Russia Ukraine war live: Kyiv targets occupied Crimea with ‘massive’ strike as Turkey launches new warship

Russia‘s foreign ministry denounced on Thursday Moldova’s decision to expel a Russian diplomat as an “unfriendly step” and vowed to retaliate.

The foreign ministry also said the move by Moldova, a tiny ex-Soviet republic sandwiched between Ukraine and NATO member Romania, as a further example of the country’s “aggressive anti-Russian course”.

Moldova said on Thursday it had expelled a Russian diplomat and called in Moscow’s ambassador to issue a formal protest, after detaining two Moldovan officials on treason and conspiracy allegations earlier this week.

Many residents of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine are leaving the city after Russian advances on several fronts in Donetsk.

Moscow has claimed control of four villages east of Pokrovsk in the last week. Ukraine did not comment on those claims but Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Pokrovsk was now Russia’s main target.

Russian soldiers have reached the edge of Toretsk, where the regional governor said a week ago that only 3,500 people were left, just over 10 per cent of the prewar population. More have since been evacuated by authorities and humanitarian organisations.

Sitting in a spartan, third-class train carriage about to leave Pokrovsk’s railway station, Volodymyr Arkhipov reflected on the grinding Russian advances which this week forced him to flee his second home in two years.

“I hauled out a corpse where (the Russians) bombed us, a woman of 37 … by the time we dug her up, she had suffocated,” the 57-year-old told Reuters, describing his final days in the embattled town of Toretsk before being evacuated.

The American-made F-16 is an iconic fighter jet that’s been the front-line combat plane of choice for the Nato alliance and numerous air forces across the world for 50 years.

Western countries have pledged F-16s to Kyiv, and some have arrived in Ukraine, officials in Washington confirmed. The fighter jets are expected to start flying sorties in Ukrainian skies soon and will be a much-needed boost to the country’s current fleet of Soviet-era jets to counter Russia’s invasion.

United States president Joe Biden gave the go-ahead in August 2023 for used F-16s to be deployed to Ukraine, though the US won’t be providing any of its own planes. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have committed to providing Ukraine with more than 60 of them over the coming months in what could be a slow trickle of deliveries.

Moldova’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday it has expelled a Russian diplomat after two Moldovan officials were detained on suspicion of treason and conspiracy against the European Union candidate country.

One of the Moldovan officials is suspected of treason for allegedly collecting and providing information to an embassy employee that could be used against Moldova’s interests, the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases said, and the other is accused of plotting against the country for personal gain.

Ukraine launched more long-range drone attacks than Russia in July for the first time since the war began.

According to figures published by the Ukrainian army, Russia launched 426 Shahed-type drones into Ukraine and Kyiv hit back with over 520 drones.

It comes as Russia has faced destructive attacks on its oil refineries and other targets in recent months appearing less effective in shooting down the Ukrainian weapons.

The Ukrainian drone attacks were considerably more than 200 attacks in each of the previous two months.

A small quadcopter drone reportedly shot down a 12-ton Russian helicopter near Russian-occupied Donetsk, in what could be the first time a drone has taken down a military helicopter.

The Mi-8 military helicopter of the Russian army was pictured burning after a drone carrying explosives rammed into the target when it was still near the ground, reported Forbes, citing Russian bloggers.

The Russian bloggers indicated that the attack was carried out at an unprecedented distance from the frontline for such a small drone, or about 50km.

The Ukrainian drone pilot is said to have shot down the three-crew Russian helicopter, which performs attack, transport and medical-evacuation missions, on Wednesday.

“Caught at the moment of takeoff,” a Russian blogger reported.

Photos and videos on social media purported to show the chopper burning in Donetsk.

Several observers following the war said they had received reports of the helicopter being downed.

Yury Butusov, a Ukrainian journalist, said that it was the first time that a Ukrainian drone interceptor destroyed a manned helicopter in the air.

“The entire crew and passengers were eliminated. The cost of the Mi-8 itself is at least $15m. If it is confirmed that a drone was used, it is a historic achievement worthy of Ukraine’s highest awards,” he said.

In war-torn Ukraine, he is Alya Shabaanovich Gali, a popular doctor with a line of patients waiting to see him. To his family thousands of kilometers away in the Gaza Strip, he is Alaa Shabaan Abu Ghali, the one who left.

For the past 30 years, these identities rarely had cause to merge: Gali moved away amid instability in Gaza, settled into his new home in Kyiv, adopted a different name to better suit the local tongue, and married a Ukranian woman. Through calls, he kept up with his mother and siblings in Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah. But mostly, their lives played out in parallel.

Turkey has launched a newly built anti-submarine warship that is due to be delivered to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, attended the launch event of the Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi.

Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said: “Corvettes Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi and [previously launched] Hetman Ivan Mazepa, which were built in Turkey due to Russian aggression, are equipped with cutting-edge weapons and will become a significant addition to our fleet.

“Ukraine has already broken the dominance of the Russian fleet at sea, destroying dozens of ships. We are actively expanding the capabilities of the Ukrainian navy in the Black and Azov seas.”

It remains uncertain when either warship will reach Ukraine, as the Montreux Convention generally restricts warring parties’ warships from entering or exiting the Black Sea through the Bosphorus, which is controlled by Turkey.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were the first to embrace the three Americans who stepped out of the plane from Russia after being freed in the biggest prisoner swap since the Soviet Era.

Biden hugged former US Marine Paul Whelan who was the first to step down from the plane.

It was an emotional moment for friends, colleagues and families of Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.

The WSJ colleagues who arrived at the airport cheered for Gershkovich as he stepped out of the plane.

The family of Kurmasheva was seen overjoyed and emotional as they hugged her.

Russian missile units have held drills on one of the disputed Kuril islands which Japan considers its own territory, the Interfax news agency reported.

The troops practised moving and camouflaging their vehicles on Matua island, it said, citing the Russian defence ministry.

Soviet troops seized the four islands off Japan’s Hokkaido at the end of the Second World War and they have remained in Moscow’s hands ever since, preventing the two countries signing a peace treaty.