Ukraine war latest: War ‘returning to Russia’, Zelensky says after Moscow drone attacks

Russian and Ukrainian soldiers are embroiled in heavy fighting in the war-hit nation’s northeast with military salvo reported in both – Russia-held and Ukraine-held areas – as Kyiv’s forces hold their positions and have also reported some gains.

Ukrainian deputy defense minister said Russian forces were attempting to “drive us out” of elevated positions in the northeast occupied by Moscow shortly after it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The positions were recaptured by Ukraine last year.

“They have attacked endlessly this week. But our troops resist the attacks and sometimes push them back with heavy losses,” the deputy minister said.

She added that the Russians had suffered “no fewer losses than during the heated battles in Bakhmut”, which fell to Russian forces after more than 10 months of fighting.

The key task of Russian forces invading Ukraine, she said, was to “divert out forces from the Bakhmut area, where we have a successful offensive.”

On the southern front, Ms. Maliar said Russian forces were also “tenaciously trying to seize back” areas.

While Ukraine has recaptured 200 sq km (77 sq miles) in the south, the minister said advances were limited by entrenched Russian positions and mines.

Russia’s military has also confirmed battlefield action in the northeast and said its forces have halted Ukraine’s troops in the northeast. It claimed to have intercepted and downed three Ukrainian drones which it said were aiming to strike Moscow and damaged a high-rise building reported to house government offices.

A month on from the Wagner Group’s extraordinary attempted mutiny against Russia’s military establishment – the mercenary group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, appears to be back in his homeland.

Under the terms of the truce brokered between Mr. Prigozhin and Vladimir Putin by Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko on 24 June, the former was said to have agreed to resettle in Belarus while his troops were ordered to report to camps in that country before either rejoining the Russian military or stepping away altogether without fear of prosecution.

It subsequently emerged that Mr. Prigozhin – a former felon who emerged from prison to build up a lucrative catering business and was nicknamed “Putin’s chef” before he formed Wagner – had attended a face-to-face meeting with Mr. Putin at the Kremlin five days after the aborted coup, deepening the mystery surrounding the affair.

Read more from Joe Sommerlad here:

Pro-democracy Russians in Serbia protested on Sunday after two prominent anti-war activists and critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin said they faced problems with entry and residence permits in the Balkan country.

Several dozen activists held banners reading “We came to live in peace” and ”I love Serbia and I want safe and happy life here,” as they gathered at a central square in Belgrade, the Serbian capital.

The rally came days after Serbian police refused to extend a residency permit for Vladimir Volokhonski and weeks after another prominent activist, Peter Nikitin, spent more than one day at the Belgrade airport because of an entry ban, according to the two activists.

Amid the ravages of war, Sergey, a seasoned Wagner mercenary, found himself grappling with the relentless violence that has become a way of life and death on the front line. The savage conflict, the sense of betrayal from the Kremlin, and rumors of plots, all combined to create an atmosphere of uncertainty and dread.

In the end, he decided to abandon the Wagner group and the savage, meat-grinding combat of Donbas where corpses piled up, and towns and cities were razed.

With the future of the mercenary group in the balance after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed march on Moscow and fear of future retribution, Sergey cannot forget the terrible things he witnessed in the months of bloody conflict.

Read more from Kim Sengupta here:

I know it sounds over the top to call a frozen embryo by a name.

I don’t want another child, but it doesn’t stop me from worrying about my frozen embryo or fantasizing about Tallulah.

With a ban on flying to Russia from the UK and the EU, and absolutely no word from the private fertility clinic regarding storage fees for a while, now, I started to wonder: what the hell is going on?

Read more from Charlotte Cripps here:

Donald Trump returned to the roots of his first impeachment when he suggested that aid to Ukraine should be conditioned on congressional investigations of President Joe Biden.

The Saturday night tirade at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania echoed the conduct that led to Mr Trump’s first of his two impeachments when he used military aid to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into then-candidate Biden in 2019.

Read more from Gustaf Kilander here:

A Ukrainian air force spokesman said Russian people were seeing the consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine after drone attacks targeted the capital. “All of the people who think the war ‘doesn’t concern them’ — it’s already touching them,” spokesperson Yurii Ihnat told journalists on Sunday. “There’s already a certain mood in Russia: that something is flying in, and loudly,” he said. “There’s no discussion of peace or calm in the Russian interior anymore. They got what they wanted.”

Russia’s defense ministry claims it successfully thwarted an overnight attack on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.

It said 25 Ukrainian drones were either shot down or forced to crash. Nobody was hurt and no damage was caused.

Russia annexed the region from Ukraine in 2014 but Ukraine has recently been pushing ahead with a counter-offensive, Ukraine’s intelligence directorate telling Ukrainian news site TSN on Saturday that Kyiv’s forces were set to enter Crimea “soon”.

Video footage captures the moment drones hit buildings in central Moscow.

Russia has accused Ukraine of being behind the attacks on Sunday but Kyiv has not claimed responsibility, as is its typical policy.

It is the third attempt on the Russian capital this week.

A young woman who gave her name as Liya told Reuters news agency she was in an apartment she had rented with friends when Sunday’s drone strike hit.

“At some point, we heard an explosion and it was like a wave, everyone jumped,” she said. “And then there was a lot of smoke and you couldn’t see anything. From above, you could see fire.”

Pictures showed glass panels blown out in one high-rise building and glass, debris, and office documents littering part of the pavement below.

Flights to and from Moscow’s Vnukovo airport were briefly suspended due to the incident, the TASS news agency reported.