Ukraine updates: Russia targeted in major drone attack

The United Nations has said Ukrainian soldiers are routinely subjected to torture in Russian captivity. DW spoke with a former prisoner of war, recently released in a prisoner swap, about his ordeal.

Ukraine has boosted its production of weapons this year compared with 2023 as Ukraine continues fending off invading Russian troops. 

While the country is heavily reliant on military support from its allies, it has also been developing its own arms industry to become less dependent. 

"In the first eight months of 2024, we have doubled our weapons production compared to 2023," said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal. "We are making progress. Drone production continues to grow."

Shmygal said Ukraine planned to build more than a million drones by the end of the year.

As part of its efforts, the Ukrainian military has successfully tested a domestically-produced ballistic missile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month.

Zelenskyy also said that his forces had for the first time deployed a Ukrainian-made long-range "rocket drone" called Palianytsia in combat.

Although it is developing its own production, Ukraine is still lobbying for sustained aid from allies, including at the Ramstein meeting with key allies in Germany last week. 

 Zelenskyy called for quick delivery of the aid promised during the meeting in his daily address on Monday.

"The course of the war directly depends on the quality of logistics in supply and the fulfillment of all promises by partners," Zelenskyy said. 

Russia's Defense Ministry says its troops have captured the town of Krasnogorivka in eastern Ukraine — as well as three villages in different areas of the Donetsk region. 

The ministry said Moscow's forces had "liberated" the town and the villages of Grygorivka, Galytsynivka, and Vodiane. 

The statement used the Russian names for all four settlements.

Krasnogorivka, which had a pre-conflict population of 16,000, is in an area where the front line has remained relatively unchanged for weeks.
The town is some 20 kilometers (32 miles) west of Russian-held Donetsk and had been a key stronghold for Kyiv.

The Ukrainian Energy Ministry says Russian forces have attacked energy infrastructure in eight Ukrainian regions in the past 24 hours.

The ministry said the attacks had disrupted high-voltage lines and power substations.

Ukraine's air force shot down 38 out of 46 Russia-launched drones during an overnight attack across 13 regions, according to a statement. Russia also used two missiles in its attack, it said.

Regional governor Ihor Taburets said the attack injured two people and damaged buildings in the city of Cherkasy. 

In the same region, the strike damaged an infrastructure facility and caused a fire which had since been put out, Taburets said.

Kyiv's regional governor Ruslan Kravchenko said the attack also damaged a building and caused a fire in an open area near the capital after air defenses engaged aerial targets. 

Authorities in Kyiv reported no damage or casualties in the city itself.

Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu says Ukraine's cross-border attack on Russia's Kursk region last month has failed to distract Moscow's forces from their objectives in the eastern Donbas region. 

Shoigu claimed that Ukraine was losing up to 2,000 servicemen per day, and that Russian forces were increasing the pace of their offensive.

"They are losing up to 2,000 killed and wounded every day. In total, if we talk about 8 days in September and August, almost 1,000 square kilometers of territory have been liberated. The pace is increasing," Shoigu said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

Moscow's forces have ground ahead through the Donetsk region in recent weeks, in the direction of Pokrovsk, a strategic logistics hub for Ukraine.

Russian officials say more than 140 Ukrainian drones targeted regions in Russia, including Moscow, in one of the largest such attacks by Kyiv of the war.

Drones hit two multistory residential buildings and started fires in the town of Ramenskoye just outside the capital, Moscow's regional governor  Andrei Vorobyov said. 

Vorobyov said a 46-year-old woman was killed and that three more people had sustained injuries.

Five residential buildings near the damaged ones were evacuated as emergency services dealt with drone debris.

Authorities temporarily shut down three airports outside Moscow — Vnukovo, Domodedovo, and Zhukovsky.

Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia said dozens of flights were diverted to other airports.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said drone debris fell on a private house on the outskirts of the city, but no one was hurt. 

Overall, Russia's Defense Ministry said it "intercepted and destroyed" 144 Ukrainian drones over nine Russian regions. 

They included those on the border with Ukraine and those deeper inside Russia.
In Bryansk, regional Governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said "the enemy carried out a massive terrorist attack."

He added that "there were no casualties or damage, all attacks were repelled."

It is the second such massive Ukrainian drone attack on Russia this month.

The Russian military on September 1 said it had intercepted 158 Ukrainian drones in more than a dozen Russian regions. At the time, Russian media described it as the biggest Ukrainian drone barrage since the start of the war.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia would work with international organizations after the strikes, the RIA news agency cited her as saying. Zakharova described the drone strikes as "an illegal terrorist action."

rc/kb (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)