August 28, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

Moscow’s forces in the Kherson region lack artillery and ammunition support, according to several prominent Russian military bloggers.

Roman Saponkov, a Russian blogger who has over 70,000 subscribers, wrote Friday that troops in the Kherson region messaged him about their lack of artillery support.

Visioner’s Channel, another Russian blog, posted Sunday that Russia’s 205th brigade is facing “an alarming signal of crisis in the army and the country.” 

“The main problem of the Russian Ministry of Defense is well known,” the blog noted, referencing the lack of ammunition. 

“After the disaster with Prigozhin, there was confidence that now, at any rate, things would start to move forward and that changes would begin. But the third month has gone by, yet there is still nothing,” the blog noted, referencing the incident when late Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin slammed Russian officials over the lack of ammunition months before his death. 

Another Russian blog, Republic, discussed “the growing problems in the Russian army” in a telegram post on Monday. 

The Russian Ataman Fund, a charitable foundation that provides financial support for soldiers on the frontline, wrote in a Telegram post Sunday it hopes the supply problem in Kherson will be sorted out so the Russian service members “will be able to defend their homeland with everything they need.”  

“Otherwise, there will be trouble,” it added. 

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister claimed Monday that Kyiv’s forces have made further gains on the southern front, while heavy fighting is raging in the east.

Russian strikes killed at least two people in the central Poltava region and another person in Kherson, officials said Monday. Meanwhile, Russian air defenses destroyed drones near Moscow and over the Bryansk border region overnight, officials said.

Here are more of the latest headlines from the Russia-Ukraine war:

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov attends a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, August 28.

“Powerful players” are expected to arrive on Ukraine’s arms market, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a news conference on Monday, according to Ukrainian-state news agency Ukrinform.  

Ukraine plans to hold an industrial defense forum around the end of September or the beginning of October, he said. “The participation of about 50 powerful players of the arms market is planned,” he added. 

Reznikov said that Ukraine has “significantly increased the production of domestic weapons,” such as 155 mm artillery shells that have already passed tests. 

“The contract is being executed. The first orders are already in place, we will immediately transfer them (artillery shells) to the Armed Forces. And we plan to increase the number for their production,” he said. 

Reznikov noted that while the 125 mm artillery shells are still currently being tested, there are difficulties with producing 122 mm artillery shells. 

Ukraine has several missile and anti-missile programs and is discussing “how to use the funds more appropriately in this direction,” Reznikov said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky echoed Reznikov’s comments in his nightly address on Monday, noting that Ukraine is “maximizing production capacity” of domestic weapons. 

“Artillery made in Ukraine. Shells made in Ukraine. Drones, missiles, armored vehicles. We are maximizing production capacity. Ukraine can do it. Funding is available. Our defense industry will yield better results,” Zelensky said.  

One person is dead and seven others were injured by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region Monday, according to the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin. 

The person killed and two of the injured were in Horlivka, Pushilin said in a post to Telegram. They were “seriously wounded,” he said.

Another five were injured in districts of the city of Donetsk, with several critical infrastructure facilities sustaining damage, the Russian-backed official added. 

The head of the Russian-occupied DPR also claimed that cluster munitions were used. CNN cannot independently verify this claim. 

People rest at a Black Sea beach that was reopened after being closed down last year following sea mines laid around the ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv by Russia and Ukraine in Odesa, Ukraine, August 10, 2023.

In the southern city of Odesa, beachgoers have been enjoying some respite from the gloom of war. Kids on floaties, water fights and impromptu volleyball games are certainly a surprising scene in Ukraine.

The port city reopened several beaches this month for the first time since Russia’s invasion. 

Serhiy, a 59-year-old conscript based in Kherson, was lying on a sunbed alongside his wife Tetyana.  

Being at the beach “looks a little strange but you need some relaxing,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. He’ll be back on the frontline after his 15-day furlough and is adamant that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is going according to plan.

Another beachgoer, Olga, hopes her parents and 5-year-old daughter Solomiya can take her mind off the conflict for a little while – but she herself finds it difficult. 

Meanwhile, at the “Recovery” military rehab center about six miles away, wounded soldiers roam the hallways on their way to physiotherapy sessions and in and out of x-ray rooms. 

From his full body sling, 41-year-old Vitaly tells CNN he lost three toes after stepping on a mine eight months ago in Kherson. 

Yet soldier after soldier say they cannot wait to be back on the frontline. 

“I am surprised by the motivation of our guys to renew… to get back their functions, to get back to the war,” said Dr. Olena Tarakanova, who leads the rehab efforts at the center. “Their motivation motivates me too.”

CNN’s Mark Phillips and Olha Konovalova contributed reporting to this post.

The Russian Ministry of Defense says it deployed two fighter jets to intercept a United States Air Force MQ-9 “Reaper” and RQ-4 “Global Hawk” unmanned aerial vehicles near the Crimean peninsula.

The drones were detected by Russian forces that were monitoring equipment flying over the southwestern part of the Black Sea, the Russian defense ministry said on Telegram. 

Two Russian fighter jets were deployed to avert a “possible violation of the state border” and to “counter any radio-technical reconnaissance,” the defense ministry said.

“As a result of the actions of on-duty air defense forces, the United States Air Force reconnaissance UAVs changed their flight path and left the areas where air reconnaissance was being conducted,” the defense ministry said.

Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Garron Garn told CNN the US “will continue to fly routine missions over the Black Sea as permitted by international law to ensure freedom of navigation and maneuver in the region.”

People walk near a temporary accommodation centre for evacuees and relocatees, who left their permanent places of residence in the Zaporizhzhia region in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in the Azov Sea port of Berdyansk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, on May 10, 2023.

Ukrainian authorities have ordered a mandatory evacuation of children from two districts of the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region that are under persistent shelling by the Russians.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told Ukrainian television that the evacuation of children from the Vasylivskyi and Pologivskyi districts is now mandatory. Altogether more than 50 children are still thought to live in the districts.

There was also a compulsory evacuation of a community in the Kupiansk district of Kharkiv region, which has seen intense Russian bombardments in recent weeks.

And in Donetsk region, “89 children from 11 settlements are being evacuated, and today the process is underway,” Vereshchuk said.

A still from a video posted by the Department of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on Telegram. The post claims an explosion occurred at riot police headquarters in Enerhodar on August 28, 2023.

There was an explosion at a Russian base in the occupied city of Enerhodar, close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as a result of a resistance operation, according to Ukrainian Defense Intelligence.

Defense intelligence said on its Telegram channel that the explosion occurred Monday morning at the headquarters of Russia’s special riot police force, known as the OMON unit.

Akhmat-1 is a Chechen unit. Defense intelligence said that after the city was occupied, Chechen fighters had seized and converted a building on the site of a Ukrainian bank branch. 

It said the explosion “resulted in injuries to the occupiers’ personnel and cars parked in the courtyard. A fire broke out in the building. Fire crews and ambulances arrived at the scene. Information on the number of killed and wounded Kadyrovites is currently being clarified.”

Ukrainian Defense Intelligence also posted video of the explosion that showed a drone flying towards the front entrance of the building, which CNN has geolocated as in Enerhodar. There were no civilian casualties or injuries, defense intelligence said.

A Russian-appointed official in occupied Zaporizhzhia acknowledged that the military-civilian administration building in Enerhodar was hit by a drone Monday. However, the official disputed Ukraine’s claim that personnel casualties occurred as a result of the bombing.

Vladimir Rogov said that “preliminarily, there are no dead or injured. Employees of the administration have already been evacuated.”

Emergency services are working on the spot, Rogov said on Telegram.

More background: Ukrainian Defense intelligence has previously claimed sabotage attacks earlier this month in Enerhodar. It said there had been an explosion at a meeting of the chiefs of the occupation police on August 18, and last week another at the local headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).  

Ukrainian soldiers fire a mortar towards Russian positions near Bakhmut on August 12.

A Ukrainian commander in the Bakhmut area has said it is critical to prevent the Russians from establishing proper defenses in the area.

Maksym Zhorin, deputy commander of the 3rd Assault Brigade, said on his Telegram channel that “one of the most important tasks in the Bakhmut sector is to keep up the momentum of advance in order to prevent the enemy from taking measures to create its own defense system. The kind of efforts the enemy has already made, for example, in the Zaporizhzhia sector,” where Ukrainian forces are struggling to break down layers of Russian fortifications and minefields.

“It will be a significant problem if we provide the enemy with time and opportunity to dig in and plant mines,” he added.

Ukrainian forces have made slight progress to the south and north-west of Bakhmut in recent weeks, but are yet to threaten Russian supply lines into the ruined city. 

More on Bakhmut: On Sunday, Ukrainian officials said its military is still on the offensive in the Bakhmut direction, and continues to advance “meter by meter,” Illya Yevlash, head of the press service of the Eastern Military Grouping said. Over the past day, Russian forces shelled Ukrainian positions 590 times, using multiple rocket launchers and cannon artillery of various calibers, he said. 

A total of 14 combat engagements took place on Saturday, Yevlash said. “The enemy is resorting to counterattacks, trying in vain to regain lost ground.”

“Enemy tactics remain virtually unchanged” in the Bakhmut area, he said. “First come the assault units, consisting of convicts who try to storm the positions, sometimes even without the cover of heavy equipment; followed by regular army soldiers, who are taken better care of by the Russian army.”

CNN’s Yulia Kesaieva and Radina Gigova contributed to the reporting in this post.

Poland's Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński speaks to reporters in Warsaw on Monday.

Poland and the Baltic states have pledged to shut their borders with Belarus if a “critical incident” occurs, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński said Monday.

“This situation is escalating. For many weeks, for several months, we have been dealing with the return of migratory pressure on our border. The same applies to the borders of our partners,” Kamiński told a news conference in Warsaw after a meeting with his Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian counterparts.

The stationing of “several thousand mercenaries” from the Wagner Group in Belarus has added a “new element” to the situation along the border, Kamiński added.

Russian investigators have confirmed that Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was among the 10 people killed when their plane crashed near Moscow on Wednesday, after carrying out genetic tests.

Prigozhin turned the Wagner Group from a shadowy band of mercenaries into a feared military powerhouse operating across multiple countries on three continents. Now that he is gone, the future of the group is uncertain.

Earlier in August, Poland announced its plans to move roughly 10,000 troops to its eastern flank amid heightened fears about the growing presence of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus.

Kamiński stressed that two things are needed “stabilize the situation on our border with Belarus.”

He called firstly on the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko to order Wagner troops to “immediately leave” Belarus and ensure that the migrants that have been gathering along the Belarusian border are returned to their countries of origin.

Poland’s Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki has previously warned that Wagner fighters stationed in Belarus could disguise themselves as migrants in an attempt to cross the border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he hopes that Ukraine will get security guarantees from the US that are similar to those enjoyed by Israel.

In an interview with Ukrainian media, Zelensky said that security guarantees include both a shield and a sword.

Such guarantees would come through the process of Ukraine’s accession to NATO, he said, but would be reinforced through a bilateral agreement with the United States.

Such an agreement would not depend on who was in the White House, Zelensky said, since it would be approved by Congress.

Some background: The US and Israel have signed multiple security agreements since the founding of the state of Israel, and the US guarantees what is called a Qualitative Military Edge to Israel compared to other forces in the region.

Ukraine has been under martial law for more than 18 months. The decree – passed by the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenksy on the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion last February – dictates whole swathes of life in Ukraine, from who can leave the country, to when and how elections can be held.

Under the current state of martial law in Ukraine, elections have not been deemed possible. But Zelensky suggested Monday that Ukraine may hold a presidential ballot next year as scheduled – but stressed that the country would need support for such a complex undertaking during wartime.

Here are the latest developments:

Soldiers line up during celebrations for Ukrainian Independence Day in Kyiv on August 24.

Even as Ukrainian units have breached the first line of Russian defenses on part of the southern front, soldiers have been describing just how difficult it is to make more than incremental gains in the face of complex and multi-layered fortifications.

Ukrainian forces say they have taken one village – Robotyne – in Zaporizhzhia region, and are moving towards several others in a bid to bring the strategic hub of Tokmak within range of artillery.

One soldier, a communications specialist named Oleksandr Solonko, has written in detail about the challenges of making progress in the area, with his account supported by others.

The lay of the land: First, he said, the topography of the region has left many Ukrainian troops exposed.

“Whoever you are, an assault group … an evac[uation mission], an airborne or ground reconnaissance, your movement is visible from afar. The enemy has been preparing to meet you for a long time,” he said.

On Friday, a Ukrainian officer with a front line unit also told CNN that the open terrain was a challenge, with drones from both sides overhead.

The officer added that, unlike in Bakhmut, there were no basements in which to shelter.

Trenches and minefields: Solonko also said that Russian fortifications were elaborate. “There is an entire system of trenches, dugouts, actual tunnels in some places … Automatic grenade launchers, machine guns, anti-tank missile systems. Anti-tank ditches and minefields stretch across the fields.”

Multiple accounts in recent weeks speak of Ukrainian sappers - soldiers tasked with clearing minefields - making slow progress, with some of the weapons set off by tripwires that were intensively laid as a first line of defense by the Russians.

“Our positions on the retaken territory are surrounded by mines and tripwires. Paths are being made to enter, sappers are gradually clearing the territory.”

Air power: Solonko also acknowledged the loss of Ukrainian armor in the region “because of the enemy’s superiority in the air.” 

The Russians are extensively using drones for surveillance and targeting Ukrainian positions, according to Solonko. “They identify targets and launch Lancets in swarms as well as guided bombs.”

But he says that US-donated vehicles are saving lives, with one soldier he’d spoken to revealing he’d survived a direct attack twice in Bradley (fighting vehicles).

Defenses run deep: Analysts have said there are deeply entrenched defenses further ahead. OSINT analyst Emil Kastehelmi notes that “the Russians have built 100-350m long communication trenches, which helps them both reinforce or retreat from the fighting positions.”

“Heavy fortifications are built in order to block any potential advance on the main road towards Tokmak,” Kastehelmi wrote Sunday in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The Institute for the Study of War commented in its latest front line assessment that “Ukrainian forces are now within striking distance of the next series of Russian defensive positions, which appears to be comprised of a relatively more contiguous array of anti-tank ditches and dragon’s teeth anti-tank obstacles, with Russian fighting positions behind these obstacles similar to the previous layer of Russian defenses.”

ISW added: “The highly interconnected systems of trenches and dugouts that the Ukrainian soldier described is the result of months of Russian preparation. It is unclear if Russian forces extended that system throughout subsequent series of defensive positions further south.”

Maia Sandu speaks with CNN on Sunday.

Moldova’s President Maia Sandu has told CNN that “Ukraine needs to get more support… and everybody should understand that if Ukraine is not helped, then Russia will not stop in Ukraine or Moldova.”

In an exclusive interview in Chisinau with CNN’s chief international anchor, the president added that she hoped “more support will be coming soon, so that Ukraine could recover its territories and we will see an end to this crazy war.”

Amanpour spoke with President Sandu on Sunday as Moldova marked its 32nd independence day. The country borders Ukraine and has experienced serious tensions with Russia, in particular over the eastern pro-Russian breakaway territory of Transnistria, where Russian troops are stationed.

In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin revoked a 2012 foreign policy decree that in part recognized Moldova’s independence, according to Reuters.

Sandu told Amanpour that in Transnistria “there is a regime which is supported by Russia.”

Tensions have been further heightened since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Moldova, and of Moldovans from Russia.

Moldova is not currently a member of the European Union, but applied for membership shortly after Russia launched its invasion, and was then granted candidate status in June 2022.

President Sandu noted that “it’s a long process” and acknowledged “we still have corrupt judges and corrupt prosecutors who do not want our reforms to succeed,” but she emphasized that “Moldova’s democracy will be preserved when Moldova becomes [an] EU member state.”

When asked about the death of Yevgeniy Prigozhin, Sandu noted that “this just reconfirms the risks which come from Russia, a country which does not have justice… Unfortunately this does not limit to Russia’s borders. Unfortunately this is the way Russia acts with respect to its neighbors.”

Watch the full interview on Amanpour on Monday, 1 p.m. ET.

Two Ukrainian drones were intercepted over Russian-occupied Crimea on Monday, according to Russia’s defense ministry.

Community channels on Telegram monitoring the area of Yevtaporia on Crimea’s west coast described an air defense missile being launched and exploding in the sky.

The west coast of Crimea has seen an uptick in Ukrainian attacks this month, with drones being supplemented by special forces landings, aimed at degrading Russian air defenses and hitting other Russian military facilities.

Kyiv has said its goal of driving Russia out of Ukraine includes reclaiming Crimea, which was annexed by Russian forces in 2014.

“We have no funding restrictions,” Russia’s President Vladimir Putin told a gathering of military top brass in December. “The country, the government will provide whatever the army asks for.” Eighteen months into his war in Ukraine, Putin seems to be keeping that promise.

But he’s doing it increasingly at the expense of another, unspoken, compact with the Russian people: To maintain economic stability at home.

A few weeks before that December meeting, Putin had signed into law a budget that earmarked 4.98 trillion rubles — $52 billion at the current exchange rate — for “national defense” in 2023, a little more than last year’s expenditure. But according to a government document seen by Reuters earlier this month, that forecast has now been doubled to 9.7 trillion rubles ($101 billion). That’s almost three times what Russia spent on defense in 2021, before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February.

Those figures are likely to underestimate the total spent on Russia’s war effort. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks military expenditure around the world, estimates that the “national defense” line in Russia’s official budgets accounts only for around three-quarters of total military spending.

Richard Connolly, a specialist on the Russian economy at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, also suggests that military spending this year will far exceed $100 billion. He said that before the war Russia would typically splash around 3-4% of its annual gross domestic product on defense but now it could be anywhere between 8% and 10%.

If the price of goods and services in Russia is taken into account, the equivalent amount in dollar terms for 2023 looks even higher, probably closer to $300 billion, estimates Janis Kluge, a senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

Read the full story from CNN Business here.

Russian paratroopers board a plane as they take part in ZAPAD 2021 in Kaliningrad region, Russia, last September.

The UK’s Ministry of Defense suggested it is “highly likely” that Russia canceled a major joint strategic military exercise “because too few troops and equipment are available.”

ZAPAD, a joint military exercise between the armed forces of Russia and Belarus, was due to be held in September, the ministry said in an intelligence update Monday.

ZAPAD, Russian for “West,” is a major annual event in Moscow’s military calendar. Since 2010, Russia has run a four-year cycle, rotating the JSEs [joint strategic exercises] around four of its military regions. 

However, since 2021, Russia has held the JSE in the west of the country every second year, “as it prioritizes confronting what it perceives as the threat from NATO,” according to the British defense ministry.

ZAPAD 2021, the largest Russian military exercise since the Soviet era, was held along Russia and Belarus’ western flanks, much to the alarm of Ukraine and some NATO countries.

That exercise involved 200,000 military personnel, more than 80 aircraft and helicopters and 15 ships, the RUSI report said, adding that “Zapad 2021 was Russia’s first preparation for operations on a scale comparable to those undertaken in Ukraine a year later.”

But the British intelligence update on Monday suggested that this year’s event might have been canceled for several reasons.

This is not the first military event that Russia has scaled back since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin led a more modest Victory Day parade than usual in Moscow on May 9, featuring just a single World War II-era T-34 tank. In previous years, dozens of tanks had been involved in the procession.

The British defense ministry suggested there may be some doubts among Russia’s leaders about staging flashy military exercises while its invasion of Ukraine drags on.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says it may be possible to hold elections in Ukraine next year as scheduled, but the country would need financial support for such a complex undertaking during wartime.

In an interview with local media, Zelensky noted that the United States had held an election during the Second World War.

Under the current state of martial law in Ukraine, elections are not possible. But Zelensky said: “If our members of parliament are ready, because we need to change the Electoral Code, we should do it quickly.”

Zelensky said he would not take money earmarked for weapons to spend on holding elections and hoped that the US and Europe would provide financial support.

Among the challenges listed by the Ukrainian president, he said: “We must bring observers to the frontline so that we can have a legitimate election that is legitimate for the whole world.”

There would also be the issue of ensuring the millions of Ukrainians elsewhere in Europe could vote.

Zelensky stressed that every Ukrainian must be afforded the opportunity to vote. “We need it to be a choice of society, so that it does not divide our people, so that the military can vote. They are defending democracy today, and it is not fair not to give them this opportunity because of the war. This is the only reason I was against the elections,” he said.

“I would not want the authorities to be perceived as the ones who are holding on (to power). I am not holding on to anything. I would like to hold elections. I like doing it within a year.”

Ukrainian troops ride a tank near the village of Robotyne.

Ukrainian forces appear to be making further advances along the southern frontline, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Monday.

Maliar told national television troops were moving southeast of the liberated village of Robotyne toward the settlements of Novodanylivka, Novoprokopivka and Ocheretuvate in the Zaporizhzhia region.

In the east: “Heavy fighting” continues, in particular around Kupiansk, Lyman, Avdiivka, Mariinka and the embattled city of Bakhmut, Maliar said. 

Ukrainian forces have liberated an additional 1 square kilometer around Bakhmut, bringing the total area recaptured near the city to 44 square kilometers, she added.

Maliar also said fighting continues in the village of Klishchiivka and Ukrainian forces are advancing in the area of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, northwest of Bakhmut. 

Elsewhere in the Donetsk region, Maliar said fierce fighting and a “powerful confrontation” continues in Avdiivka and Mariinka, adding, “the enemy is not successful.”

In northeastern Kupiansk and nearby Lyman, “Russians are gathering new forces … regrouping, trying to use their most professional units — the air assault units,” Maliar said, adding, “they have not been successful.”