Two Ukrainian planes collided in the air
The Ukrainian Air Force announced on August 26 that three pilots were killed in a mid-air crash on August 25 in the central Zhytomyr province. Two L-39 training aircraft collided during flight.
One of the three pilots was Captain Andrii Pilshchykov, nicknamed "Juice", who became famous after giving numerous interviews to international media. The pilot also received the Medal of Courage.
The Ukrainian Air Force expressed condolences to the families of the victims and said it was investigating the circumstances of the crash. The loss of three pilots will be a major blow to Ukraine, which is training pilots to fly Western-funded F-16 fighter jets.
Ukraine overcomes Russian defenses in the south?
Robotyne village (Zaporizhzhia province), where Ukraine claims to have raised its flag
The Ukrainian army says it is making gradual progress along a key section of its southern front in Zaporizhzhia province, but it is also coming under heavy artillery fire and sustained air strikes from Russia.
CNN quoted a head of the Zaporizhzhia military administration as saying that Russia had fired into the province 85 times in the past day, targeting about 20 different communities. The shelling killed one person and wounded another.
Reuters on the same day quoted a Ukrainian commander on the southern front as saying he believed Kyiv's forces had penetrated Russia's most fortified defense line and could now advance more quickly.
Russia has not commented on this information.
Russia Intercepts UAVs Again, Kremlin Praises Air Defense Forces
Russian authorities announced on August 26 that they had intercepted two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the Belgorod region (bordering Ukraine) and one in the Moscow region. The Russian capital was rarely attacked in the early stages of the war but is now targeted by UAVs almost daily.
A day earlier, Russia announced that it had intercepted 42 UAVs over the Crimean peninsula. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the entire air defense system was working quite effectively, but minor losses were sometimes unavoidable, according to AFP.
Along with the drone attack, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on August 26 that Ukrainian artillery fire across the border had injured six people. Mr. Gladkov accused Ukraine of using cluster munitions and said that apartment buildings were damaged.
Ukraine has not commented on the allegations but accused Russia of shelling a cafe in Kharkiv province, killing two people and injuring one.
Second cargo ship leaves Odessa since grain deal expires
Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Honcharenko said on August 26 that a second ship had left the southern port of Odessa since the grain export agreement between Ukraine and Russia expired in July.
Reuters cited data from MarineTraffic website saying that the Liberian-flagged ship Primus left the port of Odessa for the Bulgarian port of Varna.
Primus ship moves to the Bulgarian port of Varna on August 26.
The deal between Russia and Ukraine, brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye, opened a safe corridor across the Black Sea for grain exports. Russia has refused to extend it, saying parts of the deal are not being implemented.
Russia later warned that it would consider ships entering Ukrainian ports illegal and threatened to attack. However, last week, the Hong Kong-flagged container ship Joseph Schulte left Odessa via a temporary corridor.
The corridor was opened on 10 August to allow ships long stuck in Ukrainian ports to leave. The Guardian reported that two civilian ships had passed through the corridor from Odessa after the Primus left in the morning.
However, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, during a visit to Kyiv on August 25, stressed that the best option for restoring Ukraine’s grain exports was to revive the original agreement with Russia. Fidan and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba agreed that other export solutions were not as good.
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