Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,285

Here are the key events on day 1,285 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Monday, September 1:

Fighting

• Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least five people on Monday, including two in Kherson, one in Zaporizhzhia, and two in Donetsk, according to regional governors. The attacks wounded dozens more.
• In Zaporizhzhia alone, Russian forces launched 286 drone attacks, 10 missile attacks and five air strikes on 16 settlements in one day, Governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram.
• A Russian drone attack overnight damaged a power facility near the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, leaving more than 29,000 customers without electricity on Sunday morning, the region’s governor said. The hardest hit city was the seaport of Chornomorsk.
• The Reuters news agency also reported that a civilian bulk carrier flying the flag of Belize sustained minor damage after hitting an unknown explosive device near Chornomorsk.
• Russian drones also targeted Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region early on Sunday, damaging energy infrastructure and leaving 30,000 households without electricity, including part of the city of Nizhyn, said local Governor Viacheslav Chaus.
• The Ukrainian military said Russia had attacked Ukraine with 142 drones overnight and its air defence forces managed to shoot down most of them but the drones struck 10 locations.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised to retaliate to Russian attacks on his country’s power facilities with more strikes deep inside Russia.

• Ukraine’s armed forces dismissed Russia’s claims of a successful summer offensive, saying Russian forces failed to gain full control of any major Ukrainian city and “grossly exaggerated” figures regarding captured territories.
• In Russia, four people wounded injured in Ukrainian drone attacks on the Kursk region, including two Interior Ministry employees, Kursk’s Governor Alexander Khinshtein said in a post on Telegram.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that its forces shot down 112 Ukrainian drones, two aerial bombs and three rocket launchers in a 24-hour period, according to TASS.
• The capacity of Russia’s Kursk nuclear power plant’s third reactor was completely restored after it had been halved following a drone attack, TASS reported on Sunday, citing the plant.

Politics and diplomacy

• The Kremlin accused European powers of hindering United States President Donald Trump’s peace efforts and said that Russia would continue its operation in Ukraine until Moscow saw real signs that Kyiv was ready for peace.
• “The European warring party is maintaining its fundamental course; it is not giving in,” spokesperson Kremlin Peskov said from the sidelines of the SCO summit in China.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he was bracing himself for the Russia-Ukraien war “to last a long time”. He told German public broadcaster ZDF that diplomatic efforts to bring the conflict to an end could not come “at the price of Ukraine’s capitulation”.
• Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, announced additional funding for European Union member states bordering Russia and Belarus during a visit to Poland’s border, near Belarus, where she called Putin a “predator” who could only be kept in check through “strong deterrence”.
• Von der Leyen also told the Financial Times that Europe is drawing up “pretty precise plans” for a multinational troop deployment to Ukraine as part of proposed post-conflict security guarantees.
• She said Trump had assured Europe that “that there will be [an] American presence as part of the backstop”.
• In an article published in the People’s Daily, China’s state newspaper, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wrote that his country will “continue to pursue” its “peace diplomacy” between Russia and Ukraine “with patience”.
• Pope Leo called for a ceasefire and dialogue in the Ukraine war. “It is time for those responsible to renounce the logic of arms and to take the path of negotiation and peace with the support of the international community,” he said in his Sunday prayer with pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.

Weapons

• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a new missile production line and missile-manufacturing automation process, state media KCNA said on Monday. North Korea has sent missiles, as well as soldiers and artillery ammunition to Russia to support Moscow in its war against Ukraine.
• Norway, which shares a border with Russia, said it will buy new frigates worth some 10 billion pounds ($13.51bn) from the United Kingdom, in its biggest ever military investment.