Ukraine-Russia war live: Fighting escalates around key Ukrainian city as Putin’s troops push for new footholdnewsline24

Ukrainian drones attacked Russia’s Baltic Sea ⁠port of Primorsk on Sunday, setting it ⁠on fire, ​local ⁠governor Alexander Drozdenko ⁠said on ​the ⁠Telegram messaging app.

He ‌said more than 60 drones ‌were downed ‌overnight over Russia’s northwestern Leningrad ⁠region. There was no oil spill following the attack on Primorsk, a ‌major oil ​exporting outlet, and ‌the ⁠fire was ⁠extinguished, he added.

Volodymyr Zelensky has imposed sanctions on his former chief of staff Andriy Bohdan, who headed his presidential office before the war in Ukraine erupted in 2022.

No official reason was given to explain the sanctions.

Bohdan said on Facebook that the move may be linked to recent media reports alleging possible involvement by Zelensky and his wife, Olena Zelenska, in corrupt dealings.

The former official suggested that the president suspects a connection between the publications and Bohdan’s work as a lawyer.

Under the sanction, Bohdan’s state honours will be revoked, his assets will be frozen and his commercial transactions will be banned.

The sanctions will remain in force for 10 years.

Two people were killed after a Russian drone attacked a minibus in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, local officials said Saturday, in the latest barrage of civilian areas, a hallmark of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

Seven people were also wounded in the attack, regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said. Hours later Russia attacked another minibus in Kherson, wounding the driver, he said.

Russian troops are inching towards the city ​of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, trying to establish a foothold close to a heavily defended area, Ukraine’s top army official said yesterday.

Kostiantynivka, along with other cities, forms a so-called fortress belt in the country’s east – ⁠an area well fortified by the Ukrainian military.

“We are repelling the Russian occupiers’ persistent attempts to gain a foothold in the outskirts of Kostiantynivka using infiltration tactics. Counter-sabotage measures are going on in the city,” Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s army chief, said on the Telegram app.

A Ukrainian battlefield mapping ⁠project called DeepState shows that Russian troops control an ​area ⁠around only one kilometre (0.6 mile) from the city’s southern outskirts.

Small chunks of Kostiantynivka, in southeast Ukraine, are marked as a grey zone, meaning neither ⁠Ukraine nor Russia has full control over them.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said his forces observed an unusual activity along the country’s border with Belarus.

“Yesterday, there was rather unusual activity along sections of the Ukraine–Belarus border – on the Belarusian side. We are closely documenting everything and keeping the situation under control,” Zelensky said, without sharing the details of the movement.

“If necessary, we will react. Ukraine is ready to defend its people and its sovereignty. Everyone who is being drawn into any aggressive actions against Ukraine must understand this,” he said.

Ukrainian drones are flying deep into Russia to strike oil facilities, sending up plumes of smoke that can be seen from space and bringing toxic rain to tourist destinations on the Black Sea.

The attacks are aimed at slashing Moscow’s oil exports, a key source of funding for its grinding invasion of Ukraine. But the economic impact is so far unclear, as the rise in oil prices from the Iran war, and a related easing of U.S. sanctions, have helped replenish the Kremlin’s coffers.

Still, the range of the attacks and their environmental impact is bringing the war home to ordinary Russians far from the front lines.

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Russian troops took control of the village of Myropillia in Ukraine’s Sumy region, the defence ministry said on Saturday.

Reuters ‌could not ⁠independently verify the battlefield report.

The ministry also said its air defence forces shot down 505 drones overnight.

Hezbollah has introduced a new, difficult-to-detect weapon against northern Israel: small drones controlled by fibre-optic cables. These devices, with cables the width of dental floss, are designed to evade electronic detection, posing a fresh challenge to air defences.

Unlike many drones vulnerable to electronic jamming, which can cause them to crash, these fibre-optic variants are directly connected to an operator.

This direct link makes them impossible to jam electronically, a characteristic widely seen in the war in Ukraine. Though not infallible – wind or other drones can tangle their cables – their lethality is high.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he ​discussed Ukraine’s accession ‌to the European Union with Slovakia’s prime ​minister Robert Fico ​in a conversation on ⁠Saturday.

“We need strong ​relations between our ​countries, and both of us are interested in this. ​It was ​important to hear that Slovakia ‌supports ⁠Ukraine’s membership in the European Union and is ready to ​share ​its ⁠experience of accession,” he said ​on X.

Ukraine has recorded “unusual activity” along the Ukraine-Belarus border, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday, after urging Minsk in recent weeks not to get more involved in Russia’s war.

“Yesterday, ⁠there was some ​rather ⁠unusual activity ‌along the Ukraine-Belarus border – on the Belarusian side,” ‌Zelensky said in ‌his daily address to the nation.

Ukraine’s ​air force ‌and border ⁠guard did not ⁠immediately respond to a request ‌for ​comment.

“We are closely monitoring the situation, keeping everything under control, and will respond if necessary,” he added.