Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin inflicts ‘terrible’ shelling as Kyiv warn of record drone attacks

Russia’s barrage of airstrikes and shelling led to a ‘terrible night’ in the southern Ukrainian region Kherson, said the region’s governor on Sunday morning.

A dozen people were wounded in the attack, including a 27-year-old woman and her 9-month-old baby.

“The Kherson region experienced another terrible night,” Governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Over the past 24 hours, Russian forces carried out 59 attacks on Kherson, the region’s administration said on Telegram, including 19 instances of shelling of Kherson city, the region’s administrative centre.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that two Ukrainian nationals had died in unrest in Israel and that more than 100 citizens had contacted the country’s embassy.

“Unfortunately, the deaths of two Ukrainian citizens have been confirmed,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

Zelenskiy said he spoke on Sunday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and expressed “solidarity with Israel, which is enduring a brazen, large-scale attack”.

The UK’s new ambassador for Ukraine wore a kilt for his first meeting with President Vlodymyr Zelensky – and got “solidarity” tartan created after the outbreak of war.

Father-of-three Martin Harris, 54, previously served from 2003 to 2008 in Kyiv as deputy head of mission and consul general, and raised his children in Ukraine.

Mr Harris, who grew up in Scotland, wore his family’s Ferguson tartan for his initiation into the role, which was admired by President Zelensky.

After the war broke out in February 2022, in a gesture of solidarity with the stricken country, Mr Harris got a new tartan created, named “Ukraine Forever”, and has a tie made from it.

Earlier this year, Mr Harris spent a month in Lviv to refresh his fluent Ukrainian. He went on holiday to Scotland recently and was moved to see the Ukrainian flag flying in rural Shetland.

Mr Harris said: “The Ukrainians express their national identity strongly through traditional clothing, so I wanted to wear my national dress as the UK’s new ambassador. President Zelensky noted my kilt and many Ukrainians have complimented me.”

Mr Harris will lead the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) at the British Embassy in Kyiv, after taking over from Dame Melinda Simmons.

The community of Hroza in the Kharkiv region pay tribute to those who lost their lives when a missile hit a cafe on Friday.

Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as “a demonstrably brutal Russian crime – a rocket attack on an ordinary grocery store, a completely deliberate act of terrorism. My condolences to all those who have lost loved ones.”

Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, Ihor Klymenko, said the death toll stood at 51 and that “debris analysis is ongoing”. The village has a population of 330.

The head of the Centre for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, Oleksandra Matviichuk, has made a heartfelt speech calling for the documentation of Russian war crimes on Sunday.

Speaking at the Lviv Book Forum, which was streamed online by the UK’s Hay Festival, Matviichuk said: “Every survivor, every affected person has to get a shot at justice because if we say that every life matters, then we have to turn it into our practice.”

She added that she had been developing strategies to ensure “every person in Ukraine who has suffered from Russian aggression gets a shot at justice, regardless of who the person is, their social standing, the type of crime they were a victim of, what type of violence they experienced, whether international organisations care about their fate or not, or international media care about their fate or not.”

Russia will exploit the Hamas attacks in Israel to spread propaganda supporting its invasion of Ukraine, according to the American think tank The Study of War.

The Kremlin has already blamed the West for “neglecting conflicts” in the Middle East by concentrating efforts in Ukraine, according to the group.

Now Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of the Russian Security Council claims the Us and its allies should have been working on the Palestinian and Israeli issue, rather than “intefering” with Russia.

The group added: “These Kremiline narratives target Western audiences to drive a wedge in military support for Ukraine, seek to demoralize Ukrainian socity by claiming Ukraine will lose international support, and intend to reassure Russian domestic audiences that the international society will ignore Ukraine’s war effort.”

Ukraine has “almost certainly liberated at least 125 sq km of territory” in eastern areas of the country over summer, according to the British Ministry of Defence.

They cautioned, though, that while “this axis has stabilised, Russian forces likely remain in a defensive posture to guard against possible future Ukrainian offensive operations”.

Ukraine’s army, meanwhile, claims Russia has suffered 282,280 losses since the war began in February last year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday spoke with the leaders of Germany, Ukraine, Italy and Britain on Sunday.

Leaders of all four countries expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself “as much as it takes,” said a statement from Netanyahu’s office.

Ukraine’s relations with Israel have been tense since Russia’s invasion began in February 2022.

Although Irael has sent tons of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Israel’s President Netanyahu has consistently refused to supply weapons to Kyiv.

Israel, a major US partner, has some of the closest ties with Russia among countries politically aligned with the West.

Two Ukrainian women were among those killed in Israel after Hamas invaded the country on Saturday, the Ukrainian embassy has told news agency Interfax-Ukraine.

The identities of the two women have not been confirmed, but officials said the women had lived in Israel for a long time.

“The Embassy of Ukraine received confirmation from the Israeli police regarding the death of two Ukrainian citizens”, said the embassy in a statement on Sunday.

“Measures are being taken to organise the repatriation of the bodies of the deceased. There is currently no information on the presence of Ukrainian citizens among the wounded or missing.”

The expat community of Ukrainians in Israe is estimated to stand at around 500,000 people, according to the Ukrainian foreign ministry.