Russia- Ukraine war – live: Putin’s forces suffer blow as Kyiv retakes another village in ‘WWI with drones’

Fresh explosions struck Sevastopol and smoke was seen rising from a prominent landmark just kilometres away from the Crimean city as Ukrainian forces announced they were carrying out a joint intelligence operation in the region illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Pro-Russian Telegram channel ChP Sevastopol reported explosions in the area of Cape Fiolent late on Sunday night, while another Telegram channel reporting on Crimea shared visuals of an explosion and smoke arising from the same area.

The location, on the Crimean peninsula’s southern coast about 16km away from Sevastopol, has a marine radio engineering unit and a radio engineering station with a dozen radar antennas, an unnamed intelligence source told Ukraine’s Suspilne public broadcaster.

Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky urged for international collaboration in an explosive CBS interview, as he says they are fighting World War I but with drones.

Zelensky told CBS: “I don’t have an answer. The whole world [has to] decide whether we want to stop Putin, or whether we want to start the beginning of a world war.

“We can’t change Putin. Russian society has [lost] the respect of the world. They elected him, and re-elected him and raised a second Hitler.”

He also said he was grateful for the financial aid of $70 billion provided by the United States but asks if they will continue their support to other Baltic states – which will be Putin’s next targets, according to the President.

Russia carried out a new wave of overnight air strikes and shelling in Ukraine, killing two people in the southern region of Kherson, say Ukrainian officials.

Kherson region governor Oleksandr Prokudin said a man aged 72 and an elderly woman had been killed in a Russian attack on the region last night, and three others were wounded – as reported by Reuters.

He said four others were hurt in a morning drone attack on the town of Beryl, adding: “The occupiers deliberately attacked a crowded place, dropping explosives near the local bus station.”

Odes region governor Ole Kipper said the Izmail district, home to Danube River ports that are used to export grain, had been targeted in a drone attack.

Ukraine‘s air force said 18 out of 24 Russian drones were shot down, and that 17 cruise missiles were downed overnight over the Dnipropetrovs’k, Poltava and Khmelnytskyi regions.

The deputy governor of the Khmelnytskyi region said the blast wave had damaged the roofs and windows of several homes, and debris fell on the territory of an unspecified production facility and damaged a railway track.

Reuters was not able to immediately verify the reports. Russia did not comment on the latest attacks and has said it does not deliberately target civilians.

Bulgaria’s defence minsister has sent a special unit to investigate and deactivate a drone carrying explosives which landed on Sunday evening in the town of Tyulenovo.

Following inspection the team from NATO-member Bulgaria will decide how to dispose of it, the defence ministry said in a statement adding that the team was sent upon the request of the regional government, reportReuters.

The town of Tyulnevo is located 70km from the Romanian border and across the sea from Crimea.

Bulgarian media reported that a drone carrying explosives landed late on Sunday evening.

Nova.bg web site reported quoting witnesses that the drone was between 3 and 3.5 metres long. It said that the drone had a container with explosives attached to it.

Ukraine‘s legal battle against Russia over allegations of genocide used by Moscow to justify its 2022 invasion resumes today at the United Nations’.

Hearings at the International Court of Justice, also known as the Word Court, will see Ukraine supported by a record 32 other nations.

Kyiv launched the case shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, arguing that the attack was based on false claims of acts of genocide in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine and alleging that Moscow was planning genocidal acts in Ukraine.

It wants the court to order Russia to halt its invasion and pay reparations.Filing its case last year, Ukraine said that “Russia has turned the Genocide Convention on its head — making a false claim of genocide as a basis for actions on its part that constitute grave violations of the human rights of millions of people across Ukraine.

”Ukraine brought the case to the Hague-based court based on the 1948 Genocide Convention, which both Moscow and Kyiv have ratified.

In an interim ruling in March 2022, the court ordered Russia to halt hostilities in Ukraine, a binding legal ruling that Moscow has flouted as it presses ahead with its devastating attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities.

Hearings this week are expected to see lawyers for Russia argue that the court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case, while Ukraine will call on judges to press ahead to hearings on the substance of its claims.

The court’s panel of international judges will likely take weeks or months to reach a decision on whether or not the case can proceed. If it does, a final ruling is likely years away.

The ICC has issued a war crimes arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of responsibility for the abduction of Ukrainian children.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has returned after his Russian summit with a selection of souvenirs- including a rifle, a cosmonaut’s glove a fur hat and military drones.

Kim Jong-un received a Russian-made rifle “of the highest quality,” according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. In return Jong-un gifted Putin with a rifle “made by North Korean craftsmen”.

Putin also presented a glove from a spacesuit worn in space, Russia’s TASS news agency said.

Oleg Kozhemyako, the governor of the Primorsky region, presented Kim with a set of modern, lightweight body armour designed for assault operations that protects the chest, shoulders, throat and groin, Russia media said.

Kim was also presented with five one-way attack drones and a Geranium-25 reconnaissance drone, which is widely used in the war in Ukraine, TASS said.

The drones alone are a violation of UN sanactions.

The items will be stored in North Korea’s ‘friendship’ museum – an exhibition dating back to 1978 where the country store items given to them from other countries.

The collection includes crystalware sent from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, tea cup set from French President Francois Mitterrand, a basketball signed by Michael Jordan given by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on her visit in 2000 and a rifle given by the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Ukraine has not yet commented on the attacks. In addition, an anti-Moscow guerilla group claims to have destroyed two Russian vehicles in Kherson.

Ukraine’s military claims its latest recapture of a key village in Bakhmut will act as a “springboard” for further offensive actions against Russia’s continuing invasion.

Ukraine scored another victory recently when it recently recaptured village Klishchiivka that lies in the southern flank of Bakhmut, as its forces fought off Russian attempts to get back into the area.

The war-torn country’s forces had last week also recaptured Andriivka, another village a few kilometres to the south of Klishchiivka, after earlier criticism alleged Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces had slowed.

Both settlements have been reduced to ghost towns and destroyed in the months of fighting for Bakhmut that had fallen into Russian hands in May this year.

Poland began to enforce a European Union ban Sunday on all Russian-registered passenger cars seeking to enter the country — the latest in a series of sanctions on Russia in punishment for its war against Ukraine.

Under the EU’s decision, motor vehicles registered in the Russian Federation are no longer allowed to enter the territory of the 27-member bloc.

“A car registered in Russia has no right to enter Poland,” Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski said Saturday, announcing the ban that took effect hours later at midnight.

The United States saw some “limited” signs that China may allow some communications between the countries’ militaries during 12 hours of talks between senior diplomats in Malta this weekend, according to a senior Biden administration official.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also raised concerns over China’s assistance to Russia and recent actions by Beijing in the Taiwan Strait during his talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the official said.