The head of Ukraine’s ground forces has said Russian forces are constantly attacking in the direction of Kupiansk and Lyman in Donetsk but that Ukraine’s defence line is holding firm. Oleksandr Syrskyi said the main task for Ukrainian troops at the moment was to knock out enemy artillery where possible, and he claimed small advances in the Bakhmut direction.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had posted a video on Thursday showing Ukrainian soldiers saying they have recaptured the village of Staromaiorske. In the video, Ukrainian fighters say they have “liberated the village”, located east of Zaporizhzhia city.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the Russian-imposed administration of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, described the situation on the frontline there as “tense”, and on Friday claimed that Russian forces control the Vremivka direction, and that “The enemy suffers significant losses but is trying to hold out in the northwestern part of the village of Staromaiorske.”
Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air force, said on television that despite a relatively quiet night, residents should stay vigilant as there is still “a high probability of missile attacks”. He said “The night was quiet. There was little activity of enemy aircraft. There are not many nights like this. Many Ukrainians had the opportunity to sleep at least. We hope this day will be calm.”
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said Ukrainian ground attacks have intensified in recent days, primarily on the frontline running through Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. Speaking to Russian TV on the margins of the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg on Thursday, Putin said that Ukraine had not enjoyed success on any part of the front.
Vladimir Putin told African leaders on Friday that Moscow respected their peace proposal on Ukraine and was carefully studying it. Putin also said that Russia was increasing food supplies to Africa, including some free grain shipments, which he announced a day earlier, and was interested in developing military cooperation with the continent.
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged Russia on Friday to revive the Black Sea grain deal. Sisi told the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg that it was “essential to reach agreement” on reviving the deal.
The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff said Russia is threatening civilian vessels in the Black Sea and urged the international community to condemn what he said were “the methods of terrorists”.
Russian air defences downed a Ukrainian military drone before it could attack its targets near Moscow on Friday, the RIA news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying. The ministry said the incident caused no casualties or damage to buildings.
Russian state-owned media outlet Tass reported a Ukrainian drone attacked an oil facility in occupied Shakhtarsk, in Donetsk region. It quoted the Russian-imposed occupying mayor of the city, Alexander Shatov, as saying: “At the site of the fire, fragments from a drone were found. In all likelihood, they hit it with a drone.” He said a fire at the site was extinguished.
Emergency services in occupied Kherson that three civilians were injured on the left bank of the Dnipro River by Ukrainian shelling from the north.
Three residential buildings and a garage were damaged overnight by Russian shelling in Seredyna-Buda, in Sumy region.
Qatar will provide Ukraine with $100m in humanitarian aid to support health, education and demining, the Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said on Friday after talks with his Qatari counterpart.
Germany’s industrial group Rheinmetall is setting up a repair centre in Ukraine for Leopard tanks and other war equipment supplied by Berlin, potentially from as early as late summer, according to the chief executive, Armin Papperger.
Zelenskiy was in Kyiv Friday morning, taking part in a ceremony to mark Ukraine’s official Statehood Day, giving out first passports to people eligible to hold them for the first time.
Japan is stepping up its sanctions against Moscow by extending an export ban on luxury cars to Russia from next month so that it will cover all new and used vehicles over 1900cc, the government said on Friday.
China’s economic ties with Russia have helped limit the effect of punishing western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a US intelligence report said on Thursday.
Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to attend the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg. Late on Wednesday, a close ally of Prigozhin posted a picture purportedly showing the Wagner group leader meeting African officials. In the unverified photograph, Prigozhin is seen standing next to a senior official from Central African Republic (CAR), which has welcomed thousands of Wagner mercenaries over the last few years.
The European Commission has no money to help Ukraine with extra transport costs after Black Sea deal collapse, sources have said. Sources told Reuters that the Commission had no immediate money in the budget and no clear way to help finance the extra transport costs Ukrainian grain exports will face with the end of the Black Sea deal.
Evgeny Lebedev, the Russian-born British newspaper owner, has claimed he was a victim of “Russophobia” in the UK amid the war in Ukraine. In an article in the Evening Standard newspaper – of which he is the owner – Lebedev said the country was “long overdue” a reckoning with “corporate hypocrisy”.
