Closing summary
Russian troops launched five missile strikes today, killing at least one person, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in its daily roundup. In addition to the missile strikes – one of which was destroyed – Russian troops conducted 24 airstrikes and fired about 37 shelling jets at Ukrainian troops and settlements, destroying residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.
The US imposed new sanctions on Friday on four “prominent members of Russia’s financial elite”, the US treasury department said in a statement.All four have served on the supervisory board of the Alfa Group Consortium, one of the largest financial and investment conglomerates in Russia.
At least 499 children have been killed so far in Russia’s invasion Ukraine, with 1,097 injured, the Ukraine prosecutor general’s office said today. The prosecutor general’s office, which is tasked with tallying Russia’s war crimes, counted at least 81 new crimes registered this week alone, bringing the total to 102,849.
One child killed today was eight-year-old Volodia, who succumbed to his injuries after after Russian troops fired four Kinzhal missiles towards the airfield in the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. He was in the second grade at a local school, where his teacher described him as “a little comedian” for his cheerful demeanour and constant jokes.
Russian media is reporting that the Kremlin is considering closing some or all Moscow airports as Kyiv continues its drone attacks on the Russian capital.
Repairs to the Chonhar Bridge that links Crimea to Kherson will take at least a month, according to the Russian-imposed acting governor of the occupied portion of Kherson.
Russian authorities have taken Ukrainian teenagers from occupied territories of the country to a military education camp in Russia, where they received military training, Ukraine’s Centre of National Resistance said.
The State Border Guard Service have stopped a number of Ukrainian men attempting to leave the country, apparently to avoid conscription in the continuing war with Russia. In Odesa, border guards found two Ukrainian men of military age hiding in a secret compartment under the passenger seat of a vehicle. They had paid two Moldovan citizens $4,500 each to get them over the border to Moldova. In the Berehove district in the Zakarpattia oblast in the western part of the country, border guards stopped a vehicle in which four men had paid smugglers a fee of $4,000 each to cross the border into Romania.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister, vowed that any Taurus cruise missile supplied to Kyiv would be used only within Ukrainian borders. This has been a point of contention between Kyiv and its western allies: Kyiv has been asking for Taurus cruise missiles, a missile with a range of more than 300 miles (500km), but nations such as Germany have balked at the request, fearful over the weapon’s long range.
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Kyiv has been asking its western allies to provide Taurus cruise missiles, a missile with a range of more than 300 miles (500km) that is launched from fighter jets such as the Tornado, the F-15 and the F-18.
Nations such as Germany have balked at the request, fearful over the weapon’s long range. Today, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister, vowed that any Taurus cruise missile supplied to Kyiv would be used only within Ukrainian borders.
Long-range missiles have proved crucial. This is why Taurus and ATACMS are essential for Ukraine's success, and we ask partners to provide them as soon as possible. Both will be used solely inside our borders. The longer the missile range, the shorter the war.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) August 11, 2023
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