Ukraine war: Kyiv claims to have recaptured Urozhaine village, drones destroyed over Russia’s Kaluga

Kyiv says it has recapturedthe village of Urozhaine village

Ukraine said on Wednesday it had retaken the village of Urozhaine on the southern front, in the Donetsk region, as part of its counter-offensive against Russia.

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“Urozhaine has been released. Our defenders are established nearby. The offensive continues” in the region, said the Deputy Minister of Defence, Hanna Maliar, in a press release shared on social networks.

Ukraine’s drones destroyed over Russia’s Kaluga region, says Moscow

Moscow said on Wednesday it has shot down three Ukrainian drones southwest of the capital, in what was at least the fifth attack this month over the Kaluga region. 

Ukraine launched the attack at around 5:00 a.m. local time using “three unmanned aerial vehicles on objects in the Kaluga region,” Russia’s defence ministry wrote on Telegram.

“All UAVs were detected and destroyed in a timely manner by Russian air defence systems,” it added.

According to Kaluga’s governor Vladislav Shapsha, there were “no consequences for people and infrastructure,” as he wrote on Telegram.

Russia’s drones strike Danube river port

The governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said on Wednesday that Russian drones had hit one of the country’s two ports in the Danube river, in the south of the country.

“Russian terrorists attacked Odesa region twice last night with attack drones,” Kiper wrote on Telegram. “The main target is port and grain infrastructure in the south of the region.”

While Kiper did not specify which port had been attacked, Ukraine’s air force on Wednesday said that a wave of Russian army drones was spotted heading towards the Izmail river port near the border with Romania.

Kiper asked residents of the Izmail district to take shelter at about 1:30 a.m. local time.

Ukraine’s ports on the Danube are crucial for the country’s grain reserves and its exports. Before Russia pulled out of an UN-backed deal granting safe passage to exports from the river ports, these accounted for around a quarter of grain exports. 

A Russian attack on the Izmail port sent global food prices higher in early August.

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Zelenskyy meets troops in the Zaporizhzhia region

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Ukrainian troops and military commanders engaged in the counter-offensive against the Russian forces in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday.

“Today I continue to visit our combat brigades. Yesterday we were in the Donetsk region, and today, various districts of the Zaporizhzhia region, the territory of the Tavria operational and strategic group of troops,” Zelenskyy said in a video shared on Telegram.

An official statement shared by his office confirmed that Zelenskyy “visited the locations of the brigades that carry out offensive operations in the Melitopol sector.”

In his video address, the Ukrainian president said he spoke with military commanders about “the needs of our warriors”, adding that everything they talked about will be later shared at a staff meeting.