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Attack damages city’s Expo Center less than 5km from Kremlin
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Ukraine war: Footage appears to show moment drone attack hits building in central Moscow
A building in central Moscow has been damaged in a drone attack in the early hours today, causing a “powerful explosion” heard across the business district of the Russian capital.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the drone was shot down by Russian air defence systems but that debris from the exploded drone fell on the city’s Expo Center, less than 5km (3.1 miles) from the Kremlin. A video published by Russian media outlets showed thick smoke rising next to skyscrapers.
The Russian defence ministry blamed the “Kyiv regime” for carrying out the “terrorist attack” but added that there were no casualties in the strike.
“The UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), after being targeted by air defence weapons, changed its flight path and fell on a non-residential building in the Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment area of Moscow,” the ministry said.
It comes as the United States approved sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands to defend against Russia’s invading forces, as soon as pilot training is completed.
Russia’s military casualties are approaching 300,000 which dwarfs those of Ukraine which has so far experienced at least 170,000, say officials in Washington.
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Russia’s military casualties are approaching 300,000 which dwarfs those of Ukraine which has so far experienced at least 170,000, say officials in Washington
Russia is in the process of equipping its new nuclear submarines with hypersonic Zircon missiles, the head of Russia’s largest shipbuilder has said.
Sea-based Zircon hypersonic missiles have a range of 560 miles and can travel at several times the speed of sound, making them extremely difficult to defend against them.
Here’s everything you need to know about “the next generation of arms”:
Russia claims to be equipping Yasen-class nuclear submarines with Zircon rockets as war in Ukraine drags on
A billionaire ally of Russian businessman Roman Abramovich lost his attempt at London’s High Court on Friday to overturn British sanctions imposed on him after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes magazine at $1.6bn, was sanctioned in March 2022 on the grounds of his association with former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.
His two private jets were also seized.
The case is the first substantive challenge to British sanctions imposed following the February 2022 invasion, as Western governments target people and businesses over their alleged connections to the Kremlin and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The measures have prompted legal challenges from those who say they have been unfairly targeted.
After the High Court‘s ruling to reject Shvidler’s challenge, his lawyer Michael O’Kane said the oil tycoon – a dual British-US citizen – would seek to appeal Friday’s judgment “at the earliest opportunity”.
“He has never been a citizen of Russia, has not visited Russia for more than 15 years and has been critical of the Russian government’s actions in Ukraine,” O’Kane said in a statement.
Britain’s Foreign Office said it had “won comprehensively” against Shvidler’s challenge.
Britain alone has sanctioned about 1,600 people including Abramovich, who is separately challenging sanctions imposed by the EU following the invasion of Ukraine and frozen more than £18bn ($23bn) in assets.
Ukraine’s security services have claimed responsibility for an attack on the vital bridge connecting Crimea to Russia last month.
The country’s intelligence bureau, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said it used remotely controlled sea drones carrying 850kg of explosives to target the Crimean Bridge, a critical supply link built by Vladimir Putin in 2018.
The drone strike on 17 July damaged the bridge and killed two civilians, according to Russian officials.
Full story here:
Spy chief confirms security services’ involvement in July attack and warns similar strikes will follow
One person was killed and two were injured as a result of Russia shelling of a village near the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Friday, the prosecutor general’s office said.
The prosecutors did not provide details of the incident and did not name the village, but said some private houses were damaged.
In a separate case, the prosecutors said, four people were injured after Russia shelled the residential area of the city of Chasiv Yar, located in the Donetsk region close to Bakhmut.
Roughly 60 per cent of Ukraine‘s grain exports could transit through neighbouring Romania after Russia quit a UN-brokered safe passage deal through the Black Sea, Romanian prime minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Friday.
Ukraine is one of the world’s top grain exporters and Russia has been attacking its agricultural and port infrastructure after refusing to extend the year-old safe passage corridor.
Even before the deal fell through, Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta had emerged as Ukraine‘s biggest alternative shipping route.
Ukraine shipped 8.1 million tonnes of grain through Constanta in the first seven months of the year, and 8.6 million tonnes overall in 2022.
“We hope that over 60 per cent of the total volume of Ukrainian grain exports will transit Romania,” Ciolacu said after meeting Ukraine‘s prime minister Denys Shmyhal in Bucharest.
He said Romania was trying to improve its connecting infrastructure by rail, road, river and sea, as well as at border crossings.
Ukrainian forces do not appear likely to reach and retake the Russian-occupied strategic southeastern city of Melitopol during their counteroffensive aimed at winning back territory from Moscow’s army, a US official said on Friday.
The assessment was first reported by the Washington Post.
The US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, was citing an intelligence report on Melitopol but the prediction is largely in line with Washington’s view that the counteroffensive is going slower than expected.
The official added that despite the report and limited progress towards Melitopol, Washington believed it was still possible to change the gloomy outlook.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday declined to comment but said there had been a number of analyses about the war in Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022 and many of them had changed as it unfolded.
Melitopol, which had a pre-war population of about 150,000, has been under Russian control since March 2022 and has roads and railways used by Russian troops to transport supplies to areas they occupy.
Ukraine is already stockpiling fuel ahead of another challenging winter under siege from Russia, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.
Full report here:
Ukraine prepares fuel reserves for upcoming winter amid ongoing Russian seige, UK MoD says
Russia has banned entry to 54 British nationals, including the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan, in response to UK sanctions against its citizens and enterprises, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
The ICC issued arrest warrants in March for Russian president Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, charges Moscow denies.
Moscow also added Britain’s Minister of State for Defence Annabel Goldie as well as a number of correspondents from the BBC, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph to the travel ban list.
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu on Thursday visited Belarus and said his country would increase military cooperation with Russia’s neighbor, where Moscow is deploying tactical nuclear weapons.
Full story here:
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu on Thursday visited Belarus and said his country would increase military cooperation with Russia’s neighbor, where Moscow is deploying tactical nuclear weapons
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The Expocentre building has been damaged following what Russia said was a drone attack in Moscow
NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images)
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