Ukraine-Russia latest updates: Moscow to probe jet crash

The United States agrees with assessments from France and the United Kingdom that Iran supplying drones to Russia would violate a UN Security Council resolution that endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six powers, US State Department Spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Monday.

“Earlier today our French and British allies publicly offered the assessment that Iran’s supply of these UAVs [for] Russia is a violation of UN Security Council resolution 2231,” Patel told reporters, referring to uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones. “This is something that we agree with.”

Ukraine has reported a spate of Russian attacks using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks. Iran denies supplying the drones to Russia, while the Kremlin has not commented.

The State Department assessed that Iranian drones were used on Monday in a morning attack on Kyiv, an official said. White House Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre also accused Tehran of lying when it says Iranian drones are not being used by Russia in Ukraine.

Resolution 2231 endorsed the deal between Iran and the UK, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US that limited Tehran’s uranium enrichment activity, making it harder for Iran to develop nuclear arms while lifting international sanctions.

The United States will hold Russia accountable for “war crimes”, the White House has said, hours after Russia attacked Ukrainian cities with drones, killing at least four people in an apartment building in downtown Kyiv.

Russian forces also targeted infrastructure across the country in the second wave of air raids in a week.

US President Joe Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters that the White House “strongly condemns Russia’s missile strikes today” and said the attack “continues to demonstrate [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s brutality”.

At least four people have been killed when a Russian fighter jet crashed into an apartment building in Yeysk, near Ukraine, Russian news agencies have reported.

Yeysk is separated from occupied Russian territory in southern Ukraine by a narrow stretch of the Sea of Azov.

Video published by the military news channel Zvezda appeared to show explosions in the Sukhoi Su-34 supersonic medium-range fighter-bomber plane as it plunged towards the apartments. Russian agencies said the pilots had ejected.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed and ordered “all necessary assistance be given to casualties from the military plane incident,” the Kremlin told the state-run news agency TASS.

The state Investigative Committee, which deals with serious crimes, said it had opened a criminal case and sent investigators to the scene.

The US has warned that action would be taken against nations and companies found to be assisting Iran’s drone programme after it was implicated in deadly attacks on Kyiv, the AFP news agency reports.

“Anyone doing business with Iran that could have any link to UAVs or ballistic missile developments or the flow of arms from Iran to Russia should be very careful and do their due diligence,” state department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters. “The US will not hesitate to use sanctions or take actions against perpetrators.”

“Russia deepening an alliance with Iran is something the whole world – especially those in the region and across the world, frankly – should be seen as a profound threat,” he said.

Citing previously released US intelligence, Patel said that some of Iran’s unmanned aircraft sold to Russia have malfunctioned.

The transfer shows the “enormous pressure” on Russia after its setbacks in Ukraine, he said, adding that Moscow is “being forced frankly to resort to unreliable countries like Iran for supplies and equipment”.

More than 100 Ukrainian women have been freed in a prisoner swap with Russia in the first all-female exchange, Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s staff, writes on Telegram.

He says 12 civilians are among the 108 women freed, adding that some had been imprisoned before the Russian invasion began in February.

Yermak released a video of the women after their release.

Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed, Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic, said 110 Ukrainians, mostly women, would be freed in turn for the release of 80 Russians who he said were “civilian sailors” and 30 military personnel.

Pushilin said that of 110 Ukrainians included in the swap, two people had decided to remain in Russia.

Russia has launched a criminal investigation into the crash of a Su-34 fighter jet into a residential building in the southern city of Yeysk near Ukraine, the investigative committee says.

“Military investigators are establishing the circumstances and causes of the incident,” it says.

Footage on social media verified by BBC News shows a large fireball erupting from what appeared to be a multistorey building.

Yeysk is located on the Sea of Azov, which separates southern Ukraine and southern Russia.

Russian news agencies said the pilots had ejected and officials were trying to establish information about casualties on the ground.

RIA news agency said the plane was a Sukhoi Su-34, a supersonic medium-range fighter-bomber, that crashed during a training flight. TASS said the crash was caused by an engine fire.

Interfax, another Russian news agency, quoted the local emergencies ministry as saying five floors of the apartment building were on fire, the upper floors had collapsed and about 45 apartments were damaged.

Anton Gerashchenko, a senior Ukrainian presidential adviser, tweeted about the incident.

Four people have been killed and several wounded when rocket strikes targeted energy infrastructure in eastern Ukraine’s Sumy region, emergency services say.

This has raised Monday’s death toll across Ukraine to eight people as a result of drone and rocket attacks.

Emergency services said an electrical substation was shelled, sparking a fire that damaged an administrative building. Three people were rescued from the rubble.

Russian strikes also hit energy facilities in Dnipropetrovsk, a region in east-central Ukraine, injuring one person, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says. Power has since been restored.

The United States and Britain will further their cooperation on sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine as well as on other targets, top financial officials for the two nations say.

“Over time, we expect to realise the benefits of our collaboration not only in relation to the sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but also across other common sanctions regimes,” Andrea Gacki, the head of the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Giles Thomson, the head of Britain’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, said in a statement.

Washington, London and other European capitals have targeted the Russian economy and its oligarchs since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine began in February.

A new wave of air strikes have hit Ukraine as Russian “kamikaze” drones targeted Kyiv and killed four people.

What exactly are “kamikaze” drones, and where do they come from?

Al Jazeera explains everything you need to know here.

About 9,000 Russian troops and 170 tanks are to be sent to Belarus as part of a new joint Russian-Belarusian military force, defence ministry officials in Minsk say.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced the formation of the new force last week.

He said it was being created in response to Ukraine plotting an attack on its former Soviet neighbour, but Lukashenko didn’t provide any evidence to support his claim.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called for more EU sanctions on Iran after Kyiv was hit by swarms of “kamikaze” drones that killed at least four people.

Kuleba addressed the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council on Twitter, “I’m probably the first foreign minister to address EU FAC from a bomb shelter because of the air raids siren. Requested more air defence & supply of ammo. Called on EU to impose sanctions on Iran for providing Russia with drones. 9th EU sanctions package on Russia must be strong.”

Ukraine will bring to justice every Russian involved in “kamikaze” drone attacks that hit Kyiv and killed four people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says on Telegram.

Zelenskyy wrote: “It seems that the current enemy unites in its evil all previous enemies of our statehood. It acts insidiously – kills civilians, hits housing, infrastructure.

“Today, as a result of the occupiers’ attack on a residential building in Kyiv, 4 people have already died. Among them is a young family who was expecting a child. Search and rescue operations are still ongoing.

“Terror must lose and will lose, and Ukraine will prevail and will bring to justice every Russian terrorist – from commanders to privates – who carried out criminal orders.”

Russia has told a top United Nations official that the extension of a deal that allows grain exports to leave Ukrainian ports is dependent on the West easing agricultural and fertiliser sanctions, the defence ministry says in a statement.

In a meeting in Moscow, Russia’s deputy defence minister, Alexander Fomin, told UN Undersecretary General Martin Griffiths that extending the deal “directly depends on ensuring full implementation of all previously reached agreements”.

Russia says the impact of Western sanctions on logistics, payments, shipping and insurance prevents it from exporting fertilisers and that easing those restrictions was a key part of the deal brokered in July by Turkey and the UN.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has set the country on a path towards turmoil that could unseat the president, trigger civil war or even ultimately break the country apart, a former Russian diplomat warns.

Boris Bondarev resigned in May because, he said, the war had shown how repressive and warped Russia had become.

Bondarev said the state is infested by “yes men” who allow President Vladimir Putin to make big decisions in an echo chamber of his own propaganda.

“If Putin is kicked out of office, Russia’s future will be deeply uncertain,” Bondarev said in an essay in Foreign Affairs.

“It’s entirely possible his successor will try to carry on the war, especially given that Putin’s main advisers hail from the security services. But no one in Russia commands his stature, so the country would likely enter a period of political turbulence. It could even descend into chaos.”

As Ukraine recaptures settlements and Russia beefs up its offensive, where are we at with the war?

Three maps that Al Jazeera updates daily chart the latest developments:

The death toll has risen to four in a Russian drone attack that hit a residential building in central Kyiv, the mayor says.

Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram: “4 people have already died under the rubble of a house in the Shevchenkiv district of the capital that was hit by a Russian terrorist drone.

“The rescuers discovered and retrieved another body – that of a dead man. There may still be people under the rubble.”

Former Russian television journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who protested the invasion of Ukraine during a live broadcast, has fled the country after being put on a wanted list, her lawyer told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

“Ovsyannikova and her daughter left Russia a few hours after departing from the address where she was under house arrest,” Dmitry Zakhvatov was quoted as saying. “They are in Europe now.”

“They are fine. They are waiting until they can talk publicly, but for now, it is not safe,” he said.

Two weeks ago, reports emerged that Ovsyannikova had fled house arrest. She had been held at her home for two months and faced a 10-year sentence for allegedly spreading fake news.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko says two people killed in one drone attack in Ukraine’s capital were a young married couple.

Klitschko wrote on Telegram: “During search and rescue operations in a residential building in the centre where a Russian drone hit, the bodies of three dead civilians were pulled out.

“Among them is a young couple, a husband and wife, who were expecting a child. The woman was 6 months pregnant. Russia is a terrorist country!”

Ukraine’s military says it has destroyed 37 Russian drones since Sunday evening, or around 85 percent of those involved in attacks.

Russian drone attacks hit central Kyiv early Monday, killing at least three people.

The airstrikes came exactly one week after Russia unleashed its heaviest aerial bombardment on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities since the start of the war.

At least three people have been killed in Russian drone attacks in eastern Ukraine’s Sumy region, the governor says.

“At 5:20 (0220 GMT) in the morning, three Russian rockets hit a civil infrastructure facility,” Dmytro Zhyvytsky said on Telegram. “At least three people died. Nine are injured. There are still people under the rubble.”

Zhyvytsky added that residents should reduce electricity consumption during busy hours after more than 1,000 people were disconnected from electricity after the attack.