Ukraine confirms report that an F-16 crashed earlier this week and the pilot was killed

At least nine people were killed in renewed Russian attacks on two Ukrainian regions on August 28, when Kyiv's drones struck three Russian regions and set fire to an oil depot in Russia's Rostov region.

Several of the dead were in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, where fighting has been going on for months as Russian troops continue their offensive on the regional center of Pokrovsk.

“This morning, the Russians killed four people and destroyed a house in Izmaylivka in the Kurakhove municipality,” said Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.

Filashkin said two other people were killed by Russian artillery shelling in Khasiv Yar in the region's Bakhmut district. Last year, Khasiv Yar was the scene of a months-long clash between Ukrainian forces and attacking mercenaries from the notorious Wagner group.

In total, 16 houses and two high-rise buildings were damaged by the shelling, Filashkin said.

In the Kharkiv region, Russian forces started A guided aerial bomb was dropped on the center of Kupiansk, injuring 14 people, including three police officers, the Kharkiv region prosecutor's office said.

The head of the regional military administration, Oleh Synyehubov, said hundreds of windows in residential and administrative buildings were damaged by the shelling. Other administrative buildings, shops and civilian infrastructure were also damaged, Synyehubov said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the airstrike on Kupiansk had caused several deaths, but did not say how many. He also reiterated: urged Western leaders should allow Ukraine to use weapons supplied by their countries for long-range strikes against Russian targets.

In his video message in the evening, Zelensky described the situation in Pokrovsk and other areas of the Donetsk region as “extremely difficult”.

“The main Russian efforts and the largest forces are concentrated there, and the stability of each of our units, our ability to destroy the occupying force, is very important now,” Zelensky said.

Three people – two women and one man – were killed in a Russian drone attack in the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia, said the region's governor, Ivan Fedorov.

“Two women aged 83 and 86 and a 61-year-old man died, three other women aged 19, 30, 56 and a 59-year-old man were injured as a result of a Russian drone strike,” Fedorov said.

Kryviy Rih in the southern Dnipropetrovsk region was again the target of a Russian missile attack on August 28, injuring three people, regional governor Serhiy Lysak reported. A day earlier, another Russian Iskander missile hit a hotel in the city, killing four people.

Lysak said infrastructure and cars in the city were also damaged.

Meanwhile, Russian officials and Telegram channels reported Ukrainian drone strikes on three regions of Russia, including a first attack on a remote Russian region.

Ukraine, whose civilian and energy infrastructure has been hit hard by relentless Russian attacks since Moscow's unprovoked invasion began in February 2022, has in turn begun attacking oil and fuel facilities in Russia that mainly serve the military in recent months.

The governor of the southern Russian Rostov region, Vasily Golubev, confirmed reports on Russian Telegram channels of a fire at an oil depot in the Kamensky district.

According to reports on Telegram, there was a violent explosion before the fire broke out in the depot near the village of Molodezhny.

“In Kamensky district, a fire broke out in a fuel depot as a result of a drone attack. There are no injuries. Rescue workers are involved in fighting the fire. There is no danger of the fire spreading to residential buildings,” Golubev wrote on Telegram.

Golubev had previously stated that four drones had been shot down by Russian air defense systems over his region.

Baza, a Telegram channel with close ties to Russian security services, said debris from two drones sparked a fire in three storage tanks in Kamensky District.

Videos posted on Telegram apparently show large fuel tanks burning in the dark.

Ukraine has not commented on the information; it could not be immediately independently confirmed.

In Proletarsk, another Rostov district, fuel tanks were reportedly still burning ten days after the Ukrainian drone attack.

In the southwestern Voronezh region, Governor Alexander Gusev reported a fire “near explosive objects,” presumably an ammunition depot.

He said there were no civilian casualties, but residents of two nearby villages were temporarily evacuated by bus as a precaution before being returned to their homes.

The Kirov region, about 1,500 kilometers northeast of the Ukrainian border, was also allegedly attacked by Ukrainian drones. The drones' target was an oil depot in the regional town of Kotelnich.

Kirov Governor Alexander Sokolov reported that there were no casualties in the attack and no shelling broke out. According to him, “the situation is under control.”

The government of Russia's Kursk region announced on August 28 that it would introduce additional security measures in the Kurchatov district and at the Kursk nuclear power plant starting August 29.

Alexei Smirnov, governor of the Kursk region, said access to the town of Kurchatov, where the power plant is located, would be temporarily restricted.

On August 6, Ukrainian forces began invading the Kursk region, and fighting broke out within a radius of about 40 kilometers around the nuclear facility.

The Ukrainian military said it had shot down a Russian Su-25 aircraft in Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region.

“In the direction of Kramatorsk, our military shot down a Russian Su-25 aircraft that was trying to fire on the positions of units of the defense forces. The anti-aircraft forces used “a targeted shot from a MANPADS system” to destroy the aircraft, the military said in a statement.

MANPADS (Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems) are light and highly mobile air defense weapons.

Meeting in Brussels on 28 August, NATO members reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening Ukraine’s defences.

“Ukraine continues to intercept Russian missiles on a daily basis, saving countless lives. But maintaining its defense capabilities requires increased supplies and support,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.

“Following the recent Russian attack, the Allies today reaffirmed their commitment to increasing military assistance to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said. “We must continue to provide Ukraine with the equipment and ammunition it needs to defend itself against the Russian invasion. This is critical to Ukraine's ability to stay in the fight.”