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AS IT HAPPENED
Ukraine says it downed scores of cruise missiles, drones overnight
Ukraine’s air force said Sunday it shot down 30 out of the 40 cruise missiles and all the Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia launched overnight in several waves of attacks. Read our blog to see how the day’s events unfolded on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
Issued on: 06/08/2023 – 11:03
Modified: 06/08/2023 – 22:11
5 min
The wreckage from an Iranian drone shot down by the Ukrainian army in Odesa on September 23, 2022.
The wreckage from an Iranian drone shot down by the Ukrainian army in Odesa on September 23, 2022. © Ukraine army, AFP
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This live blog is no longer being updated. For more of our coverage on the war in Ukraine, please click here.
9:38pm: Saudi-hosted meeting on Ukraine ends with pledge to continue talks
Jeddah-hosted talks on the Ukraine conflict concluded on Sunday with the participants agreeing on the importance of continuing consultations to pave the way for peace, according to a closing statement released by Saudi Arabia.
8:11pm: Ukraine making progress with Patriot, IRIS-T defences, says Zelensky
Ukraine is seeing “significant results” thanks to US Patriot and German IRIS-T defence systems, despite dozens of attacks by Russia over the past week, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Sunday.
Zelensky said he had received a report on the use of advanced air defence systems received from partners, noting the Raytheon-built RTX.N Patriot and Germany’s IRIS-T systems.
“These are powerful systems, highly effective,” he said. “They have already yielded significant results, and not only for Ukraine.”
He said this was because whenever Russian missiles were destroyed, “it reassures the world that a terrorist state is unable to break our collective security.”
Zelensky said Ukraine had shot down “a significant part” of Russia’s attacks over the past week, including 65 missiles of various kinds, and 178 assault drones, including 87 Shaheds.
2:45pm: Western bid to get Global South to back Ukraine is doomed, says Russian deputy foreign minister
Moscow said on Sunday that weekend talks in Saudi Arabia including the US, China and India aiming to establish principles for a peaceful end to Russia’s war in Ukraine were a doomed Western attempt to align the Global South behind Kyiv.
Senior officials from some 40 countries were attending the two-day meeting, part of a push by Ukraine to build support beyond its core Western backers among countries that have been reluctant to take sides in the conflict. Russia was not invited.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by the state news agency TASS calling the meeting “a reflection of the West’s attempt to continue futile, doomed efforts to mobilise the international community, and more precisely, the Global South, even if not entirely, in support of the so-called Zelensky formula, which is doomed and untenable from the outset”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday he hoped the initiative would lead to a peace summit of leaders from around the world this autumn to endorse principles for a settlement based on his own 10-point formula.
1:07pm: Russia can ensure security in Black Sea, says deputy foreign ministry
Russia has military and technical capabilities to eliminate threats to security in the Black Sea, the TASS news agency quoted Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday.
Ryabkov, who blamed the United States and Britain for the escalation of tensions, spoke days after Ukrainian sea drones attacked a Russian warship near the Russian port of Novorossiysk and a Russian tanker near Crimea.
11:57am: Russia says it hit airbases in western Ukraine
Russia on Sunday said its forces struck military airbases in the Khmelnytskyi and Rivne regions in western Ukraine and that “all targets were hit”.
“Overnight Russia’s armed forces carried out strikes … on Ukrainian armed forces airbases around the settlements of Starokostiantyniv in the Khmelnytskyi region and Dubno in the Rivne region,” the Russian defence ministry said.
11:32am: Russian attack on blood transfusion centre in Ukraine constitutes a ‘war crime’
Russia’s attack Saturday evening on a blood tranfusion centre in Kupiansk, in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine, “constitutes a war crime”, says FRANCE 24’s Emmanuelle Chaze, reporting from Kyiv.
The blood transfusion centre “is a medical building, there are medical personnel, there’s wounded, there are patients inside and so it is as such not a military target”, adds Chaze.
Click on the video below to watch her report in full.
01:14
11:30am: Moscow mayor says air defence shot down drone
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Sunday that Russian air defence had destroyed a drone over the capital, which had been rarely targeted throughout the conflict in Ukraine until several attacks this year.
“Today at around 11am (0800 GMT) a drone attempted to make a breakthrough towards Moscow. It was destroyed while approaching by air defence forces,” Sobyanin said on Telegram.
10:34am: Ukraine says it downed 30 cruise missiles, 27 drones overnight
Ukraine’s air force said Sunday it shot down 30 out of the 40 cruise missiles and all the Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia launched overnight in several waves of attacks.
“Thirty cruise missiles and 27 attack drones were destroyed,” the air force said on Telegram. It added that Russia launched three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles but did not say if they had been destroyed.
7:46am: Russia destroys two drones over Bryansk region, says local governor
Russia’s air defence system destroyed two aircraft-type drones over the Karachevskyi district in the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, governor of the Russian region that borders Ukraine, said on Sunday.
“There were no damages or casualties,” Bogomaz said on the Telegram channel.
It was not clear who launched the drones, and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russia-controlled territory in Ukraine.
Russian authorities say the Bryansk region – which borders both Ukraine and Belarus – has seen multiple attacks by Ukrainian forces and pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups in the 17 months since Russia launched its invasion on Ukraine.
5:38am: Russian officials say Ukraine hit Donetsk university with cluster shells
Flames engulfed a university building’s wooden roof in Donetsk following Ukrainian shelling on Saturday, said an emergency official in the Russia-controlled city in eastern Ukraine.
“As a result of the latest attack on Donetsk, the first building of the University of Economics and Trade is on fire,” Alexei Kulemzin, the Russia-installed mayor, said on Telegram.
“We are using 12 water tanks, three ladders and 100 fire fighters,” said Alexei Kostrubitsky, the Russia-installed emergency minister for the region that Moscow calls the Donetsk People’s Republic. “The whole roof is on fire.”
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Kostrubitsky said Ukrainian forces used cluster munitions in the shelling that caused the blaze. Both sides have used cluster munitions in the course of Russia’s 17-month invasion of Ukraine.
Key developments from Saturday, August 5:
Russian forces struck a blood transfusion centre in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, adding that “dead and wounded are reported”.
Saudi Arabia hosted talks on the Ukraine war Saturday in the latest flexing of its diplomatic muscle, a session that Kyiv had predicted would “not be easy” given the wide range of countries represented, including China.
Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how the day’s events unfolded.
