TOP HEADLINES

• Russia's FSB security services said Ukraine was behind a car bombing in the outskirts of Moscow that killed the daughter of Alexander Dugin, a hard-line Russian ideologue and a vocal supporter of the Kremlin's offensive in Ukraine. Dugin is thought to have been the likely target of the attack. "The crime was prepared and committed by Ukrainian special services," the FSB said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies. READ MORE BELOW

• Nearly 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the start of the conflict, the country's top military officer said. General Valeriy Zaluzhny, Ukraine's commander-in-chief, said Ukraine's children needed particular attention "because their fathers have gone to the front and are maybe among the nearly 9,000 heroes who have been killed." 

• The European Union will debate the launch of a major training operation for Ukrainian forces in nearby nations, the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. The proposal will be discussed next week at a two-day meeting of EU defense ministers in Prague. "I hope it will be approved," Borrell added.

• In the eastern Bakhmut region, Russian forces inflicted damage from artillery and multiple rocket launcher systems in the areas of Soledar, Zaytseve and Bilogorivka, Ukraine's General Staff said in its daily update.

• Russia might take the provocative step of putting Ukrainian soldiers on trial as Kyiv marks 31 years of independence for the war-ravaged country, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned. He cited media reports that Russia was preparing to put Ukrainian fighters captured during the siege of Mariupol on a public trial to coincide with the independence anniversary on Wednesday. READ MORE BELOW

• Overnight Russian rocket salvoes into Nikopol, across the Dnipro from Russian-occupied Enerhodar where the Zaporizhzhia plant is situated, and nearby Krivyi Rih and Synelnykovsky districts injured at least four people, regional Governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram.

• Russia said its Kalibr missiles had destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for U.S.-made HIMARS rockets in Ukraine's southeastern Odesa region, home to the port critical to a UN-brokered plan to help Ukrainian agricultural exports reach world markets again.

• Russia requested the UN Security Council to hold a meeting regarding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, Russian state-owned news agency RIA reported, citing the Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy.

• Russia's parliament said it will hold a special meeting on Thursday to discuss "the threat to the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant."

• Bulgaria's government announced it would seek talks with Russian energy giant Gazprom to resume deliveries of natural gas ahead of the winter season. Gazprom cut deliveries to Bulgaria in late April after the EU member's previous centrist government refused to pay in rubles.

IN DETAIL

Moscow says Kyiv behind Darya Dugina's car bomb death

Russia's FSB security services said Ukraine was behind a car bombing in the outskirts of Moscow that killed the daughter of hard-line Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin.

Dugin – a vocal supporter of the Kremlin's offensive in Ukraine – is thought to have been the likely target of the attack. 

"The crime was prepared and committed by Ukrainian special services," the FSB said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies. It added that the perpetrator, a female Ukrainian citizen born in 1979, had fled to EU member Estonia. The FSB in its statement identified the woman as Natalia Vovk. 

Darya Dugina was killed on Saturday when a bomb placed in a Toyota Land Cruiser went off as she drove on a highway some 40 kilometers outside Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his "sincere condolences and words of support" following Dugina's death. Putin said in a message to her family that she "proved with her deeds what it means to be a patriot of Russia". 

According to the FSB statement, the attacker arrived in Russia in July 2022 with her underage daughter and rented an apartment in the same building where Dugina lived.

The supposed attacker followed Dugina in a Mini Cooper with registration plates issued in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and in the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine, the FSB added. 

The FSB said the attacker was at a festival outside Moscow that Dugin and his daughter had attended on Saturday. 

Reports from Russian media suggested Dugina had borrowed her father's car at the last minute. 

Dugin, 60, has long advocated the unification of Russian-speaking territories in a vast new Russian empire and wholeheartedly supported Moscow's operation in Ukraine. 

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak denied that the Kyiv authorities were behind the bombing.

Zelenskyy: 'If this despicable court takes place...This will be the line beyond which no negotiations are possible.'

Russia might take the provocative step of putting Ukrainian soldiers on trial as Kyiv marks 31 years of independence for the war-ravaged country this week, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned.

Zelenskyy cited media reports that Russia was preparing to put Ukrainian fighters captured during the siege of Mariupol on a public trial to coincide with the independence anniversary on Wednesday.

Ukraine's Independence Day, August 24, will also mark six months since Russia started its military campaign that has cost thousands of lives.

"If this despicable court takes place, if our people are brought into these settings in violation of all agreements, all international rules, there will be abuse," Zelenskyy warned in an evening address.

"This will be the line beyond which no negotiations are possible."

The capital Kyiv has already announced a ban on public gatherings. Kharkiv also declared a curfew around the holiday.