Ukraine war briefing: Russian campaign to ‘weaponise winter’ under way

Russian drones and missiles attacked facilities of Ukraine’s Naftogaz energy company 13 times over the past week and Moscow has targeted its premises almost 300 times since the start of the year, the state energy company said. The latest attacks caused serious damage to equipment and production capacity but no injuries. Ukrainian officials say Russia is “weaponising” the coming winter. DTEK, a coal mining and power production company, said a Russian attack started a fire at one of its mines, killing a 52-year-old man.

Russian organisers have cancelled an “international” military music festival due to be held in Red Square from Friday. After Ukraine attacked Russia with a record number of drones, organisers of the Spasskaya Tower festival said it was being postponed until next year. More drones attacked Moscow over Monday night, Russian authorities reported. Flights had to be suspended at the capital’s airports of Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky, said Rosaviatsia, the Russian aviation agency.

Ukraine’s military general staff released pictures of the results after a strike operation blew up rocket fuel and explosives workshops in Russia’s Rostov region. The strike on the night of 16 August hit the Kamensky Combine in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, destroying two workshops and damaging four more. “The Kamensky Combine is a Russian military-industrial complex enterprise that produces solid rocket fuel for the munitions of the Uragan, Smerch, and Tornado-S multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS), as well as for a range of missile systems and air-delivered munitions.”

A Russian drone crashed and exploded in Moldova, Ukrainian authorities said. The Institute for the Study of War said it was reportedly a Russian Banderol, a winged cruise missile cum loitering munition. Moldova, which borders Ukraine, condemned the violation ⁠of its airspace. The craft entered Moldovan airspace on Monday afternoon, came down and exploded near the settlement of Talmaza, setting grass on fire but leaving no casualties according to local authorities.

As Vladimir Putin prepares to cement his rule with stage-managed elections in September, a court has given a senior Russian opposition politician 11 years and one month in prison for speaking out against the war. The jailing of Lev Shlosberg comes soon after the Yabloko party to which he belongs was banned from the elections. In a separate ruling on Monday, Russia’s supreme court denied Yabloko’s appeal against the ban. Yabloko – the Russian word for apple – had been the only official political party on the ballot that overtly opposes the war.

Shlosberg addressed the court, saying that for 30 years, Russia has travelled “a path from hopes for freedom to the almost complete destruction of human and civil rights and freedoms”. The war in Ukraine had “changed the lives of every Russian citizen without exception” and once its true death toll became known “the entire country will shudder”. Yabloko said Shlosberg would appeal against the “barbaric sentence” he had received. The party declared he was being punished for “love of the motherland and calls for a ceasefire”. Amnesty International denounced the verdict. “His arbitrary prosecution and sentencing are blatant reprisals for exercising his right to freedom of expression to call for peace,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty eastern Europe and central Asia director.

Yabloko’s chairman, Nikolai Rybakov, said the party would continue its fight by lodging a complaint to the presidium of the supreme court and possibly the constitutional court. “We achieved the main thing: the whole world knows how many people in Russia want peace, want to live normally and to raise children under a peaceful sky in their country,” Rybakov said. Regarding Shlosberg’s sentence, Rybakov said “our feelings are with Lev and other political prisoners who have fought and are fighting for peace, for people to not die”.

Russia sought to threaten Britain with “consequences” over reports that British drones including a stealth model were used to strike targets on Russia’s mainland. Ukraine used drones made by two UK companies for deep strikes, the Sunday Times reported (paywall). The story cited a UK defence source as saying: “Russia has been very effective at keeping the west nervous about hitting it too hard. These attacks mean the UK is effectively signalling to Russia and our allies that we’re not [nervous] any more.” Analysts and supporters of Ukraine have complained throughout the war about Kyiv’s western backers exhibiting “reflexive control” – hesitating to support Ukraine’s military in case Moscow might somehow retaliate.