Cargo ship attack kills six people; Russian president tells visiting foreign minister that Moscow will ‘never forget’ Pyongyang’s support. What we know on day 1,608
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Ukraine has blamed Russia for a deadly strike on a Turkish cargo ship that killed six people. Ukraine’s navy said Russia had launched three cruise missiles at the Golden Leo – flying a Guinea-Bissau flag – as it was “leaving the combat zone with a cargo of grain”. Foreign minister Andriy Sybiga said the crew included citizens of Syria and India, while prime minister Sergiy Koretsky said the vessel was struck near Odesa after leaving port. “Eight crew members were rescued,” Kyiv transport minister Mykola Kalashnyk said on Telegram. “Two of them were injured. Unfortunately, as of now, six sailors are confirmed dead, and four more are missing.” Sybiga confirmed a Ukrainian maritime pilot had been killed in the attack, adding in the statement on X: “While the world is still responding to Russia’s brutal overnight attack on Kyiv, Moscow continues its campaign of terror throughout the day.”
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Russia carried out one of its biggest ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities on Sunday,launching a five-hour overnight assault that left at least six people dead and dozens injured, and caused fires and damage across the capital. Ukrainian officials said the capital had been hit with about 40 Iskander-M and hypersonic Zircon missiles, Luke Harding reports. A three-storey building caught fire in the capital’s central Shevchenkivskyi district, with rescuers digging out several people trapped inside and recovering a body. Four other areas were hit, with fires reported at offices and residential buildings and a dormitory.
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Ukrainian forces struck three oil depots and a fuel facility in Russia’s southern Stavropol region, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday. Three Russian tankers from the “shadow fleet” had also been struck in the Black Sea, the Ukrainian president also said on X.
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Vladimir Putin has thanked North Korea for supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine as he met visiting foreign minister Choe Son Hui. “I would like once again to express my gratitude for the support provided to the special military operation we are conducting,” Putin said on Sunday. “We will never forget” the “heroic deeds” of North Korean soldiers, who would be “honoured in the same way as our compatriots”, the Russian president added. Russia’s foreign ministry said on Saturday that Choe was visiting at the invitation of foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. North Korea has sent troops to Russia’s Kursk region and supplied weapons systems to support Moscow’s war effort, while in return analysts say the impoverished and isolated country has received financial assistance, food, energy supplies and military technology from Moscow.
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Russian anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin has said he will not be running in September’s legislative elections,saying he has been “silenced” and “pushed out of politics”. Nadezhdin – one of the few politicians in Russia openly criticising Putin and Moscow’s Ukraine offensive – had recently been convicted for displaying “extremist symbols”. “My ability to legally engage in opposition politics in Russia has been exhausted,” he wrote on Telegram on Sunday. “I’m not prepared to put at risk those who support me and took part in the election campaign”. The 63-year-old’s campaign had been severely compromised since he was declared a “foreign agent” earlier this month, followed by his sentencing for “displaying extremist symbols”, in that case posting a video in 2023 that briefly showed deceased dissident Alexei Navalny.
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