Ukraine war briefing: Russian oil depot burns after drone strike

An oil depot was burning in Polevaya, Kursk oblast, Russia on Sunday morning after a reported Ukrainian drone strike. The Russian Telegram channel Baza said three tanks caught fire and posted video. Nasa’s satellite fire monitoring service, Firms, showed heat signatures from fires at the location of an oil refinery in Polevaya. The acting regional governor, Alexei Smirnov, confirmed the attack, saying 82 firefighters and 32 units of equipment were involved in trying to put out the fires.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken control of the settlement of Lozuvatske in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, Interfax news agency reported, as the Russians advanced towards the city of Pokrovsk. US-based thinktank the Instiute for the Study of War (ISW) said this claim was “consistent with ISW’s assessment of Russian advances in the area”. Ukraine’s general staff made no mention of the settlement in its reports, but noted that the area around it was gripped by heavy fighting. Unofficial military bloggers have reported the loss of at least two other localities in the sector. Russian forces have been slowly advancing through the Donetsk region in Ukraine’s east.

The ISW said Ukrainian forces advanced on Saturday within Vovchansk, north-east of Kharkiv city, amid continued Russian ground attacks. In Donetsk oblast, geolocated footage indicated Ukraine regained lost positions in northern Pivdenne , south-east of Toretsk, the ISW said; while Russian forces advanced west and south-west of Donetsk city, and were filmed raising their flag in northern Krasnohorivka, west of the city. “Geolocated published on July 27 indicates that Russian forces advanced further south of Kostyantynivka (south-west of Donetsk city) during the roughly reinforced battalion-size mechanized assault that Russian forces conducted in the area on July 24,” the ISW added.

Ukrainian attack drones damaged a Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber at a military airfield in northern Russia, a military intelligence source told Reuters on Saturday . The source said a long-range TU-22M3 supersonic bomber was hit at the Olenya military airfield near Olenegorsk in northern Russia, about 1,800km (1,100 miles) from the Ukrainian border. Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported that in further attacks on Russia, military airfield were hit in the city of Engels in the Saratov region and Dyagilevo in the Ryazan region. A drone also hit an oil refinery in Ryazan. Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.

Ukrainian officials say Russian shelling killed at least five civilians on Saturday in separate regions of Ukraine. In the Kherson region, in Ukraine’s south, officials said three people were killed, while in the north-eastern Sumy region a 14-year-old boy was killed and 12 other people wounded in a rocket attack on the small town of Hlukhiv, the Ukraine prosecutor’s office said. The attack on the town near the Russian border hit apartment blocks, houses, an educational institution, a shop and vehicles just after noon. Six of the wounded were children. In Kharkiv region, the governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said one person was killed when a private home near the city of Chuhuiv came under fire.

In southern Russia’s Belgorod region, the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks killed one person , injured two and damaged homes and other buildings. Russia’s defence ministry said air defence units had destroyed two drones over the region late on Saturday. Accounts from either side could not be independently confirmed. Ukraine denies attacking civilian targets inside Russia.

China’s foreign minister told his US counterpart that Beijing denies charges it is helping Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. Wang Yi met with Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, on Saturday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Blinken discussed China’s support for Russia’s defence industrial base and warned of further US actions if China does not curtail that, according to a senior US state department official. “There was no commitment by the Chinese to take action,” the official told Reuters.

The Ukrainian maritime corridor transported 60m tonnes of cargo, mainly from the Greater Odesa ports, in the last 11 months , the Ukrainian seaports authority said, despite attacks on port infrastructure. 40.6m tonnes of this total amount were grain exports delivered to 46 countries.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, is scheduled to travel to Kyiv in August, marking his first visit to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion two years ago.

The air force of the armed forces of Ukraine said Russia has increased the number of “ballistic” strikes over the past few months , forcing Ukrainian forces to think more about “passive defence” tactics such as camouflage and using “false positions”.

The governor of the Bryansk region in southern Russia, Alexander Bogomaz, reported a “massive” drone attack on the region . No casualties were reported. “22 unmanned aircraft-type aerial vehicles have been intercepted and destroyed,” Bogomaz wrote on Telegram.