🔴 Live: Drones shot down near Moscow and over Belgorod, Russia says

Issued on: 26/08/2023 – 10:04Modified: 26/08/2023 – 11:00

3 min

10:48am: Two killed in Russian shelling in east Ukraine, local governor says

Two people were killed and another wounded on Saturday when Russian shelling hit a cafe in the village of Podoly in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, local governor Oleh Synehubov said.

“The enemy hit a civilian object – a cafe where local residents were during the day,” Synehubov wrote on Telegram.

Podoly was occupied shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but the village was retaken by Kyiv in a counteroffensive last September.

Russian forces have been attempting to push forward on the Kharkiv region frontline in recent weeks.

The Ukrainian army has acknowledged fighting there has become more difficult but says it is holding the line.

9:15am: Gazprom to ship gas to Europe via Ukraine on Saturday

Russia’s Gazprom said it will send 41.5 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Saturday, compared to 42.4 million cubic metres a day earlier.

8:48am: Russia downs drone over Belgorod region, defence ministry says

Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday that it had destroyed a drone over the Belgorod region which borders Ukraine and regularly comes under fire.  

“An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack with a drone against sites on Russian territory has been prevented,” the ministry posted on Telegram.

5:23am: Russia conducts Barents Sea drills on repelling foreign ships

Russia’s Northern Fleet conducted navy exercises in the Barents Sea this month aimed at preventing the passage of unauthorised and foreign ships, the Interfax news agency reported on Saturday.

The destroyer Vice-Admiral Kulakov “practised a case to repel the actions of a mock intruder vessel” in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia, Interfax reported, citing the Northern Fleet’s press service.

The drills began on August 10, Interfax said, without citing an end date.

The fleet plans more exercises to “defend Russia’s insular and continental territories in the Arctic, as well as to ensure the safety of maritime navigation and other types of Russian maritime economic activities in the Arctic zone”, Interfax said.

2:03am: Russia downs drone approaching capital, Moscow mayor says

Russian air defences destroyed a drone as it approached Moscow, the city’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said early on Saturday.

“Tonight, air defense forces destroyed a drone on approach to Moscow in the Istrinskii district,” Sobyanin wrote on Telegram.

“Preliminarily, there were no casualties or damage. Emergency services are working on the site,” he added.

Moscow was rarely targeted during the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine though attacks have mounted of late.

The capital and other Russian regions have been targeted by a barrage of Ukrainian drone attacks in recent days after Kyiv vowed earlier this summer to “return” the conflict to Russia.

Key developments from Thursday, August 25:

Russian investigators said Friday they had recovered flight recorders and 10 bodies from the scene of the plane crash presumed to have killed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Earlier on Friday, a Kremlin spokesperson said “speculation” the crash had been ordered by the government was an “absolute lie”.  

Meanwhile, the Ukraine military said Russia is regrouping in the Moscow-controlled eastern part of Ukraine with plans to resume an offensive.

Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)