Ukraine-Russia war latest: Dnipro in mourning as Russian missile strike at kindergarten kills five

Daytime attack shattered windows in two schools and three kindergartens

Zelensky says China trying to undermine Ukraine peace summit

Ukraine city Dnipro is under a day of mourning after a Russian missile and drone attack killed five people and wounded more than 50 yesterday, including a 14-year-old girl.

The Russian aerial raid targeted kindergartens, schools and hospitals and sparked major fire across the city, Dnipro city mayor Borys Filatov said. Photos of the fatal attack showed windows of a shopping mall blown out, raining shards onto the street.

“Inside, everything is damaged, outside everything is also damaged. I’ve got jitters on my body, my hands… it’s all very complicated and scary,” said Olha, manager of the attacked cafe said.

Volodymyr Zelensky slammed the Russian attack and renewed his call for long-range weapons to stop Russian guided bombs.

“There is only one way to end this terror: by providing Ukraine with more air defence systems and by enabling longer-range strikes on Russian terrorist bases, particularly their airbases,” he said.

The war, now in its third year since Russia invaded its neighbour, has killed more than 10,000 civilians and wounded around 20,000 others, the United Nations says.

Key points

• Five killed in Ukraine after Russian missiles hit Dnipro
• Ukraine not ready to compromise with Russia, says Zelensky's aide
• Trump’s claim he could ‘end war in one day’ dismissed by Putin’s UN ambassador
• Hungary’s Orban asks Zelensky to ‘consider a quick ceasefire’

[4 July 2024 06:04 · Arpan Rai]

Russia destroys Ukrainian MiG-29 jet at airfield - report

A Russian missile hit and destroyed a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet on an airfield in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Russia’s defence ministry said this morning, reported TASS news agency.

Russian forces have been targeting Ukrainian air base, as they anticipate the arrival of F-16 warplanes to Ukraine this week.

At least two of Ukraine’s Sukhoi Su-27 fighters parked on tarmac at Mirgorod air base in northern Ukraine were destroyed by Russian Iskander ballistic missiles on Monday.

Russian drones have continued to hover over Ukrainian air bases. While officials have not revealed where the F-16s will be based, Moscow said after the strike on Starokostiantyniv last Thursday that it had targeted airfields it believed would house them.

[4 July 2024 05:24 · Arpan Rai]

Ukraine will be informed it can’t join Nato because of its corruption – report

Ukraine’s biggest domestic rival – corruption – is set to impact its Nato membership as Kyiv will be informed of it as the reason it cannot join the European bloc, officials said.

A senior official in the US State Department said Nato will ask Kyiv to take “additional steps” before any progression on membership talks, reported The Telegraph.

Nato leaders are set to gather for the Washington summit from 9 July to 11 July. Nato’s official line is that Ukraine will join one day, but not while the country is at war. “Ukraine’s future is in NATO,” its leaders declared at last year’s Vilnius summit.

Kyiv will be informed of Nato’s latest position in writing in the Nato communique, the source said, stating that it is a priority for “many of us around the table”.

“We have to step back and applaud everything that Ukraine has done in the name of reforms over the last two-plus years,” they added.

“As they continue to make those reforms, we want to commend them, we want to talk about additional steps that need to be taken, particularly in the area of anti-corruption,” the source said.

[4 July 2024 05:00 · Alexander Butler]

Ukrainian drones hit electricity substation near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, say officials

Three Ukrainian drones struck an electricity substation near the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and nearby town of Enerhodar, the plant’s Russian-installed management said on Wednesday.

In a statement on Telegram, the plant’s management said that eight staff had been injured and the substation in south-eastern Ukraine damaged.

Russia’s state news agency TASS had reported earlier on Wednesday that the drones had hit the plant itself.

[4 July 2024 04:13 · Arpan Rai]

Five killed in Ukraine after Russian missiles hit Dnipro

A Russian missile and drone attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro killed five civilians and injured 47 others, including a 14-year-old girl, authorities said.Blasts blew out some windows of a shopping mall, raining shards onto the street, photos published by local officials showed.

Mayor Borys Filatov said the daytime attack also shattered windows in two schools and three kindergartens. Debris struck the intensive care unit of a children’s hospital, and a fire broke out in another hospital.

Volodymyr Zelensky shared a video of the strike and showed a missile with a fiery trail streaking over buildings in Ukraine’s fourth-largest city, and debris flying into the air from its impact.

The attacks ravaged other parts of Ukraine as well. In the Kharkiv region in the northeast, Russian shelling struck a village council building, killing one person and injuring two others, regional head Oleh Suniehubov said.

Elsewhere in the region, a Russian glide bomb struck a residential building in the village of Ruska Lozova, injuring at least two people. Others could be trapped under rubble, Syniehubov said.

[4 July 2024 04:00 · Alexander Butler]

Erdogan tells Putin that Turkey can help reach fair end to Russia-Ukraine war

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that Ankara could help establish a basis to end the Ukraine-Russia war and that a fair peace suiting both sides was possible, the Turkish presidency said.

They two leaders also discussed the war in Gaza and ways to end the conflict in Syria, the Turkish presidency said in a statement after Erdogan and Putin met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Kazakhstan.

[4 July 2024 03:00 · Alexander Butler]

Pictured: Ukrainian convicts join the army and attend a training session in Kharkiv

Ukrainian convicts attend a training session in Kharkiv (AFP via Getty Images)

Ukrainian convicts attend a training session in Kharkiv (AFP via Getty Images)

[4 July 2024 02:00 · Alexander Butler]

Survey finds popular support for NATO at a challenging time for the Western alliance

A survey of people in 13 of the nations belonging to NATO found a median of about 6 in 10 held a favorable view of the Western military alliance, the Pew Research Center said Tuesday.

The poll was released ahead of a July 9-11 NATO summit in Washington, which is being held at a challenging time for the 75-year-old Western military alliance. The 32 NATO member countries are adjusting their long-term plans and strategies to counteract a more aggressive Russian President Vladimir Putin and respond to Ukraine’s need for sustained support against invading Russian forces.

Meanwhile, the presidential reelection bid of Donald Trump, who long has spoken scathingly of NATO allies and admiringly of Putin, has some NATO members worrying about the future commitment of the alliance’s most powerful military and economy.

[4 July 2024 01:00 · Alexander Butler]

World Athletics leader Sebastian Coe visits Ukraine and invites Zelenskyy to Olympic track meet

[3 July 2024 23:30 · Alexander Butler]

Troops look for weak spots as Russia sets the stage for another push in Ukraine

[3 July 2024 22:30 · Alexander Butler]

Litvinenko’s widow ‘disgusted’ by Farage and Reform UK candidate’s praise for Putin

Russian dissidents living in the UK have hit back at the “deeply offensive” words of admiration for Vladimir Putin spoken by Nigel Farage and another Reform UK candidate.

It comes as a British former defence attache who was previously stationed in Moscow described Mr Farage and his party, now third in the polls, as “deeply malign actors ... working against the security interests of our country”.

When asked about the accusations, a Reform UK spokesperson burst into laughter before suggesting that Julian Malins, a Reform party candidate who last weekend bragged about meeting Mr Putin and said that he “seemed very good”, was merely a highly intelligent and “eccentric sort of character”.