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Three vessels under the Panamanian, Belize and Palau flags all came under fire from Russia, Kyiv said
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An Egyptian chef has been killed as Russia launched a series of attacks on foreign cargo vessels in the Black sea, according to the Ukrainian navy.
The worst hit was the Turkish dry cargo vessel, called Victress, which erupted in a large blaze as the 58-year-old cook was killed, according to Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Oleksii Kuleba.
Eight other crew members on the Panamanian-flagged ship, including Turkish and Indian citizens, were evacuated in a Ukrainian rescue operation, the navy said.
Two other vessels flying the Belize and Palau flags also came under fire but were able to complete their journeys.
The attacks come after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Ukrainian forces had struck energy and military infrastructure either side of a key bridge linking occupied Crimea and Russia.
The Russia-appointed Crimean governor Sergei Aksyonov said fuel stations across the peninsula suspended sales to the public and businesses, with supplies restricted to government agencies responsible for essential services and security.
Russian authorities said at least five people were killed and 28 injured in the attacks, adding that air defences had downed 239 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Russian forces have entered the strategic eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka and are attempting to encircle it, according to a BBC report citing Ukrainian soldiers and military officials.
The city, regarded as a gateway to the wider Donbas region, has become a focal point of fighting as Moscow seeks to secure full control of eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian troops told the BBC that Russian soldiers have established positions within parts of the city, making it increasingly difficult to remove them in urban combat.
While Russia has claimed rapid advances and the encirclement of Ukrainian units, Kyiv has rejected those assertions.
Brig Gen Oleksandr Bakulin, commander of Ukraine’s 19th Corps, said “the situation remains under control” and “the enemy has no success”, though he acknowledged that 130 Russian troops were operating inside the city.
Ukrainian soldiers told the outlet that supply routes were under sustained pressure and described growing logistical challenges.
As we earlier reported, Ukraine’s military said it had hit a plant producing electronics for missiles in Russia’s Voronezh region on Monday.
It is the latest blow on Russia’s military-industrial complex inflicted by Ukraine’s growing long-range strikes.
We can now bring you images of the strike:
The Kremlin has said it is beginning intense work to try and minimise the consequences of fuel disruption in Russian-held Crimea.
The peninsula is suffering a fuel crisis following Ukrainian drone attacks targeting energy infrastructure,
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said that there was a coordination mechanism between the government and oil companies when it came to fuel prices nationwide and that all necessary measures were being taken.
A Russian drone strike on the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine killed three members of the same family, including a 13-year-old boy and his father, and wounded another two, a regional official said Monday.
Russia has pounded civilian areas of Ukraine with drones and missiles since it launched its all-out invasion of its neighbor more than four years ago, and a United Nations tally says more than 16,000 civilians have died in the war. U.S.-led peace efforts have failed to stop the fighting.
The Sumy attack hit a home and killed a 36-year-old man, his 13-year-old son and a 73-year-old woman who was the mother of the man’s partner, according to Oleh Hryhorov, the head of the regional military administration. The man’s partner and 10-year-old son were wounded, he said.
Read our full report:
Russian-held Crimea, a popular tourism destination, has suspended children’s summer camps and tourist activities until September 1, its governor said on Monday.
It comes as the peninsula reels from a fuel crisis due to Ukrainian attacks on its supply routes.
Supplies of fuel and other products to Crimea have become strained as Ukraine has targeted both sea routes and supply roads from the north.
Availability of gasoline and diesel in Russia, the world’s third-largest oil producer, has also been undermined by Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, including in Moscow.
Fuel stations in Crimea halted all fuel sales to individuals and businesses from Sunday, including cash, non-cash and voucher purchases.
Governor Sergei Aksyonov said on Monday that the closing of children’s camps was in the interests of public security.
So far, there has been no public outrage over the fuel shortages in Russia, where protests are largely restricted during what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military said it had hit a plant producing electronics for missiles in Russia’s Voronezh region on Monday.
It is the latest blow on Russia’s military-industrial complex inflicted by Ukraine’s growing long-range strikes.
In a statement on Telegram, the Ukrainian General Staff said it had used air-launched cruise missiles to hit the facility, which it described as a “critical component” in Russia’s defence production.
Alexander Gusev, local governor of the Voronezh region, said on Monday that production facilities had been damaged and three people injured in the attack.
Gusev did not specify what the damaged facility typically produces.
He said in a post on Telegram, that air defence forces had destroyed several high-speed targets in the skies over Voronezh and warned residents of the danger of missile attacks.
Ukraine will decide who represents Europe in any negotiations with Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
Kyiv has been trying to reinvigorate the diplomatic push to end Russia’s more than four-year-old war by including Europeans, as US-backed negotiations stalled amid the Iran war and Ukraine refused Russian demands to cede its territory.
The Ukrainian president said that Ukraine was discussed “at greater length than ever before” at a European Council meeting last week.
“We discussed Europe’s role in the dialogue with the Russians and what that role should be,” he said, relaying his comments to the Ukrainian media on social media platform X.
“Europe will consider the format and propose several options, but Ukraine will decide who represents Europe in the negotiations. That is fair.”
A deep historical rift is now challenging the strong alliance between Poland and Ukraine, despite their shared war against Russia.
The dispute centres on Kyiv’s renaming of an army unit after a nationalist force, responsible for Second World War massacres of Poles, which has soured relations and exposed rival historical interpretations.
Here’s how their rival interpretations of history have soured relations:
The Kremlin has accused Ukraine of threatening the sovereignty of close Russian ally Belarus – but said it had no doubts that Minsk was in a position to defend itself.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday threatened to take action against Belarus if it did not quickly remove equipment which Mr Zelensky said was being used by Russia to help coordinate its own attacks on Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian president Vladimir Putin and Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko would discuss Zelensky’s remarks.
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