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Volodymyr Zelenksy says Russia turned an ‘ordinary day’ in the city into ‘pain and loss’
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Ukraine war: Footage appears to show moment drone attack hits building in central Moscow
Ukraine has said that a Russian missile strike in the northern city of Chernihiv has killed seven people and injured 144 others.
Around 15 children, including a six-year-old girl, and 15 police officers were among the dead following the strike, which hit a central square in the historic city, about 92 miles northeast of the capital, Kyiv, as locals walked to church to celebrate a religious holiday.
Mr Zelensky confirmed the news while on a visit to Sweden on Saturday. “An ordinary Saturday, which Russia turned into a day of pain and loss,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging service.
Earlier, Kyiv said it shot down 15 Russian drones overnight as the Kremlin targeted sites across Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Vladimir Putin’s troops used Iranian-made Shahed drones to attack targets in the country’s central, northern and western regions.
Seventeen drones were launched in total, Ukraine said, and it was not immediately clear what happened to the other two.
Seven people including a 6-year-old child were killed and 90 wounded when a Russian missile struck a central square in the historic northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, the interior ministry said on Saturday.
People had been on their way to church to celebrate a religious holiday when the strike took place, the ministry said, adding 12 of the wounded were children and 10 were police officers.
“A Russian missile hit right in the centre of the city, in our Chernihiv.
A square, the polytechnic university, a theatre,” President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was on a working visit to Sweden, posted on Telegram.
“An ordinary Saturday, which Russia turned into a day of pain and loss,” he added.
A Ukrainian drone crashed into the rooftop of a railway station in Kursk, the central Russian city.
Five people were injured and the attack set off a fire at the railway station, Kursk region governor Roman Starovoit said, according to Tass.
“Ukrainian drone attack in Kursk. According to preliminary information, it crashed into the roof of the railway station building, setting off a fire on the rooftop. Five people were slightly injured by shards of glass,” he said on Telegram.
The city is located 150kms from the border with Ukraine.
The number of troops killed or wounded in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion is approaching 500,000, according to US officials, in an estimate not accounting for civilian deaths.
Russia’s military casualties are approaching 300,000, including up to 120,000 deaths, while Ukraine has lost 70,000 troops, with between 100,000 and 120,000 injured, according to Washington officials quoted by the New York Times.
In addition, Ukraine has suffered at least 26,384 civilian casualties since the beginning of the invasion on 24 February, 2022.
This is according to the latest estimates from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and includes 9,444 killed and 16,940 injured.
Read the full report below.
Russia’s military casualties are approaching 300,000, compared to Ukraine’s 170,000
The newfound presence of Wagner mercenaries in Belarus, exiled from Russia after their mutinous march on Moscow, has fuelled fresh anxieties in Ukraine and on Nato’s eastern flank.
Belarus’s neighbours have moved to a heightened state of alert since dictator Alexander Lukashenko appeared to broker a last-minute deal with the Kremlin to defuse the short-lived mutiny on 23 June and host Wagner troops on Belarusian soil.
During a recent meeting at the strategically important Suwalki Gap, a sparsely populated land corridor near their countries’ borders with Belarus and Russia’s enclave of Kaliningrad, Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nauseda warned that north of 4,000 mercenaries were believed to be in Belarus, while Poland’s premier Mateusz Morawiecki branded them “extremely dangerous”.
Read the full report by Andy Gregory below.
Any attempt to breach Ukraine’s northern border would make no logistical sense, experts tell The Independent
Alexander Khodakovsky, chief of the pro-Russian Vostok Battalion of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, wrote a lengthy Telegram post.
He said his troops “cannot win” against Ukraine and suggested freezing the current front line.
According to a translation by the Kyiv Post, he said: “Can we bring down Ukraine militarily? Now and in the near future, no.
“When I talk to myself about our destiny in this war, I mean that we will not crawl forward, like the Ukrainians, turning everything into destroyed Bakhmuts in our path. And, I do not foresee the easy occupation of cities.”
Ukrainian troops around Kupiansk
A Russian missile struck the central square of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, killing seven people including a six-year-old child.
At least 129 were injured including 15 children and 15 police officers.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was on a visit to Sweden, posted on Telegram messaging app: “A Russian missile hit right in the centre of the city, in our Chernihiv. A square, the polytechnic university, a theatre.
“An ordinary Saturday, which Russia turned into a day of pain and loss.”
Debris in the street where a missile hit the Drama Theatre in central Chernihiv
Russia reported an “abnormal situation” Saturday on its moon-bound Luna-25 spacecraft, which launched earlier this month. The country’s space agency, Roscosmos, said the spacecraft ran into unspecified trouble while trying to enter a pre-landing orbit, and that its specialists were analyzing the situation. “During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters,” Roscosmos said in a Telegram post. Roscosmos did not specify whether the incident will prevent Luna-25 from making a landing.
Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the moon lander Luna-25 automatic station takes off from a launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East
Training has begun for Ukrainians to operate US F16 fighter jets but it would take at least six months and possibly longer, Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Saturday.
The Ukrainian Defence Minister’s comments came two days after a US official said F-16s would be transferred to Ukraine once its pilots were trained.
Mr Reznikov said in a TV interview that six months of training was considered the minimum for pilots, but it was not yet known how long it would take to train engineers and mechanics. Ukraine wants the sophisticated US-made warplanes so it can counter the air superiority of Russia, whose forces invaded the country in February 2022.
“Therefore, to build reasonable expectations, set a minimum of six months in your mind, but do not be disappointed if it is longer,” he told Kanal 24 anchor Andriana Kucher, who shared the interview on her YouTube channel.
US Air Force F-16 fighter jet is on display during the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget
Donald Trump has doubled down on claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin “would have never” launched a war on Ukraine if the four-times indicted former American president was still in power.
Mr Trump’s remarks came during his appearance on Fox Businnes’Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show aired on Friday. He went on to make bizarre comments about his relationship with Putin.
“Putin would’ve never gotten into Ukraine, but that’s just on my relationship with him. My personality over his,” Mr Trump said. “I was the apple of his eye and I would say, ‘Don’t ever do it.’ It was tough stuff there but he would have never done it.”
Mr Trump’s comments have sparked scrutiny, with fellow GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie decrying the ex-presidennt’s self-admitted fondness for the Russian dictator. Mr Christie, who met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine earlier this month, also warned about the danger of American politicians supporting anti-Democratic figures.
Read the full report by Andrea Blanco below.
‘Putin would’ve never gotten into Ukraine, but that’s just on my relationship with him,’ former president said during his appearance on Fox Business’ Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show
Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Sweden on his first foreign trip since attending a NATO summit in Lithuania last month.
At a joint news conference, Zelenskyy and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced the two countries had agreed to cooperate on the production, training and servicing of Swedish CV90 infantry fighting vehicles. Zelenskyy said Ukraine would start manufacturing the vehicles as part of the deal. He also encouraged Kristersson to “share” Sweden’s Gripen fighter aircraft with Ukraine. “We do not have superiority in the air, and we do not have modern aircraft. In reality, the Swedish Gripen is the pride of your country, and I believe that the prime minister could share this pride with Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. Sweden has said it will allow Ukrainian pilots to test the Gripen planes but has so far ruled out giving any to Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson hold a joint press conference
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson take a walk in the garden of the minister’s countryside retreat in Harpsund
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (R) with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attend a press conference
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