Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv seeks Elon Musk’s permission to hit Putin’s missile launchers with Starlink drones

A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and wounded four others when a car was struck Friday in Russia’s Belgorod region near the village of Razumnoye, local officials said, adding that two of the injured were in serious condition.

Zelenskyy said a Ukrainian drone attack hit an oil refinery in Perm, more than 1,600km from his country’s border. Also struck was the Marinovka military airfield in Russia’s Volgograd region, he said.

The Russian online news outlet Astra reported that the Ukrainian drone had set ablaze a Lukoil-operated oil refinery in Perm. Local officials said damage was recorded at an unidentified “industrial facility.”

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences overnight intercepted 325 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, as well as Crimea. The peninsula was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Moscow’s forces have in recent months intensified their ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, exploiting Ukraine’s chronic shortage of US-made Patriot air defense interceptors, the sole weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down the missiles.

Large-scale Russian strikes have become a regular occurrence this summer. Just over two weeks ago, a Russian attack on Kyiv and its surrounding region killed 17 people, and nine were killed in the city two days before that.

The United Nations said last week that Kyiv was one of the hardest hit cities in July, with at least 54 civilians killed and 202 injured.

Earlier on Friday, a Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed two women, aged 73 and 66, and wounded two others, said regional head Oleh Syniehubov.

Ukraine shot down or suppressed 107 out of 135 drones launched by Russia overnight, according to a statement from Ukraine’s air force on Telegram.

French president Emmanuel Macron, Andy Burnham and German chancellor Friedrich Merz will ⁠co-chair ​a ⁠meeting of the so-called Coalition ⁠of the ​Willing ⁠group of ‌pro-Ukrainian countries on Monday, the French ‌president’s office ‌said on Friday.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr ⁠Zelenskiy will be present in the meeting which will be attended in person ‌and remotely, Macron’s ​office said, ‌without ⁠specifying who will ⁠be in ‌person.

The Pacific Fleet said on Thursday a unit equipped with the Bastion coastal missile system, which is stationed on Etorofu, simulated an attack on enemy warships and hit all its targets at a range of about 300km.

A guided missile cruiser and a nuclear-powered submarine took part, according to reports.

“We cannot tolerate moves to strengthen military power on the Four Northern Islands because they go against our country’s stance on the territories,” Japanese foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, said during a visit to Oman.

Russia’s Justice Ministry ​on Friday declared the independent Mediazona news outlet a “foreign agent”, a designation used to label foreign-funded organisations that ⁠it says are engaged in political activity.

Mediazona “disseminated false information about Russia’s law enforcement system” and a number of its ⁠staff have already ​been labelled ⁠as foreign agents, the ministry said.

The term “foreign agent” carries negative ⁠Soviet-era connotations and subjects those designated ​to ⁠extra government scrutiny.

Mediazona said ‌via its channel on the Telegram messaging app that this was the second ‌time that Russian authorities ‌had declared it to be a “foreign agent”.

Separately, its editor Yegor Skovoroda — who like the outlet’s ⁠other journalists now works outside Russia — described the ministry’s statement as “incredibly crazy”.

The news outlet was first designated as a “foreign agent” in 2021, and the Justice Ministry removed it from the register ‌of authorised media organisations in Russia.

Russian ​state communications regulator Roskomnadzor ‌blocked Mediazona’s website within ⁠Russia in March 2022, shortly ⁠after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Colonel-general Denis Lyamin has assumed the duties ⁠of head of Russia’s Unmanned Systems Forces, the ⁠Russian ​Defence ⁠Ministry said on ⁠Friday.

President Vladimir Putin ​on ⁠5 August ‌appointed Lyamin to lead the newly ‌established branch ‌of the military responsible for ⁠drone warfare.

The Defence Ministry said on Friday that Defence Minister Andrei Belousov had ‌signed the ​relevant order, ‌formally installing ⁠Lyamin in the ⁠post.

Russian drones struck a shopping centre in the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine on Friday, killing 14 people and wounding scores of others, authorities said.

The city is the hometown of Volodymyr Zelensky, who described the attack as a double-tap strike, in which an initial wave of drones hit the area, followed by a second wave as rescue workers responded.

“Attacks like these are nothing less than terrorist acts,” Zelensky wrote on social media.

At least 15 people were killed and more than 130 wounded on Friday when several Russian drones struck a shopping centre in central ⁠Ukraine, authorities said, with president Volodymyr Zelensky promising a response to what he called an “act of barbarism.”

Regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said that 22 children were among the wounded in the daytime attack ⁠on the city of Kryvyi ​Rih, ⁠which is Zelenskiy’s hometown.

“There are 29 people in serious condition, including five children,” Hanzha said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called out Russia for a “cynical and despicable” attack on a shopping centre in his home town, Kryvyi Rig, on Friday that killed at least five people and injured more than 50.

“An absolutely cynical and despicable strike was carried out by the Russians against an ordinary shopping center in Kryvyi Rig,” he said on X, adding: “Five deaths have been reported”.