Ukrainian forces have raised their national flag on a recaptured Black Sea island in a defiant act against Moscow, but Kyiv lost one of its main international supporters after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to step down.
Moscow was fast to respond to Ukraine's defiant flag-raising ceremony on Snake Island, located about 140 kilometres south of the Ukrainian port of Odesa.
Its warplanes struck the strategic island shortly afterwards and destroyed part of the Ukrainian detachment there.
Russia abandoned the island at the end of June in what it said was a gesture of goodwill — a victory for Ukraine that Kyiv hoped could loosen Moscow's blockade of Ukrainian ports.
Images released by Ukraine on Thursday showed three Ukrainian soldiers raising the blue and yellow national flag on a patch of ground next to the remains of a flattened building.
Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian President's chief of staff, suggested the moment was one that would be repeated across Ukraine in the coming months.
In Moscow, the Russian defence ministry said several Ukrainian troops had landed on the island before dawn.
"An aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces immediately launched a strike with high-precision missiles," ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said.
Snake Island became a symbol of Ukraine's refusal to bend to Russia's will early in the war after Ukrainian forces stationed there delivered a salty riposte when asked by the commander of a Russian ship to surrender.
'The clown is going': Russia celebrates Johnson's resignation
Moscow did not conceal its delight at the political demise of Mr Johnson, a leader it has long criticised for arming Kyiv so energetically.
"The clown is going," said Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament.
"He is one of the main ideologues of the war against Russia until the last Ukrainian. European leaders should think about where such a policy leads."
Mr Johnson made Britain one of the biggest Western supporters of Ukraine, sending weapons and issuing crippling sanctions on Russia.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Mr Johnson had been hit by a "boomerang launched by himself".
"The moral of the story is: do not seek to destroy Russia," she said
Mr Johnson said Britain's support for Ukraine would continue regardless, but his resignation comes at a time of domestic turmoil in some other European countries that support Kyiv amid doubts about their staying power for what has become a protracted conflict.
In a phone call, Mr Johnson promised Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he will continue to work with partners to end the grain blockade in the coming weeks, and told him, "you're a hero, everybody loves you," a spokesman for Mr Johnson said.
Russia continues to bombard Donetsk
Russian forces in eastern Ukraine meanwhile kept up pressure on Ukrainian troops trying to hold the line along the northern borders of the Donetsk region, in preparation for an anticipated wider offensive against it.
After taking the city of Lysychansk on Sunday and effectively cementing total control of Ukraine's Luhansk region, Moscow made clear it was planning to capture parts of the neighbouring Donetsk region it has not yet seized.
Kyiv still controls some large cities.
The Mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk said Russian forces had fired missiles at the city centre in an air strike on Thursday and that at least one person was killed and six wounded.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Governor of the Donetsk region, said the missile had damaged six buildings including a hotel and an apartment block in the large industrial hub.
Those assertions could not be independently verified. Russia's defence ministry says it does not target civilians and uses high-precision weapons to eliminate military threats.
The Ukrainian military said Russian forces were moving more units into the Luhansk region in order to consolidate Moscow's control there.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian officials had said that fighting was underway on the northern border between the Luhansk and Donetsk regions as Russian forces tried to make new inroads.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War said Russia did not appear to have taken any new territory since its capture of Lysychansk on Sunday.
It assessed that: "Russian forces are conducting an operational pause while still engaging in limited ground attacks to set conditions for more significant offensive operations."
In the frontline city of Bakhmut, smoke rose from nearby hills where Ukrainian forces fired off artillery rounds, drawing Russian volleys in response.
People walked quickly between market stalls but barely reacted to the frequent loud blasts.
Olena Kandeluk, 53, said shelling had increased in recent days as the fighting moved closer after the fall of Lysychansk.
"We have crops to harvest. Some fields have burned," she said, explaining why she had stayed.
Some fields had been charred by Ukrainian rocket launches and others by incoming Russian fire, she said.
Russia calls its February 24 invasion a "special military operation" to demilitarise Ukraine, root out what it says were dangerous nationalists and protect Russian speakers in that country.
Ukraine and its allies say Russia launched an imperial-style land grab, starting the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II.
ABC/wires
