Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,256

Here are the key events on day 1,256 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

A resident stands next to burned cars hit by a Russian drone attack, in the town of Druzhkivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Saturday [Oleg Petrasiuk/Press Service of the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters]

Here is how things stand on Sunday, August 3:

Fighting

Kyiv’s military administration warned residents of the Ukrainian capital to take shelter on Saturday night due to the takeoff of a Russian MiG-31K, the carrier of the Russian Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile, in a post on Telegram.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that its team heard explosions and saw smoke coming from an “auxiliary facility” located 1,200 metres from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine.
The Russian-installed administration of the plant said that a civilian was killed by Ukrainian shelling. A fire that broke out near the plant was brought under control, the administrators added in a post on Telegram.
An elderly man was killed inside a house that caught fire due to falling Ukrainian drone debris in Russia’s Samara region, Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev posted on Telegram.
A Ukrainian drone attack killed a guard at an industrial facility and caused a fire in Russia’s Rostov region, acting Governor Yury Slyusar said. “The military repelled a massive air attack during the night”, destroying drones over seven districts, Slyusar wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) said that an explosion killed five soldiers from the Russian-backed Akhmat unit on a minibus near Russian-occupied Melitopol on Saturday.
A Russian drone attack killed a 12-year-old boy and left a 13-year-old hospitalised with shrapnel wounds in the village of Sveska in Ukraine’s Sumy region, Governor Oleh Hryhorov said.
Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency said that Ukrainian drones hit Russia’s Primorsko-Akhtarsk military airfield, which has been used to launch waves of long-range drones at Ukraine. The SBU claimed it also hit a factory in Penza, which it said supplies Russia’s military with electronics.
Ukrainian forces hit an oil refinery in Ryazan, about 180 km (110 miles) southeast of Moscow, causing a fire on its premises, Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces said on Telegram.
Residents of the Korabel neighbourhood in Ukraine’s southern port city of Kherson were urged to evacuate by the head of the region’s military administration after Russian forces damaged a bridge that connected the neighbourhood with the rest of the city.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that Russian forces had captured the village of Oleksandro-Kalynove in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region on Saturday.
The Defence Ministry in Moscow said in its daily report that its defence units downed a total of 338 Ukrainian drones overnight into Saturday morning. It did not say how many Ukrainian drones were launched.
Ukraine’s air force said it had downed 45 of 53 Russian drones launched towards its territory overnight into Saturday morning.
Russia launched 6,129 Shahed-type drones against Ukraine in July 2025, the Kyiv Independent reported, 14 times more than the 423 drones it launched during the same month last year.

Politics and diplomacy

The New York Times reported that two unnamed Indian officials said their country would keep buying Russian oil, even after United States President Donald Trump recently imposed an unspecified penalty for the country’s purchase of Russian oil and military equipment.

Armenia’s Ministry of Defence said that its peacekeeping brigade would undertake joint drills with the US military from August 12 to 20, Interfax reported. Ahead of a previous joint drill with the US in September 2023, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Russia’s war in Ukraine meant it was unable to meet Armenia’s security needs.

Ukrainian authorities detained several officials over a “large-scale corruption scheme” in the defence sector, just days after lawmakers restored the independence of the country’s two main investigative bodies.