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United States President Donald Trump’s diplomatic efforts to bring bid to Ukraine remained stalled during the past week, arsenic Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to conscionable with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukraine’s allies, connected the different hand, began to perpetrate to supply troops, hardware and aerial screen successful the lawsuit of a ceasefire. European allies agreed connected the request for a NATO Article 5-type defence clause that would trigger their introduction into the warfare should Russia renew hostilities.
Against this diplomatic background, Russia’s assaults connected Ukraine raged connected with offensives that threatened the northeast metropolis of Kupiansk.
On Thursday, Moscow’s troops attacked Kyiv, sidesplitting astatine slightest 14 – a deadly battle astir a period aft different bloody violative successful the Ukrainian superior that killed 32, including 5 children and a large woman.
Ukraine responded this week with a defence that rolled backmost immoderate Russian gains successful the eastbound Donetsk portion and dealt further harm to Russia’s already wounded lipid refining industry, captious to its warfare effort.
(Al Jazeera)Peace distant arsenic battles rage
On Friday, Russia’s apical diplomat Sergey Lavrov told NBC News that Putin was not acceptable to conscionable with Zelenskyy – thing Trump has pitched – arsenic helium blamed Ukraine for hindering a bid process.
“There are respective principles which Washington believes indispensable beryllium accepted, including nary NATO membership, including the treatment of territorial issues, and Zelenskyy said nary to everything,” Lavrov claimed.
Meanwhile, British defence quality assessed that based connected existent rates of progress, Russia would request astir 4 and fractional years to implicit the conquest of the 4 oblasts – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.
Russian forces deepened their penetration of Kupiansk, a metropolis connected elevated crushed connected the westbound slope of the Oskil River, successful Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region.
A serviceman of the 115th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces uses an RPG-7 grenade launcher during a grooming betwixt combat missions astatine a grooming crushed successful the Kharkiv portion connected August 23, 2025 [Sofiia Gatilova/Reuters]Geolocated footage showed they had precocious wrong the metropolis connected August 24. On Tuesday, Russian subject expert Andrey Marochko said they had reached Komsomol Park, astir 3km (2 miles) from its bluish outskirts, saying “the enemy’s presumption successful the metropolis has deteriorated,” though Russian subject reporters said the metropolis was a grey zone.
Deep State Map, a Ukrainian front-line representation compiling open-source information, suggested that connected Sunday, Russian forces besides extended their encirclement of Kupiansk from the westbound and began to infiltrate its occidental suburbs.
The effort to prehend the metropolis began successful precocious June. They entered Kupyansk’s bluish extremities on August 5, and, according to immoderate reports, captured settlements instantly to its west.
(Al Jazeera)A Ukrainian counteroffensive successful August and September 2022 had pushed Russian forces eastbound of the Oskil River. They began to claw their mode backmost past twelvemonth and person recaptured a fraction of their conquests successful Kharkiv.
The bosom of the combat crossed the 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) beforehand remains Donetsk, wherever Russia aims to prehend the “fortress belt” of heavy defended cities – from northbound to south: Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhivka and Kostiantynivka.
Andrey Marochko, a Russian subject expert, connected Saturday claimed Russian forces had “established a foothold” connected the outskirts of Kostiantynivka (Konstantinovka to Russians), the southernmost of the 4 cities.
Two days later, Denis Pushilin, the Russian concern politician of Donetsk, besides said determination had been clashes connected the outskirts of the city. But Russia’s Ministry of Defence said clashes were taking spot adjacent the metropolis and did not corroborate troops had entered it.
The ministry said its forces had seized 3 settlements successful Donetsk connected Saturday and 2 successful neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk connected Sunday and Monday.
Ukraine scored successes, too. Commander successful main Oleksandr Syrskii said his troops had cleared Russian invaders from Volodymyrivka. Military expert Konstantin Mashovets said Ukrainian forces had pushed Russian troops retired of Nove Shakhove, Zapovidne and Kucheriv Yar.
All 4 villages prevarication eastbound of Dobropillya, and these play operations were the continuation of a palmy counterattack successful mid-August, which stymied a Russian effort to prehend Dobropillya.
The Russian propulsion for Dobropillya was a saltation connected months-long efforts to situation Pokrovsk. Mashovets said their nonaccomplishment had reset Russian tactics to an archetypal program of attacking Pokrovsk straight – a costly and truthful acold failed enterprise.
(Al Jazeera)Operations successful the air
Russia continued to assail Ukraine’s cities with conscionable much than 1,000 drones and 41 missiles betwixt August 21-27. Ukraine stopped 87 percent of the drones and three-quarters of the missiles.
While holding its enactment of defence, Ukraine counterattacked Russia straight with palmy strikes against vigor infrastructure, designed to disrupt supplies to the beforehand enactment and to disrupt Russia’s warfare economy.
On August 22, Ukraine struck the Unecha lipid pumping station, which pressurises the Druzhba lipid pipeline supplying Russian allies Slovakia and Hungary. Russian authorities said the harm would suspend pipeline deliveries for days.
A time later, Russia said it downed 17 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Flights were cancelled successful Tambov and Ulyanovsk, eastbound and southeast of Moscow, aft a drone was downed headed for the city. Other airports besides suspended operations.
On Sunday, Russians successful the Samara portion woke to a damaged refinery successful Syrzan, portion the Leningrad, a state processing analyzable owned by Novatek connected the Baltic Sea, was damaged. Footage posted online showed a occurrence astatine Novatek’s Ust-Luga substance export terminal.
A abstracted onslaught 60km (37 miles) from the Ukrainian borderline forced the Kursk atomic powerfulness works to little its output of electricity, aft a drone damaged a transformer.
On Monday, footage posted by Andrii Kovalenko, caput of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, showed the Novoshakhtinsk refinery struck connected August 21 inactive connected occurrence for a 5th consecutive day. Satellite imagery confirmed that six retention tanks astatine the installation had been destroyed.
According to the Reuters quality agency’s calculations, Ukrainian attacks connected 10 plants successful caller days person disrupted astatine slightest 17 percent of Russia’s refinery capacity, amounting to 1.1 cardinal barrels per day.
Russian paper Kommersant reported that Ukraine’s strikes had caused petrol shortages and raised regular unleaded and premium gasoline prices.
The Moscow Times estimated that regular unleaded gasoline has risen by 38 percent this year, and premium by 49 percent.
Ukraine has besides been striking Russia’s weapons stockpiles and proviso routes. UK Defence Intelligence connected August 22 confirmed the caller sinking of the Olya-4 with a outer image. It said the vas “regularly” crossed the Caspian Sea ferrying Iranian warfare materiel to Russia.
Ukraine has been moving feverishly to grow its range, firepower and stockpile. On Monday, it unveiled a caller antiship cruise missile, the Long Neptune, a modified mentation of the R-360 Neptune, susceptible of travelling 1,000km (620 miles)
A week earlier, Ukraine unveiled the FP5, oregon Flamingo, a cruise rocket with a 3,000km (1,860-mile) scope and a 1,150kg (2,535lb) payload of precocious explosives. Fire Point, a Ukrainian startup with European funding, presently builds 1 of these missiles per day, and hopes to scope 7 a time by October.
Ukraine’s reasons for wanting its ain capableness see the quality to occurrence them without restrictions.
Pentagon sources told the Wall Street Journal that the Trump medication has restricted the usage of long-range rocket artillery wrong Russia. The ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) rockets, with a 300km (190-mile) range, were supplied to Ukraine aft Russia brought North Korean soldiers to assistance support Kursk successful the summertime of 2024. Trump reportedly forbade the usage of the rockets immoderate months into this year.
Ukraine’s Kovalenko denied the regularisation had been reimposed.
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