Summary
It is now approaching 9pm in Kyiv. Here is a summary of the day’s events so far:
At least six people, including a 10-year-old child, have been killed and more than 50 people injured when Russia struck a high-rise apartment in Kryvyi Rih. Authorities said people were trapped under rubble. Oleksiy Kuleba, the deputy head of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, called for revenge, saying: “Every day, Ukrainian cities are under fire from Russian terrorists. Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv. This is only for the last few days.” He said targeting civilians was a sign of “the despair and defeat of the Russian Federation at the front”.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, said “This is how the week begins in a Ukrainian city that just wants a quiet, normal life. Russia wants to take peace and life away”, and offered condolences to the victims and their families. The city is the home town of both Zelenska and her husband.
On Telegram, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said more than 350 people are working on the rescue mission in Kryvyi Rih after what he said were two Russian ballistic missiles hit the city.
Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza on Monday lost an appeal against his 25-year jail sentence, the RIA state news agency reported. Kara-Murza, who holds Russian and British citizenship, was jailed for 25 years in April for treason and spreading “false information” about Russia’s war in Ukraine, Reuters reports. Britain added six new designations to its Russia sanctions list, an update to the government website showed on Monday, targeting judges and officials involved in the trial of Kara-Murza.
According to Reuters, Ukraine and Croatia have agreed on the possibility of using Croatian ports on the Danube and the Adriatic Sea for the export of Ukrainian grain, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said after talks with his Croatian counterpart on Monday.
Russian airstrikes destroyed an estimated 180,000 metric tonnes of grain crops in the space of nine days this month, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said on Monday, Reuters reports.
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, said Russia lost 87 units of equipment last week, including 33 strongholds, 26 armored combat vehicles and 15 tanks. These claims have not been independently verified.
The Kremlin on Monday described a recent drone attack on Moscow as an “act of desperation” by Ukraine after setbacks on the battlefield. AFP reports that Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said it has been “very difficult” for Ukrainian forces on the frontline since it launched its counteroffensive in June. He added: “It is obvious that the counteroffensive is not a success. In an act of desperation, the regime in Kyiv is turning to such terrorist attacks. All possible measures have been taken to defend civil infrastructure [against Ukrainian strikes].”
Ukrainian forces have recaptured nearly 15 sq km (5.8 sq miles) of land from Russian troops in the east and south over the past week during their counteroffensive, a senior defence official said on Monday. Kyiv’s forces have now retaken 204.7 sq km in the south since they launched a major push back against Russian forces early last month, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Telegram.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is “not working out as planned” and that Nato resources supplied to Kyiv had been “wasted”, during the course of a two month-long operation that has seen limited gains for Ukraine.
Denis Pushilin, the Russian-imposed acting governor of occupied Donetsk, has claimed that at least two people have been killed and at least six injured after a Ukrainian strike hit a bus in the city which had been capital of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic since 2014, and which Russia claimed to have annexed last year.
Three Ukrainian drones that were shot down over Moscow damaged a high-rise building containing government offices and briefly shut an international airport, according to reports. Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said nobody was hurt and there was only minor damage to the facade of two office buildings in the Moscow City business district early on Sunday. Russia’s state news agency Tass reported a security guard had been injured. One of the damaged buildings – several kilometres from the Kremlin – was home to three Russian government ministries as well as residential apartments, according to Russian media, in the third such attack on the capital region in a week.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was “not working out as planned” and that Nato resources supplied to Kyiv had been “wasted”. On a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said separately that Russia would take additional measures to defend against Ukrainian drone strikes.
“War is returning to the territory of Russia,” Zelenskiy warned after the drones were downed over Moscow. The Ukrainian president said that was “an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process” and that Russia’s symbolic centres and military bases would be targeted.
Suspilne reports that as a result of morning shelling in Kherson, a 60-year-old employee of a utility company was killed, and four more people were injured. The Russian army also shelled Kramatorsk with rockets at night, and an industrial zone was hit. There were no casualties or injuries reorted.
Alexey Kulemzin, the Russian-imposed mayor of the occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, has reported that “facades, balconies, roofing and glazing” have been damaged in Kuibyshevskyi district in the city by overnight shelling.
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin appears to have said in a voice message published on Monday that his Wagner group was not currently recruiting fighters but was likely to do so in future. Prigozhin said in the voice message that “unfortunately” some of his fighters had moved to other “power structures”, but he said they were looking to return. “As long as we don’t experience a shortage in personnel, we don’t plan to carry out a new recruitment,” Prigozhin said. “However, we will be extremely grateful to you if you keep in touch with us, and as soon as the Motherland needs to create a new group that will be able to protect the interests of our country, we will certainly start recruiting.”
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow would be “forced” to use a nuclear weapon if Kyiv’s counteroffensive was a success and its forces “tore off a part of our land”. Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s security council, said that in that situation “there would simply be no other option”.
Saudi Arabia will host a Ukrainian-organised peace summit in early August seeking a way to start negotiations over the war, the Associated Press has reported, citing Saudi officials. One, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia was not invited to the talks in Jeddah. The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, later confirmed the talks would be held in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has not acknowledged the summit nor responded to a request for comment. The Kremlin said on Monday it needed to find out the purpose of upcoming talks.
Thank you for following along. Come back tomorrow for more live coverage and in the meantime you read our reporting on the war here.
Ukraine’s defence ministry signed an agreement with Turkish company Baykar Makina to build a service centre for the repair and maintenance of drones in Ukraine, a ministry official said on Monday.
The ministry’s state secretary, Kostiantyn Vashchenko, said in a statement:
The creation of a service centre will be a significant contribution to strengthening Ukraine’s defence capabilities and will help bring our victory closer.
According to Reuters, more than 10,000 drone operators have been trained with 10,000 more in training, Mykhailo Fedorov, a deputy prime minister in charge of the “Army of Drones” said last week.
Anton Gerashchenko, Ukraine’s internal affairs ministerial adviser, shared a photo of the mother and daughter who reportedly died in the missile attach in Kryvyi Rih.
Mom and daughter killed by a Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih today. RIP.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) July 31, 2023
Search and rescue operation in Kryvyi Rih is finished - head of National Police.
6 people died and 75 wounded by the missile strike.#RussiaIsATerroristState pic.twitter.com/vHFCxvVbgY
Britain has added six new designations to its Russia sanctions list, an update to the government website showed on Monday, targeting judges and officials involved in the trial of Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, Reuters reports.
Here are some more images of from the news wires of the aftermath of the missile attack in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine.
Ukraine posted a current account deficit of $1.28bn (£1bn) in the first six months of the year, central bank data showed on Monday.
The country had posted a current account surplus of $2.9bn (£2.2bn) in the same period a year earlier, Reuters reports.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s former press secretary, Iuliia Mendel, said there has been a lot of shelling in Kherson today.
In a tweet, she said":
The regional authorities explain the intensity of the shelling by the rotation of Russian troops on the left bank.
‘Russia has replenished its forces that had previously defeated our Armed Forces. They will destroy these too, but we have to wait a bit!’ the statement reads.
A lot of shelling of Kherson today. The regional authorities explain the intensity of the shelling by the rotation of Russian troops on the left bank.
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) July 31, 2023
"Russia has replenished its forces that had previously defeated our Armed Forces. They will destroy these too, but we have to…
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on Monday called for an end to the “irrational” war in Ukraine, urging upcoming peace talks in the Middle East to include representation from both Ukraine and Russia.
López Obrador said Mexico would only take part in the talks scheduled to be held over the coming weekend in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia if both sides were present, Reuters reports.
At a press conference, the president said:
If there’s acceptance from both Ukraine and Russia to look for solutions to achieve peace, we’ll participate.
We don’t want the Russia-Ukraine war to continue, it’s very irrational.
The only thing that benefits from it is the war industry.
Updated
Regional governor Serhiy Lysak said the death toll has risen to six and at least 75 people have been wounded after a missile attack in Kryvyi Rih by Russian forces.
On Telegram, Lysak said:
It’s already six dead in Kryvyi Rih.
Nearly 150 of the building’s residents managed to get out by themselves and 30 were helped out by rescuers, he added.
Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza on Monday lost an appeal against his 25-year jail sentence, the RIA state news agency reported.
Kara-Murza, who holds Russian and British citizenship, was jailed for 25 years in April for treason and spreading “false information” about Russia’s war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
At least five people, including a 10-year-old child, have been killed and more than 50 people injured after the missile attack in Kryvyi Rih by Russian forces. A video posted by Ukraine’s state emergency service showed smoke billowing from a gaping hole smashed in the side of a nine-story residential building. Authorities said people were still trapped under rubble.
According to Reuters, Ukraine and Croatia have agreed on the possibility of using Croatian ports on the Danube and the Adriatic Sea for the export of Ukrainian grain, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said after talks with his Croatian counterpart on Monday.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says it has agreed with Croatia on the possibility of using Croatian ports to export Ukrainian grain, according to Reuters.
More information to come …
Zelenskiy: five dead in Kryvyi Rih and 350 people involved in rescue operation
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to Telegram to state that more than 350 people are working on the rescue mission in Kryvyi Rih after what he said were two Russian ballistic missiles hit the city. He said that the death toll was now at five.
On Telegram, Ukraine’s president posted:
Rescue operation continues in Kryvyi Rih on the site of Russian missiles’ hits. Preliminary, two ballistic missiles. Floors four through nine of the residential building have been completely destroyed. The work is difficult – parts of the building’s structure were falling down. The terrorists also targeted the university building and the administrative building. As of now, five people are reported dead, including a child and her mother. My condolences. Dozens of people are injured and traumatised, all of them are being provided with the necessary assistance.
More than 350 people are involved in the rescue operation – I thank everyone who is saving lives and helping people.
Interfax in Russia reports that parliament in Moldova has extended the national state of emergency for a further 60 days.
Moldova, which borders Ukraine, first declared the state of emergency on 24 February 2022 in response to the full-scale Russian invasion of its neighbour. It has expressed concerns about the possibility of a nuclear accident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and the impact on gas supplies which might affect the country.
The breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria, in which Russian troops are stationed, is sandwiched between Ukraine and Moldovan-controlled territory. Early in the war a string of explosions hit government buildings in Transistria, prompting fears Moldova could be dragged into the conflict.
Updated
20 people in hospital and over 60 injured after Russian strike on Kryvyi Rih apartment block
The reported number of people injured in the strike on an apartment block in Kryvyi Rih keeps rising. The latest figure reported in Ukraine by Suspilne is 64 injured.
The regional governor, Serhiy Lysak, has stated that the injured include “two boys and three girls, aged from four to 17 years old”.
Suspilne adds in its report: “Most of the wounded will be treated at home. More than 20 remain in hospitals.”
Four people have been reported dead in the attack.
Updated
Russian airstrikes destroyed an estimated 180,000 metric tonnes of grain crops in the space of nine days this month, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said on Monday, Reuters reports.
Russia has conducted airstrikes on Ukrainian port infrastructure – notably at Odesa – several times after withdrawing from the Black Sea grain deal.
Updated
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, said Russia lost 87 units of equipment last week, including 33 strongholds, 26 armored combat vehicles and 15 tanks.
These claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
The Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has called the latest attack on a residential block of flats in Kryvyi Rih another example of the “genocidal everyday reality” for people in Ukraine.
In a tweet, he added:
International law will never work if the aggressor does not see a real power behind it. The power begins with closing the Ukrainian skies with missile defense and air defense systems.
This is already a kind of genocidal everyday reality... Kryvyi Rih. A Russian missile destroys another residential building. 53 injured. 4 killed. Among them are a 45-year-old woman and a 10-year-old daughter.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) July 31, 2023
International law will never work if the aggressor does not see a… pic.twitter.com/77ol0txWBu
Updated
Here are some more images being sent over the news wires from Kryvyi Rih. At least four people have been killed and more than 53 injured after Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian city.
Updated
Moscow has intensified strikes on Ukrainian military infrastructure in response to attacks on Russian-controlled territory, the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said on Monday.
Shoigu said:
Against the background of the failure of the so-called ‘counteroffensive’, Kyiv … has focused on carrying out terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure.
The intensity of our strikes against Ukrainian military facilities … has been considerably increased.
Shoigu said the army had taken “additional measures to increase protection against attacks from the air and the sea”, AFP reports.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the minister of internal affairs of Ukraine, tweeted a video that showed the moment part of the building in Kryvyi Rih that was hit by a Russian missile today crumbled.
According to the regional military administration, at least four people died in the attack, including a 10-year-old child, and at least 53 people were injured.
Part of the building in Kryvyi Rih that was hit by a Russian missile today, fell down even more. The moment was captured on video.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) July 31, 2023
As of now, four people have been confirmed dead, including a 10 year old child.
53 people injured - regional military administration. pic.twitter.com/TN8sI46aNF
Updated
The Kremlin on Monday described a recent drone attack on Moscow as an “act of desperation” by Ukraine after setbacks on the battlefield.
AFP reports that Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said it has been “very difficult” for Ukrainian forces on the frontline since it launched its counteroffensive in June. He added:
It is obvious that the counteroffensive is not a success.
In an act of desperation, the regime in Kyiv is turning to such terrorist attacks.
All possible measures have been taken to defend civil infrastructure [against Ukrainian strikes].
Ukrainian forces have recaptured nearly 15 sq km (5.8 sq miles) of land from Russian troops in the east and south over the past week during their counteroffensive, a senior defence official said on Monday.
Kyiv’s forces have now retaken 204.7 sq km in the south since they launched a major push back against Russian forces early last month, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Telegram.
According to Reuters, Maliar said Kyiv’s troops had retaken 2 sq km in the past week on the Bakhmut front, bringing the total territory recaptured there to 37 sq km since the counteroffensive began.
In the south, where Ukrainian forces are trying to advance towards the cities of Berdiansk and Melitopol, she said that Kyiv’s troops had recaptured 12.6 sq km in the last week.
Russian troops tried to attack on two northern fronts near Kupiansk and Lyman, but failed to break through, she said.
“Our defence forces are powerfully holding back enemy troops,” she added.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is “not working out as planned” and that Nato resources supplied to Kyiv had been “wasted”.
These claims have not been independently verified.
Summary of the day so far …
At least four people, including a 10-year-old child, have been killed and more than 40 people injured when Russia struck a high-rise apartment in Kryvyi Rih. Authorities said people were trapped under rubble. Oleksiy Kuleba, the deputy head of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, called for revenge, saying: “Every day, Ukrainian cities are under fire from Russian terrorists. Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv. This is only for the last few days.” He said targeting civilians was a sign of “the despair and defeat of the Russian Federation at the front”.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, said “This is how the week begins in a Ukrainian city that just wants a quiet, normal life. Russia wants to take peace and life away”, and offered condolences to the victims and their families. The city is the home town of both Zelenska and her husband.
Denis Pushilin, the Russian-imposed acting governor of occupied Donetsk, has claimed that at least two people have been killed and at least six injured after a Ukrainian strike hit a bus in the city which had been capital of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic since 2014, and which Russia claimed to have annexed last year.
Three Ukrainian drones that were shot down over Moscow damaged a high-rise building containing government offices and briefly shut an international airport, according to reports. Moscow mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said nobody was hurt and there was only minor damage to the facade of two office buildings in the Moscow City business district early on Sunday. Russia’s state news agency Tass reported a security guard had been injured. One of the damaged buildings – several kilometres from the Kremlin – was home to three Russian government ministries as well as residential apartments, according to Russian media, in the third such attack on the capital region in a week.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was “not working out as planned” and that Nato resources supplied to Kyiv had been “wasted”. On a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said separately that Russia would take additional measures to defend against Ukrainian drone strikes.
“War is returning to the territory of Russia,” Zelenskiy warned after the drones were downed over Moscow. The Ukrainian president said that was “an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process” and that Russia’s symbolic centres and military bases would be targeted.
Suspilne reports that as a result of morning shelling in Kherson, a 60-year-old employee of a utility company was killed, and four more people were injured. The Russian army also shelled Kramatorsk with rockets at night, and an industrial zone was hit. There were no casualties or injuries reorted.
Alexey Kulemzin, the Russian-imposed mayor of the occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, has reported that “facades, balconies, roofing and glazing” have been damaged in Kuibyshevskyi district in the city by overnight shelling.
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin appears to have said in a voice message published on Monday that his Wagner group was not currently recruiting fighters but was likely to do so in future. Prigozhin said in the voice message that “unfortunately” some of his fighters had moved to other “power structures”, but he said they were looking to return. “As long as we don’t experience a shortage in personnel, we don’t plan to carry out a new recruitment,” Prigozhin said. “However, we will be extremely grateful to you if you keep in touch with us, and as soon as the Motherland needs to create a new group that will be able to protect the interests of our country, we will certainly start recruiting.”
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow would be “forced” to use a nuclear weapon if Kyiv’s counteroffensive was a success and its forces “tore off a part of our land”. Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s security council, said that in that situation “there would simply be no other option”.
Saudi Arabia will host a Ukrainian-organised peace summit in early August seeking a way to start negotiations over the war, the Associated Press has reported, citing Saudi officials. One, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia was not invited to the talks in Jeddah. The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, later confirmed the talks would be held in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has not acknowledged the summit nor responded to a request for comment. The Kremlin said on Monday it needed to find out the purpose of upcoming talks.
Updated
The Kremlin said on Monday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is “not working out as planned” and that Nato resources supplied to Kyiv had been “wasted”, during the course of a two month-long operation that has seen limited gains for Ukraine.
On a call with reporters, Reuters reports Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said separately that Russia would take additional measures to defend itself against Ukrainian drone strikes, after drones hit Moscow’s financial district on Sunday.
Updated
The Kremlin said on Monday it needed to find out the purpose of upcoming talks reportedly planned in Saudi Arabia about the war in Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Saudi Arabia would invite western states, Ukraine and major developing countries to the planned talks. The paper said Kyiv and western countries hoped that the talks, which would exclude Russia, can lead to international backing for peace terms favouring Ukraine.
Reuters reports Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, asked about the WSJ report during his daily briefing, said Russia needed to understand what the aims of the planned talks were and what would be discussed.
Updated
Oleksiy Kuleba, the deputy head of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, has said that there are now 43 people known to be injured in the strike on Kryvyi Rih, and called on Ukraine to take revenge for all those affected by the Russian strikes.
He posted to Telegram to write:
Kryvyi Rih. Two rockets hit the city centre. 43 injured, four dead - a woman and a child were pulled out from under the rubble.
All necessary services, local and regional authorities work on the spot. The aid operational headquarters has been deployed.
Every day, Ukrainian cities are under fire from Russian terrorists. Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv. This is only for the last few days.
Today also in Kherson – one dead, four injured. Employees of the utility company, who were cleaning the city at that time, were attacked by the enemy. Everyone gets help.
The enemy is hitting settlements and cities. This is terror due to the despair and defeat of the Russian Federation at the front. This is terror to intimidate and break Ukrainians.
Let’s take revenge for each and every one. We work and save our people.
Death toll at Kryvih Rih now four, including one child – governor
The governor of Dnipropetrovsk has announced that four people have now been confirmed killed in a Russian strike on Kryvyi Rih this morning, including one child.
On the Telegram messaging app, Serhiy Lysak wrote:
Unfortunately, tragic news. Four people have already died in Kryvyi Rih. Among them is a 10-year-old child. There may be people under the rubble. Also, emergency workers have already rescued four people. One of them is a child. The search operation is ongoing.
A while ago Ukraine announced that it was going to remove the Soviet Union-era insignia on the Motherland monument in Kyiv, and replace it with a Ukrainian national symbol. Work has begun, and if you’ve never visited it, this image will give you a sense of the scale of the monument.
The number of wounded in the strike on Kryvyi Rih has increased to 31 people, including four children, Suspilne reports. It cites the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Serhiy Lysak.
In a post to Telegram, Suspilne wrote “According to him, the condition of most people is satisfactory. Two of the wounded are in serious condition.”
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, has commented on this morning’s strike on Kryvyi Rih, posting:
Kryvyi Rih, multi-storey buildings damaged by Russian shelling. There are wounded and dead. This is how the week begins in a Ukrainian city that just wants a quiet, normal life. Russia wants to take peace and life away. Condolences to the victims and their families. Let’s stay strong.
The city is the home town of both Zelenska and her husband.
Here are some more of the images being sent over the news wires from Kryvyi Rih. Two people have been killed and at least 20 injured after missiles struck the Ukrainian city. Several people are said to be trapped under rubble.
There are also images being sent from occupied Donetsk, where the Russian-imposed governor has stated that two people have been killed and six injured after a Ukrainian strike hit a bus.
Two killed in occupied Donetsk after strike hits bus – Russian-imposed governor
Denis Pushilin, the Russian-imposed acting governor of occupied Donetsk, has claimed that two people have been killed and six injured after a Ukrainian strike hit a bus in the city.
He posted to Telegram to say:
This morning the Ukrainian army shelled the centre of Donetsk. Hits were recorded in the Voroshylovskyi and Kuibyshivskyi regions.
As a result of the shelling, a passenger bus was destroyed. According to preliminary data, two people were killed and six injured. The injured are receiving medical assistance.
In addition, the Ukrainian armed forces attacked a water utility in Yasynuvata with the help of a drone. The infrastructure of the enterprise is damaged.
Pushilin formerly led the self-declared and mostly unrecongnised Donetsk People’s Republic, and attended the ceremony in Moscow last year when the Ukrainian region was claimed to be annexed by the Russian Federation, despite it not fully controlling the territory.
The situation is less clear in occupied Donetsk, where a Ukrainian strike appears to have hit traffic on a road. Images seen by the Guardian suggest there have been casualties.
Kryvyi Rih death toll rises to two – people confirmed trapped under rubble
Two people have been killed and at least 20 have been injured in a strike on the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. The head of the ministry of internal affairs said that between five and seven people are trapped the rubble as rescue attempts continue.
Here is the first still image that has come across to us on the news wires from the scene of the Russian strike on an apartment building in Kryvyi Rih which has left at least one person dead and 10 injured.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted a video on his social media channels from the scene of the attack on Kryvyi Rih. Ukraine’s president wrote in the accompanying message on Telegram:
Monday morning. Regions of Ukraine are being shelled by the occupiers, who continue to terrorise peaceful cities and people. Kryvyi Rih. Kherson. Residential buildings, a university building, a crossroads were hit. Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded. There may be people under the rubble. My condolences to all those who have lost their loved ones because of Russian terror.
Rescuers and all necessary services are on the ground and working. We are trying to save as many people as possible. In recent days, the enemy has been stubbornly attacking cities, city centres, shelling civilian objects and housing. But this terror will not frighten us or break us. We are working and saving our people.
Monday morning. Regions of Ukraine are being shelled by the occupiers, who continue to terrorize peaceful cities and people. Kryvyi Rih, Kherson. Residential buildings, a university building, a crossroads were hit. Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded. There may be people… pic.twitter.com/goMVBbCN1B
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 31, 2023
More explosions have been reported in Kherson.
More details soon …
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, is carrying details of two other overnight attacks by Russia. Citing regional and national authorities, it reports:
As a result of morning shelling in Kherson, a 60-year-old employee of a utility company was killed, four more people were injured.
The Russian army shelled Kramatorsk with rockets at night, and an industrial zone was hit. There were no casualties or injuries.
Reuters has details on the interior ministry statement about Kryvyi Rih, in which it said: “The enemy conducted a missile strike on Kryvyi Rih. All the necessary agencies are working at the scene now,” and it urged people to remain in air raid shelters.
Updated
One killed, 10 injured in Russian strike on Kryvyi Rih
One person has been killed and 10 people injured when Russia struck a high-rise apartment in Kryvyi Rih, Suspilne reports.
Citing the ministry of internal affairs, it says that there was also a hit on a four-story building and educational institution, and that the ministry of internal affairs reports there are probably people under the rubble.
More details soon …
Updated
The Nexta news channel has, in the last 15 minutes, published two short video clips which purport to show damage from shelling in two different locations in Ukraine.
The first shows someone driving in occupied Donetsk, with fire seen in the distance. Earlier the Russian-imposed mayor of the occupied city had reported some damage from shelling.
Occupied #Donetsk today. pic.twitter.com/L16WVTIGND
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 31, 2023
A second clip appears to show a damaged residential building in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. Earlier Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reported that explosions had been heard in the city.
‼️ In #KryvyiRih, #Russian invaders hit a residential building. pic.twitter.com/LRWACXoD5u
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 31, 2023
The Guardian has not independently verified the time or location of either video at present.
The Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz, has announced on Telegram more damage in the region from cross-border shelling. He stated that “four households and two cars were damaged, and the power supply was disrupted” in the village of Lomakovka. He stated that emergency workers were attending the scene. The claims have not been independently verified.
Monday’s edition of our Today in Focus podcast features the Guardian’s chief culture writer, Charlotte Higgins, discussing Victoria Amelina, one of Ukraine’s most celebrated young novelists and poets.
Amelina’s books looked at the country’s troubled history and she was all too aware of how Russia had attacked Ukrainian artists and culture in times gone by. When the full-scale invasion started, she changed her life – turning her acute powers of observation to investigating war crimes. Amelina herself was killed – on 1 July 2023 – after Russian shelling destroyed a pizza restaurant she was in.
Nosheen Iqbal hears from Higgins about about Amelina’s extraordinary life, work and how her war crimes investigations could help Ukrainians find justice.
You can listen to it here: Today in Focus – The novelist who became a war crimes investigator – and uncovered a secret diary
Alexey Kulemzin, the Russian-imposed mayor of the occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, has reported that “facades, balconies, roofing and glazing” have been damaged in Kuibyshevskyi district in the city by overnight shelling.
Updated
Prigozhin says Wagner not recruiting now but may do so again – reports
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin appears to have said in a voice message published on Monday that his Wagner group was not currently recruiting fighters but was likely to do so in future.
“Today we are defining our next tasks, whose outline is becoming clearer and clearer. Undoubtedly, these are tasks that will be carried out in the name of the greatness of Russia,” Reuters reports a voice sounding like Prigozhin’s said in the message. It was published on Grey Zone, a Telegram channel affiliated with Wagner.
Prigozhin said in the voice message that “unfortunately” some of his fighters had moved to other “power structures”, but he said they were looking to return.
“As long as we don’t experience a shortage in personnel, we don’t plan to carry out a new recruitment,” Prigozhin said.
“However, we will be extremely grateful to you if you keep in touch with us, and as soon as the Motherland needs to create a new group that will be able to protect the interests of our country, we will certainly start recruiting.”
The future of Wagner and Prigozhin has been unclear since he led an aborted mutiny against the Russian defence establishment in late June.
The Guardian has not independently verified Prigozhin as the source of the quotes.
A police station in Russia’s Bryansk region has been damaged in a drone attack, which authorities had said came from Ukraine.
Regional governor Alexander Bogomaz wrote on his Telegram channel:
At night, the armed forces of Ukraine attacked Trubchevsk. A drone hit the building of a district police department. There were no casualties. There is damage to the roof and windows. Emergency services are currently on the scene.
Trubchevsk is situated on the Desna river, to the north of Ukraine’s Sumy region. The claims have not been independently verified.
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Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that explosions have been heard in Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk region. It cited Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s defence council. An air alert has been in place in Dnipropetrovsk for about 15 minutes.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has said that the Russian state has failed “to insulate the population from the war” in its latest daily intelligence briefing. It writes:
The Russian authorities are prioritizing amending legislation to allow more men to be rapidly drafted into the military. In mid-July 2023, the State Duma increased the maximum age of liability for conscription from 27 to 30, while retaining the current lower limit at 18.
While conscripts are not currently deployed in Ukraine, extra draftees free-up professional and mobilised soldiers from other duties inside Russia.
The increased chance of being compelled to fight, drone attacks on Moscow, exceptional level of domestic repression, and the recent Wagner mutiny combine to highlight the Russian state’s failure to insulate the population from the war.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in Bristol. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Russia’s embassy in Moldova has announced it will temporarily stop providing appointments for consular matters in what Moldovan officials say is a situation linked to the order by the country’s authorities to reduce staff.
Reuters reports that a statement issued by the embassy late on Saturday said consular appointments would be suspended from 5 August “for technical reasons”.
Ex-Soviet Moldova has been buffeted by Russia’s war in neighbouring Ukraine and its pro-European president, Maia Sandu, has denounced the invasion and accused Moscow of trying to destabilise her country.
Moldovan officials say the order to reduce staff at the Russian embassy to 25 from the current level of more than 80, to take effect from 15 August, will establish parity with Moldova’s embassy in Moscow.
The reduction was ordered after press reports that more than two dozen antennas had been installed on the Russian embassy’s roof for surveillance purposes.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has vowed Moscow will take retaliatory measures to be announced later.
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The latest drone attacks on Moscow reflect a pattern of more frequent and deeper cross-border strikes the Ukrainian government has carried out since launching its counteroffensive in June, the Associated Press reports.
Russian air defences shot down one drone in Odintsovo, in the surrounding Moscow region, while two others were jammed and crashed into the Moscow City business district.
Ukraine did not acknowledge the early Sunday strikes, in keeping with its security policy, but Moscow blamed Kyiv. It was the third such attack on the capital region this week and the fourth this month.
A Ukrainian air force spokesperson also did not claim responsibility but said the Russian people were seeing the consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Yurii Ihnat said on Sunday:
All of the people who think the war ‘doesn’t concern them’ – it’s already touching them.
There’s already a certain mood in Russia: that something is flying in, and loudly. There’s no discussion of peace or calm in the Russian interior any more. They got what they wanted.
The spokesperson also referenced an early Sunday drone attack on Russian-annexed Crimea. Russia’s defence ministry said it had shot down 16 Ukrainian drones and neutralised eight others through electronic jamming. No casualties were reported.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his Sunday night video address:
Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia – to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process.
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Saudis to host Ukraine peace summit – officials
Saudi Arabia will host a Ukraine-organised peace summit in early August seeking to find a way to start negotiations over Russia’s war on the country, officials have said.
Associated Press reported the summit would be held in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, citing one of the officials. Russia was not invited, said the official, who spoke early on Sunday on condition of anonymity.
Hours later, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, confirmed the talks would be held in Saudi Arabia, without naming Jeddah as the location.
He said a Ukrainian peace formula containing 10 fundamental points “should be taken as a basis, because the war is taking place on our land”. Kyiv has described the formula as including the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops and a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression.
Saudi Arabia did not acknowledge the coming summit on Sunday and did not respond to a request for comment.
Those taking part in the summit would include Ukraine, the US, Brazil, India, South Africa and several other countries, the Saudi official said. Details remained in flux.
The talks would take place on the weekend of 5 and 6 August, with some 30 countries attending, the Wall Street Journal reported.
News of the talks comes after the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, visited Saudi Arabia last Thursday.
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'Powerful day' for Ukraine on frontline, says Zelenskiy
A senior Ukrainian official has reported heavy fighting in the north-east of the country, with Kyiv’s forces holding their lines and making gains in some areas.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described Sunday as “a good day, a powerful day” at the front, particularly near Bakhmut, where Ukrainian forces say they are retaking ground lost when Russian forces took the city in May.
Reuters also reported that Russia’s military said it had halted Ukrainian forces in the north-east.
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said Russian forces were “trying to drive us out” of elevated positions in the north-east occupied by Moscow after its February 2022 invasion but retaken later by Ukrainian troops.
The Russians’ key task, Maliar told national television, was to “divert our forces from the Bakhmut area, where we have a successful offensive”.
They have attacked endlessly this week. But our troops resist the attacks and sometimes push them back with heavy losses.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had deployed rockets to destroy an armoured brigade of Ukrainian troops near Svatove, a key Russian-held town in the north-east. It said Russian forces had also repelled four Ukrainian attacks near the town of Lyman, further south.
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I’m Adam Fulton and here’s a roundup of the latest.
Ukraine has reported heavy fighting in the country’s north-east, saying Kyiv’s forces are holding their lines and making gains in some areas.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described Sunday as “a good day, a powerful day” at the front, particularly near the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, where Ukrainian forces say they are retaking ground.
But Russia’s military said it had halted Ukrainian forces in the north-east.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, will host a Ukrainian-organised peace summit in early August in an effort to find a way to start negotiations over the war, the Associated Press has reported, citing Saudi officials.
One of them said Russia was not invited to the talks and they would be held in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. Ukraine’s presidential office later confirmed the summit.
The talks would take place next weekend, 5 and 6 August, with about 30 countries attending, the Wall Street Journal reported.
More on those stories soon. In other news:
Three Ukrainian drones that were shot down over Moscow damaged a high-rise building containing government offices and briefly shut an international airport, according to reports. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said nobody was hurt and there was only minor damage to the facade of two office buildings in the Moscow City business district early on Sunday. Russia’s state news agency Tass reported a security guard had been injured. One of the damaged buildings – 7km from the Kremlin – was home to three Russian government ministries as well as residential apartments, according to Russian media, in the third such attack on the capital region in a week.
Photograph: Vlad Karkov/Sopa Images/Shutterstock
“War is returning to the territory of Russia,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned after the drones were downed over Moscow. The Ukrainian president said that was “an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process” and that Russia’s symbolic centres and military bases would be targeted.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow would be “forced” to use a nuclear weapon if Kyiv’s counteroffensive was a success and its forces “tore off a part of our land”. Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s security council, said that in that situation “there would simply be no other option”.
Vladimir Putin has said African and Chinese proposals could serve as a basis for finding peace, but that elements were “difficult or impossible” to implement. The Russian president was speaking at a press conference after meeting African leaders in St Petersburg.
Putin praised Russia’s navy in an address at the annual Navy Day parade. The Russian president announced 30 new ships this year and said the country was “building up the power” of its navy.
Satellite imagery captured on 19 July has identified about 300 tents and 200 vehicles in Tsel, Belarus, where Wagner troops have likely established a military camp there, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. It said it was unclear what happened to the heavy equipment Wagner used in Ukraine, suggesting it was possible it was forced to return these to the Russian military.
Russian forces thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to attack Russia-annexed Crimea with 25 drones, Moscow said on Sunday.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told government officials he expects Russia to resume its attacks on Ukraine’s energy system when the weather gets colder in the autumn. “We should be ready for this in any case,” the Ukrainian president said.
Pope Francis has called on Russia to revive the Black Sea grain deal, through which Moscow had allowed Ukraine to export grain from its seaports despite the war.
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