🔴 Live: Ukrainian drone ‘destroyed by air defences near Moscow’

Issued on: 28/08/2023 – 05:28Modified: 28/08/2023 – 08:10

3 min

8:02am: Russia charges ex-employee of US consulate with spying, says TASS

Russia’s FSB security service has charged a former employee of the US consulate in the Russian Far East with collecting information on the war in Ukraine and other issues for Washington, state news agency TASS said on Monday.

The man relayed information to US embassy staffers in Moscow on how Russia’s conscription campaign was impacting political discontent ahead of the 2024 presidential elections in Russia, TASS quoted the FSB as saying.

7:55am: Two killed in Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Poltava region

Two people were killed in an overnight Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s central Poltava region, Governor Dmytro Lunin said on Monday.

“As a result of the hostile attack, two people were killed, two people were taken to hospital with minor injuries, and the whereabouts of two more people are currently unknown,” Lunin said on the Telegram messaging app.

Lunin said the attack was on an industrial facility. He did not provide further details.

5:18am: Ukraine’s best high jumper wins gold at world championships

Ukraine’s best high jumper, Yaroslava Mahuchikh, a symbol of hope to her war-torn country and defiance to those who would see it ruined, won a gold medal at the track and field world championships in Budapest on Sunday.

She jumped 2.01 metres (6 feet, 7 inches) to close out a riveting evening on the track – and in the field.

“Finally, I have my gold medal,” Mahuchikh said of the country’s first world title since 2013, when the meet was held in Moscow. “And it’s really extra important for my country right now.”

3:45am: Ukrainian drone ‘destroyed by air defences near Moscow’ 

Air defences shot down a hostile drone near Moscow in the early hours of Monday, the city’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on messaging app Telegram.

He said that according to preliminary information no casualties or damage on the ground had been reported.

Two other drones were destroyed by air defences over the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine, Russia’s defence ministry said on Telegram.

It did not say whether there had been damage or casualties.

11:15pm, August 27: Zelensky says elections could happen under fire if West helps

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, responding to calls by a US senator this week to announce elections in 2024, said on Sunday voting could take place during wartime if partners shared the cost, legislators approved, and everyone got to the polls.

Elections cannot currently be held in Ukraine under martial law, which must be extended every 90 days and is next due to expire on November 15, after the normal date in October for parliamentary polls but before presidential elections which would normally be held in March 2024.

Top American legislators visited Kyiv on August 23, among them Senator Lindsey Graham, who heaped praise on Kyiv’s fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin but said the country needed to show it was different by holding elections in wartime.

7:12pm: World Athletics president says he’s not changing view on Russia ‘anytime soon’

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said Sunday he would not be changing his views “anytime soon” when it comes to welcoming Russia back into the fold.

All Russian and Belarusian athletes have been banned from track and field competition “for the foreseeable future” since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. That includes the option of competing under neutral status. 

International sports bodies are taking wildly varying stances on allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete while the war in Ukraine continues.

Coe’s World Athletics is among the most stringent of opponents to their return should the conflict continue.

“I’ve been an athlete, I was able to prepare in the safety and security of my home city. I was able when I needed to travel abroad,” Coe told a press conference to mark the end of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. “I cannot imagine what it must be like for athletes in Ukraine, to be dealing with this landscape. It’s an intolerable situation and that’s why I won’t be changing my views anytime soon.”

Key developments from Sunday, August 27:

Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death in a plane crash was confirmed by genetic tests, according to a Russian inquiry.

A Russian military plane escorted a US reconnaissance Reaper drone on Sunday over the Black Sea, RIA news agency reported.

Ukraine launched a probe into a deadly plane incident that killed three pilots. 

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

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)