What 23 August 2023 showed about the drone war

What did the war look like on 23 August 2023? The reports from that day and the days before it describe a conflict increasingly fought from the air and far from the front line, with civilians and infrastructure in the line of fire.

Strikes on a school and on grain

On 23 August 2023, a Russian drone strike on a school in Romny, in Sumy Oblast, killed four people and injured four others. The same day, a Russian drone strike on agricultural facilities in Izmail, in Odesa Oblast, destroyed 13,000 tons of grain and damaged infrastructure.

The two attacks hit very different targets: a place where people were present, and stores of food. Both were reported as Russian drone strikes in areas away from the main fighting.

Western missiles arrive

One day earlier, on 22 August 2023, France delivered the first shipment of its SCALP-EG air-launched cruise missiles to Ukraine. The delivery was reported as part of the military aid being supplied to Ukraine during the war.

Ukraine's own long-range reach

Ukrainian actions inside Russia were also in the news. On 21 August 2023, two people were injured by falling debris from a Ukrainian drone strike on Moscow, and flights were disrupted at the city's airports. Russia said it shot down one drone and jammed another.

The same day, Ukraine claimed that saboteurs coordinated by its military intelligence had destroyed a Tupolev Tu-22M heavy bomber at the Soltsy-2 airbase in Novgorod Oblast.

Reading the sequence

Taken together, the reports show activity on several fronts at once: Russian drones striking Ukrainian towns and agricultural sites, a new category of Western-supplied missile reaching Ukraine, and Ukraine claiming operations deep inside Russian territory. The reports do not link these events to one another, and each should be read on its own terms. What they do record is the toll on 23 August 2023: four dead in Romny, and thousands of tons of grain lost in Izmail.