Russia Kills At Least Five in Overnight Strikes on Ukraine, Zelenskyy Says

Drone wave and steel plant

Russia launched a wave of overnight strikes on Ukraine, killing at least five people, and in Kryvyi Rih the mayor said a 44-year-old man who had been missing was found dead in the rubble following the strikes. In the same Kryvyi Rih attack, another person was killed and 14 workers at a steel plant were wounded, while Russia said the facility was producing components for weapons.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said six people were injured in the capital Kyiv after four rounds of air raids overnight and into the morning, and he also referred to a fifth Ukrainian death reported in Sumy on Saturday evening when a car was struck. In Kyiv, emergency crews worked to extinguish fires at a market hit during the overnight attacks, and Russia said its strikes on Kyiv targeted a facility operated by Ukrainian defense company Fire Point that it said produces components for Flamingo missiles.

Al-Bayan

SourcesCGTN

Accounts diverge on casualties

Ukrainian officials described the impact in Kryvyi Rih as a strike on the biggest steel plant, with at least two people killed and 14 injured, while ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih said key production facilities in the power generation and blast furnace sectors were damaged and production processes were partially halted. In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a Russian missile strike early on Sunday caused fires in at least two districts, and the city’s military administration said three people were injured, while Tymur Tkachenko said three others, including a child, were injured in drone attacks across the region.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had downed 822 Ukrainian drones throughout the country in the latest attacks, and Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said an 83-year-old man had been killed in what he described as one of the largest Ukrainian drone attacks on the Moscow region. Vorobyov also said a warehouse belonging to Russia’s largest online retailer Wildberries had been struck, and CNBC reported that video filmed by Reuters after the strike on Wildberries’ Koledino warehouse showed a large plume of smoke over the site about 45 km (28 miles) south of Moscow.

Al-Khaleej

SourcesCNBC

Rocket fuel plant and wider escalation

On the night of August 16, Ukraine’s General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces struck the “Kamensky Plant” in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Rostov Oblast, and said a fire was recorded on the facility’s grounds with the extent of the damage being assessed.

Ukrinform said the Kamensky Plant produces solid rocket fuel for the “Uragan,” “Smerch,” and “Tornado-S” multiple launch rocket systems, and it also reported that operations at Zapsibneftekhim LLC in Tobolsk, Tyumen Oblast, have been halted following an Aug. 10 strike on Central Gas Fractionation Unit No. 1.

The General Staff also confirmed results of an Aug. 11 strike on PJSC “Orsknefteorgsintez” in Orsk, Orenburg Oblast, including a hydrocracking unit and primary oil refining units, and Ukrinform said the refinery’s products are used to meet the needs of the Russian Armed Forces.

CGTN framed the strikes as part of a broader escalation in long-range attacks by both sides, noting that Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv sparking fires in at least two districts and that Ukraine launched hundreds of drones across Russia on Sunday, killing at least six people.C

SourcesUkrinformCGTN