August 28, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

The Russian Ministry of Defense says it deployed two fighter jets to intercept a United States Air Force MQ-9 "Reaper" and RQ-4 "Global Hawk" unmanned aerial vehicles near the Crimean peninsula.

The drones were detected by Russian forces that were monitoring equipment flying over the southwestern part of the Black Sea, the Russian defense ministry said on Telegram. 

Two Russian fighter jets were deployed to avert a “possible violation of the state border” and to “counter any radio-technical reconnaissance,” the defense ministry said.

“As a result of the actions of on-duty air defense forces, the United States Air Force reconnaissance UAVs changed their flight path and left the areas where air reconnaissance was being conducted,” the defense ministry said.

Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Garron Garn told CNN the US "will continue to fly routine missions over the Black Sea as permitted by international law to ensure freedom of navigation and maneuver in the region."

Ukrainian authorities have ordered a mandatory evacuation of children from two districts of the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region that are under persistent shelling by the Russians.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told Ukrainian television that the evacuation of children from the Vasylivskyi and Pologivskyi districts is now mandatory. Altogether more than 50 children are still thought to live in the districts.

There was also a compulsory evacuation of a community in the Kupiansk district of Kharkiv region, which has seen intense Russian bombardments in recent weeks.

And in Donetsk region, "89 children from 11 settlements are being evacuated, and today the process is underway," Vereshchuk said.

There was an explosion at a Russian base in the occupied city of Enerhodar, close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as a result of a resistance operation, according to Ukrainian Defense Intelligence.

Defense intelligence said on its Telegram channel that the explosion occurred Monday morning at the headquarters of Russia's special riot police force, known as the OMON unit.

Akhmat-1 is a Chechen unit. Defense intelligence said that after the city was occupied, Chechen fighters had seized and converted a building on the site of a Ukrainian bank branch. 

It said the explosion “resulted in injuries to the occupiers' personnel and cars parked in the courtyard. A fire broke out in the building. Fire crews and ambulances arrived at the scene. Information on the number of killed and wounded Kadyrovites is currently being clarified.”

Ukrainian Defense Intelligence also posted video of the explosion that showed a drone flying towards the front entrance of the building, which CNN has geolocated as in Enerhodar. There were no civilian casualties or injuries, defense intelligence said.

A Russian-appointed official in occupied Zaporizhzhia acknowledged that the military-civilian administration building in Enerhodar was hit by a drone Monday. However, the official disputed Ukraine's claim that personnel casualties occurred as a result of the bombing.

Vladimir Rogov said that "preliminarily, there are no dead or injured. Employees of the administration have already been evacuated."

Emergency services are working on the spot, Rogov said on Telegram.

More background: Ukrainian Defense intelligence has previously claimed sabotage attacks earlier this month in Enerhodar. It said there had been an explosion at a meeting of the chiefs of the occupation police on August 18, and last week another at the local headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).  

A Ukrainian commander in the Bakhmut area has said it is critical to prevent the Russians from establishing proper defenses in the area.

Maksym Zhorin, deputy commander of the 3rd Assault Brigade, said on his Telegram channel that “one of the most important tasks in the Bakhmut sector is to keep up the momentum of advance in order to prevent the enemy from taking measures to create its own defense system. The kind of efforts the enemy has already made, for example, in the Zaporizhzhia sector,” where Ukrainian forces are struggling to break down layers of Russian fortifications and minefields.

“It will be a significant problem if we provide the enemy with time and opportunity to dig in and plant mines,” he added.

Ukrainian forces have made slight progress to the south and north-west of Bakhmut in recent weeks, but are yet to threaten Russian supply lines into the ruined city. 

More on Bakhmut: On Sunday, Ukrainian officials said its military is still on the offensive in the Bakhmut direction, and continues to advance "meter by meter," Illya Yevlash, head of the press service of the Eastern Military Grouping said. Over the past day, Russian forces shelled Ukrainian positions 590 times, using multiple rocket launchers and cannon artillery of various calibers, he said. 

A total of 14 combat engagements took place on Saturday, Yevlash said. "The enemy is resorting to counterattacks, trying in vain to regain lost ground."

"Enemy tactics remain virtually unchanged" in the Bakhmut area, he said. "First come the assault units, consisting of convicts who try to storm the positions, sometimes even without the cover of heavy equipment; followed by regular army soldiers, who are taken better care of by the Russian army."

CNN's Yulia Kesaieva and Radina Gigova contributed to the reporting in this post.

Poland and the Baltic states have pledged to shut their borders with Belarus if a “critical incident” occurs, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński said Monday.

“This situation is escalating. For many weeks, for several months, we have been dealing with the return of migratory pressure on our border. The same applies to the borders of our partners,” Kamiński told a news conference in Warsaw after a meeting with his Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian counterparts.

The stationing of “several thousand mercenaries” from the Wagner Group in Belarus has added a “new element” to the situation along the border, Kamiński added.

Russian investigators have confirmed that Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was among the 10 people killed when their plane crashed near Moscow on Wednesday, after carrying out genetic tests.

Prigozhin turned the Wagner Group from a shadowy band of mercenaries into a feared military powerhouse operating across multiple countries on three continents. Now that he is gone, the future of the group is uncertain.

Earlier in August, Poland announced its plans to move roughly 10,000 troops to its eastern flank amid heightened fears about the growing presence of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus.

Kamiński stressed that two things are needed “stabilize the situation on our border with Belarus."

He called firstly on the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko to order Wagner troops to “immediately leave” Belarus and ensure that the migrants that have been gathering along the Belarusian border are returned to their countries of origin.

Poland’s Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki has previously warned that Wagner fighters stationed in Belarus could disguise themselves as migrants in an attempt to cross the border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he hopes that Ukraine will get security guarantees from the US that are similar to those enjoyed by Israel.

In an interview with Ukrainian media, Zelensky said that security guarantees include both a shield and a sword.

Such guarantees would come through the process of Ukraine's accession to NATO, he said, but would be reinforced through a bilateral agreement with the United States.

Such an agreement would not depend on who was in the White House, Zelensky said, since it would be approved by Congress.

Some background: The US and Israel have signed multiple security agreements since the founding of the state of Israel, and the US guarantees what is called a Qualitative Military Edge to Israel compared to other forces in the region.

Ukraine has been under martial law for more than 18 months. The decree – passed by the country's president Volodymyr Zelenksy on the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion last February – dictates whole swathes of life in Ukraine, from who can leave the country, to when and how elections can be held.

Under the current state of martial law in Ukraine, elections have not been deemed possible. But Zelensky suggested Monday that Ukraine may hold a presidential ballot next year as scheduled – but stressed that the country would need support for such a complex undertaking during wartime.

Here are the latest developments:

Even as Ukrainian units have breached the first line of Russian defenses on part of the southern front, soldiers have been describing just how difficult it is to make more than incremental gains in the face of complex and multi-layered fortifications.

Ukrainian forces say they have taken one village -- Robotyne -- in Zaporizhzhia region, and are moving towards several others in a bid to bring the strategic hub of Tokmak within range of artillery.

One soldier, a communications specialist named Oleksandr Solonko, has written in detail about the challenges of making progress in the area, with his account supported by others.

The lay of the land: First, he said, the topography of the region has left many Ukrainian troops exposed.

"Whoever you are, an assault group ... an evac[uation mission], an airborne or ground reconnaissance, your movement is visible from afar. The enemy has been preparing to meet you for a long time," he said.

On Friday, a Ukrainian officer with a front line unit also told CNN that the open terrain was a challenge, with drones from both sides overhead.

The officer added that, unlike in Bakhmut, there were no basements in which to shelter.

Trenches and minefields: Solonko also said that Russian fortifications were elaborate. "There is an entire system of trenches, dugouts, actual tunnels in some places ... Automatic grenade launchers, machine guns, anti-tank missile systems. Anti-tank ditches and minefields stretch across the fields."

Multiple accounts in recent weeks speak of Ukrainian sappers - soldiers tasked with clearing minefields - making slow progress, with some of the weapons set off by tripwires that were intensively laid as a first line of defense by the Russians.

"Our positions on the retaken territory are surrounded by mines and tripwires. Paths are being made to enter, sappers are gradually clearing the territory."

Air power: Solonko also acknowledged the loss of Ukrainian armor in the region "because of the enemy's superiority in the air." 

The Russians are extensively using drones for surveillance and targeting Ukrainian positions, according to Solonko. "They identify targets and launch Lancets in swarms as well as guided bombs."

But he says that US-donated vehicles are saving lives, with one soldier he'd spoken to revealing he'd survived a direct attack twice in Bradley (fighting vehicles).

Defenses run deep: Analysts have said there are deeply entrenched defenses further ahead. OSINT analyst Emil Kastehelmi notes that "the Russians have built 100-350m long communication trenches, which helps them both reinforce or retreat from the fighting positions."

"Heavy fortifications are built in order to block any potential advance on the main road towards Tokmak," Kastehelmi wrote Sunday in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The Institute for the Study of War commented in its latest front line assessment that "Ukrainian forces are now within striking distance of the next series of Russian defensive positions, which appears to be comprised of a relatively more contiguous array of anti-tank ditches and dragon’s teeth anti-tank obstacles, with Russian fighting positions behind these obstacles similar to the previous layer of Russian defenses."

ISW added: "The highly interconnected systems of trenches and dugouts that the Ukrainian soldier described is the result of months of Russian preparation. It is unclear if Russian forces extended that system throughout subsequent series of defensive positions further south."

Moldova’s President Maia Sandu has told CNN that “Ukraine needs to get more support… and everybody should understand that if Ukraine is not helped, then Russia will not stop in Ukraine or Moldova.”

In an exclusive interview in Chisinau with CNN’s chief international anchor, the president added that she hoped “more support will be coming soon, so that Ukraine could recover its territories and we will see an end to this crazy war.”

Amanpour spoke with President Sandu on Sunday as Moldova marked its 32nd independence day. The country borders Ukraine and has experienced serious tensions with Russia, in particular over the eastern pro-Russian breakaway territory of Transnistria, where Russian troops are stationed.

In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin revoked a 2012 foreign policy decree that in part recognized Moldova’s independence, according to Reuters.

Sandu told Amanpour that in Transnistria “there is a regime which is supported by Russia.”

Tensions have been further heightened since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Moldova, and of Moldovans from Russia.

Moldova is not currently a member of the European Union, but applied for membership shortly after Russia launched its invasion, and was then granted candidate status in June 2022.

President Sandu noted that “it’s a long process” and acknowledged “we still have corrupt judges and corrupt prosecutors who do not want our reforms to succeed,” but she emphasized that “Moldova’s democracy will be preserved when Moldova becomes [an] EU member state.”

When asked about the death of Yevgeniy Prigozhin, Sandu noted that “this just reconfirms the risks which come from Russia, a country which does not have justice… Unfortunately this does not limit to Russia’s borders. Unfortunately this is the way Russia acts with respect to its neighbors.”

Watch the full interview on Amanpour on Monday, 1 p.m. ET.