Live: Deadly Russian air attack hits railway depot in Kyiv
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By: FRANCE 24 This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian State Emergency Service on September 1, 2026 shows a rescuer working at the site of a Russian strike in Chernihiv region. © State Emergency Service of Ukraine via AFP Russian ballistic missile strikes apparently targeting energy and railway infrastructure rained down on Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday, Ukrainian authorities said, with a strike on a railway depot killing at least seven people. It's the sixth consecutive day of Russian strikes on Ukraine's capital. Follow our liveblog for all the latest updates.
Beyond ramping up intelligence sharing and police cooperation, the EU is trying to raise the cost of the war for the Kremlin by bolstering support for Ukraine and hitting Moscow with sanctions.
Brussels has floated fresh plans to add 1,600 more firms and individuals to its already long list of Russians sanctioned over the war.
Meanwhile discussion has resurfaced on whether the bloc should tap some 200 billion euros ($235 billion) of frozen Russian central bank assets to fund Ukraine.
A proposal to use the funds failed last year after opposition from Belgium, where the bulk of the assets are held, and the EU came up with a 90 billion euro loan for Kyiv off its own back. But there is already a sense that the money might not last the two years it was intended for and the EU may need to find a way sooner or later to use the immobilised Russian funds.
"As each day passes, the cost of the war is rising," the top diplomats of the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden wrote in a letter last week.
Over the course of the month of August, Russia launched more than 2,800 jet-propelled drones at Ukraine, a type of drone that is harder to shoot down.
That has come with a massive uptick in the number of drones used, considerind those now found on the front line are quite a new model: Ukrainian authorities say they are pressed into service almost immediately after leaving the factory.
FRANCE 24's Oliver Farry looks at those new drones, and how Russia is using them to try and change the course of the war.
Firefighters and residents gather at the site of an apartment building damaged by a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photos: Gleb Garanich, Reuters.
Russia said it would announce a new ambassador to Britain in due course, weeks after its previous envoy left London at a time of exceptional tension in bilateral ties.
The departure of Andrei Kelin in July, after more than seven years in the post, prompted media speculation – denied by the embassy – that Moscow was downgrading diplomatic relations with Britain.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that Kelin had served through an extremely difficult period "in the face of British efforts to completely dismantle bilateral relations".
More than 2,800 jet-powered Russian drones were fired at Ukraine in August, a spokesman for Ukraine's air force said on Tuesday.
For several weeks, missile strikes have targeted grain export terminals and commercial container ships in and around Black Sea ports cutting off access in and out of the crucial sea route. However, farmers in Ukraine hope to harvest almost the same total amount of grain this year as in 2025.
Ukraine has harvested about 32 million metric tons of grain from 6.82 million hectares, or from 58 percent of the sown area, as of August 31, the farm lobby UCAB said on Tuesday.
It noted the yield averaged 4.68 tons per hectare. UCAB said farmers had also started the sunflower harvest, threshing the fist 10,860 tons from 9,200 hectares. They also started harvesting soy beans.
Ukraine plans to harvest around 60 million tons of grain in 2026, ministry officials have previously said.
Russia will deliver a devastating response to any hostile action against it in the Baltic region, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"In the event of a further escalation of the military-political situation in the Baltic region, it must be emphasised once again: Russia’s response to the instigators of reckless anti-Russian ventures will be decisive. And they need to know this – it will be devastating for them," Zakharova told reporters at her weekly briefing.
Russia believes that a moratorium on attacks in the Black Sea, a major grain trading route, will not bring the prospect of a peaceful resolution to the war any closer, Interfax quoted deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko as saying.
Both Russia and Ukraine have been pounding each other's export terminals and grain-carrying vessels in the Black Sea in an escalation that has created the biggest risks to Black Sea trade in the 4-1/2 years of the war.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on August 31 that Turkey had prepared a plan for the safe passage of grain through the Black Sea and was working on an agreement similar to the 2022 grain deal to allow safe exports.
Port infrastructure in Ukraine's southern Black Sea region of Odesa came under Russian attack, Ukraine's emergency service said.
The "massive" strike also targeted energy infrastructure and caused a fire at a residential building, where one person was hurt, it said on the Telegram messaging app.
Residents stand near burned cars and a gutted apartment building after a Russian missile strike in the town of Boryspil, east of Kyiv. Photos by Valentyn Ogirenko, Reuters.
Ukraine hit 54 vessels alleged to belong to Russian "shadow fleet" in August, according to the commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces Robert Brovdi.
A fire at the port of Ust-Luga caused by a Ukraine drone attack in Russia's Leningrad region has been extinguished, regional authorities said.
NATO reacted swiftly and exactly as planned and the alliance is 'vigilant and ready' to protect its territory, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said on X, after NATO scrambled fighter…
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