Lithuania to purchase 37 kamikaze drones for Ukraine

Drones have been flying toward the capital for hours at a time, with explosions and the sound of air defense fire rocking the city throughout the morning and afternoon.

Amid intensifying attacks in the Black Sea from both Ukraine and Russia, a Turkish-operated vessel was hit on Aug. 26 off the coast of Tuapse — a Russian port city with a large oil refinery that Ukraine frequently attacks with drones.

Russia launched nearly 2,000 attack drones, more than 1,600 glide bombs, and 31 missiles, including North Korean ballistic missiles, against Ukraine in just the last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel on Aug. 30.

Ukrainian forces targeted a major oil refinery in northwestern Russia's Leningrad Oblast and an airbase in Krasnodar Krai overnight on Aug. 30, monitoring channels reported.

At around 8:10 p.m. local time on Aug. 28, a Russian drone struck a facility in the village of Myla, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) west of Kyiv along the Kyiv-Chop highway. The attack sparked a large fire, followed by ammunition detonations, the Prosecutor General's Office reported.

Russia continued its near-constant drone attacks on Ukraine's capital for a third consecutive night on Aug. 29-30, with authorities repeatedly issuing air-raid alerts in Kyiv as fires were reported in the city.

The figure includes 1,400 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.

"At the moment, Russia's options for escalation are quite limited. The only thing Russia can still escalate with is mobilization. And I believe mobilization would have domestic political repercussions in Russia," Finnish President Alexander Stubb said.

Near-continuous air raid alerts across large swaths of Ukraine stretched into a third consecutive day on Aug. 29, as Russia launched continued waves of attacks targeting the country.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government is expected to announce the measures in the coming week, potentially alongside a new European Union sanctions package, according to Politico.

"Yes, that's the food chain. Children should be taught about this, so that they understand what kind of world we live in and why we are conducting the special military operation," Vladimir Putin said.

The General Staff added that the destruction of a Russian Buk-M3 surface-to-air missile system near the town of Klintsy in Russia's Bryansk Oblast on Aug. 28 had also been confirmed.

As of Aug. 29, there had been no reports of Ukrainian citizens being injured or killed, according to the ministry.