Russia, which has large oil deposits, is now importing gas due to the Ukraine bombing’s ….
Russia keeps pounding Ukraine civilian area’s….
And?
Russian drone’s have been shot down more frequently over the skies of several NATO countries , .
Ukraine also continue’s to uncover public corruption among it’s government officals….
Fired former defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for national elections seemingly trying to use his strong status with Ukrainians to get back at Zelensky….
The Ukraine President has been adamant that there be NO general elections while the country IS at war with Russia, for fear of political and other disruptions and interference by the Russian’s in Ukraine’s internal politics….
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Russia has begun importing fuel, its government has confirmed, as a shipload of gasoline arrived from India. A fuel exporter in peacetime, Russia has been forced to turn to imports after Ukrainian strikes on its refineries and depots in response to the Russian invasion. The campaign by Kyiv’s military has been a major success, causing fuel shortages across Russia and in illegally occupied Crimea. At least one cargo of gasoline from India has just entered Russia’s domestic market, three industry sources told Reuters and shipping data showed. Russia is also arranging rail imports of gasoline from Belarus and Kazakhstan, and has placed a ban on fuel exports. Reuters reported last week that Russia had also begun shipping in diesel from Asia.
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An Oman-flagged tanker loaded about 68,000 tonnes of gasoline at the Port Said anchorage in a ship-to-ship transfer from the tanker Agni, which had been loaded at India’s Vadinar port, sources told Reuters. The tanker unloaded at Russia’s Arctic port of Vitino in early August, shipping data showed. India has been one of the keenest customers of Russian oil held at low prices by war sanctions.
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The importation of refined Indian products is a reversal of the flow that speaks to the toll of the war on Russia’s own processing capabilities. According to industry data, at least two more gasoline cargoes from India are expected to arrive at Russian ports within the next two weeks. Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak acknowledged on Wednesday that imports had begun but did not give details on the volumes or sources. Fuel stations in Moscow have reimposed purchasing limits, according to Reuters witnesses and fuel suppliers. State-owned Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil company, said petrol purchases were restricted to 30 litres at all its stations across the country.
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At least five people died in Kyiv during Russian strikes early on Thursday, local officials and the military reported. A heavy attack with missiles hit residential areas and warehouses, said the Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko. “The upper floors of a nine-storey residential block have collapsed and a fire has broken out,” he said. “At another address, people are trapped inside a residential block.” Ukraine’s air force warned that Russia had fired Kalibr missiles at the capital. On Wednesday a Russian drone hit a minibus in Kherson, killing four people, said Ukrainian prosecutors, while at Zhytomyr in central Ukraine a Banderol drone-missile hit the police headquarters, killing two officers and wounding at least 20 others, the police service said. In Russia’s border regions of Belgorod and Bryansk two people were killed when drones hit cars, said Russian officials.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired a senior aide amid a fresh corruption investigation, Dan Sabbagh writes. Iryna Mudra, a presidential deputy chief of staff, was dismissed by decree after multiple reports in Ukrainian media that her house was being searched by officials investigating an alleged money-laundering scheme. The Nabu anti-corruption agency said it was investigating a criminal conspiracy that involved “the participation of high-ranking officials from the office of the president” and several others.
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A Ukrainian man has been arrested in Croatia as part of an investigation into the 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Germany and Russia. Prosecutors identified the suspect only as Vladimir Z, but he is understood to be the same man arrested by Poland last year, then released after a Polish court ruled against executing a European arrest warrant issued by Germany. He was identified in that court as Volodymyr Zhuravlev. Prosecutors allege the trained scuba diver was directly involved in the explosions.
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Berlin will seek the man’s extradition to face trial at the federal court in Karlsruhe, in Germany. The German prosecutor’s office said the suspect “belonged to a group of people, including the separately prosecuted Serhiy K, who planted explosives near the island of Bornholm in September 2022 on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines”.
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The UN’s humanitarian chief has visited Kherson, where he saw theimpact of Russian drones and described the situation as chilling, with civilians and aid efforts targeted. Marked vehicles of aid workers had been hit despite being protected under international law, Tom Fletcher said. Particularly exposed were the local organisations carrying out aid missions on behalf of Ukraine’s humanitarian fund. “They’re the ones who are saying most loudly to us, we’re not protected.”
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Russia and Ukraine exchanged 103 prisoners of war each, officials from both sides said on Wednesday. Ukrainian intelligence said another swap was expected before the end of August….
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ISW...Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 20, 2026
- Russian forces launched a massive, combined drone and missile strike against Ukraine, continuing a pattern of stockpiling ballistic and cruise missiles for several days to amass enough for major attacks that cause significant civilian casualties.
- Russia continues to set conditions to augment strike packages with North Korean missiles, including with upgraded KN-30 ballistic missiles.
- Russian aerial drones penetrated Moldovan and Romanian airspace, and a Russian naval drone was destroyed close to a Romanian natural gas platform on August 20, demonstrating that the Kremlin has accepted the risk that its war against Ukraine will cause damage to other states, including NATO states.
- The Kremlin will likely cause a significant number of Russian combat veterans of the war in Ukraine to be elected to the Russian State Duma in the September 2026 elections, particularly as members of the United Russia Party, as part of a concerted effort to militarize Russian society and cohere a pro-war and ultranationalist elite.
- The Russian government continues to respond inadequately to gasoline shortages and appears to be focused on mitigation strategies and ad hoc solutions instead of addressing the issue directly.
- Neither the Kremlin nor Russian milbloggers appear to believe that Russia will be able to fully intercept Ukrainian strike packages any time soon.
- Ukrainian forces continued their long-range strike campaign against Russian oil infrastructure and military assets on the night of August 19 to 20.
- Russian forces recently advanced in northern Sumy Oblast and in the Pokrovsk direction.
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As Ukraine confronted a serious fissure in national unity — set off on Wednesday when the country’s popular former defense minister demanded wartime elections — Russia bombarded Kyiv with an hours-long barrage of missiles and drones overnight, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more.
The ex-defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, who is a key contributor to Ukraine’s successful drone program, was abruptly fired last month by President Volodymyr Zelensky, drawing street protests. He rejected an offer of another government post and instead has challenged Zelensky by calling for elections.
But some political actors are warning that a vote during wartime — which would require changes to Ukraine’s constitution and other laws — could aid Russia by destabilizing the government, exacerbating societal divisions and distracting from the military’s defense against the ongoing invasion and air attacks.
“People understand that elections during the war are in the enemy’s hands,” an opposition member of parliament, Roman Lozynskyi, posted on Facebook on Wednesday, following Fedorov’s remarks. “It will be a war of all against all, a field for fakes and manipulations. A torn and already wounded society,” Lozynskyi wrote.
Lozynskyi noted that according to Ukraine’s constitution, parliamentary elections are forbidden during martial law. International election experts have also said it is virtually impossible to hold a free and fair vote with millions of civilians displaced by the war and hundreds of thousands of soldiers deployed.
To hold presidential elections, Lozynskyi wrote, Ukraine must “find a solution not only for the method of safe voting, but also for dozens of other unresolved ‘little things.’”….
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One European diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive Ukrainian politics, said Fedorov’s remarks were a “a political manifesto” and “a clear break with the Zelensky team.”
“I think he has a strong political instinct when it comes to understanding the expectations of the Ukrainian middle class,” the diplomat said. “It is still too early to say whether he will actually manage to keep this issue on the political agenda. At the same time, I consider his call for elections dangerous.”
Lozynskyi, the opposition member of parliament, said Ukraine was not prepared for elections and would need to create infrastructure and commissions that could organize voting by the millions of Ukrainians away from home, either living abroad, internally displaced or serving in the military.
“Holding elections that will be distrusted within the country or that are not recognized by the partners on whom we now depend is a ticking time bomb,” he wrote. “And the enemy will definitely want to take advantage of this.”
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Daily Kos Grunt Report….
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