First responders hand a woman retrieved from under the rubble of a house destroyed by a Russian guided bomb over to medics in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on August 2, 2026. Photo by Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Dispatches from Ukraine. Day 1623.
Russia set new wartime records for both the scale and pace of its missile attacks on Ukraine in July, according to data released by the Ukrainian Air Force.
Russian forces launched 381 missiles of all types over the course of the month—an average of just over 12 per day—the highest monthly total and daily rate recorded since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began, according to the Ukrainian military.
The figures also suggest missiles are playing a larger role in Russia’s evolving strike campaign. While Russia’s large-scale attacks continue to rely primarily on drones, missiles accounted for a record share of the total munitions launched in July.
Russian Attack On Zaporizhzhia.
During the daytime on August 2, Russia dropped eight powerful glide bombs in a span of 90 minutes on residential districts of the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, striking a multi-story apartment building, killing one person and injuring at least 31 others, regional chief Ivan Fedorov said Monday.
Russia destroys millions of school textbooks in Kharkiv strike
A Russian drone strike destroyed millions of books, including school textbooks destined for classrooms ahead of the next school year, after hitting a warehouse belonging to the Ranok publishing house in Kharkiv on Aug. 1, according to the company’s head, Viktor Kruhlov.
Kruhlov said two Russian jet-powered drones struck the facility, with the second hitting minutes after the first as employees had already begun trying to extinguish the fire.
Other Russian strikes on July 28 killed at least nine people and injured nearly 70 across Ukraine. The heaviest losses were reported in the eastern Donetsk and Kherson regions, where seven people were killed.
Russia has knocked out every gas station along the roughly 90-mile stretch between Kharkiv and Poltava, according to Kharkiv Regional Council member Oleksandr Skoryk. He said Russia has destroyed more than 200 gas stations across Ukraine, including more than 80 in Kharkiv and the surrounding region.
Zelenskyy in Washington
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Donald Trump at the White House on July 28 as Kyiv sought to lock in the U.S. president’s increasingly favorable stance toward Ukraine.
The meeting came as Washington and Kyiv worked to revive peace efforts that had been derailed by the war in Iran. The two sides explored ways to reinvigorate diplomacy, including an air ceasefire that could eventually be presented to Moscow, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Zelenskyy previously attributed the improvement in relations to Trump’s political instincts. “President Trump wants to be where there’s success,” he told the Financial Times ahead of this month’s NATO summit in Türkiye. He also pointed to a brief encounter with Trump at Pope Francis’ funeral in April 2025 as the moment relations began to thaw.
Zelenskyy said the two leaders “discussed licenses for Patriot production and several other ideas,” referring to Washington’s recent decision to allow Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles rather than wait for U.S.-made systems. Ukraine continues to face a critical shortage of Patriot interceptors. The Patriot remains the only air defense system in Ukraine’s arsenal capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials to help secure Elon Musk’s approval for Ukraine to use the Starlink satellite communications network to support long-range strikes inside Russia, according to reports. The proposal underscores Kyiv’s push to expand its ability to conduct deep strikes while relying on Starlink’s communications infrastructure, which has become a critical component of Ukraine’s military operations.
Russia sanctions legislation
After Zelenskyy’s meeting, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly voted to advance sweeping Russia sanctions legislation, giving Trump another lever to use against Moscow. The bill would authorize the president to sanction Russian officials and impose steep tariffs on countries such as China and India in an effort to curb their purchases of Russian oil and gas.
Russia’s spring-summer 2026 offensive has failed to produce any operationally significant gains more than two and a half months after it began, with the pace of Russian advances remaining slow, according to a new assessment by the Institute for the Study of War. The Washington-based think tank said continued Ukrainian counterattacks, Kyiv’s intermediate-range strike campaign and Ukraine’s dominance in drone warfare have constrained Russia’s ability to advance and deploy mechanized forces effectively. The institute said there are no indications that Russian forces are poised to significantly accelerate their offensive or restore battlefield maneuver in the near term.