War in Ukraine: latest news. Zelensky: ‘A plan to end the war. But Russia will mobilise 300,000 people after the elections’

According to Zelensky, the problem with Samp/T is the shortage of Aster 30 missiles. “In September, we will sign the relevant contracts for the production of further missiles. When the European funds arrive, we will be able to pay for these missiles.”

Furthermore, he expressed the hope that this year it will be possible to obtain licences from France for the production in Ukraine of three types of weapons. Regarding the delivery of Patriot missiles, Zelenskyy reported that he had reached an agreement with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for the delivery of 600 PAC-2 missiles by 2027–2028. “The PAC-2 also shoots down ballistic targets; we just need more missiles. We are negotiating separately with the Americans. The Americans will significantly ramp up production in the second half of 2027 and beyond. But unfortunately, this is the situation right now. Therefore, we are continuing to discuss the required quantities with them now – in fact, they do have the quantities available,” noted Zelensky.

He went on to report that the ‘Freyja’ anti-ballistic missile project has progressed from a positive response from leaders and a willingness to collaborate to the technical level. In particular, companies are beginning to take concrete steps in this direction. “We have great confidence in this programme,” he commented. “Another avenue is being pursued by Raytheon, and we are discussing the possibility of building a Ukrainian missile for the Patriot system . They are in favour of this idea. They have chosen a company capable of doing so: Firepoint.”

Meanwhile, the leaders of the eight Nordic and Baltic countries – Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden – have arrived in Kyiv to hold talks with Zelensky on strengthening the country’s air defences.

“Ukraine urgently needs to strengthen its air defence,” said the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. The NB8 summit is focusing in particular on the development of a European capability to counter ballistic missiles and the need to accelerate the production of interception systems and anti-drone technologies.

La prima ministra danese Mette Frederiksen (a sinistra) incontra il presidente ucraino Volodymyr Zelensky (a destra) al Palazzo Mariinskyi di Kiev, in Ucraina, il 23 agosto 2026.. EPA/MADS CLAUS RASMUSSEN DANIMARCA OUT

La prima ministra danese Mette Frederiksen cammina al fianco del primo ministro ucraino Sergii Koretskyi e del presidente del Parlamento Ruslan Stefanchuk, nel giorno della cerimonia per celebrare la Giornata della bandiera nazionale ucraina, a Kiev, Ucraina, il 23 agosto 2026. Reuters

The summit precedes the meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, scheduled for tomorrow, 24 August. The Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda and the Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal confirmed this morning that they would be arriving in the Ukrainian capital.

The issue of air defence has returned to the forefront following a new wave of Russian attacks. According to the bulletin released this morning by the Ukrainian Air Force, during the attack which began at 6.00 pm local time on Saturday, Moscow launched 127 drones , including Shaheds, some of which were jet-powered, Gerberas and decoy drones. Kyiv claims to have shot down or neutralised 97 of them. A further 27 drones struck 22 locations, whilst debris from downed drones fell on three others.

In Kharkiv, a Russian drone struck the Osnovianskyi district, causing fires and damage to homes. The latest bulletin from the regional administration reports that eight people, including a 15-year-old boy, suffered acute stress reactions.

Russian troops have attacked the locomotive of a passenger train on the Zhytomyr–Odesa route. This was announced by Oleksandr Pertsovsky, chairman of the board of directors of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia, on Facebook, as reported by Ukrinform. “In the Odessa region, an anti-tank rocket struck the locomotive of passenger train 147 Zhytomyr–Odesa. The monitoring team gave advance warning of the evacuation, and the train was brought to an emergency halt on the section of track in question,” he said. He added that there were a total of 593 passengers on the train, including 15 children.

Ukrainian attacks have also been reported in Russia. In the Orenburg region, according to Governor Yevgeny Solntsev, fragments of intercepted drones struck two industrial facilities, including an Ozon logistics centre. The company evacuated more than 300 people and suspended operations at the site; no injuries have been reported. The Russian Ministry of Defence claims to have shot down a total of 328 Ukrainian drones overnight, a figure that cannot be independently verified.

The Ukrainian army has struck a Russian Iskander launcher near the Ukrainian border. President Zelenskyy announced this during a press briefing, as reported by Ukrinform. “Today we have achieved another success,” he explained. “We cannot provide many details due to the sensitive nature of the operation, but the fact is that we have struck an Iskander launcher near our borders. I am grateful to our soldiers who are carrying out the operation. This is our operation to hunt down their systems located in the vicinity,” he said.

According to the president, destroying the launchers is a way of countering Russian bombardments: ‘This is one of the ways in which we have minimised the number of anti-ballistic missiles. There is another, more complex tactic that we have developed, which involves targeting their nearest launch sites, from where the ballistic missiles are fired. This is a separate matter, a separate programme, a separate operation. And today we have succeeded. Our Defence Forces are simply fantastic,’ added Zelensky.

Zelensky and his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb, who was visiting Kyiv, took part in a meeting of a working group on cooperation between the two countries in the defence industry. “Our companies have signed agreements concerning the development and production of drones in Finland to meet the needs of Ukraine and Europe, the development of capabilities in the field of autonomous maritime systems, and the establishment of a company to produce land-based robotic systems,” Zelensky announced in a message posted on Telegram. “We are taking a further step towards deepening our cooperation, by combining Ukrainian battlefield experience with Finnish technologies,” he added. The Ukrainian president thanked Stubb, the government, Finnish companies and the Finnish people for their support for Ukraine “from the very first days of this war”, on the eve of Ukraine’s Independence Day.

Russia will not tolerate the fact that the Ukrainian authorities have made neo-Nazism the basis of their state ideology. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, as quoted by TASS. “The current Ukrainian government has founded the state on neo-Nazi ideology. This is a terrible thing. We cannot and will not tolerate it. It is one of the reasons for the special military operation. This is a fight against neo-Nazism,” Putin told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin (on the programme Vesti). The Kremlin leader added that, for Moscow, it is also a matter of combating Russophobia and attempts to eradicate everything Russian, including culture and history.

Il presidente russo Vladimir Putin risponde alle domande del giornalista Pavel Zarubin (non presente nella foto) durante un’intervista al Cremlino di Mosca, in Russia, il 22 agosto 2026. EPA/MIKHAIL METZE / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL

The visit to Moscow by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been postponed. This was reported by the Tass news agency, citing a source. “It is unlikely that this visit will take place before the end of August,” the source said. “There are therefore reasons to postpone it.” Previously, another source had told Tass that Witkoff and Kushner might visit Kyiv and Moscow by the end of August. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated that Putin is ready to meet the US leader’s envoys again, but the question is what proposals they will bring.

Ukraine is winning the war and ‘if we give it what it needs, it can secure its sovereignty’. This was stated by former US Vice-President Mike Pence in an interview with CNN broadcast live from Kyiv. Pence said he was deeply impressed by the determination of the Ukrainian people in the wake of Russia’s latest attacks, which have highlighted Moscow’s ‘desperation’.

The Russian Embassy in London has confirmed that it no longer has an ambassador to the UK, following the return to Russia of the diplomat Andrei Kelin, but has denied that it has downgraded its relations with the United Kingdom. The clarification, provided by the embassy in a statement, comes after the Sunday Times reported that Moscow had ‘recalled’ Kelin in an attempt to ‘force Britain to reconsider its support for Ukraine’.

Moscow has not put forward any candidate to replace Kelin “and, apparently, embassy staff have no indication as to when a successor might be appointed”, the newspaper wrote. “Following the article in the Times on the conclusion of Andrei Kelin’s diplomatic mission as Russian ambassador to the United Kingdom, the embassy considers it necessary to clarify that nothing in the comment provided to the newspaper implies that the Russian side intends to downgrade diplomatic relations between our two countries,” reads a statement from the Russian embassy published on Telegram.

“As regards the state of relations between Russia and the United Kingdom across all sectors, these have deteriorated to an unprecedented level, entirely on London’s initiative”, he added. Kelin, who served as Russian ambassador to the UK for over seven years, stepped down from his post on 21 July, according to reports in the Times. “Downgrading diplomatic relations by recalling an ambassador is a formal way for a government to express strong disappointment or protest without completely severing ties,” the newspaper states. Incidentally, the British Foreign Office stated that this is “a matter for the Russian Foreign Ministry”. In a statement, the British Foreign Office said: “We have an ambassador and an embassy in Moscow to engage with and raise our concerns with the Russian government.” The statement also notes that ‘we continue to stand with Ukraine, which has the right to defend itself against Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion’.

Russia plans to mobilise ‘around 300,000 people’ following the Duma elections in September, but will do so ‘without affecting the country’s major cities’ (in particular ‘Moscow and St Petersburg’), in an attempt to minimise negative reactions from the public. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made this statement to journalists. “They are planning a sort of ‘peripheral mobilisation’,” said the president, as quoted by the Kyiv Independent , which attended the meeting. “But I don’t think they’ll manage to hide it.”

A Ukrainian flag over 30 metres long was unfurled in front of the European Parliament building in Brussels on Ukrainian National Flag Day. The event was organised by the Mission of Ukraine to the European Union and brought together European officials and Ukrainian diplomats ahead of Ukraine’s Independence Day, which falls tomorrow. Present at the ceremony, the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Nicolae Stefanuta, called for stronger and swifter support for Ukraine’s integration into the European Union (EU). Stefanuta stated that the EU should maintain the momentum in promoting Ukraine’s accession process, whilst deepening the country’s integration into the European single market. “Our Ukrainian friends, you are not alone; the European Parliament is always by your side,” said Stefanuta, emphasising the urgent need to provide Ukraine with additional air defence capabilities. This need has become “more urgent than ever”, he added, stating that “as winter approaches, Europe must do everything possible to protect the security and well-being of the Ukrainian people”.

There is renewed talk of the sabotage, which took place in 2022, of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which carried Russian gas to Europe, with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, reiterating that his country played no part in the incident. The German public prosecutor’s office concluded last month that the explosions on the pipeline had been carried out on the orders of the Ukrainian state, an accusation that could complicate relations between Kyiv and Germany, one of Ukraine’s main military supporters. “Ukraine has never officially taken part in any operation linked to the sabotage of Nord Stream,” Zelensky told the press, responding to a question about the investigation into the case.

The Ukrainian president, who has consistently denied any involvement on the part of his country, added that Germany is ‘fully aware that Ukraine was not behind either the execution or the planning of this operation». The leader in Kyiv also stated that his country is cooperating with Berlin in the investigations and expressed the hope that these would not damage relations between the two countries.