Two injured as Russia attacks Odesa infrastructure with 25 drones

Russia launched a three-and-a-half hour drone attack on the southern parts of the Odesa region early on Sunday, hitting Danube River port infrastructure and injuring at least two people, Kyiv said.

Ukraine’s air defence systems shot down 22 of the 25 Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia launched on Odesa in the early Sunday hours, Reuters reports Ukraine’s air force as saying on Telegram.

Ukraine’s south military command said on social media at least two civilians were injured in the attack on what it said was the “civil infrastructure of the Danube”.

Azov Brigade members hold military training for civilians and volunteer soldiers in Odesa, Ukraine, last weekend. Photograph: Svet Jacqueline/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock

The Danube has become Ukraine’s main route for exporting grain since the collapse of a UN-brokered deal in July that had allowed Kyiv to ship its grain via the Black Sea.

There was no detail on which port facility was hit. The military said a fire that resulted from the attack at the facility was quickly extinguished.

Some Ukrainian media reported blasts in the Reni port, one of the two major ports on the Danube that Ukraine operates. There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Russia risks dividing its forces to stop Ukrainian breakthrough, says UK MoD

Russia risks splitting its troops as it seeks to prevent a Ukrainian breakthrough in Ukraine’s south, the UK Ministry of Defence says.

In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said Ukrainian forces continued to take offensive action on the Orikhiv axis in southern Ukraine, with units reaching the first Russian main defensive line.

“Russian forces, primarily composed of the 58th combined arms army and Russian airborne forces elements, seek to halt the Ukrainian counteroffensive whilst maintaining their own offensive on the northern axis around Kupiansk,” said the ministry’s update, posted on X/Twitter.

A school director in front of a school library destroyed by shelling in Kupiansk, Ukraine, last week. Photograph: Bram Janssen/AP

The ministry said Russian forces were probably seeking to distract Ukraine from its counteroffensive, forcing it to divide its forces between Orikhiv and Kupiansk.

Given that Russia has made modest gains near Kupiansk since the Ukrainian counteroffensive began in June, they are highly likely seeking to capitalise on these by continuing to resource the axis.

However, Russia risks dividing its forces as it seeks to prevent a Ukrainian breakthrough.

Kremlin suggests BAE Systems’ Ukraine entity could be target for Russian military

The Kremlin said it saw BAE Systems opening a local entity in Ukraine “negatively”, and that any production facilities producing weapons used against Russia would become targets for Moscow’s military, Reuters reports.

Asked about the move in a call with reporters, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said:

Of course, any facilities for the production of weapons, especially if these weapons fire at us, they become objects of special attention for our military.

BAE has said it would work directly with Kyiv to explore potential partners for a plan to ultimately produce 105mm light artillery guns in Ukraine and to better understand Ukraine’s requirements.

As the UK’s biggest defence contractor, BAE has manufactured much of the equipment that Britain and other governments have provided to Ukraine as it fends off Russia’s invasion.

BAE, which has benefited from increased defence spending as a result of the conflict, is already providing training and repair services to Ukraine’s armed forces.

Ukraine makes progress towards Novoprokopivka, military spokesperson says

A military spokesperson says Ukrainian armed forces are making progress in the direction of Novoprokopivka – the village beyond Robotyne, in the direction of Melitopol.

The capture of Robotyne was announced earlier this week. Even though just a few miles from where Ukrainian troops were at the start of the counter-offensive, it marked a significant achievement in breaking through an initial line of Russian defences prepared over the winter.

This is very preliminary, but suggests they are consolidating those gains and moving further south.

The ultimate goal is to break through to the Azov sea, severing Russian logistics and communications lines with troops in Kherson and Crimea.

Kremlin says Prigozhin plane crash may have been caused deliberately

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the investigation into the plane crash which killed the Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine others last week included the possibility that it was caused deliberately, Reuters reports.

“It is obvious that different versions are being considered, including the version – you know what we are talking about – let’s say, a deliberate atrocity,” the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov also said that the inquiry into the plane crash was a Russian investigation, and that there could be no question of an international investigation.

Russia’s investigative committee on Sunday confirmed Prigozhin was among the people killed. The committee said in a statement that after forensic testing, all 10 bodies recovered at the site had been identified, and their identities “conform to the manifest”.

Vladimir Putin won’t attend Yevgeny Prigozhin’s funeral, Kremlin says

Vladimir Putin has no plans to attend the funeral of Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

He told reporters the Kremlin did not know about the planned funeral arrangements, saying this was a matter for the family, according to Reuters.

Russia’s investigative committee on Sunday confirmed Prigozhin was among the people killed in a plane crash last Wednesday. The committee said in a statement that after forensic testing, all 10 bodies recovered at the site had been identified, and their identities “conform to the manifest”.

The Kremlin has denied it killed the Wagner chief, calling western intelligence assessments of Putin’s potential involvement “an absolute lie”.

Prigozhin had refused to submit his mercenaries to direct state control, despite a direct request from Putin during a meeting at the Kremlin in June. His armed uprising that month came days before a deadline that would have forced the group to sign military contracts.

A portrait of Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin sits at an informal memorial in his tribute in Moscow, Russia. Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/EPA

Drones destroyed over Russia’s Kaluga region, says Moscow

Russia’s defence ministry said Wednesday it shot down three Ukrainian drones southwest of Moscow, the latest in a surge of aerial attacks near the capital, AFP reports.

Ukraine launched the attack at 5:00 am using “three unmanned aerial vehicles on objects in the Kaluga region”, the ministry said on Telegram.

“All UAVs were detected and destroyed in a timely manner by Russian air defence systems.”

Kaluga’s governor said the drones were shot down in the south of the region, a few hundred kilometres southwest of Moscow.

“There are no consequences for people and infrastructure,” Vladislav Shapsha said on Telegram.

The air attack is at least the fifth this month over the Kaluga region that Russia says it has thwarted.

Three killed in strikes on Lutsk amid wave of attacks in western regions

More detail now, via Reuters: Russia launched a large-scale air attack on Ukraine’s western region of Lviv and the north-western region of Volyn, killing at least three people and wounding scores of others, officials said.

Three people were killed and several hospitalised in Lutsk after a business enterprise was hit, Yuriy Pohulyaiko, governor the Volyn region of which Lutsk is the administrative centre, said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Volyn region borders Nato-member Poland to its west.

There were no casualties in Russia’s air attack on the western region of Lviv, according to preliminary information, but more than 100 residential houses were damaged, 500 windows broken and a kindergarten playground was destroyed.