Closing summary
This blog is now closing. Below is a roundup of today’s stories:
US officials have said the total number of Ukrainian and Russian troops killed or wounded since the war in Ukraine began last February is nearing 500,000, according to a New York Times report. The officials told the Times that Russia’s military casualties were approaching 300,000. The number included as many as 120,000 deaths and between 170,000 and 180,000 injured troops. The officials said figures on the Ukrainian side were close to 70,000 killed and between 100,000 and 120,000 wounded.
Russian forces have destroyed Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow and its Black Sea fleet. Russia’s defence ministry said its air force had downed a Ukrainian drone over the capital at about 4am (1am GMT) on Friday. Footage showed damage to an expo centre on the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment of the Moskva River, 100 metres (328 ft) from Moscow city. Meanwhile, according to the ministry, Russian navy patrol ships in the Black Sea shot down a drone late on Thursday night about 237km (147 miles) south-west of Sevastopol, the base of its fleet on the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula.
The US said Ukrainian pilot training on F-16s would be followed by a transfer of jets to the country. Speaking at a press conference, Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said: “What we did this week is formalised through a letter from Secretary Blinken to his counterparts in Europe, that upon the completion of that training, the United States would be prepared in consultation with Congress to approve third-party transfer of F-16 aircraft to Ukraine.”
A coalition of 11 countries is due to start training Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16 jets this month in Denmark. The training was agreed a day after Ukraine said that, based on current timelines, it would not be able to operate the jets by autumn or winter.
Russia has banned entry to 54 British nationals, including the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, Karim Khan, and the defence minister Annabel Goldie, in response to UK sanctions against its citizens and enterprises. A number of correspondents from the BBC, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph were also on the travel ban list.
A large fire was burning on Friday at the Russian Novorossiysk fuel oil terminal in Novorossiysk, one of the largest Black Sea ports which is located about 107 miles (172km) from Crimea. It was unclear whether the fire was caused by a Ukrainian drone strike.
The thermal power plant in the Donetsk oblast was operating today at a reduced capacity because of shelling that damaged the electricity line, said Ukraine’s energy ministry. More than 14,000 people remained without electricity in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts. In the Kherson oblast, where Russians destroyed the Kahovska dam two months ago, about 11,000 people remained without power.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces estimated that Russian troops lost 460 personnel on Thursday, bringing their total estimate of Russian personnel killed since the invasion to 256,510.
One civilian was injured and private houses, farm buildings and gas pipelines were damaged in the Russian shelling of the Kherson oblast in the early hours of Friday, Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said.
Russian Telegram channels reported that a Ukrainian flag was hoisted in front of the Federal Security Service building in Nizhny Nogorod, a city located about 264 miles (425km) east of Moscow. The flag was quickly removed.
Sweden has approved a €270m (£230m) security assistance package for Ukraine, said Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s minister of defence.
Updated
Russia bans 54 British nationals from entering country
Russia has banned entry to 54 British nationals, including the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, Karim Khan, and the defence minister Annabel Goldie, in response to UK sanctions against its citizens and enterprises, Reuters reports, citing the Russian foreign ministry.
The ICC issued arrest warrants in March for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, charges Moscow denies.
A number of correspondents from the BBC, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph were also on the travel ban list.
The ministry said it would continue expanding the list in retaliation for sanctions.
Updated
