Kyiv said it needs to mobilise at least 30,000 people a month to maintain troop levels, suggesting losses higher than officially admitted
Smoke rises in Bucha after a Russian strike on Aug 29 Credit: Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos
Owen Matthews
30 August 2026
Ukraine is “gradually, slowly losing” the war. Those are not the words of a Kremlin propagandist but Ukraine’s own Mykhailo Fedorov, the country’s recently dismissed defence minister, speaking to Reuters last week. In the days after he made that grim prediction, Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine to near-apocalyptic levels.
In a fiendishly effective move, the Kremlin switched from mass drone and missile strikes to continuous, 60-hour-long waves of bombardments which saw nineteen air-raids on Kyiv in a single day, exhausting defenders and dwindling stocks of air-defence missiles alike.
A strike on an ammunition warehouse in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha – the site of some of the war’s most notorious massacres of Ukrainian civilians in April 2022 – killed at least 38 civilians, including most of the inhabitants of an old people’s home. Russia has also targeted food warehouses, hypermarkets, postal terminals, warehouses storing books and other businesses around the capital. “Russia aims to make Kyiv a dead city,” says Sergej Sumlenny, a Ukrainian soldier and activist.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian claims that they are turning the tide of the war in their favour with deep strikes on refineries and logistics warehouses deep inside Russia are being hollowed out by Russia’s massively larger campaigns of retaliation and revenge.
Ukrainian long-range drones burned an estimated 20 per cent of Wildberries – Russia’s equivalent of Amazon – to the ground. But according to Taras Vysotskyi, Ukraine’s minister of agrarian policy and food, Russian counter-strikes have eliminated some 90 per cent of Ukraine’s modern warehousing stock. This comes after earlier waves of concentrated Russian strikes on Odesa and other ports which have crippled Ukraine’s capacity to export grain and other agricultural goods by sea.
At the same time the Kremlin’s strategy of making Ukrainian cities unliveable seems to have claimed its first terrible success. In August Russian ballistic missiles destroyed the main power station serving the front-line city of Kherson, on the mouth of the Dnipro river. As a result local authorities have warned the remaining residents that they should evacuate large swathes of the city, which can now not be heated in winter.
The cities of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, both just a few miles from Russian lines, are also getting it in the neck from a barrage of “aerial bombs, Shaheds, first-person-view drones, drones on fibre optic cables, Vampires, GRAD multiple rocket launchers, cluster munitions, artillery, sabotage groups. Everything,” reports Piotr Kaszuwara Dziennikarz, a Polish correspondent.
Since June, Ukraine has been inflicting serious but not fatal damage on the Russian economy using swarms of low-tech drones, plus Flamingo cruise missiles. A Ukrainian-made ballistic missile is due to come soon. Last week Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, delivered blueprints for local production of Anglo-French Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
But Russia’s offensive capacities are rising much faster than Ukraine’s, according to recent Nato reports. Jet engines have been fitted to an air-launched version of the workhorse Geran drone (modelled on the Iranian Shahed) which doubles its range to nearly 620 miles and triples its speed. Realising that mass is more important than accuracy, Russia claims it is ready to produce 10,000 of its new cheap Dan-T missiles next year, which have a similar warhead and range to a Storm Shadow but cost a sixth of the price.
Another cheap and effective new Russian weapon is the air-launched Banderol cruise missile, which have turned Ukraine’s Black Sea coast into a deadly no-go zone for cargo ships and spearheaded Moscow’s campaign against Odesa since it entered serial production at the end of July.
Plus the Kremlin has reportedly sourced large ballistic missiles from North Korea and developed an apparently effective Starlink jamming system, the Volna Kupol Garant, which could seriously disrupt Ukraine’s front-line command-and-control systems.
What is Zelensky’s plan to stop this brutal punishment from breaking his country’s resistance? Fedorov, the former defence minister, says that Ukraine is at “a turning point which will determine our future trajectory” and warns that Kyiv has “a window of several months to make key decisions needed” to win (though Fedorov himself has left the country for a post as adviser to the defence minister of Italy). Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, too, says that “the next six months will be decisive … Ukraine needs greater air support, which is also crucial for our security”.
‘There will be no miracle’
Zelensky has begged, with partial success, for supplies of Patriot missile interceptors. But even his own chief of staff, the former military intelligence chief Gen Kyrylo Budanov, admitted last week that “there will be no miracle” breakthrough, and that Russia “still has substantial reserves”. Gen Budanov also said that Ukraine had to mobilise at least 30,000 people a month – “the minimum number needed to maintain what we have” – suggesting losses far greater than had been officially admitted.
Meanwhile, as Russian troops reportedly push into the suburbs of Sloviansk, one of two “fortress cities” in the Donbas still in Ukrainian hands, Vladimir Putin is keeping up his aggressive rhetoric. During the weekend Putin recounted a bizarre anecdote about killer whales ganging up on Polar bears – “which explains why we are fighting our Special Military Operation”. The Kremlin has formally announced that peace talks are on “a long pause”.
Instead, Putin clearly intends to use all his resources to destroy Ukraine’s energy, transport and logistics infrastructure this winter in a final push to bring the country to its knees. The challenge for Ukraine – and its allies – is to marshal resources, interceptors and counter-blows that will allow it to survive the Kremlin’s rising storm.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/30/unrealistic-optimism-isnt-helping-ukraine/
I am reposting Larry’s earlier comment, which seems relevant :
Fedorov offers drone technology to US in exchange for Patriots, seeks funding for defense tech fund
Former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov is seeking U.S. investment for a new defense technology fund and offering to help Washington develop drone capabilities in exchange for Patriot missile interceptors for Ukraine, he told the Financial Times in an interview published Aug. 30.
The proposal comes as Fedorov has begun an international trip that has included Italy and the United States after being dismissed by President Volodymyr Zelensky as defense minister.
Fedorov told the FT in Washington that he is seeking backing from venture capitalists, private investors, and U.S. technology companies for a fund that would invest in Ukrainian defense startups and create new companies focused on battlefield technologies.
“This is not exactly a classic venture fund,” Fedorov said in an interview. “We’re writing a new history of the war.”
Fedorov said the fund would initially focus on battlefield robotics, high-speed interceptor drones capable of countering Russia’s newer jet-powered attack drones, and low-cost missiles equipped with artificial intelligence.
He also proposed a direct exchange with the United States, saying he would be willing to help Washington “build an army of drones” in return for Patriot interceptors to help Ukraine withstand Russian attacks this winter.
“I’m ready to make that trade,” Fedorov told the FT.
Ukraine has faced a critical shortage of Patriot interceptors as Russia has intensified missile and drone attacks against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. The U.S.-made systems are among the few weapons capable of intercepting Russia’s ballistic missiles.
Fedorov said Ukraine had already tested high-speed drones designed to bring down Russia’s jet-powered attack drones and argued that they could be produced at scale with additional investment.
“We need more jet drones, we need cheap missiles, we need missiles with artificial intelligence,” he said. “You can’t conduct any kind of dialogue with Putin any other way. He understands only force.”
Fedorov served as defense minister from January to July before Zelensky dismissed him in a Cabinet reshuffle. His firing triggered weeks of protests across Ukraine and elevated Fedorov’s profile as a potential political rival to Zelensky.
After Zelensky declined to reinstate him as defense minister earlier this month, Fedorov called for wartime elections, a move that divided public opinion.
In an interview with the FT, Fedorov defended his call for elections, saying it was not aimed at replacing Zelensky but at updating the country’s governing system.
“This is not against Zelensky, it’s not against some specific person,” Fedorov said. “It’s about the fact that we need to … update the state’s operating system.”
Fedorov’s trip to the U.S. follows a visit to Italy, where he agreed to serve as an unpaid adviser to Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on modern warfare technologies, his press service told the Kyiv Independent on Aug. 28.
Fedorov’s press service said his primary focus would remain on projects in Ukraine and efforts to attract international resources for the country’s defense technology sector. During his meeting with Crosetto, the two discussed drones, autonomous systems, air defense, and the development of Ukraine’s defense technology ecosystem.
The FT reported that Fedorov was also considering similar advisory roles with other partner countries, potentially including France and the United States. He declined to say whether he planned to meet with officials from the Trump administration during his Washington visit.
Fedorov also said he remained in close contact with U.S. billionaire and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, but declined to comment on whether he planned to meet him in the U.S. Ukraine has relied heavily on Musk’s Starlink satellite communications system throughout the war.
Previously, Zelensky awarded Musk Ukraine’s Order of Liьerty on Aug. 26, as Kyiv seeks his approval to use Starlink on drones operating inside Russia.
(From Kyiv Independent, via MSN)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/fedorov-offers-drone-technology-to-us-in-exchange-for-patriots-seeks-funding-for-defense-tech-fund/ar-AA2beA2d
“Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine to near-apocalyptic levels.”
The Ukrainians are in a most dreadful situation: the CRINKs, the BRICS and Krasnov are all ganging up on them and no ally is willing to send troops and planes to help out.
Winter is only weeks away and Ukraine has to face a fifth winter of putinaZi horror all alone; again.
This is disgraceful.
Public support for Ukraine is faltering :
The UK has an eyewateringly disgusting 20% public support for putler.
That will come from far right Reform voters and Restore voters, and far left Green voters plus the far left JeremIRA CornLenin wing of the Labour Party.
Krasnov has a cult following in UK far right circles.
The US has less public support for putler, (14%), despite the pro-ruZZia regime in the WH.
No surprise to see India at 58% and Indonesia at 68% pro-Putler. They really are evil shitholes; unfortunately with huge populations.
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