Ukraine updates: Russian missile wounds several in Dnipro

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow does not reject talks on Ukraine.

Speaking one day after a summit with African countries, Putin said that the African peace initiative could be a basis for peace, as well as another one earlier presented by Beijing. He nevertheless added that it was difficult to implement a cease-fire when Kyiv was on the offensive.

The Russian president denied any serious changes or intensified actions on the Ukrainian front in the time being. He claimed Ukraine had lost 415 tanks and 1,300 armored vehicles since June 4.

Putin also acknowledged what he described as preventative strikes after what Moscow called a Ukrainian "terrorist attack" that damaged the Crimean bridge last week. The bridge connects Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

The Russian president also addressed the controversial decision to pull out of a deal allowing Ukraine to export its grain via the Black Sea. He said that the withdrawal would guarantee more profits to Russian companies due to a rise in grain prices.

Russia would then share these profits with the poorest countries, Putin added.

Several African countries, which rely heavily on Ukrainian grain, had urged for the renewal of the deal during the two-day summit which wrapped on Friday.

Saudi Arabia is planning to host talks next weekend over the path to achieving peace in Ukraine, media reports suggested.

Delegations from Ukraine, Western powers and some developing countries are expected to attend the talks. Russia will not take part.

The meeting will be held in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah, where Riyadh has hosted other mediation efforts this year, such as the Sudan mediation talks.

The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, and later by the French AFP news agency.

A court in the northern Russian city of Arkhangelsk called two children, ages 9 and 10, to testify against their mother, who is accused of discrediting the Russian army according to Russian media sources.

The woman faced similar charges in September 2022, after she posted disparaging remarks about Russian armed forces on VKontakte.

Russian laws adopted after Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of neighboring Ukraine make it a crime to “discredit” the army. The law is regularly used to silence critics.

In a similar case in April, a 54-year-old Russian man was given a two-year jail sentence and his daughter put in an orphanage after the 13-year-old drew an anti-war sketch in school.  

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Saturday said fighters from the Russian private militia group Wagner were approaching Poland’s shared border with Belarus, likely with the intention of helping migrants enter the EU country in an attempt to destabilize it as elections loom in Warsaw.

"We have information that more than 100 Wagner mercenaries have advanced towards the Suwalki Gap, not far from Grodno in Belarus," said Morawiecki. "Most likely they will be disguised as Belarusian border guards and help illegal migrants get to Polish territory."

Grodno in western Belarus, is about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Polish and Lithuanian borders, the Suwalki Gap is a strategic corridor separating Belarus from the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.

If Russia or Wagner fighters were to take control of the area, it would cut off Baltic states from the rest of the EU.

Morawiecki, who did not say where information about the Wagner fighters had originated, claims Polish authorities have registered some 16,000 attempted border crossings from Belarus this year.

Wagner troops have been in Belarus since an apparent coup attempt against Russian President Vladimir Putin was abandoned by militia boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he visited Ukrainian special forces in the frontline city of Bakhmut on Saturday. 

"Today, I am here to congratulate our warriors on their professional day, to honor their strength," Zelenskyy tweeted. "I heard a commander's report, tasked with the warriors. Very powerful, very effective. Thank you!"   

A number of extremists from Germany have traveled to the war zone since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the German Interior Ministry told the Die Welt newspaper on Saturday.

According to the report, the ministry said that security officials have recorded the departure of 61 people "who have a connection to extremism or politically motivated crime."

In the case of 39 people, there were actual indications that they had left the country "with the intention of participating in hostilities," the report said.

Among them, 27 were pro-Russian and 12 pro-Ukrainian, with right-wing and left-wing extremists present, the report said. 

The report added that in the case of the clear majority of this group, the authorities had tangible information that they had taken part in hostilities. 
 

Russian and Belarusian players have been banned from taking part in next week’s Prague Open, the organizers of the women’s tennis event announced on Friday. 

The move came a day after police in the Czech Republic stopped a Russian player from entering the country, organizers said. 

A new government resolution prevents athletes from Russia and Belarus from sports competitions on Czech territory due to  Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Women's Tennis Association allows Russians and Belarusians to play tournaments as neutral athletes.

"Individual WTA players whose nationality is Russian/Belarusian continue to compete on the Tour on a neutral basis. Despite their neutrality, some WTA players are being denied by Czech government authorities the ability to compete at the WTA 250 event scheduled to be held in Prague next week," the WTA said in its statement Friday.

"WTA rules state that all players must be allowed to compete on the WTA based solely on merit, without discrimination. We will continue to review the situation as we factor important considerations around these complex geopolitical issues."

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday announced the signing of military cooperation agreements with over 40 African nations. 

"To strengthen the defense capabilities of the continent's countries, we are developing partnerships in military and military-technical cooperation with more than 40 African states," on the last day of the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg. 

The Russian leader said that African states received a range of weapons and technology, including some for free.

"Some of these deliveries are provided on a gratuitous basis with the aim of enhancing the security and sovereignty of the countries," Putin said. 
 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday that Washington believes Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is in North Korea to secure supplies of weapons to help in the invasion of Ukraine. 

After Shoigu visited Pyongyang in a rare trip, Blinken said that Moscow is scrambling to buy arms from allies across the world.

"I strongly doubt he's there on holiday," Blinken told reporters in Australia.

"We're seeing Russia desperately looking for support, for weapons, wherever it can find them to continue to prosecute its aggression against Ukraine," he said.

"We see that in North Korea, we see that as well with Iran, which has provided many drones to Russia that it's using to destroy civilian infrastructure and killed civilians in Ukraine."

Shoigu met with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in what Pyongyang's state media called "a friendly talk."
 

Russian missiles struck a residential complex in Ukraine's central city of Dnipro, leaving nine people wounded, officials said on Friday. 

The injured included two children, they added. 

"There were two hits in Dnipro at about 8.30 p.m. (1730 GMT), Iskander missiles, according to preliminary information," Regional Governor Serhiy Lysak said in a statement on national television.

Videos circulating on social media showed smoke rising from the top floors of an apartment building and a part of the building reduced to rubble with debris strewn across a courtyard.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: "Dnipro. Friday evening. A high-rise building and the Security Service of Ukraine's building were hit. Russian missile terror again."

"All necessary services are on site... We keep the situation under control. We will do everything to bring Russia to full punishment for aggression and terror against our people."

dvv/wd (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)