Russia has come under a major aerial attack from Ukraine for the second night in a row as a swarm of at least 620 drones targeted the Moscow region, according to mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
The onslaught of drones forced Moscow to temporarily restrict flights at its airports, he said, adding that Russian forces downed at least 180 drones in the region overnight.
Earlier Russia threatened the UK with unspecified “consequences” after accusing Ukraine of using British-made drones to strike targets deep inside Russian territory.
The Russian embassy in the UK claimed these attacks involved British drones and that the UK was “deliberately opting for an escalation of the Ukraine crisis”.
“London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer,” it said.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) told BBC News that Britain stands “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine.
“Russia should be in no doubt about the resolve of this Government to stand against Russian aggression, in Ukraine and against the UK and our allies,” the spokesperson said.
Russia has faced 1.47 million losses since start of war, according to latest tally
Russia has lost approximately 1.47 million men over the course of the war, Kyiv has said.
In a post on X, Ukraine’s ministry of defence estimates that the number of Russian personnel killed now sits just below 1.5 million.
The new tally comes after a second overnight barrage of Ukrainian strikes into mainland Russia.
Suha Kidwai18 August 2026 08:45
Russian missile attack kills 10 in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, governor says
A Russian missile attack has killed 10 people and injured a further eight in a village in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, the regional governor said on Tuesday.
The strike on the village of Pechenihy has damaged 10 private buildings, a cafe, a post office, a shop and at least seven cars, residents have told Reuters.
Suha Kidwai18 August 2026 08:15
Russia tells North Korea they are making ‘new and righteous world order’
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has hailed North Korea’s role in fighting to eject Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region, writing in a letter that they succeeded in driving out a “Ukrainian Nazi clique”.
North Korea and Russia are working to establish a “new and righteous world order,” Lavrov wrote in a letter to North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui, according to the North’s state news agency KCNA this morning.
Pyongyang has deployed troops to Russia since late 2024, when it helped Moscow retake a portion of Kursk that had been captured by a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Vladimir Putin’s regime routinely calls the Ukrainian administration “neo-Nazis,” even though the country has a Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust and who heads a Western-backed, democratically elected government.
Putin has vowed to fight on in Ukraine until Moscow secures the country’s “demilitarisation”, “denazification” and neutrality, unless Kyiv accepts a deal that achieves those goals.
Arpan Rai18 August 2026 07:54
Moldova condemns violation of airspace and explosion of aerial object
Moldova’s foreign ministry has condemned the violation of the country’s airspace by an unidentified aerial object that later exploded on Monday.
Moldova shares a border with Ukraine and is a supporter of Kyiv. It has dealt with numerous incidents of drones flying over its territory and debris near the border since the start of Russia’s full-scale war.
The aerial object entered Moldovan airspace at 1737 local time (1437 GMT) and exploded shortly after, near the settlement of Talmaza, close to the border with Ukraine, Moldovan authorities said.
The explosion set grass on fire but there were no casualties, they said. They did not identify the origin of the object.
“This incident constitutes a serious violation of the sovereignty of the Republic of Moldova and poses a direct risk to the safety of our citizens. Such incidents are unacceptable,” the foreign ministry said in its statement.
Arpan Rai18 August 2026 07:19
EU plans most far-reaching sanctions against Russia in coming months, says Kallas
The European Union intends to significantly expand sanctions against Russia in the coming months over its war in Ukraine, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, told a German newspaper.
“EU sanctions have already cost Russia dearly, depriving Russia’s war machine of over €1trn ($1.16trn) and for autumn I am putting forward the most far-reaching sanctions listings since the start of the war,” she told Die Welt.
“Once adopted, they would immediately raise the total number of sanctioned Russian entities by a third. The pressure must keep growing until Moscow ends its war,” said Kallas, who leads the European External Action Service (EEAS) – the EU’s diplomatic service.
She did not elaborate on timing or details of the new designations, but EU diplomatic sources later told Reuters the EEAS would propose about 1,600 individuals and entities based in Russia and focused on Moscow’s military industrial complex.
The designations will include travel and transaction bans as well as asset freezes, they added. The EU has already listed nearly 3,000 people and companies.
Arpan Rai18 August 2026 07:11
Russia warns of ‘consequences’ after UK-made drones strike its mainland
Russia has warned Britain of “consequences” following reports that British-built drones were deployed to hit targets on its mainland for the first time.
According to the Sunday Times, Ukrainian forces used unmanned aircraft manufactured by two UK companies as part of a deep strike campaign.
Kyiv has stepped up operations inside Russia this year, increasingly deploying long-range missiles and drone swarms against military industries and energy facilities.
Arpan Rai18 August 2026 06:56
Moscow region targeted with more than 600 drones overnight
A major swarm of at least 620 drones was heading for the region surrounding the Russian capital between Monday evening and 5am (0200 GMT), said mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
He said Moscow was temporarily restricting flights at its airports.
Russian downed 180 drones in the Moscow region overnight, said Sobyanin, confirming one of the biggest Ukrainian air attacks on the capital.
Drones hit a warehouse of Russian e-commerce company Wildberries and other facilities near Moscow, regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said separately, adding that at least three people, including a 10-year-old girl, were injured in the region.
Arpan Rai18 August 2026 06:25
Watch: Zelensky urges G7 to stop critical supplies reaching Russia
Arpan Rai18 August 2026 06:05
Russia expanding secret bases that can launch drones deep inside Nato territory
The Kremlin has built and expanded at least 10 new bases with at least 59 new launch rails, according to an investigation by The Telegraph using satellite imagery and leaked documents.
The bases are designed to fire large numbers of jet-powered drones that can overload Ukrainian air defences as Moscow bombards military and civilian targets across the country.
But situated along its borders with Ukraine and Belarus, the hi-tech drones will also be able to reach Kyiv’s allies in Nato, the report said.
Arpan Rai18 August 2026 05:59
Watch: Wildberries logistics centres hit in Ukraine’s biggest drone strike of the year
Arpan Rai18 August 2026 05:40
