casualty rate of nearly 40,000, far above its monthly recruitment capacity, is unsustainable; the ISW calculates that at Russia's current pace it would take 14 years to fully capture Donetsk Oblast

Russia's General Staff told Putin on July 3 that its forces had taken the Donetsk fortress city; Ukraine's military denied the claim the next day, with Zelensky calling it 'another Russian lie' and geolocation showing troops from both sides interspersed inside the city

Ukraine's military claimed 21 oil tankers, four tugboats, two dry cargo vessels and one specialized vessel were struck by drones in the Sea of Azov overnight on July 10-11, recording 73 hits; Russia halted commercial navigation through the Kerch Strait and the Don-Azov Canal in response; Russian authorities separately confirmed four vessels hit in Taganrog Bay including a methanol tanker, with one sailor killed; Russia's air defenses claimed to have downed 178 Ukrainian drones overnight

Russian General Gerasimov reported the town's fall to President Putin on July 3; Ukraine has not confirmed the claim; Kostyantynivka sits between Kramatorsk and Sloviansk and is a key logistics node in northern Donetsk

At least 22 killed, 90+ injured; record use of ballistic missiles against the capital, with Zelenskyy cutting short his Ireland visit and Poland scrambling jets

Cabinet-approved mechanism lets manufacturers sell to 27 Drone Deal partner countries, provided domestic military supply is guaranteed first; 20% of proceeds go to a state defence-industrial fund

Defence Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz said six to eight written-off Polish MiG-29s will not be sent after Ukraine declined to grant access to its unmanned combat systems and counterdrone expertise, collapsing a deal agreed in principle last year

Ukraine formally contracted 16 new-build Saab Gripen E multirole aircraft on 30 June 2026 in a SEK 24.6bn deal financed through an EU loan facility, with deliveries due 2029-2030, and Sweden simultaneously pledged 16 used Gripen C/D jets from its active air force for earlier handover

ABW and border guards detained nine Ukrainians and two Belarusians in five Polish cities and expelled all 11 within hours; since autumn 2025, Russian money had funded a network that recruited refugees to attend anti-Zelensky demonstrations

In an interview aired Sunday on Russian state television, Putin said Ukraine had proposed a mutual suspension of deep strikes and dismissed it, calling Russian long-range strikes 'more destructive' and 'catastrophic' for Kyiv's depleted forces

74 missiles and 496 drones in an 11-hour overnight attack; 25 killed as the death toll climbed through rescue operations; Ukraine retaliated on Russia's 4th-largest oil refinery while Fedorov wrote to 40 countries for Patriot interceptors

Intelligence warnings of a major strike were confirmed in the pre-dawn hours of June 26 as Russia hit Kyiv and multiple oblasts; 24 civilians killed across Dnipro and Kyiv, including strikes on cultural landmarks and residential buildings

Mayor Klitschko confirms two civilians injured as air defence activates across the capital; warehouse blaze in eastern Kyiv

Moscow's Kapotnya plant is offline until year-end; 17-plus regions face sales caps; Astana says no official request has arrived

Zelensky confirmed at least five Ukrainian-made cruise missiles hit the plant that produces Iskander-M, Yars and Topol-M launchers; fire erupted, 10 workers injured

General Christopher Donahue will leave command on July 2, eighteen months into a normal three-year tour; the four-star post is being cut to three stars under the defence secretary's general-reduction drive

A decree signed this week raises basic military instruction from roughly a quarter of school hours to half, the most extensive militarisation of Russian civilian education since the Soviet era

Ukraine's Security Service launches a classified influence and covert-action operation, running alongside military strikes, as Kyiv intensifies multi-domain pressure on Moscow

Ukraine's General Staff says overnight strikes set the Orenburg Gas Processing Complex ablaze and hit two satellite communications centres; the facility produces helium for Russian missiles and ethane for rocket propellants

State-compelled military service, reinvigorated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine since 2022, is expanding across ten EU states and Taiwan, reshaping NATO force-generation and global defence budgets.

Russia-led post-Soviet military alliance of six states formed in 2002 and headquartered in Moscow, losing coherence as Armenia defects and Russia's Ukraine war strains collective commitments.

Eight simultaneous large-scale wars across Ukraine, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia are driving displacement, energy shocks, and geopolitical realignment.

Russia's president since 1999, Vladimir Putin is directing the full-scale war in Ukraine, commanding the world's largest nuclear arsenal, and managing a wartime economy under an ICC arrest warrant.

Drone strikes on refineries trigger the worst fuel shortage on the Black Sea peninsula since 2014; the Kremlin and independent press describe it in opposite terms

The SBU's Liutyi unit targeted the Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim and Bashneft-Novoil facilities; the same night, a Krasnodar oil depot was hit

Ukraine reaches 1,500 km deep: June 24 strike on Orenburg gas complex (45 bn m³/yr, Russia's only helium plant) and Dubna satellite comms centre; Russia strikes Ukraine's grid in return

After Abu Dhabi and Geneva rounds put territory on the table, June brings a 185-for-185 swap and duelling summit venues, but no leaders' meeting