Ukraine updates: Ukrainian drones attack oil depot in Rostov

The Ukrainian armed forces have received anti-drone systems, construction vehicles, field beds and other military equipment from Lithuania, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Wednesday.

The precise value of the support package was not given, but Vilnius has been one of Ukraine's most ardent supporters since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, providing an estimated €650 million ($722.6m) in military aid.

Lithuania is also helping to fund a new military base at Rudninkai, south of Vilnius, which will house up to 5,000 combat-ready German troops as well as combat vehicles and other weapons.

"It's overwhelming to see how the infrastructure is developing," said German Lieutenant-General Harald Gante, visiting the site on Wednesday.

Germany already leads a 1,600-man NATO combat unit in Lithuania based at Rukla, near the city of Kaunas, around half of whom are German. The new German brigade is expected to be fully deployed to Rudninkai in 2027, but an advance party of 20 soldiers has already arrived on site.

"We're here to protect the freedom of Lithuania and of the West," said Gante, adding that the troops are pleased with the living conditions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described the military situation around the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk as "extremely difficult."

Russian forces have been slowly advancing toward the town in the eastern Donetsk region, seizing a number of small surrounding villages in recent days while Kyiv has encouraged residents to evacuate.

"Pokrovsk and other areas in the Donetsk region are extremely difficult: the key Russian efforts and the largest forces are concentrated there," Zelenskyy said in his daily evening television broadcast.

"The resilience of each of our units and our ability to destroy the occupier, are now very important," he insisted, thanking "every soldier, every commander who is holding their positions."

Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, the Ukrainian General Staff had said the frontline "is hottest in the Pokrovsk sector," reporting "fierce fighting" in the vicinity.

"So far, the enemy has made 38 attempts to storm Ukrainian positions," it said. "Combat is still ongoing in 14 locations."

President Zelenskyy said that Ukraine's own ongoing incursion into Russia's Kursk border region was partly aimed at relieving pressure on the Donetsk front.

"All the pressure we have transferred to Russia means that they cannot put any more pressure on our Donetsk region," he said, adding that Ukrainian troops in Kursk had continued to take Russian prisoners of war which Kyiv can use in exchange for its own soldiers held by Russia.

In response to sanctions imposed on Moscow by the United States, Russia has banned 92 US citizens from entering its territory.

Among those banned are US finance ministry officials, US Air Force officers and a number of journalists from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.

"In response to the Russophobic course pursued by the Biden Administration, 92 US citizens have been permanently banned from entering the Russian Federation," read a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

It added that those targeted by the sanctions represented "leading liberal-globalist publications involved in the production and dissemination of 'fakes' about Russia and the Russian armed  forces."

"We remind the US authorities that hostile actions are inevitably followed by punishment."

Last week, Washington sanctioned around 400 individuals and businesses in Russia, Belarus and other countries in connection with the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine — including around 60 firms from the technology and arms sectors whose "products and services support Russia's warmongering."

Ukrainian troops are intent on holding the Russian territory they have seized for "some time," CIA Deputy Director David Cohen told an intelligence conference.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will have to "deal with the reverberations in his own society" over the loss of Russian territory, Reuters quoted Cohen as saying.

Cohen also said he believes Putin will launch a counteroffensive, but expects it to be a difficult fight for the Russians.

On August 6, Ukraine launched a major cross-border incursion into Russia's Kursk region. Ukraine claims to have seized 100 settlements and more than 1,200 square kilometers, while Russian forces continue to advance in the eastern Donetsk region.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says the 2025 state budget will include record-high spending on defense. 

According to Tusk, some 186 billion zlotys ($48 billion or €43 billion) will be spent next year to bolster the country's defense, which borders war-torn Ukraine and where security concerns are high. 

"It is a great effort but there is no turning back from it," Tusk said at a news conference. 

He said the amount was a significant increase from defense spending in 2024, which already accounts for more than 4% of Poland's gross domestic product (GDP).

According to Deputy Minister of Defense Stanislaw Wziatek, Poland plans to spend 4.7% of its GDP on defense in 2025.

Poland has been increasing military spending since Russia's full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine's decision to let its contract with Gazprom to deliver Russian gas to Europe expire will seriously harm European consumers, the Kremlin said.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would not extend the transit agreement that allows Russian gas to reach Europe via Ukraine beyond December 31.

"Such a decision by Ukraine will seriously harm the interests of European consumers who still want to buy Russian gas," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "They will simply have to pay much more, which will make their industry less competitive."

Despite the ongoing conflict, Russia delivered more than 14 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe via Ukraine in 2023. EU members Austria, Hungary and Slovakia still receive Russian gas through this route.

The three countries continue to rely on Russian gas in spite of the EU's pledge to wean itself off the fuel by 2027 following Moscow's full-scale offensive in Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

Last month, Zelenskyy indicated that Ukraine was in talks with Azerbaijan, a major natural gas producer, to replace Russian gas transiting Ukraine. But since Ukraine does not share a border with Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani gas would still have to be piped through Russia.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has stressed that preparations for a $50 billion (€45 billion) loan to Ukraine are well advanced.

The G7 and EU had agreed that proceeds from frozen Russian assets in the West should be used to provide Ukraine with a loan of up to $50 billion to buy weapons. 

Speaking after a meeting with his British counterpart Keir Starmer, Scholz said the plans were moving forward "quickly and swiftly."

The chancellor had also spoken to the president of the European Commission about how large Europe's share should be. "Everyone there is very far advanced," he said, adding that the issue is being closely coordinated with the US government. 

"The same applies, of course, to the inclusion of all those who also want to contribute as part of our G7 decision: the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan," he said. 

Scholz said he would like to see other countries join. The technical requirements will be clarified "soon," he added.

Both Scholz and Starmer reiterated that they would continue to provide financial, political and military support to Ukraine for as long as it was necessary in its campaign to defend itself against Russia.

However, in response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's demand that Western states lift their restrictions on the use of supplied weapons against targets in Russia, Scholz said only that Germany's position had not changed.

The Kremlin has dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's talk of a plan to end the war, saying Russia will continue what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said Tuesday he would present his plan to US President Joe Biden and his two potential successors.

"This is not the first time that we have heard such statements from representatives of the Kyiv regime," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about Zelenskyy's plan. "We are continuing our special military operation and will achieve all our goals," he added.

Russia is currently engaged in repelling the Ukrainian incursion that began in the Kursk region on August 6 and is pressing ahead with its own offensive in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

NATO and Ukrainian officials will meet on Wednesday at Kyiv's request after heavy Russian strikes across the war-battered nation, according to a NATO spokesperson.

Russia fired a wave of attack drones and missiles into Ukraine on Monday and Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and crippling the country's already weakened power grid. 

The air attacks on Ukraine were some of the largest, with 15 Ukrainian regions targeted by a total of 236 missiles and drones, Kyiv said, of which it claimed to have shot down 201.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov is expected "to brief allies via video link on the battlefield situation and priority capability needs," a NATO spokesperson said.

Ukraine's critical need for better air defenses will be one of the main issues discussed during the meeting, a diplomatic source said.

Russian shelling of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region killed six people, the region's governor said, as Moscow announced it had seized another village in the area.

"In the morning, the Russians killed four people and destroyed a house in Izmailivka," regional official Vadym Filashkin said on social media. He added that two other people were killed in separate attacks near Chasiv Yar that damaged more than a dozen homes.

Russia's Defense Ministry said Russian forces had seized another settlement about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

Meanwhile, a Russian missile struck the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, local authorities said, as the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy observed an official day of mourning for an attack a day earlier that killed four civilians at a hotel. 

The latest attack on the city hit civilian infrastructure and wounded four people, local administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said on social media. 

Russia said it wanted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to take what Moscow called a "more objective and clearer" stance on nuclear safety on Wednesday. 

A day prior, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi visited Russia's Kursk plant and warned of a serious nuclear threat at the site. The plant had been damaged from a drone strike, he said without clarifying who was responsible.

"Pointing fingers is something that I, as director general of the IAEA, must take extremely seriously. But it is obvious that you cannot separate what we have seen here from the recent military activity that we have seen," he said.

Grossi said the structure did not have a containment dome that might have offered some protection in the event of a strike. 

The IAEA has urged both Moscow and Kyiv to keep fighting away from nuclear sites due to the risk of a catastrophe.

Russian authorities have accused Ukraine of the attack. Ukraine has not yet responded to this accusation.

"We see both the assessments and the work of this structure (the IAEA), but each time we want a more objective and clearer expression of the position of this structure," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a radio interview, as per Russian state news agency RIA. 

"Not in favor of our country, not in favor of confirming Moscow's position, but in favor of facts with one specific
goal: ensuring safety and preventing the development of a scenario along a catastrophic path, to which the Kyiv regime is pushing everyone," she added.

On August 6, Ukrainian forces attacked close to the Kursk region, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the plant. Russia is still trying to repel the strike.

An oil depot in Russia's Kamensky district in the Rostov region was attacked by a Ukrainian drone, local authorities said Wednesday.

The drone sparked a fire, setting ablaze several fuel tanks, according to reports. Videos shared on social media showed large tanks burning in the night.

"There are no casualties. Firefighters are extinguishing the fire," Rostov's governor, Vasily Golubev, said on the Telegram app. 

The attack was confirmed by the Baza Telegram channel, which is close to Russian security services. It said three tanks were burning at the Kamensky oil depot after two drones fell on the area.

Russia's Defense Ministry also said they destroyed four other drones over the region overnight.

Another oil depot at Rostov's Proletarsk district was attacked about 10 days ago. The tanks there are still on fire, Russian authorities said.

Authorities canceled flights at Kazan airport in the Tatarstan Republic during the early hours of Wednesday for safety reasons, Russia's state-owned TASS news agency reported. 

"To ensure safety of civil aircraft ... the airport temporarily does not receive or send flights from 7 a.m. Moscow time (0400 GMT)," TASS said citing Russia's aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia.

tg/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters, DPA)