Five people were killed in Ukrainian shelling in the Russian region of Belgorod during the night, the governor of this region, which is close to Kursk and has been under attack by kyiv for more than two weeks, announced on Sunday, August 25. Vyacheslav Gladkov added on Telegram that 12 people were also injured, six of whom were “in serious condition“. Among them, a 16-year-old girl placed in intensive care, according to the same source. Follow our live feed.
Eleven people were killed in two regions of Ukraine. Russian shelling has killed 11 people in the past 24 hours, authorities said. In the eastern Donetsk region, where most of the fighting is taking place, seven people have died since Saturday in Kostyantynivka, Toretsk and Kotlyn, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin. “Fifteen people were also injured in the area over the past day,” he said on Telegram. Four people were killed and 13 injured in shelling by the Russian army in the Sumy region (north), according to Ukrainian police.
Two Reuters journalists injured, one missing after Russian strike. Two journalists were injured and a third disappeared under the rubble after a Russian strike on a hotel in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, overnight, regional authorities said. “The three victims are journalists, citizens of Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom,” said on Telegram the head of the Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin. The three are Reuters collaborators, the news agency announced in a statement, specifying that three other members of their team are unharmed.
Volodymyr Zelensky promises “retaliation” against Russia. The Ukrainian president promised on Saturday “reprisals” to Russia, as kyiv launched an offensive in Russia’s border region of Kursk, while Russian troops continue to advance in eastern Ukraine. Russia wanted “destroy us” but the war is “came home”the Ukrainian president said.
Exchange of prisoners of war between the belligerents. The two countries announced Saturday that they had carried out an exchange of 230 prisoners of war from both sides, which involves Russian conscripts captured during the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk border region. This exchange was carried out, like many previous ones, under the mediation of the United Arab Emirates, which welcomed being “a reliable mediator supporting diplomacy to resolve the crisis between the two countries.”