In fact, new peak levels of offensives can be seen, Kiviselg added.

"Despite meetings between heads of state and various discussions of possible ceasefire negotiations, we do not see this having in any way reached the battlefield. Rather the reverse," Kiviselg said at Friday's Ministry of Defense press conference.

"We are seeing new peaks of attacks, if we speak here about the August 28 attack. There is no basis to assume that the Russian Federation is taking peace negotiations and preparations for them seriously," he went on.

"Territorially speaking, Russia's armed forces have advanced nearly 100 square kilometers over the past seven days, most of which was captured in Donetsk oblast," Kiviselg went on.

Kiviselg noted that based on publicly available sources, Russian armed forces have captured about 16 percent more of Donetsk oblast's territory this year, and now occupy just under 77 percent of the entire oblast. "This confirms once again that Donetsk oblast remains one of the main efforts of the Russian armed forces," he went on.

"Over the past week, the Russian armed forces have gone on every day with long-range drone strikes against various targets in the directions of Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Pokrovsk, Dobropillia, Kharkiv, Poltava, Cherkasy, and Chernihiv. The number of drones launched per day has stayed between 50 and 100. For example, long-range drone strikes were carried out on electricity and gas infrastructure targets, with hits on a substation in Sumy, a substation in Novhorod-Siverskyi, and a gas compressor station in Dikanka."

Kiviselg added that on the night of August 28, Russia conducted yet another massive combined series of missile and long-range drone strikes. "Kh-101 cruise missiles were launched from strategic bombers; Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles from fighter jets; ballistic missiles from Iskander missile systems and possibly also from North Korean missile systems. A considerable number of long-range drones were also launched – totalling 598. That is only 130 fewer than on July 9, when the largest number of drones in one day in this war so far had been launched, at 728," the colonel added.

Kiviselg added that as a result of the strikes, hits were recorded in Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Poltava, Chernihiv, Ternopil, Sumy, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernivtsi oblasts.

Civilian and international installations and organizations were also hit.

"In Kyiv, several factories such as Artem, Ukrspetssistems, Samsung, and the Kyiv radio factory were hit or damaged. Also hit or damaged was the under-construction plant of the Turkish company Baykar. In addition to industrial facilities, Kyiv civilian objects such as, for example, a passenger train of the national railway company standing in the Intercity depot, residential buildings, and the building of the European Union and British Council representations were also damaged or hit," Kiviselg went on.

As for military targets, according to Kiviselg, long-range drone, Kh-101 cruise missile, and Kinzhal aeroballistic missile strikes were carried out against the airfields at Koziatyn and Kolomyia.

"Alongside the targeting of infrastructure facilities, missile and air strikes continue to be carried out on the Ukrainian armed forces' temporary concentration areas and defensive positions," Kiviselg noted.

"With regard to the latter, glide bombs from air force bombers are dropped, and ballistic missiles from Iskander systems are launched on the concentration areas. Every day air strikes with glide bombs are carried out in the directions of Huliaipole, Pokrovsk, Lyman, Siverskyi, and Sumy. The main direction of strikes is Pokrovsk, where over the last four months nearly 3,600 bombs have already been dropped. In just the last two weeks alone, about 700 of them were dropped toward Pokrovsk. The goal is to destroy the Ukrainians' defensive lines, after which infantry assaults are carried out," Kiviselg said.

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