Russia has launched another massed missile attack on Kyiv in the early hours of 20 August. Russian forces struck the capital with ballistic and Zircon hypersonic missiles, with loud explosions heard across the city and region, according to Ukraine's monitoring channel Yeradar.

The strike is the latest in Russia's campaign of massed missile attacks on Kyiv. Russia has repeatedly hit the capital with ballistic and hypersonic weapons that Ukraine struggles to intercept for lack of Patriot missiles, killing civilians in their homes.

As of 1 AM, Russian Kalibr cruise missiles are approaching Ukrainian cities from Novorossiysk.

Earlier, Ukraine's Defense Ministry said that Russia went back to using imported electronics for its Kalibr cruise missiles’ guidance system after failing to replace them with homemade alternatives.

The ship-launched missile’s homing boards “are made up of more than 80–90% foreign-made components," the Ukrainian authorities reported.

The confirmed toll so far

Casualties were mounting as the attack went on. As of the latest update, one person was killed and three wounded in the attack, the Kyiv City Military Administration said, with information still being clarified.

The strikes hit across several districts. A children's hospital was damaged in the Solomianskyi district, where people were reported to be trapped in a shelter, and a five-story residential building was hit. Warehouses burned in the Sviatoshynskyi district, and non-residential buildings were struck in Darnytskyi, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported.

The attack was still developing

Ukraine's air defenses were engaging an ongoing threat. The Air Force had warned of ballistic weapons approaching from the north and northeast, and monitoring channels reported Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers taking off, which typically precede cruise-missile launches.

"Explosions in the capital. Kyiv is under ballistic attack. Stay in shelters," Klitschko wrote as the strikes continued.

With the attack unfolding as officials reported it, the full toll and damage were not yet known; the figures provided were preliminary.

A member of former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov's team is moving over to the new minister. Mstyslav Banik, who served as a deputy to Fedorov, says he is staying on under the newly appointed Defense Minister, Yevhenii Khmara, Suspilne reports.

Khmara will propose that the core of the current Defense Ministry team stay in their positions. In particular, this concerns specialists responsible for procurement reform, according to sources from the ruling Servant of the People, per RBC-Ukraine.

Banik stays to continue the reform

Banik has run a central piece of the ministry's modernization. He is responsible for carrying out the defense-procurement reform and became a deputy defense minister under Fedorov on 25 March 2026, having previously led the ministry's digital products.

In 2025, he moved to the role of head of digital products at the Defense Ministry, where he led the development of "Army+" and "Reserve+", the apps that digitized military service and mobilization, before taking on procurement reform.

Khmara wants to keep the team

Banik is not the only figure Khmara wants to retain. According to reports, Khmara wants First Deputy Defense Minister Oleksii Vyskub to stay in his post as well, MPs said.

The priority behind the retentions is the reform's momentum. Khmara considers it important to continue the procurement reform, particularly the part connected to international support for Ukraine, MPs said, so keeping the specialists who built it preserves the expertise and the relationships with partners that the overhaul depends on.

Continuity amid a contested change

The retentions may temper a leadership change that drew protests. Khmara's appointment followed the removal of Fedorov, which prompted a month of rallies demanding Fedorov's return.

That the reformers are staying suggests that the change of minister need not mean a change in how Ukraine equips its forces.

Earlier, Fedorov addressed Ukrainians, saying the country cannot remain without a fully appointed defense minister, but at the same time called for mechanisms that would allow elections during the war.

Ukrainian activists who spent a month calling for the former defense minister’s return have criticized the appointment of his successor. People rallying in Kyiv's Mariinskyi Park for the reinstatement of Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister greeted the news of Yevhenii Khmara's appointment to the post with disappointment, Ukrinform reports.

The rally caps a month of protests over Fedorov's dismissal. People have gathered on Ukraine's streets since President Volodymyr Zelenskyy removed Fedorov amid a logistics-lockdown operation against Russia and successful strikes deep into its territory. Parliament approved Khmara despite the protests.

"Shame!" protesters reacted to the appointment

The crowd met the appointment with anger. They began chanting "Shame!" and beating drums as the news of Khmara's confirmation broke.

They said that the post "should belong to another person" and appealed to the Ukrainian government: "We greatly respect Khmara, but please, do not hide behind Khmara," the activists said.

"We demand dialogue"

The protesters framed their grievance as a lack of dialogue with the president. They chanted slogans including "We demand dialogue," "Do not destroy our future," "Dialogue, not ignoring," "Fedorov instead of Khmara," "Power is the people," and "Power is responsibility," and said there was no dialogue with Zelenskyy on the matter.

Some held placards reading "Return Fedorov," "Against Khmara," "Thank you for Drapatyi, return Fedorov," and others praising Fedorov's record on strikes against Russia.

The protest continues

The activists announced a pause and the next step. After the news of Khmara's appointment, they said they were ending this particular protest and called on people to come to Ivan Franko Square at 7 p.m., saying they plan to hold such actions there daily.

The day before the vote, Fedorov addressed Ukrainians, saying the country cannot remain without a fully appointed defense minister, but at the same time called for mechanisms that would allow elections to be held in full during martial law.

He did not name a specific proposal or answer the question of who exactly should launch this mechanism, adding only that "democracy cannot be a hostage to Russia."

He also stated that Fedorov declared a "systemic crisis of governance" in Ukraine and criticized the influence of private interests on the parliament's work, effectively hinting that the current leaders are ineffective.

Yevhenii Khmara has become Ukraine's new defense minister after the voting in the Ukrainian parliament. He will take office after the previous Minister of Defense, Mykhailo Fedorov, whose dismissal sparked major protests across Ukraine, but this did not change the decision.

During his first speech, Khmara made it clear that he would continue his predecessor's course — the technologization of the army, according to Ukraine's Defense Ministry.

"The aggressor can only be forced into peace through the strength of our military, technological, and asymmetric solutions, first and foremost, the constant updating and effective application of technology," Khmara said.

He added that there "would be more Ukrainian weapons, and strikes would be more precise."

Threat of new wave of mobilization in Russia

Khmara also stated that intelligence data indicates Russia is preparing for a new wave of mobilization, so building up the means to destroy Russia's combat capabilities is one of the key priorities of the Defense Forces.

"A strong enemy is waging war against us, one that employs the most treacherous and cruel methods of warfare. We know about Russia's next steps, its mobilization plans, and its strategy for fall and winter," Khmara stated.

Earlier, Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence, Major General Vadym Skibitsky, said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine that Russia could attempt to launch an offensive in north of Ukraine this year, but the necessary conditions for such an operation are not currently in place. Such an assault could threat Sumy, Chernihiv, and Kyiv oblasts.

Opportunities for this could arise through mobilization following the parliamentary elections in the Russian Federation in September.

Three main priorities

Also, during his speech, Khmara outlined three priorities for his position. Among them: seizing the strategic initiative in all domains of war, timely delivery of weapons to the front along with transparent procurement procedures, and human capital.

"This is about seizing the strategic initiative in all domains of war: on land, at sea, in the air, in the information space," Khmara stated.

He also emphasized the need to ensure rapid exchange of information between the front and the ministry, so that the needs of the military are promptly taken into account when making decisions.

According to the newly appointed minister, the army must receive the necessary weapons in sufficient quantities and on time, and procurement must be carried out transparently, free of unnecessary bureaucracy, and in the interests of the front and Ukraine's defense.

In addition, Khmara named "human capital, the lives and health of soldiers" as a priority.

"Technology is needed so that the Ukrainian defender has an advantage, so that the risk to a person's life is minimized," he added.

Polish prosecutors have charged a 46-year-old woman over a nationality-based attack on two Ukrainian siblings in Bydgoszcz, days after police detained her and a 34-year-old man, whom they questioned as a witness, Polish Radio's Ukrainian Service reported the detentions on 18 August 2026, with the charges filed the same evening.

The detentions came four days after the alleged attack in a park near Bydgoszcz’s main railway station. The Bydgoszcz-North district prosecutor charged the woman with insulting the siblings and violating a minor's bodily integrity on nationality grounds. She denied intentionally insulting or assaulting the children and gave police a different account of the encounter.

The case comes amid rising reports of suspected hate crimes against Ukrainians and worsening relations between Warsaw and Kyiv. Police received 180 such reports in the first half of 2026—about one a day. At that pace, 2026 would end more than 30% above 2025 and nearly 35% above 2024.

Prosecutors charged only the woman; the 34-year-old man detained with her was questioned as a witness, even though the mother and the consulate described both adults as aggressors. The prosecutor placed her under police supervision, imposed a no-contact order, and set bail at 5,000 zł ($1,340). The destruction of the boy's toy drone was treated as a misdemeanor because the toy was worth just over 100 zł ($27).

The siblings—a 14-year-old girl and her 12-year-old brother—were playing with a toy drone in the park when the adults confronted them about using it, their mother told police. The Ukrainian consulate said the adults also insulted and threatened the children after hearing them speak Ukrainian.

“They twisted a child’s arm, broke a toy drone, and threw fragments at the boy,” Ukraine’s Consulate General in Gdańsk said.

The consulate said the fragments scratched the boy but caused no serious injury.

Other attacks on Ukrainians in Poland

The Bydgoszcz case is one of several recent assaults involving Ukrainian victims.

Police detained two women on 14 August over an attack on Ukrainian men outside a Poznań restaurant the previous day. A video showed one woman insulting, spitting at, and striking the men.

In July, three men allegedly beat a Ukrainian couple in Wrocław after asking whether they were Ukrainian. In Łódź, a man allegedly attacked a passerby he mistook for Ukrainian, breaking his nose and jaw.

The violence has prompted public protests. On 9 August, the Committee for the Defense of Democracy organized “Don’t be indifferent” rallies in 22 cities. Two days earlier, Warsaw organizers delivered a petition with more than 11,000 signatures calling for government action against attacks on Ukrainians.

Deepening Polish-Ukrainian rift and decline in relations

The rise in anti-Ukrainian violence in Poland has unfolded amid worsening political relations between Kyiv and Warsaw. Polish support for accepting Ukrainian refugees fell from 94% in March 2022 to 48% by early 2026, while politicians increasingly use Ukraine as a wedge issue.

Historical disputes over the Volhynia massacres and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) have also strained relations. The rift sharpened after Zelenskyy signed a decree granting a Ukrainian special forces unit the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA.” Polish President Karol Nawrocki announced on 19 June that he had decided to revoke Zelenskyy’s Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state honor.