On the night of August 17, drone attacks killed a resident of the Astrakhan Region. Governor Igor Babushkin reported that a drone struck a private home in the Yenotayevsky District. The woman inside was killed. Her teenage son was unharmed.

Presenting Ilham Aliyev with the certificate of Honorary Citizen of Irpen, Ukrainian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Yuriy Gusev thanked the President of Azerbaijan and the country for their support of Ukraine and assistance in the city's restoration.

It is time for Armenia to decide how it will participate in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), stated the organization's Secretary General, Taalatbek Masadykov. According to him, the issue needs to be resolved "within a reasonable timeframe."

Fuel shipments from the Tbilisi-controlled part of Georgia to Abkhazia have sparked a new political conflict in the country. The opposition believes that Moscow and the ruling "Georgian Dream" party are behind the gasoline shipment. Authorities, however, insist that the fuel was supplied by private business and that the trade itself does not violate Georgian law.

A network of 230 Facebook accounts featuring photos likely generated by neural networks has been discovered in Georgia. These accounts were used to create the appearance of widespread support for the ruling "Georgian Dream" party and its chairman, Irakli Kobakhidze. Researchers from the "Myth Detector" platform reached this conclusion.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov publicly portrays himself as a staunch supporter of Russia’s war against Ukraine, but in practice has sought to prevent large-scale deployment of people from the republic to the front, The Economist reports, citing a source close to the Chechen leadership.

Georgia’s ruling party has responded to opposition criticism following reports of a 3,000-ton fuel shipment to Abkhazia. Rati Ionatamishvili, a member of "Georgian Dream," stated that the cargo was imported by a private business in compliance with Georgian law.

Imprisoned former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has stated that gasoline supplied from Georgia to Abkhazia is actually largely being diverted further—to Russia's southern regions. According to him, the fuel shortage in southern Russia was a key factor driving up gasoline prices within Georgia itself.

Mamuka Mdinaradze, a Georgian minister, stated that the 2008 Russo-Georgian war began on August 8, not August 7. According to him, it was on the 8th that regular Russian troops invaded Georgia. Previously, representatives of the Georgian authorities had placed the blame for the start of the war not on Russia, but on the government of then-President Mikheil Saakashvili—which they term a "criminal regime."

 Georgia will not restore diplomatic relations with Russia as long as Moscow continues to recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said.