🔴 Live: Moscow drone attack was ‘special operation’, says Ukraine defence source

A member of the security services investigates a damaged building following a reported drone attack in Moscow, Russia, on July 24, 2023. © Maxim Shemetov, Reuters

A Ukrainian defence source has reportedly confirmed Kyiv's involvement in a drone attack on Moscow early Monday morning, calling the incident a “special operation” by Ukraine's military intelligence. Russia said 17 Ukrainian drones also attacked Crimea on Monday, and that neither attack resulted in casualties. Read our live blog for all the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+2). 

03:39am: Mines found at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, says UN watchdog

The UN's atomic watchdog said it saw anti-personnel mines at the site of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which is occupied by Russian forces.

On July 23 International Atomic Energy Agency experts "saw some mines located in a buffer zone between the site's internal and external perimeter barriers," agency chief Rafael Grossi said in a statement on Monday.

The statement did not say how many mines the team had seen.

The devices were in "restricted areas" that operating plant personnel cannot access, Grossi said, adding the IAEA's initial assessment was that any detonation "should not affect the site's nuclear safety and security systems".

Laying explosives at the site was "inconsistent with the IAEA safety standards and nuclear security guidance" and created additional psychological pressure on staff, he added.

01:32am: Russia launches air attack on Kyiv, according to Ukraine's military

Russia launched an air attack on Kyiv early on Tuesday, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said.

"On the outskirts of Kyiv, air defence systems are being engaged (in repelling the attack)," Serhiy Popko, head of the administration said on the Telegram messaging channel.

12:08am: US to send up to $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, officials say

The Biden administration is sending up to $400 million in additional military aid to Ukraine, including a variety of munitions for advanced air defense systems and a number of small, surveillance Hornet drones, U.S. officials said Monday, as attacks in the war escalated to include strikes in Moscow and Crimea.

The package includes an array of ammunition — ranging from missiles for the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) to Stingers and Javelins. The weapons are being provided through presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to quickly take items from its own stocks and deliver them to Ukraine, often within days.

Officials said the US is also sending howitzer artillery rounds and 32 Stryker armored vehicles, along with demolition equipment, mortars, Hydra-70 rockets and 28 million rounds of small arms ammunition. The Hornets are tiny nano-drones that are used largely for intelligence gathering. Ukraine has also gotten them in the past from other Western allies.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to AP because the aid package has not yet been announced.

10:19pm: White House says it does not support attacks inside Russia

The White House said it did not support attacks inside Russia after being asked about two drones from Ukraine that damaged buildings in Moscow early on Monday.

Russia spoke of taking harsh retaliatory measures against Ukraine after the two drone strikes, including one close to the Defence Ministry's headquarters, in what it called a brazen act of terror.

10:03pm: US sanctions Malian officials over alleged ties to Wagner Group

The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on three Malian officials, including the minister of defence, over accusations they facilitated the deployment and expansion of Russia’s Wagner Group's activities in the West African country.

The US Treasury Department said it imposed sanctions on Sadio Camara, Mali's defence minister, who it said made several trips to Russia in 2021 to solidify an agreement between the Wagner Group and the Malian transitional government to deploy the mercenary force.

Monday's sanctions also target Mali’s Chief of Staff of the Air Force Alou Boi Diarra and Malian Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff Adama Bagayoko, the department said.

"These officials have made their people vulnerable to the Wagner Group’s destabilising activities and human rights abuses while paving the way for the exploitation of their country’s sovereign resources to the benefit of the Wagner Group’s operations in Ukraine," Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said.

9:25pm: Lithuania urges EU to use Baltic ports to export Ukrainian grain

Lithuania on Monday urged the European Union to use Baltic ports to export Ukrainian grain after Moscow declined to renew a 2022 deal on their safe passage through the Black Sea.

Russia has said it is ready to return to the agreement, which has allowed the export of nearly 33 million tonnes of grain from Ukrainian ports, if the Kremlin's demands are met "in their totality". 

Moscow says its own deliveries of agricultural products and fertilisers under the deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey were hampered by Western sanctions. 

A letter by three Lithuanian ministers to EU commissioners said Baltic ports could "serve as a reliable alternative for transiting Ukrainian products, including cereals".

The letter, seen by AFP, said Baltic ports could help transport 25 million tonnes of grain annually. It also asked the EU to cut red tape on Ukraine's border with Poland, a member of the bloc. 

9:03pm: Russia says traffic 'temporarily' blocked on key Crimean Bridge

Traffic on the bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula has been temporarily blocked, one of the official Telegram channels of the Russian authorities said on Monday. 

No reason for this action was given.

9:00pm: Child killed, six wounded in Russian strike in east Ukraine

A child was killed and six people wounded in a Russian strike on the eastearn Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka on Monday, the region's governor said.

Russian forces fired Smerch rockets at "a local pond, where people were resting," Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram, adding that three children were among the injured.

6:11pm: Thousands of Wagner mercenaries arrive in Belarus

Thousands of Wagner Group mercenaries have arrived in Belarus since the group’s short-lived rebellion, a military monitoring group said Monday.

Between 3,450 and 3,650 soldiers have traveled to a camp close to Asipovichy, a town 230 kilometres (140 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, according to Belaruski Hajun, an activist group that tracks troop movements within the country.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko welcomed Wagner forces into the country after brokering a deal between the Kremlin and mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin last month, ending the group’s failed revolt against Russian military leaders.

Satellite images show that about 700 vehicles and construction equipment have also arrived in Belarus on Wagner convoys, according to Belaruski Hajun. 

Prigozhin registered a real estate management company in Belarus last week under the name Concord Management and Consulting. Documents analysed by independent Belarusian media showed the company’s registered address was in the same village as the Wagner camp.

6:07pm: Ukraine detains senior ex-military officer for suspected corruption

A senior former Ukrainian military officer was detained on Monday for suspected corruption following reports his family bought real estate worth millions of dollars in Spain after the Russian invasion. 

Yevgen Borisov was in charge of mobilisation and conscription in the southern Odesa region until his dismissal in late June. Investigators in May accused Borisov of accepting bribes in return for exempting some people from being mobilised for the army.

Borisov was charged with "unlawful enrichment" and the deliberate evasion of military duty on Saturday, Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation said. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

5:33pm: Extension of ban on grain exports from Ukraine to EU would be 'unacceptable', says Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that the extension of a European Union ban on Ukrainian grain imports in September would be “unacceptable”.

Five central European countries want the EU ban extended at least until the end of the year.

4:38pm: American AFP journalist wounded in drone attack near Bakhmut

An AFP video journalist was wounded by a drone attack while reporting at a Ukrainian artillery position on Monday, AFP reporters who witnessed the explosion said.

Dylan Collins, a US citizen based in Lebanon but on assignment in Ukraine, sustained multiple shrapnel injuries in the attack in a forested area near Bakhmut. Collins, 35, was reportedly conscious and speaking to colleagues.

He was evacuated to a nearby hospital where he was being treated and doctors have said his condition was not life-threatening.

"We are investigating the full circumstances behind this incident. Our thoughts are with Dylan and his loved ones," AFP's Europe director, Christine Buhagiar, said in a statement.

3:54pm: Putin ally accuses US of directing cyberattacks on Russia

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev accused the United States on Monday of planning cyberattacks against Russia's "critical information infrastructure", state media reported on Monday.

Patrushev was quoted as saying that the US Cyber Command, National Security Agency (NSA) and NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence based in Estonia were planning and directing the attacks "under the Ukrainian flag".

FRANCE 24 could not immediately verify Patrushev's allegations, which were published by the government's Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.

3:24pm: Russia jails Navalny ally for nine years on 'extremism' charges

Vadim Ostanin, an aide to jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been imprisoned for nine years on "extremism" charges, Navalny's organisation said on Monday. This is just the latest in a string of crackdowns on critics of President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow banned Navalny's organisations in 2021 as part of a clampdown that intensified after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Mounting pressure on critics of Putin and Russia's role in the conflict has forced many Navalny allies into exile, while others have been jailed.

Ostanin was head of Navalny's office in Barnaul and was detained in December 2021. He was sentenced in the Siberian city for "participating in an extremist" organisation.

Navalny's team said Ostanin carried out "legal political work". Investigators pressured him to plead guilty but he refused, according to Navalny's team.

1:49pm: Russia threatens tough retaliation after drone attacks

Russia reserves the right to take "tough retaliatory measures", the foreign ministry said on Monday, after it accused Ukraine of attacking Moscow and the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula with drones.

Russia's defence ministry said earlier on Monday that Ukraine fired 17 drones at Crimea overnight, while a drone strike on Moscow damaged buildings.

1:42pm: Russian attacks threaten Black Sea security, says Romanian president

Romania's President Klaus Iohannis on Monday warned that security in the Black Sea was at risk after Russia hit Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube river at the border with the NATO member.

Amateur footage posted on social media by a Romanian showed an explosion just across a river, as drones appeared to hit the Ukrainian port of Reni, a Ukrainian port town where the Danube forms a natural frontier with Romania.

Ukrainian officials reported a four-hour Russian drone attack on port infrastructure in the southern Odesa region.

"I strongly condemn the recent Russian attacks against the Ukrainian civilian infrastructure on (the) Danube, very close to Romania," Iohannis wrote on Twitter.

"This recent escalation poses serious risks to the security in the Black Sea. It also affects further Ukrainian grain transit, thus the global food security," he added.

12:47pm: Russian attacks aim to block Ukrainian grain exports, says Odesa governor

The governor of Ukraine's Odesa region said on Monday that Russia was trying to completely block exports of Ukrainian grain to global markets after the latest in a series of Russian air attacks struck grain infrastructure on the Danube River.

"Russia is trying to fully block the export of our grain and make the world starve," governor Oleh Kiper told Ukrainian television.

12:01pm: Moscow drone attack was Ukrainian 'special operation', says Ukraine defence source

A drone attack that damaged two buildings in the Russian capital earlier on Monday was a "special operation" carried out by Kyiv's forces, a Ukrainian defence source has told AFP. 

"Today's drone attack on Moscow  was a GUR special operation," the source said, referring to Ukraine's military intelligence. 

11:32am: Kremlin denies Russian forces targeted Odesa cathedral

The Kremlin on Monday denied Russian forces had targeted a historic cathedral in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa over the weekend, instead blaming the damage on Ukraine's air defence systems.

"We have repeatedly stated and can repeat, that we, our Armed Forces, never strike civilian infrastructure facilities, let alone cathedrals, churches or other similar objects," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Read moreRussian attack on Odesa severely damages cathedral

11:27am: Kremlin says 'vigilance' needed after explosives found on grain ship

The Kremlin said on Monday that "increased vigilance" was needed after the Federal Security Service (FSB) alleged it had found traces of explosives on a ship travelling to Russia to pick up grain.

The FSB said the ship had been docked in the Ukrainian port of Kiliia in May, and that it may have been used to deliver explosives to Ukraine.

9:13am: Challenge of removing landmines slows Ukraine counteroffensive

Ukraine’s counteroffensive is being led by deminers working to remove landmines from Ukrainian soil – slow-paced and dangerous work.

“Our groups often get fired upon, from grad rockets, mortars, artillery. But what can you do?” Andriy, a deminer in Ukraine’s 128th Territorial Defence Brigade told FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg.

deminer © france 24

9:05am: Ukraine says it regained more than 16 square kilometres in east and south last week

Ukraine said Monday its forces over the past week had recaptured more than 16 square kilometres (six square miles) from Russian forces in the south and east of the country.

"During the week... the liberated area (in the south) increased by 12.6 square kilometres," Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar said in televised remarks, adding that Kyiv's forces had wrested another four kilometres squared in the east.

8:30am: Russia says Ukraine launched 17 drones at Crimea

The Russian defence ministry said on Monday that Ukraine tried to attack Crimea overnight using 17 drones, but that the attack was foiled and that there were no casualties.

It said eleven of the drones crashed into the Black Sea after being repressed by anti-drone equipment, three fell on Crimean territory and three were destroyed by air-defences.

Crimea's Moscow-installed governor said earlier on Monday that an ammunition depot had been damaged during the attack. It was not immediately clear whether the ammunition depot was directly hit by a drone or if it was damaged by falling drone debris.

FRANCE 24 was not able to independently verify the report.

7:02am: Ukrainian drone strike hits ammunition depot in Crimea, says local official

A Ukrainian drone strike hit an ammunition depot in Russian-annexed Crimea, its Moscow-installed governor said on Monday. 

"In the sky over the Crimea, 11 enemy UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] were shot down by air defense forces and suppressed by electronic warfare ... There was a hit in the ammunition depot in the Dzhankoy district," Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram. 

6:54am: Russian drone strike on Ukraine's Odesa region destroys grain hangar, Kyiv says

A Russian overnight drone strike on port infrastructure in Ukraine's Odesa region destroyed a grain hangar, Kyiv's military said on Monday.

The attack "was directed at the port infrastructure of the Danube ... as a result of the strikes, a grain hangar was destroyed, tanks for storing other types of cargo were damaged," Ukraine's southern military command said on Telegram. 

4:17am: Moscow's mayor says drones hit non-residential buildings

Russia said it had neutralised two Ukrainian drones over Moscow in the early hours of Monday, with one crashing close to the defence ministry in the city centre.

Officials said the drones struck non-residential buildings in the capital.

“A Kyiv regime attempt to carry out a terrorist act using two drones on objects on the territory of the city of Moscow was stopped," Russia's defence ministry said. “Two Ukrainian drones were suppressed and crashed. There are no casualties."

Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on his Telegram messaging app that two non-residential buildings were struck during the attack, which happened around 4am local time. It was unclear whether the drones hit the buildings when they were downed, or whether they deliberately targeted the buildings.

Russia's state news agencies, citing emergency services, said that drone fragments were found near a building on the Komsomolsky Avenue, which is not far from the defence ministry's buildings.

The attack came a day after Kyiv vowed to "retaliate" for a Russian missile attack on the Black Sea port of Odesa.

2:40am: Putin says Russia will replace Ukrainian grain exports to Africa

Russia will replace exports of Ukrainian grain to Africa, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday, after Moscow exited a deal allowing their safe shipment.

"Russia will continue its energetic efforts to provide supplies of grain, food products, fertilisers and other goods to Africa," Putin said in a statement published on the Kremlin's website.

"I want to give assurances that our country is capable of replacing the Ukrainian grain both on a commercial and free-of-charge basis."

Moscow's military operation blocked Ukraine's Black Sea ports with warships until a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey and signed in July 2022 allowed for the passage of critical grain shipments.

Key developments from Sunday, July 23:

Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa again on Sunday, local officials said, keeping up a barrage of attacks that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the past week. FRANCE 24 correspondent Gulliver Cragg says it was the "heaviest strike on Odesa" so far.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met his closest ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, for the first time since the latter helped broker a deal to end a mutiny by Wagner fighters inside Russia last month.

Lukashenko on Sunday said he was "keeping" Russian Wagner mercenaries in central Belarus and that Minsk was "controlling" the situation with the notorious fighters on its territory.

And US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine has taken back about 50 percent of the territory that Russia seized, although Kyiv's counteroffensive will extend several months.

Read yesterday's live blog to see how the day's events unfolded. 

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)