“We have received information about the presence of bombs in schools in Kiev (…) All educational establishments are controlled by Kiev police forces,” Ukrainian police said on Telegram.
The main information to remember:
- On the first day of the new school year, Ukrainian police reported bomb threats at schools in kyiv
- Ukraine claims drone attack in northwest Russia launched from Russian territory, first
- Two cargo ships have left a southern port and are sailing in the Black Sea
- Russia is said to have seized “key positions on heights” near Kupyansk
Kyiv police report bomb threats at schools
Friday is back-to-school day for nearly four million Ukrainian students – face-to-face, remote or in a hybrid format – the second since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. If the fighting take place in eastern and southern Ukraine, major cities far from the front line nevertheless regularly suffer Russian strikes from missiles or explosive drones. The capital was thus again the target of a “massive” attack on Wednesday morning, which left two dead and was described by the local military authorities as the largest “since the spring”.
“The nation has preserved the possibility for children to go to Ukrainian school,” the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Iermak, welcomed on Friday on Telegram. According to him, 3,750 schools have been destroyed “by Russian missiles and bombs” since the start of the conflict. In some large cities, underground shelters have been set up to allow teachers to continue their lessons in the event of aerial alerts warning of possible bombardments.
“Schoolchildren and teachers are forced to adapt to these realities,” said Ukrainian army commander Valery Zalouzhny, also on Telegram. “But the main thing is that our children study (…) Because knowledge and culture are what distinguish us from the enemy. They are the pillars on which today’s front rests and on which the future will be built. future of our country,” he said. The Ukrainian army has been leading a difficult counter-offensive in southern and eastern Ukraine since early June in an attempt to retake the territories occupied by Moscow’s forces.
Ukraine claims drone attack in Russia, launched from Russian territory
The drone attack that targeted Pskov airport in northwestern Russia this week was launched from Russian territory, the military intelligence chief said on Friday, claiming for the first time that the Ukraine operates from Russian territory. “The drones used to attack the Kresty airbase in Pskov were launched from inside Russia,” Kyrylo Budanov said on his Telegram account, reposting the link to an article from the publication The War Zone to which he wrote. granted an interview. “We operate from the territory of Russia,” he insisted to this publication.
According to this site, the official did not want to say whether it was an operation carried out by his men or by Russians acting on behalf of kyiv. Kyrylo Boudanov further claims that “two (Russian military aircraft) were destroyed and two others seriously damaged”. The War Zone also released satellite images showing charred planes. Drones targeted Pskov airport in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, a region in northwestern Russia, bordering Estonia, Latvia and Belarus.
Asked about the place from where these machines had been launched, the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov had limited himself Wednesday to say that “military experts are working to establish the course of the drones to take measures in order not to allow the repetition of such situations”. While drones very regularly target the Russian regions bordering Ukraine and Moscow, attacks as far north, some 700 or 800 km from the Ukrainian border are rare. Last week a similar attack targeted an airfield in the neighboring Novgorod region, destroying or damaging at least one military aircraft. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was pleased at the end of July that “the war is coming to Russian territory”, without however claiming operations carried out from Russian territory.
Ukraine announces that two cargo ships have left a southern port and are sailing in the Black Sea
Ukraine announced on Friday that two new cargo ships had left a port in the south of its territory and were sailing in the Black Sea in a maritime corridor established by Kiev, despite Russian threats of reprisals against these ships. “The bulk carriers Anna-Theresa (flying the flag of Liberia) and Ocean Courtesy (Marshall Islands) have left the port of Pivdennyi and are using the corridor”, declared on X (ex-Twitter) the Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure, Oleksandre Kubrakov.
Russia had terminated in July the agreement by which Ukraine could export its cereals and has since threatened to attack ships departing from Ukraine in the Black Sea. “There is now a process based on a better understanding and response to Russia’s demands,” said Hakan Fidan, who traveled to Moscow to prepare for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s next visit to Russia. According to Turkish media, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to travel to Sochi, Russia on September 4 to discuss with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin the resumption of the agreement.
Russia says it seized ‘key positions on heights’ near Kupyansk
Russia said Friday it had seized “key positions on heights” near the city of Kupyansk in eastern Ukraine, a sector of the front on which its troops have been on the offensive for several weeks. “In the direction of Kupyansk, the tactical position of the units of the + West + group of troops has been improved by taking enemy strongholds and key positions on heights,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram.