Ukraine: US envoys in Kyiv: ‘A very significant discussion’

The fighting, however, continues. Ukrainian attack drones are reported to have struck the Russian oil refinery in Ryazan – a town some 150 kilometres south-east of Moscow – during the night, causing a fire, as well as “other Russian cities”, according to the Kyiv Independent, which cites sources including the Telegram channel Exilenva Plus – an independent Ukrainian military monitoring and news outlet – though it does not specify which other cities were hit. The source also reports intense Russian air defences in the Rostov region, on the border with Ukraine.

The Ryazan oil refinery, where images show a major fire has broken out with a column of black smoke, has regularly been targeted by Ukrainian drones, RBC-Ukraine reports. Most recently, at the end of last July, the Ukrainian armed forces struck the facility, causing fires at the refinery and also at a Wildberries distribution centre, also in Ryazan. The regional governor confirmed that fires were burning in industrial areas. The Ryazan plant, south-east of Moscow, writes RBC, is one of the largest in Russia and boasts an annual processing capacity of around 17 million tonnes of crude oil. The plant produces motor petrol, diesel, aviation fuel and other petroleum products, including for the Russian armed forces.

The attacks come as Ukraine and Russia have agreed not to target each other’s capitals, coinciding with a visit by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to the two cities for peace talks. Nor has Russia halted its attacks on Ukraine outside Kyiv, where air strikes across the country yesterday left at least three people dead and more than twenty injured.

During the night of 5–6 September, Ukrainian air defence forces neutralised 88 out of a total of at least 108 launched by the Russians, as well as several Banderol S-8000 cruise missiles fired into Ukrainian territory, reports Ukrinform, citing the Ukrainian Air Force’s Telegram channel. The projectiles reportedly struck at least 11 Ukrainian locations, whilst debris from downed drones fell in seven locations. The drones launched, according to Ukrinform, were of the Shahed type, including the jet-powered version, and Geran-2 decoy drones.

One of the military objectives set by Zelensky, on which the Ukrainian authorities are working, is to be able to launch ‘a thousand drones a night’ for raids on targets in Russia, compared with the current rate of around 300: as explained by Serhii Beskrestnov, defence technology adviser to the leader in Kyiv, in comments reported by The Guardian. A man has died and a woman has been seriously injured in Russia after a Ukrainian drone struck a vehicle. This was reported by local authorities in the Russian border region of Belgorod.

Over the past 24 hours, the Russians have carried out 886 attacks of various kinds against 54 settlements in the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia, where at least one person was killed and a further 25 were injured. This was reported by the governor of the Zaporizhzhia oblast, Ivan Fedorov, as quoted by Ukrinform. The attacks, wrote Fedorov, who provided a list of the affected localities, totalled 886 over a 24-hour period and were carried out by aircraft, drones and artillery.

Germany’s accusations against Russia over the drones at Leipzig Airport and Berlin’s diplomatic retaliation represent “the start of a real war”, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “They found a drone. They said it was a Russian drone, but nobody bothered to investigate. This is, in essence, the start of a real war,” Lavrov said in an interview with the state television agency, as reported by Interfax.