The night of August 24 brought a broad and coordinated Russian strike campaign across southern and eastern Ukraine, with the Odessa Oblast bearing the heaviest blow.
Beginning at 1 a.m. and again at 4 a.m., two waves of Geran-2 strike drones hit targets in Akkerman. NASA fire monitoring data confirmed two large blazes — one at the site of the abandoned Hemoplast factory, a second near a Nova Poshta distribution facility. Within thirty minutes, a missile strike followed against Odessa and the settlement of Bilyary. Two cruise missiles struck targets in Odessa, while four cruise missiles, two anti-ship missiles, and guided glide bombs hit Bilyary — delivered by a mixed Russian aviation package of six Su-34s, four Su-35s, and two Su-57s. It was one of the more sophisticated strike packages deployed in recent weeks, combining stealth-capable airframes with conventional strike aircraft in a single coordinated strike. Meanwhile, Balakleya in Kharkiv Oblast endured two separate Geran-2 drone waves overnight, with fires reported at the points of impact.
Additional details also emerged regarding the Iskander cluster munition strikes on Boryspil on August 22. Emergency services footage, published to document firefighting operations, inadvertently provided battle damage assessment imagery: the burned-out trucks contained launch containers for FP-2 long-range drones, confirming that what appeared to be civilian transport was in fact military equipment operating under commercial cover.
The strikes and the ground war are feeding the same outcome — a Ukraine under pressure it cannot fully absorb on any front.
In Kupyansk, the months-long positional stalemate is breaking. As of August 21, Russian forces have restored control over the central part of the city and the Yubileinyi district, with Ukrainian units pulling back to peripheral areas. The battle for Kupyansk is far from over — Ukrainian command will almost certainly attempt counterattacks to deny Russian forces time to consolidate, and scattered Ukrainian groups remain inside the Russian-controlled zone, requiring clearance. But the direction of movement is no longer ambiguous.
On the northern flank of the Zaporizhzhia front, the advance continues. On August 21, forward units of Russia’s 36th Brigade seized the village of Zelenе. The likely next objective is Novonykolaivka to the northwest — a key road junction through which significant volumes of Ukrainian logistical traffic flows. Taking it would further degrade Ukraine’s ability to sustain its positions across this sector.
Russia is dismantling Ukraine’s defenses the way a careful demolition crew works — methodically, without drama, and with a clear sequence in mind. The strikes blind, the ground advances exploit, and each gain creates the conditions for the next one. Kyiv is running out of positions to fall back to and time to build new ones.
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