Summary
It’s now approaching 6pm in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, on a day where rocket attacks have killed two in Zaporizhzhia.
Two first responders were killed in the Zaporizhzhia region by Russian rocket attacks on Saturday.
Ukrainian police said Russia fired a series of rockets at the village of Komyshuvakha, which caused a fire. Emergency responders responding to the fire were hit by a second attack which killed two of them. Four residents were injured.
Ukraine was subject to an overnight drone attack by Russia, as the Ukrainian armed forces claimed it shot down 29 of the 38 drones that were sent on a raid.
More than 400 towns and villages in the south, south-east and north of the country were affected by the drone attacks.
An oil refinery was hit in Odesa as part of the attack.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it had carried out “successful actions” on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River. It comes after Ukraine and Russia acknowledged earlier this week that Ukraine had established positions on the eastern side of the river, which marks part of the frontline in south-east Ukraine.
Ukraine’s armed forces have claimed to have killed another 620 Russian soldiers on Friday during its operations.
In response, Russia has said it had heavily bombed Ukrainian forces near the river, and killed about 75 soldiers.
In its daily intelligence briefing, the UK’s Ministry of Defence notes Russian forces are suffering “particularly heavy casualties” in fighting around Avdiivka, which is one of three areas seeing heavy ground fighting.
Despite the heavy fighting, however, the MoD said neither side was making any significant progress.
Hungary must say no to the current Europe model built in Brussels as the country continues to object to Ukraine joining the EU, the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told a congress of his Fidesz party on Saturday.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has called on Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to take the first step towards a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine.
More than 100 Russian doctors have signed a joint letter calling on Putin to release a woman jailed for a supermarket protest against the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine has been the target of nearly 4,000 cyber-attacks since the invasion began, three times higher than before.
That’s all for today. Thank you for following along.
Updated
More than 100 Russian doctors have signed an open letter to president Vladimir Putin calling for him to release a woman jailed for making a supermarket protest over Russia’s offensive against Ukraine.
A Saint Petersburg court last week sentenced Alexandra Skochilenko, 33, to seven years in prison for spreading “false information”. She had swapped supermarket price tags with slogans criticising Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.
Skochilenko, an artist known as Sasha, has health issues including coeliac disease and a congenital heart defect. Her mother recently told AFP that a long prison term would be a “catastrophe”.
“As the medical community, we have serious concerns about Sasha’s health,” stated the letter, published on social media and by independent Russian news sites Saturday.
Updated
