Russia and Ukraine exchanged drone strikes in the early hours of August 7, a day after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US special envoy Steve Witkoff, which US President Donald Trump said “made a lot of progress.”
The Ukrainian Air Force said that its air defenses “shot down or suppressed” 89 drone attacks overnight, while 23 hit at 11 locations.
The Russian military launched dozens of drones over Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, with four people injured in the city of Dnipro.
Russia has faced repeated accusations from Ukrainian authorities and international watchdogs of committing war crimes by systematically targeting civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, and power facilities. The Kremlin, however, continues to deny any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said it intercepted and destroyed 82 Ukrainian drones, 76 over the Southern Federal District and six over the Central Federal District, Interfax reported.
Video from Russian Telegram channels showed explosions purportedly from Ukrainian drones hitting oil refineries.
Possible Trump-Putin Meeting
Following Putin’s talks with Witkoff, there has been further talk of a meeting between the Russian and US leaders to discuss Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, said on August 8 that an agreement has been reached to hold a meeting between Putin and Trump in the coming days. There has been no confirmation from the US side.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “today is a day of many calls and contacts” to make progress on the path to peace. He said that he had several conversations planned, including with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The Kremlin held the meeting with Witkoff just two days before Trump’s August 8 deadline, which warned Putin to agree to a cease-fire with Kyiv or face new tariffs designed to cut into Russia’s oil revenues used to finance the war.
Meanwhile, a new Gallup poll showed that Ukrainians are increasingly eager for a settlement to the war, with only one-quarter of Ukrainians surveyed wanting to keep fighting until victory.
In 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February, Gallup found that about three-quarters of Ukrainians surveyed held that view.
