Key events
More on how Ukraine’s counteroffensive is faring.
Ukrainian forces reportedly made tactically significant advances while continuing operations on at least two sectors of the front on Saturday, along the administrative border between Zaporizhia and Donetsk oblasts, according to the US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War’s regular update.
Geolocated footage published on August 11 indicates that Ukrainian forces made marginal gains near Urozhaine (9km south of Velyka Novosilka) in the Zaporizhia-Donetsk Oblast border area. . . Russian milbloggers claimed late on August 12 that Russian forces abandoned their positions in Urozhaine after days of intense fighting, although ISW has not yet observed visual confirmation of these claims.
The thinktank also reported a Russian milblogger claimed that Ukrainian forces are effectively using electronic warfare systems to disrupt Russian communications in western Zaporizhia Oblast and retain large artillery and precision munitions stocks to support interdiction efforts against Russian forces there.
Opening summary
Hello, I’m Christine Kearney and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s defence ministry says its air defence systems destroyed a Ukrainian drone over the Belgorod border region, which has been plagued by unclaimed attacks since the start of the conflict.
“There are no casualties and no damage,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, according to Reuters, who could not independently verify the report.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian military officials said on Saturday that Kyiv’s forces had made progress in the south, capturing unspecified territories and claiming partial success near the key village of Robotyne on the front line in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
In other key developments:
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Ukrainian forces fired three missiles at the bridge connecting occupied Crimea to Russia, forcing Russian authorities to cover the structure in white smoke to deter further attacks and prompting a furious threat of retaliation.
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The Russian-appointed head of Crimea said Russian air defence was able to shoot down two missiles in the first attack, and then another one, and that there was no damage. Footage and photos show smoke billowing up from the bridge, which Russian officials said was a smokescreen for workers. An explosion in October shut down both the road bridge and rail bridge for months.
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The Russian foreign ministry decried Ukraine’s attacks on the Crimean Bridge as “terrorist attacks” on “civilian infrastructure” – even though Russian forces have repeatedly targeted civilian infrastructure since the beginning of the invasion, conducting air strikes on power grids, dams, parks, schools, private homes, churches and hotels.
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The attacks on the Crimean Bridge took place hours after Russian forces said they had downed 20 Ukrainian drones targeting Crimea. This comes amid a new campaign of drone strikes targeting Moscow in recent days as Kyiv works to keep the Kremlin’s war in the hearts and minds of Russian elites and others who would prefer to ignore the invasion.
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A civilian was killed and six people were wounded, including a 12-year-old girl, following intense Ukrainian shelling in Donetsk, including cluster munitions, a Russian-installed official in the eastern Ukrainian region said on Saturday.
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Two people were injured by Russian forces today in the Kherson oblast, where “the shelling has not stopped since morning”, said the regional governor, Oleksandr Prokudin. A 70-year-old man suffered multiple injuries after a projectile hit a residential building in Poniativka, while a 72-year-old man was seriously injured from explosives dropped from a drone in Odradokamyanka, Prokudin said.
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A Su-30 fighter jet crashed during a training flight in Russia’s Kaliningrad region, killing the two pilots on board, according to the RIA news agency.
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Two people were killed in Russian attacks in the Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv oblasts. A police officer was killed and 12 people were injured in a guided Russian aerial bomb attack on Orikhov, while an elderly woman was killed early on Saturday morning due to shelling by Russian troops on Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi village in Kupiansk district.
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In the village of Lazurne in the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson oblast, residents will not be able to receive medicines like insulin or humanitarian aid if they do not apply for a Russian passport.
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Odesa, a Black Sea city famed for its beautiful shoreline, has opened several beaches for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Throughout the past year, suspicious objects and mines were routinely washing up along the coast, creating a hazard for beachgoers.
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Ukrainian border guards placed a new sign on Snake Island this weekend, recalling the early hours of Russia’s invasion when a comrade on the strategic Black Sea outcrop used a choice phrase to refuse to surrender to a warship. “The next border sign will be installed in our Ukrainian Crimea after its liberation by the defence forces of Ukraine,” a uniformed man said, standing before a post painted blue and yellow like the country’s flag, in a video shared on Facebook by the head of the border service, Serhiy Deineko.
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Russia sentenced activist Alexander Bakhtin to six years in jail for his criticism of Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine, a rights group and his allies said.
