Russia Ukraine war live: Kyiv to fortify Russia and Belarus borders as Putin’s forces unleash missile barrage

A large group of Russian army drones entered the mouth of the Danube River and headed toward the Izmail river port near the border with Romania, the Ukrainian armed forces said today.

Social media groups reported hearing air defence systems firing in the area near two Danube ports – Izmail and Reni.

The governor of the southern Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, asked residents of Izmail district to take shelter at around 1.30am (local time) and cancelled the air raid alert one hour later.

The Danube port accounted for around a quarter of grain exports before Russia pulled out of a UN-backed deal to provide safe passage for the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea.

Russia has launched its largest aerial attack on regions bordering Nato in western Ukraine since the beginning of its invasion nearly 18 months ago.

Russian air strikes hit two western regions of Ukraine bordering Poland – a Nato member – and other areas yesterday, killing three people in a factory and wounding more than a dozen, according to officials.

The deaths were reported in the northwestern region of Volyn. Officials said an industrial enterprise in the regional capital Lutsk was struck in the overnight attack. Several people also needed hospital treatment, governor Yuriy Pohulyaiko said.

Swedish industrial bearings maker SKF said its factory in Lutsk was hit by a missile overnight, killing three employees. Footage released by Ukraine’s state emergency service showed rescuers pulling a man from the rubble.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday visited troops close to the frontline in eastern Ukraine, with his military reporting gains around the town of Bakhmut.

The deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said that Kyiv’s troops had managed to retake nearly 2 square miles during the past week around the ruined Bakhmut – the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting of Russia’s near 18-month war, which has gained symbolic significance for both nations.

Mr Zelensky visited brigades involved in attacks on the section of the frontline facing Soledar, the Russian-held town north of Bakhmut.

Western pressure on Ukraine’s counteroffensive to achieve a “Hollywood”-style breakthrough against Russia’s forces is “unrealistic” and Kyiv’s allies must be prepared for the war to “drag on far longer” than they imagined, experts have said.

Facing heavily fortified Russian defences, including vast minefields and heavy shelling during its summer counteroffensive, Ukraine has been forced to broaden its focus away from the front lines

With rains expected to muddy the battlefield in areas of the south and east of the country – including Zaporizhzhia – as soon as September, the “odds are getting longer” on the “triumphant breakthrough” many in the West were hoping for, analysts have told The Independent.

Fifteen people were also wounded in the Lviv region, Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said, as Russian strikes hit western Ukraine.

Six missiles damaged dozens of buildings and a kindergarten playground in and around the regional capital. Kozytskyi said the youngest victim was 10 years-old.

Both Volyn and Lviv border Poland and are hundreds of miles from the front line, where Ukraine‘s military is fending off Russian troops in the nearly 18-month-old war.

“The children are very scared. They were hysterical, they were shaking. One of them even vomited from fear,” said Lviv resident Dmytro Ivaschyshyn outside an apartment block as firemen dug through debris. “Thank God we are all alive.”

National grid operator Ukrenergo said power lines in the region were also damaged but that electricity was being restored to those affected.

“These are the parts of the country where millions of people are seeking safety and refuge after fleeing the horrors of Russia‘s invasion,” Denise Brown, the United Nations resident coordinator in Ukraine, said in a statement condemning the attacks.

“Russia‘s persistent attacks hitting essential infrastructure in populated areas cause immense human suffering.”

At least two people were also wounded in the southeastern city of Dnipro, where Governor Serhiy Lysak said a business enterprise and a sports complex had been hit.

Russian air strikes hit two western regions of Ukraine bordering NATO member Poland and other areas on Tuesday, killing three people in a factory and wounding more than a dozen, Ukrainian officials said.

Local media said the attacks were the largest air assault on the Lviv region since the Russian invasion in February 2022.

The fatalities were reported in the northwestern region of Volyn. Officials said an industrial enterprise in the regional capital Lutsk was struck in the overnight attack. Several people were also hospitalised, Governor Yuriy Pohulyaiko said.

Swedish industrial bearings maker SKF said its factory in Lutsk was hit by a missile overnight, killing three employees.

Footage released by Ukraine‘s state emergency service showed rescuers pulling a man from the rubble. Reuters was able to confirm the location as the SKF factory.

Neighbours have revealed the suburban lives of suspected Russian spies who lived next door to a police officer for years.

Bulgarian nationals Orlin Roussev, 45, Biser Dzhambazov, 42, and Katrin Ivanova, 31, were arrested in February as part of a major police sting but before that appeared to have held down ordinary jobs.

The trio have been charged with possessing false passports and ID cards and other documents “with improper intention” after counterterrorism police swooped on homes in Harrow and Great Yarmouth.

A former FBI agent admitted to working for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska while he was under U.S. sanctions and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in a New York court on Tuesday, in exchange for prosecutors dropping other charges.

Prosecutors in January said Charles McGonigal, who led the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York before retiring in 2018, received concealed payments from Deripaska in exchange for investigating a rival businessman and unsuccessfully pushed in 2019 to have Deripaska’s sanctions lifted.

At the time, McGonigal pleaded not guilty to four criminal counts including sanctions violations and money laundering.

McGonigal, 55, said in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday that he worked for Deripaska between spring and autumn of 2021 to find negative information on Vladimir Potanin in an attempt to have the Deripaska rival put on the U.S. sanctions list.

The former FBI agent received $17,500 for that work, which was routed from Russia through accounts in Cyprus and New Jersey in an attempt to mask the source of the payments, he said.

McGonigal told the court he was “deeply remorseful” for his actions. His attorney Seth DuCharme told reporters after the hearing that his client was treated fairly.

A kindergarten and a residential building were damaged as a result of the overnight missile attack in Ukraine’s western city of Lviv.

The multi-story residential building caught fire due to the falling missile debris early Tuesday morning (15 August) according to regional governor Maxim Kozytskyi.

Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi said one of the strikes hit the yard of a local nursery, injuring four people.

“Two hours ago, this place was a children’s pavilion of our kindergarten. A missile directly hit the pavilion, creating a crater that is nine meters deep and 20 meters wide,” he claimed, in a video message from the site.

Poland is deploying thousands of troops to its border with Belarus, calling it a deterrent move as tensions between the two neighbors ratchet up.

Those tensions between Poland — a NATO and European Union country — and Belarus, which is Russia’s ally in its war on Ukraine, have been building up in recent months on the border. Here is why:

Poland has been backing the Belarusian opposition ever since the 2020 presidential elections, where pro-Russian Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term in a vote that Poland and the wider Western community saw as rigged.

In 2021, Belarus began organising and pushing thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa across the border into Poland.