Russia-Ukraine war live: Second Moscow drone strikes comes as Putin’s troops ‘feeling fatigue’ on frontline

China imposed restrictions Monday on exports of long-range civilian drones, citing Russia’s war in Ukraine and concern that drones might be converted to military use.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government is friendly with Moscow but says it is neutral in the 18-month-old war. It has been stung by reports that both sides might be using Chinese-made drones for reconnaissance and possibly attacks.

Export controls will take effect Tuesday to prevent use of drones for “non-peaceful purposes,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. It said exports still will be allowed but didn’t say what restrictions would apply.

Its balmy beaches have been vacation spots for Russian czars and Soviet general secretaries. It has hosted history-shaking meetings of world leaders and boasts a strategic naval base. And it has been the site of ethnic persecutions, forced deportations and political repression.

Now, as Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its 18th month, the Crimean Peninsula is again both a playground and a battleground, with drone attacks and bombs seeking to dislodge Moscow’s hold on the territory and bring it back under Kyiv’s authority, no matter how loudly the Kremlin proclaims its ownership.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to retake the diamond-shaped peninsula that Russia’s Vladimir Putin illegally annexed in 2014.

For both presidents, backing off Crimea is hardly an option.

Educational facilities, including a dormitory, were destroyed in Russian drone attacks in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said on Tuesday, 1 August.

Footage released by Ukrainian officials shows a bombed building on fire and firefighters tackling the blaze.

One person was injured after a drone hit an empty dormitory building and another three struck a sports facility in a night-time attack, the service said.

A senior Ukrainian presidential adviser said on Tuesday that Kyiv did not attack and will not attack civilian vessels or any other civilian objects in the Black Sea, calling Russian statements ‘fictitious’.

Russia‘s defence ministry said it had thwarted an attack from Ukrainian drones overnight on civilian transport vessels in the Black Sea, the Interfax news agency reported.

“Undoubtedly, such statements by Russian officials are fictitious and do not contain even a shred of truth. Ukraine has not attacked, is not attacking and will not attack civilian vessels, nor any other civilian objects,” Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, told Reuters.

Ukrainian presidential adviser has said Moscow should expect more drone attacks and “more war”.

On Tuesday, a skyscraper in Moscow City’s business district became the target of a second drone strike in three days. The building that was hit is known as the “IQ quarter”, which houses the ministry of economic development, the digital ministry and the ministry of industry and trade.

“At the moment, experts are assessing the damage and the state of the infrastructure for the safety of people in the building. This will take some time,” Darya Levchenko, an adviser to the economy minister, said on Telegram. She said staff were working remotely,

While the incidents have not caused casualties or major damage, they have provoked widespread unease and sit awkwardly with the Kremlin’s narrative that Russia‘s “special military operation” in Ukraine is proceeding according to plan.

“Indeed, a threat exists, it is obvious, but measures are being taken,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, declining to comment further.

Ukraine has drawn satisfaction from the attacks, though without directly claiming responsibility for them.

“Moscow is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter.

He said Russia should expect “more unidentified drones, more collapse, more civil conflicts, more war”.

The UK has sanctioned six people following the “unjustifiable” decision to reject an appeal from a British-Russian dissident facing 25 years in jail for opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced in April after being convicted of treason and spreading false information about the Russian army in a process he described as a “show trial”.

After Mr Kara-Murza’s appeal was rejected by judges in Moscow on Monday, prime minister Rishi Sunak called the decision “desperate and unfounded”.

A doctor was killed and a nurse was wounded in Russian shelling of a hospital in Ukraine‘s southern city of Kherson on Tuesday, regional officials said.

“Today at 11:10 (0810 GMT), the enemy launched another attack on the peaceful residents of our community,” military administration head Roman Mrochko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Photos posted by officials showed the bloodied floor of a balcony and a gaping hole in a roof with debris strewn over the floor.

The details of the report could not immediately be verified.

Mrochko said the young doctor had only worked in his job for a few days and that doctors were fighting for the life of the nurse.

The surgery department of the facility was also damaged in the shelling, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

The Kremlin on Tuesday said it was clear that a threat existed after the latest drone attack on Moscow, in which a high-rise building in the city’s business district was struck for the second time in three days. K

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined further comment, as Russia‘s defence ministry called the latest incident an attempted “terrorist attack”

With most of Ukraine‘s Black Sea Coast either occupied by Russian troops or in their line of fire, families seeking respite from life in a war zone are flocking to the inland shores of the Tylihul, a river that widens into a broad estuary bordered by grassland.

In the summer sunshine, you could almost forget that the front line is a few hours drive away. Visitors say the respite is a desperately needed relief. But authorities and some residents worry that the crowds could damage an important and delicate natural habitat.

“There are two sides of a coin. On one hand, we understand that there is no access to the sea and people still want to relax somewhere. On the other hand, we know that estuary will not survive such amount of people,” said Petro Kalinchuk, on a sandy spit dotted with beach umbrellas and tents.

Inna Tymchenko, deputy head of the Mykolaiv regional department of the National Institute of Ecology, said the problem was not so much the people as their tents and cars.

“They are placed in chaotic order, tourists don’t know where it is alright to leave a car and where it is not, so they park wherever they want. That’s how vegetation cover is being destroyed,” she said. “Noise affects the birds. They partially got used to the noise, but loud noises are unusual for them this year. It will lead to grave consequences in this area.”

There was hope that birds could find refuge here from the Kinburn Spit, a vast Black Sea nature preserve destroyed by flooding after the Kakhovska Dam on the Dnipro River was blown up nearly two months ago. More birds could die if there is no hospitable sanctuary for them here.

Kalinchuk said his family had been coming to the river for nearly 50 years. They used to see birds nesting and brooding eggs on the beach. Now, with the larger crowds, all the birds were gone and there were fewer fish, too.

But as long as the war goes on and there are few other places to rest, families say they will keep coming.

“Access to the rivers and the sea is closed. So this is the only place where we can relax after two years of war against Russia,” said resident Viacheslav Natalenko.

Ukrainian political adviser Anton Gerashchenko on Tuesday said the drone attacks in Moscow City showed that the Kremlin is “incapable of” protecting Russia’s most privileged class.

“The Moskva-City high-rises were a symbol of Russian economic flourishing and success, as well as Russia’s integration into global economy,” he wrote on Twitter. “After the second drone attack they will symbolise failure of the ‘special military operation’ and lies of the Kremlin regime that promised and keeps promising Moscow residents complete protection.

“Those who work in Moskva-City towers are the privileged class of government officials and business people. They saw with their own eyes that Russian authorities are incapable of and cannot protect even their social group. There is no air defense, air raid alerts, bomb shelters for them.”