Russia-Ukraine war updates: Kremlin says NATO chief’s comments ‘dangerous’

Go here to read about the range of Storm Shadow missiles and what it would mean for Russia if the US and the UK authorise Ukraine to use them.

And you can find our in-depth coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine here.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of some of the day’s most important developments:

• A Ukrainian drone attack has destroyed a warehouse storing missiles, guided bombs and artillery shells in Russia’s Tver region, according to a source in the Security Service of Ukraine quoted by the Reuters and AFP news agencies.
• Russia’s Health Ministry says 13 people are being treated in hospital after the attack on the Tver region.
• A Russian drone attack on the city of Nikopol in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region has killed a 42-year-old man and injured a 36-year-old woman.
• A 41-year-old man has been killed, and a 66-year-old woman has been injured in a Russian drone attack in Ukraine’s central city of Kropyvnytskyi, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.
• Russia’s counteroffensive to retake its territory captured by Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region has been “stopped”, a spokesman from Ukraine’s military administration set up in the area told AFP.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry says it has shot down 27 Ukrainian drones over the Kursk, Bryansk, Smolensk and Belgorod regions, all on the border with Ukraine, and the neighbouring Oryol region.

Zelenskyy will on Tuesday address a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Russia’s war in his country, said Slovenia’s UN mission – president of the 15-member body for September.

The meeting will be held while world leaders are in New York for the UN General Assembly’s annual meeting.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. This was overwhelmingly denounced by the 193-member General Assembly, which also demanded Moscow withdraw its troops, but the Security Council has been deadlocked as Russia can veto any action.

Zelenskyy is traveling to the United States with a “victory plan” to present to US President Joe Biden.

His trip comes at a critical juncture in the war, with Russian troops continuing to inch forward in eastern Ukraine despite Kyiv’s forces launching a surprise incursion last month into Russia’s Kursk region.

The UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday was requested by the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan, South Korea and Malta, said diplomats.

Russia has detained another army general on bribery charges, the latest in a string of arrests linked to corruption that some observers have called a purge.

Moscow has arrested about a dozen military officials since spring, in the midst of the Ukraine offensive.

Major General Denis Putilov, head of the Central Military District’s armoured car service, was arrested on suspicion of having received a bribe of 10 million rubles ($108,000), Russia’s Investigative Committee said.

Vitaliy Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, says the FPV drones have been given to three separate assault brigades “fighting on one of the hottest spots – Kharkiv”.

He also said on Telegram that in total, Kyiv handed over 2,000 FPV drones and 410 Mavic 3T UAVs this year alone.

Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada commissioner for human rights, says the war has also injured at least 1,609 children.

“The real figures may be even more frightening because we do not have access to data from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense,” he wrote on Telegram.

The British government says it has summoned the Russian ambassador after what it described as an “unprecedented and unfounded public campaign of aggression” by Russia, including accusations against Foreign Office staff.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said last week that it had revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow after accusing them of spying and sabotage work, accusations Britain described as “malicious and completely baseless”.

“This pattern of behaviour is completely unacceptable, deeply unprofessional and beneath the standards of conduct between states,” a spokesperson for Britain’s Foreign Office said, calling on Russia to “stop this activity immediately”.

“This is the latest development in a deliberate campaign by Russia to undermine and threaten UK security and democracy and deter our support for Ukraine through disinformation, acts of sabotage in Europe, and direct harassment and restrictions against our diplomatic missions in Russia,” the spokesperson added.

A draft resolution on de-Russification and renaming of 333 settlements in Ukraine has failed to secure enough support in the Verkhovna Rada.

Only 208 lawmakers voted in favour out of the required 261 votes. Seventy-five legislators did not vote, five abstained and three voted against, according to lawmakers Oleksiy Goncharenko and Roman Lozinsky.

“The parliament just failed to vote for a resolution on the de-Russification of the names of 333 settlements. It failed a historic chance to throw off the map of Ukraine everything that was imposed by Moscow over centuries of enslavement,” Lozinsky said on Facebook.

Goncharenko said on Telegram that some lawmakers demanded a conciliation council be convened and the resolution be resubmitted for consideration.

According to the Korrespondent.net publication, the draft resolution sought the renaming of seven districts, 15 cities, 56 towns and 263 villages.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has had a phone call with his Russian counterpart, according to Lula’s office.

The two leaders, the Brazilian government said in a statement, “talked about themes that will be addressed at the BRICS summit next month in Kazan, bilateral relations, and Brazil’s and China’s peace proposal for the conflict between Russia and Ukraine”.

Members of the BRICS group are Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that more than 2,500 ships have departed from Ukrainian ports thanks to the maritime export corridor established just over a year ago.

“Despite the war and Russian terror, Ukraine continues to be a contributor to global food security for dozens of countries, and we are increasing our capabilities,” he said on X.

“Thanks to the humanitarian initiative “Grain from Ukraine,” hundreds of thousands of families and millions of people in Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, and Sudan have received essential food supplies.”

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, says one civilian has been injured after a Ukrainian drone attack targeting two vehicles in the region.

He said on Telegram that a driver was taken to hospital with multiple shrapnel wounds after a drone attacked a truck he was driving near the city of Shebekino.

Another attack came in the village of Nikolskoye where a passenger car was hit as it moved along the road, according to Gladkov. The vehicle was significantly damaged, but it was unclear whether there were casualties.

“Emergency services are working on the ground. Information about the consequences is being clarified,” he wrote.

From Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Kursk, Russia:

A while ago, several very loud air raid sirens were heard, and we saw people’s reactions. Surprisingly, no one was rushing to shelters or even speeding up as people got used to the sirens.

It seems like the city is living its normal life, but people say what is really scary is to hear the work of air defence systems when they shoot down missiles and drones.

Obviously, the border districts of the Kursk region, like Sudzha, are totally unsafe. They are constantly under attack as the Russian forces are trying to regain control of those territories.

Thousands of civilians have been evacuated from those districts and placed in temporary accommodation centres and hotels in Kursk and other nearby towns.

Last night, two Ukrainian missiles and 27 UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] were shot down over the Kursk region. Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Defence in the Kursk region, the Russian troops continue repelling Ukrainian attacks in the Glushkovsky district. They have also recaptured the village of Borki in the Sudzha district.

Alexey Kuznetsov, assistant to the Russian health minister, says the 13 people are receiving treatment in hospital.

They are in moderate condition and their lives are not in danger, he was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying.

Kuznetsov also said 15 others were being examined by doctors.

We have reported earlier that at least two people were injured in a Russian drone attack on the city of Nikopol in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, a 42-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman.

Serhiy Lysak, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said on Telegram that the man later died in hospital.

“Unfortunately, his injuries turned out to be incompatible with life,” he wrote on Telegram.

Russia’s counteroffensive to retake territory captured by Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region has been “stopped”, a spokesman from Ukraine’s military administration set up in the area told AFP.

“They tried to attack from the flanks, but they were stopped there,” said spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky. “The situation was stabilised and today everything is under control, they are not successful.”

The Russian military has repelled four attempts by the Ukrainian army to break through the Russian border near the Kursk region’s Vesyoloye and Medvezhye settlements, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.

The ministry claimed the Russian forces killed dozens of Ukrainians in the battles.

It also reported strikes on Ukrainian units in the Kursk region and Ukrainian army reserves in Ukraine’s Sumy region across the border.

As the war in Ukraine extends over its northern border with Russia, Kyiv is urging the United Kingdom and United States to authorise the use of Western long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory.

Washington and London said they are now considering lifting restrictions to allow Ukraine to target Russian military sites after a meeting between US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Washington, DC, on Friday.

Talk of authorising their use in Russia has enraged President Vladimir Putin, who said last week that doing so would mean NATO would be “at war” with his country.

For Storm Shadow missiles to be used, the UK, France, Italy and the US would be required to agree, given their involvement in manufacturing the weapons.

What does this mean for Russia?

Read more here.

A 41-year-old man has been killed, and a 66-year-old woman has been injured in a Russian drone attack in Ukraine’s central city of Kropyvnytskyi, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

It said in a statement on Telegram that a private home and a garage caught fire in the attack, and 19 nearby private residential buildings suffered minor damage.

That’s according to Serhii Lysak, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration.

He said on Telegram that the drone attack in the city of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region injured a 42-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman.

“Unfortunately, their condition is serious. Doctors are providing all necessary medical assistance,” Lysak wrote.

The administrative building of the city was also damaged, he said.