Ukrainian air force says it shot down 22 of the 25 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia early on Sunday
Welcome back to our live coverage of the Russia’s war in Ukraine. This is Adam Fulton and here’s a snapshot of the latest news to bring you up to speed.
Russia launched an attack with 25 drones on the Odesa region’s south early on Sunday, hitting port infrastructure on the Danube River and injuring at least two people, Kyiv said.
Ukrainian forces have decisively breached Russia’s first defensive line near Zaporizhzhia after weeks of painstaking mine clearance, and expect faster gains as they press the weaker second line, the general leading the southern counteroffensive has told the Observer. Brig Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskiy estimated Russia had devoted 60% of its time and resources into building the first defensive line and only 20% each into the second and third lines because Moscow had not expected Ukrainian forces to get through.
Ukrainian forces were “on the move”, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, as the US acknowledged the “notable progress” of the counteroffensive over the past few days. Zelenskiy said on Telegram: “Despite everything and no matter what anyone says, we are advancing, and that is the most important thing.”
A Ukrainian court ordered tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky to be held in custody for two months on suspicion of fraud and money laundering on Saturday. The detention of Kolomoisky, who is under US sanctions and is a one-time supporter of Zelenskiy, comes as Kyiv is trying to signal progress in a corruption crackdown.
The Nobel Foundation has reversed its decision to invite ambassadors from Russia and Belarus to this year’s Nobel award ceremony in Stockholm, after the move sparked anger in Sweden and abroad. The foundation said on Saturday that it had chosen “to repeat last year’s exception to regular practice – that is, to not invite the ambassadors of Russia, Belarus and Iran”.
Russia has taken down three Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region, the Russian defence ministry said on Saturday, while the regional governor said one man had been killed in a Ukrainian rocket strike on a village close to the border. Separately, the governors of the nearby frontier regions of Bryansk and Kursk said a string of border villages had come under fire from Ukraine, and a woman had been wounded in the Kursk region.
