Zelenskyy sets a 1,000-drone daily target while Budanov keeps the 30,000-a-month mobilization floor
President Zelenskyy called raising daily drone strikes on Russia to 1,000 a concrete goal Ukrainian forces would fulfil; Ukrainian forces struck an oil refinery in Yaroslavl about 1,000 km from the front line. Ukrainian officials said Russian strikes the same day killed five people across four regions. Presidential Office head Budanov said forces cannot be sustained on fewer than 30,000 mobilised people a month and ruled out a near-term end to the war, while the government approved a draft easing residency rules for foreign fighters.
Geopolitics··Morning
Yaroslavl strike and the 1,000-drone target
In his Friday evening address President Zelenskyy said daily drone strikes on Russia would be raised to 1,000, calling it a concrete goal the country would fulfil. The current estimated rate is about 300 a day and no timeline was given. Ukrainian forces struck an oil refinery in Yaroslavl about 1,000 km from the front line the same day. Regional officials reported one person killed and two injured in the Kyiv region, one killed and seven wounded in Sumy, one killed and 11 injured including a child in Kherson, and two killed and 13 injured including two children in Kharkiv.[1]
1,000-drone target and 30,000 mobilization floor
Zelenskyy called raising daily drone strikes to 1,000 a concrete goal while Presidential Office head Kyrylo Budanov said the country cannot sustain its forces on fewer than 30,000 mobilised people a month.[1], [2]
Mobilization floor, war timeline and foreign-fighter residency
Budanov said changing how the call-up is framed will not change the quantitative indicators. He also said stopping the war now is not realistic and that talks concern technical preparation rather than an immediate peace. Forced mobilisation has been in place since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, and attacks on draft officers grew more frequent in 2026. On 22 August parliamentary defence committee secretary Roman Kostenko said officials were weighing radical changes to the mobilisation system, including the draft age. Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi announced on 28 August that the government had approved a draft law extending legal temporary residence after military service from three to six months and counting time in the armed forces towards the five-year requirement for an immigration permit. The bill also creates a special certificate for foreigners who cannot travel abroad to obtain or exchange a passport amid threats or political circumstances; the certificate targets volunteers from Belarus and Russia who face prosecution at home. Among them are members of the Freedom for Russia Legion and the Kastus Kalinowski regiment, many of whom have received state awards. A law of 18 June 2025 had already cut the contract service required for foreign fighters to apply for citizenship from three years to one year. The bill has not yet been registered in parliament.[2], [3]
