Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelensky calls for more long-range weapons after seven killed in Zaporizhzhia

The Russian attack near Zaporizhzhia killed seven people, including two children, and injured 31 others

Zelensky says China trying to undermine Ukraine peace summit

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has renewed his call for more long-range weapons after seven people were killed in a Russian strike.

The Russian attack on the town of Vilniansk, near the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, also injured 31 others, Ukrainian officials said.

“Our cities and communities suffer daily from such Russian strikes,” Mr Zelensky said after the attack which left two children dead.

But he added that there were “ways to overcome this”, including “destroying Russian missile launchers, striking with real long-range capability and increasing the number of modern air defence systems”.

Western allies have already supplied Ukraine with long-range weapons - including Scalp missiles from France, Storm Shadow from the UK and ATACMS from the US - as well as US-made Patriot air defence systems.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has refused to comment on Donald Trump’s claim he would “settle the war” in Ukraine if he was re-elected in November.

Trump made the claim during Thursday’s US presidential debate, where he and president Joe Biden competed to appear tougher on foreign policy.

Key points

• Zelensky calls for more aid after Russian strike kills seven
• Trump, Biden fight it out on Ukraine war at presidential debate
• Russia mulling downgrading ties with ‘hostile’ West, Kremlin says
• Putin’s troops pushed out of part of key eastern town, says Ukraine
• Ukrainian drone strikes fuel depot in Russia’s Tambov

[30 June 2024 05:00 · Alexander Butler]

Civilians released from captivity in Russia and Belarus, says Zelensky

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that 10 people, all civilians, were handed back to Ukraine as part of an exchange of detainees after several years of captivity in Russia and its ally Belarus.

“We managed to bring back 10 more of our people from Russian captivity, despite all the difficulties,” Zelensky wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

He thanked a team dedicated to securing the release of the captives, including the Vatican.

Ukrainian officials said the return of the civilians was part of an exchange of prisoners of war conducted earlier this week under which each side handed back 90 detainees.

Russia did not comment and Ukraine made no mention of any release of Russians in captivity.

Among those brought back was Nariman Dzhelyal, deputy head of the assembly of the ethnic Crimean Tatar community, seized by Russian occupation forces in 2021, seven years after Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula.

Also freed were two eastern rite Catholic priests captured by Russian forces in the occupied port of Berdiansk on the Sea of Azov.

Five of those liberated had been held in ex-Soviet Belarus, Moscow’s closest ally, which allowed the Kremlin to use its territory to help launch the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

[30 June 2024 04:00 · Alexander Butler]

Dagestan, in southern Russia, has a history of violence. Why does it keeps happening?

[30 June 2024 03:00 · Alexander Butler]

Putin hints at restarting production of intermediate-range missiles

Russian president Vladimir Putin has called for the resumption of production in Russia of intermediate-range missiles that were banned under a now-scrapped treaty with the United States.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, which banned ground-based missiles with a range of 500-5,500 km (310-3,410 miles), was regarded as an arms -control landmark when then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US president Ronald Reagan signed it in the 1980s.

The United States withdrew from the treaty in 2019, citing Russian violations.

“We need to start production of these strike systems and then, based on the actual situation, make decisions about where - if necessary to ensure our safety - to place them,” Mr Putin said at a meeting of Russia’s national security council.

[30 June 2024 02:00 · Alexander Butler]

Russia accused of flashing violent Ukraine war images on children’s TV channels

[30 June 2024 01:00 · Alexander Butler]

Russia warns it can take unspecified measures in response to US drone flights over Black Sea

Russia‘s Defense Minister ordered officials to prepare a “response” to U.S. drone flights over the Black Sea, the ministry said Friday, in an apparent warning that Moscow may take forceful action to ward off the American reconnaissance aircraft.

The Russian Defense Ministry noted a recent “increased intensity” of U.S. drones over the Black Sea, saying they “conduct intelligence and targeting for precision weapons supplied to the Ukrainian military by Western countries for strikes on Russian facilities.”

“It shows an increased involvement of the U.S. and other NATO countries in the conflict in Ukraine on the side of the Kyiv regime,” the ministry said in a statement.

[29 June 2024 23:00 · Alexander Butler]

A Ukrainian author turned soldier has a stark warning for the West: ‘Be prepared for war with Russia’

[29 June 2024 22:00 · Alexander Butler]

Closed-door trial of US journalist Evan Gershkovich begins in Russia as case denounced as sham

[29 June 2024 21:00 · Alexander Butler]

Russian glide bombs are obliterating front-line Ukraine towns

[29 June 2024 20:00 · Alexander Butler]

Has Russia just dropped a deadly new 3,000kg glide bomb in Ukraine?

[29 June 2024 19:00 · Alexander Butler]

Research expert tells UN it has 'irrefutably' established missile debris in Ukraine is North Korean