Russian missile strike on Dnipro injures nine and partially destroys apartment block; Moscow says it shot down Ukrainian missiles in southern Russia
Russian missiles hit an apartment block and a nearby building of Ukraine’s security service in the central city of Dnipro on Friday night, injuring at least nine people and causing widespread damage to both buildings. The buildings were largely empty – the residential building because it had just been completed and units were being put up for sale. “A few people were trapped but are now out,” the regional governor, Serhiy Lysak, said.
The Russian defence ministry said it shot down a Ukrainian missile in the southern city of Taganrog, about 40km (24 miles) east of the border with Ukraine, and local officials reported 20 people were injured, identifying the centre as an art museum. The ministry said it downed a second Ukrainian missile near the city of Azov, which like Taganrog is in the Rostov region, and debris fell in an unpopulated location.
Russian air defences downed a Ukrainian military drone before it could attack its targets near Moscow on Friday, the RIA news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying. The ministry said the incident caused no casualties or damage to buildings.
The head of Ukraine’s ground forces has said Russian forces are constantly attacking in the direction of Kupiansk and Lyman in the Donetsk region but that Ukraine’s defence line is holding firm. Oleksandr Syrskyi said the main task for Ukrainian troops at the moment was to knock out enemy artillery where possible, and he claimed small advances in the Bakhmut direction.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the Russian-imposed administration of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, described the situation on the frontline there as “tense” and on Friday claimed that Russian forces control the Vremivka direction and that “the enemy suffers significant losses but is trying to hold out in the north-western part of the village of Staromaiorske”.
Poland and Lithuania are considering closing their respective borders with Belarus amid concerns over the presence there of the Wagner mercenary group, a Lithuanian deputy interior minister said on Friday.
The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff said Russia is threatening civilian vessels in the Black Sea and urged the international community to condemn what he said were “the methods of terrorists”.
The Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, urged Russia on Friday to revive the Black Sea grain deal. Sisi told the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg that it was “essential to reach agreement” on reviving the deal.
Vladimir Putin told African leaders on Friday that Moscow respected their peace proposal on Ukraine and was carefully studying it. The Russian president also said that Russia was increasing food supplies to Africa, including some free grain shipments, which he announced a day earlier, and was interested in developing military cooperation with the continent.
The International Olympic Committee has issued a special invitation to a Ukrainian fencer Olha Kharlan to take part in the Paris Olympics next year, after she was disqualified from a tournament for refusing to shake hands with her defeated Russian opponent.
Qatar will provide Ukraine with $100m in humanitarian aid to support health, education and demining, the Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said on Friday after talks with his Qatari counterpart.
