Ukraine war briefing: Russia claims capture of two villages in Donetsk

Russia said on Sunday its forces had captured two villages in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Progres and Yevgenivka, a few kilometres apart, as they push towards the city of Pokrovsk , northwest of the regional capital. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged Kyiv’s forces were under pressure in the region during his evening address on Sunday. “It is extremely challenging in the Donetsk directions, and it is in the Pokrovsk direction that there have been the biggest number of Russian assaults these weeks – the most intense enemy attacks are precisely there,” he said.

Kyiv launched more than two dozen drones on the Russian region of Kursk in several waves of attacks that started Saturday night and damaged an oil depot , the acting governor of the region that borders Ukraine said late on Sunday.
At least 13 drones launched from Ukraine were destroyed by Russia’s air defence systems late on Sunday, Andrei Smirnov, the governor, said on the Telegram messaging app. That follows 19 drones destroyed over the region during the day, he said. Firefighters were still trying to put out an oil depot fire in the region, sparked by Ukraine’s drone attack Saturday night, he added.

Vladimir Putin has warned the US that if Washington deploys long-range missiles in Germany from 2026 as planned, Russia will station similar missiles within striking distance of the west. In a speech on Sunday to sailors from Russia , China, Algeria and India in St Petersburg, Putin said: “The flight time to targets on our territory of such missiles, which in the future may be equipped with nuclear warheads, will be about 10 minutes. We will take mirror measures to deploy, taking into account the actions of the United States, its satellites in Europe and in other regions of the world.”

Ukrainians urged their government to do more to get Russia to release prisoners of war, voicing their anger on Sunday at a ceremony commemorating the second anniversary of an explosion that killed more than 50 . Several thousand soldiers and civilians gathered at Kyiv’s Independence Square to commemorate the second anniversary of an explosion that killed more than 50 Ukrainians that Russia was holding in the Olenivka prison barracks. “I was there in Olenivka. I was rocked by the explosion,” said Sgt. Kyrylo Masalitin, who was later released. “Never before have I felt so helpless. And those still in captivity feel that helplessness every day. They must know that we have done everything we can do to get them released.”

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Ukraine in August, various Indian media outlets have reported in recent days, which would be his first visit to the country since Russia invaded in February 2022 and would come just weeks after he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had expressed unhappiness and disappointment with Modi’s visit to Russia. India has refrained from directly criticising Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, while urging the two nations to resolve their conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.

Russia’s state-run Tass news agency said the Olympic organising committee revoked accreditations for four of its journalists in Paris on Sunday and that the committee attributed the move to a decision by French authorities but gave Moscow no further explanation . French interior minister Gérald Darmanin’s office declined to comment on the case but noted that decisions to withdraw accreditation lie with the Games’ organiser, Paris 2024, based on information provided by the government.