Defense Ministry reports escalation on Bakhmut front line, advances on southern flank

Some 219,000 Russian soldiers were killed in the war in Ukraine, Mediazona and Meduza reported, basing the calculations on the list of verified deaths and other data.

Ukrainian forces downed 46 out of the 68 drones, including Shahed-type attack drones and decoys, launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force reported. Twenty-two drones managed to strike at nine different locations.

"Perhaps both sides of this war are not ready to end it themselves," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said after another deadly Russian attack on Kyiv.

The number includes 850 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.

The buffer zone is being weighed by European leaders as an option for a ceasefire or postwar arrangement between Ukrainian and Russian forces, but the U.S. is not involved in the discussions, five unnamed European diplomats said.

"We have to deal with this issue again today, given the fact that there will obviously not be a meeting," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.

"This strike clearly shows that Russia’s goals have not changed. They want war — and they are striking not only our people, not only our cities and communities. Russia is now striking at everyone in the world who seeks peace," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

At least 23 people were killed in the attack on the capital, including four children, authorities said. Three of them were aged 2, 14, and 17.

The U.S. State Department approved a military sale to Ukraine for Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) missiles and related equipment worth an estimated $825 million, the agency announced on Aug. 28.

India's Russian oil imports are expected to increase by 10-20% in September, in spite of U.S. tariffs aimed at pressuring New Delhi into severing economic ties with Moscow.

The Aug. 28 call came after Russia launched a large-scale aerial strike on Ukrainian cities overnight.

This marks the first time a vessel carrying fuel from the blacklisted facility has entered a Chinese import terminal.

The attack on the junction station occurred around 5 a.m. in Tver, a Russian city northwest of Moscow.