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Under cover of darkness, Russian forces launched one of their most intense aerial campaigns in recent weeks, striking targets across Ukraine with devastating effect. The tactical pause amid the Alaska talks is over. On the night of August 18th, the wave of strikes saw at least 140 Geran-type loitering munitions and four Iskander-M ballistic missiles unleashed against critical infrastructure and military facilities, demonstrating Moscow’s ability to sustain deep-strike operations even during high-level diplomatic talks between Ukraine and the United States. This was not the most massive Russian attack, but the scale of the confirmed destruction again highlights the impotence of Ukrainian air defense.
The port city of Odessa absorbed the most concentrated blows. With Russian precision strikes constantly dismantling key energy and logistics nodes in the southern region, at night the city came under one of the most devastating attacks. A critical electrical substation was reduced to rubble, plunging sections of the city into darkness. A nearby Nova Poshta logistics hub, known for handling military shipments, was left in ruins. The railway station in Usatovo was also struck.
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The most significant blow was inflicted in Usatovo. The assault completely destroyed all 17 storage tanks at the SOCAR oil terminal, which belongs to Azerbaijan’s state energy facility, sending towering flames into the night sky. The facility came under a series of consequent precision strikes. The attack also obliterated the terminal’s pumping station and technical buildings. These strikes on Azerbaijani-owned infrastructure marked a significant escalation in Russia’s economic warfare strategy. After years of tolerating Baku’s fuel shipments to Ukraine, Moscow lifted its restraint following recent anti-Russian rhetoric from Azerbaijan. The terminal’s destruction effectively severed a crucial link in Ukraine’s southern fuel supply network, delivering both a tactical blow and political signal.
In the morning, the city of Zaporizhzhia reeled from an Iskander-M missile strike that targeted critical infrastructure, reportedly leaving 17 wounded and compounding the region’s ongoing energy crisis. The attack demonstrated Russia’s continued focus on degrading Ukraine’s power grid and industrial capacity.
Another Iskander strike reached its target in Pavlohrad in the Dnepropetrovsk region. The precision strike hit the local mechanical plant specialized in solid-fuel rocket motor repairs for Ukraine’s Grom-2 missile program. The target was the local building #101, which was of strategic importance for the domestic missile program. The impact triggered secondary explosions among stored rocket components, killing multiple technicians and destroying specialized equipment vital to Ukraine’s domestic missile production efforts. The devastating strikes continue after Moscow declared that Kyiv’s Sapsan missile program was thwarted as a result of precision strikes on large industrial facilities across Ukraine, including on the Pavlohrad mechanical plant. LINK, LINK
Another drone strikes destroyed an energy station in Petropavlovka in the same Dnepropetrovsk region. As a result of the attack, a large fire broke out at the railway station nearby, destroying wagons and fuel tanks.
In a series of simultaneous drone strikes, Russian Geran UAVs struck targets across the Kharkiv region, including near Shevchenkovo, Otradnoe, Kochetka, Gnilitsy etc. The destroyed targets included military depots hidden at the local hatchery, farm, and the water pumping station that provides for the operation of military plant in Kharkiv.
The city of Kharkiv witnessed particularly grim consequences when a residential high-rise collapsed under circumstances that remain unclear. The incident reportedly left at least seven civilians dead and others trapped in the rubble. Despite Kyiv’s attempts to blame the Russian military for another attack on civilians, the evidence suppose that Ukrainian air defense is the one to blame. There were no Russian drone strikes reported in the city at the moment of the incident and Russian drones could not inflict such a heavy damage to a building, unlike air defense missiles.
Near Sumy, flames engulfed the state university building that intelligence indicated housed communications nodes for territorial defense units. The attack exemplified Russia’s evolving strategy of targeting dual-use facilities that blend civilian and military functions.
Russian strikes in the Sumy region destroyed military depots in Vovna, damaged energy station in Peschane.
After a prolonged pause, Russian drones reached the capital Kyiv region. According to local reports, at least two drone strikes damaged an flying club in Divichki, used by the Air Force of Ukraine for training of UAV operators.
With the ongoing Russian strikes deep in the rear regions, the war-torn Donbass areas that are under Ukrainian control are still bearing the brunt of assault.
Russian forces also continue degrading Ukraine’s drone capabilities. In a particularly effective strike, cluster munitions obliterated a launch site near Iverskoe in the DPR, destroying 100 Ukrainian UJ-22 and Palianytsia drones and killing 40 personnel in what amounted to a catastrophic blow to Kyiv’s long-range strike capacity.
Another UAV operating center was reportedly destroyed in Kherson.
Russian drones pounded Ukrainian positions in the area of Dobropolie. The main targets were the UAV control points of the 93rd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the positions of the 38th Marine Brigade. Other destroyed targets included the UAV remote control points in at least two villages nearby. In Dobropolie, strikes hit the headquarters of the 33rd Mechanized Brigade and Marine Corps posts.
Another heavy blow to Ukrainian Donbass logistics was the strike of a group of Russian Geran UAVs on the facilities of the InterAgroLine company in Slavyansk. This agricultural facility was turned into a multifunctional rear complex of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, supporting logistics, transport supplies, engineering equipment, as well as mobile repair and restoration units.
As dawn broke, the scale of destruction became clear—not just in physical damage, but in the demonstrated vulnerability of Ukraine’s energy grid, arms production, and logistics networks. The strikes underscored Russia’s capacity to sustain complex, multi-front aerial operations as its forces remain engaged in grueling ground campaigns. With diplomatic channels active and battlefield dynamics shifting, the night’s events served as a stark reminder of Moscow’s military force.
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the collapse of ukraine will be a monumental humiliation and loss of face for western regimes. think vietnam x 100 or afghanistan x 1000. when people realise they have been consistently lied to by politicians and the presstitute media for years there will be all hell to pay.