Zelensky says Ukraine attacked Russian oil refineriesOn The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondentsGet a weekly dispatch from our international correspondentsGet a weekly international news dispatchA WHO warehouse full of medical equipment and other humanitarian supplies has been struck and destroyed in a Russian strike on Ukraine.The WHO’s director-general said UN workers tried to evacuate health supplies from the Dnipro facility but some 170 pallets – more than half – were still inside when it was hit.”I cannot say loudly enough: attacks on health care MUST STOP,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X.”Otherwise, people are deprived of lifesaving healthcare. Even wars have rules. One of those is that health must be protected!”It comes as Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky claimed North Korea was preparing to deploy as many as 50,000 soldiers to support Russia’s war effort.Zelensky said North Korea would benefit from “experience in modern warfare” as well as receiving licences to produce more advanced Russian technology.He appealed to South Korea to respond by providing support “in an area where we have a shortage”, referring to its air defence systems.Earlier, UK defence secretary Wes Streeting urged allies to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences ahead of winter, warning that Vladimir Putin will seek to use the colder months as a “weapon” against Kyiv. Russia says air defences intercepted 285 Ukrainian drones over 12-hour periodRussia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its air defence units had intercepted and destroyed 285 Ukrainian drones over a 12-hour period.The ministry said the drones were downed between 8am and 8pm Moscow time (0500-1700 GMT), with most incidents reported over central and western Russian regions. The attacks also included Bashkortostan, a region between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains.Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that air defence units had destroyed five drones heading towards the capital, where such attacks have become a regular occurrence during the more than four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.Shweta Sharma10 August 2026 08:30Shweta Sharma10 August 2026 08:00Several killed after Ukrainian drone strike in Russia’s Tatarstan, mayor claimsUkrainian drones have carried out a deadly drone attack on industrial and civilian targets in the city of Nizhnekamsk in Russia’s Tatarstan region which killed a number of people, Radmir Belyayev, the city’s mayor said in a statement on Telegram.Nizhnekamsk hosts a major oil refinery. According to monitoring channels, Ukrainian forces launched strikes on a Russian oil refinery in Tatarstan overnight on Monday.Eyewitnesses posted footage showing drones flying over the Russian city of Nizhnekamsk.Shweta Sharma10 August 2026 07:16Ukraine accuses Unicef of failing to hold Russia accountable for children’s deathsThe Ukrainian foreign minister has criticised Unicef for failing to condemn Russia over the deaths of children in Ukraine.In the statement last week at the UN, Unicef called for Russia and Ukraine to follow obligations under international humanitarian law, but did not mention that Russia was behind deadly strikes that killed Ukrainian children in recent days.It also did not recognise Russia’s responsibility for starting its war against Ukraine.Vendors sit in front of their stalls at a damaged street market following strikes in Petrivka, one of Kyiv’s neighborhoods (AFP/Getty)”It is deeply deplorable that Unicef missed the essential point in its statement: All these children’s deaths are a direct result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. By presenting these casualties without this essential context, Unicef creates a false equivalence between the aggressor and the victim,” Andrii Sybiha said in a post to X.”Moreover, Unicef’s statement lacks basic fact-checking. It failed to mention that the casualties in Russia’s Krasnodar were caused by a drone reportedly intercepted by Russian air defence. It also failed to verify the information on casualties in Ukraine: seven, not three, children from one family were killed in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast”, Sybiha said. Shweta Sharma10 August 2026 07:08Six die in Ukrainian drone attack on Belgorod, Russian authorities saySix people died in a Ukrainian overnight drone attack on the Russian city of Belgorod, the regional crisis centre said on Sunday.Alexander Shuvayev, the acting governor of Belgorod region, earlier said three people were killed and 25 others, including two children, were injured.The death toll later rose to six after officials said emergency crews combed an apartment building which had been set ablaze.Shuvayev said the attack sparked fires in two apartment buildings and a large number of residential and non-residential buildings were damaged.Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed more than 150 Ukrainian drones over the European part of the country, as well as over Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.In Novorossiysk, a major Russian export port on the Black Sea, drone debris fell on two facilities, local mayor Andrei Kravchenko said, without identifying the sites.The local crisis centre later said three residential buildings were damaged and one person was injured.In Bashkortostan region, a Ukrainian drone struck a building under construction and a crane in the city of Ufa, state-run RIA news agency reported, citing local emergency servicesShweta Sharma10 August 2026 06:29WHO warehouse destroyed in Dnipro, Tedros saysA WHO humanitarian warehouse in Dnipro, Ukraine, was struck and destroyed last Friday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.No casualties were reported. A WHO staff member and drivers had left the site earlier in the day after helping evacuate 130 of around 300 pallets of medical supplies intended for frontline health facilities.“I cannot say loudly enough: attacks on health care must stop. Otherwise, people are deprived of lifesaving healthcare,” Mr Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted. “Even wars have rules. One of those is that health must be protected!” In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a firefighter puts out a fire following a Russian missile attack in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026 (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)Shweta Sharma10 August 2026 05:51Russia says it captures two villages in eastern UkraineRussian forces have taken control of two villages in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the state-run RIA news agency reported on Sunday, citing the Russian defence ministry.The ministry report on Telegram said Russian forces had seized Vasyutinske, a few kilometres east of the “fortress city” of Kramatorsk, and Toretsk, southwest of the city of Druzhkivka.Ukrainian forces made no acknowledgement of the two settlements changing hands.Russia is slowly advancing westward through Donetsk region, though there has been little significant change for months in the positions along the 1,200km (775mile) frontline.The Ukrainian war blog DeepState, which uses open source reports in documenting the frontline positions of both sides, reported that Russian forces had made advances near Illinivka — outside the contested city of Kostiantynivka.Servicemen of the 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fire a BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system towards Russian troops, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the frontline city of Kramatorsk, Ukraine August 4, 2026 (Ukrainian Armed Forces)It also reported Russian advances near Chasiv Yar, to the west of the city of Bakhmut, which fell to Russian forces in 2023 after long months of heavy fighting.The Ukrainian military’s General Staff, in a late evening report, said Kyiv’s forces had repelled 24 attacks around Kostiantynivka, Illinivka and other centres.Russian commanders said last month their forces had seized Kostiantynivka, but Ukrainian officials have disputed the claim.Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in his nightly video address on Sunday made no reference to changes in frontline positions, but singled out for praise Ukrainian forces fighting in specific areas, notably Dobropillia, Kostiantynivka and Kramatorsk. Shweta Sharma10 August 2026 05:19War entering a ‘new phase’, military analyst saysMilitary analyst Michael Clarke has said that the war is entering a “new phase”.While Russia is making “incremental progress” and Ukraine is “hitting back locally”, he described the advances as “snail’s pace stuff”.Speaking to Sky News, he said that the two countries are “hurting each other now to a degree that is going to push it to some sort of crisis”.“Russia has a much greater capacity to be hurt because it hasn’t been hurt very much so far as a society.”He said that Kyiv is “poking the bear in the eye” by escalating attacks and said that it is a “dangerous assumption” to expect Moscow to back down.Clarke said that Putin’s “next best option” may be to “frighten” Ukraine’s European allies into reducing their support for Kyiv.James Reynolds10 August 2026 05:00’Frightened and disorientated’ cat found in ruins of Kharkiv flatsEmergency workers responding to a Russian attack on a Kharkiv tower block found a frightened cat from the rubble.Rescue workers were digging through the remains of the building to rescue residents when they found a cat inside the rubble and rescued it.Ukraine’s state emergency service said “Barney” was found “frightened and disorientated, alone amidst the ruins”.(Ukraine’s state emergency service )The male cat was carefully rescued and his owner was on her way to pick up her cat, the spokesperson said.”Behind the rubble – someone’s life, and we cherish each one.” Two people were killed and 16 were injured in the strike in Ukraine’s second-largest city, authorities said on Sunday.(State emergency service)Shweta Sharma10 August 2026 04:45Ukraine’s Zelensky says up to 50,000 North Korean troops to be deployed in Russia Volodymyr Zelensky has said up to 50,000 North Korean soldiers will be deployed in Russia to fight for Pyongyang’s ally, while calling on South Korea to provide support for its air defence. Zelensky said on X on Saturday that “a decision has been made for 30,000 to 50,000 North Koreans to be deployed on the territory of Russia”, a higher figure than his estimate of 30,000 in July. He did not elaborate on how he obtained the information. He said Kyiv had found some North Korean missiles in Ukraine’s territory, without disclosing their locations. FILE PHOTO: A man photographs parts of an unidentified missile, which Ukrainian authorities believe to be made in North Korea and was used in a strike in Kharkiv earlier this week, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine January 6, 2024 (Reuters)”It is absolutely clear that North Korea will continue to build its experience in modern warfare, receive licences from Russia, and receive all kinds of military tools from them,” he said. Urging Seoul to have closer cooperation with Kyiv, Zelensky said that Ukraine “would very much like to receive support from South Korea in an area where we have a shortage”, referring to its air defence systems. “We are ready to work on the Drone Deal and other areas as well,” he said, adding that Ukrainian diplomats “are in contact” with Seoul to push potential deals. North Korea has so far sent an estimated 14,000 soldiers to Russia’s Kursk Region in 2024, helping Moscow beat back a major incursion into the region by Ukrainian forces.Shweta Sharma10 August 2026 04:16
