Fifteen regions hit by Russian strikes, says Ukrainian PM
We’re just hearing from Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal after a barrage of Russian strikes on the country early on Monday.
He said 15 regions were struck by missiles and drones, with explosions heard in the capital Kyiv.
As of now, three people are reported dead – with more wounded.
Mr Shmyhal said: “The enemy used various types of weapons: drones, cruise missiles, and Kinzhals (supersonic missiles).”
Meanwhile, officials in four regions have reported that energy facilities were struck in the barrage.
Authorities in Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Rivne, and Lviv said on Telegram that energy infrastructure in their areas came under attack.
Russia claims Ukraine targeted oil refinery
A Ukrainian drone attempted to strike an oil refinery in a Russian city early on Monday morning, Moscow has claimed.
Mikhail Yevrayev, regional governor for Yaroslavl, north of Moscow, said there had been no casualties.
He also said no damage had been reported.
Meanwhile, the Russian defence ministry claimed today that its air defence systems destroyed 20 drones launched by Ukraine overnight.
It alleged nine of the drones were destroyed over the Saratov region, three over the Kursk region and two each over the Belgorod, Bryansk and Tula regions.
It added single drones were destroyed over the Oryol and Ryazan regions.
Kyiv has yet to respond to allegations of strikes on Russia today.
The big picture: What you need to know as the week begins
Before we continue our regular updates and analysis, we’ve put together an overview of the biggest developments over the last week.
Kursk invasion
Ukraine’s invasion into the Russian border region of Kursk continues nearly three weeks after troops punched through the border in a move that stunned Vladimir Putin and his top military brass.
Officials say Ukrainian forces have so far taken around 100 square kilometres (62 square miles) of territory in Kursk since the invasion began. On Sunday night, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his forces had advanced up to three kilometres (1.86 miles) in the region and had taken control of two more settlements.
More than 121,000 people have been evacuated from nine border districts in the region, Russia’s emergencies ministry said.
In the past week, Ukrainian forces have hit three bridges, several airfields and an oil depot in Kursk in a sign that they plan to keep up the tempo of their attacks.
A Russian official said on Friday that Mr Putin had formulated a response to the attacks on his territory – but a major Russian retaliation is yet to materialise, despite the president’s promise of a “worthy response”.
Aim of the offensive?
The idea of creating a “buffer zone” was first voiced by Mr Putin after Moscow launched a new offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region in May, aimed at protecting its border regions.
Instead, it now appears to be Mr Zelenskyy who is pursuing a “buffer zone” with the Kursk invasion to prevent Russia from firing into Ukrainian towns and villages.
The Ukrainian president also said he was replenishing an “exchange fund” of Russian prisoners which would support the return of captured Ukrainians to the country. However, he said the invasion had other goals he could not disclose.
And with Kyiv insisting it has no plans to hold captured Russian territory after the offensive, US officials are still trying to determine Ukraine’s longer-term aims.
Attack in neighbouring region
At least six people were killed, and a dozen others injured, in Ukrainian attacks in the Russian region of Belgorod, which lies adjacent to Kursk, on Sunday, according to a Russian official.
Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Ukrainian shells hit the town of Rakitnoye overnight, causing the deaths of five people, while a later drone attack on the village of Solovyovka allegedly killed one person.
Sky News could not independently verify the claims.
Prisoner exchange
Ukraine and Russia exchanged 115 prisoners, including many Russian soldiers captured inside Kursk, as the country marked Ukrainian Independence Day on Saturday.
The prisoner swap was the first of its kind since Ukraine launched its offensive over the Russian border earlier this month – and the seventh since the start of the war.
The release was brokered by the United Arab Emirates, which has maintained relations with Moscow despite global condemnation of the conflict.
Russians released from Kursk were in Belarus, the Russian defence ministry said, while pictures showed a group of smiling Ukrainians as they were released at an unknown location.
Eastern front assault
As Kyiv’s invasion of Russian territory continues, so too do Russia’s grinding advances in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
Moscow has been directing its efforts towards capturing the key strategic city of Pokrovsk for months, and has ramped up its attacks since Ukrainian troops poured across the border into Kursk.
The city lies at an intersection of roads and a railway that makes it an important logistics point for Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities have ordered families with children to leave Pokrovsk and stepped up appeals for all other civilians to flee.
Last week Russia claimed to have pounded Ukrainian forces with a series of assaults near the city and said it captured at least three more settlements in the region.
Russian forces struck a hotel in the Donetsk city of Kramatorsk on Saturday night.
British citizen Ryan Evans, who was a safety advisor for the Reuters news agency, was found dead under the rubble of Hotel Sapphire after the attack, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Six other people were wounded, including Reuters reporters.
New Ukrainian drone
Mr Zelenskyy announced at the weekend that Ukraine has targeted Russian forces with a new domestically-produced missile drone for the first time.
The Ukrainian president said the faster and more powerful Palianytsia represents a “completely new class” of weapon.
He said the drone was Ukraine’s “realistic way to act while some of our partners are unfortunately delaying decisions” – appearing to hint at hesitation by Kyiv’s allies to allow its troops to use Western-supplied weaponry to strike targets deep inside Russian territory.
Ukraine has long called for the ability to use long-range weapons as it fights the Russian invasion – but fear of an escalation from Moscow has prevented allies from giving the green light to such a move.
Moscow drone attack
The Russian capital came under one of the largest attacks by Ukrainian drones yet on Wednesday, with Moscow saying it destroyed 45 drones over Russian territory overnight.
Ukraine has stepped up its drone assaults on Russia since the start of the year, with refineries and oil terminals its main targets.
Hours after the drone attack, airports in two cities in northern Russia were shut with airspace in the area being restricted.
Our defence and security analyst Michael Clarke had this analysis on whether Moscow will be worried about the latest Ukrainian drone attack:
Three killed as Russia unleashes fresh missile barrage across Ukraine
At least three people were killed this morning as Russia launched a fresh round of air strikes against several cities in Ukraine.
The casualties were reported in western Lutsk, eastern Dnipro and the southern Zaporizhzhia regions.
Meanwhile, power and water supplies were disrupted in parts of Kyiv after the missile barrage on Monday morning, with explosions heard in the capital.
The city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed the outages, while Ukraine’s largest energy producer DTEK said it was introducing emergency outages.
Kyiv and the rest of the country were under air raid alerts with Ukraine’s air force warning of a large-scale Russian attack.
Good morning
Welcome back to our coverage of the Ukraine war.
There were muted celebrations across Ukraine on Saturday for the country’s 33rd independence anniversary, which took place against the backdrop of a conflict which has raged for 30 months.
However, there have been reports of missile strikes continuing near Kyiv this morning, as the Ukrainian military warned of further drone attacks on the capital.
In the early morning, Ukraine says Russia had 11 TU-95 strategic bombers in the air and launched a number of missiles at targets in the city.
There have also been reports of explosions in the northwestern city of Lutsk today, with power and water outages reported in Kyiv.
In other news from the weekend:
- In a video message to the Ukrainian people marking independence day, Volodymyr Zelenskyy branded Vladimir Putin a “sick old man from Red Square” who would “not dictate any of his red lines to us”;
- Belarus and Iran congratulated Ukraine on its 33rd anniversary of independence from the former Soviet Union despite the two countries’ close ties with Russia;
- At least five people were killed, and five others injured, in a Russian attack in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region;
- Pavel Durov, the founder and chief executive of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested in France, according to French media reports.
We’re pausing our coverage
That brings an end to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine for this evening – thanks for following along.
We’ll be back with any major updates overnight, and will return to our rolling coverage soon.
Before we go, here’s a round up of today’s key events:
- Russia and Ukraine each exchanged 115 prisoners of war as Ukraine marked its 33rd independence day. The Russian prisoners were soldiers captured during Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk;
- In a video message to the Ukrainian people, Volodymyr Zelenskyy branded Vladimir Putin a “sick old man from Red Square” who would “not dictate any of his red lines to us”;
- Belarus and Iran congratulated Ukraine on its independence day despite the two countries’ close ties with Russia;
- At least five people were killed and five others injured in a Russian attack in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region;
- Pavel Durov, the founder and chief executive of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested in France, according to French media reports.
Telegram CEO arrested in France – reports
The founder and chief executive of the Telegram messaging app has been arrested in France, according to French media reports.
French television network TF1 reports that Pavel Durov was arrested at the Bourget airport outside Paris this evening.
According to the network, the Russian-born businessman had been travelling aboard his private jet and was the target of an arrest warrant in France.
Telegram has not responded to a request for comment by the Reuters news agency.
Mr Durov – who also founded the now-state controlled Russian social media service VK – left Russia in 2014 after resisting government pressure to hand over the data of Ukrainian protesters.
He now lives in Dubai and holds dual citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France.
Telegram, which launched in 2013, is one of the top five most downloaded apps in the world.
Lithuania announces new military aid package for Ukraine
Lithuania has announced a fresh batch of military aid for Ukraine – including drones and air defence missiles.
Prime minister Ingrida Simonyte said the package would help Ukraine “send Russian occupants back to where they belong”.
In a post to X, Ms Simonyte said the aid would consist of “short-range air defence systems and missiles as well as anti-drones, guns, ammunition and equipment”.
The package would reach Kyiv by September, she said.
Vilnius has also pledged to send around 5,000 Lithuanian-made drones to Ukraine by the end of autumn as well as allocating €35m (£29.6m) to purchase radars and demining equipment.
Polish tanks being used in Kursk, president says
Polish-supplied tanks are being used by Ukraine in its offensive in the Kursk region, president Andrzej Duda has confirmed.
“We are touched to see how the PT-91 Twardy tanks, given by Poland [to Ukraine] more than one year ago, are defending today Ukraine on the battlefields, fighting in the Kursk region,” he said.
Vladimir Putin has vowed a “worthy response” to any use of Western weapons in the invasion.
Mr Duda’s visit to Kyiv today coincided with Ukraine’s independence day celebrations.
In a speech to mark the occasion, he also expressed confidence that the war “will soon end in [Ukraine’s] victory”.
“I have never had, and do not have, the slightest doubt that, through their united efforts and struggle, the courageous Ukrainian people will uphold their independence,” he said.
Seven injured after Russian strike on northeastern city
A Russian air attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy this evening has left seven people injured, officials have said.
The Sumy regional administration said on Telegram that Russia carried out a missile attack on civilian infrastructure in the city.
Seven people are wounded, including two who are in a serious condition.
“Take care of yourself and your loved ones, do not ignore the air warning signals,” the administration said.
Sumy is the administrative centre of the wider Sumy region, which lies in Ukraine’s northeast on the border with Russia.