Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukrainian foreign minister urges its partners for permission for long-range strikes into Russia

4.02pm BST

Closing summary

• President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday Ukraine was “more positive” about the prospects of getting permission from its western allies to conduct long-range strikes on targets inside Russia. Zelenskiy said allies should supply the weapons for such strikes.

• The Kremlin said on Monday that Russian president Vladimir Putin had arrived for a state visit in Mongolia, which lies on the route of a planned new gas pipeline connecting Russia and China. Russia has been in talks for years about building the pipeline to carry 50 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas a year from its Yamal region to China via Mongolia, Reuters reported.

• A deputy commander of Russia’s Leningrad military district has been detained on suspicion of accepting a 20 million rouble (£169,900/ $224,000) bribe, Russia’s investigative committee said on Monday, in the latest in a string of corruption probes. Gen Maj Valery Muminjanov, according to investigators, helped several companies win contracts to provide the military with clothes in exchange for the money, the committee said in a statement.

• Warsaw has a “constitutional duty” to shoot down Russian missiles over Ukraine that are on course to hit Polish territory, Poland’s foreign minister told the Financial Times in an interview published on Monday. The Polish top diplomat’s remarks come a week after the Nato country’s airspace was breached by what the army said was likely a drone after Russia pummelled neighbouring Ukraine with deadly strikes.

• Russia pounded Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv with missiles early on Monday, while falling debris from the downed weapons injured at least two people, sparking fires and damaging homes and infrastructure, officials said. Reuters reports that Ukraine’s air defence units destroyed more than 10 cruise missiles and nearly 10 ballistic missiles, the city’s military administration said on the Telegram messaging app.

• Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba urged Kyiv’s partners to grant permission for long-range strikes into Russia after Moscow staged a missile attack on Kyiv on Monday. “In defending itself against these two barbaric war machines, Ukraine is forced to fight with hands tied behind its back. Isn’t this absurd?” Kuleba said on X. He added that Russia fired North Korean missiles on Monday, and called on Asian partners to consider increasing military aid to Ukraine.

• Ukraine’s “provocation” in Russia’s Kursk region has failed to stop the Russian military from advancing in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the RIA news agency cited Russian president Vladimir Putin as saying on Monday. Putin, on a trip to Russia’s Tuva region, said Russian forces were reclaiming territory in the Kursk region “by square kilometres” and the Ukrainian incursion force there would “be dealt with”.

• Russian forces are fighting in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Selydove and Ukrainsk, pro-Russian bloggers said on Monday, as Moscow’s forces try to smash through part of Ukraine’s defensive line. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the purported Russian advance, Reuters reported. Russian forces, which control 18% of Ukraine, have been advancing in eastern Ukraine since the failure of Kyiv’s 2023 counter-offensive to achieve a major breakthrough.

• Some kindergartens will shut for a week in the Russian city of Belgorod near Ukraine’s border while several schools will hold online classes after a Kyiv attack destroyed a childcare facility on Monday, the region’s governor said. “It’s a bad morning for the Belgorod region,” the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said in a post on social network VKontakte the day classes were set to resume after the summer vacation.

• An Islamic Cultural Center in Kyiv’s Nyvky district was hit in the overnight Russian missile and drones strikes, badly damaging a mosque inside the facility. Refat Chubarov, a leader of the Crimean Tartar community in Ukraine said the building would need repairs in a post on Facebook. President Zelenskiy also wrote a post on X about the strike saying Russia “has no regard for spiritual or human values, and no respect for any religion or faith.”

• Russian forces have taken control of the village of Skuchne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the RIA news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying on Monday. Skuchne is located in the Pokrovsk district of the region, where Russian forces have accelerated their advance in recent weeks.

• A boiler house at a water plant in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district was partially destroyed by a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian capital early on Monday , mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app.

• The West is openly persecuting Russian journalists, president Vladimir Putin said in remarks published on Monday, days after Moscow banned dozens of US journalists from entering the country. “In order to hide from inconvenient facts, from truthful information, the West, which considers itself the standard of freedom, has launched an open persecution against Russian correspondents,” Putin told the Mongolian newspaper Onoodor on the eve of his visit to the country, according to a transcript provided on the Kremlin’s website.

• The Finnish government wants to ban Russians from buying property in Finland, the Nordic country’s defence minister Antti Hakkanen said on Monday. “Today we’re sending out for consultations a proposal that aims to ban property transactions that have a Russian background,” Hakkanen told a press conference.

• Ukrainian forces destroyed 22 out of 35 missiles and 20 out of 23 attack drones launched by Russia on Monday morning, Ukraine’s Air Force said. It said on the Telegram messenger that it had destroyed nine ballistic missiles and 13 cruise missiles in the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions.

• Russia will make changes to its doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons in response to what it regards as western escalation in the war in Ukraine, state media quoted deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday . The existing nuclear doctrine says Russia may use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the state. Some hawks among Russia’s military analysts have urged Putin to lower the threshold to “sober up” Russia’s enemies in the west.

• Polish and allied aircraft were activated early on Monday to ensure the safety of Polish airspace after Russia launched airstrikes on Ukraine, the Operational Command of the Polish armed forces said. “In the south-eastern part of the country there may be an increased noise level related to the commencement of operations in our airspace by Polish and allied aircraft,” the command said on X. South-east Poland borders Ukraine.

That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Ukraine live blog for today. Thanks for following along.

3.44pm BST

Putin arrives in Mongolia, key link in planned gas pipeline to China

The Kremlin said on Monday that Russian president Vladimir Putin had arrived for a state visit in Mongolia, which lies on the route of a planned new gas pipeline connecting Russia and China.

Russia has been in talks for years about building the pipeline to carry 50 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas a year from its Yamal region to China via Mongolia, Reuters reported.

The project, Power of Siberia 2, is part of Russia’s strategy to compensate for the loss of most of its gas sales in Europe since the start of the Ukraine war. It is the planned successor to an existing pipeline of the same name which already supplies Russian gas to China and is due to reach its planned capacity of 38 bcm a year in 2025.

The new venture has long been bogged down over key issues such as the pricing of the gas. However, Putin said on the eve of his visit that preparatory work, including feasibility and engineering studies, were proceeding as scheduled.

He is due to hold talks with Mongolian president Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh on Tuesday.

Ukraine urged Mongolia last week to arrest Putin on a warrant issued by the international criminal court warrant last year, when it accused him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.

3.17pm BST

2.14pm BST

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday Ukraine was “more positive” about the prospects of getting permission from its Western allies to conduct long-range strikes on targets inside Russia.

Zelenskiy said allies should supply the weapons for such strikes.

1.50pm BST

A deputy commander of Russia’s Leningrad military district has been detained on suspicion of accepting a 20 million rouble (£169,900/ $224,000) bribe, Russia’s investigative committee said on Monday, in the latest in a string of corruption probes.

Gen Maj Valery Muminjanov, according to investigators, helped several companies win contracts to provide the military with clothes in exchange for the money, the committee said in a statement.

Reuters was unable to immediately contact his lawyer and it was not clear how he has pleaded to the charges.

Several senior defence officials have faced criminal investigations since a shake-up at the defence ministry began in May when Andrei Belousov replaced Sergei Shoigu as its head.

1.22pm BST

Warsaw has a “constitutional duty” to shoot down Russian missiles over Ukraine that are on course to hit Polish territory, Poland’s foreign minister told the Financial Times in an interview published on Monday.

The Polish top diplomat’s remarks come a week after the Nato country’s airspace was breached by what the army said was likely a drone after Russia pummelled neighbouring Ukraine with deadly strikes.

Despite a week-long ground search, the suspected drone has not been found.

During a new wave of Russian aerial attacks on Monday, Poland scrambled its fighter jets to the Ukrainian border to protect its airspace.

“Membership in Nato does not trump each country’s responsibility for the protection of its own airspace – it’s our own constitutional duty,” foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski told FT in an interview.

“I’m personally of the view that, when hostile missiles are on course of entering our airspace, it would be legitimate self-defence (to strike them) because once they do cross into our airspace, the risk of debris injuring someone is significant,” he added.

Following Sikorski’s comments, a Nato official said that the alliance “has a responsibility to prevent Russia’s war from escalating further”, adding that “Nato is not a party to the conflict and Nato will not become a party to the conflict”.

“We recognise the right of every ally protect its own airspace, however what individual allies do in support of Ukraine can also matter for Nato as a whole,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

1.00pm BST

Afternoon summary

• Russia pounded Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv with missiles early on Monday, while falling debris from the downed weapons injured at least two people, sparking fires and damaging homes and infrastructure, officials said. Reuters reports that Ukraine’s air defence units destroyed more than 10 cruise missiles and nearly 10 ballistic missiles, the city’s military administration said on the Telegram messaging app.

• Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba urged Kyiv’s partners to grant permission for long-range strikes into Russia after Moscow staged a missile attack on Kyiv on Monday. “In defending itself against these two barbaric war machines, Ukraine is forced to fight with hands tied behind its back. Isn’t this absurd?” Kuleba said on X. He added that Russia fired North Korean missiles on Monday, and called on Asian partners to consider increasing military aid to Ukraine.

• Ukraine’s “provocation” in Russia’s Kursk region has failed to stop the Russian military from advancing in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the RIA news agency cited Russian president Vladimir Putin as saying on Monday. Putin, on a trip to Russia’s Tuva region, said Russian forces were reclaiming territory in the Kursk region “by square kilometres” and the Ukrainian incursion force there would “be dealt with”.

• Russian forces are fighting in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Selydove and Ukrainsk, pro-Russian bloggers said on Monday, as Moscow’s forces try to smash through part of Ukraine’s defensive line. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the purported Russian advance, Reuters reported. Russian forces, which control 18% of Ukraine, have been advancing in eastern Ukraine since the failure of Kyiv’s 2023 counter-offensive to achieve a major breakthrough.

• Some kindergartens will shut for a week in the Russian city of Belgorod near Ukraine’s border while several schools will hold online classes after a Kyiv attack destroyed a childcare facility on Monday, the region’s governor said. “It’s a bad morning for the Belgorod region,” the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said in a post on social network VKontakte the day classes were set to resume after the summer vacation.

• An Islamic Cultural Center in Kyiv’s Nyvky district was hit in the overnight Russian missile and drones strikes, badly damaging a mosque inside the facility. Refat Chubarov, a leader of the Crimean Tartar community in Ukraine said the building would need repairs in a post on Facebook. President Zelenskiy also wrote a post on X about the strike saying Russia “has no regard for spiritual or human values, and no respect for any religion or faith.”

• Russian forces have taken control of the village of Skuchne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the RIA news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying on Monday. Skuchne is located in the Pokrovsk district of the region, where Russian forces have accelerated their advance in recent weeks.

• A boiler house at a water plant in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district was partially destroyed by a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian capital early on Monday , mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app.

• The West is openly persecuting Russian journalists, president Vladimir Putin said in remarks published on Monday, days after Moscow banned dozens of US journalists from entering the country. “In order to hide from inconvenient facts, from truthful information, the West, which considers itself the standard of freedom, has launched an open persecution against Russian correspondents,” Putin told the Mongolian newspaper Onoodor on the eve of his visit to the country, according to a transcript provided on the Kremlin’s website.

• The Finnish government wants to ban Russians from buying property in Finland, the Nordic country’s defence minister Antti Hakkanen said on Monday. “Today we’re sending out for consultations a proposal that aims to ban property transactions that have a Russian background,” Hakkanen told a press conference.

• Ukrainian forces destroyed 22 out of 35 missiles and 20 out of 23 attack drones launched by Russia on Monday morning, Ukraine’s Air Force said. It said on the Telegram messenger that it had destroyed nine ballistic missiles and 13 cruise missiles in the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions.

• Russia will make changes to its doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons in response to what it regards as western escalation in the war in Ukraine, state media quoted deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday . The existing nuclear doctrine says Russia may use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the state. Some hawks among Russia’s military analysts have urged Putin to lower the threshold to “sober up” Russia’s enemies in the west.

• Polish and allied aircraft were activated early on Monday to ensure the safety of Polish airspace after Russia launched airstrikes on Ukraine, the Operational Command of the Polish armed forces said. “In the south-eastern part of the country there may be an increased noise level related to the commencement of operations in our airspace by Polish and allied aircraft,” the command said on X. South-east Poland borders Ukraine.

• Footage posted on Telegram channels suggested some of the long-range Ukrainian drones damaged targets deep inside Russia. At least one struck an oil refinery in the Kapotnya district in south-east Moscow . More drones hit a thermal power station in the Tver region, north of Moscow. There was an explosion at the Konakovo station, one of the biggest in Russia. An orange fireball engulfed several transformers.

• In eastern Ukraine, where the heaviest fighting of the war is concentrated, Russian forces continued to advance towards Pokrovsk, which is a vital military hub and transport link to towns and cities farther north. Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday its forces had captured two more settlements in Donetsk region and were “continuing to advance deep into the enemy defences”. One of them, Ptyche, is just 21km (13 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk.

12.29pm BST

Russian forces have taken control of the village of Skuchne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the RIA news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying on Monday.

Skuchne is located in the Pokrovsk district of the region, where Russian forces have accelerated their advance in recent weeks.

12.00pm BST

Ukrainian foreign minister urges for permission for long-range strikes into Russia from Kyiv's partners

Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba urged Kyiv’s partners to grant permission for long-range strikes into Russia after Moscow staged a missile attack on Kyiv on Monday.

“In defending itself against these two barbaric war machines, Ukraine is forced to fight with hands tied behind its back. Isn’t this absurd?” Kuleba said on X.

He added that Russia fired North Korean missiles on Monday, and called on Asian partners to consider increasing military aid to Ukraine.

Updated at 12.50pm BST

11.33am BST

Ukraine’s “provocation” in Russia’s Kursk region has failed to stop the Russian military from advancing in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the RIA news agency cited Russian president Vladimir Putin as saying on Monday.

Putin, on a trip to Russia’s Tuva region, said Russian forces were reclaiming territory in the Kursk region “by square kilometres” and the Ukrainian incursion force there would “be dealt with”.

11.07am BST

10.51am BST

Pro-Russian bloggers say Moscow's forces push into two eastern Ukrainian cities

Russian forces are fighting in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Selydove and Ukrainsk, pro-Russian bloggers said on Monday, as Moscow’s forces try to smash through part of Ukraine’s defensive line.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the purported Russian advance, Reuters reported.

Russian forces, which control 18% of Ukraine, have been advancing in eastern Ukraine since the failure of Kyiv’s 2023 counter-offensive to achieve a major breakthrough.

Despite a major Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region began on 6 August, the numerically stronger Russian army has in recent weeks been pushing relatively swiftly though settlements on the approach to the strategically important city of Pokrovsk.

Yuri Podolyaka, an influential Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, said that intense battles were under way in Selydove about 20 km (12 miles) south of Pokrovsk and in Ukrainsk, about 14 km (10 miles) south of Selydove.

He said both sides were pushing forces into the battles for the cities which had populations of over 20,000 and 10,000 respectively before the war began in February 2022.

10.30am BST

10.16am BST

Some kindergartens will shut for a week in the Russian city of Belgorod near Ukraine’s border while several schools will hold online classes after a Kyiv attack destroyed a childcare facility on Monday, the region’s governor said.

“It’s a bad morning for the Belgorod region,” the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said in a post on social network VKontakte the day classes were set to resume after the summer vacation.

“A kindergarten in the city of Belgorod has been almost completely destroyed.”

After the attack, authorities decided that several schools in the city’s large district of Kharkovskaya Gora would hold classes online, while kindergartens would be shut for a week, Gladkov said.

10.08am BST

An Islamic Cultural Center in Kyiv’s Nyvky district was hit in the overnight Russian missile and drones strikes, badly damaging a mosque inside the facility.

Refat Chubarov, a leader of the Crimean Tartar community in Ukraine said the building would need repairs in a post on Facebook.

President Zelenskiy also wrote a post on X about the strike saying Russia “has no regard for spiritual or human values, and no respect for any religion or faith.”

9.40am BST

A boiler house at a water plant in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district was partially destroyed by a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian capital early on Monday , mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app.

9.30am BST

The West is openly persecuting Russian journalists, president Vladimir Putin said in remarks published on Monday, days after Moscow banned dozens of US journalists from entering the country.

“In order to hide from inconvenient facts, from truthful information, the West, which considers itself the standard of freedom, has launched an open persecution against Russian correspondents,” Putin told the Mongolian newspaper Onoodor on the eve of his visit to the country, according to a transcript provided on the Kremlin’s website.

His remarks come after Moscow said on Wednesday it was banning entry to Russia for 92 US citizens, including journalists, lawyers, and the heads of what it said were key military-industrial firms, over what it described as Washington’s Russophobic stance, Reuters reported.

They also follow years of the Kremlin’s suppression of independent media and Moscow’s swift blocking of dissenting voices in Russian-language media outlets at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Putin said that in Russia, media are free.

“The only requirement for them is compliance with Russian legislation,” he said. “Foreign correspondents accredited in our country should understand this.”

9.05am BST

The Finnish government wants to ban Russians from buying property in Finland, the Nordic country’s defence minister Antti Hakkanen said on Monday.

“Today we’re sending out for consultations a proposal that aims to ban property transactions that have a Russian background,” Hakkanen told a press conference.

The ban would however come with exemptions, Hakkanen added, saying dual citizens and Russians with permanent residence in Finland could still buy property in the Nordic country.

8.33am BST

Ukrainian forces destroyed 22 out of 35 missiles and 20 out of 23 attack drones launched by Russia on Monday morning, Ukraine’s Air Force said.

It said on the Telegram messenger that it had destroyed nine ballistic missiles and 13 cruise missiles in the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions.

8.08am BST

Russia pounds Kyiv in overnight missile attack

Good morning and welcome to the live blog covering the Russia-Ukraine war. It’s 10am in Ukraine and I’m Tom Ambrose.

Russia pounded Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv with missiles early on Monday, while falling debris from the downed weapons injured at least two people, sparking fires and damaging homes and infrastructure, officials said.

Reuters reports that Ukraine’s air defence units destroyed more than 10 cruise missiles and nearly 10 ballistic missiles, the city’s military administration said on the Telegram messaging app.

Air raid alerts went out across Ukraine for nearly two hours before the air force declared the skies clear at 3.30am GMT.

Neighbouring Nato member Poland activated Polish and allied aircraft to keep its airspace safe during the attacks. A boiler house at a Kyiv water plant was partially damaged as was the entrance to a metro station doubling as a bomb shelter in the Svyatoshynksyi district, Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram, though the station still operates. The attack injured at least two people, Klitschko said.

In other news:

• Russia will make changes to its doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons in response to what it regards as western escalation in the war in Ukraine, state media quoted deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday . The existing nuclear doctrine says Russia may use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the state. Some hawks among Russia’s military analysts have urged Putin to lower the threshold to “sober up” Russia’s enemies in the west.

• Polish and allied aircraft were activated early on Monday to ensure the safety of Polish airspace after Russia launched airstrikes on Ukraine, the Operational Command of the Polish armed forces said. “In the south-eastern part of the country there may be an increased noise level related to the commencement of operations in our airspace by Polish and allied aircraft,” the command said on X. South-east Poland borders Ukraine.

• Ukraine carried out one of its biggest ever drone attacks on Russia overnight to Sunday, with videos showing a series of explosions and fires at power stations and refineries including in Moscow . Russia’s defence ministry played down the overnight strikes. It said it had intercepted and destroyed 158 unmanned enemy aerial vehicles. These were shot down over 15 regions, it claimed.

• Footage posted on Telegram channels suggested some of the long-range Ukrainian drones damaged targets deep inside Russia. At least one struck an oil refinery in the Kapotnya district in south-east Moscow . More drones hit a thermal power station in the Tver region, north of Moscow. There was an explosion at the Konakovo station, one of the biggest in Russia. An orange fireball engulfed several transformers.

• In eastern Ukraine, where the heaviest fighting of the war is concentrated, Russian forces continued to advance towards Pokrovsk, which is a vital military hub and transport link to towns and cities farther north. Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday its forces had captured two more settlements in Donetsk region and were “continuing to advance deep into the enemy defences”. One of them, Ptyche, is just 21km (13 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk.
  At least three people were killed and nine wounded in Russian shelling of Kurakhove, a town about 35 km south of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian officials said.

• At least 47 people, including five children, were injured on Sunday after Russian missiles struck a shopping mall and events complex in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv, officials said . The attack prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to renew calls on allies to allow Kyiv to fire western-supplied missiles deeper into enemy territory and reduce the military threat posed by Russia.

• A Ukrainian helicopter on a military training flight crashed on Sunday, killing its two-member crew, the air force’s university said. The Kharkiv Air Force University in a post on Facebook said investigators and officials from Ukraine’s defence ministry were working to determine the cause of the crash. No further details were immediately available.

• Ukrainian forces shelled Russia’s southern Belgorod region on Sunday, injuring 11 people, including two children who were seriously hurt, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Gladkov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the two boys were undergoing surgery after sustaining serious injuries, including one with extensive wounds on both legs.

Updated at 11.07am BST