Russia’s defence ministry said that three Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow early on Sunday, the TASS news agency reported. One drone was destroyed in the air and two others crashed in Moscow, the ministry said. The attack damaged two buildings and temporarily suspended flights at Vnukovo airport. Follow our blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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03:16am: Ukraine reports fierce fighting in northeast
A senior Ukrainian official reported heavy fighting in the northeast of the country on Sunday, with Kyiv's forces holding their lines and making gains in some areas.
Russia's military said it had halted Ukrainian forces in the northeast. The military also said it brought down down three Ukrainian drones which had tried to strike Moscow and damaged a high-rise building reported to house government offices.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described Sunday as "a good day, a powerful day" at the front, particularly near Bakhmut, where Ukrainian forces say they are retaking ground lost when Russian forces took the city in May.
9:45pm: Saudi Arabia will host Ukrainian-organised peace summit, officials confirm
Saudi Arabia will host a Ukrainian-organised peace summit in early August seeking to find a way to start negotiations over Russia's war on the country, officials said Sunday.
The summit will be held in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, said one official, who spoke early Sunday on condition of anonymity as no authorisation had been given to publicly discuss the summit. Russia was not invited, the official added.
Hours later, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, confirmed the talks would be held in Saudi Arabia, without naming Jeddah as the location.
“The Ukrainian Peace Formula contains 10 fundamental points, the implementation of which will not only ensure peace for Ukraine, but also create mechanisms to counter future conflicts in the world,” Yermak said in a statement. “We are deeply convinced that the Ukrainian peace plan should be taken as a basis, because the war is taking place on our land."
Previously, Ukraine has described the 10-point peace formula as including the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of all prisoners, a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression and security guarantees for Ukraine.
8:41pm: Ukraine to start talks with US on security guarantees
Ukraine is to start consultations with the United States this week on providing security guarantees for Kyiv pending the completion of the process of joining NATO, a senior Ukrainian official said on Sunday.
The talks, announced by President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, are a follow-up on pledges issued by the G7 group of advanced countries after this month's NATO summit in Lithuania to draw up and honour security guarantees.
"We are starting talks with the United States (this) week," Andriy Yermak wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
"Security guarantees for Ukraine will be concrete, long-term obligations ensuring Ukraine's capacity to defeat and restrain Russian aggression in the future. These will be clearly drafted formats and mechanisms of support."
Yermak said the guarantees "will be in effect until Ukraine secures NATO membership."
4:59pm: Zelensky warns that Russia could resume energy grid attacks in autumn
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that he expects Russia to resume its attacks on Ukraine's energy system once cold weather returns later this year, and vowed to do everything possible to protect the power grid.
"It is obvious that this fall and ... in the winter the enemy will try to repeat the terror against the Ukrainian energy industry. We should be ready for this in any case," Zelensky told senior government, security, and regional officials during a visit to the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk.
Nearly 40 percent of the Ukrainian energy system was damaged in Russian missile and drone strikes over the past winter, which plunged Ukrainian cities into darkness and cold in what Kyiv called a deliberate strategy to harm civilians, a war crime.
Moscow says it launched the attacks to reduce Ukraine's ability to fight.
4:28pm: Zelensky says 'war' coming to Russia after Moscow drone attack
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Sunday that "war" was coming to Russia after three Ukrainian drones were downed over Moscow.
"Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia – to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process," Zelensky said on a visit to the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk.
2:00pm: Russia's Medvedev evokes use of nuclear weapon if Ukraine counteroffensive is successful
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who has sometimes raised the spectre of a nuclear conflict over Ukraine, said on Sunday that Moscow would have to use a nuclear weapon if Kyiv's ongoing counter-offensive was a success.
Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, a body chaired by President Vladimir Putin, said in a message on his official social media accounts that Russia would be forced to fall back on its own nuclear doctrine in such a scenario.
"Imagine if the.. offensive, which is backed by NATO, was a success and they tore off a part of our land then we would be forced to use a nuclear weapon according to the rules of a decree from the president of Russia."
Medvedev, who has cast himself as one of Moscow's most hawkish voices, appeared to be referring to part of Russia's nuclear doctrine which sets out that nuclear weapons can be used in response to aggression against Russia carried out using conventional weapons which threatens the existence of the Russian state.
Kremlin critics have in the past accused Medvedev of making extreme statements in an effort to dissuade Western countries from continuing to supply Ukraine with arms.
12:19pm: Pope Francis appeals to Russia to restore Black Sea grain deal
Pope Francis on Sunday called on Russia to revive the Black Sea grain deal, through which Moscow had allowed Ukraine to export grain from its seaports despite the war.
"I appeal to my brothers, the authorities of the Russian Federation, so that the Black Sea initiative may be resumed and grain may be transported safely," Francis said during his Angelus message.
10:29am: Putin says Russian Navy to receive 30 new ships this year
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that the Russian Navy would receive 30 new ships this year.
Putin was speaking at a ceremony in St Petersburg to mark Russia's annual Navy Day after reviewing a parade of warships on the River Neva.
10:02am: Fighting with limited resources, Ukrainian forces favour 'strategic strikes'
Ukrainian forces say they have made recent gains in their counteroffensive against Russia in the eastern Donetsk and southern Zaporizhzhia regions. FRANCE 24's Emmanuelle Chaze reports that Kyiv's soldiers know they have less equipment and fewer numbers than the Russian side, so they try to favour "strategic strikes".
Reporting one day after President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Ukrainian special forces near Bakhmut, Chaze says: “It's interesting to see that President Zelensky continues to come to the front line. It's not only professional soldiers we see [there]. The people I met yesterday, they used to have normal lives. They used to be IT workers, they used to be artists, and they all abandoned their lives, the lives they had before the war to … defend their country. This is why those visits by President Zelensky are much appreciated here on the ground.”
9:32am: Russian forces thwarted Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea, defence ministry says
Moscow said on Sunday its forces had thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to attack Russia-annexed Crimea with 25 drones overnight.
"Sixteen Ukrainian UAVs were destroyed by air defence fire," the Russian defence ministry said, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles.
"Another nine Ukrainian drones were suppressed by means of electronic warfare and, without reaching the target, crashed into the Black Sea," the ministry said, adding that there were no victims.
7:16am: Russia downs three Ukrainian drones over Moscow
Three Ukrainian drones were downed over Moscow early Sunday, Russia's defence ministry said, in an attack that damaged two office towers and briefly shut an international airport.
While one of the drones was shot down on the city's outskirts, two others were "suppressed by electronic warfare" and smashed into an office complex.
The defence ministry called it an "attempted terrorist attack".
"On the morning of July 30, the Kyiv regime's attempted terrorist attack with unmanned aerial vehicles on objects in the city of Moscow was thwarted," it said on Telegram.
"One Ukrainian UAV was destroyed in the air by air defence systems over the territory of the Odintsovo district of Moscow region.
"Two more drones were suppressed by electronic warfare and, having lost control, crashed on the territory of Moscow-City's non-residential building complex."
Moscow-City is a commercial development in the west of the capital.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin posted on Telegram that there were "no victims or injured" in the attack.
7:00am: At least one person killed in Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s Sumy
At least one civilian was killed Saturday evening in a Russian missile attack on the northeast Ukrainian city of Sumy, said national police, adding that there were five injured in the strike on an education centre.
"On the evening of July 29, an enemy missile hit an educational institution. Law enforcement officers are working at the scene, recording the effects," the force posted on Telegram, putting the initial toll at "at least one civilian dead and five injured".
"Police, rescue workers and medics are on the scene", it added.
According to public broadcaster Suspilne, the building was destroyed in an explosion at about 8pm (1700 GMT).
In early July, a Russian drone attack hit an apartment building in the same city, killing three and wounding 21.
Key developments from Saturday, July 30:
A Russian air strike killed two people in the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine on Saturday, local authorities said. "An enemy missile hit an open area. Unfortunately, a man and a woman were killed," said city council official Anatoly Kurtev.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Saturday visited what he said were "advanced positions" of Ukraine's special forces near the eastern city of Bakhmut. Zelensky said on messaging app Telegram that he congratulated Ukraine's "warriors on their professional day, to honour their strength".
Read yesterday's liveblog to see how the day's events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
