Ukraine war latest: Nearly 2,000 drones fired at Ukraine in one week as Russia draws out attacks
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Key developments on Aug. 29-30:
- Nearly 2,000 drones fired at Ukraine in one week as Russia draws out attacks
- 'Explosions every few minutes' — At least 38 killed after Russian drone strike on ammunition depot near Kyiv
- Putin-Trump-Zelensky summit possible only to 'formalize agreements,' Peskov says
- Russia planning operation in northern Ukraine, including Kyiv, military says
- Ukrainian drones destroy Russian air defense, radar systems at Yeysk, Millerovo airfields
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.
Moscow has increasingly launched daytime kamikaze drone attacks against Kyiv, keeping the capital in a perpetual state of alert, with air raid alarms constantly turning on and off. Homes, businesses, and other civilian infrastructure have been hit, the president wrote.
Previously, Russia launched the brunt of its attacks at night but began a new tactic of launching prolonged daytime attacks earlier in the week. The capital is now entering its fourth day of near-constant drone attacks, with explosions and air defense fire heard by Kyiv Independent journalists during the morning and afternoon of Aug. 30.
The day before, attacks killed a 2-year-old girl in the capital and injured 12 more people, while a strike on an ammunition warehouse in Myla, a village just outside Kyiv, killed at least 38 people on Aug. 28.
Bracing for a new wartime reality, the government is finding solutions that will allow people to live more easily under prolonged air raid alerts, including keeping public transportation and businesses operating, some of which shut down during alerts, Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi wrote on Aug. 29.
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'Explosions every few minutes' — At least 38 killed after Russian drone strike on ammunition depot near Kyiv
At least 38 people were killed and 20 injured, including two children, in a Russian attack on Kyiv Oblast that triggered detonations and a large fire at a storage facility on Aug. 28, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug. 30.
The search and rescue effort continues with four people still missing, while emergency services are still working at the site, detecting and neutralizing explosive objects, Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel.
At around 8:10 p.m. local time on Aug. 28, a Russian drone hit 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.
The first strike in the Russian attack hit a Ukrainian military ammunition depot, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an Aug. 29 statement, adding that it triggered a chain of explosions involving shells, mines, other ammunition, and drones.
Kyiv Oblast Governor Tkachenko said at 11:30 a.m. local time on Aug. 29 that the casualty toll could still increase.
As of the morning of Aug. 29, emergency services continued to extinguish fires, clear debris and conduct search-and-rescue operations. More than 300 Ukrainian emergency service workers were involved in the response to the aftermath of the Russian strike, Zelensky said.
At least 130 residential buildings were damaged in the attack and subsequent detonations. Along with residential buildings, a care facility for elderly people and people with disabilities was also damaged, according to local authorities.
Three hundred and eighty-one people, including 59 children, were evacuated from the site following the attack, Tkachenko said.
Putin-Trump-Zelensky summit possible only to 'formalize agreements,' Peskov says
A summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump, and President Volodymyr Zelensky could take place only to formalize agreements already reached, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Aug. 30, according to Russian state-controlled media.
The comments come as peace efforts remain stalled, with Russia continuing to insist on its maximalist conditions and attacking Ukrainian cities.
"Such a meeting is possible only to formalize agreements," Peskov told reporters. He added that a settlement over Ukraine is "not a primitive deal," but a "very complicated" process involving "a huge number of details."
The latest statement follows a recent visit to Moscow by CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Peskov said Ratcliffe met with Russian intelligence officials but did not meet Putin, who was briefed on the discussions. Trump described the Aug. 25 visit as "semi-routine."
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Russia planning operation in northern Ukraine, including Kyiv, military says
Russia's military leadership had been tasked with preparing several operational scenarios for an offensive in northern Ukraine, with Kyiv and Chernihiv identified as key areas, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Pavlo Palisa said on Aug. 28 during a closed-door briefing with journalists, Suspilne reported.
Palisa said the information had been verified and that the Presidential Office had received it from several intelligence sources, without specifying whether they were Ukrainian or foreign.
"Indeed, several options were considered (in Russia)," Palisa said at the briefing.
"The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has developed possible response scenarios, including measures to defend, protect, and counter these actions."
Palisa said no new offensive groupings are currently being detected in the Kyiv and Chernihiv directions. Kyiv Oblast borders Belarus to the north, while Chernihiv Oblast borders both Belarus and Russia.
"Our top priority is to prevent the conditions from emerging that would allow Russia to launch any offensive operations at all," Palisa added.
Ukrainian drones destroy Russian air defense, radar systems at Yeysk, Millerovo airfields
Ukraine conducted overnight long-range strikes on Russian military infrastructure, destroying air defense and radar systems at two military airfields, Unmanned Systems Forces Commander Robert "Madyar" Brovdi said Aug. 30.
Madyar said Ukrainian drones targeted the Yeysk airfield in Russia's Krasnodar Krai and the Millerovo airfield in Rostov Oblast.
According to Madyar, Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system, a Sopka-2 radar, and an aviation weapons depot at the Yeysk airfield. They also destroyed Kasta 2E2, RSP-27, and Nebo-SV radar systems, as well as aviation facilities and a depot at the Millerovo airfield, he said.
The destruction of the Russian air defense and radar systems was confirmed by additional reconnaissance, Madyar said.
He said the main target of the operation was a DRL-27 module of Russia's RSP-27 aircraft landing radar system at Millerovo. The radar is used both to detect aerial targets and to control air traffic at the airfield, working together with a PRL-27 landing radar.
