Ukraine hits Russian rocket plant and air base with new missiles

On Saturday, August 15, 2026, Ukraine conducted a large-scale long-range strike against industrial infrastructure in Russia's southwestern Samara region, according to a Russian official who reported the attack and said medical assistance was provided to the injured without giving further details. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on social media that Kyiv's forces used domestically produced Flamingo missiles to hit the Progress Center in Samara, which operates under Russian space agency Roscosmos and produces rocket technology and electronics. The site is approximately 900 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Zelenskyy also stated that Russia's Savasleyka air base, about 700 kilometers from the front line, was hit. He wrote, "Peace is needed, and this must be evident in Russia — through concrete damage to specific facilities."

This attack is part of Ukraine's intensified campaign of long-range strikes on Russian military industries and energy facilities, aiming to reduce Moscow's revenue for the war and make Russians feel the consequences of the invasion, now in its fifth year. While most Ukrainian strikes have a range of less than 200 kilometers, longer-range attacks have increased dramatically this year, with July seeing three times as many as January, according to data from ACLED, an independent conflict monitor. These deep strikes have forced Russia to stretch its air defenses over a larger area.

Russia's Ministry of Defense reported shooting down 598 Ukrainian drones over 19 Russian regions, as well as the Black and Azov Seas and the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Separately, two people, including a nine-year-old child, were wounded when a Ukrainian drone hit a private home in Shatura in the Moscow region, according to local Governor Andrey Vorobyov. In response, Russia's Ministry of Defense said it targeted warehouses and infrastructure at the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Izmail, and Yuzhnyi. Ukraine's Air Force reported that Russia launched 152 drones over the country on Saturday, of which 124 were destroyed.

Meanwhile, in Kyiv, hundreds of mourners gathered for a memorial ceremony for 3-year-old Dmytro Kucher and his grandparents, Halyna and Petro Kucher, who were killed by a Russian drone strike on August 8. The drone destroyed their home in the Brovary district, northeast of Kyiv. An initial ceremony was held at Kyiv's Spaskyi Lyceum, where Halyna had served as school principal for over 20 years, before moving to a churchyard in Zazymia. The couple's son, Oleksandr Kucher, said his parents had been together since fifth grade, and he described the devastating impact of the Shahed drone on his mother. The attack underscores the ongoing human toll of the conflict, with civilian casualties on both sides.