Ukraine claims to have put a Russian Black Sea fleet ship out of action

Ukraine’s intelligence services have claimed to have put the Russian Black Sea fleet vessel Olenegorsky Gornyak out of action, saying it has sustained a serious breach and is currently unable to carry out combat missions.

Reuters reports an intelligence source has told it that the sea drone attack was carried out by Ukraine’s SBU security service and its navy.

Earlier the Russian ministry of defence claimed it had thwarted overnight Ukrainian attacks on a naval base in the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula.

The Guardian has seen unverified video which purports to be from the Novorossiysk naval base, showing a Russian military vessel badly listing to one side.

The Olenegorsky Gornyak is a Ropucha-class project 775 large landing ship, built by the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

Battlefield plants hindering Ukraine’s offensive, says UK

The UK’s Ministry of Defence has issued its daily public intelligence briefing on the war, and today it concerns Ukraine’s natural environment. It writes:

Undergrowth regrowing across the battlefields of southern Ukraine is likely one factor contributing to the generally slow progress of combat in the area.

The predominately arable land in the combat zone has now been left fallow for 18 months, with the return of weeds and shrubs accelerating under the warm, damp summer conditions.

The extra cover helps camouflage Russian defensive positions and makes defensive mine fields harder to clear.

Although undergrowth can also provide cover for small stealthy infantry assaults, the net effect has been to make it harder for either side to make advances.

• This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.

More than 10 missiles shot down over Kyiv

AFP: More than 10 Russian drones were downed during an overnight attack on Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said early on Wednesday.

“Groups of drones entered Kyiv simultaneously from several directions. However, all air targets – more than 10 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – were detected and destroyed in time by the forces and means of air defense,” said Sergiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration.

He said Russia had used a barrage of Iranian-made Shahed drones, with debris hitting several areas.

Kyiv’s mayor said previously on Wednesday that the attack on the capital had caused damage in multiple districts, including the busy Solomyansky, which hosts an international airport.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that no one was killed or wounded in the attack.

In Golosiivsky district, “parts of a drone fell on the playground” and a fire broke out in a non-residential building, the Kyiv city military administration said, adding that emergency services were on the scene.

The administration had earlier issued an alert for drone attacks and warned residents to stay in shelters.

Moscow hit by second drone attack in two days

Russian air defences have shot down “several” drones targeting the Moscow region, mayor Sergei Sobyanin has said, with one hitting a tower that had been struck on Sunday.

The Russian defence ministry said two drones were destroyed by air defence systems in the Odintsovo and Narofominsk districts near Moscow, while a third was jammed and crashed in the capital, the Russian state news agency Tass reported early on Tuesday. The ministry blamed the attacks on Kyiv.

Sobyanin said in a Telegram post that no injuries had been reported. “The facade of the 21st floor was damaged. The glazing of 150 square metres was broken,” he said.

Moscow’s Vnukovo airport was also temporarily shut and flights redirected.

Moscow buildings damaged by drone attacks, one injured – Russian officials

More on the report of the drone attacks in Moscow.

Russia’s state news agency Tass sent an update saying a security guard was injured in the attacks, citing emergency officials.

Russia’s defence ministry said a Ukrainian drone was destroyed in the air over the Odintsovo district and two others crashed in Moscow, according to Tass, and the attack prompted a temporary closure of one of four airports around the Russian capital.

The city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, posted on Telegram that the “facades of two city office towers were slightly damaged”. He added that there were “no victims or injured”.

There is still no comment from Kyiv. It’s the latest in a series of recent drone assaults – including on the Kremlin and Russian towns near the border with Ukraine – that Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.

Tass reported that the capital’s Vnukovo airport was “closed for departures and arrivals, flights are redirected to other airports”. Within less than an hour, operations appeared to return to normal.

You can read our full story here.

Emergencies services gather outside the damaged office building in Moscow. Photograph: Reuters

Fighting intensifying in south of Ukraine, says UK

Fighting in southern Ukraine has intensified in the past two days, according to the UK Ministry of Defence, with mixed success for Ukrainian forces.

“Over the last 48 hours there has been an uptick of fighting in two sectors in southern Ukraine,” the MoD said in its latest intelligence update on Saturday.

“South of Orikhiv, fighting is focused near the village of Robotyne, in the area of responsibility for Russia’s 58th Combined Arms Army.

“80km to the east, Ukrainian forces defeated elements of Russian airborne forces’ (VDV) 247th Guards Air Assault Regiment to capture the village of Staromaiorske.

“Meanwhile, in the north, other VDV units continue offensive operations in the Serebriansk Forest west of Kremina but have achieved little ground.”

China’s economic support for Putin growing

China’s economic ties with Russia have helped limit the effect of punishing western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a US intelligence report said on Thursday.

AFP reports that according to the intelligence, China “has become an even more critical economic partner for Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022”. The unclassified report was released by Democratic lawmakers.

“Beijing is pursuing a variety of economic support mechanisms for Russia that mitigate both the impact of western sanctions and export controls,” it says.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to discuss military issues and the regional security environment, state media said Thursday.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim and Shoigu talked Wednesday in the capital, Pyongyang, and reached a consensus on unspecified “matters of mutual concern in the field of national defence and security and on the regional and international security environment.”

The Associated Press reports that during the meeting, Shoigu conveyed to Kim a “warm and good letter” signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, KCNA said. The report did not specify the military matters that were discussed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second left in front, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, left, and China’s Vice Chairman of the standing committee of the country’s National People’s Congress Li Hongzhong, fourth right in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, 27 July 2023. Photograph: 朝鮮通信社/AP

On Wednesday, Shoigu also held talks with North Korean Defence Minister Kang Sun Nam that were aimed at “strengthening cooperation between our defence departments,” Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement.

Zelenskiy issues fresh corruption warning

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he would tolerate no corruption or treachery in affairs of state while his country is struggling to find the means to defend itself against Russian invaders.

Zelenskiy made anti-corruption appeals in his nightly video address as two landmark cases came to light – the arrests of a military recruitment official accused of mass embezzlement and of a parliamentarian accused of collaborating with Russia.
The president last month announced plans to audit military draft offices to try to eliminate corruption.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses lawmakers in Kyiv, Ukraine 28 June 2023. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he would tolerate no corruption or treachery in affairs of state while his country is struggling to find the means to defend itself against Russian invaders. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters

“Let me warn all members of parliament, officials and everyone working as a civil servant,” he said.

“When you spend days on end looking for weapons for the country, when everyone’s attention is fixed on whether there is artillery, missiles and drones, you feel the moral strength our soldiers have given Ukraine.

Zelenskiy, addressing members of parliament, said he would no longer tolerate those who “because of some sort of personal gain” refuse to back legislation needed for Ukraine to begin its long campaign to secure EU membership.

“I no longer want to see any such refusals,” he said. “No one wants to see that. Ukraine has no more time for that.”

Russia claims to have repelled drone attack on Black Sea fleet patrol ship

The Russian ministry of defence has claimed that it destroyed two unmanned Ukrainian boats which were engaged in an attack on one of its Black Sea fleet patrol ships.

In a statement the ministry said:

Tonight, the armed forces of Ukraine made an unsuccessful attempt to attack the patrol ship Sergey Kotov of the Black Sea fleet, which performs the tasks of controlling navigation in the southwestern part of the Black Sea, with two sea-going guided unmanned boats.

In the course of repulsing the attack, both enemy remote-controlled boats were destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of the Russian ship at a distance of 1000m and 800m. There were no casualties.

The Sergey Kotov continues to fulfill its tasks.

The claims have not been independently verified.