Ukraine updates: Russia launches dozens of missiles, drones

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday celebrated Ukrainian Air Forces Day visiting an airbase at an undisclosed location and praising his troops. There, he signed his name to a French Scalp/EG cruise missile mounted on a fighter jet, adding the words, "Glory to Ukraine!"     

Zelenskyy said Ukraine's pilots had flown more than 14,000 missions since Russia invaded the country in February 2022.

The Ukrainian president also said Ukraine was seeing "significant results" in its defense of Ukrainian airspace due to US Patriot and German IRIS-T air-defense systems. "These are powerful systems, highly effective. They have already yielded significant results, and not only for Ukraine."

He claimed Ukraine had shot down "a significant part" of Moscow's attacks over the past week, including 65 missiles and 178 assault drones.

When Russian missiles are destroyed, he said, "it reassures the world that a terrorist state is unable to break our collective security."

A senior Ukrainian official said two days of talks in Jeddah had strengthened support for Kyiv.

"We had very productive consultations on the key principles on which a just and lasting peace should be built," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's head of staff Andriy Yermak said in a statement.

Ukraine and its allies have said the talks are an attempt to secure broad international support for Zelenskyy's peace formula, which includes the withdrawal of Russian troops from all of Ukraine, an international tribunal to prosecute Russian war crimes and international security guarantees for Ukraine.

Yermak said different viewpoints emerged, calling the talks "an extremely honest, open conversation."

He added that all the countries present had demonstrated a commitment to the principles of international law and respect for the sovereignty and inviolability of the territorial integrity of states.

Russia, which was not invited, called the meeting a doomed attempt to swing the Global South behind Kyiv.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries are taking part in the talks. They are expected to end on Sunday without any written concluding statement.

Russian occupiers in southern Ukraine said a fresh Ukrainian attack has occurred on the Chonhar bridge.

The bridge links Crimea and Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine's Kherson Oblast. 

Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-backed governor of Kherson Oblast, said Sunday on Telegram that a rocket had hit the bridge, causing damage. 

The Chonhar bridge serves as a vital supply route for the Russian military. 

Ukraine has not yet commented on the attack on the bridge. Ukraine has vowed to attack Russian military infrastructure in order to hinder Moscow's invasion.  

The Chonhar bridge was earlier hit in June. 

Russia has military and technical capabilities to eliminate threats to security in the Black Sea, the TASS news agency cited Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, as saying.

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.

Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian ports in retaliation for the strikes on its military hardware.

Moscow last month pulled out of the UN-Turkish-brokered Ukraine grain deal, which had allowed the smooth export of Ukrainian wheat through the Black Sea over the previous 12 months.

The route had been blockaded by Russia's navy shortly after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February last year, causing a shortage of grain on world markets and exacerbating food security issues in Africa and the Middle East.

The UN has urged the Kremlin to return to the deal, saying that global food prices could again increase.

NATO, meanwhile, has pledged to step up surveillance in the Black Sea.

Construction workers have winched Ukraine's trident coat of arms into place on Kyiv's gigantic statue, replacing a Soviet hammer and sickle.

The operation to hoist the trident onto the 62-meter-tall steel figure of a woman, known as Motherland, began last month. 

It comes as Ukraine purges its public areas of reminders of Russian and Soviet rule.

Workers lowered the Soviet emblem, which originally decorated the shield, on Tuesday.

The crew posed waving the Ukrainian flag on top of the shield early on Sunday.

The metallic monument, which stands on the bank of the Dnieper River brandishing a sword and shield, was erected in 1981 as a memorial to the Soviet victory in World War Two. 

Officials in Ukraine's Kharkiv region said three people died in a night of intense air strikes and shelling.

The bombardment reportedly included cruise missiles launched from aircraft over the Caspian Sea, plus Iranian-made Shahed drones.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion center in Kharkiv's Kupyan district late on Saturday.

"This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression," Zelenskyy wrote on social media. "Defeating terrorists is a matter of honor for everyone who values life."

The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said Russian air defense has destroyed a drone that was approaching the capital, which had rarely been targeted until a spate of attacks this year.

"Today at around 11 a.m.  [0800 GMT/UTC] a drone attempted to make a breakthrough toward Moscow. It was destroyed while approaching by air defense forces," Sobyanin said on Telegram. 

According to the Defense Ministry, the drone was destroyed over the Podolsky district in the Moscow region. "There were no casualties or damage," the ministry said.

Temporary restrictions introduced at Moscow's Vnukovo international airport because of fears about drones have now been lifted, Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti said.

Earlier his week, drones targeted Moscow and damaged an office block as the capital's main business district.

Russia says its air defense systems destroyed two aircraft drones in the Karachevski district of Bryansk, which lies on the border with Ukraine. 

Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said there had been no damage or casualties. 

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which in any case does not usually claim responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russia-controlled territory in Ukraine.

According to Russian authorities, there have been multiple attacks in the Bryansk region since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

The Ukrainian airforce said Russia attacked the country overnight, using 70 air-assault weapons that included hypersonic missiles and drones from Iran.

At least 10 missiles appeared to get through, with Ukraine's air defense claiming to have downed at least 30 out of 40 cruise missiles. 

All 27 of the Iran-supplied Shahed drones also appeared to have been destroyed. 

Air defense officials also said Russia had launched three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, although they were not willing to divulge more about what had happened to them.

"In total, in several waves of attacks, from the evening of August 5 to the morning of August 6, 2023, the enemy used 70 means of air assault weapons," the airforce said.

It was not immediately clear whether the missiles that did penetrate air defenses had caused any damage. 

However, the deputy governor of the Khmelnytskyi region in western Ukraine, Serhiy Tiurin, said a military airfield in Starokostiantyniv had been among the targets.

"The Starokonstiantyniv airfield is on the enemy's mind. There was a series of explosions in Starokonstiantyniv and Khmelnytskyi communities," he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

rc/sms (AFP, dpa, Reuters, AP)