Live: Poland to send more troops to Belarus border, Minsk denies ‘airspace violation’

Live: Poland to send more troops to Belarus border, Minsk denies ‘airspace violation’
Poland will increase the number of troops at its border with Belarus after two Belarusian helicopters caused a “violation of Polish airspace” on Tuesday, the defence ministry said. Minsk has denied the claim. The Russian military said its anti-aircraft units thwarted a Ukrainian “terrorist attack” early on Tuesday and downed drones targeting Moscow, with one drone striking a high-rise tower already hit earlier in the week. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

Issued on: 01/08/2023 – 06:51
Modified: 01/08/2023 – 20:52

9 min
In this photo taken on November 19, 2021, Polish law enforcement officers secure the Bruzgi-Kuznica border crossing on the Belarusian-Polish border.
In this photo taken on November 19, 2021, Polish law enforcement officers secure the Bruzgi-Kuznica border crossing on the Belarusian-Polish border. © Maxim Guchek, AFP
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8:35pm: Poland says it will increase troops at border after Belarus helicopters violate airspace
Poland will increase the number of troops at its border with Belarus after two Belarusian helicopters violated Poland’s airspace on Tuesday, the ministry of defence said in a statement.

“There was a violation of Polish airspace by two Belarusian helicopters that were training near the border,” the Polish defence ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, NATO has been informed of the incident.

The Belarusian defence ministry denied on its Telegram channel that its military helicopters had violated the Polish border.

“Accusations of a violation of the Polish border by Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters of the Belarusian Air Force and air defence forces are farfetched and made by the Polish military and political leadership to justify the build-up of forces and means at the Belarusian border,” the ministry said.

8:26pm: Russian embassy in London slams UK sanctions over Putin critic’s trial
Russia’s embassy in London on Tuesday said Britain had attempted to interfere in its domestic affairs by imposing sanctions on Russian judges and officials involved in the trial of Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza.

“We regard the British authorities’ recent decision to impose restrictive measures against six Russian nationals as an inadmissible attempt to interfere in the domestic affairs of Russia,” the Russian Embassy said in a post on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Britain said on Monday it had imposed asset freezes and travel bans on six figures, including three judges, for what it called their part in a “politically motivated targeting” of Kara-Murza after he lost an appeal against his 25-year jail sentence.

Kara-Murza, who holds Russian and British citizenship, is a prominent opposition figure who stayed in Russia and continued to speak out against President Vladimir Putin.

7:08pm: Poland calls in Ukrainian ambassador in response to Ukrainian comments
Poland called in the Ukrainian ambassador to Warsaw on Tuesday in response to the “comments of representatives of Ukrainian authorities”, Poland’s ministry of foreign affairs wrote on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.

The tweet did not specify what comments it referred to.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry called in Poland’s ambassador to Kyiv earlier on Tuesday over what it said were “unacceptable” comments made by Poland’s presidential foreign policy adviser Marcin Przydacz about “the alleged ungratefulness of Ukrainians for Poland’s help”.

4:04pm: Ukraine calls for long-range missiles amid Russian strikes on multiple cities
Russian strikes on Monday and Tuesday targeted residential buildings in Kharkiv and Kryvyi Rih and a hospital in Kherson, killing several people and injuring dozens. Russian missile and drone strikes are “a daily occurrence here in Ukraine”, says FRANCE 24’s Emmanuelle Chaze, reporting from Kramatorsk.

“This is why Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls for long-range missiles, to try and undermine the backlines of the Russian army,” says Chaze.

Miembros del Servicio de Emergencia trabajan en un edificio de apartamentos gravemente dañado por un ataque con misiles rusos, en Kryvyi Rih, en el sur de Ucrania, el 31 de julio de 2023.01:29
Miembros del Servicio de Emergencia trabajan en un edificio de apartamentos gravemente dañado por un ataque con misiles rusos, en Kryvyi Rih, en el sur de Ucrania, el 31 de julio de 2023. © Reuters
3:53pm: Ukraine removes hammer and sickle from giant Kyiv statue
Workers on Tuesday lowered a hammer and sickle from a gigantic sculptural figure that watches over Ukraine’s capital, as part of a campaign to remove Soviet symbols which has ramped up since Moscow invaded last year.

The 62-metre-high steel figure of a woman holding a shield with the hammer and sickle and a sword was opened in 1981 as a memorial to Soviet victory in World War II.

Standing on top of a war museum building, it is known in Ukrainian as Batkivshchyna Maty, literally “Fatherland Mother”.

Ukraine’s culture ministry has backed a plan to give the figure a new shield bearing the country’s trident emblem.

2:42pm: Iceland suspends embassy operations in Russia
Iceland said Tuesday it had suspended work at its embassy in Russia, the first European country to do so, as commercial, cultural and political relations had slumped to an “all-time low”.

The Nordic country had announced in June that it would be closing its mission.

“The decision to suspend the operations of the Embassy of Iceland in Moscow does not constitute a severance of diplomatic relations,” the Icelandic foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

“As soon as conditions permit, Iceland will prioritise the resumption of operations,” it added.

1:58pm: Ukraine calls in Polish ambassador over presidential aide’s comments
Ukraine’s foreign ministry called in Poland’s ambassador to Kyiv on Tuesday over what it said were “unacceptable” comments made by Polish presidential foreign policy adviser Marcin Przydacz.

“During the meeting, it was emphasized that statements about the alleged ungratefulness of Ukrainians for Poland’s help are untrue and unacceptable,” foreign ministry spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko said in a statement on the ministry’s website.

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.

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After Wagner staged a brief rebellion 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.

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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.