Explosions have been reported in Ukraine’s capital as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and other African leaders were in Kyiv to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskiy as part of a peace initiative. The leaders are due to head to Moscow and meet Vladimir Putin on Saturday.
Kyiv’s mayor reported an explosion in the Podilskyi district of the city, while an air alert was declared across much of Ukraine after reports of Kalbr-style cruise missiles being launched from Russia’s Black Sea fleet. According to information provided by the Ukrainian air force, the city’s defences shot down six Kinzhal ballistic missiles, six Kalibr cruise missiles and two reconnaissance drones.
Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, said “The Russian missile attack took place just when the leaders of African countries arrived in the capital. Putin wants to demonstrate that he is willing to disregard the safety of foreign leaders, he actually doesn’t care because he feels complete impunity.”
Kherson’s regional authority has said that 1,649 houses in 17 settlements on the right bank of the Dnipro remain flooded after the collapse of the Kakhovka dam. They also claim that 17 settlements remain flooded on the opposite bank, which is occupied by Russian forces.
Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi has posted a video which claims to show Ukrainian forces taking out Russian positions near the town of Bakhmut. In a short message on Telegram, the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces said “The enemy is steadily losing equipment near Bakhmut, our soldiers are knocking the Russians out of their positions.”
Russian troops who have destroyed German-made Leopard tanks and US-supplied armoured vehicles being used by Ukraine will receive bonus payments, the defence ministry said on Friday. The ministry said this was part of a wider reward scheme under which more than 10,000 Russian servicemen had received individual bonuses since the start of the war nearly 16 months ago.
One-hundred-and-fifty children have been illegally taken from the Luhansk region to Russia, according to Ukraine’s National Resistance Centre. It said the children were taken from the occupied region’s Starobilsk district on 8 June to two centres in the Prikuban district of Russia’s Karachay-Cherkess republic.
Ukraine has regained control of more than 100 sq km (38 sq miles) of territory in its counteroffensive, senior Ukrainian military commander Brig Gen Oleksii Hromov has claimed. The deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said there was a “gradual but steady advance” but that Russian forces were putting up “powerful resistance” on the southern front.
The UN nuclear watchdog chief has said the situation is “serious” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant but a number of measures have been taken to stabilise it. Rafael Grossi said after visiting Europe’s largest atomic power plant that inspectors would stay at the Russian-occupied facility but that signing a document on security on the site was “unrealistic” while the two sides were still fighting. Ensuring water for cooling the plant was a priority, he said, adding that the station could operate safely for “some time”.
Gunfire briefly halted Grossi’s convoy as it headed back to Ukrainian-held territory following the visit to the Zaporizhzhia plant, but the delegation was in no immediate danger, a spokesperson for the International Atomic Energy Agency said.
Ukrainian fighter pilots are being trained to fly F-16 jets, Nato’s secretary general has revealed. Nato allies have yet to agree on delivering the so-called fourth-generation US fighters to Ukraine, but Jens Stoltenberg said the training of Ukrainian personnel was under way.
A Russian anti-war activist died in a detention centre in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, where he had alleged he was being mistreated, his lawyer said.
