Ukraine-Russia Strikes

Ukrainian forces struck the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in Russia's Samara region, some 620 miles from the front line, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, as a new wave of cross-border attacks killed at least 13 people on both sides. A drone also set ablaze an Ozon logistics centre and industrial site, according to Russian outlet Astra.

Russian strikes killed at least nine people across Ukraine on Saturday, including three in Zaporizhzhia and two in Borispil near Kyiv, where ballistic missiles hit railway infrastructure while Zelensky was attending a veterans event with German Foreign Minister Johan Wadephul. Three more died in Lviv after a strike on an Iskra factory.

Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's Krasnodar region and Crimea killed at least four, including two children. The violence followed a deadly strike on a Kryvyi Rih shopping centre that left 16 dead and four still missing. President Vladimir Putin said such strikes cause economic damage but no turning point in the conflict.

Norway will maintain its support for Ukraine at a record $9 billion in 2027, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced on Sunday, matching this year's level as Kyiv seeks to shore up allies amid a reported $27 billion military shortfall. The bulk of the new package, delivered through the Nansen Support Programme, will be directed toward military assistance, including purchases from Ukraine's domestic defence industry.

Støre arrived in Kyiv on Saturday alongside Nordic and Baltic leaders ahead of a Monday summit of the so-called coalition of the willing. French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will co-chair the gathering, which brings together representatives from more than 30 nations on Ukraine's Independence Day. President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the European Union to accelerate disbursement of a €90 billion loan to help close the funding gap.

The diplomatic push comes as the battlefield intensifies. A Russian strike on a shopping centre in Kryvyj Rih killed at least 14 people, while Ukrainian drones hit Ozon warehouses deep inside Russia for a second consecutive night.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to target Ukraine's most sensitive economic sectors, particularly agricultural exports, after Kyiv escalated drone strikes on Russian oil refineries and logistics hubs.

In his first televised interview since the campaign began, Putin said Ukraine had "opened Pandora's box" and warned that retaliation "will not take long." He cited Ukrainian strikes on e-commerce warehouses belonging to Wildberries and Ozon as evidence of Kyiv's intent to damage Russia's economy. Moscow has already responded with strikes on Ukrainian grain export infrastructure along the Black Sea, though Putin claimed Russia could replace Ukrainian grain on global markets to prevent food shortages.

Putin also dismissed Ukrainian peace proposals as "exotic" and unacceptable, saying dialogue is possible only on the basis of "territorial reality," while asserting that Russian forces have increased the pace of their offensive.

France will deliver new interceptor missiles to Ukraine, President Emmanuel Macron announced Saturday, following a Russian drone strike on a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih that killed at least 16 people and injured more than 130, including 23 children.

Macron expressed horror and solidarity in a call with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which Zelenskyy said lasted nearly two hours and covered air defence needs, funding, and communications with Washington. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas condemned the Kryvyi Rih attack as "terror by design". Separate Russian strikes killed four people in Kyiv on Friday, while Ukrainian drone offensives caused casualties inside Russia.

A volunteer coalition meeting will convene Monday in Kyiv, coinciding with Ukraine's Independence Day, co-chaired by Macron, Friedrich Merz, and Andy Burnham. Ukraine has also launched retaliatory strikes targeting a Russian oil refinery and Black Sea assets.

Ukrainian drones hit a logistics warehouse belonging to Ozon, Russia's second-largest e-commerce platform, in the Samara region overnight into Aug. 22, 2026, igniting a blaze that forced the evacuation of 500 people and caused multiple injuries, the company said. Regional governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev confirmed the strike on the facility in the town of Chapayevsk, marking the first successful attack on an Ozon installation since the war began.

A separate drone attack set fire to a major oil refinery in nearby Novokuibyshevsk, which processes roughly 8.8 million tonnes of crude annually. Both sites lie approximately 900 kilometres from the front line, underscoring Kyiv's expanding long-range strike capability.

The attacks came as representatives of more than 30 nations supporting Ukraine prepared to meet in Kyiv on Aug. 24 for a coalition summit.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul arrived in Kyiv on a solidarity visit just before Ukraine's 35th Independence Day, pledging continued support and accusing Moscow of indiscriminate killing of civilians and the deliberate destruction of energy infrastructure. It is Wadephul's fourth trip to Ukraine since taking office 16 months ago.

The visit coincides with a surge in civilian casualties, with July and August described as the deadliest months for the Ukrainian population in more than four years. A Russian drone strike on a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih has killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 100. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has appealed to allies for additional Patriot missile systems.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian intelligence says Russia has deployed 8,500 North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region, while Ukrainian forces launched a strike on the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in Russia's Samara region. Explosions were heard in Kyiv following an air alert.

A Russian drone attack on a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih, central Ukraine, killed at least six people and wounded 91 on Friday, with 21 victims in serious condition including a child, after overnight missile barrages devastated Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the strike as cynical and despicable, saying attack drones struck the city's largest commercial complex in two waves, with a second strike targeting emergency responders half an hour after the first. Municipal military administration chief Oleksandre Vilkoul confirmed drones were used in the assault.

Zelensky described the attacks as acts of terrorism and called on the international community to exert real pressure on the aggressor. Governor Oleksandre Ganja provided the updated casualty toll.

Ukrainian drones struck a major Lukoil oil refinery in the Ural city of Perm, more than 1,500 kilometres from the border, in one of the deepest attacks of the war. The Permnefteorgsintez plant caught fire following the overnight assault, according to monitoring channels, while videos showed smoke rising above the facility. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Ukrainian forces hit the Perm refinery, along with military airfields in Volgograd and Astrakhan regions.

Perm Governor Dmitry Makhonin said 16 drones were shot down, one man was wounded by shrapnel, and an industrial site was damaged. Russia's defence ministry claimed it destroyed 325 Ukrainian drones across multiple regions and the Black Sea. Perm's Bolshoye Savino airport suspended flights during the attack.

The refinery, which processes over 13 million tonnes of crude annually and supplies fuel to the Russian military, was previously targeted in April, May, and July.

Former Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for elections to be held despite the ongoing war, challenging the political status quo as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's mandate expired in May 2024 with no vote held since. Fedorov, who was appointed defence minister in January and dismissed by Zelenskyy in July, released a video urging the country to organise a ballot. His dismissal had triggered protests in Kyiv and other cities, though veteran Dmytro Koziatynskyi, a protest organiser, disowned the election call and doubted a frontline vote could be technically organised. Only 15% of Ukrainians support holding elections before the war ends, a Kyiv sociology institute poll found.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy installed Yevhenii Chmara as the new defence minister, and deputy presidential chief of staff Iryna Mudra was dismissed over an alleged money-laundering scheme involving nearly 3 million euros.

On the battlefield, at least 16 people were killed in a Russian missile and drone attack near Kyiv, while Ukraine struck the Taneco oil refinery in Tatarstan and a Krasnodar oil terminal. A Romanian F-16 destroyed a Russian naval drone near the Neptun Deep gas project. Poland announced the arrest of a Ukrainian suspect accused of plotting an assassination on behalf of Russian intelligence, and a Russian-Australian man was arrested in Brisbane for allegedly passing military intelligence to Moscow.