Ukraine-Russia war news: Blood transfusion centre in Kharkiv hit by Russian attack as three killed

Russia launched a multi-wave overnight attack on Ukraine with 70 air-assault weapons including cruise and hypersonic missiles as well as Iranian-made drones, Kyiv’s Air Force said on Sunday, and at least 10 missiles appear to got through air defences.

Local media said a worker at a grain silo had been wounded in the overnight attack, which appeared to be focused on an area of western Ukraine, far from the front line.

“In total, in several waves of attacks, from the evening of Aug. 5 to the morning of Aug. 6, 2023, the enemy used 70 means of air assault weapons,” the Air Force said. “Information about Kinzhals is classified,” the Ukrainian military noted.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said people had been killed and wounded in an earlier hit to a blood transfusion centre in the town of Kupiansk, a railway hub fewer than 10 miles from the front in the eastern Kharkiv region.

Rescue workers were extinguishing a fire at the scene, he said on Saturday evening, describing the strike as a “war crime.” He did not say how many casualties there were.

China is reportedly in support of a third round of talks to find a framework for peace in Ukraine.

According to European officials, China has apparently signalled that it is willing to attend further international talks on resolving the conflict in Ukraine.

The progress happened at a Saudia Arabian forum this weekend, which focused on a 10-point peace plan proposed by Kyiv.

Although no concrete developments were made at the talks, the presence of Chinese representatives was seen as a win for Ukraine.

One European diplomat told the Financial Times that the “mere presence of China shows Russia is more and more isolated”.

Dozens of countries, including Brazil, Turkey, the US and the EU, attended the forum.

Germany has delivered only around 10 per cent of the Leopard 1 tanks that it promised to Ukraine, German newspaper Die Welt has reported.

In May the country agreed to a 2.7 billion-euro military aid package with Ukraine.

Die Welt, who has tracked the delivery of the military aid, reported that in the last two months Germany has sent Ukraine just 10 out of the 110 promised Leopard 1 tanks and 12 of 18 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a celebration of the Day of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, amid Russia’s continued attack on the country.

A road bridge linking mainland Ukraine to Crimea was damaged by a Ukrainian missile strike, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea has said.

Acting governor of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, another Moscow-appointee, was reported by Russian media as saying that the strike on the bridge involved an Anglo-French Storm Shadow missile. He did not provide any evidence for his claim however.

In June Ukraine struck the same bridge, which lies on a route used by the Russian military to move between Crimea and other parts of Ukraine that are under Russian control.

Saldo also said that another road link to the region, a small bridge across the Tonky Strait, has been shelled.

A gas pipeline which serves the area has also been damaged, he said, leaving more than 20,000 people without gas.

The attacks are making it increasingly hard to get on and off the peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.

Three people have died during a night of air strikes and intense shelling across Ukraine, officials said Sunday, while Moscow‘s second-largest airport briefly suspended flights following a foiled drone attack near the Russian capital.

Two people were killed and four more were injured following a Russian air strike in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, said the head of the local regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion center in the area’s Kupyan district late on August 5.

“This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “Defeating terrorists is a matter of honor for everyone who values life.”

Exiled opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko met in Poland on Sunday, on the eve of the third anniversary of their unsuccessful post-election protests, to display unity and plan strategy including the issuance of “New Belarus” passports.

Set up in August 2022 by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the self-declared government-in exile has opened more than 20 alternative embassies and information centres abroad.

Tsikhanouskaya, 40, a former English teacher who fled after running against Lukashenko in a 2020 vote critics called rigged, said the opposition would seek international recognition for the alternative passports.

Speaking at a hotel in Warsaw to several hundred activists, including independent media and civic groups, Tsikhanouskaya urged opposition forces abroad to unite and support the creation of a “New Belarus” movement.

A senior Ukrainian official said on Sunday that talks in Saudi Arabia to make headway towards a peaceful settlement of the war with Russia had been productive, but Moscow called the meeting a doomed attempt to swing the Global South behind Kyiv.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, are taking part in the Jeddah talks that are expected to end on Sunday without any written concluding statement.

Ukraine and its allies have said the talks are an attempt to secure broad international support for principles that Kyiv wants to be the basis for peace, including the withdrawal of all Russian troops and the return of all Ukrainian territory to its control.

President Volodymir Zelenskiy has said he wants a global summit to take place based on those principles later this year.

Eighteen months after Russia invaded Ukraine, any prospect of direct peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow appears remote.

Ukraine has been accused of launching a missile strike on several bridges linking mainland Ukraine to Crimea, the RIA news agency reported.

Kherson regional governor Vladimir Saldo said in his Telegram channel that another of the road links, a small bridge across the Tonky Strait linking the town of Henichesk with the narrow Arabat Spit on Crimea’s northeast coast, had been shelled and that a civilian driver had been wounded. It was not clear whether traffic on the bridge had been suspended.

He said a gas pipeline running alongside the bridge serving Henichesk, the temporary administrative centre of the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region, had also been damaged, leaving more than 20,000 people without gas.

The attacks are making it increasingly hard to get on and off the peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 and is of military importance to Moscow as well as a popular tourist destination for Russians.