Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,284

On Sunday, August 31st, what is the current situation:

Fighting

• According to Ukrainian officials, Russia launched “massive” strikes against Ukraine overnight on Saturday, with 14 regions in total affected.
• In the Zaporizhia region of Ukraine, at least one person was killed and 30 others were hurt, and numerous homes were left without gas or electricity. Early on Saturday, Dnipro and Pavlohrad, two cities in the center of Dnipropetrovsk, were also attacked, igniting fires.
• The Ukrainian Air Force reported that the overnight attack had destroyed 510 of the 537 drones and 38 of the 45 missile launches by Russia.
• A 74-year-old man was killed in Kherson, Ukraine, according to officials who were present.
• Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian general staff, claimed that the Russian forces have the “strategic initiative” and are conducting a nonstop offensive on almost the entire front line in Ukraine.
• In a speech to his deputies, Gerasimov also claimed that Russian forces currently hold 79 percent of the Donetsk region, 74 percent of the Zaporizhia region, and 76 percent of the Kherson region, compared to the 99% that they did in the 1990s. He continued, claiming that about half of the area is under Russian control, with almost entirely blocking the city of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region.
• However, Viktor Trehubov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, claimed that Kyiv’s forces had achieved front-line victories, preventing Russian forces from attacking targets in the Donetsk region and halting further incursions into the Dnipropetrovsk region. He claimed that Russian units had been encircled in one area by Kyiv’s troops.
• The Ukrainian military also asserted that Russia had attacked the Krasnodar and Syzran oil refineries on Saturday, sparking fires at both facilities, according to Ukraine’s military.
• More than 17, 000 people in the Rylsk border town in the Kursk region were left without power, according to Russia’s TASS state news agency.
• According to Acting Governor Alexander Khinshtein, the acting governor of Kursk, 201 bodies have been discovered in the Russian region since January 1 following Ukraine’s invasion of the Russian region, and 590 people have still been missing.

• According to TASS, Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported that its forces shot down 233 Ukrainian drones, one guided bomb, and four missiles in a 24-hour period.

Politics and diplomacy

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, has been calling for a summit with Vladimir Putin, and he accused the Kremlin of using “the time meant for preparing a leaders’-level]peace meeting to organize new massive attacks” and demanded more international sanctions against Moscow and its supporters.
• According to a statement from New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Zelenskyy over the phone and reiterated his support for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine. He added that “India extends full support to all efforts” to bring about peace and stability.
• Kaja Kallas, the top diplomat to the European Union, stated that the group would look into using frozen Russian funds to pay for the post-war eradication of Ukraine. However, she said it is no longer politically feasible to confiscate the assets, which are now worth 210 billion euros ($245.85bn).
• Following the demand that the assets be seized and used to support Kyiv by some EU nations, including Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland, Kallas made his remarks. However, the idea has been refrained by EU heavyweights France and Germany, as well as Belgium, which owns the majority of the assets.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz blasted Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukraine, claiming that Moscow’s aggressive rhetoric toward the Ukrainian population was “resulted” by diplomatic efforts in recent weeks.
• At a press conference in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Merz stated, “This will also not stop until we ensure together that Russia can no longer continue this war, at least for economic reasons and perhaps also for military reasons.”
• Donald Trump, the president of the United States, outlined how his approach to Ukraine fits into his “America First” policy, stating that the US is “not spending any money on the war” in contrast to the “hundreds of billions of dollars” the US was previously spending.
• He added that the US currently sells equipment to NATO and that it won’t send ground troops to Ukraine. We don’t sell it to Ukraine, they say. It is sold to NATO. Trump claimed that they pay for the equipment.

Weapons

• Denys Shmyhal, the minister of defense for Ukraine, announced that the US State Department had approved the sale of Patriot air defense systems for Ukraine for an estimated $ 179.1 million as well as satellite communications services worth $ 150 million.