Live: Ukraine’s Mykolaiv hit by heavy Russian strikes

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Issued on: 31/07/2022 – 07:05

Authorities in Ukraine’s southern city of Mykolaiv said Sunday that widespread Russian bombardments overnight had left at least one person dead, as Moscow continued to pummel the sprawling front line. Earlier, Russia invited United Nations and Red Cross experts to probe the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners held by Moscow-backed separatists. Follow FRANCE 24’s liveblog for all the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

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2:45pm: Ukraine’s Mykolaiv hit by heavy Russian strikes 

Authorities in Ukraine’s southern city of Mykolaiv said Sunday that widespread Russian bombardments overnight had left at least one person dead, as Moscow continued to pummel the sprawling front line.

“Mykolaiv was subjected to mass shelling today. Probably the strongest so far,” the city’s mayor Oleksandr Senkevych wrote on Telegram.  

“Powerful explosions were heard after one in the morning and around five in the morning.”

The governor of the region — where Ukrainian forces are looking to launch a major counter-offensive — said that according to preliminary information one person had been killed and two wounded in the strikes. 

1:38am: ‘Exasperation’ among Ukrainian officials over civilians staying in Donbas

“The Ukrainian government has long been urging people in Donbas region to evacuate, appealing to them to do so in a voluntary basis,” FRANCE 24 correspondent Gulliver Cragg reported. “I’ve spoken to officials when travelling around Donbas, who have expressed exasperation that so many people are still there despite the dangers, hampering to some degree the work of Ukraine’s armed forces. Now the country is moving towards compulsory evacuation.”


01:18

10:50am: Southern Ukraine’s Mykolaiv hit by ‘strongest’ Russian strikes

Authorities in Ukraine’s southern city of Mykolaiv said Sunday that widespread Russian bombardments overnight had left at least one person dead, as Moscow continued to pummel the sprawling front line.

“Mykolaiv was subjected to mass shelling today. Probably the strongest so far,” the city’s mayor Oleksandr Senkevych wrote on Telegram.  

“Powerful explosions were heard after one in the morning and around five in the morning.”

The governor of the region — where Ukrainian forces are looking to launch a major counter-offensive — said that according to preliminary information one person had been killed and two wounded in the strikes.

10:40am: Ukraine denies carrying out drone attack on Russian fleet

Ukraine on Sunday denied carrying out a drone attack on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet in annexed Crimea, that Russian officials said wounded six personnel.

Sergiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the coastal Odessa military region, dismissed claims that Ukraine was behind the attack as “sheer provocation”.  

“Our liberation of Crimea from the occupiers will be carried out in another way and much more effectively,” he wrote on Telegram.

10:19am: Putin says Russian navy to get new hypersonic missiles soon

President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that the Russian navy would receive hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles within the next few months and that the area of their deployment would depend on Russian interests.

10:12am: Zelensky says harvest could be halved by war

Ukraine’s president said on Sunday that the country’s harvest could be half its usual amount this year due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Ukrainian harvest this year is under the threat to be twice less,” suggesting half as much as usual, President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in English on Twitter.

“Our main goal — to prevent global food crisis caused by Russian invasion. Still grains find a way to be delivered alternatively,” he added.

7:31am: Five injured in drone attack on Russian fleet in Crimean port, governor says

A drone attack on the Russian fleet in the Crimean port of Sebastopol on Sunday injured five people, the governor of the Russian-annexed city Mikhail Razvozhayev said.

“This morning, Ukrainian nationalists decided to spoil the Day of the Russian Fleet” celebrated in Russia on Sunday, he said on Telegram, adding that five people, including employees of the army staff, were injured.

6:50am: Russia invites UN, Red Cross experts to investigate Ukraine jail deaths

Russia invited experts from the UN and Red Cross to investigate the deaths “in the interests of conducting an objective investigation”, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

The ministry had published a list of 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war killed and 73 wounded in what it said was a Ukrainian military strike with a US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).

Ukraine’s armed forces denied responsibility, saying Russian artillery had targeted the prison to hide mistreatment there. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Friday Russia had committed a war crime and called for international condemnation. Reuters journalists confirmed some of the deaths at the prison, but could not immediately verify the differing versions of events.

The UN had said it was prepared to send experts to investigate if it obtained consent from both parties. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was seeking access and had offered to help evacuate the wounded.

6:33am: Zelensky urges evacuation of Donetsk

Ukraine’s president urged civilians on Saturday to evacuate the frontline Donetsk region, the scene of fierce clashes with the Russian military.

President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in his daily address that thousands of people, including children, were still in the region’s battleground areas, with six civilians killed and 15 wounded on Friday, according to the Donetsk governor.

“There’s already a governmental decision about obligatory evacuation from Donetsk,” Zelensky said, repeating authorities’ calls to leave the besieged region in recent weeks.

© France Médias Monde graphic studio

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and REUTERS)