Ukraine-Russia war – live: Three killed in revenge attacks as Putin retaliates after drone strikes

At least three people have been killed and a blood transfusion centre bombed in Ukraine, as Russia unleashed a wave of intense drone and missile strikes after vowing to retaliate for a Ukrainian hit on Russian tankers in the Black Sea. Moscow’s second-largest airport also briefly suspended flights Sunday morning following what the Kremlin said was a foiled Ukrainian drone attack. The Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed publicly whether they were behind either raid. The Ukrainian air force said Sunday that in total Russian forces had launched 70 Iranian-made Shahed drones, as well as cruise and hypersonic missiles from aircraft over the Caspian Sea. Russian shelling in the northern region of Kharkiv also killed three people. It comes as senior officials from some 40 countries including the United States, China and India are taking part in talks in Saudi Arabia that Kyiv and its allies hope will lead to agreement on key principles for a peaceful end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russia is not attending. Key Points Russian retaliation threat sees up to 70 air assault weapons used overnight Zelensky condemns Russian attack on blood transfusion centre Russia planning ‘false flag’ attack in Belarus, Ukraine warns Blasts and gunfire reported near Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk Exclusive: Olena Zelenska’s urgent plea to help her nation as war rages around her Explosions and drone debris hit Kyiv in overnight attacks Russian retaliation threat sees up to 70 air assault weapons used overnight 10:29 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Russia launched a multi-wave overnight attack on Ukraine with 70 air-assault weapons including cruise and hypersonic missiles as well as Iranian-made drones, Kyiv’s Air Force said on Sunday, and at least 10 missiles appear to got through air defences. Local media said a worker at a grain silo had been wounded in the overnight attack, which appeared to be focused on an area of western Ukraine, far from the front line. ‘In total, in several waves of attacks, from the evening of Aug. 5 to the morning of Aug. 6, 2023, the enemy used 70 means of air assault weapons,’ the Air Force said. ‘Information about Kinzhals is classified,’ the Ukrainian military noted. President Volodymyr Zelensky said people had been killed and wounded in an earlier hit to a blood transfusion centre in the town of Kupiansk, a railway hub fewer than 10 miles from the front in the eastern Kharkiv region. Rescue workers were extinguishing a fire at the scene, he said on Saturday evening, describing the strike as a ‘war crime.’ He did not say how many casualties there were. Russia can ensure security in Black Sea, says deputy foreign ministry 13:50 , Sam Rkaina Russia has military and technical capabilities to eliminate threats to security in the Black Sea, the TASS news agency quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday. Ryabkov, who blamed the United States and Britain for the escalation of tensions, spoke days after Ukrainian sea drones attacked a Russian warship near the Russian port of Novorossiysk and a Russian tanker near Crimea. Ukraine two months into gruelling counteroffensive 13:47 , Bel Trew in Ukraine Ukraine is two months into a gruelling counteroffensive to try to push out Russian forces occupying almost a fifth of its territory in the south and east. Progress has been slower than previous assaults as Russian forces have spent the last year building up entrenched defence lines. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that while Ukraine had recaptured half the territory that Russia had initially seized, this counteroffensive was in its early days and would take shape over ‘several months’. Ukraine said on Friday Kyiv was working to take land near the shattered eastern city of Bakhmut. This weekend’s intense bombardment came after Moscow vowed to ‘retaliate ‘ after a Ukrainian sea drone hit a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea and a major Russian sea port on Friday. Both attacks reportedly halted marine traffic and vehicles using Russia’s Kerch Bridge which connects the Russian mainland to occupied Crimea. Msoow’s Vnukovo airport, located around 15km southwest of Moscow, suspended flights briefly on Sunday morning after Russia claimed it shot down a drone in the airspace around the city. Ukraine has not commented on the alleged targeting of Vnukovo airport. An official with Ukraine’s Security Service confirmed to The Associated Press that it was behind the earlier attack on the sea tanker, which was transporting fuel for Russian forces. Ukraine’s air force said on Telegram its air defence had destroyed 30 out of 40 cruise missiles and all 27 of the Shahed drones that Russia launched overnight Saturday. It also said Russia launched three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles but did not disclose any further information on them. Russian occupied territory in Ukraine, Moscow-appointed authorities said a woman in her 80s was killed by Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk where a university building was also set alight. Three killed in Russian revenge attacks 13:45 , Bel Trew in Ukraine At least three people have been killed and a blood transfusion centre bombed in Ukraine, as Russia unleashed a wave of intense drone and missile strikes after vowing to retaliate for a Ukrainian hit on Russian tankers in the Black Sea. Moscow’s second-largest airport also briefly suspended flights Sunday morning following what the Kremlin said was a foiled Ukrainian drone attack. The Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed publicly whether they were behind either raid. For most of the weekend, air sirens blared across Kyiv, and regions, from the south to the west, as Russia launched one of its heaviest and most widespread aerial bombardments in weeks. The Ukrainian air force said Sunday that in total Russian forces had launched 70 Iranian-made Shahed drones, as well as cruise and hypersonic missiles from aircraft over the Caspian Sea. Russian shelling in the northern region of Kharkiv also killed three people. Russia says Western bid to get Global South to back Ukraine is doomed 13:19 , Sam Rkaina Moscow has said that weekend talks in Saudi Arabia including the U.S., China and India aiming to establish principles for a peaceful end to Russia’s war in Ukraine were a doomed Western attempt to align the Global South behind Kyiv. Senior officials from some 40 countries were attending the two-day meeting, part of a push by Ukraine to build support beyond its core Western backers among countries that have been reluctant to take sides in the conflict. Russia was not invited. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by the state news agency TASS calling the meeting ‘a reflection of the West’s attempt to continue futile, doomed efforts to mobilise the international community, and more precisely, the Global South, even if not entirely, in support of the so-called Zelenskyi formula, which is doomed and untenable from the outset’. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday he hoped the initiative would lead to a peace summit of leaders from around the world this autumn to endorse principles for a settlement based on his own 10-point formula. At its heart is a withdrawal of Russian troops and the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Russia can ensure security in Black Sea, says deputy foreign ministry 12:30 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Russia has military and technical capabilities to eliminate threats to security in the Black Sea, the TASS news agency quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday. Ryabkov, who blamed the United States and Britain for the escalation of tensions, spoke days after Ukrainian sea drones attacked a Russian warship near the Russian port of Novorossiysk and a Russian tanker near Crimea. What Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know 11:40 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain In a rare interview the First Lady of Ukraine , Olena Zelenska, has spoken to Independent TV about her work rebuilding Ukraine in the middle of war , the pressures on her family and concerns for the future of her country . From the presidential palace, she told The Independent ‘s Bel Trew about the need to reconstruct cities despite the fighting raging on , about building cutting-edge facilities to treat the country’s’ war-wounded and fighting stigma on trauma around the country. Watch the full interview on Independent TV, across mobile and connected TV from Monday 7 August. What Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know Three killed in a night of attacks across Ukraine 11:20 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Three people have died during a night of air strikes and intense shelling across Ukraine, officials said on Sunday, as Kyiv’s military exchanged fire with Russian occupation forces. Two people were killed and four more were injured following a Russian air strike in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, said the head of the local regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion centre in the area’s Kupyan district late on Saturday. ‘This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression,’ Mr Zelensky wrote on social media. ‘Defeating terrorists is a matter of honour for everyone who values life.’ A woman in her 80s was also killed by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-held Donetsk, the city’s Moscow-appointed mayor Alexei Kulemzin said on Sunday. The attack also set alight the main building of the M Tugan-Baranovsky University of Economics and Trade, said the Moscow-installed head of the illegally annexed Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin. Ukraine emblem raised to replace Soviet symbol on Kyiv’s Motherland Monument 10:45 , Sam Rkaina Moscow mayor says hostile drone destroyed by air defences 10:14 , Sam Rkaina A hostile drone was destroyed by air defences as it approached Moscow on Sunday, city mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Sobyanin wrote on messaging app Telegram that the drone approached Moscow around 11am (8am GMT). Russia accused Ukraine of two drone attacks on its capital last week. Moscow’s Vnukovo airport suspends flights 10:06 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Moscow’s Vnukovo airport suspended flights on Sunday, citing unspecified reasons outside of its control, the TASS news agency reported. Vnukovo previously carried out similar suspensions when the Russian capital was attacked by drones last week. Moment camera operator runs for safety during shelling in Donetsk 09:45 , Sam Rkaina Russia used 70 air-assault weapons in overnight attack 09:20 , Sam Rkaina Russia launched a multi-wave overnight attack on Ukraine, using 70 air-assault weapons, including cruise and hypersonic missiles and Iranian-made drones, Kyiv’s Air Force said on Sunday. The Air Force – which is celebrated in a holiday on Sunday – said on the Telegram messaging channel that Ukraine’s air defence destroyed 30 out of 40 cruise missiles and all 27 of the Shahed drones that Russia launched overnight. ‘In total, in several waves of attacks, from the evening of Aug. 5 to the morning of Aug. 6, 2023, the enemy used 70 means of air assault weapons,’ the Air Force said. It also said Russia launched three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, but would not disclose further information on them. It was not immediately clear whether there was any damage from the overnight attack or what happened to the 10 cruise missiles that were not shot down. Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat told the national Ukrainian broadcaster that one of the key targets for Russia’s overnight attack was the Khmelnytskiy region. ‘Now, it is the Starokostiantyniv airfield that haunts the enemy,’ Ihnat said. Russia had earlier targeted the Starokostiantyniv military airfield in the Khmelnytskiy region at the end of July. 08:45 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain On the battlefields of Ukraine , the fog of war plagues soldiers. And far from the fighting, a related and just as disorienting miasma afflicts those who seek to understand what’s happening in the vast war. Disinformation, misinformation and absent information all cloud civilians’ understanding. Officials from each side denounce devious plots being prepared by the enemy, which never materialize. They claim victories that can’t be confirmed – and stay quiet about defeats. None of this is unique to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Any nation at war bends the truth – to boost morale on the home front, to rally support from its allies, to try to persuade its detractors to change their stance. But Europe’s largest land war in decades – and the biggest one since the dawn of the digital age – is taking place in a superheated information space. And modern communications technology, theoretically a force for improving public knowledge, tends to multiply the confusion because deceptions and falsehoods reach audiences instantly. Inside Russia’s torture chambers as investigators warn Kherson cells ‘tip of iceberg’ 08:25 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Harrowing new accounts of Ukrainians being tortured during Russia ‘s eight-month occupation of Kherson are ‘just the tip of the iceberg’, an international team investigating the alleged war crimes has warned. The acts described by those detained in dozens of makeshift detention centres – including the use of sexual violence as a common tactic among Russian guards, and genital electrocution – are ‘evocative of genocide’, the team of lawyers and prosecutors said this week . The UN’s special rapporteur on torture, Dr Alice Jill Edwards, told The Independent that similarities in the accounts of victims across several different regions of Ukraine ‘expose a deeper concern that torture and intimidation are a policy and strategy of the Russian state’. Inside Russia’s torture chambers as investigators warn Kherson ‘tip of iceberg’ 08:05 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain Establishing accurate data on the number of military casualties sustained since Russia ‘s invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 is difficult for two reasons. The severity of the fighting on the ground and the fact that both sides are inclined to keep their cards close to their chests to avoid damaging morale – especially at a time when the war is entering a pivotal new stage. The Kremlin , in particular, is unlikely to admit to high fatality rates among its troops because to do so would amount to a confession that Vladimir Putin ‘s spurious war to ‘de-Nazify’ Russia’s neighbour state is not going according to plan and, in fact, represents a monumental miscalculation on the part of its leader, who is already under pressure at home over the attempted uprising by Wagner Group mercenaries. Moscow is more likely to downplay its own (rarely offered) numbers – putting the official number at around 6,000 – and accuse its enemies of dishonestly briefing against it whenever outside estimates are offered that imply significant Russian losses. How many casualties has Russia