War in Ukraine: Putin vows retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on e-commerce warehouses. Macron: ‘We will send new interceptor missiles’

The Ministry of Defence has clarified that at 04:24 the drone left Moldovan airspace and crossed back over the state border towards Ukraine, near the same town. “The unauthorised overflight took place following Russian air strikes against Ukraine last night,” the department emphasised.

Last night , several drones exploded near the Myrne-Tabaki checkpoint in Ukraine, on the border between Moldova and Ukraine . The drones crashed on Ukrainian territory, damaging the Tabaki border crossing. Operations at the checkpoint have been suspended. According to initial reports, there were no injuries. Moldovan media report that on 20 August, the Ministry of the Interior reported three incidents involving drones: a Shahed-136 (Geran-2) had entered Moldovan airspace from the Reni district in Ukraine, heading towards the village of Etulia in Gagauzia, at 3.16 am. By 3.22 am, the drone had already left Moldovan airspace, heading towards Ukraine. Subsequently, during the Russian attack on Ukraine, an explosion occurred at a lorry rest area in Ukraine, approximately 150 metres from the Giurgiulesti-Reni border crossing: a forest fire had broken out and spread into Moldova. The Giurgiulesti border police eventually discovered a crater containing the remains of a drone, approximately one kilometre from the border on Moldovan territory.

The attack on Kyiv began shortly before midnight Italian time: at 23:57 on 21 August, the Ukrainian Air Force reported a threat from ballistic missiles, and a few minutes later several explosions were heard in the capital.

A Ukrzaliznytsia railway facility in the Darnytsia district has been hit. According to the chairman of the railway company Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, a foreman was killed in the attack, whilst the other workers were evacuated after the initial strike. Rozdilna railway station, in the Odessa region, was also hit, but the damage did not disrupt train services.

Overnight, a Russian drone also struck Kushuhum, in the Zaporizhzhia region. The regional governor Ivan Fedorov reported that one man had been killed and four people injured.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the Russian attack on a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih has risen to 16, with 130 injured, including 23 children,. Of those injured, 29 are in a serious condition, including five children. Nine people are also reported missing, including two children. Reuters confirms 16 dead and over 130 injured, but in its latest report it still cites 22 children among the injured; the subsequent update from the Ukrainian regional authorities brings the number to 23.

At least three people, including a teenager, have died and a further 13 have been injured in Ukrainian drone attacks in the Donetsk region. This was reported by the pro-Russian governor, Denis Pushilin. “Three people have died, including a teenager, and a further 13 civilians have been injured today in the republic as a result of drone attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the explosion of a drone,” said Pushilin, adding that residential buildings, civilian infrastructure and several vehicles, including a minibus carrying passengers, had also been damaged.

According to Pushilin, the attacks targeted Donetsk, Horlivka, Torez, Yenakiyeve, Debaltseve, Dokuchayevsk and Khartsyzsk . The news comes just a few hours after a Russian attack on a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which, according to the Ukrainian authorities, left 15 people dead and 130 injured.

“I had a telephone conversation with the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres. I informed him of the ongoing Russian attacks and the numerous civilian casualties. The United Nations Secretary-General condemned these massive Russian attacks on Kyiv and our other towns and communities.”

This was reported on X by the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “We discussed the threats that Russian attacks pose to food security, as well as Russia’s ongoing attacks on port infrastructure and ships. The effects are already being felt in many countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and prices have begun to rise. But despite the Russian side rejecting any proposal to sit down at the negotiating table, we must do everything possible to bring this war to an end. We agreed that the search for solutions will continue and that the United Nations will contribute to this joint effort,” he concluded.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Moscow today to take part in the second phase of the 23rd congress of United Russia, the ruling party. The focus of the proceedings is the approval of a new political programme, intended to set out the party’s course of action for the next five years. In his speech, however, Putin focused his attention primarily onelections to renew the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament.

The President has set the election date for 20 September, with polling taking place over three days, from 18 to 20 September. Putin described the election as being of great importance for domestic politics and argued that the result should demonstrate the strength of the Russian system in the face of external pressures.

He went on to express his conviction that the elections will confirm ‘the resilience of the state’ and ‘the maturity’ of the political system , as well as Russia’s ability to respond to what he described as external threats, blackmail and aggression. According to Putin, the vote will also be an expression of the will of millions of citizens and their intention to defend the country’s sovereignty and security.

The war in Ukraine was also raised again in the speech, which the Kremlin leader continued to describe as a ‘special military operation’. He claimed that, as the Ukrainian forces face increasing difficulties on the front line, Kyiv is resorting to increasingly ‘brutal and barbaric’ attacks. He then accused the Ukrainian government of carrying out ‘terrorist attacks’ and claimed that these actions, in his view, demonstrated the ‘neo-Nazi and Russophobic’ nature of the adversary. This is the usual term used by Moscow to describe the Ukrainian authorities.

Putin finally praised United Russia and its role in the country’s political system. According to the president, the party has never made ‘empty’ or purely rhetorical promises, and it is precisely for this reason that it has become the leading political force capable of consolidating society and contributing to the national agenda. United Russia, he added, is responsible for implementing every point of its programme and achieving the objectives it has set.

Attempts at cyber-attacks during the State Duma elections have already begun and are likely to increase. This was stated by the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. “They are already beginning and will increase, as they have no prospect of success,” he said on the sidelines of the 23rd Congress of the United Russia party.

Russia has information on plans to influence elections from abroad through cyber-attacks, Lavrov added. “Information on who is attempting to carry out certain plans and in which countries is provided promptly by both the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Federal Security Service. I can assure you that these plans will be nipped in the bud,” said the Russian Foreign Minister.

He also added: “Russia will not go to the West to negotiate, despite its hopes. There is simply no one to negotiate with in today’s Europe’. And further: ‘Western countries have declared war on Russia via Kyiv’.

The German government estimates that nearly 12 billion euros will be needed to build a new arsenal of long-range weapons designed to deter Russia. This is reported by Politico, following a review of internal Defence Ministry documents. These weapons – the report states – would enable the German armed forces to strike targets located hundreds or even thousands of kilometres behind the front line, including, potentially, command centres, airports, missile launchers and supply depots.

Internal documents describe this initiative as a top priority for both Germany and NATO, at a time when European countries are rearming to counter what they regard as a growing threat from Russia. According to the documents, Politico reports, the aim is to enable strikes ‘deep into an adversary’s rear and to maintain the capability to respond with conventional weapons below the nuclear threshold’.

The plan is divided into four parts: the first weapons are expected to be ready as early as next year, whilst the more advanced systems, developed in collaboration with the United Kingdom, are scheduled for the middle of the next decade. According to the key points discussed internally within the ministry, regarding the strengthening of the armed forces it is estimated that ‘almost 12 billion euros’ in budgetary funds. The Defence Ministry in Berlin has not confirmed this, and points out that any such initiative would in any case require the approval of the Bundestag.

Emmanuel Macron expressed to Volodymyr Zelensky his “horror” and his “dismay” following recent Russian attacks that struck a shopping centre, announcing the deployment of new ‘interceptor’ missiles to ‘provide Ukraine with all the means necessary to defend its airspace’. “It is essential that all countries with such resources also join this support effort”, the French President emphasised on X – having held talks today with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky – at a time when Ukraine is facing a shortage of interceptors in the face of the barrage of Russian ballistic missiles launched against the country on a daily basis.

Against this backdrop, the coalition of volunteers for Ukraine, which brings together the countries supporting Kyiv, will meet on Monday at midday; the meeting will be co-chaired by Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and, for the first time, the new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

The Russian armed forces will soon launch retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian logistics. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with the news agency Vesti. “Do you want to disrupt our logistics? Well, then retaliatory measures will not be long in coming,” Putin said in the interview, after Kyiv struck the warehouses of the Russian e-commerce firms Wildberries and Ozon.