Add the Gazzetta del Sud as a source
Ten new secret bases from which to launch the most advanced models of its drones would have been built by Russia and already partly used to hammer Ukraine, which is increasingly short of air defenses. But from these sites the unmanned aircraft could also be launched “deep into NATO territory”, with Warsaw being within their range of action. This is stated by the Telegraphin an investigation based on the analysis of «leaked documents, satellite images» and data from the analysis company DroneSec.
The 59 launch pads along the borders with Ukraine and Belarus
The British newspaper claims to have identified “at least 59 launch pads” along the borders with Ukraine and Belarus from where the latest versions of the drones released from Russian factories could launch: jet aircraft “capable of reaching targets almost 620 miles away”. That is about a thousand kilometres. Always according to Telegraphseven of the ten bases were used by Moscow in the recent bombings of Kiev, but they could also be used against countries of the Atlantic Alliance in the event of a direct conflict. Satellite images would show a significant increase in supplies of high-tech drones. At least one of the bases would be able to store over a thousand aircraft ready for use.
Nine dead in Russia in Ukrainian attacks
Meanwhile, intense bombing by Ukrainian drones and missiles continues on various regions of Russia. After the seven deaths reported on Sunday, on Monday the Moscow authorities reported nine more killed: six in a missile attack in the Belgorod region, in the village of Koloskovo, one in the same oblast from a drone raid and one each, also killed by drones, in the Astrakhan and Bryansk regions.
Moscow claims responsibility for the raids on Ukrainian ports
Russian forces continue to concentrate in particular on bombing Ukrainian ports. Moscow’s Defense Ministry said a Tarantul-class motor torpedo boat and a ship unloading arms and ammunition for Ukrainian forces were hit in Odessa, on the Black Sea. Another cargo ship of this kind was bombed in the port of Mykolaiv, while in the port of Izmail, along the Danube on the border with Romania, “a docking terminal for the unloading of ships with cargoes of military use, hangars with Western military equipment, as well as warehouses for unmanned vessels” were targeted. Near Odessa, the Russian ministry adds, a logistics center of Nova Pochta, the largest private Ukrainian freight forwarder, was hit, whose sites have already been targeted several times in recent weeks.
Kallas: «In autumn the widest list of sanctions since the beginning of the war»
Meanwhile, EU High Representative Kaja Kallas, in an interview with the German newspaper Die Weltstated that «in the autumn the most extensive list of sanctions since the beginning of the war will be presented». “The pressure must be increased until Russia ends the war,” he added.
Gallagher’s mission to Russia from 25 to 28 August
The Secretary for Relations with States (the Foreign Minister) of the Vatican, Msgr. Paul Richard Gallagher, however, is expected for a mission to Russia from 25 to 28 August to evaluate whether it is possible to achieve “concrete results” in the diplomatic action of the Holy See. This is what the newspaper writes Nezavisimaia Gazeta. Gallagher himself and Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) who has twice carried out missions in Moscow, in 2023 and 2024, were in Kiev last month. And Zuppi himself is planning a new visit to Russia, probably in September. For Gallagher, he writes Nezavisimaia Gazetait is important to ensure that Zuppi’s new mission does not result in a “diplomatic impasse” like the one that occurred in 2023, “when Russia flatly refused to discuss any political aspect of resolving the conflict with the papal envoy and the Vatican mission was reduced to dealing with humanitarian issues.”