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What did 23 August 2023 show about the air war?
Summary
A look back at a day of Russian drone strikes on a school and on grain stores, set against Ukrainian and Western moves in the preceding days.
What did the air war look like on 23 August 2023? It was a day in which Russian drones struck a school and a grain facility, while the days before it had brought new Western weapons and Ukrainian attacks inside Russia.
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.
Weapons arriving
On 22 August 2023, France delivered the first shipment of its SCALP-EG air-launched cruise missiles to Ukraine, a step in the military aid flowing to Kyiv during the war.
Strikes on Russian territory
Two days earlier, on 21 August 2023, a Ukrainian drone strike on Moscow injured two people with falling debris and disrupted flights at the city's airports. Russia said it had 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.
The picture across three days
Taken together, the reports from 21 to 23 August 2023 show strikes in both directions. Ukraine was reported to have hit targets in Moscow and at an airbase in Novgorod Oblast, while Russian drones hit a school in Sumy Oblast and grain stores in the Odesa region. Civilians in Romny bore the human cost that day, and the loss of 13,000 tons of grain at Izmail was a direct blow to agricultural infrastructure.
