Overnight, Ukraine struck at the most valuable target of recent weeks—and it wasn’t an oil refinery. FP-5 Flamingo missiles struck the Progress Rocket and Space Center in Samara, the only Russian facility that mass-produces Soyuz-2 launch vehicles. A massive fire and a column of smoke erupted over the industrial zone where Progress and the neighboring Aviakor aircraft plant are located. According to a preliminary analysis by CyberBorošna, Building 106A—where onboard electrical systems, instruments, and printed circuit boards are developed—was hit. The Soyuz-2.1b is Russia’s primary means of launching military satellites into orbit, as well as satellites for the Rassvet constellation, Russia’s answer to Starlink. Russia launches six to eight of them per year, and it would need at least eighteen to reach its planned total of 288 satellites. The facility is located roughly 850 to 950 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. And this also happened:

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• Ukrainian civilians and relatives of people killed by Russian drones have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. company Ubiquiti in federal court in Manhattan. According to the lawsuit, the company’s long-range radio links have become the backbone of the communications network through which the Russians coordinate “human safaris” in Kherson. The plaintiffs cite the precedent set by SpaceX, which cut off Russian Starlink access via a whitelist last February. Ubiquiti allegedly had the same technical and contractual ability to do so but failed to take advantage of it. A January investigation by Hunterbrook Media found that the value of Ubiquiti’s shipments to Russia rose by 66% after the invasion, despite export controls, mainly through distributors in Kazakhstan and Turkey, and one Ukrainian communications specialist estimated that 80% of the Russian radio links he saw on the front lines were precisely these.
• Putin has set a goal for 2026: to undermine the EU and NATO from within. According to The New York Times, this plan was discussed at a closed-door meeting with Russian military and intelligence officials. Moldova plays a key role in the Kremlin’s plans. Russia reportedly wants to use the country as a foothold. After Ukraine, its next main priority is thus to gain political control over Chisinau. The methods remain the same: vote-buying, funding pro-Russian forces, and cyberattacks. According to the NYT, Moldovan citizens were also trained at camps in Serbia, Bosnia, and Russia, where they learned how to break through police barricades, carry out arson attacks, and handle weapons.
• The Russian stock market closed Thursday’s session with its sharpest one-day drop since September 26, 2022. The MOEX Index fell 4.29% to 2,136.3 points, wiping out roughly 250 billion rubles ($3.2 billion) in market capitalization (an 8.4% decline over three days). Analysts attribute this directly to a statement by Sergey Lavrov, who rejected a ceasefire, arguing that it would “undermine the legacy of our forefathers who defeated Nazism,” threatened to destroy Western countries supporting Kyiv, and promised “tougher measures.” As a result, Sberbank lost 1.4%, Gazprom 4.4%, Lukoil 4.8%, Rosneft 5.1%, and Rusal 6.5%.
• Russia has halted oil exports from the Sheshariss terminal in Novorossiysk. Sheshariss is Russia’s main oil export terminal on the Black Sea and handles about 700,000 barrels per day. After another drone warning was issued on August 14, a tanker that was supposed to load oil sailed away empty, and the port completely halted oil loading. At the same time, the terminal stopped accepting oil because its storage tanks are full. Yet in July alone, nearly one million barrels per day were loaded in Novorossiysk, and in June, about 800,000.
• Ukraine has imposed sanctions on 13 vessels and companies linked to the export of Ukrainian grain from the occupied territories. Meanwhile, Ukrainian intelligence reported the day before that of the 26 ships Russia uses to transport oil, petroleum products, LNG, and stolen grain, 18 are not subject to sanctions from any of Ukraine’s partners.
• Overnight, Ukrainian forces struck the Savaslejka military airfield in the Nizhny Novgorod region, where MiG-31 fighter jets capable of launching Kinjal ballistic missiles are stationed. The Exilenova+ monitoring channel reports fires on the base following the explosions. The airfield is about 660 kilometers from Ukraine.
• Russian forces have once again penetrated Kupiansk after Ukrainian forces gained full control of the city last year and drove the remaining Russian forces out of the surrounding areas. There are now approximately 50–100 Russian soldiers in the northern part of Kupiansk, who have occupied the Spartak area near the stadium.
• July 2026 was the worst month for Ukrainian civilians since the first month of the full-scale invasion. At least 437 people were killed and 2,610 were injured, marking a 30% increase from the previous month and the highest figure since March 2022.
• In Marhanc, a Russian airstrike hit a residential building while civilians were sleeping inside, killing a three-month-old baby. Eleven other people were injured, including two children. Seven of them are fighting for their lives in the hospital.
• Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine is conducting “targeted operations” against collaborators in Russian-occupied territories and is focusing on individuals involved in Russian attacks on Ukraine.
• Ukrainian rapper Albert Vasiliev, known by his stage name Kyivstoner, was the intended target of a foiled assassination plot organized by the Russian secret service in Poland.
• The largest military parade in Polish history is taking place today in Warsaw to mark Polish Armed Forces Day. Ukraine was not invited to attend.
• Russia rejected a proposal for a ceasefire in the Black Sea region the day after Ukraine proposed a mutual halt to attacks on civilian targets.
• Russian media outlets are reporting that their troops have completely withdrawn from the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Interesting videos

• Updated RuAF Losses
• Minus Buky
• Progress
• Cherkasy
• Russian Safari in Kherson
• Kramatorsk
• Unpleasant
• Bull’s-eye!
• Analyzing Logistics
• A Ukrainian MiG activated boss mode

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Ukrainian drones struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil and petrochemical complex in Bashkortostan overnight, about 1,300 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. A fire broke out on the premises. It is one of Russia’s largest refining and petrochemical facilities, with a capacity of up to 10 million metric tons of raw materials per year; it produces gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, bitumen, and polyethylene, and supplies the Russian military. Another Wildberries logistics center in Bashkortostan was also hit. However, the most valuable target of the night was the Nebo-U radar in occupied Sevastopol. This three-coordinate radar is used to detect and track aircraft, guided missiles, and ballistic missiles, and its value is estimated at $100 million. According to the General Staff, its destruction impairs Russia’s ability to detect incoming Ukrainian projectiles in a timely manner. At the same time, Ukrainian drones attacked the Balaklava thermal power plant, and a large water treatment facility near the village of Shturmove caught fire. The entire city of Sevastopol was without power following the airstrike until power supply was provisionally restored. And this also happened:

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• Overnight, Russia launched 133 Shahed drones toward Ukraine; air defenses shot down 111 of them. Interceptions were reported from fifteen locations, and debris from the downed drones fell at sixteen others. One of the jet-powered Shaheds struck a passenger train in the Odesa region. The train was just pulling into the station so that passengers could disembark and take cover after a drone alert was issued. The train engineer and his assistant were killed; none of the passengers were injured. There were 340 people on the train, and it was a purely civilian target. Over the past day, Russian attacks in Ukraine have killed at least eight people and injured fifty.
• In an interview with CNN, Zelenskyy outlined what Ukraine needs: five percent of the U.S.’s current stockpile of Patriot missiles would allow it to survive the winter, while ten percent would mean the end of the Russian ballistic missile threat. Currently, Ukraine has one percent of that stockpile at its disposal. Kaja Kallas subsequently called on EU countries to provide Ukraine with Patriot missiles from their own stockpiles. Poland is considering sending additional Patriot missiles to Kyiv. This is based on the simple reasoning that it is better to shoot down a Russian missile over Ukraine than over Polish territory.
• The campaign, codenamed “Middle-Strike,” continued even behind enemy lines. Ukrainian forces struck the control tower at Saky Airport, a relay station near Chernomorsk—through which the Russians control Geran and Gerbera drones— a drone control center near Myrne in the Zaporizhzhia region, a fuel and lubricants depot near Dovzhansk in the Luhansk region, an ammunition depot near Novy Hai, a logistics and technical depot near Kalanchak in the Kherson region, and a troop concentration near Butyrek in the Belgorod region.
• In Sevastopol, an explosive device planted in a trash can detonated, killing 49-year-old Captain 1st Rank Robert Shageyev. He defected to the occupying forces in 2014 and became the commander of a Russian submarine (he had previously commanded the Ukrainian submarine Zaporizhzhia). Most recently, he served as deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet’s 4th Independent Submarine Brigade—the unit whose vessels have been firing Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities since 2022. Russian media claim to have detained the woman who detonated the device.
• Putin visited the Kuril Islands for the first time in his life. On Iturup, he toured a fish processing plant, a hospital, and a school, and met with the governor of the Sakhalin Region. Japan, which claims the four southernmost islands of the archipelago, summoned the Russian ambassador and lodged a strong protest. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha condemned the visit and expressed solidarity with Japan.
• The SBU uncovered a network of fourteen Russian agents who were gathering information on Ukrainian airfields where F-16 and Mirage 2000 fighter jets are stationed. At the same time, counterintelligence dismantled an FSB spy network that was directing Russian strikes against Ukrainian units in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kirovohrad regions.
• Ukraine is asking the EU for 220 million euros to unlock 4 billion euros in agricultural loans. Russian attacks on ports are stifling exports. Meanwhile, Moldova has become the largest importer of Ukrainian dairy products, surpassing all EU countries.
• A 12-year-old child died in the occupied part of the Kherson region because there was nowhere to take him—there were no functioning hospitals or ambulances left in the Holoprystan area.
• A Vienna court convicted two Belarusian cousins of supplying manufacturing equipment to the Russian arms industry in violation of EU sanctions.
• Partisans from the Ateš movement report that they have disabled a relay tower near the Kharkiv border that was being used by two Russian regiments to communicate with each other.
• A Russian citizen was detained in Poland; according to investigators, he was planning to carry out attacks in the country on behalf of Russian intelligence services.
• Analysts have estimated that Wildberries could lose one-fifth of its network and more than half of its main hubs.
• Russia returned the remains of 261 people to Ukraine today. According to the Russian side, they are Ukrainian soldiers.
• An explosion occurred at an oil terminal near Rotterdam. One person was killed in the blast.
• A powerful explosion rocked the Italian ammunition factory KNDS Ammo today.

Interesting videos

• Updated RuAF Losses
• A missile from the Russian air defense system
• Russian Helicopter Chases Decoy
• The Russians hit the train
• Damaged Russian ships in satellite images
• Explosion at an Italian Arms Factory
• Wildberries
• Minus Wildberries
• Russian Casualties
• Novorossiysk

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Overnight, Russia launched ballistic missile attacks on Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, and other cities. In Zaporizhzhia, missiles struck the Zaporizhstal steel mill complex. Employees were heading to a shelter after the alarm sounded. Unfortunately, seven of them did not make it in time. Another 21 people were injured. According to the parent company Metinvest, energy infrastructure as well as the main and auxiliary operations of the coking plant and blast furnaces were damaged; the plant had to completely halt production, and other operations in Zaporizhzhia are running at reduced capacity. Zelenskyy stated that during the airstrike, the Russians used North Korean ballistic missiles, Russian Zircon missiles, and guided aerial bombs with the aim of causing maximum damage to civilian infrastructure. Ukrainian intelligence had already reported on August 5 that a North Korean missile unit was moving into western Russia. And this also happened:

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• After flying more than 1,500 kilometers, Ukrainian drones struck the Orsknefteorgsintez refinery in Orsk, in the Orenburg Region. Residents reported explosions followed by a massive fire. Preliminary reports indicate that the hydrocracking complex—which was modernized in recent years and has a processing capacity of 1.6 million metric tons per year—has been damaged. On the same day, a fire also broke out at Rosneft’s RN-Komsomolsk refinery in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, roughly 6,500 kilometers from Ukraine—well beyond the range of Ukrainian drones. The cause remains unknown, and monitoring channels have suggested sabotage. The plant, which began operations in 1942, has a designed capacity of about 8 million metric tons of crude oil per year and accounts for over 60% of petroleum product supplies in Russia’s Far East.
• Swedish security guards detained a Russian couple who had set up a makeshift camp on a plot of land adjacent to the home of Saab CEO Micael Johansson. First, the woman came to ask if she could go fishing from the pier. When they were refused, security arrived shortly afterward and discovered walkie-talkies in their possession. Johansson lives under personal protection due to Saab’s military manufacturing operations. The detained Russians now claim that deportation to Russia would be dangerous for them because they allegedly participated in anti-war protests.
• In Kyiv, a ballistic missile struck the grounds of a children’s hospital in the Shevchenkivskyi district. It left behind two craters, shattered windows, and a damaged gas pipeline, which was sealed off within an hour. The staff managed to move the young patients to a shelter, so no one was injured.
• The tanker Caroline Bezengi, part of Russia’s shadow fleet, spilled 800,000 barrels of oil into the Arabian Sea. Omani authorities launched a large-scale rescue operation to secure the vessel and minimize the impact on the marine ecosystem and shipping.
• Russia is deploying its “Rassvet” network of low-Earth orbit satellites much faster than expected. According to Ukrainian military intelligence, there are already 16 satellites in orbit.
• A Ukrainian MiG-29 crashed near Odessa after one of its own missiles exploded near its wing while repelling a Russian airstrike. The pilot ejected and escaped unharmed.
• In the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian forces carried out 938 strikes on 58 communities in a single day. A total of 52 people were injured, and authorities recorded 341 reports of damage to homes, cars, and infrastructure.
• Ukrainian drones struck the newly opened Wildberries logistics megahub in the village of Novaya Usman in the Voronezh region. The complex was engulfed in flames following a series of explosions.
• The ISW notes that as long as Ukraine continues to lack missiles for its Patriot systems, Russia has no reason to enter into peace talks.
• Austrian authorities have uncovered an international network that circumvented EU sanctions and supplied components for Russian guided missiles and aircraft.
• Canada has joined Ukraine, the EU, and Switzerland in imposing sanctions on a UAE-based arms manufacturer whose vehicles are used by the Russian National Guard.
• Ukrainian firefighters helped put out a forest fire near a village in France. In return, the locals hung up a banner thanking them.
• A new textbook has appeared in schools in the occupied territories, which describes the region as “historically Russian.”
• Estimates predict a 39% drop in Ukrainian corn exports due to Russian bombing of ports.
• Ukraine and Moldova are negotiating a rail corridor for grain as an alternative to the blocked Black Sea.

Interesting videos

• Updated RuAF Losses
• Russian convoy targeted and destroyed
• The Breakup of the Russian Convoy
• Komsomolsk
• He didn’t run away
• Orsk
• Tatarstan
• Minus the Russian convoy
• He missed
• Wildberries in Voronezh
• Orsk
• Ukrainian drones are waiting for their prey

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Overnight, Russia launched a massive combined attack on Odesa, firing 11 missiles—most of which followed a ballistic trajectory—and up to 100 drones, including jet-powered Banderol attack drones. Ukrainian air defenses shot down 72% of the drones, five out of six “Banderol” drones, and one missile. It forced the other three missiles to change course using jammers. Nevertheless, the Russians struck nine locations in and around Odessa, injuring nine people and damaging homes, cars, and energy infrastructure. In some parts of the city, the airstrike knocked out electricity, water, and cell service. And then there’s this:

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• The Czech defense conglomerate CSG, which recently invested in the Canadian company North Vector Dynamics (NVD), plans to supply Ukraine with its CM-70 anti-aircraft missiles. CEO Michal Strnad stated that the group will provide NVD with funding, as well as industrial know-how, manufacturing capacity, and a sales network. The CM-70 SPEAR missile is compact (2.5 kg) and high-speed (over 1,000 km/h) and is guided to its target using a combination of laser guidance and artificial intelligence.
• The former head of the Syrian secret service, accused of torture and murder, may be in hiding… where else but in Russia. Hussam Louka, who headed the secret service during Bashar al-Assad’s rule, disappeared after the regime was overthrown in December 2024. However, the BBC managed to make contact with him via a Russian phone number. Journalists also traced another number linked to Louka, which likewise led to the Moscow region.
• The Russian dictator is becoming increasingly paranoid, and so he is relying more and more on the FSB. So much so, in fact, that even the Kremlin elite is beginning to have serious concerns. According to Bloomberg, the Russian security service is being granted ever-greater powers to take action against officials, businesspeople, and ordinary citizens, with virtually no external oversight.
• Syria and Russia have reached an agreement on the future of the Russian bases in Hmeimim and Tartus. The Russian military facilities are to be converted into joint training centers. Thus, the Russian bases will formally cease to exist. At the same time, the civilian facilities in Hmeimim and Tartus will be handed over to Syria within three months.
• Satellite images have shown that Ukrainian drones destroyed a Russian electronic warfare system designed to jam Starlink signals, which was located on the grounds of a Russian FSB border unit in Gelendzhik. This is the third documented case of the destruction of this type of jammer.
• A three-year-old boy, his grandmother, and his grandfather were killed during yesterday’s Russian airstrike on the village of Puchivka in the Kyiv region. The boy’s parents and his 15-year-old brother were injured. A neighbor who came to help was injured during a second, subsequent attack.
• Last week, Ukrainian drones struck personnel from Russia’s 133rd Logistics Brigade in eastern Crimea. The attack destroyed several warehouses at the base, which serves as a key supply hub for Russian ground forces fighting in southern Ukraine.
• Turkey will sell Ukraine a large package of surplus rocket artillery, which includes 70 ATACMS rockets, 2,500 M26 DPICM (cluster) rockets, 12 M270 MLRS launchers, and 47,000 203mm DPICM artillery shells.
• Russia bombed and completely destroyed the plant of the German company Kromberg & Schubert in Zhytomyr. The plant manufactured automotive electronics.
• On the second day of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Belgrade, Serbian President Alexander Vučić expressed support for Ukraine’s interest in EU membership.
• The EU has increased its contribution to the Fund to Support Ukraine’s Energy Sector by 30 million euros, bringing its total contribution to 279 million euros.
• A Russian FPV drone struck a public bus in Nikopol. The driver died, and a colleague and several passengers were injured.
• At least 13 people were killed and 90 were injured in Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian territory over the past day.
• A Russian drone struck a passenger train on the Sumy–Kyiv route; fortunately, the passengers were evacuated in time.
• Russia bombed a shopping center in Pavlohrad. Nine people were injured.

Interesting videos

• Updated RuAF Losses
• A Russian helicopter is chasing a Ukrainian drone
• The Russian Safari in Kherson Continues
• Russians Shoot Down a Drone
• Minus the S-300
• Ukrainian drone dodges missiles fired from a Pantsir system
• The Russians are trying to shoot down a drone
• Minus Buchanka
• Gelendzhik

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