Summary
It is now approaching 9pm in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Here is a summary of the main stories so far:
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has said Ukraine’s counteroffensive is being hindered by Ukraine’s plant life. In its daily intelligence briefing it noted: “Undergrowth regrowing across the battlefields of southern Ukraine is likely one factor contributing to the generally slow progress of combat in the area.”
Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s security council, told Ukrainian national television on Wednesday that Russian forces had ample time to prepare defences and lay extensive minefields during months of occupation. “The number of mines on the territory that our troops have retaken is utterly mad. On average, there are three, four, five mines per square metre,” he said. Danilov restated assertions by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that the advances, while slower than hoped, could not be rushed as human lives were at stake. “No one can set deadlines for us, except ourselves … there is no fixed schedule,” he said.
The EU on Thursday banned drone sales to Belarus and added prominent state TV presenters to its sanctions list over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Minsk’s crackdown on opposition. The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said: Today we are also taking further measures against the Belarusian regime as an accomplice in Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.
Polish and Lithuanian leaders held an urgent meeting Thursday in a strategically sensitive area where their Nato nations border Belarus and the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, warning that they are bracing for provocations from Moscow and Minsk in the area.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general is investigating Russian attacks on its agriculture infrastructure since July as potential war crimes, the office told Reuters on Thursday.
The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, on Thursday again ruled out supplying Ukraine with long-range Taurus missiles, saying it was “not a top priority” right now.
Russia will cut oil exports by 300,000 barrels a day in September, Reuters reports deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday. Russia has already pledged to reduce its oil output by about 500,000 bpd, or 5% of its oil production, from March until year-end.
Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass is reporting that authorities in the Kursk region have confirmed that fighters of detachments of the voluntary people’s squad have been supplied with weapons.
Romania said on Thursday it will clear customs for up to 30 ships waiting to enter the country from Ukrainian ports on the River Danube over the next two days, a sign that trade has not halted despite a Russian attack on Ukraine’s main river port.
The jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Thursday he expected to be handed a “Stalinist” sentence of about 18 more years in prison. In a tweet, he said: “It’s going to be a huge term. This is what’s called a ‘Stalinist’ term. They asked for 20 years so they will give 18 or something around it.”
Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdog said on Thursday that it detained an armed forces official accused of helping draft-age men flee the country in exchange for a cash payment, according to AFP. Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that the official, who worked in the Kyiv city administration and headed a department in the army, had issued false documents declaring men unfit for military service.
India will participate in Ukraine peace talks to be hosted by Saudi Arabia on 5 to 6 August, a foreign ministry spokesperson said during a news briefing on Thursday.
Russia said on Thursday that the BRICS group of countries would be strengthened by adding new members, in its most explicit endorsement yet of the idea of expansion, Reuters reports. The BRICS group of emerging economies currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Moscow sees the group as an increasingly important and influential counterweight in global affairs to the US-led west.
Moscow court fined Apple 400,000 roubles (£3,377) on Thursday for not deleting “inaccurate” content about what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, the Tass news agency reported.
Russian forces have made no headway along the frontlines, but are entrenched in heavily mined areas they control, making it difficult for Ukrainian troops to move east and south, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday. Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said Russian forces had “tried quite persistently to halt our advance in the Bakhmut sector. Without success.”
Kyiv defended itself against the eighth consecutive nightly drone attack early on Thursday morning, the Kyiv regional military admistration said on Telegram. No damage was recorded in preliminary reports. The Ukrainian air force claimed to have shot down all 154 “Shahed” suicide drones launched overnight.
Three civilians and four emergency service workers have been injured in a Russian strike on Kherson, according to Ukraine’s state broadcaster. Serhiy Kruk, the head of Ukraine’s state emergency service, posted to social media images of bloodied and injured emergency workers and damaged emergency equipment as a result of what Ukraine claims has been a “double tap” attack near a church.
Russia claims overnight it downed six drones in the Kaluga region, followed by another in the morning. “There are no consequences for people and infrastructure,” regional governor Vladislav Shapsha said. Kaluga region is to the south-west of Moscow region, and the north-east of Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine.
Ukrainians living in Russian-occupied territory are being forced to assume Russian citizenship or face retaliation, including possible deportation or detention, a new US report has said.
Fighters from Russia’s private Wagner mercenary force are being moved close to Nato’s eastern flank to destabilise the military alliance, Poland’s prime minister alleged on Thursday.
Russia has added Norway to its list of foreign states that have committed “unfriendly” acts against Russian diplomatic missions, news agencies reported on Thursday.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has said the country is considering the possibility of insuring ships going through a “grain corridor”.
That is it from us, thank you for following along. Come back tomorrow for more live updates. You read more of our reporting on Ukraine here in the meantime.
The Ukrainian internal affairs ministerial adviser, Anton Gerashchenko, said Ukrainians continue to fight despite being tired and having “PTSD of some sort”.
He claimed that there have been more than 800 missile attacks or air raid alerts on Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion began.
In a tweet, Gerashchenko said:
We live among losses and death. That’s terrible. It’s an inhumane load, and it’s very challenging. Feelings and brains can’t fully process this experience. So our brain requires simplification to cope.
That’s why we might seem or behave in a way that is aggressive, addictive, divide everything into black and white. We’re often very categorical, we think in terms of stamps, we simplify.
But we continue to live and fight. We have to survive. And not just survive, but live. Not to lose the meaning of life.
Ukrainian society is shaken by war. People are very tired. We all have PTSD of some sort, I think - not just our Defenders but everyone in Ukraine.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) August 3, 2023
There have been over 800 missile attacks/air raid alerts on Kyiv since the full-scale invasion began. So those who didn't leave…
Updated
