Ukraine latest: Russian attacks kill school workers, destroy grain, Ukraine says

The war in Ukraine, which broke out in February 2022 with Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, shows no sign of ending as both sides intensify attacks to gain control of contested regions.

Read our latest updates here. For all our coverage, visit our Ukraine war page.

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Note: Nikkei Asia decided in March 2022 to suspend its reporting from Russia until further information becomes available regarding the scope of the revised criminal code. Entries include material from wire services and other sources.

Here are the latest developments:

Wednesday, Aug. 23 (Tokyo time)

10:01 p.m. Four educational workers are killed and four passersby are hurt in a Russian attack on a school in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Romny on Wednesday, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko says.

The regional military administration says a drone fired by Russia hit the school at 10:05 a.m. (0705 GMT).

9:08 p.m. Russian drones strike Ukrainian grain facilities at the Danube River port of Izmail overnight, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov says, destroying 13,000 tonnes of grain.

“This night alone, the export capacity of the port of Izmail was reduced by 15%,” Kubrakov says. “Russia is systematically hitting grain silos and warehouses to stop agricultural exports.”

He says 270,000 tonnes of grain have been destroyed in attacks since Russia quit a U.N.-brokered deal last month that had let Kyiv ship its grain via the Black Sea. The Danube River has become Ukraine’s main route for exporting grain since the collapse of the deal, which was meant to help tackle a global food crisis, and Izmail is Ukraine’s main inland port across the Danube from Romania.

3:30 p.m. Russia has appointed an acting head of its aerospace forces to replace Gen. Sergei Surovikin, who vanished after the Wagner mercenary mutiny in June, the state RIA news agency reports. During the June revolt, Surovikin, who once commanded Russia’s overall war effort in Ukraine, appeared in a video, looking uncomfortable and without insignia, urging Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to stand down. Unconfirmed Russian and foreign news reports have said Surovikin was being investigated for possible complicity in the revolt and was being held under house arrest. “Surovikin has now been relieved of his post, while Colonel-General Viktor Afzalov, head of the Main Staff of the Air Force, is temporarily acting as commander in chief of the Air Force,” an unnamed source told RIA.

11:30 a.m. The United States does not encourage or enable attacks inside Russia, a U.S. State Department spokesperson says after Russian authorities said they had downed drones that tried to attack Moscow early on Wednesday. It is up to Ukraine to decide how it chooses to defend itself from the Russian invasion, the spokesperson said, adding that Russia could end the war at any time by withdrawing from Ukraine. Drone strikes on the Russian capital have become increasingly common in recent months. One drone hit a building under construction in central Moscow early on Wednesday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on the messaging app Telegram.

9:50 a.m. An explosion was heard in Moscow’s business district early on Wednesday, and smoke was seen in the area as well, Russia’s RIA news agency reports. One of the buildings in the central district, 5 kilometers from the Kremlin, was hit by a Ukrainian drone early on Saturday. Meanwhile, Moscow airports suspended flights early on Wednesday, Russia’s TASS news agency reported, citing unnamed officials. Major airports around the Russian capital have repeatedly closed for departing and arriving flights in recent days due to drone attacks from Ukraine.

12:30 a.m. A Tu-22M3 bomber was “highly likely destroyed” in the weekend drone attack on an air base 650 kilometers into Russia, the U.K.’s Defence Ministry tweets in its daily intelligence update.

“If true, this adds weight to the assessment that some UAV attacks against Russian military targets are being launched from inside Russian territory,” since copter unmanned aerial vehicles “are unlikely to have the range” to reach the Novgorod-region air base from outside the country, the ministry explains.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has blamed Ukraine for the attack, saying that one plane was damaged but that no one was injured. Ukrainian media credit Ukrainian saboteurs with the weekend attack and another one at a different Russian air base early this week.

3:30 p.m. Russia shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Moscow region with no casualties and brought down a further two drones over the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry says. A Reuters reporter in the town of Krasnogorsk in the Moscow region saw minor damage to tiling on a high-rise residential building and shattered glass exterior window panes in a few of its apartments.

1:40 p.m. China and Russia, which oppose Japan’s planned release from Thursday of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, jointly urged Tokyo last month to consider a vapor release disposal strategy instead, diplomatic sources tell Kyodo. Beijing and Moscow claimed in a document submitted to Tokyo in late July that vaporizing the water and releasing it into the atmosphere would have a smaller impact on neighboring countries compared with the ocean discharge plan. Japan has rejected their proposal, saying it is “impossible” to accept, the sources said.

12:40 p.m. Russia’s Defense Ministry says a Russian warplane destroyed a Ukrainian reconnaissance boat in the Black Sea. The ship sailed near Russian gas production facilities, the military said.

9:30 a.m. The three biggest Moscow airports suspended arrivals and departures early on Tuesday, Russia’s TASS news agency reported. “The air space is closed over Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo,” an unnamed official told the agency, adding, “Flights are not being received, departures are delayed.”

7:00 a.m. Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin published his first recruitment video for the Wagner Group since organizing a short-lived mutiny against defense officials in Russia, according to information on the Telegram messaging app. In the video, a person who appears to be the 62-year-old mercenary leader says the group is conducting reconnaissance and search activities, and “making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even more free.”

“We are hiring real strongmen and continuing to fulfill the tasks which were set and which we promised to handle,” the speaker in the video says, toting an assault rifle and wearing military fatigues. Pickup trucks and other people dressed in fatigues are in the background. Prigozhin moved into the global spotlight in June with a dramatic, short-lived rebellion that posed the most serious threat to President Vladimir Putin’s 23-year rule.

Monday, Aug. 21

3:00 p.m. Two Ukrainian drones were destroyed on Monday in the Moscow region, briefly disrupting flights at two of the capital’s airports, Russian officials say. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it jammed a Ukrainian drone in the Ruzsky district west of the capital and later destroyed another one in the Istrinsky district nearby. Arrivals and departures from Moscow’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports were briefly halted but later restarted.

6:00 a.m. the Netherlands and Denmark have announced they will give F-16 warplanes to Ukraine in a long-awaited announcement that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called an important motivation for his country’s forces that are embroiled in a difficult counteroffensive against Russia. The timeline depends on how soon Ukrainian crews and infrastructure are ready for the powerful U.S.-made jets, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told Zelenskyy as the two visited a Dutch air base. Zelenskyy welcomed the ”historic” announcement and praised Rutte for making the Netherlands the first country to offer the planes.

Sunday, Aug. 20

7:10 p.m. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday in an ongoing push to boost Ukraine’s air defenses, days after the United States approved the possible delivery of F-16 fighter jets by the Netherlands and Denmark. The Netherlands, together with Denmark, has in recent months led international efforts to train Ukrainian pilots for F-16s and to ultimately deliver the jets to help counter the air superiority of Russia, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“The main issue is F-16 for Ukraine to protect our people from Russian terror. We are getting stronger,” Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram.

6:00 a.m. Training has begun for Ukrainians to operate U.S. F-16 fighter jets, but it will take at least six months, or possibly longer, to complete, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov says, two days after a U.S. official said the fighter jets would be transferred to Ukraine once its pilots were trained.

Reznikov says six months of training is considered the minimum for pilots, but it was not yet known how long it would take to train engineers and mechanics. Ukraine wants the sophisticated U.S.-made warplanes so it can counter the air superiority of Russia. “Therefore, to build reasonable expectations, set a minimum of six months in your mind, but do not be disappointed if it is longer,” he says in a TV interview.

Saturday, Aug. 19

8:30 p.m. Seven people, including a 6-year-old child, are killed and more than 120 wounded by a Russian missile attack in the northern city of Chernihiv, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry.

“A Russian missile hit right in the center of the city, in our Chernihiv. A square, the polytechnic university, a theater,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is on a working visit to Sweden, posts on Telegram.

7:15 p.m. A Ukrainian drone targeted a military airfield in Russia’s Novgorod region, causing a fire and damaging one warplane, Russia’s Defense Ministry says. According to the ministry, nobody had been hurt and the fire was quickly extinguished.

5:30 p.m. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Sweden, saying he is there to meet with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, the royal family and other officials to thank them for supporting Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion.

1:30 p.m. President Vladimir Putin visited the commander of Russia’s operation in Ukraine and other top military brass, the Kremlin says, a meeting that came after Ukraine claimed counteroffensive gains on the southeastern front. “Vladimir Putin held a meeting at the headquarters of the special military operation group in Rostov-on-Don,” the Kremlin said in a statement. Russia, which launched its invasion in Ukraine in February 2022, calls its actions a special military operation. The Kremlin added that Putin, Russia’s supreme commander in chief, listened to reports from Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff of the Army in charge of Moscow’s operations in Ukraine, and other top military commanders and officers.

For earlier updates, click here.