Russia Ukraine war latest: Putin missiles hit Dnipro apartment block as children injured

According to a new report, Ukrainian soldiers were spotted using North Korean missiles that they claim were seized by a “friendly” country before they reached Ukraine.

Ukraine’s defense ministry suspected the weapons were captured by the Russians, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

The US has accused North Korea of ​​supplying arms to Russia, allegedly including by sea, but North Korea and Russia deny conducting arms deals.

The North Korean weapons were displayed by Ukrainian troops operating Soviet-era Grad multiple missile systems near the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, the scene of prolonged, brutal fighting, the report said.

Earlier this week, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu paid a rare visit to Pyongyang to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War. It was the first visit by Moscow’s top defense official since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The commander of the country’s armed forces said Kiev’s troops are pushing through heavy, intense artillery fire from Russian forces to push into eastern Ukraine.

Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi said that despite fierce resistance, Ukrainian ground forces were “gradually advancing towards Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region.” The city, now occupied by Russian forces, has acquired symbolic importance for both Kiev and Moscow, having been the scene of some of the war’s fiercest fighting.

“The enemy is clinging fiercely to every inch and dissipating intense artillery and mortar fire,” Colonel-General Syrskyi said in a statement.

A former British spy who wrote a dossier on Russia’s meddling in US elections says he believes Vladimir Putin will be out of power within a year.

Christopher Steele, who headed MI6’s Russia branch in London between 2006 and 2009, told Sky News the West must prepare for the end of the Putin era.

He said the scenarios are as follows: Mr. Putin dies of an illness or is assassinated; he is overthrown due to the failure of the Ukraine war; he resigns and endorses a successor; There is a military coup or a popular uprising.

African leaders yesterday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to move ahead with his plan to end the Ukraine conflict and renew a crucial Africa-important deal on safe wartime exports of Ukrainian grain that Moscow tore up last week.

While not directly critical of Russia, their interventions on the second day of a summit were more concerted and forceful than those African countries have voiced to date.

They served as a reminder of Africa’s deep concerns about the aftermath of the war, particularly soaring food prices.

“This war must end. And it can only end on the basis of justice and reason,” Moussa Faki Mahamat, head of the African Union Commission, told Putin and African leaders in St. Petersburg.

“The disruptions to energy and grain supplies must end immediately. The Grains Agreement must be extended for the benefit of all the peoples of the world, especially Africans.”

At least nine people were injured in a rocket attack on Dnipro, according to Serhii Lysak, the head of the region’s military administration.

The injured include two youths aged between 14 and 17, two women aged around 20, a 77-year-old woman and four men aged between 18 and 53.

According to Mr Lysak, the injured victims are in “satisfactory condition” and are being treated at home, doctors said.

After liberating several frontline villages in June, Ukraine reportedly made further ground gains against invading Russian forces along the eastern and southern fronts in July as its counteroffensive continues.

In his last evening address on Thursday, July 27, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for another village to be recaptured.

This comes after even his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin admitted that Ukrainians were making progress and that fighting had escalated in recent days.

Poland’s lawmakers on Friday voted to pass an amended but controversial law on Russian influences, which are believed to target the opposition and have been criticized by the US and the European Union.

The law was proposed by Poland’s ruling right-wing Law and Justice party in May and critics say it will primarily target opposition leader and former Prime Minister Donald Tusk ahead of parliamentary elections in the autumn. After the criticism, President Andrzej Duda proposed urgent changes to mitigate the criticism.

The commander of the country’s armed forces said Kiev’s troops are pushing through heavy, intense artillery fire from Russian forces to push into eastern Ukraine.

Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi said that despite fierce resistance, Ukrainian ground forces were “gradually advancing towards Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region.” The city, now occupied by Russian forces, has acquired symbolic importance for both Kiev and Moscow, having been the scene of some of the war’s fiercest fighting.

“The enemy is clinging fiercely to every inch and dissipating intense artillery and mortar fire,” Colonel-General Syrskyi said in a statement.

Chris Stevenson has more.

Russian and Belarusian players will not be allowed to take part in the Prague Open next week, organizers of the women’s tennis event announced on Friday.

The announcement came a day after police blocked a Russian player from entering the country, organizers said.

Miroslav Malý, the director of the hard court tournament, did not name the player. Malý said she was the first participant with a Russian passport to arrive in the country.

He said the organizers contacted other Russian and Belarusian players through the Women’s Tennis Federation and told them not to travel to Prague.

A month after the Wagner group’s extraordinary mutiny attempt against Russia’s military establishment – which resulted in its fighters abandoning their posts in eastern Ukraine, occupying the city of Rostov-on-Don and marching on Moscow before a last-minute peace deal was agreed – the mercenary The founder of the group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, seems to be back in his homeland.

Under the terms of the ceasefire negotiated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on June 24 between Mr Prigozhin and Vladimir Putin, the former is said to have agreed to relocation to Belarus while his troops were ordered to report to camps in that country before rejoin the Russian military or resign altogether without fear of prosecution.