Listed below are the important thing occasions on day 1,284 of Russia’s battle on Ukraine.
Printed On 31 Aug 2025
Right here is how issues stand on Sunday, August 31:
Combating
- Russia launched “huge” strikes in opposition to Ukraine in a single day on Saturday, with a complete of 14 areas hit, in response to Ukrainian officers.
- No less than one particular person was killed and 30 others wounded in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia area, whereas residential buildings have been hit and scores of houses left with out gasoline or electrical energy. The cities of Dnipro and Pavlohrad within the central area of Dnipropetrovsk additionally got here beneath assault early on Saturday, inflicting fires.
- Ukraine’s Air Drive mentioned it had downed 510 of 537 drones and 38 of 45 missiles launched by Russia within the in a single day assault.
- In Ukraine’s Kherson, a 74-year-old man was additionally killed when Russian forces shelled the town, in response to officers.
- The chief of Russia’s common workers, Valery Gerasimov, said that Russian forces are waging a nonstop offensive alongside nearly your complete entrance line in Ukraine and have the “strategic initiative”.
- In a speech to his deputies, Gerasimov additionally mentioned that Russian forces now management 99.7 p.c of Ukraine’s Luhansk area, 79 p.c of the Donetsk area, 74 p.c of the Zaporizhia area and 76 p.c of the Kherson area. He went on to assert that Russian troops have nearly utterly blockaded the town of Kupiansk, within the Kharkiv area, and management about half of its space.
- However Ukrainian navy spokesperson Viktor Trehubov mentioned that Kyiv’s forces had scored front-line successes, conserving Russian troops from seizing targets within the Donetsk area and halting additional advances into the Dnipropetrovsk area. In a single space, he mentioned, Kyiv’s troops had surrounded Russian items.
- Ukraine’s navy additionally claimed assaults in Russia, saying it had struck the Krasnodar and Syzran oil refineries in a single day on Saturday, setting off fires at each amenities.
- Russia’s TASS state information company additionally mentioned that Ukrainian shelling left greater than 17,000 folks with out energy within the border city of Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk area.
- Kursk’s Appearing Governor Alexander Khinshtein mentioned that 201 our bodies have been discovered within the Russian area since January 1, following Ukraine’s invasion of the Russian area, and that 590 persons are nonetheless lacking.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence mentioned that its forces shot down 233 Ukrainian drones, one guided bomb and 4 missiles in a 24-hour interval, in response to TASS.
Politics and Diplomacy
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been pushing for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused the Kremlin of utilizing “the time meant for making ready a leaders’-level [peace] assembly to organise new huge assaults”, and known as for extra worldwide sanctions on Moscow and its backers.
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Zelenskyy over the cellphone and reaffirmed his assist for a peaceable settlement in Ukraine, saying that “India extends full assist to all efforts” to revive peace and stability, in response to an announcement from New Delhi.
- The European Union’s prime diplomat, Kaja Kallas, mentioned the bloc will look at the way to use frozen Russian belongings to fund Ukraine’s defence and reconstruction after the battle. However confiscating the belongings – that are price 210 billion euros ($245.85bn) – now will not be politically real looking, she mentioned.
- Kallas’s feedback come after some EU nations, together with Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, known as for the belongings to be seized now and be used to assist Kyiv. However EU heavyweights France and Germany – together with Belgium, which holds many of the belongings – have rebuffed the concept.
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned Russia’s persevering with assaults on Ukraine, saying that diplomatic efforts in latest weeks had been “answered with an much more aggressive method by this regime in Moscow in opposition to the inhabitants in Ukraine”.
- “This will even not cease till we guarantee collectively that Russia, at the least for financial causes, and maybe additionally for navy causes … can now not proceed this battle,” Merz added in feedback at an occasion within the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
- United States President Donald Trump outlined how his coverage on Ukraine suits along with his America First agenda, saying, “We’re not spending any cash within the battle”, describing this as a “huge distinction” compared with the “tons of of billions of {dollars}” the US was beforehand spending.
- He additionally advised The Every day Caller that the US won’t ship floor troops to Ukraine and that the US now sells tools to NATO. “We don’t promote it to Ukraine. We promote it to NATO. They pay for the tools,” Trump mentioned.
Weapons
- Ukraine’s Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal introduced that the US State Division had authorized the sale of Patriot air defence programs for Ukraine for an estimated price of $179.1m and satellite tv for pc communications companies price $150m.
