Summary
It is now approaching 9pm in Kyiv. Here are the main stories of the day:
At least seven people, including five civilians, have been killed in an attack on the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk. After the attack early on Monday evening, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Moscow had struck an “ordinary residential building”. A nearby hotel and a pizzeria used by correspondents were also damaged in the strike although it is understood that few would have been staying at the time of the strike as concerns about the potential risk of a strike on the city, which is close to the frontline, had been circulating.
Regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko put the number of wounded at 81, including 39 civilians, 31 policemen, seven employees of the state emergency service and four military personnel. Two children were among those injured. Donetsk is one of the regions of Ukraine which Russia partially occupies and claimed to unilaterally annex late in 2022.
Ukrainian special services have foiled an attempt by Russian hackers to penetrate the Ukrainian armed forces’ combat information system, the SBU security service said on Tuesday. “As a result of complex measures, SBU exposed and blocked the illegal actions of Russian hackers who tried to penetrate Ukrainian military networks and organise intelligence gathering,” Reuters reports the SBU said on the Telegram messaging app.
Roman Starovoyt, governor of Kursk in Russia, has claimed that a Ukraine “kamikaze” drone has fallen at the Gornalsky St Nicholas monastery in the region, injuring a child.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a video published on Tuesday that Ukraine would fight back against Russia in the Black Sea to ensure its waters were not blockaded and it could import and export grain and other goods. The comments, published on the president’s website, come days after Ukrainian maritime drones packed with explosives damaged a Russian warship near a major Russian port and struck a Russian tanker.
Reuters reports that dozens of ships are backed up around critical Danube arteries close to Ukraine’s river gateways days after Russian drone attacks on the country’s ports. Shipping data showed at least 30 ships had dropped anchor around Musura Bay in the Black Sea, which leads into a channel that links up with Izmail further along the waterway.
Britain has said it is targeting Vladimir Putin’s access to foreign military supplies by imposing 25 new sanctions on individuals and businesses. The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said: “Today’s landmark sanctions will further diminish Russia’s arsenal and close the net on supply chains propping up Putin’s now-struggling defence industry. There is nowhere for those sustaining Russia’s military machine to hide.” Individuals and businesses in Iran, Turkey, Belarus, Slovakia, Switzerland and the UAE, as well as Russia face sanctions.
Russia’s defence ministry on Tuesday said Russian forces had hit a Ukrainian command post in the eastern Ukrainian region of Pokrovsk, known in Russia as Krasnoarmeysk, the Interfax news agency reported.
Russia on Tuesday again aligned itself with its ally Iran in rejecting western attempts to maintain curbs on Iran despite the collapse of a 2015 deal intended to restrain Tehran’s nuclear program in return for relief from sanctions, Reuters reports.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has warned against Russia’s Wagner mercenaries taking advantage of instability in coup-hit Niger, whose neighbor Mali has become a partner of Moscow, according to AFP.
The Georgian prime minister, Irakli Garibashvili, labelled Russia an “aggressor” as he marked 15 years since the two countries fought a war over a breakaway region. Garibashvili told AFP reporters: “We have known for a long time that Russia was an aggressor, we know that and the whole world knows that.”
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, signed a decree suspending Russia’s double taxation agreements with what it calls “unfriendly countries” – those that have imposed sanctions on Moscow – the state news agency RIA reports.
Finnish and Norwegian regulators said on Tuesday they had banned the Russian tech group Yandex and its the Netherlands-based partner Ridetech International from transferring to Russia any personal data of customers of Yandex’s Yango ride-hailing app.
Two men were injured and hospitalised after Russian shelling in Kozacha Lopan in Kharkiv region, Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of the region, reported.
Russian state-owned news agency Tass reports that in the last 24 hours air defence in Russia’s Belgorod region has claimed to shoot down two drones. It reports that fragments from the drones damaged three households and power lines.
Interfax reports that the tanker hit in the Kerch strait by Ukrainian drones has had a metal patch welded to its hull to repair the damage, and is now ready to be towed to a shipyard.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has warned against Russia’s Wagner mercenaries taking advantage of instability in coup-hit Niger, whose neighbor Mali has become a partner of Moscow, according to AFP.
In an interview with the BBC released Tuesday, Blinken doubted that Wagner – which in June staged a shadowy rebellion against president Vladimir Putin – plotted the Nigerien military’s 26 July ouster of the elected president, western ally Mohamed Bazoum.
In the interview Monday, Blinken said:
I think what happened and what continues to happen in Niger was not instigated by Russia or by Wagner.
But to the extent that they try to take advantage of it – and we see a repeat of what’s happened in other countries, where they’ve brought nothing but bad things in their wake – that wouldn’t be good.
Every single place that this group, Wagner group, has gone, death, destruction and exploitation have followed.
Wagner has partnered with African nations including Mali and Central African Republic, leading to wide accusations of abuses by rights groups and western governments.
Military-run Mali has become the rare country to shift toward Russia diplomatically during the Ukraine war, in which Wagner has fought ruthlessly.
Mali and Burkina Faso, whose military leaders have also been accused of ties with Wagner, have sent envoys to Niger in solidarity with the coup leaders.
Here are some images form the wires of people’s homes in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, damaged by recent shelling in the city.
Ukrainian nuclear power plants located in territory held by Kyiv will be fully operational by winter to provide electricity for the country, Ukraine’s atomic energy operator said Monday.
Speaking at the Pivdennoukrainsk plant in southern Ukraine to mark the recommissioning of one of its three reactors, the Energoatom chief, Petro Kotin, said:
All the power at our disposal will be given to the electricity grid.
We will enter winter with nine reactors at full capacity.
He added that four reactors currently under repair would be operational before November, with a total capacity of almost 7,600 megawatts.
Ukraine currently has three power stations with a total of nine reactors in the territory under its control. The fourth nuclear power station, which is also the biggest in Europe, is the Zaporizhzhia plant which houses six reactors. AFP reports that it has been occupied by Russian forces since March 2022.
Kotin added that it was vital to regain control of the Zaporizhzhia plant, with a capacity of 6,000 megawatts, in order to supply electricity to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, thanked the “warriors” of the communications and cybersecurity forces of Ukraine for their professionalism and integrity.
In a tweet, he said:
Today I would like to thank all the warriors of the Communications and cybersecurity Forces of Ukraine. More than 65 thousand of them serve in various units of the Defence and Security Forces of our country.
And let us remember that every success of combat brigades and other units, every victory over the Russian occupiers always includes personal success and personal victory of specific warriors of communications forces who work for these brigades and provide them with high-quality communications.
Thank you for that! Glory to all our warriors of communications forces! Glory to all those who are fighting for Ukraine!
When there is a connection, when the connection is good, it is often taken for granted. But, in fact, it is always the professionalism and integrity of a particular warrior that is behind it. Very often, it is true heroism, which is not immediately noticeable, but is immediately… pic.twitter.com/0wSQsQ1AIa
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 8, 2023
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has held a phone call with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.
The two leaders discussed preparations for the upcoming BRICS summit, as well as bilateral cooperation, according to Reuters.
Russia on Tuesday again aligned itself with its ally Iran in rejecting western attempts to maintain curbs on Iran despite the collapse of a 2015 deal intended to restrain Tehran’s nuclear program in return for relief from sanctions, Reuters reports.
After a meeting between respective deputy foreign ministers in Tehran, Russia’s foreign ministry said Moscow and Tehran were unanimous in believing that the failure to implement the deal stemmed from the “erroneous policy of ‘maximum pressure’ pursued by the US and those who think similarly”.
Former US president Donald Trump quit the deal known as the JCPOA in 2018, leaving economic sanctions in place, and Iran’s relations with the west have been deteriorating ever since, as it has accelerated its nuclear programme.
But Russia, which signed the deal alongside the US, China, Britain, France, Germany and the EU, has been deepening ties with Iran since its invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a video published on Tuesday that Ukraine would fight back against Russia in the Black Sea to ensure its waters were not blockaded and it could import and export grain and other goods.
The comments, published on the president’s website, come days after Ukrainian maritime drones packed with explosives damaged a Russian warship near a major Russian port and struck a Russian tanker.
Zelenskiy said:
If Russia continues to dominate the Black Sea, outside its territory, blockading or firing at us again, launching missiles at our ports, Ukraine will do the same. This is a just defence of our opportunities, of any corridor.
We don’t have that many ships. But they should clearly understand that by the end of the war, they will have zero ships, zero.
He called on Russia to stop firing missiles and drones at Ukrainian ports and to allow trade to take place, in comments made at a briefing with reporters from Latin American countries, Reuters reports.
An air alert has been declared across all of Ukraine.
As of 5:55 pm, there is a threat of a missile attack across the entire territory of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/JjFE13xfGF
— Iryna Voichuk (@IrynaVoichuk) August 8, 2023
Suspilne reports the cause is the takeoff of MiG-31K from the Savasleika airfield in Nizhny Novgorod oblast, Russia.
Reuters reports that dozens of ships are backed up around critical Danube arteries close to Ukraine’s river gateways days after Russian drone attacks on the country’s ports.
Shipping data showed at least 30 ships had dropped anchor around Musura Bay in the Black Sea, which leads into a channel that links up with Izmail further along the waterway.
There were at least 20 ships anchored leading up to Izmail. The river and its mouth are Ukraine’s last remaining waterborne grain export route.
Roman Starovoyt, governor of Kursk in Russia, has claimed that a Ukraine “kamikaze” drone has fallen at the Gornalsky St Nicholas monastery in the region, injuring a child.
On Telegram, Starovoyt posted “The child received minor shrapnel wounds to the forearm and hand. He received help on the spot. Now the child is taken to the central district hospital for examination.”
Starovoyt also cautioned about misinformation being spread about the incident on other Telegram channels.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Ukraine claims to have foiled Russian hacking of armed forces combat system
Ukrainian special services have foiled an attempt by Russian hackers to penetrate the Ukrainian armed forces’ combat information system, the SBU security service said on Tuesday.
“As a result of complex measures, SBU exposed and blocked the illegal actions of Russian hackers who tried to penetrate Ukrainian military networks and organise intelligence gathering,” Reuters reports the SBU said on the Telegram messaging app.
The service said hackers tried to gain access to “sensitive information on the actions of the Ukrainian armed forces, the location and movement of the defence forces, their technical support”.
Cyber specialists found that hackers planned to use Ukrainian military tablets to spread viruses in the battle system, SBU said.
Ukraine has reported an increase in Russian attempts to hack into computer systems of the Ukrainian government, armed forces and energy sector since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Reuters notes that Russia has repeatedly denied such accusations.
Russian news sources are reporting that one person has died and three more were injured after Ukraine shelled the occupied city of Donetsk.
Finnish and Norwegian regulators said on Tuesday they had banned the Russian tech group Yandex and its the Netherlands-based partner Ridetech International from transferring to Russia any personal data of customers of Yandex’s Yango ride-hailing app.
In a statement, a regulator said:
The Finnish DPA has become aware of a legislative reform that will enter into force in Russia at the beginning of September, under which the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation will have the right to receive data processed in taxi operations.
In a separate statement, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority said:
There is an acute risk to privacy as Russian authorities could potentially monitor the movements of Norwegian citizens via Yango.
The Yango ride-hailing service, which operates in 14 countries including Finland and Norway, is one of many services offered by Yandex, often dubbed “Russia’s Google”, Reuters reports.
In June, a Moscow court fined Yandex 2m roubles (£16,350) for repeatedly refusing to provide Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, with information about its users.
Updated
The UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown, condemned the latest Russian strikes that hit residential buildings and other civilian places in Pokrovsk, adding that it violates any principle of humanity.
In a statement, she said:
It is absolutely ruthless to hit the same location twice in the space of minutes, causing the death and injury of people who had quickly come to help the survivors – including rescue workers from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.
They are frontline responders, helping people in their most difficult times and must be respected.
This horrifying attack is certainly a serious breach of international humanitarian law and violates any principle of humanity.
It adds to the very long list of attacks in Ukraine, including many over the past few days, that must be investigated as they violate international humanitarian law.
Updated
The British government set out 25 additional sanctions earlier for those said to be supplying drones, microelectronics and attempting to supply arms to Russia. Here is some more information about the countries, individuals and businesses affected:
Individuals and businesses in Iran, Turkey, Belarus, Slovakia, Switzerland and the UAE, as well as Russia face sanctions.
Iranian drone maker Paravar Pars and seven of its executives, already subject to US sanctions announced in February face sanctions.
Two Turkey-based exporters of microelectronics were among those facing sanctions.
The sanctions prohibit UK entities from providing trust services – the creation of a trust or similar arrangement – to those sanctioned and also impose asset freezes, which block their assets held in the UK.
The government also imposed sanctions on a number of individuals, including the Swiss national Anselm Oskar Schmucki, who it says is the chief of the Moscow office of a Switzerland-based crypto asset manager, DuLac Capital Ltd.
It alleged Schmucki’s involvement in “obtaining a benefit from, or supporting the government of Russia, by carrying on business in a sector of strategic significance, namely the Russian financial services sector”, as the reason for targeting him.
DuLac did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for a comment on the sanctions on Schmucki, who was placed under sanctions by the US in May.
Updated
Here are some more images sent over the wires of the damage in Pokrovsk after the Russian missile attack last night. The strikes killed at least seven people and injured more than 80, including first responders.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has signed a decree suspending Russia’s double taxation agreements with what it calls “unfriendly countries” – those that have imposed sanctions on Moscow – the state news agency RIA reports.
More information to come …
Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian MP, has said a set of US Abrams tanks have been approved for shipment to Ukraine and are due to arrive by early autumn.
In a tweet, she said:
A first batch of US Abrams tanks approved for shipment to Ukraine. The full package is to arrive in Ukraine by early fall. Autumn set to be hotter than usual🔥
Officially: a first batch of US Abrams tanks approved for shipment to Ukraine. The full package is to arrive in Ukraine by early fall. Autumn set to be hotter than usual🔥
— Kira Rudik (@kiraincongress) August 8, 2023
Updated
The deputy minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine, Emine Dzheppar, posted a photo of Andriy from 110th Brigade and his dog, Pulya – a “warrior [and] his friend”.
Pulya stood by Andriy through the toughest times, Dzheppar says, and despite the odds the two are safe together in a hospital in Dnipro.
Meet Andriy from 110th Brigade and his friend - shepherd dog Pulya.She stood by Andriy through the toughest times.Despite the odds, hospital in #Dnipro welcomed both of them - a warrior&his friend.
— Emine Dzheppar (@EmineDzheppar) August 8, 2023
Photo: @Liberov pic.twitter.com/5GlkL7zr6i
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry on Tuesday said Russian forces had hit a Ukrainian command post in the eastern Ukrainian region of Pokrovsk, known in Russia as Krasnoarmeysk, the Interfax news agency reported.
Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles had struck the city of Pokrovsk twice on Monday night, destroying a hotel and blocks of flats, killing at least seven people including rescuers, and wounding more than 80, according to Reuters.
Updated
US politician reports 'sobering' briefing on Ukrainian counteroffensive
Senior US and western officials describe increasingly “sobering” assessments about Ukrainian forces’ ability to retake significant territory in their counteroffensive, according to CNN.
A senior western diplomat told CNN:
They’re still going to see, for the next couple of weeks, if there is a chance of making some progress. But for them to really make progress that would change the balance of this conflict, I think, it’s extremely, highly unlikely.
The US representative Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat who recently returned from meetings in Europe with US commanders training Ukrainian armed forces, said:
Our briefings are sobering. We’re reminded of the challenges they face.
This is the most difficult time of the war.
Updated
Britain has said it is targeting Vladimir Putin’s access to foreign military supplies by imposing 25 new sanctions on individuals and businesses.
The Foreign Office said those sanctioned include businesses based outside Russia but said to be supplying drones, microelectronics and attempting to supply arms to Russia, PA reports.
Three Russian companies operating in the electronics sector have also been sanctioned, the department added.
The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said:
Today’s landmark sanctions will further diminish Russia’s arsenal and close the net on supply chains propping up Putin’s now-struggling defence industry.
There is nowhere for those sustaining Russia’s military machine to hide.
Updated
The Georgian prime minister, Irakli Garibashvili, labelled Russia an “aggressor” as he marked 15 years since the two countries fought a war over a breakaway region.
Russia sent thousands of troops into Georgia on 8 August 2008 after Tbilisi launched a large-scale military operation against South Ossetian separatists who had been shelling Georgian villages in the region.
Garibashvili told AFP reporters:
We have known for a long time that Russia was an aggressor, we know that and the whole world knows that.
Hundreds of soldiers and civilians from both sides were killed during the 2008 war. The UN said about 120,000 people were displaced, though many returned to their homes afterwards.
Updated
Britain has added 19 new designations to its Russia sanctions list and six to its Belarus sanctions regime, Reuters reports.
Summary of the day so far …
At least seven people, including five civilians, have been killed in an attack on the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk. After the attack early on Monday evening, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Moscow had struck an “ordinary residential building”. A nearby hotel and a pizzeria used by correspondents were also damaged in the strike although it is understood that few would have been staying at the time of the strike as concerns about the potential risk of a strike on the city, which is close to the frontline, had been circulating.
Regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko put the number of wounded at 81, including 39 civilians, 31 policemen, seven employees of the state emergency service and four military personnel. Two children were among those injured. Donetsk is one of the regions of Ukraine which Russia partially occupies and claimed to unilaterally annex late in 2022.
Two men were injured and hospitalised after Russian shelling in Kozacha Lopan in Kharkiv region, Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of the region, reported.
Russian state-owned news agency Tass reports that in the last 24 hours air defence in Russia’s Belgorod region has claimed to shoot down two drones. It reports that fragments from the drones damaged three households and power lines.
Interfax reports that the tanker hit in the Kerch strait by Ukrainian drones has had a metal patch welded to its hull to repair the damage, and is now ready to be towed to a shipyard.
Here is an aerial view of the damage in Pokrovsk after the double-tap attack last night which has killed at least seven people and injured more than 80, including first responders.
Updated
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has published its latest map of how it assesses the situation on the ground in Ukraine.
The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 8, 2023
The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 08 August 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/j92ICY6NCA#StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/T9nW0B3lxD
Oleh Kiper, governor of Odesa oblast, has announced that the opening hours of cafes and restaurants in the region will be extended until 11pm. Entertainment is still mandated to finish by 10pm.
Double Russian strike on Ukraine city of Pokrovsk kills at least seven, injures 81
Daniel Boffey in Dnipro and Helen Sullivan have this updated report on the strike on Pokrovsk:
Rescue workers are searching through the rubble of an apartment block and hotel regularly used by journalists covering the war in Ukraine after two missile strikes on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk killed at least seven people and injured scores more.
A nearby hotel and a pizzeria used by correspondents were also damaged in the strike although it is understood that few would have been staying at the time of the strike as concerns about the potential risk of a strike on the city, which is close to the frontline, had been circulating.
The interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said seven people – five civilians, a rescuer and a soldier – were killed. Overnight, regional officials had said that eight people had died.
Ukrainian officials said two Iskander missiles struck the city at 7.15pm and 7.52pm on Monday evening, damaging 12 multi-storey buildings. Eighty-one people were injured, including 39 civilians, 31 police officers, seven rescuers and four members of the military. The multi-tap attack appeared to target first responders.
“We are resuming the demolition of rubble,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk region’s military administration, said on Tuesday morning after rescuers “were forced to suspend work for the night due to the high threat of repeated shelling”.
Pokrovsk lies 70km (43 miles) north-west of the city of Donetsk, held by Russia, and 50km (30 miles) from the frontline, and has been used as a base for many media organisations covering developments on the nearby frontlines.
Kyrylenko said the strikes damaged two “private sector residential buildings, a hotel, catering establishments, shops and administrative buildings”.
Updated
Reuters has a quick snap that Poland’s defence ministry has agreed to send additional troops to its Belarus border, after a request yesterday from the head of the border guard force.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, has posted this update of the situation in Pokrovsk.
Updated data as of 11am (9am BST) regarding the victims of the shelling in Pokrovsk. Seven people died (five civilians, a rescuer and a soldier). 81 wounded (39 civilians, including two children – born in 2006 and 2012; 31 policemen, seven employees of the state emergency service and four military personnel). As of 11am, 12 high-rise buildings were damaged; hotel buildings, prosecutor’s office, pension fund, pharmacy, two shops, two cafes and two civilian cars.
Donetsk is one of the regions of Ukraine that Russia partially occupies and claimed to unilaterally annex late in 2022.
Updated
Russian state-owned news agency Tass reports that in the last 24 hours air defences in Russia’s Belgorod region have claimed to have shot down two drones. It reports that fragments from the drones damaged three households and power lines.
Updated
Reuters reports that two rescuers were among the dead in Pokrovsk. The interior ministry said that 29 police officers and seven rescuers were injured. Two children and 29 civilians were also among the wounded.
The total number of wounded has been put at 67 by Suspilne.
There is some confusion over the precise death toll. Overnight authorities put the number of dead at eight. Interior minister Ihor Klymenko, however, has said that seven people, including five civilians, were killed.
Two men were injured and hospitalised after Russian shelling in Kozacha Lopan in Kharkiv region, Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of the region, reports.
He wrote on his Telegram channel that “private houses and commercial buildings were hit. A fire broke out. Emergency services are working to eliminate the consequences.”
He said “the occupiers are intensifying the terror of the civilian population”, and put the timing of the strike at 9.20am local time (7.20am BST).
Suspilne has this news roundup for the morning in Ukraine, gathering together casualty figures from across the country. It reports:
It is now known that nine people were wounded as a result of yesterday’s attack on Kruglyakivka in Kharkiv region, among them two rescuers and two policemen. Two other people died.
In the last 24 hours, Russian troops shelled Kherson oblast 68 times. In Kherson, residential areas and a “point of invincibility” were targeted. One person died, thirteen were injured.
In Zaporizhzhia, the body of a man who had been considered missing was found from under the rubble of a house destroyed in Novodanylivka. An 83-year-old woman was also injured due to the night-time shelling of Preobrazhenka.
Updated
In Russia, Interfax reports that the tanker hit in the Kerch strait by Ukrainian drones has had a metal patch welded to its hull to repair the damage, and is now ready to be towed to a shipyard.
Updated
Here are some more of the images sent to us over the news wires from Pokrovsk.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, is carrying some more detail about the double rocket strike in Pokrovsk on its Telegram news channel for the Donbas.
It reports that one of the buildings struck is being demolished, reporting that 200 people lived in the five-story building where the first missile hit. Citing the head of the local authority, it states that all 60 apartments in the building were damaged.
Serhii Dobryak, head of Pokrovsk, said that the second rockets hit a hotel which was not in use. Previously, he is quoted as saying, journalists stayed there, as well as a humanitarian mission that came to Donetsk region.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Reuters has spoken to Pokrovsk residents about last night’s attack.
Kateryna, a 58-year-old resident of Pokrovsk, was at home when she heard the first blast but then the building was hit a second time.
“That’s it, bang , and that’s all. A flame filled up my eyes. I fell down on the floor, on the ground. My eyes (hurt) a lot,” Kateryna told Reuters in an interview. Her head was bandaged.
Another resident, 75-year-old Lidia, said she was also on the phone at the moment of the second blast. She had picked up from the floor a torn white curtain covered with broken glass.
“Suddenly this flew out and wrapped me up. Then the window fell on me,” she said sitting on her sofa.
“My back has cuts. I just got back from the hospital. My knee and my thigh have cuts. I had glass here,” she said pointing at her head.
Updated
Thousands of Russians fled to Tbilisi when Russia invaded Ukraine. But the graffiti that has sprung up across the city suggests not everyone is pleased to see them, Joshua Kucera reports for the Guardian.
While the statistics are imprecise, government figures indicate that, as of October 2022, more than 110,000 Russians had arrived in Georgia since the start of the war. (The same report found that more than 25,000 Ukrainians had also relocated there since the start of the invasion.) The influx has overwhelmed the city, taxing its housing and social infrastructure, and exacerbating existing political and cultural rifts:
Updated
From Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi to Andy Warhol’s Four Marilyns, it amounts to an art collection that could grace any gallery in the world.
But rather than being the highlights of a blockbuster exhibition at a major gallery, these are just some of the 300, and counting, pieces known to have been recently owned by Russian nationals under western sanctions that have been entered into a searchable database set up by Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP).
The agency’s “war and sanctions portal” lists paintings and sculptures thought to have been bought and sold in recent years by the Russian super-rich accused by the west and Kyiv of aiding and abetting the war:
Updated
The hotel and pizzeria damaged in Moscow’s missile strikes last night were popular among correspondents covering the war, with some journalists comparing the attack to a missile strike in June on Kramatorsk, which killed prominent Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina.
“We stayed at this hotel in May to report on the thousands returning to their homes close to the frontline. Five people killed & 31 injured. The risks are real and enduring,” James Waterhouse, the BBC’s Ukraine correspondent, wrote on Twitter following the attack.
The Financial Times’s Christopher Miller tweeted, “Russian forces launched a missile attack on central Pokrovsk city and Druzhba Hotel and Corleone pizzeria, both of which were frequented by journalists, in a Kramatorsk-style attack.”
Russian forces launched a missile attack on central Pokrovsk city and Druzhba Hotel and Corleone pizzeria, both of which were frequented by journalists, in a Kramatorsk-style attack. At least 5 killed, 32 injured, including 19 police and first responders wounded by the double tap https://t.co/jOiz4n9EPR
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) August 7, 2023
Maria Avdeeva, a security expert documenting Russian war crimes, tweeted: “Pizza place Corleone in Pokrovsk, a frequent spot for volunteers and foreign journalists, appears to be a target, much like Rio pizza in Kramatorsk.”
Updated
Moscow launches missiles on Pokrovsk, killing eight
Two Russian missile strikes on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, including on a residential building, killed at least eight people and wounded many more, a regional governor said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Moscow had struck an “ordinary residential building”, publishing footage of a typical Soviet-era five-storey building that had its top floor destroyed. Ukraine said rescue operations were ongoing.
The second missile hit the city 40 minutes after the first, the governor said, killing the first responders.
Pokrovsk lies 70 kilometres (43 miles) north-west of the city of Donetsk, held by Russia, and 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the frontline.
The head of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said the strikes damaged two “private sector residential buildings, a hotel, catering establishments, shops and administrative buildings.”
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.
Our top story this morning: two Russian missile strikes on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk – including on a residential building – killed at least eight people and wounded many more, a regional governor said. Prominent journalists noted that a hotel and pizzeria damaged in the strike were known to be popular among correspondents covering the war.
We’ll have more detail shortly.
Here are the other key recent developments:
Ukraine’s security service said it had foiled a plot to assassinate the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, after the arrest of a woman suspected of gathering intelligence about his movements. The unnamed woman was said by the security service, known as the SBU, to be gathering information about Zelenskiy’s visit to the southern Mykolaiv region where Russia was planning a major air assault.
Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, has reported that a 36-year-old man died and a 68-year-old man was injured in Russian attacks on Nikopol. “The aggressor has been terrorising Nikopol since the morning. It is pounding the city with heavy artillery.” As well as the casualties, he reported that “private houses, farm buildings and cars were damaged. There is damage to gas pipelines and power lines.”
Ukraine on Monday said it was “very satisfied” with a summit held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia over the weekend on a peace settlement. Russia was not invited. Representatives from about 40 countries including China, India, the US and Ukraine took part.
China’s foreign ministry said the Saudi talks helped “consolidate international consensus”. China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, “had extensive contact and communication with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis … listened to all sides’ opinions and proposals, and further consolidated international consensus”, the foreign ministry said.
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, on Monday spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the phone, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement. On the war in Ukraine, Wang told Lavrov that China would uphold an independent and impartial position, actively promote peace talks and strive to find a political settlement to the issue, according to the statement, Reuters reported.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, held a phone call with his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, during which he requested ATACMS long-range missiles. “In our call, [Antony Blinken] and I discussed further steps to broaden global support for the peace formula and solutions to expand grain exports.”
Poland’s government on Monday accused Belarus and Russia of orchestrating another migration influx into the EU via the Polish border in order to destabilise the region. Poland’s border guard has asked the defence ministry to send another 1,000 troops to the border with Belarus. The head of the border guard, Tomasz Praga, said this year 19,000 people had tried to cross the border illegally, up from 16,000 in 2022.
Russia said on Monday its troops had advanced 3km (two miles) along the Kupiansk front in north-east Ukraine over the past three days, as it seeks to regain territory. The city of Kupiansk and surrounding areas of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region were liberated by Ukrainian forces in September 2022. Moscow has renewed its assault there.
Ukraine has released images of prisoners of war returned by Russia. Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, announced that 22 more Ukrainian soldiers had been returned.
Yermak reported that “the Russians shelled the village of Kucherivka, in Kupyan district, hitting a house. Two dead and three injured people are known.” The deaths were in addition to a person killed and several injured during a “difficult night” of Russian shelling of Kherson, said the city’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin.
A Ukrainian MP said on Monday that key parliamentary factions in Germany had “reached a consensus” to supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles with a range of 500km (310 miles), but an official decision was yet to come. Reuters reported Germany’s defence ministry as saying Berlin’s position has not changed: that it does not plan to supply them and they are not the most urgent priority for now.
The Mother Ukraine statue in Kyiv, one of the Ukraine’s most recognisable landmarks, has had its hammer-and-sickle symbol taken down. Officials replaced the Soviet-era emblem with Ukraine’s trident coat of arms as part of a campaign to reclaim Ukraine’s cultural identity from the communist era.
