Evening summary
Good evening. It is now approaching 9pm in Kyiv. Here is a summary of today’s main news stories.
Kyiv reported progress in its newly launched counteroffensive, despite strong resistance from Russian troops. The Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar told a briefing “There is a gradual but steady advance of the armed forces. At the same time, the enemy is putting up powerful resistance [on the southern front].”
Ukraine has regained control of more than 100 sq km (38 sq miles) of territory in its counteroffensive, a senior Ukrainian military commander claimed. Brig Gen Oleksii Hromov told a media briefing: “We are ready to continue fighting to liberate our territory even with our bare hands.”
Ukrainian fighter pilots are being trained to fly F-16 jets, Nato’s secretary general revealed. Nato allies have yet to agree on delivering the so-called fourth-generation US fighters to Ukraine, but Jens Stoltenberg said the training of Ukrainian personnel was under way.
A group of UN experts said they had written to Moscow raising concerns about the use of torture by Russian military forces on Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war.
Republican and Democratic members of the US Congress introduced legislation that would make it easier for Ukraine to fund its fight against Russian invaders by using seized and frozen Russian assets.
Russia’s foreign ministry said it had summoned a Canadian diplomat in Moscow in protest over the confiscation of an Antonov plane in Toronto, and warned that Russian-Canadian relations were on the “verge of being severed”.
Vladimir Putin and the Algerian president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, pledged to deepen their two countries’ “strategic partnership” during a three-day state visit by Tebboune as the Kremlin seeks to pivot towards Asia and Africa.
A Russian anti-war activist died in a detention centre in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don where he had alleged he was being mistreated, his lawyer said.
The president of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, said Russians living abroad in western countries should be closely monitored by security services, given Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
In Brussels, the US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, says the Ukraine Defence Contact Group remained “laser-focused” on meeting Ukraine’s ground-based air-defence system needs.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said a number of measures had been taken to stabilise the situation at Europe’s largest atomic power plant. Rafael Grossi said inspectors would stay at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russia, but that signing a document on security on the site was “unrealistic” while the two sides were still fighting.
The US, UK, the Netherlands and Denmark announced they will partner to send defence equipment – including hundreds of missiles – to Ukraine. A joint statement released by the British government said delivery of the equipment had already begun and should be completed “within several weeks”.
As many as 100 Russian troops gathered for a motivational speech near Ukraine’s eastern frontline may have been killed in a strike earlier this week, prompting fury among Russian military bloggers.
MEPs called on Nato allies to honour their commitment to Ukraine by inviting the country to join the defence alliance and support opening EU accession negotiations this year.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Switzerland to allow the re-export of weapons to Ukraine, saying the move would be vital in combating the Russian invasion. In a video message shown in the Swiss parliament, he said: “I know there is a discussion in Switzerland about the exportation of war material to protect and defend Ukraine. That would be vital. We need weapons so we can restore peace in Ukraine.”
Russian missiles hit two industrial facilities in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Thursday, and an elderly woman was killed by Russian fire in the southern Kherson region, local officials said. The Kryvyi Rih mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul, reported no deaths in the latest attack on Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s home town, but said a 38-year-old man was reportedly wounded when three missiles struck two industrial enterprises overnight.
Russian forces claimed they successfully hit drone production facilities in Ukraine using high-precision, long-range weapons.
The head of Russia’s electoral commission said the defence ministry and Federal Security Service (FSB) consider it possible to hold elections on 10 September in the four Ukrainian regions that Russia claims to have annexed, the state news agency Tass reported.
Russia has said it plans to go back to the UN security council over the investigation of the Nord Stream pipeline gas explosions.
Follow our live coverage again tomorrow for the latest in Ukraine. Thank you for reading.
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The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said on Thursday that he hoped for a positive outcome from Vladimir Putin’s planned talks with African leaders on the future of a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of grain from Ukraine.
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