August 30, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that a review of military medical commissions is underway following revelations that some had accepted bribes to help Ukrainians evade conscription.

During his nightly address on Wednesday, Zelensky said that “the inspection of military medical commissions across the country is underway.”

Thousands of military-aged men have avoided conscription and fled abroad since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 with the help of bribes and “unreasonable decisions” by military medical commissions, the president said.

On Tuesday, the Security Service of Ukraine reported that an investigation is underway into the head of the military medical commission in Kyiv region who is suspected of allowing over 50 men of enlistment age to evade the draft in exchange for bribes on the basis of fictitious documents about “bad” health.

According to the security service, the head of the military medical commission and five others were a part of the criminal scheme that helped men who wanted to evade the draft and flee abroad.

Zelensky said all of those who accepted bribes would be brought to justice.

Zelensky noted that “the criminal proceedings are currently underway” against the staff of military medical commissions and medical social expert commissions of Ukraine.

“The list of those who went abroad due to obviously dubious decisions of MMCs will be analyzed separately,” he noted, adding that these are “at least thousands of people.”

Zelensky also announced his intention to equate corruption with treason during wartime in his interview with Ukrainian media on Sunday. Zelensky said the Ukrainian parliament will get a proposal from him “in the coming week.”

An explosion is seen in the sky over Kyiv, Ukraine, during a Russian missile strike on Wednesday, August 30, 2023.

Six Russian regions, including Moscow, came under attack early Wednesday in the biggest drone assault on its territory since the full-scale invasion began last February. Russian officials haven’t reported any casualties and claimed to have thwarted almost all of the strikes.

A Kremlin spokesman has attributed the assault to the “continued terrorist activity of the Kyiv regime.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the attacks are an indication the “war is increasingly moving to Russia’s territory.” The official, however, stopped short of claiming responsibility for last night’s attacks. 

Residents told CNN of their panic and fear as the city was shaken by the powerful assault.

Here are other headlines you should know:

The Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) guerilla group claimed responsibility for an August 27 drone on the Russian region of Kursk, saying that it worked in tandem with the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). 

On August 27, the Russian defense ministry claimed it destroyed the drones that were launched at the Kursk region. The RVC has disputed this and accused both the Russian defense ministry and the Kursk governor of covering up that a stray air defense missile hit a residential high-rise building. CNN cannot independently verify these claims.

The Russian Ministry of Defense, the Kursk governor and the SBU have not commented on the RVC’s claims.

The Russian Volunteer Corps is a guerilla group made up of Russian citizens fighting on the side of Ukraine. In March, the group claimed responsibility for a cross-border attack on Bryansk, a Russian region bordering Ukraine.

Pakistani workers sort the wheat in a. warehouse in Karachi, Pakistan, on July 26.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused deep disruptions in the global food supply, raising prices and increasing the risk of food insecurity in poorer nations in the Middle East and North Africa, America’s top spy agency said in an unclassified report released by Congress on Wednesday. 

The direct and indirect effects of the war “were major drivers of one of the most disruptive periods in decades for global food security,” the eight-page report found — in large part because Ukraine and Russia were among the world’s largest pre-war exporters of grain and other agricultural products.  

Although food security concerns have abated since the start of this year, according to the report, the future trajectory of global food prices likely will depend in part on what happens with the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which Russia ended in July. The deal, facilitated by the United Nations, had allowed Ukrainian agricultural shipments to safely exit Black Sea ports and reach the international market. 

How much acreage Ukraine is able to cultivate as the war continues to rage and the cost and availability of fertilizers will also have an impact on global food prices, the report found. Global fertilizer prices reached near-record levels in mid-2022 as global oil and natural gas prices rose. 

Droughts last year in Canada, the Middle East, South America and the United States also compounded the war-related stress on global food supplies, according to the report. 

Intelligence officials have accused Russia in the past of weaponizing food supplies by blocking Ukrainian exports, destroying infrastructure and occupying Ukrainian agricultural land.

Citing satellite imagery and open-source reporting, the report said that Russia stole nearly 6 million tons of Ukrainian wheat harvested from occupied territories in 2022. Cargo ships used to transport the stolen grain out of Russian-occupied territories in 2022 would steer along the coast of Turkey to deliver shipments to ports in Syria, Israel, Iran, Georgia and Lebanon, the report said.

“We cannot confirm if the buyers of the Russian cargoes were aware of the grains’ Ukrainian origin,” the report said. 

Russian air defense forces shot down a Ukrainian missile over eastern Crimea and two drones over the Bryansk region, which borders northeastern Ukraine, on Wednesday, Russian officials said.

“Air defense forces shot down a cruise missile in the eastern part of Crimea. I ask everyone to remain calm and trust only official sources of information,” Sergey Aksyonov, Russia-appointed head of Crimea, said in a Telegram post. 

His advisor, Oleg Kryuchkov, said the fragments of the missile set the grass in the field on fire. “Emergency services are working on the scene,” Kryuchkov said.

Aksyonov and Kryuchkov didn’t provide additional details about the missile. 

Aleksandr Bogomaz, governor of Russia’s Bryansk region, said two drones were shot down Wednesday. 

“Two aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down over the Bryansk region,” Bogomaz said, adding there were no casualties or damage. 

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour speaks with the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell.

The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell stressed Wednesday that the efforts must be maintained to search for peace in Ukraine, but that it “has to be a just peace.” 

Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Borrell said it was “difficult to believe that peace negotiations can take place” right now, given the relentless Russian attack on Ukrainian cities.

A tractor works the field on a private farm in Zhurivka, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will hold meetings on grain supplies in Moscow this week, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

Lavrov and Fidan will discuss alternatives to the Black Sea grain deal that is no longer in effect, during meetings in the Russian capital on Thursday and Friday, the ministry said.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry also said on Wednesday that Fidan will be traveling to Russia on Thursday and Friday. 

“During the visit, issues on our bilateral agenda as well as regional and global developments will be discussed,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a brief statement.

One person has died and 13 were injured as a result of Ukrainian shelling of Russian-occupied Donetsk region, according to the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin.

“Peaceful towns of the Republic endured another day of fierce shelling by Ukrainian armed formations. One man was killed […] thirteen were wounded, including two minors,” Pushilin said.

The casualties occurred in and around the city of Donetsk, he said. Houses and civilian infrastructure were also damaged, Pushilin added. 

Six Ukrainian pilots were killed during a combat mission near Bakhmut, Yevhen Rakita, spokesperson for the Igor Sikorsky 18th Separate Army Aviation Brigade, told national broadcaster Suspilne on Wednesday. 

“On August 29, six pilots from the Igor Sikorsky 18th Separate Army Aviation Brigade were killed in the Bakhmut sector. It happened while performing a combat mission,” Rakita said.

Rakita also noted all six pilots held the rank of officer and that the details of the incident are not being disclosed due to security reasons.

Pskov airport will resume operations on Thursday, regional Gov. Mikhail Vedernikov said in a statement published Wednesday on his Telegram channel.

“The results of the inspection of the state of the civil infrastructure of Pskov airport have been summed up. In short: everything is in order! From tomorrow, the airport will resume normal operations,” Vedernikov said.

Late Tuesday night, Russian authorities reported drone attacks in Russia’s northwestern Pskov region, which caused damage to four IL-76 military aircraft at the airport. The airport is used for both civilian and military aircraft.

Six Russian regions, including Moscow, came under attack early Wednesday in the biggest drone assault on its territory since the full-scale invasion began last February. Russian officials haven’t reported any casualties and claimed to have thwarted almost all of the strikes.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his delegation, North Korean state media KCNA reported on July 26, 2023.

Russia and North Korea are “actively advancing” their negotiations over a potential arms deal that would provide significant ammunition for different types of weapons systems, including artillery, in the latest indication that the Kremlin is desperate to obtain further materiel for its failing invasion of Ukraine, according to newly released US intelligence.

The news of the potential deal comes despite North Korea’s public claims to the contrary. 

The Biden administration said Wednesday that it remains concerned that the two pariah states are in the middle of arms negotiations and that following Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s trip to North Korea last month a second delegation of Russian officials have visited Pyongyang for follow up discussions on a potential deal.

In addition to the second delegation, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged letters “pledging to increase their bilateral cooperation,” according to John Kirby, National Security Council strategic communications coordinator.

Meanwhile, Amb. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US representative to the United Nations, accused Russia and North Korea of negotiating arms deals. Greenfield called it “shameful” and a violation of Security Council resolutions approved by Russia. 

The public disclosure of the new intelligence is the latest example of how the Biden administration plans to continue to publicize Russia’s efforts to avoid Western sanctions and source weapons for its war, as well as put North Korea on notice that the US is closely monitoring these efforts. It is also the most detailed evidence provided in recent months of Russia’s outreach to North Korea to help fuel its invasion of Ukraine.

“Under these potential deals Russia would receive significant quantities and multiple types of munitions form the DPRK, which the Russian military plans to use in Ukraine. These potential deals could also include the provision of raw materials that would assist Russia’s defense industrial base,” Kirby said, pledging that the US would take direct action to sanction any entities involved in a potential deal and urged Pyongyang to cease the negotiations.

Earlier this month, the US Treasury sanctioned a sanctions evasion network aimed at supporting arms deals between Russia and North Korea.

Kirby also said Russia’s attempts to source weapons from places like Iran and North Korea was a clear signal of Moscow’s distress.

“There is no other way to look at that than desperation and weakness, quite frankly,” the official said.

At the end of last year Pyongyang delivered infantry rockets and missiles to the Wagner private military company for their troops in Ukraine and Western officials have said that Iran has supplied Russia with weapons for use in Ukraine. Iran and North Korea have both denied these claims.

CNN’s Richard Roth contributed reporting to this post.

This photograph taken on January 10, 2023, shows adviser to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, speaking during an interview with AFP in Kyiv.

Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the recent drone attacks on Russia are an indication the “war is increasingly moving to Russia’s territory.” The official, however, stopped short of claiming responsibility for last night’s attacks. 

When referring specifically to drone attacks on the Russian northwestern region of Pskov that damaged aircrafts and grounded flights, Podolyak said the increased movement of the war into Russia’s territory “cannot be stopped.” 

Without directly claiming responsibility for the attacks, the adviser said Ukraine “strictly adheres to the obligation not to use the weapons of its partners to strike Russian territory and acts exclusively within the principles of defensive war.”  

He dismissed calls to avoid strikes on Russian soil as “absurd.”

More background: The attacks on Wednesday were the biggest drone assault on Russian soil since the war began. Six Russian regions including Moscow came under attack early Wednesday, while in the city of Pskov, near the Estonian border, several transport planes were reportedly damaged when drones targeted an airport. Russian officials haven’t reported any casualties, and claimed to have thwarted almost all of the strikes.

Ukraine has increasingly been emboldened to hit strategic targets inside Russia through the air in recent weeks, even as it suffers assaults on its own cities, setting up a new phase of the conflict defined by Kyiv’s apparent efforts to wear down domestic Russian support for the war.

Kyiv officials meanwhile said Russia hit the Ukrainian capital with a “massive” bombardment overnight. 

CNN’s Rob Picheta, Anna Chernova and Gul Tuysuz contributed reporting to this post.

A still from video released on August, 30, 2023 of of classrooms being built underground to protect students from missiles in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

The northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has set up 60 classrooms in its subway ahead of the start of the school year in September, the mayor said in a statement.

Kharkiv, which lies roughly 20 miles from the Russian border, was occupied by Russian forces in the early months of the war. Ukraine managed to liberate the city in September last year — but Russian forces have since tried to recapture the city, which has come under frequent bombardment for much of this summer.

The underground classrooms will accommodate around 1,000 students, with plans to set up even more classrooms to allow for safe in-person education several days a week, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

The city’s subways were the main shelter for its residents during intense Russian bombardment in the first few months of the war.

Ukraine ordered mandatory evacuations in Kharkiv region earlier this month, after a local Ukrainian official said that substantial reinforcements had turned the area into the “epicenter” of hostilities.

Russia claimed to have captured several Ukrainian positions near the city of Kharkiv in recent weeks, with the eventual goal of capturing the city for a second time.

A Kremlin spokesman has attributed the biggest drone assault on Russian territory since the war in Ukraine began to the “continued terrorist activity of the Kyiv regime.”

The Russian President Vladimir Putin is receiving “timely and up-to-date information” on all developments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

Journalists on the regular Kremlin call pressed Peksov on whether the drones that attacked the northwestern Pskov region could have been launched from the territory of neighboring Estonia or Latvia.   

Some context: Russia saw the largest drone assault on its territory since the start of the war on Wednesday after six regions including Moscow came under attack.

In the city of Pskov, drones attacked an airport some 35 miles away from the Estonian border late Tuesday night, causing a fire and damage to four IL-76 military aircraft which led to the cancellation of all flights.

Russian officials haven’t reported any casualties, and claimed to have thwarted almost all of the strikes.

An attack on the election headquarters of a pro-Russian party in the occupied Kherson region has been claimed by a Ukrainian insurgent group.

The group, Atesh, says it blew up the headquarters of the United Russia Party in Nova Kakhovka on Tuesday. The group said three Russian soldiers were killed in the attack, a claim that was denied by a pro-Russian politician in the area. 

The town’s mayor Vladimir Leontiev described it as a “terrorist attack,” according to Russian state news agency TASS. “No one will disrupt our peaceful life,” he said.

Some context: Nearly half of Ukrainians held in detention centers in Kherson have been subjected to widespread torture including sexual violence, according to a report published earlier this month, compiled by the Mobile Justice Team, part of the UK, EU and US-sponsored Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA).

The report adds that suffocation, waterboarding, severe beatings and threats of rape were other techniques commonly used against victims by Russian guards in the Kherson torture chambers.

Russia has repeatedly denied accusations of torture and human rights abuses in Ukraine despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, investigated, compiled and shared by international human rights organizations and news organizations. 

An explosion is seen in the sky over the city during a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on August 30.

Residents of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv have told CNN of their panic as the city was shaken by a powerful assault overnight on Tuesday.

Russia conducted a “massive” attack on Kyiv using drones and missiles, killing at least two men aged 26 and 36, and injuring three others, Ukrainian officials said.

Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, wrote on Telegram that “Kyiv had not experienced such a powerful attack since spring.”

Lyudmyla Savchuk, a 57 year old school worker, says she doesn’t talk to relatives in Russia anymore. “My cousin says we deserve all this. They don’t believe what is happening here,” she says.

Lyudmyla Savchuk, 57, school worker

Yelena Yemelyanova, 69 year old retired medical worker, points up at her balcony. The explosion on August 30 blew out her windows and blast wave threw her against a wall.

Yelena Yemelyanova, 69, retired medical worker

Victor Savchuk, 58 year old retiree shows bits of debris that hit his family homes balcony a residential neighborhood of Kyiv, Ukraine, on August 30.

Victor Savchuk, 58, pensioner

Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of Russian private mercenary group Wagner, gives an address in this still image taken from video and published August 21.

Russia is considering the possibility of “deliberate” action in its investigation of the plane crash that killed Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, but Moscow will not allow international authorities to intervene, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

The possibility of a “deliberate atrocity” is one of many scenarios under consideration, Peskov said.

His comments came after Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee reportedly rejected an offer by Brazilian authorities and the aircraft manufacturer, Brazilian company Embraer, to participate in the investigation.

The committee said that because the crash took place on Russian soil, an international investigation is unnecessary, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing the Brazilian agency.  

Russia on Wednesday saw the most significant drone assault on its territory since the start of the war, causing airport closures and flight delays across the country.

Meanwhile, Russia fired 28 cruise missiles at Ukraine overnight, all of which were intercepted, according to Kyiv’s top general.

Below are the latest developments…

Smoke billowing over the city and a large blaze in Pskov, Russia, on August 29 after a reported drone strike.

Russia has seen the most significant drone assault on its territory since the beginning of the war in February 2022, causing airport closures and flight delays across the country.

Multiple regions, including Moscow, Oryol, Ryazan, Bryansk, Kaluga, and Pskov, were targeted by drones Wednesday, although Russian authorities have not reported any casualties and claim they thwarted almost all of the attacks.

Russian air defense forces claimed to have intercepted a drone heading towards Moscow in the Ruza district of the Moscow region, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said Wednesday morning.

In response to the security situation, all four Moscow airports temporarily suspended flight operations. According to Sobyanin, there were no casualties or reported damage at the time. 

Russia’s defense ministry said its forces intercepted three Ukrainian aircraft-type drones over the Bryansk region which damaged an administrative building, while another unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over the Oryol region was also obstructed.

The ministry also said a UAV was brought down over the Kaluga region, while two other attacks were thwarted in the Ryazan region. Local authorities confirmed the attacks saying there were no immediate reports of casualties.

In Pskov, some 600 km (370 miles) north of Ukraine, drones also attacked an airport late Tuesday night, causing damage to four IL-76 military aircrafts and leading to the cancellation of all flights. A fire broke out at the airport as a result of the attack. 

Pskov region Governor Mikhail Vedernikov said that all flights remain cancelled until Thursday, “to clarify the nature of the possible damage to the runway.”