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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Vivian Ho (now); Martin Belam and Helen Sullivan (earlier)

Russia-Ukraine war: Russian troops launch five missile strikes, killing one person – as it happened

Russia United States Ukraine Zaporizhzhia Missile United Kingdom Arkady Volozh Denise Brown United Nations Telegram
Peple walk past the destroyed Reikartz hotel in Zaporizhzhia after a Russian missile strike.
Peple walk past the destroyed Reikartz hotel in Zaporizhzhia after a Russian missile strike. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

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.

Updated

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.

Updated

Kyiv: At least 499 children killed so far in Russian invasion

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.

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.

Russian troops launch five missile strikes, killing one person

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 probability of missile and airstrikes throughout Ukraine remains high,” the general staff said.

Updated

The attacks on Zaporizhzhia this week killed two young musicians who organised street performances to raise funds for the Ukrainian armed forces.

“Our talented girls, Svitlana Siemieikina and Kristina Spitsyna, were killed as a result of a missile attack by Russian terrorists in Zaporizhzhia,” the Matviyivka Village Centre for Culture and Leisure said in a statement.

“Yesterday they were singing and playing together for people, and today none of them are there. A Russian missile mercilessly took their voice, their lives and, with it, a piece of the soul of each of us.”

In Kyiv today, civilians took part in the final stage of a five-day national resistance training course, gaining rifle training as well as learning the basics of mine and explosive safety.

Participants of civilian National Resistance during training on 11 August.
Participants have a discussion during civilian national resistance training in Kyiv on 11 August. Photograph: Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images
A women learning to use a weapon.
A women learning to use a weapon. Photograph: Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images
Women take part in target practice.
Women take part in target practice. Photograph: Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images
Women take a break during their five-day training.
Women take a break during their five-day training. Photograph: Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty Images
Participants support each other during training.
Participants support each other during training. Photograph: Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images

Updated

US imposes new sanctions on Russia's 'financial elite'

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.

  • Petr Olegovich Aven is the chair of the board of a Russia-based insurance company and is a member of the supervisory board of the Alfa Group. He was put under sanctions for operating or having operated in the financial services sector of the Russian Federation economy.

  • Mikhail Maratovich Fridman, founder of the Alfa Group and chair of a Russian Association of Employers the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) committee is being put under sanctions for operating or having operated in the financial services sector of the Russian Federation economy. Fridman is also under sanctions for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the RSPP, which is Russia-based organisation involved in the technology sector of the Russian Federation economy.

  • German Borisovich Khan, a member of the supervisory board of the Alfa Group chair of the board of a Russian company engaged in construction activities, is under sanctions for operating or having operated in the financial services sector of the Russian Federation economy. Khan was also under sanctions for operating or having operated in the construction sector of the Russian Federation economy.

  • Alexey Viktorovich Kuzmichev, a member of the supervisory board of the Alfa Group, was placed under sanctiions for operating or having operated in the financial services sector of the Russian Federation economy.

Updated

The eight-year-old boy killed today after Russian troops fired four Kinzhal missiles towards the airfield in the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast was named Volodia. 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.

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian air force, Yurii Ihnat, said that Russian troops were targeting Ukrainian pilots going to Europe for training. Instead, they hit Volodia’s home, a civilian home where three children lived.

Updated

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 six men of military age were traveling. Two of the men told the border guards in an interview that they were acting as smugglers, and had agreed to help the other four cross the border into Romania for a fee of $4,000 each.

Men between the ages of 18 and 60 have been forbidden to leave Ukraine in case they are needed in the fight against the Russian invasion.

Updated

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 Gvardeets military-patriotic camp opened in the Russian town of Penza on 1 August, the centre said. Since then, teenagers from Mariupol, Kirovske, Yenakieve, Horlivka, Shakhtarsk, Makiivka and Donetsk were taken here, where they participated in excursions to propaganda museums and attended performances by pro-Kremlin artists.

Updated

Working groups under the Donetsk regional military administration have come up with 324 steps needed for returning Ukrainian power to the regions that have been under Russian occupation since 2014, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration said today.

The steps focus on security, mining, restoration of power and vitality systems, and information impact, to economic development.

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014. Ukraine has been adamant that the peninsula remains a part of its territory.

The working groups developed their plan based on the work that took place when Ukraine retook other Russian-occupied territories in the north, Kyrylenko said. “We already have a strong foundation of the great work of returning Ukraine to our Russian-torn lands,” he said.

Updated

The Russian-imposed acting governor of the occupied portion of Kherson has said that repairs to the Chonhar Bridge that links Crimea to Kherson will take at least a month.

Interfax in Russia quotes Vladimir Saldo as saying on the Rossiya-24 TV channel: “The estimated recovery time is at least a month, or even up to two months, the work will continue.”

Saldo said there were technical difficulties in the repair process, and that both military and civilian engineers were looking for a faster solution, according to the report.

The bridge was damaged by a Ukrainian strike on 6 August.

Updated

Suspilne News reports on Telegram that the spokesperson for the Ukrainian air force, Yurii Ihnat, has said Russian troops fired four Kinzhal missiles towards the airfield in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, targeting Ukrainian pilots soon to go to Europe for training. An eight-year-old boy died in the attack.

Updated

Here are some of the latest images from the news wires from Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia and Moscow.

Workers shelter in an underground passage at the Teatralna metro station during an air raid warning in Kyiv
Workers shelter in an underground passage at the Teatralna metro station during an air raid warning in Kyiv. Photograph: Ukrinform/Shutterstock
A burnt-out tree trunk at the scene of a Russian missile attack on Zaporizhzhia
A burnt-out tree trunk at the scene of a Russian missile attack on Zaporizhzhia. Photograph: Ukrinform/Shutterstock
Hospital staff look out of the window at City clinical hospital No.67 near the site in Moscow where a Ukrainian drone was downed
Hospital staff look out of the window at City clinical hospital No.67 near the site in Moscow where a Ukrainian drone was downed. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Updated

Summary of the day so far

  • A spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence told Kyiv Post that people living in Moscow should expect more attacks and that Russia’s air defences appeared incapable of protecting the country’s citizens.

  • Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed all regional heads of Ukrainian military recruitment during a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine.

  • An eight-year-old boy has been killed in a Russian rocket attack in the Prykarpattia area of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast in western Ukraine. The rocket hit a civilian home where a family lived with three children.

  • The Russian defence ministry says 20 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in attacks in Kherson oblast.The claim comes after an artillery strike on the city of Kherson injured two civilians, a woman and a 44-year-old man, while a drone strike on Beryslav injured another man in the region. The regional governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram that a 53-year-old man had been killed in the shelling of a high-rise building in the city of Kherson earlier on Friday.

  • The president of Belarus, a country that has been a staunch ally of Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, has said he wishes to maintain relations with EU countries – many of which have enacted sanctions against Belarusian officials and enterprises and industries.

Updated

Germany is in talks over the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, Reuters reports.

Kyiv has been pushing Berlin for some time to supply the Taurus, 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.

Berlin has expressed reluctance over the weapon’s long range and its potential use against targets inside Russia.

A German government spokesperson said Berlin had no update to its position, but a security source told Reuters that Germany was in talks with the manufacturer MBDA about supplying the missiles to Ukraine.

Updated

The Ukrainian State Border Guard Service has destroyed a Russian forest hideout near Bakhmut.

Video posted by the State Border Guard Service shows a Russian soldier returning to a Russian dugout hidden in the trees before the area is hit by Ukrainian ordnance.

“The enemy set up camouflaged positions in the forest on one of the Bakhmut flanks,” the agency said in a statement. “In order to clear the forest massif from the enemy’s fortifications, the mortar fire of the border guards received the firing task.”

Zelenskiy dismisses all regional heads of Ukrainian military recruitment

Volodymyr Zelenskiy held a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine today, during which he focused in on the regional heads of Ukrainian military recruitment.

He noted that across multiple departments, “there are already 112 criminal proceedings against officials of ‘military commissars’ – as well as 33 suspicions”.

Zelenskiy said the solution to this widespread corruption was to dismiss all the regional heads.

“This system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery during war is treason,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram. “Instead, soldiers who have passed the front or who cannot be in the trenches because they have lost their health, lost their limbs, but have preserved their dignity and do not have cynicism, are the ones who can be entrusted with this equipment system.”

Updated

Kyiv: Moscow should expect more attacks

A spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence told Kyiv Post that people living in Moscow should expect more attacks, especially as Russia’s air defences appeared incapable of protecting their citizens.

“Given the dynamics of recent months, the number, geography and intensity, it would be logical to assume an increase in daily attacks,” Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence, said.

Yusov’s comments come after a dramatic increase in Ukrainian attacks in recent weeks, with a drone forcing the closure of Vnukovo airport and Russian forces downing a Ukrainian drone over Moscow this morning.

Yusov noted that “the concept of security is increasingly distant from the residents of Moscow”, and hoped that this increase in attacks would open residents’ eyes and break through Russian propaganda.

“The whole world continues to see that the Russian defense system and the country – which claims a leading role in the arms market – is ineffective, outdated, and cannot adequately respond to modern challenges,” he said.

Updated

Here’s some video of a Ukrainian strike on a Russian stronghold in Donetsk oblast:

Updated

An eight-year-old boy has been killed in a Russian rocket attack in the Prykarpattia area of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast in western Ukraine, the regional governor, Svitlana Onyshchuk, said on Telegram.

The rocket hit a civilian home in the Kolomyia district where a family of three children lived, Ukraine’s armed forces said on Telegram.

Updated

The Russian defence ministry is saying on Telegram that 20 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in attacks in Kherson oblast.

The claim comes after an artillery strike on the city of Kherson injured two civilians, a woman and a 44-year-old man, while a drone strike on Beryslav injured another man in the region. The regional governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram that a 53-year-old man had been killed in the shelling of a high-rise building in the city of Kherson earlier on Friday.

Updated

The president of Belarus, a country that has been a staunch ally of Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, has said he wishes to maintain relations with EU countries, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti is reporting.

“Now we live primarily at the expense of the east – Russia, China. But we must not forget about the hi-tech West,” Alexander Lukashenko said. “They are nearby, they are our neighbours, the European Union, and we cannot lose relations with them.”

Lukashenko made his remarks after a visit to Minsk national airport, where he addressed Belarusian aviation under western sanctions.

A number of western countries, including EU members, have enacted sanctions against Belarusian officials and enterprises and industries in response to Minsk’s support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Updated

Summary of the day so far …

  • Air defence systems appear to have prevented Russian strikes on Kyiv on Friday morning, with falling debris striking the city but no casualties reported. The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, posted on Telegram: “In addition to the debris of the rocket that fell on the territory of one of the capital’s children’s hospitals, two more crash sites were found in the Obolon district of Kyiv. The roof of a private house was damaged on Bogatyrska Street. Also in Obolon, a wreck was discovered in an open area in one of the summer cooperatives. There are no casualties.”

  • The mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, has reported no injuries after a drone was downed over the city. He posted on Telegram: “An attempt was made to fly a drone over the city. As a result of the air defence work, it was eliminated. No one was hurt when debris fell in the area of ​​Karamyshevskaya embankment. There are no serious damages. Emergency services are on site.”

  • Vnukovo airport in Moscow was temporarily closed as a result of a drone in the region’s airspace. Authorities have now cordoned off the area where it fell.

  • Two people, a woman and a 44-year-old man, were injured when artillery fire hit the city of Kherson. Another man was injured in the region in a drone strike on Beryslav.

  • Tass reports that Ukrainian forces have hit the occupied city of Horlivka in Donetsk with four cluster munitions. There were no details of any casualties.

  • Russian authorities appear to have ruled out any Ukrainian involvement in the major explosion at the Zagorsk optical and mechanical plant in Sergiev Posad, near Moscow. Interfax reports that a criminal case has been initiated on violation of industrial safety requirements, and that the technical director of the Piro-Ross company, which owned the warehouse where the explosion occurred, has been detained. Eight people are still reported to be missingand 84 wounded. One person is known to have died.

Updated

Authorities in Moscow have closed a road and taped off an area while officials investigate the remains of what is claimed to have been a Ukrainian drone downed early on Friday morning.

Traffic police block a road near the site where a Ukrainian drone is said to have been downed
Traffic police block a road near the site where a Ukrainian drone is said to have been downed. Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
Police officers work at the site
Police officers work at the site. Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

The UK’s Ministry of Defence has published its latest map of how it assesses the situation on the ground in Ukraine.

Here are some images from the news wires of Zaporizhzhia, where one person died and more than a dozen were injured in a strike early on Thursday evening.

Burnt out vehicles after the strike on Zaporizhzhia
Burnt out vehicles after the strike on Zaporizhzhia. Photograph: Ukrinform/Shutterstock
A fragment of a projectile lies on the ground after the attack
A fragment of a projectile. Photograph: Ukrinform/Shutterstock
A hotel shows damage caused by a Russian missile attack on Zaporizhzhia
A damaged hotel. Photograph: Ukrinform/Shutterstock

Zaporizhzhia is one of the regions of Ukraine which Russia unilateraly claims to have annexed.

Updated

Helena Smith is in Athens for the Guardian:

The impact of what Moscow calls its special operation in Ukraine is increasingly being reflected in Russians’ holiday choices.

Testimony to the breakdown in relations between Athens and the Kremlin as a result of the war, Russians who can afford to take holidays have elected to abandon the fellow Orthodox nation in favour of Turkey.

Statistics show arrivals of Russians are up dramatically in the neighbouring country, aided in part by the devaluation of the Turkish lira. The destination is expected to surpass pre-pandemic tourist records this year.

But geopolitical factors and the fallout from the war have also played a key role in keeping Russians away from Greece, a nation with which they traditionally enjoyed strong ties, culturally and politically, before Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.

Months after the full-scale operation began, as it became apparent which side Nato-member Athens was on, Moscow’s ambassador to Greece, Andrey Maslov, warned his compatriots to be on guard if they chose to holiday in the Mediterranean country, saying it had become a locus for Ukrainian nationalists.

Speaking to Rossyia 24 he said: “If Russian citizens visit Greece, they should be ready, alert and very careful, as there are many Ukrainian nationalists in Greece now. This should be taken into account.”

Since then bilateral relations, described at the time by the envoy as having “completely stopped”, have gone from bad to worst as Greece has stepped up its support for Ukraine providing military assistance, ammunition shipments and access to the strategic port of Alexandroupolis. The port, just 60 miles north of Turkey’s Dardanelle Straits, is used by US forces to transport men and arms to the shores of the Black Sea and is seen as a vital regional hub for Nato.

Updated

Moscow mayor says no casualties after drone brought down over city

The mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, has reported that there were no injuries after a drone was downed over the city.

He posted on Telegram:

An attempt was made to fly a drone over the city. As a result of the air defence work, it was eliminated. No one was hurt when debris fell in the area of ​​Karamyshevskaya embankment. There are no serious damages. Emergency services are on site.

Video has emerged which appears to show the aftermath.

Updated

Moscow’s Vnukovo airport has reopened, Tass reports.

No casualties reported in Kyiv after falling debris

Air defence systems appear to have prevented Russian strikes on Kyiv this morning, with falling debris striking the city but no casualties reported.

The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, posted to Telegram:

In addition to the debris of the rocket that fell on the territory of one of the capital’s children’s hospitals, two more crash sites were found in the Obolon district of Kyiv.

The roof of a private house was damaged on Bogatyrska Street.

Also in Obolon, a wreck was discovered in an open area in one of the summer cooperatives. There are no casualties.

Updated

Reuters is carrying a statement from Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. It stated:

For reasons beyond the control of the airport, temporary restrictions on the landing and take-offs of aircraft were introduced in Vnukovo. For safety reasons, some of the flights were redirected to other airports of the Moscow aviation hub.

Updated

The all clear has sounded across Ukraine.

Russian authorities appear to have ruled out any Ukrainian involvement in the major explosion at the Zagorsk optical and mechanical plant in Sergiev Posad near Moscow.

Interfax reports that a criminal case has been initiated on violation of industrial safety requirements, and that the technical director of the Piro-Ross company, which owned the warehouse where the explosion occurred, has been detained.

Eight people are still reported to be missing, with 84 wounded. One person is known to have died.

Updated

Tass cites the Russian-imposed local authority in Horlivka in Donetsk on it Telegram channel as saying that Ukrainian forces have hit the city with four cluster munitions. The claims have not been independently verified. There were no details of any casualties.

Updated

Drone forces closure of Moscow's Vnukovo airport

Russian state-owned news agency RIA reports on its Telegram channel that Vnukovo airport in Moscow is temporarily closed beacause of a drone in its airspace. It cited Russia’s emergency services.

Updated

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reports that a children’s hospital has been stuck in a Russian attack on the city on Friday morning, but that there were no casualties. He posted to Telegram:

Fragments of a rocket fell on the territory of one of the capital’s children’s hospitals. There were no injuries or damage. Emergency services are on the scene.

Updated

Explosions heard in Kyiv

Daniel Boffey is in Ukraine for the Guardian:

There have been four major explosions in the last few minutes in Kyiv. The blasts could be heard across the Ukrainian capital.

The source is as yet unconfirmed, but the official Telegram channel of the country’s air force had warned shortly before of the launch of Kh-47M2 ballistic missiles: “Stay in cover,” it wrote.

Car alarms are ringing out and people are running to their bunkers.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, wrote on Telegram: “Explosions in the city, stay in the shelters please.”

The city’s military authorities said their anti-rocket systems were working.

Updated

Suspilne reports that explosions have been heard in Khmelnytskyi and Vinnytsia.

Christopher Miller of the FT notes that several recent Russian targets have been places frequented by the media when they are staying in Ukraine to report on Russia’s invasion.

Explosions have been heard in Kyiv, and the local city authority has reported that the air defence is in action.

Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian presidency’s office, has posted more detail about the strike on Kherson on Telegram. He reports that two people, a woman and a 44-year-old man, were injured.

Yermak also reports that a man has been injured in Beryslav after a drone strike.

Updated

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that a high-rise building in Kherson was hit by artillery fire at 8.30am [6.30am BST] this morning. A woman received shrapnel wounds, it stated.

Updated

The UK’s Ministry of Defence has issued its daily intelligence briefing on the war, and today the focus is on Belarus. It asserts that the military exercises taking place on the Russian ally’s soil are “highly likely part of the Belarussian military’s routine training cycle”, but it notes: “However, Russia is almost certainly keen to promote Belarussian forces as posturing against Nato.”

In recent days Poland has sent more troops to its border with Belarus, in part to help its border guard force cope with migrant flows that Belarus allows to pass into the EU, and in part to counter what is perceived to be a threat from the arrival of Wagner mercenary forces in Belarus. Poland last week accused Belarussian helicopters of violating its airspace.

Updated

Zaporizhzhia hotel hit in Russian strikes is used by UN workers

The hotel struck by Russia is used by United Nations staff when they work in the town, Denise Brown, the humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said in a statement seen by Reuters.

“I am appalled by the news that a hotel frequently used by United Nations personnel and our colleagues from NGOs supporting people affected by the war has been hit by a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia shortly ago,” she said. “I have stayed in this hotel every single time I visited Zaporizhzhia.”

Russian missile strike hits Zaporizhzhia hotel, killing one and injuring 16, including children

A Russian missile struck a hotel in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Thursday evening, Reuters reports. The attack killed one person and injured 16, including four children, Ukrainian officials said.

National police said an Iskander missile hit the city at 7:20 p.m. (1620 GMT).

“Zaporizhzhia. The city suffers daily from Russian shelling. A fire broke out in a civilian building after the occupiers hit it with a missile,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

Pictures and video shared by officials showed a big crater, wrecked cars and a badly damaged four-storey building with a hotel sign.

Local media reported that the damaged building is Reikartz Hotel in the city centre on the bank of the Dnipro River.

It was the second strike on Zaporizhzhia in as many days. Two young women and a man were killed and nine other people were wounded in a Russian missile attack on Wednesday.

Opening summary

Welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.

Our top story this morning:

A Russian missile struck a hotel in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Thursday evening, leaving one dead and 16 injured, Ukrainian officials said.

Zaporizhzhia governor Yuriy Malashko said the 16 injured included four children. The United Nations staff used the hotel when they worked in the town, said Denise Brown, the humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, in a statement emailed to Reuters. It was the second strike on Zaporizhzhia in as many days. Two young women and a man were killed and nine other people were wounded in a Russian missile attack on Wednesday.

Elsewhere:

  • Ukrainian forces have recaptured the heights over Bakhmut and are successfully encircling Russian troops in the city, the deputy defence minister in Kyiv has said. In an interview with the Guardian, Hanna Maliar said Russian soldiers could no longer move around Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region and progress was being made in outflanking enemy forces after months of deadly battles.

  • Two people have been killed by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian village of Chausy in the Bryansk region, the region’s governor has claimed. Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram: “Currently, two civilians have died from the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” Bryansk borders Ukraine to the north-east.

  • Russia’s defence ministry said early on Thursday it had downed 11 Ukrainian drones near Crimea overnight, as well as two drones flying toward the capital Moscow. It said two Ukrainian drones were shot down near the city of Sevastopol on the Crimean coast, and “another 9 were suppressed by means of electronic warfare and crashed in the Black Sea”. The ministry said there were no reports of damage or casualties in any of the affected areas.

  • Ukraine claims to have shot down seven of ten “Shahed” drones launched at it overnight by Russia. Air defence was said to be active in Kyiv region and Khmelnytskyi.

  • Six residents of Bilozerka in the Kherson region have been hospitalised after Russian artillery fire hit people receiving humanitarian aid, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

  • The White House is asking Congress for an additional $24bn in Ukraine aid, senior administration officials revealed on Thursday. The US has so far given Ukraine more than $113bn in aid since Russia invaded in February 2021, making it Ukraine’s biggest funder in its defense against Russia.

  • The Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant again lost connection to its last remaining main external power line overnight and was switched to a reserve line, state-owned power generating company Energoatom said on Thursday. Additionally, the station’s Russian-installed administration said the Number 4 reactor had been moved from a “hot” to a “cold” shutdown because of signs of a steam leak.

  • Russian drones destroyed a fuel depot in Ukraine’s western Rivne region on Thursday, governor Vitaly Koval wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

  • The co-founder of Russian internet giant Yandex, Arkady Volozh, condemned what he described as Russia’s “barbaric” invasion of Ukraine, days after criticism in Russia over his apparent efforts to distance himself from the country. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is barbaric, and I am categorically against it,” Reuters reports Volozh said in a statement. “I am horrified about the fate of people in Ukraine – many of them my personal friends and relatives – whose houses are being bombed every day.”

  • Poland is planning to move up to 10,000 additional troops to the border with Belarus to support the Border Guard, the defence minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, said on Thursday. “About 10,000 soldiers will be on the border, of which 4,000 will directly support the Border Guard and 6,000 will be in the reserve,” the minister said in an interview for public radio. “We move the army closer to the border with Belarus to scare away the aggressor so that it does not dare to attack us,” Błaszczak said. Last week Poland said Belarusian helicopters had violated its airspace and has warned of provocations.

  • The UK Ministry of Defence has claimed Russian authorities have stepped up efforts to block citizens’ access to virtual private networks (VPNs), which allow people to bypass restrictions on the internet. It notes “VPNs are hugely popular in Russia, despite being illegal since 2017. They allow users to access objective international news sources, including about the war in Ukraine.”

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