An apartment building partially destroyed by a Russian missile strike, Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, July 31, 2023

EA on India’s WION News: A Saudi Arabia Summit on Ukraine

EA on Australia’s ABC: From Drone Attacks on Moscow to Ukraine’s Counter-Offensive to a Summit in Saudi Arabia

Monday’s Coverage: Zelenskiy — “A Good Day, A Powerful Day” for Counter-Offensive

Map: Institute for Study of War

UPDATE 1936 GMT:

Iceland has formally suspended work at its embassy in Moscow.

The Iceland Government said that embassy operations were “no longer justifiable” with commercial, cultural and political ties with Russia “at an all-time low”.

The Icelandic Foreign Ministry said, “The decision to suspend the operations of the Embassy of Iceland in Moscow does not constitute a severance of diplomatic relations.”

It added that it plans to “increase its presence” in Ukraine in “a show of solidarity…during Russia’s illegitimate aggression”.

UPDATE 1603 GMT:

The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières tweets about this morning’s Russian shelling which killed a doctor and wounded a nurse in the Kherson City Clinical Hospital:

UPDATE 1112 GMT:

Facing international criticism over military aid to Russia, Chinese officials have imposed restrictions on export of long-range civilian drones.

The controls will take effect Tuesday to prevent use of drones for “non-peaceful purposes,” the Commerce Ministry said in a statement: “The risk of some high specification and high-performance civilian unmanned aerial vehicles being converted to military use is constantly increasing.”

Restrictions will apply to drones that can fly beyond the natural sight distance of operators or stay aloft more than 30 minutes; have attachments that can throw objects; and/or weigh more than 7 kg (15.5 pounds).

Last week a US intelligence report said China may have provided equipment with military applications for Russian use in Ukraine. The report cited Russian customs data which showed Chinese state-owned military contractors supplying drones, navigation equipment, fighter jet parts, and other goods.

The Chinese Government said on Friday that its deals with Russia are “normal economic and trade cooperation”.

UPDATE 1057 GMT:

Three dry cargo ships, overseen by NATO aviation, have tested the Russian blockade to cross the Black Sea and reach a Ukrainian port.

On July 17, Vladimir Putin ripped up the July 2022 deal lifting the blockade on exports of Ukrainian grains, foodstuffs, and other goods. Russian officials threatened interceptions — and possible attacks — of any ship travelling to or from Ukraine’s ports.

But the Israeli grain carrier Ams1, the Greek Sahin 2, and the Turkish Yilmaz Kaptan crossed the Bosporus and proceeded through the Black Sea to the Ukrainian port of Izmail at the mouth of the Danube River.

US Navy P-8 reconnaissance aircraft, Boeing E-3 radar detection aircraft, and the RQ-4 Global Hawk reconnaissance drone monitored the movement of the three ships.

Open-source intelligence investigator Markus Jonsson, who first reported the movement of the vessels, says three others set off through the Black Sea toward Ukrainian ports. All six ships are reportedly under Turkish management but sailing under various foreign flags.

UPDATE 1048 GMT:

Russian “Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova” confirmed on Monday that authorities transferred 4.8 million Ukrainians, including more than 700,000 children, to Russia during Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

Lvova-Belova claimed in her reoprt that the vast majority of the children who arrived to Russia did not have parental or guardian supervision.

In March, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Vladimir Putin and Lvova-Belova over the deportations of Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-occupied territory.

UPDATE 0938 GMT:

Russian forces have shelled the surgery department of the Kherson City Clinical Hospital, killing a doctor and injuring a nurse, in Kherson city in southern Ukraine.

The doctor had been working for only a few days at the facility. Doctors are fighting to save the life of the nurse.

On Tuesday, Russian shelling killed four civilians and wounded 18.

UPDATE 0918 GMT:

The Chonhar Bridge, between the Russian-occupied areas of Kherson and Crimea, has been further damaged by a second strike.

The bridge was hit on July 29. In contrast to their heated commentary about the June 22 attack on the bridge, Russian military observers have not mentioned the second assault.

The disabling of the bridge has led to queues of up to 13 hours on other bridges from Russia to Crimea.

UPDATE 0752 GMT:

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko says, “Last night, in the Chernihiv region [in the north of the country], border guards stopped an attempt by an enemy saboteur-reconnaissance group to cross the state border of Ukraine within the Semenivka community.”

The commander of the joint forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,
Serhiy Naev, said four armed people were repelled when they were detected moving from Russian territory. Reserves of the State Border Guard Service and Ukraine’s armed forces were deployed to the area.

UPDATE 0617 GMT:

Russia has launched five drones on civilian areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

One UAV destroyed two floors of a college dormitory, setting it on fire. The dorm was empty, and there were no casualties.

Three struck the territory of a sports complex, damaging a two-story building and injuring a security guard.

UPDATE 0607 GMT:

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin says drones have again attacked high-rise buildings in Russia’s capital.

One of the two towers hit on Sunday was struck again early Tuesday, even though Sobyanin claimed “several” drones had been downed across the Moscow region.

The Russian Defense ministry said two drones were destroyed by air defense systems in the districts near Moscow, while a third was downed by electronic measures in the capital.

Sobyanin said the facade of the 21st floor of a tower was damaged. No injuries were reported.

As on Sunday, Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport was temporarily shut and flights redirected.

Moscow and its suburbs have been targeted in several sets of strikes since two drones approached the Kremlin on May 3. Tuesday’s attack was the third since July 24, when two drones crashed into office buildings, one near the Defense Ministry.

Russia State outlets acknowledged that Sunday’s strikes damaged offices of the Ministry of Digital Development in one of the two affected office blocks.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia’s latest missile destruction of an apartment block in Ukraine has killed at least six people, including a 10-year-old child, and wounded more than 75, including five children.

Two Iskander missiles struck civilian sites in Kryvyi Rih in south-central Ukraine early Monday. One demolished the fourth to ninth stories of the apartment block. The other hit a university building.

Throughout the day, more than 350 people worked on the rescue mission, searching for victims under the rubble.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the attack and rescue effort, extended condolences, and put the strike in the context of a series of Russian missile and drone attacks on civilians across Ukraine.

Later in the day, Oleksiy Kuleba, the deputy head of Ukraine President Voldoymyr Zelenskiy’s office, commented:

The enemy is hitting settlements and cities. This is terror due to the despair and defeat of the Russian Federation at the front. This is terror to intimidate and break Ukrainians.

Let’s take revenge for each and every one. We work and save our people.

Russian shelling also brought mass casualties in Kherson city. Four people were killed, including a 60-year-old employee of a utility company, and 18 wounded in the assaults on civilian neighborhoods.