The Russian military said its anti-aircraft units thwarted a Ukrainian “terrorist attack” early on Tuesday and downed drones targeting Moscow, but one drone, sent out of control by its units, struck the same high-rise tower hit earlier in the week. There was no word on potential casualties. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
1:15pm: Ukraine denies Russian claim it targeted civilian vessels in Black Sea
A senior Ukrainian presidential adviser has denied Russian allegations that Kyiv’s forces targeted civilian vessels in the Black Sea, calling Russian statements “fictitious”.
Russia’s defence ministry earlier said it thwarted an attack from Ukrainian drones overnight on civilian transport vessels in the Black Sea, according to an Interfax news agency report.
“Undoubtedly, such statements by Russian officials are fictitious and do not contain even a shred of truth. Ukraine has not attacked, is not attacking and will not attack civilian vessels, nor any other civilian objects,” Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, told Reuters.
11:55am: Ukraine says doctor killed in Russian shelling of Kherson hospital
A doctor was killed and a nurse was wounded in Russian shelling of a hospital in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, regional officials have said.
“Today at 11:10 (0810 GMT), the enemy launched another attack on the peaceful residents of our community,” military administration head Roman Mrochko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Photos posted by officials showed the bloodied floor of a balcony and a gaping hole in a roof with debris strewn over the floor.
Mrochko said the young doctor had only worked in his job for a few days and that doctors were fighting for the life of the nurse.
9:50am: Drones hit Ukraine’s Kharkiv, damaging college dormitory
Officials in Kharkiv, Ukraine‘s second-largest city, say drones hit populated areas of the city overnight, destroying two floors of a college dormitory.
The chief of police in Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, Volodymyr Tymoshko, said there were two night-time strikes – one on the college and one on the city centre.
“Very difficult night in Kharkiv,” mayor Ihor Terekhov told Ukrainian television, adding that the dormitory was not being used.
Regional governor Oleh Synehubov said a sports complex in the city’s Shevchenkivskyi district was hit, damaging a two-storey building and injuring a 63-year-old security guard.
9:40am: Ukraine says has repelled Russian saboteur group at northern border
Ukraine has thwarted an overnight attempt by a Russian saboteur group to cross its northern border, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko has written on the Telegram messaging app.
“Last night, in the Chernihiv region, border guards stopped an attempt by an enemy saboteur-reconnaissance group to cross the state border of Ukraine within the Semenivka community,” he said.
Serhiy Naev, commander of the joint forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said that four armed people attempted to cross the border but were repelled by Ukrainian fire.
Ukraine has strengthened its northern military sector following the reported arrival of Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in Belarus.
8:45am: Russian chief of staff shown visiting troops near front line in Ukraine
Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of Russia‘s armed forces, has visited Russian troops in Ukraine‘s Zaporizhzhia region, the Russian defence ministry has said.
The ministry said Gerasimov inspected a command centre and underscored the importance of pre-emptive strikes against Ukrainian forces. An accompanying video showed him poring over a map, receiving briefings and climbing into a helicopter.
Gerasimov was for many months the target of savage criticism from Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and some Russian military bloggers over Russia’s failings in the war.
After Wagner staged a brief mutiny against the defence establishment on June 24, there were questions as to whether Gerasimov would keep his job. More than two weeks elapsed before he was first seen again in public, on July 10.
7:15am: Russia says repelled drone attack on Black Sea patrol boats
Russia says it has repelled an overnight drone attack targeting its patrol boats in the Black Sea.
“Three naval enemy drones were destroyed,” Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement, adding that the boats were attacked 340 kilometres (210 miles) southwest of Sevastopol, the base of Russia’s Black Sea fleet on the annexed Crimean peninsula.
The ministry said the ships were in the area to control the passage of other vessels.
4:56am: Drones target Moscow, high-rise building hit
A Ukrainian drone downed by Russia has struck a Moscow office tower that was also hit over the weekend, as multiple other drones were downed, Russian officials said.
“Several drones were shot down by air defence systems while trying to fly to Moscow. One (drone) flew into the same tower in (Moscow) City as last time. The facade on the 21st floor was damaged,” Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram. “There is no information on casualties,” he said, adding that emergency services were on the scene.
Russia’s defence ministry blamed the attack on Ukraine, saying that multiple facilities in the Moscow region had been targeted.
“Two Ukrainian (unmanned aerial vehicles) were destroyed by air defence systems over the territory of the Odintsovo and Narofominsk districts of Moscow region,” the ministry said in a statement. “Another drone was suppressed by electronic warfare and, having lost control, crashed on the territory of the Moscow-City non-residential building complex.”
3:30am: Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport briefly closed
Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport was briefly closed early Tuesday, the TASS state news agency reported.
“Vnukovo was temporarily closed for arrivals and departures, the planes are redirected to other airports,” emergency services said, according to TASS, which later reported it had resumed normal operations.
Key developments from Monday, July 31:
The United Kingdom on Monday sanctioned “key figures involved in [the] deplorable sentencing” of dual national Vladimir Kara-Murza after a Russian court dismissed his appeal against a 25-year sentence.
London announced it had sanctioned six figures – three judges, two prosecutors and an expert witness – for their role in what it called “his politically motivated targeting”. They added that Kara-Murza was being “persecuted by the Russian regime for his anti-war stance”.
Meanwhile, US government officials said they would attend a Ukraine peace summit in Saudi Arabia, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told a briefing on Monday, adding that he could not give more details. The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Saudi Arabia would invite Western states, Ukraine and major developing countries to the talks.
This on a day when six people were killed and 75 injured when Russian ballistic missiles slammed into an apartment complex and a university building in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih on Monday. Ukrainian officials said at least six people had died in the attack and 75 were wounded as the blasts trapped residents beneath rubble
Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how the day’s events unfolded.
(C) France M?dias Monde graphic studio
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
